"My objective as an educator is primarily to help students see problems from broader perspectives, to better see the underlying structure of problems they are trying to solve, and to motivate students to augment their particular strengths to master critical thinking. I enjoy using Plato’s Allegory of the Cave as a way of suggesting to students that we view the world from a unique prism, we should recognize and challenge our opinions, and we should leverage associative knowledge. I find this last point to be a common weakness with my students, and I use a simple sports analogy to help them overcome the limitations of this narrow prism. For example, I never see professional athletes do pushups on the field or bench-press during a game. It’s important for students to recognize the incredible leverage that comes from associative knowledge, even if its relevance is not immediately understood.

Businesses need to solve unique problems, not the problems in the book, and students need to be prepared to add value to the technical and business processes of their future employer. Collaborative learning environments are obviously a critical element to modern teaching, and businesses are demanding a progressive workforce capable of leveraging modern knowledge transfer. The application of technology and computer-based material in classrooms with Blackboard, wikis and YouTube is imperative for modern education and meeting our learning objectives but also in conditioning the future workforce to be comfortable in these environments. Sharing knowledge is a critical element of Dr. Steven Spear’s “The High-Velocity Edge,” which describes how market leaders leverage information to beat their competition. Not only is the subject matter of scholastic importance, but the processes by which this knowledge is realized." less...