The Relevance of College

Open yourself up to enough sources and contrasting perspectives will soon become evident.

My present “read” (actually listen, but that sounds funny) is “What would Google do?” (Jeff Jarvis). Jarvis, a real Google fanboy, sets out to demonstrate that the values and techniques employed by Google could successfully modify various trades and services. Toward the end of the book, Jarvis gets to higher education.

GoogleU – typical statements:

  • My children should not be limited to the courses at an institution.
  • Education continues past 21.
  • Blog or perish (I wish).
  • Value more in your portfolio of work rather than in the degree.
  • Connections to enable job opportunities (networks) can be found online.
  • In the real world, the tests are all open book.
  • Connecting those who want to know with information.

You get the idea. I can’t take the time to address what I think of each of these concepts. You have to pay for that type of analysis. I am not certain that institutions of higher education will not be forced into change by Google and by specialized online education businesses. The question is whether these changes will represent improvements. I do think some competition is a good thing – the concern I have is what scope will be considered in pushing toward improvement.

Education businesses offer an example of what concerns me. I refuse to call them colleges, but that is the point isn’t it. A business model may be more flexible and responsive to the needs of the customer. So, if education as a business is better, why not describe the coming alternative as  educational businesses vs. traditional colleges and universities. Actually, we have had educational businesses for some time, but vocational or technical colleges kept trying to become something else. What was wrong with having the focus of a more direct connection to a vocation? My actual concern is that educational businesses are not replacements for colleges and universities, but rather peck around the edges to compete where there is easy money to be made. That seems a bit unfair, but the priority of the business mentality. I see higher education as a complex system addressing multiple constituencies and meeting multiple needs. Any given service or group might perhaps be serviced more inexpensively in some other way, but that is not necessarily the idea. Rather, what is best way for a society to accomplish the wide range of services provided by existing institutions? Society sometimes needs to take a broader view. You want to teach large classes, but not provide advanced training. That is a narrow, short term view. You want to service the motivated, capable learners, but not those who benefit from counselors and learning service professionals. That is the narrow, short term view. You want to outsource research to special institutions that compete for external funding sources. Actually, that is pretty much already the way it works. In addition, colleges and universities address research topics that may have little apparent immediate benefit and mentor undergraduates and graduate students as future professionals in the process. That is the long term view.

College profs probably understand better than anyone that learning does not end at 21. In the unique world within which we must compete, no one is relying on his/her original knowledge. Skills perhaps, but not knowledge. BTW – this is why research expectations make some sense in certain categories of institution. If I only had to teach, I could rely on my capabilities to read the book and investigate online ahead of my students. I would propose that the students in my classes deserve an instructor with greater depth of experience and background in at least some of the topics we explore.

I propose that all of us believe we have insights into the limitations of occupations other than our own. We tend to see conspiracies and self-protective mechanisms. Lawyers, car salespersons, insurance companies, college professors, physicians – overpaid, charging for unnecessary services, playing the system to take advantage of those with few options, etc. Those in such professions simply respond that those who do not need to meet the day to day realities of the demands of the profession do not understand. College profs, at least the vast majority, actually do work more than 6 hours a week. I guess it depends on how you define work. The 30 second, $30, “check” by my dentist when I get my teeth cleaned probably helps pay for the office facilities and some pro bono work that he does. Perhaps that $30 allowed some time to keep up on new advances it filling my cavities. We typically support a range of things when we engage with most areas of skilled performance.

I am skeptical of completely self directed learning, not that it is not possible, but that it is not probable. I understand Jarvis’ proposal that we don’t need required courses if we have required certification testing (my interpretation). I suppose, but this to me sounds like pure speculation based on a fairly naive view of human nature. We pretty much have such opportunities now – they seem very seldom used. College students can CLEP out of basic courses. One could, for example, go to iTunes U and listen to one of the series of lectures covering “Introduction to Psychology”, pay your money (not sure what it is anymore, but not that much) and see if you could pass the CLEP exam. Supposedly, these lectures are from some of the most prestigious institutions in the country (they are) and taught by great profs (hmm – listen and draw your own conclusions). I can’t figure out why each Fall my class is still full and students pay tuition. You really think these students are not interested in saving a thousand or so? maybe students already understand that it is really about more than passing the test.

The Jarvis book cites a blog post from W. Richardson addressed to his children – you don’t have to go to college if you do not want to. There are options for preparing yourself for life. Of course. So, if you are a parent or a high school graduate considering your future, what course of action should you pursue? I would agree that there are many tremendously important life lessons one learns in other ways. Travel and exposure to all it brings is tremendously important in my book. Connections with people who do meaningful things is important. Many of us, college profs included, do what we can to provide such opportunities to our children. Read the book “Rich dad, poor dad” – want to bet on the category the Richardson family would fit? Want to bet on whether the kids will go to college? I would propose that those with money do all of these things. If you earn 30K a year, what would be the best thing you could do for your recent high school graduate?

Today, Sec. of Education Duncan released a statement accompanying the release of the 2009 “Conditions of Education“. In commenting on the importance of a college education and doing what can be done to give capable students access to a college education, Sec. Duncan stated:

The financial advantages provided by a college education are clear. Young people with a bachelor’s degree earn twice as much as those without a high school diploma, according to this research.

It appears we are playing for high stakes here.

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When is it OK to complain?

One of the supposed benefits of the participatory web, at least according to the books I read, is that it brings parties into more meaningful conversation with each other. This works at the individual level, but also at the level of companies, political parties, local government, etc. communicating with customers, members, etc.  I am of the opinion that this communication should be balanced – both positive and negative. So, if I promote a product or service, I should also be able to complain.

I have been a fan of the Flip camera. We have owned one and purchased others for our kids and friends. I think it is a good product. Six weeks or so ago, our Flip stopped working. It would turn on, but then froze before it would get to the menu. I searched online and found that this was a common problem in the original Flip and later versions had a reset button. The idea of having to reset a computer device made a lot of sense to me and it seemed a good description of the problem I was having – no way to reset. Anyway, I contacted customer support, sent the camera in, and three weeks or so later my Flip was returned and it would start again.

Last weekend I had the first occasion to actually use the camera. I was fishing and someone in the boat caught a nice walleye. I started the Flip and encountered the same problem – no menu and no way to turn the camera off. If this was a car, at some point I think they declare the product a lemon. Perhaps this was the case with my camera. I connected to the Pure Digital site again and filled out the customer support form including the “incident number” from the first problem and waited. The customer support site indicates that Pure Digital will respond within 4 hours (during working hours). That was several days ago. No response. Last night I filled out the form again. Nothing so far, but it is not quite 4 hours.

Now it is time for fair and balanced. This is a complaint.

P.S. I received a reply two days after submitting my inquiry. This time instead of sending in the Flip I was asked to take the batteries out for 2 days and then put in fresh batteries. This can’t be a reasonable solution if this happens often.

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All of Me

I is a gorgeous holiday weekend and I am trying to work. Perhaps there will be time for fun later. I happen to be working on a chapter focused on the topic of cyberbullying.

Anyway, one of the issues I came across in my reading concerned the origins of the term – who used it first as a technical term.

When I work I tend to be easily distracted and my wife does not help because she is constantly showing me interesting online tools. She ran across a service called “All of Me” that allows the creation of a timeline of available online resources. I am guessing most folks first do a vanity search (or perhaps that is just me). The first record I could find for me was from 1979 – it was the citation for a publication I had that year.

Anyway, I decided to do a search on “cyberbullying” and found the first reference to the term according to this tool appeared in Nov. of 2004. It was not a reference to the two individuals I was searching for (Belsey or Willard), but a complaint about an individual labelled as a cyberbully.

This is an interesting tool to use for explorations. It would not qualify as a professional reference tool, but an interesting way to look for date-related content.

firstcyberbully

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The “theoretical” power of the crowd

This was to be the day I made progress on some important writing projects. I arrived at the office early and was ready to go. Then, I checked my email. There was a note that the wiki I maintain for student projects in my graduate course had been modified by someone I did not recognize so I thought I better take a look. Now, three hours later, I am back in my office. Instead of working on my writing projects, I felt the need to blog.

If you are an instructor, you have likely encountered a student comment that goes something like this – “that sounds good in theory, but …. “.

I have developed a response to these statements explaining that there is nothing as powerful as a good theory and students should recognize that what they are saying is that they prefer their “personal” theories over the theories proposed by others.

I am questioning the “theoretical” power of the crowd this morning. I did  spend considerable time adjusting some security measures on one of my servers, but such adjustments are necessary only to cover for the inadequacies of “the crowd”. Some “Russians” are messing with my servers again. I hate to speak in stereotypes because my wife has very productive connections with some Russians. I also know that IPs can be spoofed. Anyway, the IPs of those causing the problems translated to RU. The crowd should have made this unnecessary.

The theoretical power of wikis is that these social resources combine the talents and dedication of multiple individuals. When the opportunity for abuse within an open system are raised, the theoretical response is that the dedicated folks can easy take care of the problem because a wiki allows previous versions to be activated or modifications to be reversed. The idea is that those who care can easily reverse damage caused by those who are malicious. Wikipedia is supposedly a reasonably good reference because those who care watch and fix things.

The theory assumes a) someone cares and b) someone watches. Perhaps tasks completed as assignments meet these conditions only until the grade is awarded or the semester ends. Or, because I believe my graduate students have a little more commitment, until authors forget about what they have written.

Perhaps active wikis meet the most optimistic version of the theory, but sites that are only sporadically worked on need a more “practical” version.

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Potential Incentive Fund Considered for 21st Century Skills

S. Bill 1483 proposes a fund that will encourage states to adopt the 21st Century Skills framework.

As part of the rationale Congress has concluded that:

  • In order for our Nation’s students to be prepared to succeed in our communities and workplaces, students need 21st century content, beyond the traditional core subjects, that includes global awareness, financial, economic, business and entrepreneurial literacy, civic literacy, and health and wellness awareness.
  • Students need to go beyond just learning today’s academic context to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills, communication skills, creativity and innovation skills, collaboration skills, contextual learning skills, and information and media literacy skills.
  • Information and communications technology literacy is the ability to use technology to develop 21st century content knowledge and skills, in the content of learning core subjects, and students must be able to use technology to learn content and skills so that the students know how to learn, think critically, solve problems, use information, communicate, innovate, and collaborate.

I was reading the provisions guiding the award of grants should the bill be passed.

Award Rule- The Secretary shall award grants under this Act on a first-come, first-served basis, so that the grants are awarded–

(1) to eligible States in the order the Secretary receives approvable applications; and

(2) in an amount determined on the basis of the amount of the non-Federal share identified, and supported by the information contained, in an approvable application.

My participation in grant writing typically occurs when someone needs help. I usually do not follow the process from authorization through to the process of application. However, this language about first come, first served seems strange. Whatever happened to a deadline and review process with intent of identifying the most deserving proposals?

Pay attention – some folks probably knew this was coming and have their proposals ready to mail.

The proposals require a 50% match so perhaps those looking for a handout will look elsewhere. These seems one of those initiatives intended to steer state money in a particular direction by offering the opportunity to double your money.

Note the connection to the Partnership for 21st Century Skills.

A white paper from this organization is available. I have a test I apply when examining white papers – I check the references. You can do the same – do you see any research reviews from the Review of Educational Research or individual research studies from the American Educatioanl Research Journal or the Journal of Educational Psychology. I am in support of most of the core ideas of this initiative, but we need a more serious approach to the examination of issues. If the incentive fund can come up with couple of hundred million for implementation and there seems to be a great urgency for how these funds will be dispensed, perhaps a little more funding for research would seem warranted.

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Wolfram|Alpha Launch

I followed the video feed of the Wolfram|Alpha launch tonight. Offering this as a live feed was innovative and not without several hitches.

wolframlaunch

After a couple of hours, the site went live. I was able to conduct a couple of searches. I was unable to find out anything about me. I was able to obtain a lot of information about Grand Forks.

wolframgf

At present I cannot connect so I decided to just call it a night.

Wolfram|Alpha should be available to everyone soon.

The site is functioning this morning. I am still attempting to understand the intended focus of this service. The FAQ tries:

Is Wolfram|Alpha a search engine?

No. It’s a computational knowledge engine: it generates output by doing computations from its own internal knowledge base, instead of searching the web and returning links.

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