They always make you take history in school. I’m more of a math and science girl and will always choose a good chemistry lab over a history lecture. However, having been expected to complete several history courses (for the well-rounding of me and my education), I did pick up on the patterns we humans cycle through as decades and centuries go past. The technology we create for ourselves, ostensibly to make our lives easier/better/faster, seems always to impact more than just the job it was created for. I’m talking about wheels and looms, satellites and cotton gins, not Silly Putty and Flowbees.

Dean Shareski over at Ideas and Thoughts wrote a piece about technology in education and whether or not its just a tool. We’re in the midst of that changing moment, the one some hardcore science geek college girl will have to learn about a few centuries hence.

Further Reading:

Literacy: We’ve Still Got It
Another New and Exciting Way to Be Driven Over the Edge by Technology
New Essay Writing Apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch
Implementing Different Tools
Launching the Emerging Media Major
“Don’t Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please?”
The Future of Education
Digitizing Knowledge
21st Century Learners

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(technology)

Remember the Open Courseware Consortium folks? They’re awesome in their wielding of powers for good. They make online courseware available to educators and students everywhere. The newest project is partnering with community colleges.

Press release:

OCW CONSORTIUM PARTNERS WITH LEADING COMMUNITY COLLEGE CONSORTIUM, CCCOER, TO EXPAND ACCESS TO OPEN EDUCATION

Merger Will Bring Greater Attention to Benefits of OpenCourseWare Movement

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., (June 20, 2011) — The OpenCourseWare Consortium (OCW Consortium) has partnered with the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER) to maximize and expand the impact of opencourseware to community college students, faculty and learners worldwide. CCCOER represents an important voice in higher education, having over 200 affiliated community colleges that are interested in the benefits of open sharing. Nearly 50 percent of all higher education students in the United States are enrolled in community colleges. The shared resources of CCCOER, combined with the OCW Consortium’s more than 250 universities and associated organizations worldwide, and its collective free online educational materials, provide access to high-quality educational and job-training materials that many users tap into on a local level.

Under the direction of then Chancellor Dr. Martha Kanter, now Under Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, California’s Foothill-De Anza Community College District established the CCCOER in July 2007 to identify, create, and/or repurpose existing open educational resources as open textbooks and make them available for use by community college students and faculty.

“Open educational resources and opencourseware can be leveraged to enhance the quality and delivery of courses, increase access for learners, and reduce the essential cost of curriculum materials. With the current global economic crisis, the need to minimize financial barriers to education has become increasingly salient,” said Dr. Judy Baker, dean of technology and innovation at the Foothill-De Anza Community College District and one of the founders of CCCOER. “Both CCCOER and the OCW Consortium serve to increase access to education for students with limited means, which makes this partnership powerful. When educators pool their expertise to foster a culture of shared knowledge, everyone benefits.”

As part of the partnership, the OCW Consortium will represent the full spectrum of four-year and two-year universities and colleges that are part of the organizations’ memberships. The CCCOER advisory board will effectively act as a voice for the two-year colleges within the Consortium’s organization. The Consortium will help raise global awareness of community colleges’ work with open educational resources, and provide resources and support to institutions interested in participating in the movement.
“The Consortium is excited to showcase the work of community colleges and share the incredible benefits of the OCW movement with community and technical colleges around the world,” said Mary Lou Forward, executive director of the OCW Consortium. “The partnership between CCCOER and the OCW Consortium allows us to raise awareness and broaden access to higher education with new audiences.”

ABOUT THE OPENCOURSEWARE CONSORTIUM: The OpenCourseWare Consortium is a community of more than 250 universities and associated organizations worldwide committed to advancing opencourseware sharing and its impact on global educational opportunity. The mission of the OpenCourseWare Consortium is to advance formal and informal learning for educators and self-learners around the world through the sharing and use of free, open, high-quality education materials packaged as courses readily accessible on a digital platform. The Consortium showcases its members to a global audience and provides information and training through webinars, newsletters, and free and open opencourseware materials.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(Sacramento City College)

Student filmmakers who can grok vocabulary words like nobody’s business should consider entering the Vocab Film Festival. Cash and scholarships are involved should you require fiercer motivation than the simple purity of knowledge acquisition. Download the word list here, and vote on student films and photos here.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

Are you an awesome teacher with too much time on your hands? If you answered, “That’s not even possible!“ then you’ve at least got the Awesome Teacher gene.

Congratulations, your karma is off the charts! (Not that anyone can tell from that heap of 80s Japanese driving technology you’ve been zipping around in since college because you’ve never been paid what you’re worth.)

It’s time-consuming coursework, but it’s cheap knowledge/inspiration should you need some: 50 Worthy Open Courseware Classes for Teachers.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(teach)

I don’t want to agree with Michael Platt that for-profit schools succeed and not-for-profit schools are seemingly always in financial straits, but he makes a certain amount of sense. I’m not saying I’d relish earning a degree from a for-profit college, but there must be some way for traditional colleges and universities to support rich and deep learning while also not sucking fumes financially.

From the press release:

It is the LACK of profit/incentive that has caused many of the primary and postsecondary schools in this country to fail the students.

If primary schools were profit-driven, maybe they wouldn’t hold onto crappy teachers. Maybe they would abandon the ridiculous agrarian calendar. Maybe they would stop allowing unions to place teachers’ rights above student rights. Our government should not be running the business of education.

If universities were profit-driven, maybe they would stop misleading students with noted professors who then rarely step into a classroom. Maybe they would strive for better graduation rates as opposed to throwing out challenged students because they are afraid it might hurt their overall outcomes/reputations. Maybe they wouldn’t have one placement advisor for every 2,000 – 5,000 students. Maybe they would warn students who pay $80,000 for their education that their starting salary is likely to be well below DOE-proposed GE metrics. Our government should not be running the business of education.

Ooof. And then the big fat bucket of True Knowledge Must Never Be Based On Financial Gain worms is dumped unceremoniously in front of me and it’s back to square one. Damn I loathe square one.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(square one)

There will be no more complaints regarding the impossibility of studying in high-volume dorms: Army staff sergeant Dysha Huggins-Hodge is currently pursuing a transfer studies degree while serving in Afghanistan. Sometimes she’s forced to stop studying until the direct-fire attacks are over. It puts the hyperactive-psycho-alcoholic-death-rock roommate in perspective, doesn’t it?

Further Reading:

Online Education A Solid Option For Veterans
Unique Perspective On the GI Bill

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(loud)

The New York Times Knowledge Network has announced its Spring 2011 schedule. From the press release:

The New York Times Knowledge Network Announces Spring 2011 Schedule

Register Today for Online Courses at www.nytimes.com/knownow

NEW YORK, Dec 13, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Registration is now open for the The New York Times Knowledge Network’s (www.nytimes.com/knownow) spring 2011 courses, offering a variety of unique online adult and continuing education opportunities. The spring roster will include Certificate Programs, For-credit courses, Continuing Education courses and expanded New York Times Programs of Study featuring new courses in arts and culture and business management.

“This semester, The New York Times Knowledge Network is enhancing its offerings by providing more courses in more areas of study than ever before,” said Felice Nudelman, executive director of education, The New York Times Company. “Our growth from individual courses to comprehensive programs speaks to the success we have seen over the years and further demonstrates our commitment to education.”
New York Times Programs of Study- are comprehensive online courses developed and taught by New York Times journalists. New courses this spring include:

Arts and Culture:
“¢ Beyond the Red Carpet: Oscar Talk with A. O. Scott
“¢ How to Listen to Classical Music with Daniel J. Wakin
“¢ Theater and Global Change with Ben Brantley

Business and Management:
“¢ The Corner Office: Lessons from Top CEO’s with Adam Bryant

Health and Science:
“¢ Understanding Global Viruses with Donald G. McNeil Jr.
“¢ Elder Care: Navigating the Maze with Jane Gross
“¢ Confronting Big Pharma with Barry Meier
“¢ Hazards of Radiation Treatment with Walt Bogdanich
“¢ Understanding the Middle-Aged Brain with Barbara Strauch

Navigating the Teen Years:
“¢ Staying in the Game: Young Athletes and Injury with Gretchen Reynolds and Alan Schwarz
“¢ College Admissions: Decision Time with Jacques Steinberg

Writing and Journalism:
“¢ Editing for Everyone with Don R. Hecker
“¢ Journalism 101: Reporting on Your Community with Mary Ann Giordano
“¢ Writing About Your Roots with Constance Rosenblum
“¢ Creating Video for the Web with Bill Horn

Popular courses from the fall schedule such as How to Start a Blog, Teaching Your Teen About Money and DNA Ethical Dilemmas will also be offered this spring.

Certificate Programs – are designed for professionals who want to learn new skills. This spring, these programs will be offered by the Knowledge Network in conjunction with Ball State University, The City University of New York, The Cooper Union, Florida State University, Rosemont College and Thomas Edison State College. Certificates include:
“¢ teaching
“¢ emerging media journalism
“¢ ePublishing
“¢ entrepreneurship
“¢ green building design
“¢ immigration law
“¢ paralegal studies

The Knowledge Network’s spring schedule will also present a rich mix of For-Credit and Continuing Education courses covering the areas of multimedia, journalism, business, art, food and health.

Certificate Programs range from $600 to $1,195; Continuing Education courses range from $200 to $500 and New York Times Programs of Study begin at $65. A full list of programs can be found at www.nytimesknownow.com.

The New York Times Knowledge Network, which uses the EpsilenTM platform, was launched in September 2007 to deliver lifelong learning programs on timely subjects. Through The New York Times Knowledge Network, extensive resources from The Times and other participating universities and institutions are readily available to students online, whether they are enrolled in an on-campus course or continuing their education through a distance learning program.

If you’re planning to add Learn More Stuff! to your New Year’s resolutions, I think the NY Times has you covered.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

I’ve always suspected that the morally screwed essay-writing-service industry was real, but couldn’t quite let myself believe that such moral larceny could occur in academia. I’m sure everyone else has always understood its existence to be true, but I’ve always worked hard to maintain the lie (to my obsessive, rule-following little self) that essay-writing services were evil myths, like Munchkins, that thing under my bed that won’t stop drooling, and that freaky tooth fairy bitch–stealing children’s teeth? Not unlike collecting the ears of your enemies.

It turns out you really can pay someone to do your writing for you in high school, college, and grad school. You just need a fistful of cash and a moral compass that’s lacking a true north. Outsourcing your brilliance is dumb. But apparently if you’re not the sharpest tool in the shed and your written communication looks like this:

“You did me business ethics propsal for me I need propsal got approved pls can you will write me paper?”

This:

“did u get the sorce I send
please where you are now?
Desprit to pass spring projict”

Or this:

“thanx so much for uhelp ican going to graduate to now”

Then maybe paying a professional is the way to go.

Oddly, I have a huge amount of respect for pseudonymity guy, Ed Dante, who wrote about his career writing strangers’ papers for money in The Chronicle of Higher Education. I somehow find only his clients to be reprehensible. He’s part of the machine, sure, but I’m going with the argument that if there weren’t a market for his services, he wouldn’t be writing other people’s essays. Please add to that the fact that Dante makes more money writing emergency thesis chapters for sub-par grad students than he could at almost any above-board writing gig.

Here’s what he says about the money:

I live well on the desperation, misery, and incompetence that your educational system has created. Granted, as a writer, I could earn more; certainly there are ways to earn less. But I never struggle to find work.

The endless admissions essays:

I have become a master of the admissions essay. I have written these for undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral programs, some at elite universities. I can explain exactly why you’re Brown material, why the Wharton M.B.A. program would benefit from your presence, how certain life experiences have prepared you for the rigors of your chosen course of study. I do not mean to be insensitive, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been paid to write about somebody helping a loved one battle cancer. I’ve written essays that could be adapted into Meryl Streep movies.

Seminary students:

I do a lot of work for seminary students. I like seminary students. They seem so blissfully unaware of the inherent contradiction in paying somebody to help them cheat in courses that are largely about walking in the light of God and providing an ethical model for others to follow.

And retirement:

…there is little discussion about custom papers and how they differ from more-detectable forms of plagiarism, or about why students cheat in the first place. It is my hope that this essay will initiate such a conversation. As for me, I’m planning to retire. I’m tired of helping you make your students look competent.

You should read Dante’s whole confession. He’s damn smart, and makes such beautiful points about higher education and the levels of academia that are shockingly (maybe only to me) rife with cheating. It’s an unpleasantly shite-ful situation, but Dante’s article made me feel all warm inside. I do love honesty, but I think perhaps it was seeing the dirty unmentionables behind the curtain that did it for me in the end.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(moral compass)

The Atlanta Journal Constitution has this article up. Several nurses are interviewed and are asked what it takes, critical-thinking wise, to be a nurse. It’s clear the meek and the untrained wouldn’t survive. The statements made by the nurses show, with no room for disagreement, that the nurse with the solid education and some years of experience will get to that excellent place where the new information coming in about a patient flows into the nurse’s noggin, and the next words and actions are the result of said education and the catalogued accumulate of hundreds of patients.

Have you ever experienced one of those badass super-bitch nurses? I mean “super-bitch” in the way of highest compliments. I enjoy Western Medicine and all it can offer me, especially when a human being is about to walk out of my womb. It turns out that narrow-waisted little me is really good at birthing the babies. Which means my kids show up sooner than either myself or the hospital staff ever expect.

That’s fine (no one likes a long labor), but sometimes it means the doctor is still home in bed when things start to happen in earnest. I remember everything getting loud and chaotic very quickly. There were several nurses in the room, along with my husband and his parents. I didn’t give a crap about any of them except the quiet British nurse who looked me in the eye and spoke to me, causing the room and everyone in it to go all Matrix-y. She smiled calmly and told me, “Your doctor isn’t here. Don’t worry—I’m a midwife.”

My eyes widened in the exact way you’d expect a first-time mother’s eyes to widen while she’s thinking, What the f*ck are you telling me, woman?!. But I said nothing, because Sweet British Nurse Chick held my gaze for one more second, which was all the time it took for her–in my undrugged mind only, no one else noticed–to rip open her scrubs, revealing the caped, Super Bitch unitard (there were boots too, thigh-high ass-kickers).

I understood then that I didn’t need a damned doctor; this RN/midwife was going to get my kid out alive no matter what. She’d seen it all before and she was prepared to think her way through any new twist I threw at her.

She did, too. I still have a crush on her.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(image: CrisVector)

Martha Hill, the Dean of Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, wrote this piece about the nursing shortage. It’s not just a problem in the U.S.–it’s global and the numbers are staggering. Here in the U.S., we’ve only got 1,000 nurses per 100,000 people. In developing African countries like Uganda, there are only 20 nurses per 100,000 people. I don’t see that as a workable situation.

Nursing is a solid career choice these days. If you’re leaning that direction but haven’t made your final decision, Hill’s words could very well convince you:

Nurses are well positioned to be major actors on this global stage. Despite the growing nursing shortage, they remain the largest, most widely distributed and most respected group of health care professionals in the world, with an estimated 12 million nurses working to improve health in 125 countries. They are among the world’s thinkers, decision-makers, innovators and trail blazers who are on the front lines in dealing with national and international health issues. And they are poised to address — and capable of resolving — the world’s most pressing health concerns.

But we need more of them. Through global nursing, we can grow and expand the education and positioning of more nurses. These nurses will develop and lead health care delivery capacity — from systems-building to policy making. They will conduct the research essential to determining and measuring the best practices of nursing in an endless variety of settings and locations. They will partner with others to collaborate across borders and overcome obstacles. They will create global solutions.

Further Reading:

Nursing Shortage to Be Addressed by Grant to School of Nursing
Community Healthcare System’s Innovation Keeps Nurses Satisfied, Retained
High Licensing Exam Pass Rates for NMSU Nursing School Grads
New Nursing Degree Program
Top Ten Recession-Proof Jobs
RN Fast Track for Vocational Nurses

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(nurses, nurse with patient)