TLT-SWG

“difference between a live online.. & self-paced course”: Former “instructor-led with scheduled start & end dates”

gilbert@tltgroup.org (Steven W. Gilbert, The TLT Group) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:47:28 PST

If you believe that you already understand the options and expectations for online teaching and learning available in 2012, you simply don't know enough.

Racing cars careening so fast it appears about to crash

"If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough" - attributed to Mario Andretti by "Quotation #39999 from Michael Moncur's (Cynical) Quotations" on Website "The Quotations Page" at http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/39999.html as of Feb 9, 2012
"If you can remain calm and keep your head about you when everyone else is losing theirs, then around you probably don't understand the situation." [Found 1 version of this quote as of Feb 9, 2012 at http://successnet.org/articles/angier-remaincalm.htm but what's the correct wording and the original source of this quote - probably from the 60s - SWG]
Here is a reasonable but unavoidably incomplete and misleading simplification from the New York Times - note that "Epsilen Online Learning Environment" is somewhat similar to Blackiboard and other "modern(?)" Learning Management Systems

"This guide will help you understand and navigate our online courses and eLearning environment.

Live Online Courses: “Interactive Course – Facilitated”
Self-Paced Courses
What is the difference between a self-paced and instructor-led course?
Webcasts: “Interactive Webcast-Live”
What software do I need to learn online?
Technical Requirements
Epsilen Online Learning Environment"

Online Learning « New York Times Knowledge Network

Online Learning « New York Times Knowledge Network

Attribution: 1 December 2011 by Ocirne94 http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Speed_Dreams_car_rolling.jpg

“intellectual sin of the century: passing judgment on the fate of others in the name of their future as you see it”

gilbert@tltgroup.org (Steven W. Gilbert, The TLT Group) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:35:23 PST

Sin of too many centuries

From Francis Fukuyama's review of One Man’s History: Tony Judt Reviews His Life’s Journey, New York Times February 3, 2012
Following is the 4th paragraph quoted in full with yellow highlighting added for emphasis:

Whatever Judt’s initial ideological commitments, he later concerned himself with a stark and important question: “how so many smart people could have told themselves such stories with all the terrible consequences that ensued.” The story was that of Communism, which perpetrated “the intellectual sin of the century: passing judgment on the fate of others in the name of their future as you see it, . . . concerning which you claim exclusive and perfect information.” Looking back at the history of left-wing figures from the 1930s like the French socialist Léon Blum, he saw their central failing as the lack of “any appreciation of the possibility of evil as a constraining, much less a dominating, element in public affairs.” This was to become the theme of his 1992 book “Past Imperfect,” which chronicled French intellectuals like Jean-Paul Sartre who publicly supported Stalinism while remaining willfully blind to its horrors.

IMAGE selected by Steve Gilbert 20120208
Photo of "Original caption states: 'Deep gashes delivered by the killers are visible in the skulls that fill one room at the Murambi School.' Aftermath of Rwandan Genocide." Date 2001; Source http://www.house.gov/wolf/issues/hr/sudan/caphotos.html
"Author: taken during the official visit of US Rep. Frank Wolf"
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Rwandan_Genocide_Murambi_skulls.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rwandan_Genocide_Murambi_skulls.jpg

Permission
"This United States Congress image is in the public domain. This may be because it is an official Congressional portrait, because it was taken by an official employee of the Congress, or because it has been released into the public domain and posted on the official websites of a member of Congress. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain."

“Fingerprint Clearance Card" required for students taking in-person practicum required WITHIN online program

gilbert@tltgroup.org (Steven W. Gilbert, The TLT Group) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:14:09 PST

Navy Investigator...shows children how to dust for fingerprints

"If learners intend to work in the education field (public or charter) and are required to obtain a Fingerprint Clearance Card or if they will complete student teaching or provide tutoring, they will need to obtain an 'Identity Verified Print' (IVP) Fingerprint Clearance Card, not the regular fingerprint clearance card."

...

"Q: For what purpose are fingerprints used?
A: Fingerprints will be used to obtain both a state and federal criminal records check.
...
"Q: Where can I find out what would preclude me from obtaining a clearance card?
A: Precluding offenses for a level one fingerprint clearance card can be found in A.R.S. 41-1758.07, subsection B and C, link below. Precluding offenses for the regular fingerprint clearance card can be found in A.R.S. 41-1758.03, links as follows. A.R.S. 41-1758.03 A.R.S. 41-1758.07"

- Above excerpts copied from
"Fingerprint Clearance FAQs | College of Education | Grand Canyon University
Under College of Education/Program Essentials/Online Learning: "GCU offers a variety bachelor's and master's degree programs in education, as well as continuing education courses for teachers."

IMAGE selected by Steve Gilbert 20120208

Photo of "NAPLES, Italy (July 7, 2011) U.S. Navy Investigator Travis Bachorski, assigned to Naval Support Activity Naples Criminal Investigations Division, shows children how to dust for fingerprints. The demonstration was part of a summer enrichment program for children in grades K-7. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Felicito Rustique/Released)"

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c2/US_Navy_110707-N-IZ292-035_U.S._Navy_Investigator_Travis_Bachorski_shows_children_how_to_dust_for_fingerprints._The_demonstration_was_part_of_a_sum.jpg/512px-US_Navy_110707-N-IZ292-035_U.S._Navy_Investigator_Travis_Bachorski_shows_children_how_to_dust_for_fingerprints._The_demonstration_was_part_of_a_sum.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/US_Navy_110707-N-IZ292-035_U.S._Navy_Investigator_Travis_Bachorski_shows_children_how_to_dust_for_fingerprints._The_demonstration_was_part_of_a_sum.jpg

"This Image was released by the United States Navy with the ID 110707-N-IZ292-035 (next).

Reassurance or Reality? Hard choice when tech & economy change fast;also see “Necessity...mother of self-deception”

gilbert@tltgroup.org (Steven W. Gilbert, The TLT Group) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:45:31 PST

It is hardest to abandon the hidden hope of wishful thinking when it is too late to deny the accumulating signs of change but too early to accept their implications.
That is when we most hope for impossible reassurance: for an explanation of how we can continue to succeed, as we have for so long, without changing what we do.

Flotilla of rubber duckies...Accumulating sign?

Also see tlt.gs/necselfdecept

Example: A "Reassuring" Consultation in the 1980s
In the early 1980s, a small group of textbook publishers invited me to bring a couple of lawyers who understood trends in technology, publishing, and intellectual property law for a discussion in New York City. We met our hosts for lunch in a nice restaurant. A casual and pleasant conversation began while we were eating, and continued as dessert and coffee were served - well beyond the usual duration of introductory pleasantries required by business courtesy.

I was confused when it was almost time to leave and we were still being asked superficial questions with no obvious focus. Our hosts seemed satisfied to request and receive no more than our most superficial observations about recent devleopments in information technology and the possible implications for intellectual property. We were not asked to speculate about the possible impact of recent changes on the textbook publishing industry. [Note: this meeting occurred shortly before the Internet had enabled a highly active used-textbook market in higher education.]

We solved the puzzle during our train-ride home. Our hosts could not ask their most urgent questions. Perhaps they could not acknowledge even to themselves what they wanted from us most. Reassurance.

They had hoped for the same thing that many capable, intellligent, experienced, successful people in many industries want in times of great change. Especially in times of great technological and economic change. They wanted reassurance.

They wanted us to explain how so many important things were changing, and how they could continue to be successful, as they had been for so long, without changing what they did.

For many years I told that story privately and smugly - as an amusing criticism of middle- to upper-level managers in the publishing industry who "just didn't get it."
But now I'm telling the story more publicly for a very different reason. Now I see it as an illustration of some important characteristics of human nature. Most of us prefer not to have major change thrust upon us. Most of us prefer not to have the practices and insights we've embraced over many years suddenly criticized and become dysfunctional. It is painful to discover that what we have believed and done as "right" is becoming ineffective and disrespected.

It is too easy as outsiders looking backward to chide and blame leaders who failed to act on the signs of change. It is much more difficult to recognize early symptoms of impending crises when they first arise and from within the institution. That is why it is so difficult to provide effective advice to those who must deal with these problems from the inside and with so many uncertainties - both the unavoidable uncertainties of interpreting symptoms of institutional illness and the uncertainties we feel when we find ourselves in disagreement with the perceptions and conclusions of respected colleagues who are equally committed to the institution. We don't want to believe those warning signs.

So, I still endorse the obvious advice to confront serious problems as early and directly as possible, but now I believe that it is not a lack of will or intelligence that is the most likely impediment. It is the lack of practices and structures that would encourage and enable those in key positions to overcome their typical human reluctance to recognize the warning signs, understand their implications, and respond quickly, collegially and effectively.

Steven W. Gilbert, President
THE TLT GROUP -- a Non-Profit Organization
The Teaching, Learning, and Technology Group
www.tltgroup.org
PO Box 5643, Takoma Park, Maryland 20913 USA

IMAGE selected by Steve Gilbert 20120207
Photo of "closeup of ducks" from "'2011Blackstone Duckie Race'... 17000 rubber duckies dropped into the canal-- the first 50 over the finish line win prizes and the money goes to the library, boys and girls club, and other charities." ..."items are from 16 Oct 2011," by "izzysmumma"
http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6216/6266062745_91ed799ab2.jpg
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/deed.en

Got data? for interview today Feb 3 “Changing Course: Reinventing Colleges, Avoiding Closure” tlt.gs/ABrownChngCrs

gilbert@tltgroup.org (Steven W. Gilbert, The TLT Group) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:30:29 PST

BOOK DISCUSSION tlt.gs/ABrownChngCrs

Changing Course: Reinventing Colleges, Avoiding Closure, Alice W. Brown Jossey-Bass 2011 Friday, Feb 3, 2:00pm ET Register Free: tlt.gs/frlv

Alice Brown, Past Pres. Appalachian College Assoc, will be interviewed by Steve Gilbert.

Need additional background data for recent years (e.g., 2005-2010) …

Colleges opening/closing - undergrad "seats"

Are more colleges closing or opening?

Total # of colleges and universities in the United States went from XXXX to YYYY
Total # of colleges and universities in the US that closed, merged, or changed name (“reinvented itself”)?
Total # of colleges, univs in the US that were launched?

Are there more private colleges for-profit and online? And fewer non-profit on-campus?
Are there more/fewer applications for undergraduate enrollment? More/fewer applications per available opening?

Student/Faculty Ratio

What is happening to the student faculty ratio? Overall? By institutional category? Online vs. on-campus?
What is happening to the student full-time tenure track faculty ratio? student full-time non-tenure track faculty ratio? student part-time faculty ratio? Overall? By institutional category? Online vs. on-campus?

Financial Patterns How are financial patterns changing vis a vis

Payment per course per student collected from the student or from someone on behalf of the student
Operating cost per course
Faculty salary per course

IIMAGE selected by Steve Gilbert 20120131

Photo of painting (1803) "Avalanche in the Alps" by Philipp Jakob Loutherbourg the Younger (1740–1812)

The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202. Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a5/Philipp_Jakob_Loutherbourg_d._J._003.jpg/512px-Philipp_Jakob_Loutherbourg_d._J._003.jpg

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Philipp_Jakob_Loutherbourg_d._J._003.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Philipp_Jakob_Loutherbourg_d._J._003.jpg

Philipp Jakob Loutherbourg the Younger [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

"The work of art depicted in this image and the reproduction thereof are in the public domain worldwide. The reproduction is part of a collection of reproductions compiled by The Yorck Project. The compilation copyright is held by Zenodot Verlagsgesellschaft mbH and licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License."

Alice Brown answers TLTGroup’s Fundamental Questions re college, university, div or dept threatened with closing

gilbert@tltgroup.org (Steven W. Gilbert, The TLT Group) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:08:06 PST

In preparation for free online discussion of her new book Changing Course: Reinventing Colleges, Avoiding Closure, on Friday, Feb 3, 2012 at 2pm ET, Alice Brown recorded her answers to the TLT Group's 2 Fundamental Questions:
1. What do you most want to gain?

2. What do you most cherish and want not to lose?

You can hear/see Alice Brown's recording and other people's recorded answers to these questions at tlt.gs/FQanswers - or if we are lucky about Internet conditions and your browser's ability to manage flash files, you can click on the audio player gadget that should appear right here in this blog posting and hear Alice's voice!

Please join us for the 2PM ET BOOK DISCUSSION tlt.gs/ABrownChngCrs re Changing Course: Reinventing Colleges, Avoiding Closure, Alice W. Brown Jossey-Bass 2011
Register Free: tlt.gs/frlv
Alice Brown, Past Pres. Appalachian College Assoc, will be interviewed by Steve Gilbert.

More about how you can record YOUR answers to our Fundamental Questions and about Alice Brown's answers:

We also welcome YOUR answers to our Fundamental Questions. You can record them by phone (includes a toll-free option) the same way Alice did. That method automatically produces an MP3 file that we can publish to the Web. Or you can send an MP3 to gilbert@tltgroup.org.

We cannot publish all recordings we receive, and we usually do not edit the recordings that we publish. If you decide later that you don't like your recording, you can record something new using this same method and we will try to use the most recent version that becomes available to us. Even later, even after we have published your recording, you can send email to gilbert@tltgroup.org in which you indicate that you prefer we no longer use your recording and we will remove or delete your recording as best we can.

Thanks in advance for your thoughtful recorded responses to the TLT Group's Fundamental Questions.

Steve Gilbert, President, The TLT Group.

Text excerpt from Alice Brown's recording:

... related to what I hope to gain or preserve during the conversations of the FridayLive session on February 3 ...I hope to gain from hearing about the experiences and insights others have had while working under situations where a college or university or even a division or department is threatened with closing. This'll be my first conversation with a group from academia, since publication of my book about colleges closing or almost closing. And I'm interested in hearing reactions to the topic, as well as perhaps, the book. But knowing what people think of the book is not so important to me as knowing what they think of the topic. For example, how real do such threats seem on the college campuses themselves.
What I hope not to lose is what many consider my greatest liability, my forthrightness. I hope that the audience and the participants will be honest with me and that I will not be afraid to be honest in return. I'm looking forward to sharing ideas.

Can "BlackBerry..Avoid Hall of Fallen Giants"? Comeback, decline, or oblivion? Like college on brink of closing?

gilbert@tltgroup.org (Steven W. Gilbert, The TLT Group) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:44:12 PST

Blackberry 850 - First one?

Recent NYTimes article reminds us that once-dominant now-fading Blackberry killed the pager market. Article describes 3 "ways forward" for RIM, maker of Blackberry.

Join us online free this Friday Feb 3 and discuss how these strategies (hopes? fears?) might apply, if at all, to colleges on the brink of closing:

1. "Triumphant comeback" - major changes but continue original mission

2. "Gradual decline and diminution" - serve much smaller still-loyal constituency

Road to Oblivion

3. "Oblivion" - concede to competitors that can more quickly and efficiently meet old constituency's needs better - in new ways

INVITATION Please join us this Friday Feb 3 2pm ET for a BOOK DISCUSSION

More info: tlt.gs/ABrownChngCrs
Changing Course: Reinventing Colleges, Avoiding Closure, Alice W. Brown Jossey-Bass 2011 Register Free: tlt.gs/frlv
Brown, Past Pres. Appalachian College Assoc, will be interviewed by Steve Gilbert.

Excerpts quoted in the title of this post, above, and below are all from
"The BlackBerry, Trying to Avoid the Hall of Fallen Giants," by Sam Grobart & Ian Austen, January 28, 2012, New York Times

"Over the last year, RIM’s share price has plunged 75 percent. The company once commanded more than half of the American smartphone market. Today it has 10 percent.
"RIM has two, maybe three ways forward.
"The first — the one that Mr. Heins is clearly aiming for — is a triumphant comeback after a near-death experience. Think Apple and its iMac. RIM is on the verge of upgrading its PlayBook operating system ...and will release the BlackBerry 10 OS this year.
"Behind Door No. 2 is a gradual decline and diminution as rivals like Apple, Google and Microsoft devour most of the market;...BlackBerry would keep the scraps — a small but dedicated following...
"...oblivion. The road of progress is littered with the corpses of fallen titans. Objects that once seemed as indispensable as the companies that made them have been mercilessly superseded"

IMAGE selected by Steve Gilbert 20120201

Photo of first Blackberry device, the Blackberry 850, "Original Blackberry"

2010-08-02, " Source Collection_of_old_phones_and_PDAs.jpg Author Collection_of_old_phones_and_PDAs.jpg: Shiny Things derivative work: Traveler100 (talk)"

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b5/Collection_of_old_phones_and_PDA-BlackBerry.jpg/478px-Collection_of_old_phones_and_PDA-BlackBerry.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Collection_of_old_phones_and_PDA-BlackBerry.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 2.0 Generic license." http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

IMAGE selected by Steve Gilbert 20120201

Photo of "The Road To Oblivion...Orford Ness. After alighting from the ferry to Orford Ness, one walks down this road wondering if one will ever see the mainland again! Littered either side with a deserted airfield, debris and Nissen hut remains!" 7 September 2005, "From geograph.org.uk Author Tim Hallam,"

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/The_Road_To_Oblivion...Orford_Ness_-_geograph.org.uk_-_176381.jpg

Permission "This image was taken from the Geograph project collection. See this photograph's page on the Geograph website for the photographer's contact details. The copyright on this image is owned by Tim Hallam and is licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.

Tim Hallam [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

What pushes a college to the brink of closing? Warning signs? Too late? Can you help? Online Feb3 free tlt.gs/frlv

gilbert@tltgroup.org (Steven W. Gilbert, The TLT Group) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:30:27 PST

BOOK DISCUSSION tlt.gs/ABrownChngCrs

Changing Course: Reinventing Colleges, Avoiding Closure, Alice W. Brown Jossey-Bass 2011 Friday, Feb 3, 2:00pm ET Register Free: tlt.gs/frlv

Brown, Past Pres. Appalachian College Assoc, will be interviewed by Steve Gilbert.

“No thriving college is immune from unforeseen disaster, just as no struggling college is irreversibly destined for closure.” Sadly, if you are part of a college or university community -- student, alumni, board member, faculty, president, any other academic professional -- you can no longer be fully confident of the stability of your institution or of your role within it.

In this live online session, we’ll discuss the dangers, the warning signs, and how to deal with them. Alice Brown will summarize and extend the ideas in her new book Changing Course in which she “... presents stories of colleges in crisis and considers what makes the difference between a college that closes and one that nearly closes but manages to remain open.” First Brown, then other participants, will be invited to share their observations and insights in response to these questions:

What pushes a college to the brink of closing? What are the warning signs?

How can a college avoid the brink? Come back from the brink? When is it too late?

What are the differences between colleges that “reinvent themselves” or barely avoid closing, and those that disappear? Who cares? Who should care?

When a college is nearing the brink, what info is especially difficult to hear, accept, and act on? For whom? From whom? Who needs to be "shielded from" what kinds of info?

How can anyone help? Are there any positive opportunities that can be grasped in these crises?

IMAGE selected by Steve Gilbert 20120131
Photo of painting (1803) "Avalanche in the Alps" by Philipp Jakob Loutherbourg the Younger (1740–1812)
The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202. Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a5/Philipp_Jakob_Loutherbourg_d._J._003.jpg/512px-Philipp_Jakob_Loutherbourg_d._J._003.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Philipp_Jakob_Loutherbourg_d._J._003.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Philipp_Jakob_Loutherbourg_d._J._003.jpg
Philipp Jakob Loutherbourg the Younger [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
"The work of art depicted in this image and the reproduction thereof are in the public domain worldwide. The reproduction is part of a collection of reproductions compiled by The Yorck Project. The compilation copyright is held by Zenodot Verlagsgesellschaft mbH and licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License."

"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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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

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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
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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

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