When a democracy is in trouble

I have been watching taiwan's student political movement.  They argue that the legislative branch of the government is no longer function well and no long represent the will of the people - a sentiment no doubt shared by many youth in the last 10 years.

There are many possible solution to this, but boil it down, a simple key that leave a strong impression on me - to solve a democracy problem, is to have more democracy.  How true.  Taiwan might lead the world into a new era, an era of cyber-democracy, that via intelligent and ubiquitous available connected devise, people can vote, easily, after verification of their identify and they have watch the necessary debates, on every issue.

Those vote should be one of three choice - yes, no, postpone.  If there is less than a high number, say 50% of the registered voters vote, if will be back to the legistors.  This way, a controversial issue can be resolved clearly and often quickly.

Design Thinking and online education

Colleague Denise came my office and discussed using portfolio to enhance student learning experience.  We talked for almost an hour and got very excited. So this is our ideas

The CSIT online program, being 12 courses and 2 years.  The learner's experience can be told as a 100 weeks story, each one with a title of learning outcomes, some of hard and some are soft.  But each one is a capability.  Each entry is determined by the teacher and student blog their learning and reflection and shared among their friends.

Week 0 (yes, in computer we start with 0) - orientation

Week 1.1  CST 300, beginning, knowing the curriculum structure, classmate,
Week 1.2...
Week 2 Design their learning plan
Week 3 Know the industry
Week 4 Thinking about their capstone project
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Week 8 Final and reflect upon their learning, complete the portfolio

Week 9 CST 205
Week 10 Know the syllabus
Week 11 Know the python language
Week 12 The media type and format


Week 99 Presenting capstone