August 18th, 2010 Published by: philosophyandrew

Edublogger Review
I’ll start with a really basic fact. Over 80 percent of my college’s
A "mash-up" of postings from nine engaging educational budget is labor, and instruction is the single largest part of that.
and e-learning bloggers. The college’s operating income -- that is, the money that we
can use to pay for salaries and ongoing expenses -- comes from
exactly two sources: tuition and the state. If you push through
A Response to The New a drastic increase in labor costs, how, exactly, do you propose
Faculty Majority to pay for it?
Source: http://suburbdad.blogspot.com/2010/08/response-to-new-faculty-
Do you propose doubling tuition? Are you seriously trying
majority.html
to argue that the major issue with the economics of
By Dean Dad on August 18th, 2010
higher education is that tuition hasn’t been going up fast
The New Faculty Majority has drafted a proposal calling enough? That students are graduating (or dropping out) with
for adjuncts to get tenure (or its functional equivalent) and insufficient loan debt? To my mind, and to most of the public’s
proportional pay and benefits for their teaching. mind, this argument is dead on arrival. If anything, we need to
reduce the rate of tuition increase, not accelerate it. A drastic
A few thoughts: hike in tuition costs is simply off the table.

First, I understand the impulse, and there’s some validity Do you propose squeezing more out of the state? I’d love to see
to it. Folks on my side of the desk often claim, correctly, that happen, too. What’s the missing tactic? What can we try
that part of the appeal of adjuncts is flexibility. In return, that hasn’t been tried? And how do we ensure that the increase
union activists typically brush aside concerns from flexibility survives administrations of both parties, and both good times
as euphemisms for cheapness. Controlling for cost actually and bad? How do you help the state meet its obligations to
isolates flexibility as a variable. Given parity, would we still K-12, corrections, health care, and pensions, and still have
have adjuncts? I say yes, because enrollments aren’t perfectly enough left over to meet the newly-raised needs of higher ed?
predictable, departures aren’t perfectly predictable, and some If you have an idea, I’m all ears. If not, your proposal is not to
subject areas will never have high enrollments. (Will we ever be taken seriously.
have enough students to justify a full-time professor for every
instrument the music department teaches? No.) When you You could always demagogue it and go with administration
have enrollment peaks and valleys following economic cycles, and/or athletics. Go ahead. Do the math. I make less than the
you simply can’t have perfectly steady-state staffing. It cannot average tenured English professor at the state university; if
be done. Flexibility is not just a euphemism. you want to talk bloat, let’s really talk bloat. In the community
college world, administration and athletics are not, by and
It’s also true that the expectations for professionalism in the large, big ticket items. My college has fewer deans now than
classroom are the same. I don’t expect adjuncts to attend it had two years ago, and it has cut several teams already. I
meetings for which they aren’t paid, but when teaching a class, have no issue with those who say that, for example, Rutgers
I fully expect them to do a good job. And most do. In my University’s decision to double down on football was tragically
adjuncting days, I did. If the expectations are the same, there’s stupid; it was. But we don’t have a football team. You can’t cut
an argument for the pay to be the same. below zero.

I’ll even grant that it’s true that many newer adjuncts are as In terms of administration, what would you cut? Should we
qualified, if not more so, than some of the folks who get tenure stop trying to comply with the ADA? Should we stop evaluating
decades ago. To my mind, that says as much about tenure as it faculty altogether, and just trust that everybody is perfect?
does about adjuncts, but you can read it the other way, too. Perhaps we should stop giving financial aid, since it requires so
many staff. Who cares about accreditation? Who cares about
And I get the basic awfulness of trying to cobble together a IT? Who cares about payroll? (Whoops.)
living one course at a time. Been there, done that. No argument
there. In my experience, carping about “administrative bloat” is
similar to Republicans carping about “wasteful government.”
I’ll stipulate that the NFM basically means well, and is It feels good, it gives a common enemy, and it lets you dodge
motivated by sincere concern for some folks who’ve been some difficult questions. But until you actually specify what
struggling for a long time. you’re talking about, it’s bluffing. You want to reduce the
salaries of a few Big 10 Presidents? Knock yourself out, but
All of that granted, though, I’m not convinced. In fact, I’m not don’t pretend for one minute that that’ll help me balance my
even convinced they’re asking the right questions. books. It won’t.

1
August 18th, 2010 Published by: philosophyandrew
Can you guarantee that enrollments will never go down? And, if your institution/company is interested in sponsoring
How? Because if you can’t, then asking me to commit to the the conference, please let me know!
current staffing level -- which is what tenure for adjuncts
would amount to -- would guarantee insolvency at the first
enrollment dip. If you can, I’d love to hear how... Conversations and
Can you guarantee that the distribution of students among
collaboration
Source: http://www.jarche.com/2010/08/conversations-and-collaboration/
programs will never change? If not, then building in tenure
By Harold Jarche on August 18th, 2010
for everybody will guarantee underused staff the first time the
enrollments shift. And it will guarantee seat shortages in the Tweet
newly popular areas, since I’ll be so swamped trying to pay for Robert Kelley, in How to be a Star at Work, describes how tacit,
the tenured that I won’t be able to hire new people. or implicit, knowledge has come to dominate the knowledge
economy:
Or, are you proposing that we add up all the tenured and
adjunct salaries, and simply divide? That would be revenue- What percentage of the knowledge you need to
neutral, and would result in some serious raises for the do your job is stored in your own mind? Or put
adjuncts. The tenured folk would probably get a little crabby, another way: What percentage of your time do you
though. (For that matter, I’d love to see the faculty meeting spend reaching out to someone or something else for
in which you guys float your proposal to ban overloads. Hoo knowledge that is essential for you to get your job
boy, good luck with that...) Hell, while we’re at it, ‘parity’ done? Do you know how much you don’t know?
with whom, exactly? Different tenure-track professors make In 1986, the average answer from responses to
different salaries, based on all kinds of variables. And would surveys or hands in the air at group seminars was
freeway fliers get tenure at three or four different places that most people had about 75 percent in their heads.
simultaneously? Would I be obligated to work with those In recent years [late 1990's], the percentage has
schools for years to come to cobble together schedules? If so, dropped 15 to 20 points, and in the case of one
we’ll need a lot more administrators to coordinate it... company I worked with recently, it has fallen as low
as 10 percent!
This proposal is so far removed from the reality of running
a college that it’s genuinely difficult to take seriously. It’s the We could extrapolate that this trend has continued since
result of asking the wrong questions. the book was published in 1999 and that a decade later the
percentage of knowledge required that is stored in our minds
The right question is not how to squeeze more people into an is closer to 10% in many companies. We can also induce that
unsustainable structure. The right question is how to make workers today need to regularly reach out to someone or
the structure sustainable. That requires serious discussions of something in order to access the tacit knowledge they need.
flexibility, productivity, accountability, and funding streams. They need to be social. Social learning is how we get things
It requires acknowledging the reality of the tuition cost spiral, done in the increasingly complex modern workplace.
state budget deficits, and Republicans. Wish lists won’t cut it.

If the NFM wanted to engage the right questions, I would be

more than happy to welcome it to the discussion. But if the
best it can muster is “the same, but more,” I have work to do.
We all do.

Learning Analytics 2011

Source: http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/2010/08/17/learning-
analytics-2011/
By gsiemens on August 18th, 2010

TEKRI is organizing/sponsoring a conference on what I The figure above shows how documentation (explicit
think is the next significant trend in learning (corporate and knowledge) may be suitable in less complex environments, but
higher education): Learning Analytics. The call for papers we need to exchange tacit knowledge through conversations
was announced yesterday. A huge thanks to the steering in more complex environments. In order to apply tacit
committee for their work and assistance over the last few knowledge, we need to develop emergent practices for rapidly
months in pulling together the theme/focus of the conference. changing (and non-repeatable) tasks. Collaborative work is
The conference will be held in Banff, Alberta from Feb 27-Mar fueled though ongoing social learning, making the integration
1, 2011. As all Canadians know, February is our best month . of learning and working essential in any organization.
If you’re interested in the topic of learning analytics (or the The current challenge is that we have tools and processes
conference), please join this Google Group. for storing explicit knowledge (content management systems
– CMS) and for managing training (learning management

2
August 18th, 2010 Published by: philosophyandrew
systems – LMS) as well as platforms for enabling distributed http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-
conversations (social media). What we really need are colleges/
systems and processes for collaborative work (enterprise 2.0).
However, the solution is not to enhance a CMS or an LMS,
based on assumptions of simplicity and repeatability, but to What the Verizon-Google
develop ways to enhance complex webs of conversations to get
work done.
proposal has achieved….
Source: http://www.educause.edu/node/211689
Existing enterprise software systems, and the thinking behind By wwigen on August 18th, 2010
them, are not be able to do this. With up to 90% of our
I’m quite sure that the individuals involved in drafting the
work requiring tacit knowledge, the role of enterprise content
recently announced Verizon-Google Legislative Framework
management is just a minor contribution in how we get work
Proposaldid not expect the very public and very negative
done. Investment needs to done in processes that support
reaction that it has received. But if one of their goals was to get
conversations and collaborative work as well as tools that
the conversation moved up a notch, it can be deemed at least
support them. Platforms such as Thingamy are an indication
a partial success. While many of us who have been arguing
of how future work systems can be developed.
for net neutrality for years were not surprised by the proposal,
the content seems to have hit a nerve among those who have
been withholding comment or just not paying much attention
up until now. The resulting commentary, at least most of it,
has been instructive. The net neutrality debate could have
been justifiably criticized for being insulated from those who
actually think about where Internet technology is headed and
from those who have the arduous task of managing networks;
that is no longer the case.
The way I see it, there are at least three useful themes that rise
from this policy and public relations brushfire:
· Even if it is not yet clearly enforceable, net neutrality for
wired networks is assumed, accepted, and is old news.
If 90% of the knowledge needed to get work done is not
supported by enterprise software or organizational learning · The debate has moved on to the question of wireless and
departments, then there is a significant imbalance in most if and how these networks can be managed in a fair and net
organizations today. Any time you wonder why things aren’t neutral manner.
working in your organization, it’s because you’re in a system · No one really understands what “additional or
optimized for only one tenth of what you need to get done. differentiated services” are, and most are very suspicious of
Thanks to my ITA colleague Clark Quinn for inspiring me to what broadband providers might do to drive all meaningful
write this post. traffic into this category.
So, congratulations to Verizon and Google for widening the
discussion to those well outside the Beltway. I hope this is
Despite Changes US News some solace for your hard work on this otherwise painful
Source: http://keptup.typepad.com/academic/2010/08/despite-changes- experiment.
us-news-world-report-rankings-look-similar.html
By StevenB on August 18th, 2010

Harvard pulled ahead of Ivy League rival Princeton in Latest Beloit College Mindset
the latest edition of the influential U.S. News & World
Report university rankings, while a stronger emphasis
List Now Available
Source: http://keptup.typepad.com/academic/2010/08/latest-beloit-
on graduation rates drove other changes in the Top 10. The
college-mindset-list-now-available.html
nation's oldest university and traditionally one of its most
By StevenB on August 18th, 2010
selective, Harvard has topped the list two of the last three
years. Last year, the two elite schools shared the top ranking. Born when Ross Perot was warning about a giant sucking
A change in how rankings are determined led to some shifts sound and Bill Clinton was apologizing for pain in his
in the magazine's "Best Colleges" rankings. Most notably, marriage, members of this fall’s entering college class of 2014
graduation rate performance was given greater weigh. Read have emerged as a post-email generation for whom the digital
more at: world is routine and technology is just too slow. Each August
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100817/ap_on_re_us/ since 1998, Beloit College has released the Beloit College
us_college_rankings Mindset List. It provides a look at the cultural touchstones that
shape the lives of students entering college this fall. The
The link to the actual rankings is: class of 2014 has never found Korean-made cars unusual on
the Interstate and five hundred cable channels, of which they

3
August 18th, 2010 Published by: philosophyandrew
will watch a handful, have always been the norm. Read the As with the last two week’s posts, I believe that one of the best
whole list at: http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2014.php ways to provide insight into these types of blogs is to take a
look at a handful of ‘live’ examples.

Membership Focus Group 1 Student Blogging Examples

Source: http://www.educause.edu/node/211688 Portable Radio - This is a great student blogging effort focused
By drupal on August 18th, 2010 around podcasting. The students working on this blog change
from year to year. The last academic year’s work leveraged the
Unless otherwise noted, EDUCAUSE holds the copyright
efforts of 56 5th grade students, from two different elementray
on all materials published by the association, whether in
schools in Ottawa, Canada. I applaud the educators behind this
print or electronic form. In certain cases the work remains
ongoing effort – Mrs. Smith of South March Public School and
the intellectual property of the individual author(s) (see
Mr. Toft of A. Lorne Cassidy Elementary School.
Special Circumstances ). Content from conference speeches,
presentations, blogs, wikis and feeds reflect the opinions of
the author, and not necessarily those of EDUCAUSE or its
members.
IHEs Use Social Media For
Lots Of Reasons But Mainly To
Latest NY Times Debate Attract New Students
Source: http://keptup.typepad.com/academic/2010/08/ihes-use-social-
Covers Faculty Retirement media-for-lots-of-reasons-but-mainly-to-attract-new-students.html
Source: http://keptup.typepad.com/academic/2010/08/latest-ny-times- By StevenB on August 18th, 2010
debate-covers-faculty-retirement.html
Colleges around the Lehigh Valley are increasingly embracing
By StevenB on August 18th, 2010
social media such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter as
If tenured professors are retiring later, with some working valuable ways to communicate with students, potential
well into their 70's and beyond, does that block the career students and the community. Schools typically have more than
paths of their brilliant young students? A recent article in one Facebook page with offices for financial aid, admissions
The Chronicle of Higher Education examined the effects of and alumni, for example, maintaining their own. For some
the aging professoriat, and quoted administrators who said area schools, such as Lafayette College in Easton, the emphasis
that turnover was crucial to hiring new professors. While is on recruiting new students through a medium they're
professors of any age despair at the limited opportunities for comfortable with. Most colleges fall somewhere in between,
their students, do they see themselves as influencing this tight posting on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to keep their
market? Are they? What are other factors involved? Read more communities informed of events, new programs and faculty
at: and student achievements, while hoping potential students
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2010/08/15/ logging on decide their campuses sound like great places to be.
aging-professors-who-wont-retire Read more at:
http://articles.mcall.com/2010-08-15/news/mc-colleges-
technology-20100815_1_social-media-ncc-student-
Blogging in Education Today, facebook-page
part 3 (Student Blogging)
Source: http://www.educause.edu/node/211660
By kwalsh1 on August 18th, 2010
Introduction to a brain-
computer interface as a way
Continuing our multi-part series on the
use of blogs in education today, we look to communicate
at various examples of Student blogging Source: http://www.educause.edu/node/211656
By Bookworm on August 18th, 2010
efforts.

Over the last two weeks we’ve looked at various ways in which Rapid development of neuroscience opens a wide gate for
today’s teachers are using blogs. This week we continue our merging technology with biology. Brain-computer interface is
review of the educational blogoshpere by looking at different a great example how this can be successfully achieved.
ways in which students are using blogs in education-oriented Brain-computer interface possibly has a wide range of
applications. use, from entertainment to patience care to a global
There are various reasons why students blog in an educational communication. Here I will list several examples where
context. Some examples include blogging as part of a humanity will benefit from BCI, or BMI (Brain-Machine
classroom effort involving other students, blogging on their Interface).
own simply because they enjoy it, and blogging as part of a Let's start with an entertainment.
“sharing the experience” blog on a college web site.
Gaming industry is not left far behind a film industry. It is
an industry worth billions(1). Video games (despite the fact

4
August 18th, 2010 Published by: philosophyandrew
that it sounds silly) are a great example of how various fields accelerate our access to information and improve our ways
of research interact to each other and merge. For instance, of communication. These are one of the main fields which
a constant development of Artificial inteligence (AI) in video will exponentially accelerate our development because ease to
games is being introduced to robotics and other fields and access and share information through communication is the
vice versa.(2) With such an involvement and effort, a video key to success.
gaming industry is welcoming BCI. BCI in its core is all
about communication. Brain (wire)lesly communcates with a
computer via "helmet" or a similar device giving its wearer Resources:
more freedom by freeing her/his hands. A person can move a
cursor on the computer screen(3) and do simple task, but in
the future gamers will be able to move their avatars or whole
armies, just as they do now with hands using a keybords and Checklist For Freshmen
mice. They will be able drive cars and steer just by thinking "go
left" or "go right" or "brake". Financial Management
Source: http://keptup.typepad.com/academic/2010/08/checklist-for-
BCI also can be used to enjoy your home theater by handling freshmen-financial-management.html
an entertainment system with your thoughts which will make By StevenB on August 18th, 2010
a remote control obsolete.
Sending a child off to college for the first time is wrenching
But real BCI potential stands in helping disabled persons enough, but a slew of conflicting rules and changing
communicate with the outside world. Those with Locked-in banking and health-care laws are making this year's move-
syndrom will be able to speak (at this moment they can only in season more confusing than ever. And with college
communicate by choosing letters on the screen(4), (5). Future costs and student debt at record levels, it is all the
development of this technology will provide better and faster more important for students—and their parents—to avoid
ways to communicate. the new financial traps cropping up on campuses these
BCI also helps amputees in many ways. Prostethics that can days, from debit cards to health insurance. Here is a
be moved with thoughts are in its test phases and great results packing list to help your child get ready for the rigors
are achieved. Amputees are able to feel its prosthetic limbs and of the real world, finance-wise—and avoid new money-
they can sense touching. management, health-care, insurance and other problems.
Read more at: http://online.wsj.com/article_email/
As we all know, information is what makes the world moving.
SB10001424052748703723504575425550070056066-
How can a brain-computer interface bring progress in this
lMyQjAxMTAwMDEwMzExNDMyWj.html
field?
It seems like a distant future but at the present time we have a
technology developed enough to use our mobile phones hands Another University Press
Decides To Shut The Doors
free. And I don't mean just by talking to it without using hands.
I mean controling it by thoughts. At this moment we are able to
sms people or dial numbers(6). Imagine what we will be able Source: http://keptup.typepad.com/academic/2010/08/another-university-
when this technology advances. I don't doubt that we will be press-decides-to-shut-the-doors.html
able to get online just by thinking about it. Even more, we will By StevenB on August 18th, 2010
be able to get online no matter where we are and what we do: The University of Scranton Press is closing up shop after
on the street, in the car or a plane. We will be able to share 22 years and the publication of more than 200 titles, a
information with a blink of an eye. Global communication will victim of financial pressures and shifting priorities. The
be at hand at any time. Maybe our mobile phones will evolve to press stopped accepting new manuscripts earlier this year
something more advanced. Maybe we will use chips implanted and will officially shut down at the end of the summer.
in our brains and will be connected to a global network like we Supporters of the press called its demise a blow to Scranton
are now connected to the internet. and Northeast Pennsylvania. Not only did the press fill
BCI also has its "dark side". Its potential is interesting for a distinctive niche by publishing books dealing directly
agencies like D.A.R.P.A. which advances in many fields, with regional history and heritage, it provided several local
including BCI. But we don't need to look at D.A.R.P.A. like it is writers with an outlet for their works over the years.
an evil witch. Many military advances get to mainstream use. Read more at: http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/university-
D.A.R.P.A. researches on bionic limbs are becoming available of-scranton-press-shutting-down-1.949197
to everyone,not only military personel. Many advances of
BCI, which will be used in military will become mainstream.
Possible uses of BCI in military would be robot mind controls
and possibility to control vehicles like scouting planes. Mind
reading is also possibility and it is developing rapidly. Just
imagine mind-reading scanners on airports that would read
minds of terrorists.(7)
So, the conclusion is that brain-computer interface will
bring us a rapid progress in many fields. What I hope is to
5