The Academic Evolution Podcast Thu, 14 May 2009 19:51:00 +0000 Fri, 13 Mar 2020 08:35:12 +0000 Libsyn WebEngine 2.0 http://wakingtigerlibsyn.com en http://wakingtigerlibsyn.com http://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/d/9/0/5/d9055bf3d396f9ea/soapy.jpg The Academic Evolution Podcast no episodic Interview with Michèle Lamont Thu, 14 May 2009 19:51:00 +0000  In this interview with Michèle Lamont, Harvard Professor of Sociology, we discuss her new book, How Professors Think: Inside the Curious World of Academic Judgment (Harvard, 2009). How professors judge the quality and significance of scholarship depends upon disciplinary standards not always consistent with one another, rhetorical strategies of those submitting and reviewing scholarship, and the pragmatic constraints of review processes that together form the dynamic culture and "technology" of evaluation in higher education. Lamont brings greater transparency to these standards and processes. We specifically discuss a set of key standards that academics across disciplines gravitate toward in making their judgments. These include clarity, quality, originality, significance, methods, and feasibility.

Even academics may register surprise at how these standards are understood and weighted so diversely across disciplines, and yet Lamont shows how professors transcend differences and arrive at workable and reliable decisions. My more complete review of the book will follow.
]]> How Professors Think: Inside the Curious World of Academic Judgment (Harvard, 2009). How professors judge the quality and significance of scholarship depends upon disciplinary standards not always consistent with one another, rhetorical strategies of those submitting and reviewing scholarship, and the pragmatic constraints of review processes that together form the dynamic culture and "technology" of evaluation in higher education. Lamont brings greater transparency to these standards and processes. We specifically discuss a set of key standards that academics across disciplines gravitate toward in making their judgments. These include clarity, quality, originality, significance, methods, and feasibility. Even academics may register surprise at how these standards are understood and weighted so diversely across disciplines, and yet Lamont shows how professors transcend differences and arrive at workable and reliable decisions. My more complete review of the book will follow. ]]> review,peer,scholarship,academia Open Access and the Institutional Repository Sun, 08 Feb 2009 01:19:00 +0000 BYU's ScholarsArchive or the more developed DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska-Lincoln. I play devil's advocate with my librarain friend, suggesting that however noble the goal of spreading one's scholarship to the world, the practical reality is that scholars are really only motivated to reach that small but influential audience, their peers.

I've blogged quite a bit about Open Access, and Jeff Belliston and I have given many presentations about Open Access to the leadership and faculty of Brigham Young University (under the auspices of University Librarian Randy Olson and with the encouragement of BYU's Academic Vice President's office). It has been exciting to see this new and vital way of thinking about scholarship starting to take root on our campus. You can view one of our presentations on SlideShare. Those wishing to keep tabs on Open Access should subscribe to Peter Suber's Open Access News blog.

]]> BYU's ScholarsArchive or the more developed DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska-Lincoln. I play devil's advocate with my librarain friend, suggesting that however noble the goal of spreading one's scholarship to the world, the practical reality is that scholars are really only motivated to reach that small but influential audience, their peers. I've blogged quite a bit about Open Access, and Jeff Belliston and I have given many presentations about Open Access to the leadership and faculty of Brigham Young University (under the auspices of University Librarian Randy Olson and with the encouragement of BYU's Academic Vice President's office). It has been exciting to see this new and vital way of thinking about scholarship starting to take root on our campus. You can view one of our presentations on SlideShare. Those wishing to keep tabs on Open Access should subscribe to Peter Suber's Open Access News blog. ]]> open,education,institutional,higher,publishing,access,academic,repository Blogging in College Writing Instruction Tue, 27 Jan 2009 06:29:00 +0000
Kathy refers to Geoffrey Sirc's "Box-Logic."  Writing New Media: Theory and Applications for Expanding the Teaching of Composition. Logan: Utah State University Press, 2004. 43-66.
]]> Writing New Media: Theory and Applications for Expanding the Teaching of Composition. Logan: Utah State University Press, 2004. 43-66.]]> writing,blogging,college The Facebook Experiment Tue, 20 Jan 2009 05:19:00 +0000 Eng251-Facebook2 Using facebook in a literature class is the subject of my second episode of the Academic Evolution Podcast. With Stephen Humphrey I discuss the merits and limits of using this popular online social networking service for teaching and learning. Students are sharing and interacting in ways they would not have, but also seem to see the medium as too informal for serious work and are at times afraid to put their work "out there" where it can be seen by peers. We agree that our role as educators is to refine the use of the medium that the students are already using.]]> Using facebook in a literature class is the subject of my second episode of the Academic Evolution Podcast. With Stephen Humphrey I discuss the merits and limits of using this popular online social networking service for teaching and learning. Students are sharing and interacting in ways they would not have, but also seem to see the medium as too informal for serious work and are at times afraid to put their work "out there" where it can be seen by peers. We agree that our role as educators is to refine the use of the medium that the students are already using.]]> and,new,facebook,education,media,teaching,learning Welcome to the Academic Evolution Podcast Thu, 15 Jan 2009 17:27:00 +0000 This is the podcast accompanying Gideon Burton's Academic Evolution blog and book project. For the inaugural Academic Evolution podcast, I invite you to listen in on my conversation with Stephen Humphrey. Highlights:

Publish first, then perfect ideas socially

  • 0:29 - "Am I ready for unvarnished thoughts?" (The virtue of getting your thoughts "out there" where others can help you develop them. Later he compares this to old school craftsmanship and the apprentice model.)
  • 1:42 - Gideon describes the print paradigm of pre-publication perfection and how that is out of sync.
  • 3:30 "I'm going to respect that the value I bring to my product is whatever skill set I have with the interpretive effect of the people who are going to use it...Those people bring to the table a critical eye." (Stephen)

Today's "Renaissance Student" constructs him/herself independent of academia (3:53)

  • "Academia is no longer the game changer" (4:57)
  • "Educated thought has started to bypass higher ed" (5:46)
  • "whiplash effect as academic leaders...suddenly realize that students have bypassed the institution" (6:12)
  • "I think I'm doing college as a back up plan." Story of student, Michael (6:28), whose digital skills are so marketable he wonders why he's finishing his BA.

Reputation systems now challenge academic credentialing (12:24)

  • "An 18 year-old can develop a reputation and a track record and an audience for his thoughts and work" (12:44)
  • A modern apprenticeship model: "I'll develop my talents at the feet of the consumer, of the people who will be critical of my work and show me through their attention whether I'm hitting the right notes." (13:20)
  • "Digi-cred" coined to name online reputation. (14:24). Gideon references Phil Windley's work on reputation systems.
  • "I'm not depending on others to determine for me what the reputation of someone is....What I'm looking for are those gateway people who can regularly feed me little tidbits until I can trust their judgments....It takes a history with them" (16:39)

New literacies and their chances in K-12 vs. Higher Ed

  • "My kids are stuck with a model that says they need to learn PowerPoint, but that's the last thing they need. They need to be taught the social implications of technology" (18:40)
  • Gideon more hopeful for K-12 because of progress made toward 21st Century Literacies (19:07).
  • If raised to believe all their opinions matter, will students become sufficiently self critical? (20:52)
  • "How can we teach crafstmanship in thought?" (22:35)

Does digital expression resist or assist critical thought? (24:47)

  • "They and we express ourselves too well for the anemic level of thought we've brought to that expression" (24:55)
  • "As students become more involved in the creative media...there is an evolution of critical thought that happens socially." (25:17)
  • "The medium has a feedback mechanism, and when they hear the echo of their own silly voices, it gets amplified enough that they start self correcting." (27:45)
  • Youth use of cell phones may seem inane, but in "pinging" each other, they are "establishing the synaptic routes of complex interaction essential to any high level order of intelligence" (31:10)
]]> This is the podcast accompanying Gideon Burton's Academic Evolution blog and book project. For the inaugural Academic Evolution podcast, I invite you to listen in on my conversation with Stephen Humphrey. Highlights:

Publish first, then perfect ideas socially

  • 0:29 - "Am I ready for unvarnished thoughts?" (The virtue of getting your thoughts "out there" where others can help you develop them. Later he compares this to old school craftsmanship and the apprentice model.)
  • 1:42 - Gideon describes the print paradigm of pre-publication perfection and how that is out of sync.
  • 3:30 "I'm going to respect that the value I bring to my product is whatever skill set I have with the interpretive effect of the people who are going to use it...Those people bring to the table a critical eye." (Stephen)

Today's "Renaissance Student" constructs him/herself independent of academia (3:53)

  • "Academia is no longer the game changer" (4:57)
  • "Educated thought has started to bypass higher ed" (5:46)
  • "whiplash effect as academic leaders...suddenly realize that students have bypassed the institution" (6:12)
  • "I think I'm doing college as a back up plan." Story of student, Michael (6:28), whose digital skills are so marketable he wonders why he's finishing his BA.

Reputation systems now challenge academic credentialing (12:24)

  • "An 18 year-old can develop a reputation and a track record and an audience for his thoughts and work" (12:44)
  • A modern apprenticeship model: "I'll develop my talents at the feet of the consumer, of the people who will be critical of my work and show me through their attention whether I'm hitting the right notes." (13:20)
  • "Digi-cred" coined to name online reputation. (14:24). Gideon references Phil Windley's work on reputation systems.
  • "I'm not depending on others to determine for me what the reputation of someone is....What I'm looking for are those gateway people who can regularly feed me little tidbits until I can trust their judgments....It takes a history with them" (16:39)

New literacies and their chances in K-12 vs. Higher Ed

  • "My kids are stuck with a model that says they need to learn PowerPoint, but that's the last thing they need. They need to be taught the social implications of technology" (18:40)
  • Gideon more hopeful for K-12 because of progress made toward 21st Century Literacies (19:07).
  • If raised to believe all their opinions matter, will students become sufficiently self critical? (20:52)
  • "How can we teach crafstmanship in thought?" (22:35)

Does digital expression resist or assist critical thought? (24:47)

  • "They and we express ourselves too well for the anemic level of thought we've brought to that expression" (24:55)
  • "As students become more involved in the creative media...there is an evolution of critical thought that happens socially." (25:17)
  • "The medium has a feedback mechanism, and when they hear the echo of their own silly voices, it gets amplified enough that they start self correcting." (27:45)
  • Youth use of cell phones may seem inane, but in "pinging" each other, they are "establishing the synaptic routes of complex interaction essential to any high level order of intelligence" (31:10)
]]> and,new,education,media,teaching,learning