tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63342933383204622822024-03-15T21:11:01.678-04:00HERE WE AREby Gary E. MillerGary Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17462662265684250950noreply@blogger.comBlogger256125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6334293338320462282.post-68785047729833693042024-03-14T16:16:00.002-04:002024-03-14T16:16:21.730-04:00"Mayflower" -- Understanding the Real Events of Our Early History<p> I just finished reading “Mayflower: Voyage, Community, War,” Nathaniel Philbrick’s account of how the Pilgrims and other English peoples left Europe and came to what is now known as “New England” and how they interacted with the native Americans who already called that area home. The book devotes much attention to the relationship between the Europeans and the Native Americans, showing how they competed for resources, how they learned about each other’s culture and ways, and, ultimately, how they came into conflict through King Philip’s War--a war that divided the Native Americans into pro- and anti-English factions and, ultimately, contributed greatly to the decline of the Native American population in New England. </p><p><span> </span>It also documents some disturbing actions, especially in light of the long tradition of celebrating Thanksgiving as a coming together of English and Native American communities. I was amazed to learn, for instance, that the English sold captured Native American fighters into slavery. Beyond that, the war resulted in a huge loss of Native American population in the area. As Philbrick writes, “The fourteen bloody months between June 1675 and August 1676 had a last, disturbing impact. On the development of New England and, with it, all of America. . . . And yet we must look with something more than cynicism at a people who maintained more than half a century of peace with their Native neighbors. The great mystery of this story is how America emerged from the terrible darkness of King Philip’s War to become the United States” (Mayflower p. 357).<br /> </p><p><span> </span>Given the political extremism that is currently flooding the United States as we prepare for a historic election, we should all take a fresh look at a our history to better understand how we got here and what we need to value as we continue to evolve as a society. I highly recommend Mayflower as a starting point.</p><p> Philbrick, Nathanial. <i>Mayflower: Voyage, Community, War.</i> Penguin Books, 2007. <br /></p>Gary Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17462662265684250950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6334293338320462282.post-73003513632665956542023-10-04T15:35:00.002-04:002023-10-04T15:35:17.609-04:00Streaming Media and the Schools<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Streaming
Media and the Schools</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">For much of the past 70 years, broadcast
television has been an important part of our daily lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After a hard day’s work, people would go home
for the evening and sit down with their favorite television show.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The next morning at work, a show might be the
topic of conversation with colleagues around the water cooler or coffee
machine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It helped to reinforce a sense
of community.</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Public
television first blossomed in this environment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Most stations devoted their daytime schedule to “in-school”
programs—instructional video programs that were designed for teachers to show
in their classrooms on topics that ranged across the curriculum and grade
levels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Back in those days, I worked for
WPSU (then WPSX), which offered a full-day schedule of instructional programs
throughout the school year and produced instructional programs like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">What’s in the News,</i> a public affairs
program for middle-grade students, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Investigative
Science for Elementary Education</i>, which demonstrated physical phenomena for
students to study.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The in-school service
thrived for three decades, but waned when videocassettes made it possible for
teachers to record programs and then show when it was most convenient for them
and their students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Soon after, DVDs
allowed schools to create their own instructional video libraries. </p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Another
change was the rise of cable television in the 1970s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, viewers had more channels to choose
from, including channels that could only be viewed if one had a cable
subscription.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>MTV and CNN are two
examples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The increased number of
channels meant that work colleagues were less likely to have had the same TV
experience the night before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Now,
we are experiencing a new revolution in our viewing habits as TV channels
replace their old broadcast schedules with streaming services.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>CNN has <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/15/media/cable-broadcast-tv-decline-nielsen-report/index.html">reported</a>
that in July 2023, “linear TV” (i.e., broadcast or cablecast programs) “made up
less than half of all TV viewing,” according to the TV polling company
Nielsen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Meanwhile, the report
continues, “<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">. . . streaming services, such as Netflix and YouTube, grew
last month to a record high of 38.7% of all total TV watching.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While some streamed series are still
scheduled on a weekly basis, the fact that they are streamed means that, within
that week, viewers may watch the program at any time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In some cases, whole series are available, so
that viewers can binge watch a 13-part series in a few days, rather than wait
for 13 weeks for the story to end.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Streaming
has some interesting implications, though, for K-12 instructional uses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a streaming environment all students could
view programs at the best time for them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It also means that their parents have equal access to the programs and
could help students learn from them.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As streaming becomes more accepted
by teachers, parents, and students, we could, I hope, see a resurgence of
instructional media in our schools and a new role for public television to help
schools use television as an. Instructional tool.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>While
another innovation—artificial intelligence—is grabbing the headlines these
days, we should not overlook the power of streaming media to enrich the
educational environment.</span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Gary Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17462662265684250950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6334293338320462282.post-15436129832470469242023-09-14T11:21:00.004-04:002023-09-14T11:21:47.757-04:00Artificial Intelligence: The Next Phase of the Information Revolution<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">It has been only a year since ChatCPT brought artificial
intelligence to the attention of the education community, opening a new phase
of the Information Revolution for both K-12 and higher education.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This fall, the question administrators
brought to classroom teachers at both levels wasy, “How are we going to handle
it when students turn in essays written by AI?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What is driving the increasingly intense interest in ChatCPT and
Artificial Intelligence in general is how ChatCPT, as <a href="https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?hspart=trp&hsimp=yhs-001&grd=1&type=Y149_F163_202167_052021&p=chat+gpt">Wikipedia</a>
puts it, “<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">enables users to refine and steer a conversation towards a
desired length, format, style, level of detail, and language used.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At both the high school and college levels,
faculty become concerned that students will use ChatCPT to generate assignment
papers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">eCampusNews,</i> which has published a number of articles about AI in
the classroom, carried an </span><a href="https://www.ecampusnews.com/teaching-learning/2023/09/05/detect-ai-generated-text/?ps=999999999--003Qj000000MqUcIAK&esmc=102559&utm_campaign=Innovations%20in%20Higher%20Ed&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=272892464&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_9aUtkbG9Y7Pd021CQ5Bay_o71UVacVqeKI9wWP8X9qddUc1-1i00CgoDX3-DOhqfoNqSZz8PQgP-Apq9S7UCcQKCdBg&utm_content=272688019&utm_source=hs_email"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">article
by Dr. Steven Baule</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> on September 5, 2023, with “6 tips
to detect AI-generated student work.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The six tips:</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 5.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 5.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 0in;"><strong>1. Look for
typos.</strong> AI-generated text tends not to include typos, and such errors
that make our writing human are often a sign that the submission was created by
a human.</p>
<p style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 5.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 5.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 0in;"><strong>2. Lack of
personal experiences or generalized examples are another potential sign of
AI-generated writing.</strong> For instance, “My family went to the beach in
the car” is more likely to be AI-generated than “Mom, Betty, and Rose went to
the 3<sup>rd</sup> Street beach to swim.”</p>
<p style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 5.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 5.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 0in;"><strong>3.
AI-generated text is based upon looking for patterns in large samples of text. </strong>Therefore,
more common words, such as the, it, and is are more likely to be represented in
such documents. Similarly, common words and phrases are more likely to appear
in AI-generated submissions.</p>
<p style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 5.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 5.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 0in;"><strong>4.
Instructors should look for unusual or complete phrases that a student would
not normally employ.</strong> A high school student speaking of a lacuna in his
school records might be a sign the paper was AI-generated.</p>
<p style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 5.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 5.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 0in;"><strong>5.
Inconsistent styles, tone, or tense changes may be a sign of AI-derived
materials.</strong> Inaccurate citations are often common in AI-generated
papers. The format is correct, but the author, title, and journal information
were simply thrown together and do not represent an actual article. These and
other such inaccurate information from a generative AI tool are sometimes
called <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/WhatIs/definition/AI-hallucination">hallucinations.</a></p>
<p style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 5.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 5.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 0in;"><strong>6. Current
generative AI tends to be based off training materials developed no later than
2021.</strong> So, text that references 2022 or more recent events, etc. is
less likely to be AI-generated. Of course, this will continue to change as AI
engines are improved.</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">Leon Furze noted in his <a href="https://leonfurze.com/2023/01/17/chatgpt-in-education-back-to-basics/">blog</a>
that the rapid growth of AI in education has led to a “widespread fear” that it
will be used by students for cheating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>However, he adds that “<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The truth is, we have little idea of
the impact the technology will have on education. . . Some states are still
deciding whether to ban the technology outright, while others try to grapple
with the ethical and academic implications of permitting its use.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Furze also noted that ChatGPT prohibits
people under 18 years old to sign up for access.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“However,” he notes, “there are many ways
teaches might use ChatGPT . . . and it is almost certain that many students <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">will</i> be using the technology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This means that one of the biggest factors in
education should be the discussion of the technology’s ethical and appropriate
use.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Interestingly, shortly after
publishing Steven Baule’s “six tips” article, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">eCampus News</i> posted “Coming Out of the AI Closet: A Scholar’s
Embrace of ChatGPT-4,” a pro-AI statement by </span><a href="https://www.ecampusnews.com/teaching-learning/2023/09/07/scholars-chatgpt-4-tools/?ps=999999999--003Qj000000MqUcIAK&esmc=102582&utm_campaign=Innovations%20in%20Higher%20Ed&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=273243344&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_hpLitHdcpukticHudRgr2sohVtpHmA9BI5W_55a0H73XeraAO5UMBR9i2PJIhCrc-sZZIliW-RdjBwUFrk5VrgwQXwQ&utm_content=273243008&utm_source=hs_email"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Dr.
John Johnston</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Johnson argues that “ChatGPT-4 has ushered in a new era of
brainstorming, structuring, and drafting academic papers. Understanding that
this cannot be equated to outsourcing my work to AI is crucial. Instead,
ChatGPT-4 acts as an enhancer for my innate critical thinking and creative
prowess.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The previous week in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">eCampus News, </i></span><a href="https://www.ecampusnews.com/teaching-learning/2023/08/31/ai-based-learning-changing-higher-education/?ps=999999999--003Qj000000MqUcIAK&esmc=102557&utm_campaign=Innovations%20in%20Higher%20Ed&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=272794949&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--6oYJuSMmsw0oXw84KJ-rOgYqU8jBXNNAc3WmUhFvztiaOZlgwerY6uBWIouG_uNINoNy-fvamqRNJdsLaFx2FLOHXdQ&utm_content=272688200&utm_source=hs_email"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Roger
Hamilton</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> had argued that “In the realm of higher education, this
marriage of AI and learning is ushering in a new era that holds the potential
to not only disseminate knowledge, but also cultivate the entrepreneurs of
tomorrow.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He added, “By acquainting
learners with cutting-edge technologies like AR, VR, and the metaverse via
innovative methodologies, this approach hones their ability to tackle
challenges that may not even be conceivable in the present.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This year we recognize the thirtieth
anniversary of the Internet browser, a tool that has, over the past generation,
revolutionized how we communicate, how we work together, how we build bridges
across the old barriers of geography and time. It is not hard to imagine that
AI will be of similar—if not greater—significance, as K-12 schools and
universities together innovate to use this new tool to change how students use
technology to find meaning in their areas of study and learn how to better
communicate that meaning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The rapid
movement of AI into the mainstream is already creating disruption.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Laura Ascione reported in </span><a href="https://www.ecampusnews.com/teaching-learning/2023/09/12/ai-students-workforce-readiness/?ps=999999999--003Qj000000MqUcIAK&esmc=102610&utm_campaign=Innovations%20in%20Higher%20Ed&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=273997651&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_JEdgQ8Sg6QMCaAKfSAInd7l1nVoe4AhjSFBJe45OnP1lzTaHemWrUisd3kghf0yXuTK8Za7PkMmExp41XaAG51MtWpQ&utm_content=273997968&utm_source=hs_email"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">eCampus News</span></i></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
on a Cengage Group survey of 1,000 degree graduates that “Half of graduates (46
percent) feel threatened by AI and question their workforce readiness (52
percent).”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The challenge facing both
K-12 and higher education leaders is how to create a new approach to educational
methods and content to prepare students to work in an environment that is just
now taking shape but that will evolve rapidly over the coming years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like the Internet browser three decades ago,
AI will stimulate some dramatic changes in how we educate citizens for the
future.</span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Gary Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17462662265684250950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6334293338320462282.post-74586118853861747902023-07-19T17:00:00.000-04:002023-07-19T17:00:59.920-04:00A Lesson from Joseph Campbell: We Live In Nature, not On Nature<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">I am reading <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Power of Myth</i>, a collection of conversations that Bill Moyers
had with Joseph Campbell, who once described mythology as “the song of the universe,
the music of the spheres.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The interviews
were the focus of a six-part 1988 PBS television series; the interviews were
also published as a book by Anchor Press in 1991.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">In the first interview, Moyers
asks, “Mother Earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Will new myths come
from this image?” </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">Campbell’s answer sets the stage
for us to think in new ways about our relationship to the world around us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He says, “And the only myth that is going to
be worth thinking about in the immediate future is one that is talking about
the planet, not the city, not these people, but the planet, and everybody on it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s my main thought for what the future
myth is going to be. . . the society that its got to talk about is the society
of the planet. And until that gets going, you don’t have anything.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">Campbell goes on to talk about
Chief Seattle, quoting a version of a speech that this Northwest Native
American leader supposedly gave upon learning that the federal government
wanted to buy tribal lands to make way for immigrants in the 1850s. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">“The President in Washington," he
says, “sends word that he wishes to buy our land.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But how can you buy or sell the sky?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The land?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The idea is strange to us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We do
not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy
them?”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">“We know the sap which courses
through the trees,” he adds, “as we know the blood that courses through our
veins.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are part of the earth and it
is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The bear, the deer, the great eagle, these
are our brothers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The rocky crests, the juices
in the meadow, the body heat of the pony, and man, all belong to the same
family. . .<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we sell you our land,
remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with
all the life it supports. The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath
also receives his last sigh.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">“This we know,” he says, “The earth
does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like
the blood that unites us all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Man did
not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”</p>
<h2 style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-themecolor: text1;">These are the thoughts of a
person who lives <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">in</i> nature and not—like
some invasive species—<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">on</i> nature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This summer, when the entire world is
suffering from global warming brought about by our short-sighted greed and
uncaring treatment of the earth, it is a message that carries new meaning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is time for us to find our place in this
world and to remember Chief Seattle’s closing words:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“We love this earth as a newborn loves its
mother’s heart-beat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, if we sell you
our land, love it as we have loved it. Care for it as we have cared for
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hold in your mind the memory of the
land as it is when you receive it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Preserve the land for all children and love it, as God loves us all.”</span></h2>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Gary Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17462662265684250950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6334293338320462282.post-34717130658015645132023-07-15T09:37:00.001-04:002023-07-15T09:37:34.331-04:00Henry Adams on Pennsylvania in 1800: "The History of the United States 1801-1809"<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">I have begun reading Henry Adams’ <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">History of the United States of America During the Administrations of
Thomas Jefferson. </i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It covers the
cultural and political history of the U.S. from 1800 to 1809.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Originally, the book was published in nine
volumes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am reading the Library of
America edition, which includes 1252 pages. (The Library of America also
publishes Adams’ <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">History of the United
States of America During the Administrations of James Madison</i>, which is
equally long).</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Adams, the descendant of two Presidents, had a personal
interest in American history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His
grandfather was John Quincy Adams; his great-grandfather was John Adams.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That said, the book is not just about
politics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first six chapters,
covering 125 pages, explores what the United States looked like in the year
1800—a mere 24 years after 1776.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These
chapters describe the variety of life in the U.S., with profiles of
Northeastern, middle-Atlantic, and Southern states, how they viewed democracy,
and how they dealt with political and social trends. I was especially surprised
by his analysis of Pennsylvania:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .75in; margin-top: 5.0pt;">The only true democratic community then existing
in the eastern States, Pennsylvania was neither picturesque nor
troublesome.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The State contained no
hierarchy like that of New England; no great families like those of New York;
no oligarchy like the planters of Virginia and South Carolina . . .The value of
Pennsylvania to the Union lay not so much in the democratic spirit of society
as in the rapidity with which it turned to national objects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Partly for this reason, the State made an
insignificant figure in politics. As the nation grew, less and less was said in
Pennsylvania of interests distinct from those of the Union.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Too thoroughly democratic to fear democracy
and too much nationalized to dread nationality, Pennsylvania became the ideal
American State, easy, tolerant, and contented.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If its soil bred little genius, it bred still less treason. With twenty
different religious creeds, its practice could not be narrow, and a strong
Quaker element made it human.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the
American Union succeeded the good sense, liberality, and democratic spirit of
Pennsylvania had a right to claim credit for the result (pp.80-81).</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Jefferson was about to assume leadership of a nation struggling
to find a common vision for their new democracy and for ways to take charge of
their vast frontier.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am looking
forward to Adams’ telling of that tale.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 150%;">I am reading Benjamin
Franklin’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Autobiography</i>, which he
wrote in two sections, one focused on his early life and settlement in
Philadelphia, the other focused on his later years.</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In the first part, he describes how he established
himself as a printer and member of society in Philadelphia in the 1720s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He notes,</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: .5in; mso-add-space: auto;">I should have mentioned before, that, in the autumn of the
preceding year, I had formed most of my ingenious acquaintance into a club of
mutual improvement, which we called the JUNTO; we met on Friday evenings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The rules that I drew up required that every
member, in his turn, should produce one or more queries on any point of Morals,
Politics, or Natural Philosophy, to be discussed by the company; and once in
three months produce and read an essay of his own writing, on any subject he
pleased.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our debates were to be. under
the direction of a president, and to be conducted in the sincere spirit of
inquiry after truth, without fondness for dispute, or desire of victory; and,
to prevent warmth, all expressions of positiveness in opinions, or direct
contradiction, were after some time made contraband, and prohibited under small
pecuniary penalties.” (Isaacson, p. 453).</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%;"> <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Later he describes how, in 1730, he proposed to the group
that</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: .5in; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>. . . since our books
were often referred to in our disquisitions upon the queries, it might be
convenient to us to have them altogether where we met, that upon occasion they
might be consulted; and by thus clubbing our books to a common library, we
should, while we liked to keep them together, have each of. Us the advantage of
using the books of all the other members, which would be nearly as beneficial
as if each owned the whole.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was liked
and agreed to, and we filled one end of the room with such books as we could best
spare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The number was not so great as we
expected; and though they had been of great use, yet some inconveniences
occurring for want of due care of them, the collection, after about a year, was
separated, and each took his books home again. (p.462)</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The experience gave Franklin the idea for “my first
project of a public nature, that for a subscription library.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">With the
help of friends from the Junto, he achieved the first fifty subscribers at a
cost to them of an initial fee of ten shillings, plus a commitment of fen
shillings a year for fifty years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
project soon grew to 100 members.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
Library Company of Philadelphia, founded in 1731, was, he wrote, </p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-add-space: auto;">“the
mother of all the North American subscription libraries, now so numerous . . .
have improved the general conversation of the Americans, made the common
tradesmen and farmers as intelligent s most gentlemen from other countries, and
perhaps have contributed in some degree to the stand so generally made
throughout the colonies in defense of their privileges.” (p. 462-463)</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">A 2017 <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/education-plus-development/2017/03/21/lessons-from-ben-franklin-using-learning-landscapes-to-rethink-modern-libraries/">Brookings
Institution study</a> noted new challenges to Franklin’s idea that have arisen
as a result of the Information Revolution:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Smartphones, tablets, the internet,
and other massive technological changes have reshaped the landscape.
Information is easy to access and available to most individuals in their
pockets. With a single tap or swipe, we retrieve and discover knowledge that
would have taken days or months to find in Franklin’s time.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%;">The rise of Open
Educational Resources and streaming media in more recent times opens new vistas
for realizing Franklin’s vision of openly sharing books and, more generally,
information.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The result will be a much
more open access to information and ideas in a variety of media—an environment
that Franklin would have appreciated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
is our challenge to build on Franklin’s vision in this new environment.</p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Gary Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17462662265684250950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6334293338320462282.post-89316093659543436822023-06-08T10:40:00.005-04:002023-06-08T16:26:35.869-04:00"The Origins of Creativity"--A Call for a New Enlightenment<p>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">One of my favorite finds at the
annual AAUW used book sale in May was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Origins of Creativity</i> by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edward O.
Wilson.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a surprise in several
ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wilson, who died in 2021, was not
known best as a creative artist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Instead, he was an internationally known biologist and naturalist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Origins of Creativity</i>, he explores how creativity became an inherited
trait—one of the things that separates <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Homo
Sapiens</i> from our biological ancestors—and why it is important to the
long-term success of our species.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">Wilson looks at how <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">homo sapiens</i> emerged from an array of
early humanoid species.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of these
were vegetarians, and Wilson notes that the move to eating meat was a key to
physical changes that led to a larger brain and the eventual emergence of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">home sapiens.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That said, his real purpose is not just to
see <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">what</i> happened, but <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">why</i>, and how many human traits reveal the
unique nature of our species.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“At the
base,” Wilson writes, “we need to explore ever more deeply the meaning of
humanity, why we exist as opposed to have never existed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And further, why nothing even remotely like
us existed on Earth before” (p.197).</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">To answer that question, he calls
for a “Third Enlightenment” that brings together science and the
humanities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The philosopher’s stone of
human self-understanding,” he notes, “is the relation between biological and
cultural evolution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why are human beings
built and behaving in such and such a way and not some other?” (p. 194). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The “why” of our reality can be found only by
bringing together science and the humanities in a philosophy that is “the
center of a humanistic science and a scientific humanities” (p.195).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Together, these can create a new philosophy,
“one that blends the best and most relevant from these two great branches of
learning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their effort will be the third
Enlightenment” (p.198).</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">Over the centuries, we have moved
from a culture dominated by agriculture to an industrial age and, now, a
rapidly maturing technological age.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Origins of Creativity, </i>Edward Wilson
explores why this new age requires a new synthesis of our traditional thinking
about science and the humanities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just
as the Industrial Revolution gave rise to the social sciences as well as hard
sciences, the Information Revolution must now innovate in a new approach to research
and education that brings together the sciences and humanities so that future
generations, enmeshed in a technological society where artificial intelligence has
become a daily reality, can better understand the “whys” of our ongoing
societal and personal evolutions and our relationship with the world in which
we live.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">From my perspective, Wilson’s work
is a challenge to higher education to find a way to incorporate scientific
humanism and humanistic science into a new approach to General Education that
prepares students to understand the “why” of our human experience so that
they can best contribute as citizens of a rapidly evolving society, as well as
prepare them to enter professional studies for careers in this new environment.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is quite a challenge, but an exciting
one, too.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">-----</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">Wilson, Edward O. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Origins of Creativity.</i> New York:
Liveright Publishing, 2017. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Gary Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17462662265684250950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6334293338320462282.post-23542308447894658102023-04-04T10:22:00.000-04:002024-02-03T22:13:42.095-05:00Implementing the Second Amendment<p>
</p><h2><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The recent mass shooting at an elementary school in
Nashville, Tennessee, brought to the surface yet again the tragedy of our gun
control policies in the United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As </span><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/24/us/mass-shootings-fast-facts/index.html"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">CNN reported</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">, “There have been at least 134
mass shootings in the United States so far this year, leaving more than 175
people dead and 500 injured, according to the </span><a href="https://gunviolencearchive.org/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Gun
Violence Archive</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> (GVA).” Guns are now the largest
cause of childhood deaths in the United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></h2>
<h2><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The question for all Americans to answer is:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How do we protect all of our citizens from
mis-use of firearms while maintaining the spirit of the Second Amendment?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a question that shines a bright light
on deep differences in how Americans define “freedom” and “individual rights”
and how politicians—and the arms industry—use those differences to benefit
themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></h2>
<h2><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is
clear in its intent to ensure that all Americans have the right to have weapons
in order to protect themselves and their communities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It reads:</span></h2>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A well-regulated Militia being
necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and
bear Arms shall not be infringed.</span></i></b></p>
<h2><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The original intent was to ensure that communities
could arm local citizens to protect their community from invasion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, the gun industry has emphasized
owning guns as an individual right, not as a way to protect the community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The issue has become more urgent—and at the
same time more complex and less easy to define—as assault rifles and automatic
weapons have hit the general marketplace and as guns have been made outside normal
industry standards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></h2>
<h2><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">What can we do?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Some thoughts:</span></h2>
<h2><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">1.<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>With
some exceptions for mental health and demonstrated criminal activity, adult
citizens of the United States should be permitted to purchase and own a
traditional firearm—pistols and/or rifles that are not automated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This should be handled as we have done for
over a century with the purchase of automobiles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Guns should be registered and the user should
be licensed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ideally, this would involve
no fee or only a minimal fee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
registration and the owner’s license should be renewed on a regular basis, perhaps
every five years. If a gun is sold, the license should be transferred, as is
the case with an automobile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></h2>
<h2><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">2.<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Citizens
should be able to purchase semi-automatic and other assault weapons for
community protection, but these should not be available for general use.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As weapons of war, their purpose is to
protect the community, as described in the Second Amendment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are not designed for individual hunting
or hobby use.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One solution is to work in
partnership with the National Guard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Citizens
who want to have one of these weapons available to them would be able to
purchase one and register it with the local National Guard. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It would be stored in the local County
National Guard armory and available to the registered owner if/when an
emergency requires citizens to be armed to protect their communities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The National Guard could arrange for periodic
opportunities for training and skills growth.</span></h2>
<h2><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">3.<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Other
weapons of war—bazookas, machine guns, etc.—would not be available to
individuals but access would be controlled by the U.S. military.</span></h2>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="text-indent: 0in;">The challenge for our era
is to find a balance between individual rights to bear arms and the community’s
right to the safety of individual citizens and public places, like schools,
churches, other public venues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Gary Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17462662265684250950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6334293338320462282.post-42699600028938051062023-03-12T21:07:00.013-04:002023-07-27T11:03:56.475-04:00eLearning and the Future of Higher Education
<p class="MsoNormal">
</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">Thomas Friedman has written that, while
technological change can happen quickly, the social change brought about by
technological innovation often takes much longer to be realized.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today, I’d like to talk about that idea as it
relates to online or eLearning in higher education.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With that in mind, let me start with a bit of
history. </p>
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<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 1in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>America Online premiered in 1991—32 years
ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 1in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>The first web browser was launched in 1993—three
decades ago. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 1in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Facebook was launched in 2004—nineteen years ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 1in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>YouTube started streaming video in 2005—18 years
ago.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 1in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>The first international agreement for Open
Educational Resources—the Capetown agreement--was in 2007.</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">What all that tells us is that today’s traditional-aged
college students and many young professionals were born in the full flowering
of the Information Age.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have never
known a time when there was no worldwide web, when there was no email, or
social media.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most have only vague memories of a time before
the iPhone—it hit the market in 2007.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">So, here we are, a generation into the eLearning
movement. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the question we need to
ask ourselves is this:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How might
eLearning help shape the long-term higher education environment in light of the
maturing of the Information Age?<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">That is an essential question for you as leaders
in today’s—and tomorrow’s—eLearning environment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Let’s take a quick look at several elements that are
part of today’s eLearning environment AND what they might mean as eLearning
enters the mainstream. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This involves a
bit of speculation, but I hope it also sparks some good discussion at the end.</p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Micro-Credentials</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: 0in;">Micro-credentials have
long been a way that colleges and universities have packaged continuing
professional education for adult learners.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Often, they consist of a collection of three or four credit courses that
help young professionals keep up with their field or develop new knowledge and
skills they need for professional growth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The results are undergraduate and post-baccalaureate certificates rather
than degree programs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Writing in </span><a href="https://evolllution.com/programming/applied-and-experiential-learning/five-thoughts-on-the-next-five-years-where-higher-ed-is-headed/"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Evollution</span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
(</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">August 31, 2022), Vickie Cook listed alternative credentials
as one of five significant trends that institutions will need to address in the
coming years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Continuing Education and
alternative credentials,” she wrote, “will ensure students understand that their
degree has high value. Using Continuing Education to build employability
skills, whether for a new job or a new position within a current company, will
help students reach their goals and expand their learning opportunities.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">From an institutional perspective,
micro<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">-</span>credentials
offer an opportunity to maintain a connection with students as they pursue
their careers after graduation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
question is:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>how do we use
micro-credentials to institutionalize an ongoing relationship with former
students?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One thought:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Academic departments could organize alumni as
communities and assign faculty mentors to help identify and respond to needs in
the community as they evolve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This will
also allow faculty –and their institutions—to learn about emerging issues and
opportunities in organizations where their students work, leading to new
research opportunities and new content for both traditional and
micro-credentials.</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Multi-Institutional Degrees</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">When
eLearning began in the 1990s, some institutions saw its lack of geographic
boundaries as a threat. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At earlier
points in the Information Revolution, competition was not so much a
factor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Institutions worked within the
range of their broadcast signal or cable channel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Satellite allowed institutions to connect
with each other, but did not necessarily create competition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Web and streaming media, though, have
effectively eliminated geography as a limitation on engaging with
students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With no geographic boundaries
to delivery, some universities looked around at first and saw every other
institution as potential competitor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Others
saw it as an opportunity to collaborate in order to better serve learners in </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">their
core service areas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">An example of the latter is the Great
Plains Interactive Distance Education Alliance—the </span><a href="https://www.gpidea.org/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Great Plains IDEA</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was founded in 2001 by public
universities in the Midwest on the assumption that it was no longer enough for
public universities to offer the best they had locally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, they needed to offer the best
content available nationally—and beyond.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The goal was to combine faculty resources across institutions to ensure
that universities could offer local students the best possible graduate and
undergraduate program options in high demand professional fields. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Today, GP IDEA includes 19 public
universities from Washington State to North Carolina, with institutions collaborating
to offer 18 undergraduate and graduate degrees in Human Sciences and
Agriculture through Great Plains IDEA.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Examples
include master’s degrees in a variety of Agricultural specializations—animal
science, agriculture law, grassland management, and horticulture, as well as
graduate programs in Dietetics, Gerontology, Education, and other disciplines. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Here is how it works:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">*Member institutions chose to participate
in programs that fit their interests and expertise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">*Students identify a "home"
institution, where they apply for admission, enroll in courses, pay tuition,
and graduate.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">*Curricula are developed by
inter-institutional faculty teams, with individual courses offered by different
institutions based on their local expertise.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">*The student’s home institution offers
the same core curriculum, using that institution’s course title and number.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">*The student’s home institution awards the
academic credit and degrees for the programs in which they participate,
regardless of which institution offers instruction for a course.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">*All courses and curricula receive a
full institutional review and meet the academic standards of the participating
institutions.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">*Courses are taught by faculty from
each of the partner institutions on a schedule determined by the faculty</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">*Students pay a common tuition fee per
credit hour regardless of which IDEA institution originates the course.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">*The student’s home institution
maintains the student's transcript and awards the degree to its students; there
is no credit transfer between institutions.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">*Revenue is distributed among the home
institution, teaching institution, and the central alliance management to
ensure sustainable programs and a sustainable alliance.\</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It is a model that
can be applied to many disciplines as the need and/or opportunity arises.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It illustrates how innovation at this level
requires us to consider anew factors that go beyond the technology and beyond a
particular discipline.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That, in turn,
broadens the challenge for eLearning leadership.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Other institutions
are also building new partnerships to deliver specialized graduate
programs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This includes international
collaborations that grow out of relationships between faculty and academic units
at different institutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some might be
fully online degrees; others allow institutions to add specialized online
courses to what is otherwise a residential degree program.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This approach allows academic departments to offer
their students academic specialties taught by colleagues around the world. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This kind of collaboration
can stimulate new relationships between participating academic units—and their
faculty-- and the companies in which their students work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This, in turn, opens new opportunities for
research and outreach by faculty at the participating institutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This kind of
collaboration is not new.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Back in the
1970s, a project called AGSAT, headquartered at the University of Nebraska,
used satellite technology so that Colleges of Agriculture could share content
around different regional specializations, for instance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Similarly, the Appalachian Educational
Satellite Program, allowed institutions to share access to teacher and health
care education to remote communities in the Appalachian range.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">However, eLearning
takes collaboration to a much higher level.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This new environment requires that both faculty and administrators at
participating universities take a fresh look at their responsibility to give their
students the best possible preparation for the world in which they are going to
live and work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It is something that
I can see expanding as the need for collaboration increases and as institutions
become more comfortable with the administrative issues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We know how to deliver instruction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The challenge is how to create administrative
systems to encourage and to sustain that service.</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Open Educational Resources</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Another factor that will help to facilitate curriculum
innovation<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> and</b> control cost is the
growth in Open Educational Resources, or OERs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>UNESCO defines OERs as “<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">learning, teaching and research
materials in any format and medium that reside in the public domain or are
under copyright that have been released under an open license, that permit
no-cost access, re-use, re-purposing, adaptation and redistribution by others.”
(</span><a href="https://www.unesco.org/en/open-educational-resources"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">https://www.unesco.org/en/open-educational-resources</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">OERs were originally conceived as
e-books--written lessons or commentaries—that replace traditional texts, which
lowers student costs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Increasingly, they
can also use streaming media to share video lectures, examples of scientific
principles or natural events, solutions to complex math problems, interviews
with visiting scholars or celebrities, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There are many ways that OERs can be integrated into the
teaching/learning environment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The OER movement grew out of a
September 2007 meeting in Capetown, South Africa, when an international group
of institutions prepared a </span><a href="https://www.capetowndeclaration.org/read/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">declaration</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
that stated “We are on the cusp of a global revolution in teaching and
learning. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Educators worldwide are
developing a vast pool of educational resources on the Internet, open and free
for all to use. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These educators are
creating a world where each and every person on earth can access and contribute
to the sum of all human knowledge. They are also planting the seeds of a new
pedagogy where educators and learners create, shape and evolve knowledge
together, deepening their skills and understanding as they go.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the U.S., that same year, the </span><a href="https://www.cccoer.org/about/members/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Community College
Consortium for OER</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> was created. Today, it has 110-member
colleges in 37 states.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Its mission is
“to promote the adoption of open education to enhance teaching and learning at
community and technical colleges” by providing “resources, support, and
opportunities for collaboration for learning, planning, and implementing
successful open educational programs at community and technical colleges” (</span><a href="https://www.cccoer.org/about/about-cccoer"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">https://www.cccoer.org/about/about-cccoer</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">At the four-year level, Pressbooks was
established to help educators and institutions “working across Canada, the
U.S., and beyond” (</span><a href="https://pressbooks.com/about/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">https://pressbooks.com/about/</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">)
to develop and share OERs in order to “get accessible educational content into
the hands of students.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Currently it lists
more than 5,000 open books.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">OERs can greatly reduce the cost of
materials for students, while giving students increased access to a wide range
of content. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instructors can also create
OERs to help them update information to a topic discussed in a course, add audio
or video interviews with colleagues, or provide hints on difficult problems or
detailed solutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>OERs are becoming a
natural way to expand faculty-student interaction as well as providing content
from other sources.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the Community
College Consortium and Press Books suggest, they are also sharable, so that
faculty teaching similar courses at different institutions can help each other
build a deeper collection of resources for their classes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">It is easy to see that OERs are migrating into the
mainstream to serve students in on-campus and off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is also easy to project that OERs may
become a way for academic units to engage employers to support training in the
private sector.<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> And, finally, some higher education
OERs have potential use in the K-12 arena.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">The combination of OERs and the streaming
environment creates a powerful new delivery environment that gives both faculty
and students greater access to content.</p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Undergraduate Education: The K-14
Movement</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">One sign that change is underway is the so-called
“K-14” Movement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is good to remember
that, early in the Industrial Age, most students did not go to high school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Free education ended with the ninth
grade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the 1920s—decades into the
Industrial Age--a full K-12 experience emerged as the standard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The K-14 idea assumes that all students
should have free access to 14 years of schooling in order to prepare for work
in today’s society.</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><u>Two</u> states—New York and California—have
begun to move from a K-12 standard to a K-14 expectation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In New York, the “Excelsior Scholarship”
provides tuition-free education at New York State owned public universities for
families making up to $125,000 per year (<a href="https://www.suny.edu/suny-news/press-releases/04-2017/4-8-17-excelsior/">https://www.suny.edu/suny-news/press-releases/04-2017/4-8-17-excelsior/</a>
).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>California, as reported in <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2019/09/03/california-free-college/?sh=4fc7e1da6beb#:~:text=California%20will%20now%20provide%20free%20tuition%20for%20the,students%20for%20a%20second%20year%20of%20tuition-free%20college.">Forbes
Magazine</a><span class="MsoHyperlink"> in 20019</span>,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">will now provide free tuition for the
first two years of community college for first-time students who attend
full-time.” </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is
pretty clear evidence that, while eLearning will continue to serve adult
students, the percentage of eLearning students who are recent high school
graduates will continue to grow, especially now that the COVID pandemic has
given many institutions—both K-12 and higher education—experience with serving
students online at a distance from the classroom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The emergency adoption of eLearning did not
always start well, but institutions quickly learned do use the environment more
effectively—partly because the students were increasingly comfortable
online.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is very likely to be a
factor in a move toward a K-14 system. </p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">There are other factors to consider, though, when
we look at K-14.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">One is that eLearning college courses can also
present a new opportunity for high school students to take “dual enrollment”
courses—courses that give them both high school credit and college credit—online
not just from local colleges, but from any institution that offers a desirable
course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Think about the long-term impact:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is not hard to imagine that students might
complete their senior year of high school with nine or more college credits
already on their record.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">It has also been reported that increasing numbers
of high school seniors are resisting the idea of immediately moving from high
school into higher education.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
suggests the need to provide an option for students who aren’t ready to move
full-time into college but don’t want to fall too far behind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>eLearning fills that need, too.</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">A K-14 environment, especially one that supports
online dual-enrollment courses, might also prompt planners to take a fresh look
at both the high school curriculum and the undergraduate general education
curriculum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The goal would be to
eliminate duplication <u>and</u> to ensure that the K-14 curriculum prepares
students both as citizens and professionals in a changing social and work
environment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">In a K-14 environment, what <u>should</u> be the
flow between high school and undergraduate courses in the general education
curriculum?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What associate degree majors
are most adaptive to this environment?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Where is the community need greatest?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These are the kinds of questions that go beyond the technology and
strike at the long-term strategic planning process for institutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is time to start asking them.</p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Artificial Intelligence</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Recently, the eLearning news has been dominated by
a new development that could have additional—even more dramatic—impact on
teaching and learning at all levels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
is called ChatGPT -- an artificial intelligence software package that allows
individuals to ask questions and get detailed answers.</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Wikipedia describes ChatGPT as follows:</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 5.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 5.0pt; margin: 5pt 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 0in;">Although the core function of a chatbot is to mimic a human
conversationalist, ChatGPT is versatile. For example, it can write and debug
computer programs,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChatGPT#cite_note-ChatGPT_can_write_code-13"><sup>[13]</sup></a>
compose music, teleplays, fairy tales, and student essays; answer test
questions (sometimes, depending on the test, at a level above the average human
test-taker);<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChatGPT#cite_note-14"><sup>[14]</sup></a>
write poetry and song lyrics;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChatGPT#cite_note-jpost-15"><sup>[15]</sup></a>
emulate a Linux system; simulate an entire chat room; play games like
tic-tac-toe; and simulate an ATM. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChatGPT">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChatGPT</a>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Writing in the February 23 issue of </span><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexzhavoronkov/2023/02/23/the-unexpected-winners-of-the-chatgpt-generative-ai-revolution/?sh=5683aad712b0"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Forbes“</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">,
Alex Zhavoronkov, noted, “We are witnessing the next major technology
transformation since the advent of the Internet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>. . . But this time, it is not yet clear who
the winners and losers are.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">What happens to the learning process when a creative part
of the learning process—or at least one part of that process--getting answers
to complex questions—is done through artificial intelligence?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How will the instructor know that the student
has created the information?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is a question instructors worry they will
need to answer in the near future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">On the other hand, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New
York Times</i> recently featured a high school teacher who used the app to “<span style="background: white; color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">quickly write adapted lesson plans for each of
his students.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So it seems to have multiple advantages for
both faculty and students. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Artificial Intelligence has been very
much in the news these past weeks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
can’t see it disappearing from the educational process, but there is much to
learn about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need to find a safe
space for AI innovation in the curriculum and in our expectations of student
use of the technology.</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How Do We Get There?</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">One thing I learned over the years is that there
is no single academic culture in a big university.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each college has its own history, its own
sense of its role in the larger society, and its own way of relating to alumni
and the organizations that hire its alumni, its own history with foundations
and other funding organizations, and so forth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They also have their own sense of competition with other institutions,
and their own sense of what the future may hold for their students. It is one
reason why they tend to want to keep local control over the educational
process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">It very important, then, that eLearning leaders be
able to say to faculty at their institution what is happening in similar
academic institutions elsewhere and what how employers in their disciplines are
responding to rapid change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpLast">To make this all work at the institutional level, it
will be important for faculty members to have access to IT and Instructional
Design support.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ideally, these specialists
would have a dual reporting line.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 1in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>On one hand, they would be assigned to academic
colleges or, when scale requires it, departments, so that these staff get to
understand the culture and teaching needs of the disciplines being taught.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 1in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>At the same time, they should have a reporting
line to the eLearning office so that they can keep abreast of new technologies
and learn about—and extend--innovations created in individual courses. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 1in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>We also need well-defined policies with regard
to costs and revenue distribution and related administrative areas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These need to come from the institution-wide
policy groups, like the Faculty Senate, etc.</p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Learning Communities</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span> </span>This year, Penn State’s World Campus is
celebrating its 25th year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we were
getting started back in the 1990s, a good colleague of mine, who was also an
associate dean in one of the colleges, gave me this advice:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span> </span>“Gary,” she said, “ if you want to be successful
in this, you will need to be a scholar in this field.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You will need to be the person faculty and
deans turn to in order to learn what other institutions are doing, what new
innovations are emerging, and what employers are thinking about eLearning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They will look to you for information and
good ideas that will meet the test of being respected by both faculty and
administrators.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpLast"><span> </span>It was good advice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is one reason why organizations like MOLLI are important.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is vital that you have a professional
community where you can learn from your peers what faculty at other
institutions are doing and what opportunities may exist for collaboration, but
also how other institutions are solving problems--dealing with policy issues,
funding issues, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bringing these
administrative innovations into the mainstream is essential to long-term
success. </p>
<p style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Colleges and universities are
complex organizations, with multiple academic cultures and a complex
organizational and budgetary system that makes it difficult sometimes to
innovate at large scale.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of the
things I’ve talked about—</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times;">the willingness
to partner with other institutions on curricula and services that meet student
needs, </span></p>
<p style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times;">creating systems
to help faculty develop and make available online and streaming resources, </span></p>
<p style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times;">micro-credentials
that extend learning to working professionals, exploring how to use technology
to improve the educational pathway from high school to college, </span></p>
<p style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times;">and the
willingness to create new kinds of learning communities—</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: Times;">are hard to do in
isolation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are better seen as steps
in an institutional evolution.</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It promises to be an interesting
decade ahead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Gary Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17462662265684250950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6334293338320462282.post-773698510689993672023-01-02T15:39:00.002-05:002023-07-14T09:22:42.973-04:00Thoughts on the Fifth Amendment<p>
</p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 2; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 18pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Fifth Amendment to the United States
Constitution</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">No
person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime,
unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising
in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time
of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence
to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any
criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life,
liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be
taken for public use, without just compensation. </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-5/">(“Constitution
Annotated” website</a>)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p>The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution protects citizens on several levels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Scholars consider the Fifth Amendment as
capable of breaking down into five distinct constitutional <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/fifth_amendment">rights: </a></p>
<ol start="1" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-72b3704e-7fff-37ce-5edd-237c900538495f4d381c-8087-11ed-a167-0ada156c188f">The
right to indictment by the grand jury before any criminal </span><a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/charge">charges</a> for <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/felonious">felonious</a> <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/crime">crimes</a></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-72b3704e-7fff-37ce-5edd-237c900538495f4d381d-8087-11ed-a167-0ada156c188f">A
prohibition on </span><a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/double_jeopardy">double jeopardy</a></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-72b3704e-7fff-37ce-5edd-237c900538495f4d381e-8087-11ed-a167-0ada156c188f">A
right against forced </span><a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/self-incrimination">self-incrimination</a></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-72b3704e-7fff-37ce-5edd-237c900538495f4d381f-8087-11ed-a167-0ada156c188f">A
guarantee that all criminal </span><a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/defendant">defendants</a> have a
fair <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/trial">trial</a>, and </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-72b3704e-7fff-37ce-5edd-237c900538495f4d3820-8087-11ed-a167-0ada156c188f">A
guarantee that the </span><a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/government">government</a> cannot
seize private property without making a due compensation at the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/market_value">market value</a> of
the property.</li></ol>
<p class="MsoNormal">After the January 6 coup attempt, a number of subpoenaed
witnesses used the Fifth Amendment to refuse to answer questions under oath. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some were reported simply to have said “The
Fifth” with no other explanation of their refusal to respond.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I suggest the following:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">a.<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
Constitutional protection against requiring testimony applies only in criminal
cases.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus, when one is providing
testimony in a noncriminal situation, such as testimony to a Congressional
Committee, the Fifth Amendment should not apply as an excuse not to answer a
question.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">b.<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When
witnesses do use the Fifth Amendment in testimony, they should be required to
indicate which of the four elements of the Fifth Amendment they are using to
justify not answering a question.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If
they don’t give a reason, the questioner should be free to say, “then <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>shall I assume that your honest answer would
possibly incriminate you?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Thoughts?</p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Gary Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17462662265684250950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6334293338320462282.post-69861135125031937982022-12-27T15:17:00.004-05:002022-12-27T15:17:57.339-05:00Robins Haiku<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">As robins were late </p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">For southern warmth this winter</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Our holly fed them</p>
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</p><p><br /><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Snowfall turns to ice</p><p><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>And the cold keeps us at home <br /><br /><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Awaiting Christmas.</p><p><style>@font-face
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Gary Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17462662265684250950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6334293338320462282.post-46341928248857858302022-12-10T18:31:00.003-05:002022-12-10T18:31:43.668-05:00"A Tale of Two Cities" Paints a Portrait of Today<p> I sat down this afternoon to begin re-reading Charles Dickens' classic, <i>A Tale of Two Cities</i> and was surprised to be immediately struck by its opening sentences:</p><p><i>"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."</i></p><p>Published in 1859 and telling a tale set in 1775, it could have been describing our own times. What more to say?<br /></p>Gary Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17462662265684250950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6334293338320462282.post-64530256855958151382022-11-02T09:40:00.001-04:002022-11-02T21:02:45.956-04:00"Call Jane" --A Must-See Movie About the Recent Past for Our New Times<p class="MsoNormal"> Yesterday, we went to see <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.calljanethemovie.com/home/">Call Jane</a></i>, a
new film starring Elizabeth Banks and Sigourney Weaver. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Set in the late 1960s, it is a fictionalized
account of the true story of a group of women who organized themselves to
provide safe abortions in Chicago in the years before the Roe versus Wade
decision, when access to abortions was often controlled by the Mafia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It was a matinee, and we were alone in the theater, except
for one guy who came in after the film had started. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, it needs to be seen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a powerful film—one that is especially
relevant in this post-Roe time, when the Supreme Court has taken away the
rights that Roe had ensured over the past half-century.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Interestingly, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Call
Jane</i> is not alone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>HBO Max is
offering a documentary about the same group of women.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Janes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>Here is a <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/hbo-maxs-new-abortion-doc-janes-timely-hopeful-rcna32472">link
to a review</a>.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The phenomenon portrayed in these programs is one that Americans
need to explore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With abortion now being
outlawed in different ways by different states, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Call Jane</i> allows us to look back just a generation ago to see what America
is doing to itself again.</p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Gary Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17462662265684250950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6334293338320462282.post-61287411490501320702022-10-06T10:14:00.003-04:002022-10-06T10:14:59.519-04:00Celebrating German-American Day<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">Today is German-American Day, in recognition that on this
date in 1683, William Penn brought the first German settlers to America—a group
of 13 German Quaker and Mennonite families who founded Germantown. As Garrison
Keillor notes in <a href="https://www.garrisonkeillor.com/radio/twa-the-writers-almanac-for-october-6-2022/"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Writer’s Almanac</i></a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">:</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-outline-level: 4;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Penn
the son called Pennsylvania his “Holy Experiment,” and he set about to find a
group of righteous men to form a new society founded on Quaker ideals of
nonviolence, freedom of religious worship, and equality for all. “Freedom of
religion” and “equality” were conditional terms, however. While other religious
traditions were tolerated in Pennsylvania, participation in government was restricted
to Protestants; Catholics, Jews, and Muslims could not vote or hold office. And
Penn’s promises of equality didn’t really extend to everyone: women couldn’t
vote, and Penn himself was a slave-owner.<b></b></span></p>
<h4><span style="font-family: Times; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">However, Penn’s first 13 German families had a different idea.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Keillor notes</span><span style="font-family: Times;">, “</span><span style="font-family: Times; font-weight: normal;">Germantown became the birthplace of the anti-slavery movement in
America five years later, when several town leaders sent a two-page
condemnation of slavery to the governing body of the Quaker church.” </span></h4>
<h4><span style="font-family: Times; font-weight: normal;">It is a good reminder that,
while many settlers from the Old World brought their ideas of white supremacy
and intolerance for others with them, some also brought traditions of peace and
tolerance that came to be honored as national ideals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are still struggling with these issues, but
German-American Day is a good time to ponder the broader impact of Quaker ideals
on Americans’ ongoing struggle to honor equality as the context for celebrating
freedom in all aspects of our lives.</span></h4>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Gary Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17462662265684250950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6334293338320462282.post-57077756919733433922022-08-30T17:24:00.000-04:002022-08-30T17:24:00.880-04:00The Teacher Shortage: Another Thought<p> Here is a thought on how we might minimize the negative impact of the teacher shortage on today's students: </p><p>Why not encourage States to make a policy that allows retired teachers to teach up to 2 class sections per semester in our high schools without endangering their existing retirement income? Not all retirees would be interested, but there surely are teachers who would be willing to help--and earn some extra money-- by teaching one or two courses per semester or by providing other professional support.</p><p> At the same time, we need to acknowledge that some uses of new technology--things that we did during the Pandemic to keep learning active for our students--will find permanent homes in our educational environment. For instance, in higher education, we have already begun to see universities using e-learning to share specialized curricula in areas such as agriculture, geographic information systems, and other areas. In the U.S. Midwest we have the example of the <a href="https://www.gpidea.org/">Great Plains IDEA</a> (Interactive Distance Education Alliance) through which multiple state universities are sharing responsibility for teaching undergraduate and master's level specialties. This opens new possibilities for school districts within a State to share junior and senior-level courses at the high school level. </p><p>Another way to increase the teaching capacity of our high schools is to partner with area higher education institutions to offer online "dual enrollment" courses, in which high school students can earn both high school graduation and college credit.</p><p>The online eLearning environment has been with us now for over a quarter of a century. It is increasingly a mature, well-supported learning environment at institutions that have taken it seriously. Now is the time to consider how to fully integrate it to ensure that students have access to the kind of learning that will prepare them for postsecondary and workplace success.<br /></p><p><br /></p>Gary Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17462662265684250950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6334293338320462282.post-28285370345982946452022-08-29T09:42:00.000-04:002022-08-29T09:42:17.918-04:00The President and the Freedom Fighter<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">I just finished reading David Kilmeade’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The President and the Freedom Fighter</i>,
which looks at the Civil War through the evolving perspectives and actions of
Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is a fascinating read.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In just
about 250 pages, it presents key people and events before, during, and after
the Civil War and explores how Lincoln and Douglass saw the
issues of slavery and emancipation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
reads like a novel.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Douglass, an escaped slave who became a major public figure,
believed in immediate emancipation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Lincoln, a self-made lawyer and politician, was concerned about the
bringing the Union back together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
worried that immediate emancipation would make it impossible for southern
states to re-join the Union and cause some northern states to join the
Confederacy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He wrote the Emancipation
Proclamation and kept it in his desk drawer, awaiting a time when it would be accepted
as a solution rather than as an irritant.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The story of these two leaders and the environment that
shaped their lives before, during, and after the Civil War, is powerful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Gary Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17462662265684250950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6334293338320462282.post-11924691378158743082022-08-16T09:22:00.036-04:002022-08-17T14:21:35.690-04:00The Teacher Shortage and How to Solve It<p>The latest news on the start the 2022-23 school year is that nearly 300,000 teachers have left their jobs over the past few years, creating a severe teacher shortage in both large and small school districts around the country. What we can do about it? Here are some thoughts to start the discussion. </p><p>My first suggestion is obvious. Pay teachers salaries that reflect their preparation and their experience. Teachers are among the worst paid professionals in the nation, yet their work is absolutely essential to the economy and to the overall civic health of our society. Pay them for the education they must do to qualify for the jobs, for the countless hours outside the classroom that they must spend in addition to their classroom time, and for value they add to the lives of their students and to their community. </p><p>Second, respect them for the professionals that they are. Our local school district tends to refer to teachers as "staff." That's wrong. They are "faculty" and should be seen as special contributors to the work of their schools. That should show up in their paychecks, but more importantly, it should give them a stronger voice in school policies and practices related to instruction. </p><p>Third, start looking ahead. Increasingly, we are hearing about the evolution of our K-12 system into a "K-14" system--one where the social expectation is that students will be expected continue their education into the first two years of college. This will place new demands on teachers at all levels as schools try to position their curricula for the new environment in an economy dominated by technology. We ust help teachers prepare for the future--and ensure that there is a good career path for them as education adapts to the Information Revolution. </p><p>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">However, beyond these immediate issues there is a larger
question of the role of K-12 education in a society that is increasingly being
shaped by the Information Revolution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The question we must ask is: What is the purpose of public education in
this new society?</p>
<p>In a 2012 article in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Education Week, G</i>reg
Jobin-Leeds noted, “The unfortunate reality is that many believe training
students in Math, Science, English, and History is what it means to educate.
Society is far more complicated than the limited ideas covered in these four
subjects.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He went on to argue that “<b>To
educate is to prepare and train someone in the necessary skills to have the
ability to participate in society as a full citizen.</b> This definition
reaches far beyond the scope of the four primary subjects. Education should
include thoroughly learning the functions and duties of government, a complete
understanding of the constitution and one’s rights, learning how social justice
movements change society, how to farm, how to cook, etc. The public school
system should exist to prepare young people for life. This is the task of an
educator: facilitate the progress of transforming youth into functional
independent full citizens.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Ted Wheeler, writing for <a href="https://www.nea.org/advocating-for-change/new-from-nea/whats-purpose-education-public-doesnt-agree-answer"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">NEA Today</i></a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">,</i> noted a 2016 survey by PDK International that asked about the
mail goal of public school education.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Responses:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>45% felt
that public school education should “prepare students academically.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>26% felt
that public schools should “prepare students to be good citizens.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>25% felt
that public schools should “prepare students for work.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>4% were
unsure</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In 2017, a Penn State <a href="https://sites.psu.edu/pandyacivic/2017/04/09/the-purpose-of-k-12-education/">website
on the purpose of K-12 education</a> quoted Martin Luther King’s statement
about the purpose of education in a 1948 speech at Morehouse College:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“The function of education is to
teach one to think intensively and to think critically. But education which
stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most
dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason but no morals. … We must
remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character—that is
the goal of true education.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first
goal, the article notes, is that “students should develop the capacity for
independent thought through inquiry and reasoning.”</span></p>
<p>More recently, a Study.Com <a href="https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-the-purpose-of-public-education.html">piece</a>
points to the National School Boards Association position that “public
education exists to serve the following purposes, among others: </p>
<ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;">Prepare
students for college and the workforce, including preparing them for jobs
that may not even exist yet due to rapidly changing technology </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;">Help
children fulfill their diverse potentials </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;">Enable
students to become well-rounded individuals, focusing on the whole child
and not just mastery of academic content </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;">Prepare
students to live a productive life and become good citizens, while obeying
the social and legal rules of society </li></ul>
<p style="margin-left: 0.25in;">Add to that mastery of common core and state
standards, assessment after assessment, activities, sports, technology,
literacy, etc. That's a lot to accomplish. How does it do all this and what is
the role of the teacher as well as teacher learning communities in public
education?”</p>
<p>In short, the expectations of public schooling in this new world place new
and much greater demands on teachers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
is essential that we fund teaching appropriately and give the profession the
respect it needs in order to attract the best teachers to our schools.</p><p>Your thoughts? <br /></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Gary Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17462662265684250950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6334293338320462282.post-84909320794202022542022-05-14T11:06:00.006-04:002022-05-14T22:07:52.284-04:00Democracy and the News<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 150%;">This year is yet another
year of political upheaval.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is, of
course, an election year, which always encourages folks to express more extreme
views of their politics in order to attract voters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is also a year of war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is giving a new
generation visible examples of the damage that an autocracy can create in the
world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, of course, it is yet another
year of pandemic—perhaps the last year when this particular pandemic will yield
as much power as COVID-19 and its cousins have done in recent years, but still
it is a dangerous year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is also a
time of ongoing and ever-increasing social, environmental, and technical
change, when we need to look at the long-term implications of our actions and
attitudes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, it is a time when
technology and social isolation have combined to create a multi-lane media
highway for unsupported opinion, false and purposefully mis-leading
information, and, ultimately, lies about the issues facing us and how we might
best work to build a better world, greatly expanding the chasm between the two
main political communities in the United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;">It is
not an environment where the goal of an election is to choose between nuanced
differences among candidates in order to vote intelligently in the primary
elections.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The parties have chosen to
depict almost all candidates as representing an extreme.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, since every member of the Congressional
House of Representatives is up for re-election, it is a challenge for every
voter to discover what the candidate truly stands for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That makes this spring a good time to step
back and consider some of the basics.</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Some Definitions</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Perhaps the most basic definition of government is that
government is how individuals work together to build and maintain a
community—to help each other survive, essentially.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Living in community with others is basic to
being a human being.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Biologically, we
must care for our children much longer than most other species.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Families become central to the health of
individuals over many years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As families
inter-mingle due to parenting and sharing work, communities inevitably
evolve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The relationships that
individuals make with other individuals in order to ensure their common safety
and health are what define “community” at the most basic level.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A community provides its individual members
with protection and with help—whether it be garbage collection, medical care,
education, safety, or simply the trust of neighbors—that allows individuals to
thrive. </p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There are many ways that individuals have organized
communities over the millennia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some
early American communities even changed their governing structure several times
a year as the focus shifted seasonally from agriculture to hunting. That said,
today several models stand out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here are
definitions of terms that are tossed around a lot these days:</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Let’s start with “community.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The online <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Merriam-Webster Dictionary</i> defines <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/community"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">community</i></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>as “the people with common interests living
in a particular area” or “an interacting population of various kinds of
individuals (such as species) in a common location” or “a social state or
condition” (among other, more specialized definitions).</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Merriam-Webster Dictionary </i>also defines
<a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/democracy"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">democracy</i></a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>at a couple of levels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
most basic: “<span class="dttext">government by the people</span><span class="dt"> </span><span class="sd">especially</span><b><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman \(Body CS\)";">: </span></b><span class="dttext">rule of the
majority.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, the idea of majority
rule can be interpreted in several ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Imagine belonging to an unpopular minority and being “ruled” by the
majority—not something that takes a great deal of imagination for many
citizens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, there is also this more
refined definition: “a government in which the supreme power is vested in the
people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of
representation usually involving periodically held free elections.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span class="dttext">Americans live in a constitutional democracy—a republic in which
qualified individual citizens may vote at local, state, and national levels for
a governor or president and for members of federal and state congresses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These elected representatives then are
empowered to work together to make and implement laws of all sorts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While there is no Constitutional limit to the
number of political parties who may put up candidates for office, two parties
have tended to control the majority of elected officers over the years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since the 1850s, those have been the Democrat
and Republican parties.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span class="dttext">The </span><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/democratic">Democratic Party</a><span class="dttext">, says the dictionary, is defined as “of or relating to one of the
two major political parties in the U.S. evolving in the early 19th century from
the </span><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anti-federalist">anti-federalists</a><span class="dttext"> and the </span><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Democratic-Republican">Democratic-Republican</a><span class="dttext"> party and associated in modern times with policies of broad
social reform and internationalism.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;">The <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/republican">Republican Party</a>,
on the other hand, is defined as “<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the one of the two major political parties
evolving in the U.S. in the mid-19th century that is usually primarily
associated with business, financial, and some agricultural interests and is
held to favor a restricted governmental role in economic life.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span class="dttext">Many liberal Democrats maintain that the Republican Party, under
the continued influence of Donald Trump, is moving beyond fiscal conservatism
and toward fascism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Merriam-Webster
defines </span><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fascism"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">fascism</i></a><span class="dttext"> as “a
tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control”
and a fascist government as “a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such
as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual
and that stands for a centralized </span><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/autocratic">autocratic</a><span class="dttext"> government headed by a </span><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dictatorial">dictatorial</a><span class="dttext"> leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible
suppression of opposition</span><span class="dt">.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>That aside, Republicans
tend to celebrate individualism in the sense that individual citizens (and
their businesses) should be responsible for their own actions and let others—from
individuals to businesses to social and ethnic/racial groups and other societal
groupings—be responsible for their own actions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;">At the
other end of the spectrum, Republicans argue in their political ads that
liberal Democrats are pushing the country toward socialism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Merriam-Webster defines <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/socialism"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">socialism</i></a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>as “<span class="dttext">any of various economic and political
theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of
the means of production and distribution of goods” and </span><span class="dt">“</span><span class="dttext">a system or condition of society in which the means of production
are owned and controlled by the state.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>My sense is that the Democratic Party’s sense of itself today reflects
its heyday as the political home of Roosevelt’s New Deal and the advocate for
social change since then—things like labor unions, voter’s rights, support for
access to higher education, civil rights, and health care access, most
recently, the Affordable Care Act.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These
days, critics of the Democratic Party tend to gather these actions together in
the term “woke”—trying to deal with embedded societal problems like racism,
sexism, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, the Democratic
party is far from promoting socialism per se.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span class="dttext">In the middle of this is an ongoing cultural struggle between a
strong sense of individual freedom, which dates back to the years before the
Revolution, on one hand, and, on the other, the need to identify one’s self as
a member of a community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For two
centuries, we have celebrated the wisdom of the Constitution that “all men are
created equal,” but have had difficulty agreeing on the definition of “all men”
for that entire time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Similarly, we have
had difficulty agreeing on what our obligations are to the other citizens that
we hold as being “equal.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;">Somewhere in the middle of all this is a tradition of
shared willingness to meet and work together across our differences—for
individualists to pay taxes for roads that help others get where they want to
go and for governments to let some societal practices succeed or fail based on
individual, rather than government support—but also to agree that some things
can fare well only if we work together and use our government to help those who
need help and, in the process, improve life in the community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Safe roads and bridges come to mind, along
with K-12 schools, clean water to drink, access to medical care, safety from
crime, and other things that protect our shared rights as citizens. </p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;">Currently, however, the more extreme views are capturing
the headlines and the attention of voters in both parties.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To some degree, this focus on the extremes
can be attributed to the rapid change in technology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has become something of a truism that,
while technology can change very quickly, it takes much longer for society to
adapt to that change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need to develop
the means to ensure that receivers of “news” are better able to distinguish
between fact and opinion and, even more important, are better able to judge
whether information is true or false, direct or misleading.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;">The technology that, increasingly, we use to gather
information has not been with us for very long.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Earlier technology—broadcast radio and TV, mostly—was subject to the
“fairness doctrine,” created in 1949 by the Federal Communications Commission
to (1) ensure that broadcasters presented controversial issues and (2) that
they fairly reflected the differing viewpoints on those issues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That policy was withdrawn in 1987, by which
time many more media channels were available to the public and the political
parties had already begun to use talk shows rather than just the news to
promote their positions on social issues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Time has come, some would argue, for us to better distinguish between
“news” (which I would argue is best when it is objective) and “talk” (which
should be required to label itself as an “op/ed” medium) and to announce on
their programs whether they are “news” or “opinion.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;">There is much for all of us, regardless of age or
position, to learn about how to function as voters and citizens in this
always-new environment that technology has given us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Gary Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17462662265684250950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6334293338320462282.post-66043005510610928842022-05-11T09:35:00.001-04:002022-05-11T09:35:13.634-04:00A Memory from Annie Dillard
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">I am reading <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">An American Childhood</i>, Annie Dillard’s memoir of growing up in
Pittsburgh in the 1950s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I grew up at
pretty much the same time north of Pittsburgh in what is now Hermitage, Pa.,
and was delighted to see that we shared some similar memories of roaming the
public library.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is what she wrote:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: .5in;">What can we make
of the inexpressible joy of children?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
is a kind of gratitude, I think—the gratitude of the ten-year-old who wakes to
her own energy and the brisk challenge of the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You thought you knew the place and all its
routines, but you see you hadn’t known.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Whole stacks at the library held books devoted to things you knew
nothing about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The boundary of knowledge
receded, as you poked about in books, like Lake Erie’s rim as you climbed its
cliffs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And each area of knowledge
disclosed another, and another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Knowledge wasn’t a body or a tree, but instead air, or space, or
being—whatever pervaded, whatever never ended and fitted into the smallest
cracks and the widest space between stars.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">When I was a kid in the fifties,
the Sharon Free Public Library filled the front of the yellow brick building on
State Street that also housed the Buhl Club and provided space for indoor
sports young people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Library
entrance faced State Street, with wide concrete stairs leading to stout columns
and beautiful wood and glass doors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Inside, was a wonderland of books, organized around a semi-circle of
stacks on two levels, plus a first-floor children’s room to the left and a reference/reading
room on the right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was within walking
distance for me, and I spent a lot of time there, haunting the stacks and
discovering many great books, biographies and autobiographies, novels, and
histories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was my haven.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">Thanks to Annie Dillard for a great
memory. </p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Gary Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17462662265684250950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6334293338320462282.post-67122036782291821982022-04-02T13:07:00.004-04:002022-04-02T13:07:34.740-04:00The Challenge of Leadership in eLearning: In Memory of Karen Swan<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On April 1, 2022, I
was delighted to take part in a webinar celebrating the research and other
contributions made to eLearning by the late Dr. Karen Swan, who died in September
2021.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The webinar was organized by Dr.
Raymond Schroeder and his colleagues at the University of Illinois-Springfield
and made available nationally by the University Professional and Continuing
Education Association (for details see: <a href="https://www.uis.edu/colrs/research/swan/">https://www.uis.edu/colrs/research/swan/</a>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Below is the presentation that I gave as part
of the event.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was an honor to be able
to recognize Karen’s contributions to our field in this way.</i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">*** <br /></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I am very happy to join colleagues from across the U.S. and
Canada today to help celebrate the work and the legacy of our late friend and
colleague Dr. Karen Swan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Karen and I
were at different institutions throughout our careers, but we got to know each
other primarily through the Online Learning Consortium.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>OLC was created by the Sloan Foundation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It brought together a new community of
academics, instructional designers, media professionals, and educational
outreach professionals to explore and advance online learning in diverse
institutions nationally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was where
many of us practitioners first met Karen.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In 2020, I co-edited the second edition of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Leading the eLearning Transformation of
Higher Education</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Karen had written
a chapter on learning effectiveness for the first edition of the book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the second edition, she and Peter Shea
co-authored two chapters that focused specifically on what leaders of elearning
programs should know about teaching online and learning effectiveness.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This recognized a reality in our field:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>many of the individuals who lead e-learning
units are not themselves teachers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
count myself among that group.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the
first edition, Karen had written that eLearning represented a paradigm change.
“Leaders,” she wrote, “must be able to represent these issues to the
institution <u>at large</u>, especially when reporting to academic governance
groups” (p. 81). In the second edition, Karen and Peter explained that it is
difficult to lead in this ever-changing—ever-new, in a way—environment without
understanding both the<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b>opportunities
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and</i> the challenges that the
technology presents for curriculum development and instructional design and
delivery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And they recognized that
eLearning leaders often become institutional change agents whose job is to help
the institution adapt to a new teaching environment in a society engulfed by
social and technological change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Karen and Peter looked at ways to evaluate learning
effectiveness in eLearning courses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The
foundational learning effectiveness task for an eLearning leader” they wrote, “
. . .<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>often involves justifying the
efficacy of learning online.” (p 76) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“It
is therefore imperative,” they added, “that online learning leaders engage in
efforts to understand promising, research-based practices and the outcomes of
efforts to improve online education in their own contexts” (p. 77).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A key to that goal is the Community of
Inquiry framework, in which learning happens at the intersection of three
elements that must be present in a course:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Social Presence, Teaching Presence, and Cognitive Presence.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">They also noted that eLearning leaders need to “take charge
of the kinds of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u>outcomes data</u> </i>that
their institutions collect,” as this will guide future innovation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They mention six particular<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> outcome measures</b> that leaders need to
communicate within their institutions:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Satisfaction</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Retention</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Course grades</b>—or success</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Achievement</b>—or “enduring
understandings”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: .5in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Proficiencies</b>—or knowledge, skills, and
attitudes essential for the profession being studied</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Performance</b>, which Karen and Peter call “the gold standard” of
learning outcomes.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In the second chapter, Karen and Peter focused on four pedagogical
approaches that can be used in an eLearning environment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The first is <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Constructivism</b>,
an approach based on the idea that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">meaning</i>
is something that we impose on the world around us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We construct meaning in our minds as we
interact with the physical environment, the social environment, and our inner
mental environment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this view,
effective learning is active, unique to the individual, and tied closely to our
experiences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The second approach is<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">
Connectivist Pedagogy</b>-- an idea closely tied to the technological
revolution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It maintains that learning
involves <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">creating and using networks that
connect information to meaning</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This pedagogy, they say, is most evident in connectivist massive open
online courses (cMOOCs) -- guided networks of users who find and share content
with each other.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Their third model, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Androgogy</b>,
dates back to 1980, when Malcolm Knowles differentiated between teaching and
learning methods used in adult education with those used to educate
children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Knowles argued that, because
adults are often driven more by internal needs than external
requirements--courses should be organized around problems to be solved and
relevant to adult experience and their lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Finally, they describe <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Heutagogy</b>,
a term developed when eLearning was first blossoming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this model learners themselves decide on
the questions that they want to explore, with the faculty member serving as an
“expert guide.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is, Karen and Peter
noted, a model that may be especially well suited to the eLearning learning
environment. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">These different approaches to the teaching and learning
environment are marked by different senses—different understandings—of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">how people learn</b>, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">what they learn</b>, and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">how
teachers can guide</b> that learning process. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
challenge for the eLearning leader<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b>is
to find a match among these different approaches with the institution’s
mission, culture, and strategic goals—and then to communicate with academic
units and bring the diverse academic and administrative communities together to
move ahead. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This is—at least for this generation of leaders—a continuing
process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In his book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Thank You For Being Late</i>, Thomas
Friedman makes the point that we are in an “age of acceleration” caused by
rapid change in technology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But he also writes
that social change happens at a much slower pace than technological
change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a critical concern for
the field—how to be sure we evolve our institutional models to make the most of
new technological and social realities that are sure to emerge. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">eLearning has developed over the past couple of decades into
a powerful learning environment that can help learners be more effective in a
new environment that affects all aspects of our lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it <u>continues</u> to develop, mature,
and innovate.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many institutions are just now coming to terms
with earlier innovations—things like Open Educational Resources, MOOCs, and
degree programs that share online students with other institutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More recent innovations—condensed
micro-credentials, for instance, or the move to make community college (or the
first two years of the baccalaureate degree) free to students—could signal
broader changes that could make eLearning even more strategically important to
many institutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Beyond that, we’ve seen many institutions embrace eLearning
for the first time during the Pandemic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It was an emergency innovation, and many K-12 and higher education
institutions were forced to innovate without a great deal of planning time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The pandemic helped to move eLearning into
the mainstream in a new way and to strengthen the need to understand the
learning environments in which it is most effective.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Clearly, in this environment of rapid adoption of technology
and great social change, our leaders must be able to communicate to their
institutions the best thinking about eLearning effectiveness and how to
effectively integrate it into our institutional culture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the process, leaders must also become
scholars their fields-- who help the university know what is happening around the
world with eLearning-- the person who can tell academic and administrative
leaders what their colleagues at other institutions are doing and what is
happening in the professions where our graduates work.<u> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The work that Karen and Peter described in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Leading the eLearning Transformation of
Higher Education</i> has provided a roadmap for these changes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Throughout her career as a writer and
teacher, Karen made a huge contribution to the future of higher education in
this new environment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That work will continue to benefit our field
for many years to come.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thank you. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Works Cited</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">Miller, G., Benke, M., Chaloux,
B., Ragan, L., Schroeder, R., Smutz, W., Swan, K. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(2014). </i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Leading the e-Learning Transformation of Higher Education: Meeting the
Challenges of Technology and Distance Education.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>Sterling, VA: Stylus Press.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">Miller, G., Ives, K., eds.
(2020).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Leading the eLearning Transformation of Higher Education:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Leadership Strategies for the Next
Generation.</i> Sterling, VA: Stylus Press.</p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Gary Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17462662265684250950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6334293338320462282.post-24507173290839095962022-03-06T15:11:00.002-05:002022-03-06T15:11:56.002-05:00Writers on Writing<p> Here, from the pages of <i>The Writer's Almanac</i>, are some ideas on writing from a dozen of the best: <br /></p><p>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #202020; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Lynda
Barry</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #202020; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“People think if you’re writing a story that
you have to follow story structure. It’s like thinking the only reason we have
teeth is because there are dentists.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Tracey Chivalier</b><span style="background: white; color: #202020; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"Don't write about what you know — write
about what you're interested in. Don't write about yourself — you aren't as
interesting as you think."</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Joan Didion</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> "I write
entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and
what it means. What I want and what I fear."</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #202020; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">E.M.
Forster</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #202020; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"The only books that influence us are
those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little farther down our
particular path than we have yet got ourselves." He also said, "One
always tends to overpraise a long book, because one has got through it."</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times;">Doris
Kearns Goodwin</span></b><span style="font-family: Times;">, when asked <span style="color: #202020;">why she continues to write presidential biographies,
answered, “It is not a question of coming at it from the start as if I’m out to
get them, or out to praise them. I just want them to come alive again. That’s
all you can really ask of history. Then the reader can feel, wi</span><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">th all of the complexity of emotions,
what it is that is happening to them.”</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><a href="https://garrisonkeillor.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ad0660dfefb8eb9ffe140530c&id=88cd64583a&e=907aa7dcb3"><b><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Jane
Hirschfield</span></b></a><span style="background: white; color: #202020; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
“I don't think poetry is based just on poetry; it is based on a thoroughly
lived life. And so I couldn't just decide I was going to write no matter what;
I first had to find out what it means to </span><i><span style="color: #202020; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">live.</span></i><span style="background: white; color: #202020; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #202020; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">James
Joyce</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #202020; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"The artist, like the God of the
Creation, remains within or behind or beyond or above his handiwork, invisible,
refined out of existence, indifferent, paring his fingernails."</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #202020; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Gabriel Garcia Marquez <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b><span style="background: white; color: #202020; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"What matters in life is not what happens to you but
what you remember and how you remember it." </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #202020; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Carson
McCullers</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #202020; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"I live with the people I create and it
has always made my essential loneliness less keen."</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Boris Pasternak</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“<span style="background: white; color: #202020;">I
always dreamt of a novel in which, as in an explosion, I would erupt with all
the wonderful things I saw and understood in this world."</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #202020;">Philip Pullman</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #202020;"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"I
have always written what I wanted to write. I have never considered the
audience for one second. Ever. It's none of their business what I write! Before
publication, I am a despot."</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 7.5pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #202020; font-family: Times;">J.D. Salinger</span></b><span style="color: #202020; font-family: Times;"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"What I like best
is a book that's at least funny once in a while ... What really knocks me out
is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote
it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone
whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though."</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #202020;">John Steinbeck </span></b><span style="color: #202020;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="background: white; color: #202020; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"The writer must believe that what he is
doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this
illusion even when he knows it is not true."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In accepting the Nobel Prize, he said, “A
writer who does not passionately believe in the perfectibility of man has no
dedication nor any membership in literature.”</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #202020;">Edith Wharton</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #202020; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> "There are two ways of spreading
light: to be the candle or the mirror that receives it."</span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Gary Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17462662265684250950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6334293338320462282.post-42888122551387302522022-01-17T11:34:00.000-05:002022-01-17T11:34:51.865-05:00 Mail-In Voting: <p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">2022 has begun, and with it, the
mid-term election processes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Primaries
will be held this spring, and the national Congressional elections in
November.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Given the narrow margins
between the two major parties in Congress and the increasingly major differences
between them in philosophy and political tactics, it promises to be a very
competitive election.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The competition
promises also to be bitter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are
already seeing signs of that in new state-level restrictions on voter
access.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The challenges and false charges
that Trump and his cohort continue to promote make it essential that we find a
new consensus on how citizens can best exercise their rights—and
responsibilities—as voters. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Citizens
need confidence in their access to voting and confidence that their votes
count. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is an urgent public education
need.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">One key area for citizen education
in the coming months is mail-in or absentee voting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a relatively new feature for many
voters, who are accustomed to showing up at the voting booth on election
day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, that is increasingly a
problem for many voters, partly because of the pandemic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, there are other factors--work
schedules and other limits on travel, for instance—that have made mail-in
balloting an important new way to ensure that most citizens have the practical
ability to exercise their voting rights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Meanwhile, opponents keep raising fraudulent concerns about the security
of mail-in voting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What we need is
better public information about the dependability of mail-in balloting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">Many will be surprised that all 50
states already provide mail-in voting as an option for citizens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Absentee/mail-in_voting">Ballotpedia</a> reports
that all 50 states offer a form of mail-in voting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Ballotpedia website notes that thirty-four
states provide mail-in ballots to any voter who requests one (of these, seven
automatically send a ballot to all voters).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The other sixteen states also support mail-in ballots, but require that
voters first submit an application and, in some cases, meet eligibility
criteria. In-person voting continues to dominate in both environments.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">The Brennan Center for Justice, a
nonprofit center at New York University’s School of Justice, has issued <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/mail-ballot-security-features-primer">a
primer on the security of mail-in voting</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It notes, </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in;">“<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Some
critics, most notably President Trump, have claimed that mail ballot systems
are unusually vulnerable to ‘voter fraud.’ <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But years of mail voting around the country
show this is false and that there is little malfeasance.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">In short, mail-in voting is not an
aberration on the fringe of the elections system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is increasingly mainstream means of
providing better access for citizens to fulfill their civic responsibility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">I have been concerned for years
about the lack of effective civics education in our high schools.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is an example of the lack of broad
public education. What we need, in order to quell the partisan campaigns
against this and other means of encouraging voter participation, is a voter
education program to help people better understand mail-in voting as part of
the Constitutional process of empowering citizens to vote, to feel confident
about voting in spite of negative partisan publicity, and to promote best
practices in individual states.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That
education should be part of the high school curriculum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Meanwhile, the Brennen Center primer suggests
that there is already a wealth of information could be the basis for a public
information campaign to help current voters better understand the system in
their states.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A public education
campaign along these lines would be a welcome project for groups like the
League of Women Voters, the ACLU, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">Simply stated, voters need to be
confident that they understand this emerging environment and that they trust in
its security.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This will help avoid the
kind of fraudulent criticisms that arose in 2020 and the lies that led to the
January 6 insurrection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Gary Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17462662265684250950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6334293338320462282.post-88438662170903338202021-12-13T15:07:00.002-05:002021-12-13T15:07:20.369-05:00"Silent Night" 1914<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">In 2001, historian Stanley
Weintraub published <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Silent Night</i>, the
true story of a spontaneous, if very informal and temporary, front lines truce
in December 1914 between German and English troops during the first months of
World War I.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Silent Night</i>, Weintraub describes a time when soldiers on both
sides of that war found the common truths of their lives and tried to grasp
anew the meaning of Christmas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">Weintraub had recently retired as
Evan Pugh Professor Emeritus of Arts and Humanities at Penn State, after
heading Penn State’s Center for the Arts and Humanistic Studies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An internationally known expert on George
Bernard Shaw, Weintraub wrote widely about the people and events of the
twentieth century.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Silent Night</i> was the first of several books in which Christmas was the
focal point of historical events.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Others
included:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">General Washington’s Christmas Farewell: A Mount Vernon Homecoming,
1783 (</i>published in 2003)<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">; Eleven Days
in December: Christmas at the Bulge, 1944 </i>(published in 2006)<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">; General Sherman’s Christmas: Savannah,
1864 </i>(published in 2009)<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">;</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pearl Harbor Christmas: A World at War,
December 1941 </i>(published in 2011).</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Silent Night,</i> we learn that the Christmas Eve truce of 1914 was not
an isolated event, but a series local truces that extended into Christmas Day,
bringing German and British troops out of the trenches in different spots along
the front to share holiday treats, sing songs, and, in some cases, play soccer
with each other. Before returning to what would become a world war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">The song <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Christmas 1915 </i>by Irish musician Cormac MacConnell<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">, </i>tells a similar story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It resonates this year, when our sense of
ourselves once more is under fire, but in a way far different from those sad
holidays a century ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman \(Body CS\)"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JG3l-OBdcPI&list=RDMMJG3l-OBdcPI&start_radio=1">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JG3l-OBdcPI&list=RDMMJG3l-OBdcPI&start_radio=1</a></span>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Gary Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17462662265684250950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6334293338320462282.post-82094246883179982352021-10-29T16:00:00.002-04:002021-10-29T16:00:13.590-04:00Moving Toward a K-14 Educational System<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">One important aspect of the initial “infrastructure” debate
in Washington was an Administration proposal to support the nation’s ability to
fully embrace and lead the Information Revolution:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>President Biden’s proposal to extend free
public education beyond high school. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Administration described the initiative as “free
community college tuition.” According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, three
quarters of new job hires are in occupations that require at least a
baccalaureate degree.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However,
two-thirds of American adults lack a degree.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The goal of offering free community college tuition was to greatly
enhance the ability of young people to better prepare for jobs that require
expertise beyond high school and, in the process, help to the economy—and
society in general—adjust to rapid technological change. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The stalemate on this issue is a symptom of the blindness
among politicians and their backers to the nature of change that is underway in
our society. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Extending access to
schooling beyond high school is a critical need in our new society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just as the Industrial Revolution led to the
creation of new public colleges and universities and the expectation that all
citizens would have free access to high school, today’s transformation—whether
you call it the Information Revolution or the Third Industrial
Revolution—demands new skills of all of us, both in our role as workers and as
citizens.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The idea of extending universal access to education beyond
high school and into college has a precedent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In the early 1900s, many adults did not attend high school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They went through the eighth grade, but high
school required them to pay tuition, so they dropped out and went to jobs in
the new industrial economy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the
impact of the Industrial Revolution increased, however, it became apparent that
more education was needed to prepare students to compete for jobs—industrial
and social—in the new environment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a
result, communities began to fund access to high school, creating the K-12
model as we know it today. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today, the
majority of K-12 funding comes from States and local communities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The federal government provides about 8
percent of the total K-12 funding in the form of grants that are then managed
by the States.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The language that the Administration used to describe the
proposed change was based on recent initiatives in New York and a few other
states, where the State government allows in-state high school graduates to
attend state-funded community colleges without paying tuition fees. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These experiments are a harbinger of change,
but likely not an end in themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Long term, the solution is not simply free community
college, but a fresh consideration of our society’s need for education in the
new environment—a move from K-12 public education to a K-14 system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Given that the proposed free tuition proposal
was not accepted, here are some thoughts on how the Administration might act to
set the stage for K-14 in the years ahead as part of a long-term vision for public
education in the information society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">A National Commission
</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">President Biden should create a National Commission on K-14
Education to look at the need for universal K-14 schooling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Commission could begin by looking at the
current experiments in free community college tuition and how a national
initiative could build on those, but also consider related practical issues,
such as how the innovation should be supported financially, how a K-14
education would relate to the rest of the undergraduate curriculum, and how a
mature K-14 system might change both K-12 education and undergraduate
collegiate education.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Here are several implications that this National Commission
might consider as it designs a national strategy for educational change:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Curriculum Integration</b>
There is a longstanding concern about duplication between high school and the
first two years of college.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How many
courses on American history are needed?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>How many introductory algebra courses?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>How many “Introduction to Physics” courses? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If a K-14 approach means that the percentage
of high school students who go on to the general education curriculum at their
local community college increases significantly, the Commission should look at
how best to minimize unnecessary duplication.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>At the same time, it should explore how best to fill classrooms that
become available due to reducing duplication, perhaps by enhancing the array of
career specialization courses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Dual Credit</b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One way that students have already begun to
blend high school and college is by enrolling in college courses that allow
students to earn college credit while also meeting high school graduation
requirements.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is one tool that
schools can use to minimize duplication of instruction while also speeding up
students’ progress to the associate degree (<a href="https://www.edglossary.org/dual-enrollment/">https://www.edglossary.org/dual-enrollment/</a>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What role should this play on the road to a
K-14 system?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Gap Year</b> As
we move toward an educational system in which most, if not all, young people
spend a minimum of 14 years in education, we should also consider the value of
a “gap year” for the long-term health of our youth and their ability to make
good career choices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One way to think
about the gap year is to see it as a year of service, in which young people
could work as volunteers in social service organizations or governmental agencies
(national parks, for instance) or in social agencies that use the skills the
students will gain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A gap year might
help students consider their personal and career goals.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Impact on Higher
Education<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b>How can K-14 best be
structured in states where community colleges currently are not available in
every county or regional educational unit?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Should other public institutions—state colleges and universities—be
involved?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If high school graduates are
encouraged to attend community college for their first two years of
postsecondary education, this could have significant impact on four-year
colleges and universities, which might conceivably lose significant numbers of
students in their freshman and sophomore classes and, by extension, weaken the
student pipeline to upper division courses that lead to baccalaureate degrees. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">These are just a few of the issues that are sure to arise as
a National Commission explores a pathway to a true K-14 educational
environment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This approach may be the
more practical, less politically divisive way to explore the territory and
build a new social contract to meet the needs of a mature post-industrial
society.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Thoughts?</p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Gary Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17462662265684250950noreply@blogger.com0