TLT-SWG

"Good enough for other people's children - but not yours?" Innovation, degradation, or rupture? tlt.gs/tltswg

gilbert@tltgroup.org (Steven W. Gilbert, The TLT Group) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:45:43 PST

I offer this question as an antidote to fierce claims for defective innovations - innovations less likely to improve than to degrade services and rupture the social fabric that is already stretched too thin.

I'm tired of listening to the distracting conclusions of Romantic Techno-Zealots (technology as individualizing, self-actualizing), Romantic Neo-Luddites (technology only undermines deep learning, human connections), and Hyperrational PseudoEgalitarians (everyone should accept what can be provided by the technology and practices that fit within the boundaries of current methods of observation and measurement)... and self-serving politicians.

You've probably heard the advice about imagining your adversary naked or in underwear when you feel intimidated. I have similar advice when you encounter someone enthusiastic, articulate, deeply convinced, ... AND ignorant, inexperienced, and deviously ill-intended.

Imagine this person stripped naked of superficial statements and shallow understandings, and temporarily unable to deflect your questions. Imagine asking "Do you believe that what you're proposing is good enough for other people's children.... but not your own?"

Now that I'm anticipating the arrival of my first grandchild, I've begun thinking:
"Would you want what you're advocating for your own children and grandchildren?"
"When you claim that your new alternative is more efficient, entirely adequate, and that 'the research' does not support the practices you oppose, and you say that your alternative is good enough, don't you really mean that it is good enough for other people's children and grandchildren, but not your own?"

Can you imagine people advocating healthcare reform that would provide treatment for cancer patients that is "good enough for other people's children" - but not good enough for their own? Can you imagine anyone admitting that - even to themselves?

My question about "being good enough for other people's children" may be cynical, but it can reveal and deflate the rising bubble of hypocrisy. You may find some disturbing similarities between this idea of "other people's children" and the role of "Other People's Money" as described in speeches by Danny Devito and Gregory Peck in the 1991 movie of the same name.

IMAGE selected by Steve Gilbert 20120125
Photo of "Kindlifresserbrunnen am Kornhausplatz...Ogre Fountain (lit. 'Child Eater Fountain') at Corn House Square, Berne, Switzerland"...
"Author Andrew Bossi; sculpture by Hans Gieng (de)...19 July 2007"
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/eb/4377_-_Bern_-_Kindlifresserbrunnen_am_Kornhausplatz.JPG/512px-4377_-_Bern_-_Kindlifresserbrunnen_am_Kornhausplatz.JPG
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/4377_-_Bern_-_Kindlifresserbrunnen_am_Kornhausplatz.JPG
Permission: "Own work, share alike, attribution required (Creative Commons CC-BY-SA-2.5)
www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
[Photo of same statue: http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/EatsBabies2_4006.JPG]

Ender's Test: Is Your Course a Pizza? Who needs teachers? Invitations Jan27 & Feb10 tlt.gs/EndersGameTest TLTGroup

gilbert@tltgroup.org (Steven W. Gilbert, The TLT Group) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:55:46 PST

Ender's Test of Artificial Instruction

Which is real? artificial? See Magritte!

[with a respectful good-humored apology to admirers of Alan Turing who developed the Turing test of artificial intelligence as "... a test of a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behaviour" in 1950 - from Wikipedia 20120124]

I. INVITATION JAN 27, 2012

Even if you haven’t read “Ender’s Game” the short story or novel, and you would like to be prepared for the Feb 10 session about Ender's Test, please join us for a discussion Ender's Game: January 27, 2012 2PM ET Free Online Fridaylive!

II. INVITATION FEB 10, 2012

You are invited to a presentation/discussion simultaneously onsite and online Friday, Feb 10, 3:15PM ET

Face-to-Face Session at Lilly Greensboro Conference [registration, including fee, required]

Free FridayLive! Webinar - Note change for this event only to 3:15PM ET Feb 10, instead of usual weekly TLT Group FridayLive! start time of 2pm ET

III. MORE INFO - WORKING DRAFT

Keep checking tlt.gs/EndersGameTest as we continue to prepare this webpage for these 2 online events. You can also get more info and register for the online sessions at tlt.gs/frlv.

QUESTIONS about "Artificial Instruction" that we will discuss Feb 10:

What is a course? What are course materials, course resources, course plans, course designs, course activities, course assignments? Who owns what?
What is independent learning?
What kinds of learners do not need a teacher for what kinds of learning?
What are the characteristics of a “teacherless” course essential to convince the students who take it that they have a teacher? Why do/don't you care?
When young people are trained to make video-game-like decisions that result in real explosions, what are the educational implications? Why do/don't you care?

IMAGE selected by Steve Gilbert 20120125
Photo of organ grinder and monkey - but both appear to be mannikins "old automata almost passed the turing test" photo taken by "andresmh" Andrés Monroy-Hernández on December 28, 2008
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3127/3155496116_f9efc99496.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/amonroy/3155496116/
Some rights reserved by andresmh Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Sustaining New Year's exercise resolutions in spite of 5 (out of 9) common problems

gilbert@tltgroup.org (Steven W. Gilbert, The TLT Group) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:56:57 PST

It's not really ALWAYS uphill!

Recommendations

1. "I'm too far from my goal, so why start?" "... break up your goal into smaller units,... Little victories, like dropping a pound a week or running an extra minute without stopping, will fuel your momentum."
3. "I'm bored with my same old routine."...mix activities.
4. "I don't have the energy." ..."Exercising at even a very easy pace will give you more energy than if you sit it out...."
5. "No matter how hard I try, something always foils my workout schedule." ..."People who have a process goal, such as a target number of weekly workouts, stick to their routines with significantly more success than those who focus on a big-picture outcome -- such as losing 20 pounds -- or go along without any specific goal,... they also feel less stressed about squeezing in exercise."
6. "I just don't have the time." ... try replacing some longer sessions (30-60 minutes each) with several 10-15 minute sessions instead.

- Above quotations are excerpted from "Improve Your Sweatitude: 9 Motivation Rut Busters," by By Liz Neporent in Fitness Magazine Website as of 20120124http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/workout/you-can-do-it/workout-motivation-tips/

Also see TLT-SWG post: "Already backsliding on New Year's Resolutions? There's hope for our limited willpower! Strategies, Tools,.."

And see "Beginning a Fitness Walking Program," from the Walking Site

IMAGE selected by Steve Gilbert 20120124
Photo of elephant that "... lost its footing and slipped down a steep enbankment....Image taken on the edge of the Ewaso Nyiro river at Samburu, Kenya... 9 July 2010, 14:21, by Steve Garvie from Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/93/Flickr_-_Rainbirder_-_Uphill_struggle.jpg/256px-Flickr_-_Rainbirder_-_Uphill_struggle.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AFlickr_-_Rainbirder_-_Uphill_struggle.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Flickr_-_Rainbirder_-_Uphill_struggle.jpg

Permission "This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
By Steve Garvie from Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland (Uphill struggle!) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Appreciation of R. W. Grossman (1943-2012) of Kalamazoo College & his article "Encouraging critical thinking using ..”

gilbert@tltgroup.org (Steven W. Gilbert, The TLT Group) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 09:46:07 PST

Link to PDF version of "Encouraging critical thinking using the case study method and cooperative learning techniques," Grossman, R. W., Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 5(l), 7-20, 1994.

On January 19, 2012, Craig Nelson of Indiana University wrote an "Appreciation" of Robert W. Grossman of Kalamazoo College who died January 7, 2012. Here are the first few sentences:

"All of us remember with deep affection Bob’s ebullient good humor, his deep intelligence, and his expansive caring for his family, for those who worked with him, and, especially, for people who had drawn less favorable hands in life.

"I benefited from a king’s portion of Bob’s graces and talents. We first worked together intensively during one of his sabbatical years when he drove to Bloomington regularly (1993-94). This strange choice was motivated by our interactions at Lilly Conferences earlier. He ultimately wrote an important paper on “Hidden Transformations” in teaching based on ideas that began to germinate then. He also graced me with his cooperation on many presentations in national venues. These included a meeting of the Perry Network (1993), NSF sponsored Chautauqua short courses on “Increasing the Retention of Under-Represented Groups—And the Learning of All Groups” (2003-2006), and presentations on similar topics at several of the Lilly Conferences on College Teaching."

IMAGE selected by Steve Gilbert 20120120
Photo of Robert W. Grossman from Website of the Courier Leader Newspaper http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?brd=2188

Educ Video Games w Real/Virtual Missiles? DISTURBING VIDEO youtu.be/10N8096MTGg Ender's Test Artificial Instruction

gilbert@tltgroup.org (Steven W. Gilbert, The TLT Group) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:26:11 PST

WARNING - DISTURBING CONTENT: When you watch this 90 second YouTube video, ask yourself if you are seeing something entirely fictional or an edited videorecording of a 'real' event. Are you sure?
Please consider the questions about "artificial instruction," the timeline about real/virtual war at a distance offered below, and read Ender's Game free online or get the book in preparation for joining us Jan 27 and Feb 10.

USAF Photo 2008

YouTube video excerpt from "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" episode of TV series "The Good Wife" Season 3 Episode 9 November 2011 "Alicia and Will ...are defending Sgt. Regina Elkins who is charged with disobeying orders and launching a missile attack in Afghanistan that resulted in the deaths of 12 people." -from "Storyline" Written by garykmcd on IMDb website www.imdb.com/title/tt2103915/

QUESTIONS about "Artificial Instruction" please consider:

What are the characteristics of a “teacherless” course essential to convince the students who take it that they have a teacher? Why do/don't you care?
When young people are trained to make video-game-like decisions that result in real explosions, what are the educational implications? Why do/don't you care?

INVITATION
Please join us for 2 free online discussions about Ender's Game and Ender's Test
1. Ender's Game (short story and book) in the next free online FridayLive! session January 27, 2012 2pm ET - read story free online or order book from Amazon

2. Ender's Test (procedure for distinguishing between "real" and artificial courses) on February 10, 2012 at 3:15pm ET

Keep checking tlt.gs/EndersGameTest as we continue to prepare this webpage for these 2 online events. You can also get more info and register for the sessions at tlt.gs/frlv.

TIMELINE
Also, consider this highly abbreviated and selective timeline of observations and stories about real/virtual war at a distance:

1945 "The next war may be fought by airplanes with no men in them at all . . " - Gen Hap Arnold, USAAF – US Army Air Forces, 1945 - quoted in many sources without citation, e.g., http://publicintelligence.net/usaf-drones-in-irregular-warfare/
1964 Dr. Strangelove movie "...if the U.S.S.R. is hit by nuclear weapons, it will trigger a 'Doomsday Machine' which will destroy all plant and animal life on Earth." from plot summary Written by Colin Tinto <cst@imdb.com> for "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" on IMDb website http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057012/plotsummary

1977 Ender's Game Short Story by Orson Scott Card Plot summary on author's website first published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, August 1977
1983 War Games movie. Plot summary: "A young computer whizz kid accidentally connects into a top secret super-computer which has complete control over the U.S. nuclear arsenal. It challenges him to a game between America and Russia, and he innocently starts the countdown to World War 3. Can he convince the computer he wanted to play a game and not the real thing ?" Written by Colin Tinto <cst@imdb.com> Full plot summary written by Gene Chin (Huggo) for IMDb website http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086567/
1985 Ender's Game Novel, Orson Scott Card, Plot summary on author's website order book A Tor Book - Published by Tom Doherty Associates, Inc.
2011 "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" TV series episode in "The Good Wife"
2011 "Air Force Drone Operators Report High Levels of Stress,... the operators’ jobs: watching hours of close-up video of people killed in drone strikes. After a strike, operators assess the damage, and unlike fighter pilots who fly thousands of feet above their targets, drone operators can see in vivid detail what they have destroyed [many thousands of miles away on another continent]. " - "Air Force Drone Operators Report High Levels of Stress," by Elisabeth Bumiller, December 18, 2011 New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/world/asia/air-force-drone-operators-show-high-levels-of-stress.html

AWARDS FOR ENDER'S GAME

YALSA Outstanding Books for the College Bound.
Yalsa Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults.
Hugo Best Novel winner, 1986.
Nebula award, novel, 1985.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Image selected by Steve Gilbert 20120119
Photo of "An MQ-1 Predator unmanned aircraft, armed with AGM-114 Hellfire missiles, flies a combat mission over southern Afghanistan. The MQ-1 is deployed in Operation Enduring Freedom providing interdiction and armed reconnaissance against critical, perishable targets." U.S. Air Force photo by Lt Col Leslie Pratt 29 November 2008
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/MQ-1_Lethal_Presence_.jpg/512px-MQ-Lethal_Presence_.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/MQ-1_Lethal_Presence_.jpg
http://www.af.mil/shared/media/photodb/photos/081130-F-9876J-809.jpg
Permission "This image or file is a work of a U.S. Air Force Airman or employee, taken or made during the course of the person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image or file is in the public domain."

Music used in Good Wife episode: 'Sail' by AwolNation

Why/how conference on teaching supports better student learning? Lilly Conf Dirs tlt.gs/LillyDirs2012 1/20 OnlineFree

gilbert@tltgroup.org (Steven W. Gilbert, The TLT Group) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:21:29 PST

Lilly Conference Directors’ Roundtable “What good is a teaching/learning conference?
How is the van ride home different from the van ride to the conference?”

Friday Jan. 20, 2:00pm EDT... Free to all Register tlt.gs/frlv

Lilly Conference Directors Milt Cox, Ray Purdom, Laurie Richlin, and Todd Zakrajsek

Moderator Steve Gilbert For more info, tlt.gs/LillyDirs2012

Those of you who have been lucky enough to have attended a Lilly Conference will appreciate the rare occasion this webcast will be - it took some planetary alignment to get these 4 directors all together at the same time. So come and celebrate Lilly! And join us for a fabulous discussion on teaching and learning in higher education! By the end, we're confident that you'll know why a conference on teaching provides knowledge, skills, and attitudes that create better student learning.

The 5 annual Lilly Conferences on College & University Teaching have long earned their reputation for providing excellent resources for understanding and improving teaching and learning in higher education. For over thirty years, teacher-scholars from across the U.S. and internationally have gathered to share insights and recommendations in these events. Each conference provides a balance of scholarly research, practical guidance, and collegial support. The Conference Directors shape each Conference to provide a context of long-term goals, long-standing truths, and new research in which presenters and participants discuss the most pressing teaching/learning questions and challenges of the day. Most featured speakers and other session presenters participate in these conferences from start to finish - extending their relations with colleagues they know well and building new connections.Join Steve Gilbert in a discussion with the current Lilly Directors about their perspectives on teaching and learning in higher education as shaped by their interactions with conference presenters and participants. We’ll explore the Directors’ views on how participants can make the most of these conferences - the value of attendance by teams, achieving effective mixtures of research and scholarship, and community building.
More about the session and Registration for Jan. 20

IMAGE selected by Steve Gilbert 20120119

Photo of "Decorated minivan, Islamabaf" 13 April 2005, "Author Guilhem Vellut from Paris"

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Decorated_minivan.jpg/512px-Decorated_minivan.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Decorated_minivan.jpg

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Decorated_minivan.jpg

Permission "This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0

Happy New Year 2012! My New Year's Resolutions (2 Personal 2 Professional) -Steve Gilbert, TLT Group Jan 18

gilbert@tltgroup.org (Steven W. Gilbert, The TLT Group) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:44:47 PST

[Also see TLT-SWG Posting "Already backsliding on New Year’s Resolutions? There’s hope for our limited willpower! Strategies, Tools,.."]

Walk, laugh, ...That's not me...Yet!

My New Year's resolutions for 2012 - Steve Gilbert
1. Increase my walking beyond 3 miles per day. Sustain this commitment by using LogYourRun iPhone app to monitor, record, and goad me.
2. Publish at least one TLT-SWG blog post per day and at least one email message per week.
3. Present one pre-recorded answer to the TLT Group's Fundamental Questions and one LTA (Low-Threshold Activity/Application) a few minutes before beginning each of our weekly FridayLive! sessions.
4. Find more humor. Laugh more often.

I'm doing well on #1, OK on #4, just beginning on #3, and further behind on #2 than I planned. Hope you're doing better so far in 2012!
Steve
PS: You can help with #3!

IMAGE selected by Steven W. Gilbert 20120118
Photo of a clown walking on stilts, by John Benson " ibm4381"
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2662/3957702012_f8afe023cb.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/j_benson/3957702012/in/faves-40822192@N00/
Some rights reserved by ibm4381
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

Already backsliding on New Year’s Resolutions? There’s hope for our limited willpower! Strategies, Tools,..

gilbert@tltgroup.org (Steven W. Gilbert, The TLT Group) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:44:47 PST

"...the way to keep a New Year’s resolution is to anticipate the limits of your willpower...."With a few...strategies and new digital tools, [see below]

Previous sentence and the excerpts provided below are all from "Be It Resolved," by John Tierney, New York Times, January 5, 2012. Main sections:
"uplifting predictions," "not-so-uplifting predictions," introduction of "ego-depletion," RECOMMENDED STRATEGIES, SUGGESTED INTERNET TOOLS, and ENCOURAGEMENT.
Also see: Baumeister & Tierney, Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength.

"uplifting predictions" for those of us who have made a resolution:"... you’re much more likely to make improvements than someone who hasn’t made a formal resolution."If you can make it through the rest of January, you have a good chance of lasting a lot longer.

"...not-so-uplifting prediction: Most people are not going to keep their resolutions all year long. ...By the end of January, a third will have broken their resolutions, and by July more than half will have lapsed...because they’ll eventually run out of willpower, ...a real form of mental energy, powered by glucose in the bloodstream, which is used up as you exert self-control. "The result is 'ego depletion,' ...state of mental fatigue

RECOMMENDED STRATEGIES

"SET A SINGLE CLEAR GOAL...And limit yourself to one big resolution at a time.
"PRECOMMIT ...bind yourself by [sharing your goal by email or Facebook]
"OUTSOURCE ...self-control by sharing your progress with friends through Twitter posts ...
"KEEP TRACK ...Self-monitoring is vital to any kind of resolution, and new tools will do the grunt work for you.
"DON’T OVERREACT TO A LAPSE
"TOMORROW IS ANOTHER TASTE [postpone indulgence]
"REWARD OFTEN ...use willpower [not] only to deny yourself pleasures, [but also]...to gain something, you can wring pleasure out of the dreariest tasks.

SUGGESTED INTERNET TOOLS

"Web sites like stickK.com, ...At stickK, you set the goal and have the option of naming a referee to enforce it. You also set the penalty. It might be just an e-mailed announcement to a list of friends (or enemies), but you can also put money on the line. You can precommit to paying the penalty to anyone you designate, including an 'anti-charity,' which for a Democrat could be the George W. Bush library. (The Clinton library is available for Republicans.)
...Withings will log your weight on your computer and notify your friends (if you want)

... BodyMedia Fit armband and the FitBit clip can estimate how many calories you’ve burned by keeping track of your movements all day long.

...let all your financial transactions be automatically categorized by Mint.com.

"Entrepreneurs are rushing to monitor just about every aspect of your life — your health, your moods, your sleep — ...[see] Quantified Self and Lifehacker.

"...One new exercise monitor, the Striiv, will make donations to charity based on how many steps you take.

ENCOURAGEMENT
"...people with the best self-control...use their willpower less often...minimize temptations...using ...willpower in advance so that they avoid crises, conserve their energy and outsource as much self-control as they can.

"The more you precommit, the better you do, according to stickK’s analysis of 125,000 contracts over the past three years. The success rate for people who don’t name a referee or set financial stakes is only 29 percent, but it rises to 59 percent when there’s a referee and to 71.5 percent when there’s money at stake. And when a contract includes a referee and financial stakes, the success rate is nearly 80 percent.

...“'Contrary to widespread public opinion, a considerable proportion of New Year resolvers do succeed,' Dr. Norcross said. 'You are 10 times more likely to change by making a New Year’s resolution compared to non-resolvers with the identical goals and comparable motivation to change.' <John C. Norcross and other psychologists at the University of Scranton reported in 2002 after having tracked people for six months after New Year’s.>

IMAGE selected by Steven W. Gilbert 20120118
Photo of "New Year's Day postcard mailed in 1909. It reads: 'A New Year's Resolution / Jan. 1st / Good Resolution / Each resolution that I make / My conscience surely troubles / Because I find they always break / As easy as Soap bubbles', "Postcard mailed December 22, 1909, according to image of other side of card shown on same Web page" Author not known
Source: eBay store Web page: http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-YEAR-RESOLUTION-JESTER-JOKER-1909-HOLIDAY-POSTCARD_W0QQitemZ200423180496QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item2eaa2708d0

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/63/PostcardNewYearsResolutionSoapBubbles1909.jpg/512px-PostcardNewYearsResolutionSoapBubbles1909.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/PostcardNewYearsResolutionSoapBubbles1909.jpg

"Permission: (Reusing this file) not necessary; copyright expired;
This media file is in the public domain in the United States.

How can andragogy help our work with growing cohort of retirees as learners AND AS RESOURCES? In 2012 and beyond?

gilbert@tltgroup.org (Steven W. Gilbert, The TLT Group) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 09:52:25 PST

What can we learn from/about andragogy to guide our work with the rapidly growing cohort of retirees in 2012 and beyond? See "Recent Retirees as Resources to Faculty, Staff, Students" Open Mic, Virtual Brown Bag Lunch Discussion; Preparation for TLT Group’s 1st Winter Symposium, Feb, 2012.

Friday, Dec. 16, 2011 at 1:00 pm ET - free to all. Host, Steve Gilbert, TLT Group - excerpts below.

Following excerpts from Wikipedia

"Malcolm Knowles.... asserted that andragogy (Greek: 'man-leading') should be distinguished from the more commonly used pedagogy (Greek: 'child-leading'). ... Knowles himself changed his position on whether andragogy really applied only to adults and came to believe that 'pedagogy-andragogy represents a continuum ranging from teacher-directed to student-directed learning and that both approaches are appropriate with children and adults, depending on the situation.' [4][5]

...
Knowles' theory can be stated with six assumptions related to motivation of adult learning:[1][2]

Adults need to know the reason for learning something (Need to Know)
Experience (including error) provides the basis for learning activities (Foundation).
Adults need to be responsible for their decisions on education; involvement in the planning and evaluation of their instruction (Self-concept).
Adults are most interested in learning subjects having immediate relevance to their work and/or personal lives (Readiness).
Adult learning is problem-centered rather than content-oriented (Orientation).
Adults respond better to internal versus external motivators (Motivation)."

Above excerpts from: Andragogy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Following from tlt.gs/retireesVBBL
The number and qualifications of recent and projected retirees offer new challenges and new opportunities for higher education (and for the rest of society). This rapidly growing cohort can both complicate the next crises and provide new resources for addressing them. Retirees can be

a vital resource to faculty, staff, and students at institutions – as mentors, advisors, consultants, shepherds.

a growing population of nontraditional students with new needs and diverse backgrounds.

CRISIS LURCH CRISIS LURCH stability CRISIS LURCH CRISIS LURCH stability CRISIS LURCH CRISIS LURCHFor the foreseeable future,

colleges and universities must expect to achieve no more than brief interludes of peaceful stability as they strive to balance the forces of accelerating unpredictable changes in resources, constituencies, and expectations. Including but not limited to: information technology, financial resources, educational needs, public trust, the nature of scholarship, and competing views of the appropriate missions of individual institutions and higher education in general.
“Education can provide the excuse and the means for transforming society...for better or worse.“Information technology can provide the excuse and the means for transforming education...for better or worse.”“Retirees can provide the excuse and the means for finding new ways to live comfortably and constructively with transformation.”

IMAGE selected by Steven W. Gilbert 20111216

Photo of 1st pages from "The oldest document using the term "Andragogik": Kapp, Alexander (1833): Platon's Erziehungslehre, als Pädagogik für die Einzelnen und als Staatspädagogik. Leipzig." 29 July 2011, JostReisch

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/Kapp-andra-2Seiten.jpg

By JostReisch (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (<span><a class="smarterwiki-linkify" href="http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0">www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0</a></span>)], via Wikimedia Commons

Permission

"I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

New retirees + infotech + education = excuse & means for dealing comfortably & constructively with transformation?

gilbert@tltgroup.org (Steven W. Gilbert, The TLT Group) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 14:26:37 PST

Living comfortably & constructively with transformation?

We need to do better than

CRISIS LURCH CRISIS LURCH brief stability

CRISIS LURCH CRISIS LURCH brief stability ....

“Education can provide the excuse and the means for transforming society...for better or worse.

“Information technology can provide the excuse and the means for transforming education...for better or worse.

“Retirees can provide the excuse and the means for finding new ways to live comfortably and constructively with transformation.”

Join extra FREE "open mic" pre-FridayLive! discussion re new retirees, pseudo-retirees, etc. Friday, Dec 16, 1pm ET Register Login
-------------------------------------------

IMAGE copied by Steven W. Gilbert 20111213
Photo of young man inside SpeedQueen laundry drying machine - contorted into shape that permits him to fit inside. "After clearing the lungs, we threw Rusty and Michelle in the drier. Michelle fit much better! The other team also did some contortions." Provided by Jesse Hull http://www.flickr.com/photos/jessehull/163587886/
http://farm1.staticflickr.com/45/163587886_7388805112.jpg
Some rights reserved by jhull
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

Truth vs. Proof - Godel, Logicomix, and Beyond - See extraordinary "family movie" of Godel, Einstein, et al.

gilbert@tltgroup.org (Steven W. Gilbert, The TLT Group) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 10:09:36 PST

Read Logicomix and see YouTube video of "Family Movie" of Einstein, Dirac, Godel, Selberg, Harish-Chandra in Princeton

Godel's Proof - mostly ignored - destroyed mathematics' perfection & changed my life. Graphic novel Logicomix makes this great work accessible & adds human/historical context (Bertrand Russell et al). I hope it works for you. SteveG
PS: Pre-Logicomix, more self-revealing description of the impact of Godel's work on me

Logicomix could have changed my life in 1960. That's when I first read _Godel's Proof_ by Nagel & Newman, which destroyed my beliefs about mathematics' purity, integrity, and completeness. Ever since, I've been puzzled and frustrated that so few people - even so few mathematicians and philosophers - recognize the brilliance and historical significance of Godel's Proof. Logicomix provides the historical, philosophical, and human context for the monumental intellectual achievements of Godel, Wittgenstein, Russell & Whitehead, and others in the early and mid-20th century.
"...Einstein told people that he went to his office “just to have the privilege of walking home with Kurt Gödel.” Part of the reason, it seems, was that Gödel was undaunted by Einstein’s reputation and did not hesitate to challenge his ideas. As another member of the Institute, the physicist Freeman Dyson, observed, “Gödel was . . . the only one of our colleagues who walked and talked on equal terms with Einstein.”

Have you read Logicomix ? If so, I'd like to know if it is either/both:
1. Understandable and interesting to those who have little background in the areas of mathematics, logic, and philosophy that it addresses.
2. Accurate in its simple summaries and introductions to many important thinkers and their ideas - and the significance of both in the worlds intellectual history

Read more:

TIME BANDITS What were Einstein and Gödel talking about?
by Jim Holt, FEBRUARY 28, 2005, The New Yorker
A World Without Time The Forgotten Legacy of Godel and Einstein, Palle Yourgrau, Basic Books, 2005 [see excerpts below]
Complete Review - includes multiple reviews and other info about Yourgrau's book and other resources about Godel.
The Kurt Godel Society
Kurt Godel within website MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, Created by John J O'Connor and Edmund F Robertson, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews, Scotland Logicomix : An Epic Search for Truth (Paperback) Apostolos Doxiadis (Author), Christos Papadimitriou (Author) Paperback: 352 pages Publisher: Bloomsbury USA; Advance Reader's Edition edition (September 29, 2009) Language: English ISBN-10: 1596914521 ISBN-13: 978-1596914520
Excerpts from Yourgrau's A World Without Time

"Maybe what brings them to logic is fear of ambiguity and emotion..." p. 282
"But for a lot of very intelligent people, the Incompleteness Theorem meant the end of a Dream!" p. 287

"...the spirit that lies at the very heart of the twentieth century. At its core it involves the dominance of form over content, syntax over semantics, proof over truth. It is no surprise that the principal embodiment of a formal system, the computer, a pure syntax machine, would become the century's dominant mechanical device. p. 54

"Consistency, not truth, increasingly became the goal of the formal systems of c=science, just as authenticity became the battle cry off the systems of ethics or forms of life. " ... " Godel's incompleteness theorem ... the most significant intellectual accomplishment of the twentieth century." p. 56

"... crucial difference between truth and proof.. Godel proved that mathematical truth is not reducible to formal or mechanical proof." p. 57

"To appreciate Godel's theorem is your birthright; let no one, including the mathematical police, deprive you of what you have a right to enjoy." p. 59
[Godel's Proof} "This was logic, it was mathematics, but it didn't look like logic or mathematics. It looked more like Kafka." p. 61

"Emil Post ... observed that as a result of Godel's theorems we know that 'mathematical thinking is, and must be, essentially creative.'" p. 74
"Godel's overarching ambition throughout his career consisted in the attempt to establish, by formal means, the limits of formal methods in capturing intuitive concepts." p. 75
MAGE
Photo of Kurt Friedrich Gödel (1906 – 1978), ca 1926; Source http://www.arithmeum.uni-bonn.de/en/events/285
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/Kurt_g%C3%B6del.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kurt_g%C3%B6del.jpg
Permission "This image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired and its author is anonymous."

Too much turkey? Tips for a healthy diet beginning right after Thanksgiving!

gilbert@tltgroup.org (Steven W. Gilbert, The TLT Group) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:46:51 PST

Health Tip: Holiday Diet

If after Thanksgiving you feel somewhat defeated by your diet, it’s no reason to wait until New Year’s Day to start over. It is possible (and important) to maintain an healthy and nutritious diet through the holidays, while still enjoying all of the feasts and festivities.

All text above and below quoted from sources: Web MD, LifeWork Strategies and Washington and Shady Grove Adventist Hospitals. The Health Tip of the Week is for educational purposes only. For additional information, consult your physician. Please feel free to copy and distribute this health resource. Full text available 20111123 http://www.clarksburghospital.com/uncategorized/holiday-diet/

A study by the New England Journal of Medicine found that most people gained about one pound between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day. Although it doesn’t seem like much, the problem is that we often don’t loose that pound and they accumulate over the years. In addition, high stress during the holidays can lead to increased food or alcohol intake, and can have serious long-term health consequences.

Try some of the following tips to maintain a healthy diet during the holiday season:

· During the week, distance yourself from office goodies. The further away you are from treats, the less you will eat. Stash healthy alternatives at your desk.

· Avoid eating late at night. Allow your body to rest and repair itself and balance blood sugar. Oftentimes holiday parties cause us to eat later than we should. On most days, try to follow the “7pm rule” and cut out late night snacks.

· Make a Plan & Stick to It. Having a plan will help keep you in control, so try writing down on a piece of paper the number of hors d’oeuvres you’ll have that night. Decide ahead of time whether or not you’ll have dessert, and how many bites you’ll have.

· Live healthy the day of a holiday party. A good strategy is to have something to eat before you go to the event, so that you’re not gobbling your way through the dessert table. A cup of soup can be very filling, and acts as a perfect healthy deterrent for over indulging. Drink plenty of water and make time for exercise before the party.

· Find a party buddy. Recruit an ally who shares your goal for a healthy holiday. Share your plan with them and hold each other accountable when you are tempted to have a second dessert!

· Help yourself to the healthy hors d’oeuvres. Give yourself permission to fill up on veggies, healthy proteins and fats. Use this as an opportunity to consume some of your recommended five daily servings of fruits and vegetables.

· Lighten up your favorite dishes. There are lots of ways to prepare holiday foods with less fat and salt. Mash cooked sweet potatoes with orange juice instead of butter. Roast vegetables, such as squash and carrots to bring out their natural flavor. Make a black bean dip flavored with lime juice and cilantro instead of salt.

· Converse! As humans, we tend to nonverbally mimic behavior. So if you’re standing around the chip dish and one friend starts munching, you may have an overwhelming desire to munch too. To help avoid the chip dish, keep your mouth busy by using this time to chat with friends and family.

Seek additional support if you feel you are overindulging in unhealthy food or alcohol to alleviate stress. Employee Assistance Programs (EAP), family doctors or clergy can provide valuable assistance and resources to help you feel more in control.

Sources: Web MD, LifeWork Strategies and Washington and Shady Grove Adventist Hospitals. The Health Tip of the Week is for educational purposes only. For additional information, consult your physician. Please feel free to copy and distribute this health resource. Full text available 20111123 http://www.clarksburghospital.com/uncategorized/holiday-diet/

LifeWork Strategies provides a continuum of proven products and programs for employers that help improve the health and wellbeing of individuals, and increase employee productivity. Our programs include EAP, Work/Life, Wellness Programs, and Flu Shots. For more information, contact Emily Noll at enoll@lifeworkstrategies.com.

==================================================

LifeWork Strategies, EAP, Work/Life and Wellness Solutions

www.lifeworkstrategies.com

IMAGE

Photo of "TWO INFLATED POLYETHYLENE SOLAR HEATED 'GREENHOUSES' LOCATED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LABORATORY AT TUCSON. HIGH INTENSITY AQUACULTURE IS BEING STUDIED IN THESE STRUCTURES; HIGH INTENSITY AGRICULTURE IS STUDIED IN OTHERS THE TIME FOR SHRIMP TO BREED HATCH AND MATURE HAS BEEN HALVED OVER THE NATURAL OCEAN PROCESS," Author, Boyd Norton, Photographer (NARA record: 1111093) Record creator Environmental Protection Agency. (12/02/1970 - ), Date 04/1974

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This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code.

Current location:

National Archives and Records Administration, College Park

Still Picture Records Section, Special Media Archives Services Division (NWCS-S)

Record ID "This media is available in the holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration, cataloged under the ARC Identifier (National Archives Identifier) 555353.

Record group: Record Group 412: Records of the Environmental Protection Agency, 1944 - 2006 (ARC identifier: 708)

Series: DOCUMERICA: The Environmental Protection Agency's Program to Photographically Document Subjects of Environmental Concern, compiled 1972 - 1977 (ARC identifier: 542493)

Agency-Assigned Identifier: 216/01/012901

NAIL Control Number: NWDNS-412-DA-12901

412-DA-12901 Source U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Thanksgiving Day 2011 - As Good As It Gets! Fundamental Questions - For Thanksgiving, For Everything, tlt.gs/fqfi

gilbert@tltgroup.org (Steven W. Gilbert, The TLT Group) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 13:00:15 PST

I hope you don't read this until tomorrow or next week because you're enjoying Thanksgiving so much.

Light Small Candles - Be Personally Happy, Publicly Useful

I intended to post/publish this message earlier this week, but instead of finishing, I decided to catch up on sleep, prepare for this day, or spend time with my family. I was right.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, but last night already topped my expectations. Our 3 children and their significant others, including our daughter-in-law visibly pregnant with my first grandchild, were sitting together in our living room. [Oops, I'm trying to learn not to think of it as "my grandchild," but I frequently slip.] The evening was so satisfying, so loosely fun, and so saturated with comfortable love that I even resisted my usual urge to take pictures. No one wanted to interrupt the flow. Dozing was permitted, because we know in this kind of gathering, to fall asleep demonstrates that person feels at home and accepted - and probably tired.

FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS
As I was thinking this morning about today's Thanksgiving activities, my mind briefly slipped into the keynote I'll offer at the 10th Annual CUNY IT Conf in NYC next week. I saw how our "Fundamental Questions" could serve both. So, today I'll see if we can take a few minutes together to think and talk about these powerful questions, especially after this tough year:
As we think about our future together,
1. What do you most want to gain? [Regain?]
2. What do you most cherish and want not to lose?

AAHESGIT & OTHER THANKSGIVINGS
A couple days ago, Chuck Ansorge, who has become a real friend through our work together and long-time connections, sent me an email reminder of my Thanksgiving message from 1996 when I was running the unpronouncable but valuable AAHESGIT listserv. Because of Chuck's prompt, I include that message below along with a few other excerpts and links from my past Thanksgiving messages.

PREVIOUS THANKSGIVING MESSAGES, MATERIALS - see tlt.gs/TnxgvngCmunty

THANKSGIVING 1996

I'm thankful for love and humor and hugs. I'm thankful for

good ideas and good people with whom to share them. I'm

thankful for my family, friends, and a "career" that keeps

bringing me together with so many people who are trying to

make the world a little better, especially with those

dedicated to teaching and learning. I'm thankful for all the

opportunities for me to teach and learn.

More Thanksgiving excerpts, links...

I'm also thankful for the emerging combination of computers

and telecommunications that has permitted me to discover

AAHESGIT -- a way of communicating with so many of you that

is so satisfying to me that sometimes I almost feel guilty.

I'm thankful that I have the time, resources, and opportunity

to do it at all, but I'm frustrated that I can't respond as

quickly and fully as each of you and each incoming message

deserves. [Again, a special apology for not being able to

process my EMail very effectively during the past few weeks

when I've been recovering from computer problems.] I'm

thankful for your thoughtful contributions to AAHESGIT and

for the pleasure in meeting some of you when I visit

different campuses and events.

Steve Gilbert ==============================================

================== Delighted to be home with my family. ====

Thanksgiving 2007 Brief Hybrid Workshop: "Personally Happy and Publicly Useful," Based on Ursula Franklin's Obstinate Optimism and Search for Balance. Franklin is a "Feminist, educator, Quaker, and physicist" - and Canadian pacifist. The purpose of this Brief Hybrid Workshop: Express thanks, recognize Ursula Franklin's wisdom, and encourage others to engage in acts of "Compassionate Pioneering."

The Ursula Franklin Reader: Pacifism as a Map
YouTube video of Steve Gilbert reading an excerpt and suggesting a connection between Franklin's writings about "personally happy and publicly useful" and Compassionate Pioneering.
The Real World of Technology (CBC Massey Lectures series) Revised Edition

IMAGE

Photo of " Ursula Franklin at the 2006 launch of 'The Ursula Franklin Reader' at Massey College, Toronto, Ontario, Canada," 13 November 2006 18:59 (20 April 2010 (original upload date)), "Crop of :File:Ursula Franklin at book launch.jpg," Author Martin Franklin. Original uploader was Moxy at en.wikipedia

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Ursula_Franklin_at_book_launch_crop.jpg

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AUrsula_Franklin_at_book_launch_crop.jpg

Permission Moxy at en.wikipedia [CC-BY-3.0 (<span><a class="smarterwiki-linkify" href="http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0">www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0</a></span>)], from Wikimedia Commons

CC-BY-3.0. The permission for use of this work has been verified and archived in the Wikimedia OTRS system.

Photo: "Light manifestation to raise awareness for Breast Cancer" from Johan Larsson
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2083/1859201449_6a9cd5e9e3.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johanl/1859201449/
Creative Commons License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

There's an App for That - Kaufman, Lombardo 9:30AM Nov 18 Follow #lilly11 See: http://twubs.com/lilly11 Lots of good apps for iPad, android, Chrome browser

gilbert@tltgroup.org (Steven W. Gilbert, The TLT Group) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 11:33:07 PST

There's an App for That - Kaufman, Lombardo 9:30AM Nov 18
Follow #lilly11 See: http://twubs.com/lilly11

From Evernote:

There's an App for That - Kaufman, Lombardo 9:30AM Nov 18 Follow #lilly11 See: http://twubs.com/lilly11

There's an App for That - Kaufman, Lombardo 9:30AM Nov 18

Follow #lilly11 See: http://twubs.com/lilly11

Many Apps avail for installation and use in Google Chrome browser!

Favorite faculty apps (from survey done at Ashland Univ:

ProLoQuo2Go - high $180! but good for people with disabilities/special needs - almsot equivalent to Dynavox http://www.dynavoxtech.com/default.aspx?ctt_id=7788395&ctt_adnw=Google&ctt_ch=ps&ctt_entity=tc&ctt_cli=2x15384x64064x1558033&ctt_kw=dynavox&ctt_adid=9369188230&ctt_nwtype=search&s_kwcid=TC|16134|dynavox||SM|e|9369188230&gclid=CJzvwKe2wKwCFUdn5Qod6GersQ

Brain Pop - app is free, but "in app" downloads have fees

Short videos, quizzes, - mostly aimed at elem, middle schools

Android market more difficult to find good equivalents to iPad apps - so many unregulated options difficult to sort through - but if find good iPad app can search on same devloper and tilte within Android market.

Dragon Dictate - free version has max of 5 minutes; fee version has no limits? can say punctuation and have it often correctly "typed"

Apps avail from/within LMS platforms; e.g., BlackboardLearn app allows students to access Bb course from mobile device

Holy Bible - multiple languate, translations, audio readings

Molecules - show moving 3-d appearing images of selected molecules

Louvre - Free - digitized versions of most of art work within Louvre - with commentary, can be used to accompany

WATCH COMMENTS BEFORE DOWNLOADING APPS BECAUSE SOME APPS INCLUDE INACCURATE INFO

Geomaster - free - geography info - quizzes/games

NOT REALLY AN APP: join.me for tech support and beyond! join.me on web from computer; only 2 options: "share" (my screen - get 9 digit number) "join" view someone elses computer screen - enter the 9 digit number

Can be used with any computer, any mobile devices

Dropbox - free shared cloud storage - well-integrated with other apps; can show slideshows ; has search feature!

SOS first-aid avail from American Red Cross - avail for Android (not yet for iPad?); includes triage series of questions and gives advice for various situations; includes video demos

Google Translate - Android - voice input; text response in other language or voice response

i.clickrlite??? and keynote - presentation apps

GOOGLE CHROME APPS

When open new tab in Chrome browser, click on "Chrome Web Store"

Google Books - download entire books for reading on computer - free public domain books. Can buy non--free books

[can get free app blio to read books aloud]

Que onda Spanish - app for learning Spanish

Biodigital human - renders full 3-d image of human body, subsystems, etc.

skaufman@ashland.edu & tlombard@ashland.edu

-------------

TURNING OFF APPS - go to current app menu, hold until wiggle, click little red x in left corner to turn off (not to delete)

PUsh and hold bottom right keyboard button for docking, splitting options; if you push and hold individual key will see other options to select from

iPad secrets

Teacher pal

Prezi Viewer

[Can produce zip file for any Prezi, can upload that to Bb, Moodle, etc...]

Lilly 2011 John Zubizarreta Opening Plenary: How counter misleading bad press for Hi Ed? Follow #lilly11 See: http://twubs.com/lilly11

gilbert@tltgroup.org (Steven W. Gilbert, The TLT Group) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 06:15:50 PST

From Evernote:

Lilly intl 2011

Lilly 2011 John Zubizarreta Opening Plenary: How counter misleading bad press for Hi Ed?

Follow #lilly11 See: http://twubs.com/lilly11

thurs nov 17

recommends CASE US Prof of Year process

Meeting the award program's demanding criteria is not easy. As a result, not every eligible state and jurisdiction will have a winner each year. In 2009 for example, there were winners in 38 states, the District of Columbia and Guam (this includes both national and state award winners)."

- http://www.usprofessorsoftheyear.org/Nominations.html

" Judges will rate entries for extraordinary work in undergraduate teaching using the following criteria:

Impact on and involvement with undergraduate students (25 percent)
A scholarly approach to teaching and learning (25 percent)
Contributions to undergraduate education in the institution, community and profession (25 percent)
Support from colleagues and former undergraduate students (25 percent)

Important: meaningful connection w students who are NOT in his courses

Showed NEGATIVE responses to chronicle's ref to "students in charge of learning" description of prof of year!

lots of grad students [still] don't get any training in teaching.

Showed funny compelling video produced by free online tool XTRANORMAL

http://www.xtranormal.com/ "go viral in style"

" student discusses his grade with his teacher" in www.youtube.com

http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=%2F&gl=US#/results?q=student%20discusses%20his%20grade%20with%20his%20teacher

need Transformation of TL [ Teaching & Learning ]

What exactly are creative & active T&L?

Reflection - learning not only what, but also why &how ...students learning about and thinking about HOW they themselves learn. see work of Jennifer Moon in learning journals 1999 p.23

see: SETs = Student Eval of Teaching - k. a. Feldman

Brookfield 1995p.115 classroom critical incident questionnaire

What does it demonstrate when plenary speakers include personal info about

themselves and not seek or share comparable info about others in the room?

some students like online, some don't.. response to response to Bunge article

gilbert@tltgroup.org (Steven W. Gilbert, The TLT Group) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 09:31:31 PST

Thank you, Steve. I read Bunge's article in the Chronicle. I just figure that some students like online learning and others don't. It depends on what they're used to and how closely they need to relate to flesh-and-blood person. All the best, Linda Linda B. Nilson, Ph.D., Director Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation Clemson University, 445 Brackett Hall Clemson, SC 29634 Tel.: 864-656-4542 nilson@clemson.edu * www.clemson.edu/OTEI RESPONDING TO EMAIL Linda Nilson - Here's a test email excerpt one recent post from my blog TLT-SWG, I hope you find it interesting, useful and, perhaps, provocative. - Steve Gilbert -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Online" can mean many different things in different contexts. Bunge’s article omits too much. It seems to explain how she tried to add an online component to a course, why that failed, and why she will “no longer teach online.” But her interpretations of students’ responses, her conclusions, and her implied recommendations are not supported by her article. Her experience was too narrow. She did not adequately answer the questions below. Clear answers to these questions would also provide useful context for a description of an experimental introduction of some online activities to improve any undergraduate course that has previously had none. For other excerpts from Bunge’s article and my responses, see tlt.gs/bungeresponse. Also, see below for full citation/link for her article. I share Bunge's hope that our colleagues will "keep evaluating technology's impact, perhaps they will eventually find a way to invest its processes with the sense of shared humanity that binds together students and teachers in successful classes." And I hope she shares mine that our colleagues will continue just as avidly to try to achieve those successful classes - with or without online activities...By using whatever available technologies, supporting resources, pedagogies, etc. that seem worthwhile and well-matched to their own abilities, to the characteristics of their students, and to the purposes of those classes. QUESTIONS 1. How did online assignments differ from other assignments in the course? How were course assignments communicated? How was students' [text-only?] work examined, guided, structured and graded? Were students permitted, encouraged, or required to do their thinking and writing in any ways for the "online" assignments different from how they did their thinking and writing for other assignments? Were students permitted, encouraged, or required to read the passages for the online assignments in any ways that differed from other reading assignments? What was the nature of the online assignments, activities? The most common option would be to use the institution's Web-based course management system to enable and require students to participate in an asynchronous threaded text-only online discussion during which the instructor intervenes occasionally. That certainly wouldn't be my recommendation for achieving Bunge’s stated goals. 2. What was the course schedule and how did it change? Did the course usually include 3 face-to-face class meetings per week? a. Was the schedule changed to include only two such weekly meetings with some kind of online activities provided instead of the third weekly meeting? or b. Was some kind of online work added instead of substituted for class meetings? 3. What was the purpose of the online activities? In what ways, if any, were their purposes different from other course activities? Above comments, questions, refer to: "Why I No Longer Teach Online," by Nancy Bunge, "...professor of writing, rhetoric, and American culture at Michigan State University." The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 6, 2011 Part of:Online Learning: The Chronicle's 2011 Special Report BROWSE THE FULL ISSUE: News, Commentary, and Data IMAGE Photo of "Laundry hanging on clotheslines between buildings, New York City" ca. 1900 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9c/A_Monday_washing%2C_New_York_City%2C_1900.jpg/500px-A_Monday_washing%2C_New_York_City%2C_1900.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/A_Monday_washing%2C_New_York_City%2C_1900.jpg This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1923. By Detroit Publishing Co. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons Photochrom print by the Detroit Photographic Co., copyrighted 1900. From the Photochrom Prints Collection at the Library of Congress THIS IMAGE is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID cph.3g04167.

ADVICE TO JEN Experienced/successful prof to teach 1st online course: Ask for help; PlanB; Be clearer; Use feedback

gilbert@tltgroup.org (Steven W. Gilbert, The TLT Group) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 10:14:16 PST

Online?

You are not alone! Ask who can help you. Ask what resources are available to you. Ask what you can defer until you teach your 2nd or 3rd online course.
Prepare for technological disaster. Always have a Plan B, C, ...
Plan even more and provide even clearer, more explicit explanations and instructions.
Find Low-Threshold Applications and free resources.
Collect just enough use-able student feedback.
Consider “course choreography”: sequence, pace, and opportunities for interaction as you plan “presentations,” activities, and assignments.
Think about the “little stuff” that can be essential for creating and sustaining a positive supportive environment for your online students.

Above is a summary of responses to this question that I asked Beth Dailey, Jane Harris, Ilene Frank, during our weekly ad hoc “Keeping Up” conversation this morning:
"What advice do you have for someone in Jennifer McCrickerd’s situation? She is our guest presenter today on FridayLive! She is already a highly successful teacher, highly respected colleague, a good sport about technological disruptions, and willing to describe her efforts to prepare to teach to teach her first fully online course this summer. NOTE: My 3 colleagues have taught many online courses quite successfully and helped many colleagues to do so as well.

Here's a slightly organized version of the chat transcript from which those 7 items were extracted

YOU ARE NOT ALONE! WHO WILL HELP YOU?
ASK WHAT RESOURCES ARE AVAILABLE
ASK WHAT YOU CAN DEFER UNTIL YOU TEACH ONLINE THE 2ND OR 3RD TIME

Talk with an experienced person. Consider faculty colleagues, instructional designers, librarians, course design team,…
Colleague mentor available? Formally or informally!
Ask someone to review your syllabus and your plans for each type of teaching/learning activity
“Yes, all three courses I teach online... my course set-ups are reviewed. I've gotten over feeling intimidated by that and have learned to be grateful for the second pair of eyes.”
How could we connect Jennifer to someone in this discipline who has exp teaching online?
When you are teaching the course, are colleagues forbidden to help at all? A lot? To co-teach in some way(s)?

PLAN B, C
Prepare for technology snafus; e.g., your course management system will fail at the worst possible time.

CLARITY
Plan ahead
Provide even clearer, more complete fool-proof (hah!) instructions and descriptions of your expectations for the students … than you already do in face-to-face classes.

“Stuff you just said into the air before - You have to write it all down (or speak it more explicitly).”

“In f2f, all we need to do is say what to do, in online, we have to say how where and by when”

“we know how to do things in a f2f class - we give announcements in class; we collect papers in class but online, we have to spell everything - what tool you will use how when”

“Yeah, you have to explain to them how to name a file even! Some students forget to put their name on their assignment!”

Clearly articulate your intended course outcomes - what do you want the students to be able to do? “Backward design”

FREE LTA [LOW-THRESHOLD ACTIVITY] RESOURCES
Look for free Low-Threshold learning resources
like Wade Maki's stuff
How about rubrics?

USE-ABLE STUDENT FEEDBACK; BACKCHANNEL
Yes a survey a couple of weeks into the course would be a good idea.
Earlier is better -
can nip problems in the bud
Set up a "lounge" area within the course so students can yak about off-topic stuff if they want to.
Yeah - teacher can see it and contribute as well.
it is amazing how having those conversations [invitational small group synch student feedback sessions] has resulted in other connections
also - if you have a complainer - back channel email conversations are key
I tend to think that she would benefit from having a conversation in real time with a small group
not real time - email
It might be a good way to get the inout she neds in terms of how she is doing

COURSE CHOREOGRAPHY
Consider sequence, pace, and opportunities for interaction as you plan “presentations,” activities, and assignments.
Consider how much should be specified and required, how much variation to encourage or permit, and how much improvisation to allow or rely on. For your students and for yourself!
“when Jennifer is clear on her outcomes she can start to explore different ways to achieve them.”

ENVIRONMENT & EXPECTATIONS
Start to think about how to create a positive supportive environment
“It's the little stuff that aggravates everyone.”
“yes! creating community”
“Oh yes, just adding a plain old netiquette statement is a good idea. yes - esp for young undergrads”
“Including multimedia is groovy! It humanizes an instructor and enhances community”
Set up expectations on when students can hear back from you if they email. "I will check my email once a day" or "twice a day" - and "all seven days of the week" [but not between 1AM and 7AM]

DISCUSSION
For asynchronous online text discussion need two deadlines - one for posts and one for responses
It really helps! Even if you are going to be lenient about deadlines, people need'em.

TRANSITION
That's one of the perks with helping someone move online - it's an opportunity to review pedagogy.

IMAGE

Photo of clothes hanging on an outdoor clothes line "Amish Clothes Line" By Bob Jagendorf

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3459/3937168847_f86c93fccd.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobjagendorf/3937168847/

This photo was taken on September 18, 2009 using a Nikon D300.

Some rights reserved by Bob Jagendorf

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

"My goal is to cover everything" says Salman Khan, the ultimate panupholsteraphile! He’s no anupholsteraphobe!

gilbert@tltgroup.org (Steven W. Gilbert, The TLT Group) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 08:30:02 PST

Panupholsteraphilic or Anupholsteraphobic?

For years, too many teachers have lived quietly with their anupholsteraphobia: "fear of not covering the material" See: tlt.gs/anupholsteraphobia.

Now there is hope. A new way to cover it all! From Salman Khan, the ultimate panupholsteraphile! the messiah of autodidactic polymaths! the self-proclaimed antithesis of anupholsteraphobes!
When asked on his own Website:
"What topics do you plan to cover?"
He succinctly replies:
"My goal is to cover everything."
- from Frequently Asked Questions, KhanAcademy Website 20111109

Since KhanAcademy is so successful, and Khan's energy so great, we can be relieved that he is striving only to cover the world, and not to rule it!

[Learn a little more about the KhanAcademy below.]

Finally, as if you hadn't yet noticed:

Higher education in the United States today is like the old Wild West!

In the latter half of the 19th century the "boomers" and "boom towns" kept pushing the frontier ever westward and inventing new ways of working and living.

Now, "boomers" are just trying to keep up, and most of us are failing at that.

Most of us can't even see where the frontier is and what direction it's moving. We don't know whether we want to be on it, behind it, or ahead of it!

So, the next time someone tells me about a new gizmo or a new way of teaching or publishing or communicating or delivering the content, or covering the course material.... I'm just going to yell " Ti yi yippee yippee yay!" ...

Actually, what I'll really do is use some new device to "YELL" into this blog's successors like this:

"TI YI YIPPEE YIPPEE YAY!"

More... about KhanAcademy:

"The Khan Academy is an organization on a mission. We're a not-for-profit with the goal of changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education to anyone anywhere.

"All of the site's resources are available to anyone. It doesn't matter if you are a student, teacher, home-schooler, principal, adult returning to the classroom after 20 years, or a friendly alien just trying to get a leg up in earthly biology. The Khan Academy's materials and resources are available to you completely free of charge.

"Our library of videos covers K-12 math, science topics such as biology, chemistry, and physics, and even reaches into the humanities with playlists on finance and history. Each video is a digestible chunk, approximately 10 minutes long, and especially purposed for viewing on the computer.

"'I teach the way that I wish I was taught. The lectures are coming from me, an actual human being who is fascinated by the world around him.'
—Sal"

- Above are excerpts from "About" KhanAcademy Website 20111109

Students can learn effectively from working on "real-world" problems. But “Ender’s Game” is NOT a good example!

gilbert@tltgroup.org (Steven W. Gilbert, The TLT Group) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:30:43 PST

"Whatever your gravity is ...the enemy's gate is down"

"...when do teachers admit they don’t know? Rarely. When do we let children work on real-world problems with no correct answers? Only in Ender’s Game." - excerpt from "Design Program Launch" a blog posting from Andrew B. Watt's Blog 11/5/11
I would NOT cite Ender's Game as an implied exemplar! For a better, different kind of example, learn about Jennifer McCrickerd's approach to teaching online for the first time. See below and join a free online FridayLive! session 11/11/11 at 2PM ET.

I've actually read and enjoyed Ender's Game - the short story and novel as well as several of the sequels. Andrew Watt's description of "Design Thinking" in the blog posting mentioned above is quite appealing, and I share his belief that problem-based teaching/learning can be highly motivating and effective. But not in Ender's Game. The author, Orson Scott Card, describes a future form of education in which children certainly do "work on real-world problems." However, Card takes this approach far beyond where most of us hope to go, and immerses the reader in compelling descriptions of the profoundly troubling consequences.

But you can judge for yourself! The story and the first 2 novels in the series won almost every award given in the science fiction genre.
Full Disclosure: We're planning an online discussion of educational/technological implications of Ender's Game, so I hope you read and enjoy one of the following and join our online conversation in 2012:

Summary of "Ender's Game" SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU ARE LIKELY TO READ THE STORY OR NOVEL SOON, DON'T READ THE SUMMARY FIRST BECAUSE DOING SO MIGHT REDUCE THE IMPACT OF THE ENDING.
Full text of original short story "Ender's Game" (free, online at Card's Website)
Novel Ender's Game (available from Amazon & elsewhere)

Meanwhile, for an example of an effective, experienced classroom teacher who is comfortable admitting when she doesn't know something, join FridayLive! 11/11 2pm ET for our FREE Webinar: "Wading into On-Line Teaching - Trying to convert a successful face-to-face class into a successful on-line class by paying attention to the research and embracing mistakes." Jennifer McCrickerd of Drake University will explain her own approach to preparing to teach fully online for the first time this summer. She has been a quite successful teacher and is especially well-equipped to explain how and why she and other competent professionals can accept the risk of teaching online. McCrickerd offers a constructive way of accepting and building upon teachers' inclination to admit when "they don't know" - a variation on Watt's point. For more info, resources, see the homebase Web page for FrLv 11/11.

IMAGES
Photo of "Snowy Egret on Sanibel Island in Lee County, Florida, U.S.A." 12 May 2011, Hans Hillewaert
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5qL07ZYKOYQ/Trrt3PuGZzI/AAAAAAAAASU/HCqpxAyPeiA/s320/UFOsuMilanoCROPPED201111092130631325_397d311d61_b.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/83/Egretta_thula_%28wading%29.jpg/500px-Egretta_thula_%28wading%29.jpg
//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Egretta_thula_%28wading%29.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Egretta_thula_(wading).jpg
Permission "
I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license:
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
© Hans Hillewaert / CC-BY-SA-3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Photo of crowd of people looking up from inside a brilliantly lit dome; titled "UFO su Milano" by Giorgio Montersino, taken in Milan, December 23, 2007
Cropped by Steven W. Gilbert 20111109
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2004/2130631325_397d311d61_b.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/novecentino/2130631325/
Some rights reserved
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en
Request to license Giorgio Montersino's photos via Getty Images

"Wading into Online Teaching” FREE 2pm ET 11/11. Good reminder 90 people “waded into” TLT Roundtable 11/11/94 in DC!

gilbert@tltgroup.org (Steven W. Gilbert, The TLT Group) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 06:37:00 PST

Join FridayLive! 11/11 2pm ET Free Online "Wading into On-Line Teaching"

"Trying to convert a successful face-to-face class into a successful on-line class by paying attention to the research and embracing mistakes" with Jennifer McCrickerd, Drake U. More info, resources - homebase Web page for FrLv 11/11

A discussion of the fear and trembling frequently associated with starting something new and ways to think about new ventures that can decrease the anxiety and increase enthusiasm. Using the decision to teach an on-line class in an upcoming term as an example of moving out of one’s comfort zone, the presenter will discuss how she is using her knowledge of learning theory and experience teaching face-to-face classes to think about teaching on-line and how she is using her understanding of students’ vulnerability in the classroom to address her own insecurities about moving out of the classroom. Participants can expect some ideas about how to deal with related issues in their own teaching and also to share their own experiences and insights to help others.

How could colleges and universities be more hospitable to failure? Especially under current conditions of increasing workload and tenure/promotion pressures? Especially when many faculty members are feeling pressed to make a transition from mostly face-to-face courses toward mostly online courses?

See also TLT-SWG posting ""Why I No Longer Teach Online" Bunge article, Chronicle Hi Ed; Candid, Potentially Misleading, Potentially Helpful"

IMAGE
Photo of "Snowy Egret on Sanibel Island in Lee County, Florida, U.S.A." 12 May 2011, Hans Hillewaert
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/83/Egretta_thula_%28wading%29.jpg/500px-Egretta_thula_%28wading%29.jpg
//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Egretta_thula_%28wading%29.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Egretta_thula_(wading).jpg
Permission "
I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license:
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
© Hans Hillewaert / CC-BY-SA-3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Twitter Glossary - Demystifies those peculiar terms like Hashtag, DM, handle, retweet,...

gilbert@tltgroup.org (Steven W. Gilbert, The TLT Group) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 05:21:00 PST

Images as confusing as Twitter handles?

And re-mystifies some... You thought you already knew what "public" and "private" meant? In Twitter world something can be NEITHER public nor private! I might finally understand the difference between what happens when I "reply" to someone's Tweet and when I send that person a "Direct Message"!

Here's what I just learned from the Twitter Glossary about:

1. Handle/screen name/username vs. "name"
You can chose and change your Twitter "name" within your Twitter profile rather easily and often. That will not have much, if any, effect on your official Twitter address or identity, which is known as your handle, your screen name, or your username. Those 3 terms refer to the same thing. But your Twitter "name" may be completely different from them.
"A user's 'Twitter handle' is the username they [sic] have selected and the accompanying URL, like so: http://twitter.com/username."

2. Message/Direct Message/DM

"People you follow can send you a direct message [within Twitter]

"In turn, people you follow can send you a direct message.

"You cannot send a direct message to a user who is not following you.

More about DMs

"How to Send a Direct Message via the Web:

Log in to your Twitter account.
Click the 'Messages' button on the top menu bar of your page.
You'll land on a page showing your private messages history.
Click the 'New Message' button, highlighted below.
Click to send a new message.
In the pop-up box, type the name or username of the person you wish to send to.
Enter the message [limited to 140 characters?!] you wish to privately send, and click 'Send.'"

"Understanding Direct Messages:

Direct messages behave more like tweets than emails: the sender or recipient of a DM can delete the message, and it will disappear from both sender and recipient inboxes.
- All excerpts, quotes above from Twitter Help Center | The Twitter Glossary as of 20111107

IMAGE
Photo of approx 25 people sitting and wearing something like girls' field hocky outfits with photos of faces and other images superimposed over the original faces. Title "My Twitter class 2008" by Linda Castañeda [lindacq]
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3162/2980416243_500178662e.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindacastaneda/2980416243/
Some rights reserved by lindacq http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en

"Why I No Longer Teach Online" Bunge article, Chronicle Hi Ed; Candid, Potentially Misleading, Potentially Helpful

gilbert@tltgroup.org (Steven W. Gilbert, The TLT Group) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:03:41 PST

"Online" has Many Meanings

"Why I No Longer Teach Online," By Nancy Bunge - full citation below.

Prof. Bunge has been candid and generous in describing her attempts to improve an undergraduate course through additional online activities. I hope many will emulate her willingness to explore, evaluate, and share intermediate results with colleagues who might benefit from her experience. I offer below some suggestions for clarifying this article and making it even more useful. I include questions to help others describe online course improvements more fully.

Some of Bunge's conclusions, especially those implied by the title and by the sentence that was extracted as a highlight, are not justified by the full published text of the article.

"I told my classes I could add online work if students requested it, but not a single student of the 147 enrolled in all my classes asked for it." This highlighted sentence is probably misleading. It seems to suggest that students are rejecting online options, and by implication, so should teachers. But without further explanation, it seems more likely that the undergraduates were responding exactly as Bunge should have expected would happen if she told students in ANY class that she could add more work (of any kind) if they requested it.

Perhaps a more accurate, but less provocative title for this article would be "What I Hope to Improve in My Teaching - and How My First Exploration of Online Activities Fell Short."

A more appropriate conclusion than suggested by the article's title is that adding a certain kind of online assignment was unsatisfactory for the students and the teacher in this course. The article suggests (but not explicitly) that it was unsatisfactory because

a. too many students reported that they "struggled to complete the course requirements"

b. too few students reported or demonstrated that they "engage more deeply with texts"

c. too few students reported or demonstrated that they "learned more and were more challenged intellectually"

d. too few students "talked about my enthusiasm, respect for their opinions, and obsession with making sure they understood the texts and assignments"

This a-d list above, extracted from Bunge's article, provides a good start for developing, evaluating, and selecting among various ways of improving undergraduate courses - whether online or otherwise.

Clear answers to the following questions might help others benefit from any candid description of an experimental use of online activities to improve an undergraduate course. In particular, to understand what Bunge had attempted and why, some of the following information would be essential:

1. How did online assignments differ from other assignments in the course?

How were course
assignments communicated?

How was students' [text-only?] work examined, guided, structured and graded?

Were students permitted, encouraged, or required to do their thinking and writing in any ways for the "online" assignments different from how they did their thinking and writing for other assignments?

Were students permitted, encouraged, or required to read the passages for the online assignments in any ways that differed from other reading assignments?

What was the nature of the online assignments, activities? The most common option would be to use the institution's Web-based course management system to enable and require students to participate in an asynchronous threaded text-only online discussion during which the instructor intervenes occasionally. That certainly wouldn't be my recommendation for achieving her stated goals.

2. What was the course schedule and how did it change? Did the course usually include 4 face-to-face class meetings per week? and

a. Was the schedule changed to include only three such weekly meetings with some kind of online activities provided instead of the fourth weekly meeting? or

b. Was some kind of online work added instead of substituted for class meetings?

3. What kinds of online activities were included in efforts to "use online work to coax students to think through texts on their own"?

Bunge said "I wondered why students gave me good evaluations the first time I attempted online teaching. Perhaps my blundering won them over. I made many mistakes as I learned to use the technology, so I e-mailed them frequently and anxiously monitored their reactions. They may have appreciated the same thing that students in my traditional classes liked: my concern for their learning." Are we intended to infer that these frequent emails and other interactions so effectively demonstrate that she cared about the students' learning that they produced some of the hoped for motivation? If so, could that frequency of email and attention be achieved without the goad of initial "technological ineptitude"?

Also, in what ways was Bunge's initial goal of getting students to "engage more deeply" characteristic of (or different from) the "approaches that genuinely work" that she learned about during the Wisconsin conference mentioned in her article?

Bunge also said: "The most interesting contrast shows up in the comments: Those who liked my course with the online modules praised its organization, while students in the course with no online component talked about my enthusiasm, respect for their opinions, and obsession with making sure they understood the texts and assignments—all traits beyond a computer's reach." Why does Bunge believe in these limits? No one familiar with computers expects them to engender enthusiasm, demonstrate respect, or obsess about students' understanding. However, like textbooks and other resources, computers can be used effectively by teachers for these admirable purposes.

Finally, I share Bunge's hope that our colleagues will "keep evaluating technology's impact, perhaps they will eventually find a way to invest its processes with the sense of shared humanity that binds together students and teachers in successful classes." And I hope she shares mine that our colleagues will continue just as avidly to try to achieve those successful classes - with or without online activities. By using whatever available technologies, supporting resources, pedagogies, etc. that seem worthwhile and well-matched to their own abilities, to the characteristics of their students, and to the purposes of those classes.

Above comments, questions, refer to: "Why I No Longer Teach Online," by Nancy Bunge, "...professor of writing, rhetoric, and American culture at Michigan State University." The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 6, 2011

Part of:Online Learning: The Chronicle's 2011 Special Report
BROWSE THE FULL ISSUE: News, Commentary, and Data
http://chronicle.com/section/Online-Learning/491/?inl

IMAGE

Photo of "Laundry hanging on clotheslines between buildings, New York City" ca. 1900

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9c/A_Monday_washing%2C_New_York_City%2C_1900.jpg/500px-A_Monday_washing%2C_New_York_City%2C_1900.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/A_Monday_washing%2C_New_York_City%2C_1900.jpg

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1923.

By Detroit Publishing Co. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Photochrom print by the Detroit Photographic Co., copyrighted 1900.

From the Photochrom Prints Collection at the Library of Congress

THIS IMAGE is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID cph.3g04167.

TweepDiff -Allows comparing followers associated with Twitter accounts Tweepdiff.com

gilbert@tltgroup.org (Steven W. Gilbert, The TLT Group) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 05:21:00 PST

Enter 2 or more Twitter usernames (e.g., our Twitter username or screen name is "tltgroup", usually mentioned or referenced within a Tweet as "@tltgroup"; similarly, Derek Bruff uses @derekbruff as one of his Twitter usernames/screen names)
Indicate for each username whether you want to compare the associated list of usernames who are FOLLOWING that one or the list of usernames who are being FOLLOWED BY that one
Press the "Compare" button
Get a count and a list of usernames common to all you have entered.

"TweepDiff is a tool that allows you to compare the friends or followers of two or more Twitter users to see who they have in common. For example, a common use for TweepDiff is to compare your own friends and followers to see who you follow that doesn't follow you back or vice versa. Another use is to compare who you follow with someone else to see if they know of people that may be interesting to you."
- above excerpt from http://tweepdiff.com/about

Why?
"If you think someone else is a good judge of Twitter usefulness, you can diff yourself with them to discover new people to follow."
"By entering your name in both boxes and choosing friends for the first box and followers for the second, you can see who is following you, that you aren't following back, or who you are following that isn't following you back. This may help remind you to follow people, or it may remind you to unfollow someone who is no longer following you."
- above excerpt from http://signalsready.com/products/tweepdiff/

IMAGE

Photo of "Die Zwitscher-Maschine (Twittering Machine); Watercolor and ink; oil transfer on paper with gouache and ink borders on cardboard. Group of birds shackled to a wire attached to a hand crank." Date 1922; Image hosted at <http://www.waggish.org/2010/paul-klee-twittering-machine/> by Paul Klee

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/09/Die_Zwitscher-Maschine_%28Twittering_Machine%29.jpg/500px-Die_Zwitscher-Maschine_%28Twittering_Machine%29.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Die_Zwitscher-Maschine_%28Twittering_Machine%29.jpg

Permission "This work is in the public domain in those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 70 years or fewer.

By Paul Klee [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

TweepDiff - Find Out Who You're Missing On Twitter

"Assessment" still a dirty word? Is it: A. Decisive B. Confirming/Refuting C. Acclaiming D. Appeasing, E. Wasteful?

gilbert@tltgroup.org (Steven W. Gilbert, The TLT Group) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 14:48:00 PST

Assessment lightens or adds burden?

[Multiple Choice] Assessment is:

[ ] A. At best (ideally?) DECISIVE: Information that will help decide among viable, appealing options when available judgment, wisdom, and leadership cannot.
[ ] B.    At best (politically?) CONFIRMATION/REFUTATION:
Confirm what's obvious to us; refute what's obvious to them.
[ ] C.    At best (most powerfully?) ACCLAMATION : Overwhelm the need for other evidence by acclaim.
[ ] D.    Too frequently? APPEASEMENT: What's the least we can do to get them off our (my) back?
[ ] E1.   Worse UNNECESSARY: Additional evidence will be ignored - no longer needed; e.g., studies of benefits/harm of wordprocessing in 1980s.
[ ] E2.   Worst WASTEFUL: Decision will be made before results are available.
[ ] E3.   Worsest HYPOCRITICAL: Decision has already been made secretly and study is superfluous

IMAGE
Photo of many lifting elevators/cranes in air simultaneously titled "Elevator up..." by Allen/Inchkaka in Flickr
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3006/3037517531_af369c638f.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/inchka/3037517531/
Some rights reserved by Inchka http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Tomorrow 11/4 2pm ET FridayLive: update TLTRoundtable for transition to hybrid/online courses tlt.gs/frlv Free Reg

gilbert@tltgroup.org (Steven W. Gilbert, The TLT Group) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 14:18:50 PDT

Change IS Possible!

From On-Campus to [More] Online

CCI and FQE

Counter-Counter-Implementation (CCI) Strategies

Steve Gilbert’s Fundamental Questions Extended (FQE)

Conversation

Steve Gilbert, TLT Group with Jane Marcus, Stanford Univ.
Friday, November 4, 2011 2:00 pm (ET)

For more info: Home Base (Google Doc) Web Page: tlt.gs/CCIFQE1104

Friday Live! Registration - Free

At most colleges and universities today, many people feel pushed toward online education -- faster and with less clarity of purpose than they find comfortable [understatement?].

Steve Gilbert and Jane Marcus discuss how to “innovate” more comfortably and effectively when pressed to move from courses that are mostly campus-based toward courses that have more online elements. They will explain their emerging approach and apply it to a case study.

They will recommend strategies and activities based on their combined experience with several colleges and universities - from inside, and as consultants - and by adapting and extending their previous work:

TLT Roundtables: Guidelines, resources, and lessons learned - new question:
“Who should be at the table? Now? At the next stage of our planning and deliberations?”; Fundamental Questions - newest versions; Frugal Innovations; Small Collaborative Groups
Counter-Counter-Implementation Strategies - work of Peter Keen, et al. tlt.gs/counterimp
Marcus’ doctoral and related research: "Diffusion of Innovations and Social Learning Theory: Adoption of the Context Text-Processing System at Stanford University” "...adoption is a function of available resources, the perceived value of the innovation, and communication with other adopters. Her [Marcus’] dissertation research provides empirical evidence in support of the model, indicating that social/contextual variables are as important as resources in encouraging adoption of technology" - from “Creating a Campus Culture to Support a Teaching and Learning Revolution,” by Dorothy A. Frayer, CAUSE/EFFECT journal, Volume 22 Number 2 1999.

Innovation and Players

They’ll describe the innovation that is being considered and then identify who the key players are who need to be at the table to be part of the project. They’ll ask participants to explain why they believe the “players” identified as needing to be “brought to the table” are or are not essential, could be omitted, and those who might, in fact be missing.

Public and Private - Values, Goals, Agendas - “Loyal Opposition” vs. Subversive Counter-Implementation
They’ll examine the values that must/can be part of open, “public” discussion, as well as the values and other info that is likely to remain “private” or part of the “sub-text.”
They’ll consider how to elicit and build on the public statements of institutional [and less widely held and/or applicable] values for each of the representatives at the table as well as the private/personal/political goals of the various participants. The interplay between these two perspectives determines who serves as legitimate, loyal opposition or truly subversive "counter-implementers" during subsequent implementation.

For more... tlt.gs/CCIFQE1104 Friday Live! Registration