July 6th, 2010
Education News
Roundup
Articles posted by five reliably interesting sources of
news about higher education.
Facebook
July 6th, 2010
I think it's a bit of a stretch to say Facebook has
embraced the Semantic Web, but they've become a bit
more semantically oriented. This article from ReadWrite web
examines Facebook's open graph . "Eeach web page can
now become an 'object' in Facebook's social graph (which
is Facebook's term for how people connect to each other in
its network). This means that pages can be referenced and
connected across social network user profiles, blog posts,
search results, Facebook's News Feed, and more." the nice
part is, other people (like me) can see the markup in these
web pages, and use it for our own purposes, which is exactly
what the open web is supposed to support (of course, Facebook
will get mad at you if you start harvesting semantic data from
their website, but that's another story). See also the W3C's
response . Richard MacManus , ReadWriteWeb, July 5, 2010
[Tags: Books , Networks , Semantic Web , Semantics , Web
Logs ] [ Link ] [ Comment ]
Picking Up the Pace
July 6th, 2010
Community colleges across the country are responding to
the call by many education experts to get the lead out and
meaningfully decrease their students’ time to degree and
program completion.
Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College, for
example, will change from the semester to a trimester class
format this fall. Classes will run for 14 weeks instead of 16
weeks, and the summer term will have just as many course
offerings as the fall and spring terms. While each class will be
about ten minutes longer, the most motivated students will be
able to earn an associate degree just under a year and a half
— compared to what had been the norm of two years (with a
summer off).
“Our students will graduate earlier in the year than those
at other colleges,” says Joanne Jaeger Tomblin, the college’s
president. “Southern’s graduates will be ready to enter the
Published by: philosophyandrew
work force sooner as well, giving them an edge when applying
for jobs.”
The new trimester format will complement the college’s
existing “fast track” option, which allows students to earn an
associate degree in 14-16 months by completing one course at
a time every two weeks. About a quarter of the college’s 2,200
students already take advantage of this accelerated option.
But the new trimester format will speed up everyone’s time to
degree completion and, Tomblin hopes, improve the college’s
graduation and retention rates in the process. She believes
more community colleges should find ways to accelerate
their degree programs, given evidence that students in these
programs are more likely to graduate than their counterparts
in traditionally-paced courses.
“It’s just another opportunity to do something different,” says
Tomblin, explaining that the college was inspired to make the
scheduling change in response to President Obama’s challenge
to double the number of Americans with a postsecondary
credential by 2020. “I would hope more colleges will look into
this. People are so in a traditional thinking mode that it may
take a while to catch on. We need to think about what kind of
delivery methods we can bring forward to help everybody.”
Southern’s switch to the trimester format, while only a
modest acceleration, is somewhat unusual in that it applies
to all students. Many of the community colleges moving in
this direction are doing so for cohorts who can enroll full
time, but not for all students. Nationally, both the Obama
administration and key outside groups, such as the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation, have been urging this speeding up,
arguing that too many students in a protracted community
college education drop out.
Most prominently, the City University of New York’s
Accelerated Student in Associate Programs (ASAP) has
already achieved some success. Officials announced last week
that more than half -- 53 percent -- of the program’s initial test
cohort of students graduated in three years. Similar programs
exist all over the country in areas rural and urban, including
at Grand Rapids Community College, in Michigan; Inver Hills
Community College, in Minnesota; and St. Louis Community
College, in Missouri.
Lower Columbia College, in Washington State, will pilot
“Transfer Express,” a program in which participating students
can earn an associate degree in one year, this fall.
“We’ve always had students that take more credits than is
typical because they want to get their degree faster,” explains
Laura Brener, the college’s vice president for instruction.
“Every community college has those students that are highly
1
July 6th, 2010
motivated, though not necessarily highly capable, who try to
do this. If they manage to get through a two-year program in
one year, it’s likely in spite of us. We don’t do much in higher
education to help these students. We asked, ‘Why not?’ We
have students who are doing this, and we’re not helping them.
This is a way of deliberately assisting them to finish early.”
The college operates on the quarter system, so students in
“Transfer Express” will have to complete six quarters' worth
of courses in only four. The program will operate in cohort
fashion, keeping the initial pilot group of 25 students together
throughout all of their classes and for mandatory study
time. Participating students will give up nearly all of their
course selection -- the program has preselected which elective
subjects the group will take. Brener says that students will take
a "broad-based" selection of electives, with the object being
to introduce them to a variety of disciplines. The idea that
students can make more progress through fewer selections,
is another part of the emerging philosophy at CUNY and
elsewhere around the country where educators are looking for
ways to encourage completion at higher rates and faster rates
than in the past.
Students who enroll in the accelerated program could save as
much as $500 in tuition, Brener says, noting that the college's
tuition rates are less expensive per credit for those who take
more credits a quarter.
Brener believes the poor economy has given accelerated
degree programs like “Transfer Express” more currency at
community colleges like hers. She also thinks more two-year
institutions should adopt similar cohort-based programs. Still,
she is the first to admit that this accelerated learning method
may not be for everyone. (Indeed, some have worried that
the growing emphasis on quick job preparation at community
colleges may limit the aspirations of some students.)
“Nobody’s trying to replace the typical path with accelerated
programs,” Brener explains. “Not everybody’s going to come in
college ready. Not only do many students come in without the
proper background and skills, but they also don’t come in with
the same motivations to complete. There have to be a variety
of pathways to meet their needs.”
Officials pushing a similar one-year associate degree program
at Ivy Tech Community College, Indiana’s two-year college
system, express a similar sentiment; however, they hope these
accelerated programs produce methods that can be used to
help all students -- not just those who do not need remediation
-- complete.
“We need a variety of ways for students to go directly from
high school to college quickly,” says Tom Snyder, Ivy Tech
president. “The lowest-cost way is with dual credit while in
high school, but we also need to find ways to help more
students start college on a full-time basis. That’s an attractive
option. There needs to be a policy solution to help … students
who work between 30 and 40 hours a week earn their degree
faster.”
Like the program at Lower Columbia, Ivy Tech’s accelerated
degree program will start with small cohorts of students for a
trial run in the fall. The participating students must not need
remediation, maintain a minimum 2.5 grade point average and
sign a pledge to stay with the program for the full year. The
Published by: philosophyandrew
students will also receive a $100 a week stipend to offset some
of the personal costs they will incur because they will likely not
be able to work a job while in the program.
The college’s Indianapolis campus will offer the associate
of applied science in computer information technology and
the general studies associate of science in the one-year
format, while the college’s Fort Wayne campus will offer the
accelerated associate of applied science in health care support.
“We’re a traditional manufacturing state,” Snyder says of
Indiana. “But those manufacturers need employees with more
skills. To the extent that we can quickly get more people with
college degrees into the workforce, that’s what been driving
us.”
Snyder thinks more community colleges will adopt similar
accelerated programs when they see the success of early
adopters like Ivy Tech. Still, he acknowledges that finding
funding for these programs is a major difficulty and remains
the only barrier to formally introducing such programs to
community colleges.
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Frash lets Flash content play
on iPad whether Jobs wants it
or not
July 6th, 2010
In the end, the iPad is a computer, which means there always
would be a way to play Flash on it. That mechanism has now
arrived in the form of the badly-named "Frash". Of course, you
would have to "jailbreak" your device. I'm not sure people want
Flash so badly they're willing to risk the wrath of Apple. Lee
Mathews, Download Squad, July 5, 2010 [Tags: none] [ Link
] [ Comment ]
2
July 6th, 2010
DUI Arrest Ends Tenure of
Georgia Athletics Director
July 6th, 2010
The University of Georgia announced the resignation of
Damon Evans as athletics director Monday, following days of
speculation over whether he could keep his job after being
arrested Wednesday for driving under the influence. Evans
initially tried to keep his job and made a public apology. But
university officials acted after more details came out about
the arrest, particularly embarrassing as Georgia has faced a
series of scandals over the years because of the behavior of
athletes. Among the details reported by The Atlanta Journal-
Constitution: When it became clear that Evans was going
to be arrested, he told an officer, "I am not trying to bribe
you but I'm the athletic director of the University of Georgia."
In addition, when stopped, Evans had between his legs the
underwear of a woman who was in the car (who was not his
wife, and who was arrested for disorderly conduct).
The Gaping M Shaped Void for
DIY Education
July 6th, 2010
Alan Levine's review of DIY U finds good bits but "there's
a certain wafting odor I cannot escape from." It pretends
to be objective well-researched journalism, he writes, but
"t wavered from obviously highly researched sources where
every sentence was footnoted followed by a sentence of
sweeping generalization that was just left hanging out there."
It leaves the reader wondering whether Kamenetz is describing
the state of affairs or advocating something. "Does the author
wish to be part of the movement to revolutionize education?
Does she have a stake?" And the gap is, "just like Anya
paints that the current college system favors those with a pre-
disposition to succeed; what we have now in the prototype DIY
U also seems to favor people with other pre-dispositions to do
well in this different environment." Alan Levine, CogDogBlog,
July 5, 2010 [Tags: Online Learning , Research , Paradigm
Shift ] [ Link ] [ Comment ]
Constitutional and Unwise
July 6th, 2010
As an association representing institutions of higher learning,
the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities is sensitive
to the claims of institutional autonomy presented by the
Hastings College of the Law in Christian Legal Society v.
Martinez. However, as the institutions within our organization
are religious in nature, we are also acutely aware of the
religious freedom concerns presented by this case. Ultimately,
because this decision did not determine the constitutionality
of the more common "non-discrimination clauses," its limited
scope is such that this ruling has little broad applicability
beyond "all-comers policies" at public universities, and in
Published by: philosophyandrew
many ways leaves more questions than it answers. As higher
education works to understand the implications of this limited
decision, and formulate policies in light of it, the academy
must wonder whether all-comers policies -- in which public
colleges limit recognition to student groups that will allow any
and all students to join and run for office -- though deemed
constitutional, really help further the laudable goal espoused
by Justice Anthony Kennedy of "enabling [students] to explore
new points of view."
In his concurrence Justice Kennedy observes that "vibrant
dialogue is not possible if students wall themselves off from
opposing points of view." But one might ask how a vibrant
dialogue is possible if opposing points of view are not present.
Here, Hastings argued that CLS built the wall by excluding
members who would not sign its statement of faith. Did
Hastings itself, however, not build a wall by rejecting CLS
as a student organization? CLS had a version of an all-
comers policy, allowing attendance and participation by non-
members, requiring the statement of faith only for members
and leaders. Would not vibrant dialogue have occurred more
readily on campus during club meetings, between members
with one point of view and non-members with different points
of view, than by rejecting CLS? Further, this analysis ignores
the reality that vibrant dialogue occurs within groups of like-
minded people – the vigorous debates within political parties
clearly demonstrate this. And at a macro level, had CLS
remained a student organization, perhaps another Christian
group with different beliefs would have formed, creating
vibrant dialogue between these two groups.
It is easy to mischaracterize CLS’s membership policy and to
oversimplify it as outright discrimination, but a more nuanced
approach might be more useful to the academy as it moves
forward in applying this case. In Corp. of the Presiding Bishop
v. Amos, a central case to the bounds of religious association,
the then-leader of the liberal wing of the Court, Justice
William J. Brennan, explained that a religious community
defines itself by "determining that certain activities are in
furtherance of an organization’s religious mission, and that
only those committed to that mission should conduct them,
is ... a means by which a religious community defines itself."
And this Court itself reaffirmed the constitutionality of CLS’s
expressive activity, "[i]nsisting that an organization embrace
unwelcome members we have therefore concluded, 'directly
and immediately affects associational rights.' " Preventing
discrimination on campuses is a worthy goal, but reflexively
applying the hatchet of an all-comers policy may actually
undermine equally worthy goals: free speech, freedom of
association, and an open marketplace of ideas. Might public
colleges and universities instead formulate more nuanced
policies that take care to ask whether a group’s belief-
based membership requirements are "in furtherance of [the]
organization’s religious mission," instead of simply rejecting
these groups outright?
A key tenet of almost all religions is that they hold
beliefs distinct from other religions and the non-religious --
communal beliefs are essential to the religious. Religion has
often been challenged to define these beliefs in the face of
cultural shifts, but it is the prerogative of those within the
religion to determine those boundaries. And as mystifying or
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July 6th, 2010
even offensive as some of those ideas are to those outside (or
even inside) that religion, a key principle of our American
ideals is that those ideas be challenged not rejected.
Within the CCCU itself this case sparked debate – debate
which we welcomed as a sign of a healthy and robust
organization. Such debate is part of the fabric of academe.
If in an effort to limit liability more public and colleges and
universities adopt these all-comers policies, part of that fabric
could be undone. Though they claim to promote diversity, they
actually promote sameness. How can a robust marketplace of
diverse ideas exist when no group is allowed to unite around a
core set of unique beliefs that give them their identity?
Academe has long stood for a free and open expression
of ideas, undergirded by the expectation that the best
ones would ultimately rise to the top. Rather than merely
"tolerat[ing]" viewpoints with which we disagree, as Justice
Stevens suggests, academe should embrace them, confident
that the best ones will prevail. As Thomas Jefferson said,
referencing the University of Virginia, "This institution will be
based upon the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For
here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor
to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it."
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Published by: philosophyandrew
Confident About the Emeritus
Years
July 6th, 2010
Ever since the huge drops on Wall Street in the fall of 2008,
some college leaders have predicted that academics would get
more skittish about retirement and might delay a decision
to leave full-time teaching and research. Anecdotes abound
of scholars putting off retirement to build their retirement
accounts back up.
But a new national survey of academic employees by the TIAA-
CREF Institute has found generally high levels of confidence
by academic employees in their financial plans for retirement.
The survey compares higher education employees to all
other employees in the United States, and finds much more
security on these issues within academe than outside it. It's
worth noting, however, that Americans (on average, across
professions and income levels) are notoriously poor planners
about retirement, so higher confidence levels in academe may
involve getting over a low bar. Further, the survey of academic
employees shows one key area -- health care -- about which
many in academe are worried.
While the survey was conducted for the TIAA-CREF Institute,
the research arm of the pension giant, data were collected
across higher education as a whole, not just from TIAA-
CREF participants. Officials said that they believed the sample
was generally representative of the academic work force, but
it tilts toward four-year institutions and may not include
adjuncts -- a faculty group that might have greater concerns
than others about retirement. The survey is the latest by
the institute to try to track attitudes about retirement in an
economically uncertain period. (The non-faculty employee
category includes all job categories, and thus would likely
include both highly compensated senior administrators and
other employees who are in support staff positions.)

the International Phonetic

On overall confidence, higher education employees appear in
a strong position compared to others, with far more feeling
Alphabet very or somewhat confident that they will live comfortably in
July 6th, 2010 retirement, and four times the number of non-academic as
academic workers not feeling much confidence at all in their
ability to do so.
Confidence of Higher Education and Other Employees in
Having Enough Monday to Live Comfortably for Retirement
One of the most valuable things I did while learning French
was to repeat pronunciations over and over. It's essential to get Very Somewhat Not Too Not at All
pronunciations right, otherwise you don't learn from reading Confident Confident Confident Confident
(because you don't associate words with sounds) and you have
difficulty understanding the spoken language. Also, getting the Higher 26% 54% 12% 5%
pronunciation right means that you will have much less of an education
accent when you speak, which makes you easily understood by employees
others. Here is a set of English language pronunciations, with
--Faculty 26% 55% 11% 5%
audio examples. If you are studying English, I recommend you
use this guide regularly once a day for several weeks. Various --Non- 25% 54% 16% 5%
Authors, Antimoon, July 5, 2010 [Tags: Audio , Online faculty
Learning ] [ Link ] [ Comment ]
All U.S. 16% 38% 24% 22%
workers

4
July 6th, 2010 Published by: philosophyandrew
Asked about having enough money in retirement for "basic Applicant profile: Successful candidates will have a proven
expenses," even higher percentages of academic employees track record of teaching senior executives and will bring a
feel secure, with 45 percent feeling very confident and 45 highly-innovative, ...
percent feeling somewhat confident, and only 5 percent feeling
not too confident and 4 percent not at all confident. But
when the topic shifts to medical expenses in retirements, the My ISTE Reflections
numbers drop significantly (even if confidence remains at a July 6th, 2010
higher level than it is for non-academic employees).
Confidence of Higher Education and Other Employees in
Having Enough Money for Medical Expenses in Retirement
It appears that ISTE this year was evolutionary, rather
Very Somewhat Not Too Not at All
than revolutionary. Chris Lehmann comments, "There was no
Confident Confident Confident Confident
big new social tool like Twitter that everyone was trying to
Higher 23% 52% 15% 8% learn. This year, to me, it felt like there was a deepening at
education work." By contrast, though, Dave Warlick argues that the
employees word was "revolution" - "one word that kept popping up in
conversations." Or maybe it was something else . "I don't know
--Faculty 23% 52% 16% 7% that "revolution" gets us there. I see its appeal. But I think we
we're trying to do might be harder than that." I like the model;
--Non- 21% 54% 12% 11%
of sowing seeds . Tom Hoffman suggests the word might be
faculty
Finland . Chris Lehmann, Practical Theory, July 5, 2010 [Tags:
All U.S. 12% 37% 25% 26% Twitter , Paradigm Shift ] [ Link ] [ Comment ]
workers
David P. Richardson, a principal research fellow at the TIAA-
CREF Institute, said the results suggest that health care
Michigan State to Shut
benefits will be important for college employees as they are Undergraduate Program in
making retirement decisions. He noted that paying for health
care -- whether for current employees or retirees -- is an area
Dubai
July 6th, 2010
where "historically higher education has been very generous,"
especially compared to other employers. "But the market is Michigan State University is shutting down its undergraduate
moving in a direction where we'll see shifts in the future." campus in Dubai, saying that it has lost millions of dollars on
the effort while failing to attract enough students to make the
The new federal health legislation, he said, will have the
program sustainable, The Nationalreported. A small master's
biggest impact on those without any health insurance (or very
program will be maintained. Only about 100 undergraduates
minimal coverage), so those in higher education who were
are enrolled, and Michigan State officials said that their
worried before the bill passed are unlikely to now feel more
financial plans had assumed larger enrollments.
secure.
Terry Denbow, vice president for university relations at
Richardson also said that colleges face "a real tension" in
Michigan State, told Inside Higher Ed vie e-mail that the
that they are worried that too much of their health coverage
university was indeed changing its goals for Dubai. "Our
spending is going to retirees (as opposed to current employees)
strategic approach is to sharpen our focus in the region and
and that any cuts in benefits for retirees may discourage
streamline operations in the face of recent and very dramatic
employees from retiring -- at a time when many colleges want
worldwide economic challenges. We’ll focus on executive
to encourage retirements.
development programs, study abroad, graduate education,
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Library Coordinator is responsible for hiring, training, and opportunities in Dubai, the UAE, and the region," he said
supervising 20-25 student ... "We have embarked upon the formal processes needed to
Keiser University is a regionally accredited, private, career shift undergraduate programs there to East Lansing with a
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The Banner Training Manager will plan, develop, coordinate,
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Harold Jarche looks at the shifting roles of teacher and learner
in networked learning. The only part I really disagree with
is the lower right-hand corner, where he characterizes a new

5
July 6th, 2010
learner role as a "Seeker of truth" and "Engaged professional-
amateur." I don't think we need to ascribe such disinterested
motives to learners. The shift in motive from "job, money,
fame, power, desire to appear smart" will remain "selfish" in a
sense, but will find a new form as personal self-development,
personal growth, or as the Greeks called it, arete . Harold
Jarche, Weblog, July 5, 2010 [Tags: Networks , Wikipedia ]
[ Link ] [ Comment ]
Introducing Glenn Beck
University
July 6th, 2010
Glen Beck, the controversial broadcaster, has decided to
introduce his own education service: Beck University.
"Beck University is a unique academic experience bringing
together experts in the fields of religion, American history
and economics," says the announcement on the Beck Web
site. "Through captivating lectures and interactive online
discussions, these experts will explore the concepts of Faith,
Hope and Charity and show you how they influence America’s
past, her present and most importantly her future."
Courses are not for credit, so the use of the term "university"
appears to be largely symbolic (although that got Donald
Trump in trouble for his Trump University, which has since
been renamed).
There is no tuition for Beck University, but to enroll, you
must be an "Insider Extreme" subscriber to a variety of Beck
products (for at least $6.26 a month).
Two of the three original faculty members (all called
professors) are not traditional academics, but one is: James.
R. Stoner Jr., a professor of political science at Louisiana State
University at Baton Rouge. In the syllabus posted for the new
program, Stoner is slated to give lectures on the principle of
charity, but he said in a brief interview that the lectures are
all focused on general issues related to the Constitution and
the development of American traditions. His first talk will be
about federalism, his second on the separation of powers, and
the third on individual rights.
Stoner said he is "someone who wants to teach" so he was
delighted to accept Beck's offer to develop the lectures.
While Stoner said he didn't know how he came to
Beck's attention, the LSU scholar has strong scholarly
and conservative credentials. He is the author ofCommon-
Law Liberty: Rethinking American Constitutionalism and
Common Law and Liberal Theory: Coke, Hobbes, and the
Origins of American Constitutionalism, and he is currently
working on a book tentatively called "Resisting Judicial
Supremacy." During the last Bush administration, he served
on the National Council on the Humanities.
The circles in which Beck is popular tend to regularly
criticize academe as dominated by the left. Stoner, while
not disagreeing, suggested that the ability of the Beck team
to identify one of its first scholars from within academe
suggested that scholars don't all think alike. "There are a huge
number of people who teach, and certain opinions that tend
to be dominant in the academy, but there is diversity in the
Published by: philosophyandrew
academy," he said. "Obviously somebody was interested in
what I had to say."
The arrival of Beck University has not gone unnoticed by
his critics. Keith Olbermann did a segment comparing Beck
unfavorably to Era Cornell, the founder of Olbermann's alma
mater. And Mother Jones has come out with suggestions for
additional courses Beck U. might offer, including "Semiotics
of Tricornered Hats," "Wilde, Proust, and Other Homosexual
Europeans," "Middle Eastern and Arab Cultures: What's Up
With That?" and "Underwater Conspiracy Weaving."
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Signaling Important Document
Paragraphs in WriteToReply –
And a Possible Mobile Theme?
July 6th, 2010
Tony Hirst discusses another first-rate idea: signalling the
importance of each paragraph. It's one of these things that
might catch on or might not - I think it would have to be based
in something pragmatic, like say, you select a paragraph (or
highlight a sentence) and it's stored in your repository, and the
paragraph meanwhile earns a +1 in some database somewhere
(and if read with that turned on, appears as slightly larger print
than the rest). Tony Hirst, OUseful Info, July 2, 2010 [Tags:
Learning Object Repositories ] [ Link ] [ Comment ]
Broad Backing for Appeal by
Conservative Professor
July 6th, 2010
Mike Adams, a conservative, Christian professor who believes
his promotion to full professor at the University of North
Carolina at Wilmington was derailed because of opposition
to his views, is getting broad backing on a key point in his
legal fight. In a decision in March, a federal judge -- citing a
controversial Supreme Court ruling about public employees
-- said that newspaper columns that Adams wrote were not
6
July 6th, 2010
protected by the First Amendment (in terms of his case)
because he included them in his tenure dossier. Adams has
been receiving support from the Alliance Defense Fund. On
Friday, several groups that have not weighed in on the merits
of Adams' promotion bid filed a brief backing his appeal,
saying that the finding that the contents of a tenure file lacked
academic freedom protection was a dangerous precedent. The
groups backing the appeal are the American Association of
University Professors, the Foundation for Individual Rights in
Education, and the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection
of Free Expression. Their brief may be found here.
What HBR hasn't noticed: four
reasons why management
needs radical change
July 6th, 2010
That sputtering and disguised cursing you hear is me reading
Harvard Business Review. Every day I am finding stuff from
that site that to me is so far off base I don't even know where to
begin my criticisms. But this article is a good start. The author
argues that HBS writers simply haven't noticed that the world
has changed. That could be. In particular, HBS writers seem
not to have noticed the following:
- workers are no longer semi-skilled and cannot simply be
supervised and cannot simply be told what to do
- you need a committed workforce; you cannot expect sullen
or resentful, morose or angry to do brain surgery or draw up
legal documents
- customers are no longer willing to accept just anything; they
expect quality products and customer service
- you can't just think of the workplace as a system any more;
the 'parts' have feelings, the 'outputs' have social goods (or
harms)
There's a lot more, in my book, but this is a good starting point.
Steve Denning, The Leader's Guide to Radical Management,
July 2, 2010 [Tags: Quality ] [ Link ] [ Comment ]
Dispute Over Israeli
Professor's Comments
July 6th, 2010
Ben-Gurion University has angered civil liberties and
conservative groups by calling off the courses of a faculty
member accused of making an anti-gay remark, Israel News
reported. Yeruham Leavitt reportedly said that the children
of same-sex couples would not have a "normal" upbringing.
And earlier he reportedly offended women in a class when,
discussing urges, he said that he is able to control himself
despite being "attracted to all women." Leavitt has said he
has been misinterpreted and that he supports equity. The
Association for Civil Rights in Israel is calling on the university
to restore his courses. "Academic freedom is also the freedom
to express oneself outrageously -- especially when regarding
Published by: philosophyandrew
opinion," Hagai Elad, the organization's CEO, told the news
service.
What China Can Teach Writing
Teachers
July 6th, 2010
The key think the 'common core' people get wrong is that
there are other ways to see the world. This is drawn out
evocatively by Clay Burell as he describes some recent work
in Chinese literary theory. He writes, "Nisbett's whole point
in this book of 'cultural psychology' is to show that modes
of thought differ from culture to culture, that Enlightenment
universalism is belied by the evidence, etc, etc. The point of
the passage itself is to illustrate how unlike our abstract and
essentialist Greek way of thinking is the Chinese, which resists
hard categories and prefers, as Nisbett puts it, 'expressive,
metaphoric language.'" Clay Burrell, Beyond School, July 2,
2010 [Tags: Books , Ontologies , China ] [ Link ] [ Comment ]
A Lucrative Sick Leave?
July 6th, 2010
An administrator at the San Jose/Evergreen Community
College District earned a full salary on sick leave this
spring while teaching a course at another community college,
The San Jose Mercury News reported. Bayinaah Jones,
the district's executive director of institutional effectiveness,
denied to the newspaper that she engaged in work while on
sick leave, but the district confirmed her sick leave and the the
Foothill-DeAnza Community College District confirmed that
she taught there at the time.
Sakai Conference: Kamenetz
Keynote
July 6th, 2010
I haven't watched this yet, but Anya Kamenetz's keynote at
the Sakai conference is an odd enough mix to be intriguing.
Michael Feldstein gives the talk (which starts about 23 minutes
into the video) a polite, almost enthusiastic, write-up. "The
keynote," he writes, "provides a significantly evolved and
refined version of her argument." In order to grow DIY U
("which I'm increasingly inclined to think of as simply a
trendier and more provocative name for open education," he
writes) we need to pay attention to content, socialization,
and accreditation. Or, as George Siemens has said more
clearly, we are creating open learning in three phases: open
content, open classes, open assessment. Feldstein finishes
with what I would consider the starting point of the personal
learning environment project: "it's worth asking ourselves how
technology can help scaffold learning experiences to foster a
7
July 6th, 2010
sense of autonomy, increasing mastery, and greater purpose."
Michael Feldstein, e-Literate, July 2, 2010 [Tags: Assessment
, Connectivism , Open Content , Experience , Project Based
Learning ] [ Link ] [ Comment ]
Universities Help Companies
Bypass Earmark Ban
July 6th, 2010
The House of Representatives has banned earmarks of funds
directly to companies, but many corporations that have
received earmarks in the past and that want to keep them
coming are working through nonprofit groups -- including
colleges and universities -- to do so, The New York Times
reported. The earmarks technically go to the nonprofit group,
which then subcontracts much of the work to a corporate
entity. Among the universities cited in the article are Eastern
Kentucky University, Pennsylvania State University and the
University of Toledo.
It's every bastard for himself,
the last century hasn't ended
yet
July 6th, 2010
It's not simply because my photo is on page 9 that I think
this issue of Today's Campus is worth a look. Because though
the issue is set from the premise of edupunk, as Groom
notes, "I marvel at how quickly the narrative of change in
higher education is sucked into the seemingly irrefutable and
naturalized logic of business innovation." Agreed. Maybe they
weren't there, but the magazine authors - and Anya Kamanetz
- fail to see is that edupunk is about counter-culture, not selling
out. There are good reasons for that. As Tony Hirst says, "The
disaster that happens when democracy is for sale is nothing
when compared to what will happen when learning is for sale."
Jim Groom, bavatuesdays, July 2, 2010 [Tags: Edupunk ] [
Link ] [ Comment ]
YouTube and Context
July 6th, 2010
The headline on the YouTube video clip of Karl Walling's
lecture in May says simply: "U.S. Naval War College Professor
Advocates Rape."
As a result of some of the comments in the clip, the Naval
War College placed Walling, a professor of strategy and policy,
on paid administrative leave. He was told to apologize to the
college, which he did. But in an interview, Walling said that he
never advocated rape, and that the 3 minute, 40 second video
of one part of a serious academic lecture -- by leaving out the
context before and after what was shown -- distorted his views.
To understand what he was saying, he said, requires someone
to understand his pedagogy, to have heard the entire talk and
Published by: philosophyandrew
to understand a little bit about Machiavelli. (If you want to
read the text of the entire lecture, you can find it here.)
Walling said he is considering legal action against the person
who posted the truncated version of his lecture to YouTube.
The lecture topic, part of a conference on ethics, was "Joseph
Conrad and Niccolo Machiavelli on the Ethics and Strategies of
Insurgency and Counterinsurgency." In the portion of the talk
that was posted to YouTube, he is talking about Machiavelli's
views on the goddess Fortuna, as a symbol of the luck or
opportunity that can either help or hinder a leader's agenda.
Walling is discussing Machiavalli's view that a strong leader
does not surrender to Fortuna, but seeks to assert control. And
he notes that to Machiavelli, it was not incidental that Fortuna
was a female figure and the leader was a man, depending on
a woman to back him.
Unprintable Content (Video, Flash, etc.)
Then Walling uses the language for which he was criticized,
describing the dilemma facing the leader seeking to move
forward, and waiting for good fortune from Fortuna. "What
does a leader do when the bitch won't put out? I do not mean
to be vulgar, but rather to get to the heart of the matter
from Machiavelli. If Fortuna will not cooperate, then make her
do so. Real men, real leaders do not take no for an answer.
Fortuna, said Machiavelli, is a woman, and when it is necessary
if one wants to hold her down, to beat her down, moreover,
she will like it." Walling is then explicit in saying that what
Machiavelli is talking about is the rape of Fortuna.
The language by Walling is obviously explicit -- in particular
the use of the word "bitch." But viewing this portion of
Machiavelli's thinking in the context of a powerful male
violently asserting control over a woman is a fairly typical
reading. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, for
example, describes the material this way:
"Machiavelli reinforces the association of Fortuna with the
blind strength of nature by explaining that political success
depends upon appreciation of the operational principles of
Fortuna. His own experience has taught him that 'it is better
to be impetuous than cautious, because Fortuna is a woman
and it is necessary, in order to keep her under, to beat and
maul her.' In other words, Fortuna demands a violent response
of those who would control her. 'She more often lets herself
be overcome by men using such methods than by those who
proceed coldly,' Machiavelli continues, 'therefore always, like
a woman, she is the friend of young men, because they are less
cautious, more spirited, and with more boldness master her.'
The wanton behavior of Fortuna demands an aggressive, even
violent response, lest she take advantage of those men who are
too retiring or 'effeminate' to dominate her."
Of course there is also the question of whether Walling was
presenting Machiavelli's ideas as a positive model, but the
concluding portions of his talk (not included in the video clip)
make it clear he rejects Machiavelli.
"Machiavelli’s political logic was the logic of gangsters, the
logic of Don Corleone," says the text of the talk, which closes
by saying that "you can learn how to win from Machiavelli, but
to deserve to win, that is a very different matter."
8
July 6th, 2010
A spokeswoman for the Naval War College said that the lecture
was for students at the college and was broadcast internally,
and that some language was problematic.
"The president of the college determined that portions
of the lecture, which included degrading language about
women, were inappropriate and entirely unacceptable," said a
statement from the college. "The college has policies in place
prohibiting the use of inappropriate language, viewed this as
a serious matter and took appropriate corrective action. The
professor apologized to the college community, was placed on
administrative leave, and removed from the lecture schedule
for the remainder of the academic year. He also received a
letter of caution, which he has publicly made known. College
leadership met with students and faculty to reiterate that the
language was inappropriate. The Naval War College, like the
Navy, values the contributions of its diverse community and
expects all members of our organization to adhere to the
highest standards of professionalism."
The spokeswoman said that the paid administrative leave was
"for a limited period of time, which has since expired."
Walling is a civilian employee. He said that while the college
doesn't have tenure, it does have renewable contracts and that
he has been there for 10 years.
In a brief phone interview, Walling stressed that he did not
want to criticize the college and that he was frustrated not with
the college, but with the person who posted the video clip to
YouTube. He added, however, that "I cannot say that I agree
with the requirement that I apologize and I explained in the
apology that I was playing a character."
Walling said that speaking in a way that reflects what a
philosopher or public figure thought is something that he has
done regularly over the years. "I create dialogues and it's been
effective until now."
The person who posted the video to YouTube has an account
under the name Oompaloompa50702 and did not respond to
an e-mail query via YouTube about how he or she made the
video and why it was posted as it was. (Walling, citing advice
from a lawyer, declined to discuss what legal action he might
take against this person.)
Comments posted on YouTube suggest a mix of views on the
video. One post said: "I am a feminist, and I think Walling's
choice of words was more than poor; it was offensive. As
earlier commenters have said, given the rate of sexual assault
in the military, using words like 'the bitch should put out' is
unacceptable. What did his female students and colleagues
think? What, after all, can all the other women watching this
video think? In future he must try to express himself with more
restraint and mindfulness about his position of power."
Others, however, said it was clear that Walling not expressing
his own views, but rather those of Machiavelli. One commenter
not only defended the vulgarity, but used some: "And
seriously, to the people against a person using the words 'rape'
and 'bitches,' this is a WAR COLLEGE! An institute of higher
learning for military leaders. You are goddamned right those
are the words used by those under their command. Take the
stick out of your ancient asses and get over it. It was a mature
speech to a mature audience over a mature subject matter. It
Published by: philosophyandrew
was vulgar. Yes. As is combat. As is a war where people are
raped. I should fucking hope it is discussed at the War College."
And one other, saying he had studied with Walling, wrote,
"When I first read Machiavelli, I got a bit carried away by my
love of The Prince, by how clever and insightful Machiavelli
was. It was Professor Walling who sat me down and reminded
me that Machiavelli is fundamentally evil."
• A Ph.D. in Political Science with specialization in American
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Internet Archive Sets Fair-
Use Bait With Open Library
Lending
July 6th, 2010
Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle has thrown down
the gauntlet with his internet library. This is a service that
provides online loans of in-copyright works. The small set
of books he is loaning to start the service is designed to
challenge. It includes works by open content advocates, 1998
computer books, orphan works, and so on. Eric Hellman, Go
To Hellman, July 2, 2010 [Tags: Open Content , Copyrights
, Patents ] [ Link ] [ Comment ]
Softbal Upgrade Settles Title
IX Complaint at Lincoln Land
July 6th, 2010
Lincoln Land Community College has agreed to upgrade
its softball facilities to settle a complaint filed with the
U.S. Education Department under Title IX of the Education
Amendments of 1972, which bars discrimination based on sex,
The State Journal-Register , of Springfield, Ill., reported. An
Education Department inquiry rejected some charges against
the college with regard to the treatment of female athletes, but
found that there were illegal inequities in facilities.
9
July 6th, 2010
A Lesson From Justice
Kennedy
July 6th, 2010
There probably weren’t any Supreme Court justices marching
in the pride marches of recent weeks. But they did give
gay people a nod last Monday. In Christian Legal Society
v. Martinez, the Supreme Court upheld a University of
California Hastings College of Law rule prohibiting registered
student organizations from excluding anyone, in this case,
lesbians and gays. The Christian Legals contended that their
religion forbade them to associate with people who engaged
in “unrepentant homosexual conduct,” and that the law school
rule violated their religious freedom in demanding open
membership.
The opinion, by Justice Ginsburg, is hardly a paean to gay
rights – it carefully notes that the world of registered student
organizations is a “limited access public forum,” not a full
public forum like a town square. A limited public forum,
which carries with it benefits, is treated somewhat more like
the public funding cases. People may have rights, as the
Christian Legal Society claimed, not to associate, which would
protect them, for example, from a law forcing them to take
gay members, but they do not have rights not to associate
and to still claim money and recognition from the University
of California. Certainly nothing in the opinion indicates that
gays and lesbians are a specially protected class such that
an organization funded by the state university excluding
them particularly would violate the 14th Amendment. All this
opinion does is turn back the claim that religious beliefs
trump all other legal claims, including the university’s rules of
inclusiveness.
The opinion is noteworthy not just for what it says about public
colleges and their student organizations, but also for what it
may suggest about Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the constitutional
challenge to California’s Prop 8, rejecting gay marriage, as it
ever so slowly wends its way to the Supreme arbiters. First,
the 5-4 decisions in the Hastings case was that rarest of birds,
a collection of the Court’s four liberals plus the gays’ best
hope: Justice Anthony Kennedy. If the case against Prop 8
has any chance in the Supreme Court as likely configured, it
rests in Justice Kennedy, who wrote the opinion in Lawrence
v. Texas, the 2003 case striking down the sodomy laws as
unconstitutional.
Second, Justice Kennedy’s separate opinion, concurring in the
opinion of the Court, is a pretty stirring argument for the Prop
8 plaintiffs coming up from California. Justice Kennedy takes
time to write separately, even though he explicitly says he only
speaks to support the opinion of the Court, because he wants
to say a word in defense of the special role of reason in a legal
system:
“Law students come from many backgrounds and have but
three years to meet each other and develop their skills. They
do so by participating in a community that teaches them how
to create arguments in a convincing, rational, and respectful
manner.... As a condition to membership or participation in
a group, students were required to avow particular personal
beliefs or to disclose private, off-campus behavior ... were
Published by: philosophyandrew
those sorts of requirements to become prevalent, it might
undermine the principle that in a university community
— and in a law school community specifically — speech
is deemed persuasive based on its substance.... A school
quite properly may conclude that allowing an oath or belief-
affirming requirement, or an outside conduct requirement,
could be ... inconsistent with the basic concept that a view’s
validity should be tested through free and open discussion.”
By all reports, the strongest thing the plaintiffs in Perry have
going for them, beside the obvious talents of their lawyers,
David Boies and Ted Olson, is the power of rational argument.
To be constitutional, legislation has to have some basis in
reason. Since the defendants, cleverly or foolishly, chose to
limit the presentation of evidence in Perry essentially to
one dubious expert, they were forced, by closing argument,
to contend, simply, that Prop 8 is constitutional, because
the groundless fears of a majority of the referendum voters
constitutes a rational basis for legislation. This position differs
radically from the arguments that the Prop 8 proponents
presented in the campaign for Prop 8, which included the
damage to society by treating gay and lesbian people as normal
and worthy. It even differs from the defendants’ original
attempts, at trial, to present evidence that the option of
same sex marriage actually harms heterosexual marriage. In
essence, the Prop 8 defendants are arguing that they do not
have to make a substantive, rational argument for their law.
By forcing them into a court of law, the plaintiffs challenged
not so much the substance of Prop 8 as its metaphysics:
What counts as reason? Inchoate fears may be the currency
of political campaigns, sadly. But Justice Kennedy’s opinion
reminds us that they are emphatically not the stuff of the
American legal system, starting with the three years in which
its practitioners learn their skills. If he means what he said,
this rare bird may also be the first swallow.
Linda Hirshman is at work on a book on the gay revolution,
"Victory! How a Despised and Marginalized Minority Came
Out, Pushed Back, Faced Death, Found Love and Changed
America for Everyone," to be published in 2011.
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10
July 6th, 2010
New Programs: Art,
Communications, Business,
Entertainment Management,
Dance, Sustainability,
Corrections
July 6th, 2010
• Kennesaw State University is starting a certificate
program -- available to students majoring in the arts or
in business -- in entertainment and music management.
Anne Arundel Community College
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Middle States Places U. of
Puerto Rico and 2 Other
Colleges on Probation
July 6th, 2010
The regional accrediting agency for the mid-Atlantic states
last month placed on probation 10 of the University of
Puerto Rico's 11 campuses, a private independent college
in Maryland, and a for-profit institution in the District
of Columbia. The Middle States Commission on Higher
Education cited the Puerto Rico university because of
concerns about the impact of the longstanding student strike
( recently settled ) on the campuses' ability to meet the
agency's standards on governance and the appropriate length
of educational offerings. The accreditor cited Baltimore
International College for shortcomings related to the faculty
Published by: philosophyandrew
role in governance, the size and independence of its governing
board, and assessment of student learning at the institution.
And Potomac College faces probation for lacking an adequate
strategic plan and insufficient goals and use of data related to
student learning. In other actions, Middle States continued
the probation of the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico,
placed seven institutions on warning status, including the
National Labor College , and removed Rockland Community
College, in New York, from warning status.
Adjuncts Vote to Unionize at
Ferris State
July 6th, 2010
Non-tenure-track faculty members at Ferris State University
voted Friday to unionize and to affiliate with the American
Federation of Teachers. The vote is among a series that have
taken place at Michigan public universities in recent years,
where adjuncts have been organized by the AFT.
Dispute Over Teaching
Assignments at Madison Tech
July 6th, 2010
Part-time faculty members at Madison Area Technical College
are protesting new rules -- approved by the full-time
faculty members -- that would allow full-timers to sign
up for "overload" courses before part-timers have received
assignments, The Wisconsin State Journal reported. The
part-timers fear that some in their group will end up with
no courses -- as full-timers opt for the extra pay for teaching
beyond a full-time schedule.
Welcome to our new readers
July 6th, 2010
Preparing for Dying Industries
July 6th, 2010
By Dean Dad July 5, 2010 9:39 pm
Should a community college train people for the industries
that are currently there, or for the industries that seem likely
to be there in the near future?
I’ve been chewing on this one in light of some recent proposals
floating around to get students prepared to certain kinds
of manufacturing firms that, in my humble estimation, may
not be much longer for this continent. (To be fair, a similar
objection could be lodged at certain kinds of journalism
11
July 6th, 2010
programs, though I suspect that journalism will morph rather
than die.)
I can imagine arguments on both sides, and I’ll admit being
half-convinced by each.
On one side is the perfectly valid argument that students
need jobs now, not years from now, and there’s an inherent
difficulty (if not arrogance) in trying to read the future. While
some broad, system-level trends may be legible, they don’t
necessarily tell you what will happen in any given local market,
or with any given company. Even if, say, manufacturing is
on the decline nationally, that doesn’t mean that every single
manufacturing company will either go under or go overseas.
And if a few of the survivors are local, why the hell not prepare
students for them?
There’s some truth to that. Even if the job only lasts a few
years, that’s still a few years of gainful employment that
might not have occurred otherwise. And who’s to say that one
opportunity won’t lead to another?
But then there’s bitter experience. Having gone to grad school
in an evergreen discipline in the 90’s, I saw and experienced
firsthand the frustration of doing everything right only to
emerge with a credential nobody wants. Having grown up in a
city that’s still paying the price for putting so many eggs in the
basket of a single industry, only to wind up with egg on its face,
I’m a little nervous about pretending not to notice industrial
decline. As late as the 90’s, the American car industry was
doing great, riding the wave of SUV’s (and the undercurrent of
cheap gas) as far as it could go. We know how that turned out,
and it’s not like nobody saw it coming.
It’s one thing to be blindsided by change; it’s quite another to
shut your eyes to it and pretend it’s not there.
Even the “buying time” scenario -- a few years of gainful
employment will give you time to adjust to the next big thing
-- seems more optimistic than history suggests is warranted.
What seems to happen instead is that as the immediate crisis
recedes, people turn their attention elsewhere and just assume
that everything is back to normal.
I don’t want to contribute to a false sense of security, but I don’t
want to sacrifice other people’s real opportunities to my own
intuitions, either.
Wise and worldly readers, what do you think? Should
cc’s spend resources on training people to work for dying
industries?
Recommending Kamenetz's
DIY U Book
July 6th, 2010
By Joshua Kim July 5, 2010 9:25 pm
Dean Dad gave it a lukewarm review, but I say to stop whatever
you are doing and go and order Anya Kamenetz's DIY U:
Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of
Higher Education.
Kamenetz misses a bunch of things, which I will touch on
below, but she gets enough right to make this an essential read
if you work at the intersection of higher ed and technology.
Published by: philosophyandrew
The fact that somebody wrote a book that places some of our
heroes and brightest lights at the center of the narrative is
reason enough to celebrate this book. People like Gardner
Campbell, Jim Groom, Stephen Downes, David Wiley, Carol
Twigg, and John Seely Brown and others pop up in wonderful
ways throughout DIY U.
If you are a learning technology person, like me, the other
reason to read DIY U is that Kamenetz has something to teach
us about costs, access, and the economics of higher ed. I didn't
learn all that much about the open education movement, large
scale course redesign, hybrid learning or even the edupunks -
as these are all topics that I live with on a daily basis. But I did
learn some things about why the cost of tuition is rising at twice
the rate of inflation, the perverse incentives that cause costs
to go up while access decreases, and our countries shameful
failure to fund adequate post-secondary education.
Where Kamenetz is particularly persuasive is in her writing
about our "winner take all" education system - one that pushes
many people into college but does a poor job of ensuring they
get their degrees. And even for those lucky (or wealthy) enough
to gain a diploma, it is not clear that the skills that graduates
emerge with are well aligned with the demands of the labor
market. I came away from DIY U believing that in higher ed,
much like in health care, that we need to find ways to bend the
cost curve will insuring increased access and quality.
Where Kamenetz is less persuasive are in her
recommendations for change. I think she misses out here
because she failed to talk to some of the key people who have
been thinking for a long time about how technology can bring
about structural and fundamental change in higher ed. I would
have put Richard Katz at the head of this list. His writing,
particularly his recent work on cloud computing and higher
education is the first and best place to start if you are looking
for both a roadmap for change and understanding of how we
got here in the first place. In fact, it appears that Kamenetz
did not attend any EDUCAUSE events, or talk to any of the
leadership EDUCAUSE, a glaring oversight in any effort to
chronicle innovation in higher ed.
Another glaring shortcoming is to not have talked to Lev
Gonick, Vice President for Information Technology Services/
CIO at Case Western Reserve University. Lev has been a
leader in pushing both his own institution and our whole
profession towards using technology to diffuse the benefits of
education out to our communities. Katz and Gonick are just
two examples of discussions Kamenetz should have had (I'm
leaving out many more - I'm sure you have many candidates
as well - please share), and her book is much poorer for
missing these crucial actors in the post-secondary education
and technology story.
Despite these complaints, I think that DIY U should be read
and shared with your colleagues. This book would be a great
bridge between educational technology staff and faculty - at
only 208 pages it is brief enough for a book club and lively
enough to generate debate and disagreement.
Any other readers of DIY U who would be willing to share
your thoughts?
12
July 6th, 2010
Sum ... Sum ... Summertime
July 6th, 2010
By G. Rendell July 5, 2010 9:19 pm
I love summertime.
Not because I get summers off -- I'm a twelve-month
employee, and many of my campus-improvement projects are
scheduled for summer. In some ways, summer is the busiest
time of year for me.
And not because it's warm. I'm at an age where summer
temperatures, even up here in the Northeast, aren't "warm".
They're "hot". And my body doesn't tolerate heat as well as it
once did.
And not (or at least, not primarily) because the days are long
and sunny. Winter days are too short and too dark (get up in
the dark, drive home in the dark), but by the first of March
that's no longer a problem. What's a problem come mid-May
is roosters who awake at the crack of false dawn (as early as
4:00 a.m.) and think you should, too.
I love summer because I love to eat. And the eating is better
when the food (particularly the fruits and vegetables) is fresh.
Now if I were a devout local-vore, the pickings would be scarce
until about mid-July. But I'm not that devout. The local-er, the
better, but there's no sense getting crazy about these things.
By mid-to-late June, the variety of fresh fruits and vegetables
is pretty great.
(For what it's worth, meat runs on a different schedule. We
feed the animals up during the summer and fall, slaughter in
late fall or early winter, and eat out of the freezer for the rest of
the year. And fish is available fresh pretty much year-round.)
I don't do anything too fancy with my poultry, meat or fish, so
the flavor in the meal comes mostly from the fruit and veg. And
you can do a lot with fruit and veg.
Anyway, summer is the time for good eating. Which means,
to my mind, that it could be a major opportunity to help our
urban- and suburban-raised students to appreciate the cycles
and the wonders of nature -- the real world that was here
before TV and will be here after it's gone.
But, of course, summer is also the season when we have the
least ability to help our students appreciate anything. Because
the cycles and wonders of higher education are tied to the
implicit assumption that students' lives are closer related to
food production than they are to food consumption. And, at
one time, I guess that was true.
Has Anyone Ever Kicked the
Printing Habit?
July 6th, 2010
By Joshua Kim July 2, 2010 7:57 am
Hello. My name is Josh Kim, and I'm a printer. I print
everything. I print meeting agendas and notes. I print PDF
articles and chapters. I print articles from news sites. I print e-
mail. I print and I print and I print. And I want to change.
Published by: philosophyandrew
Do you know anyone who has successfully moved all their
documents, all the stuff they used to print, to a Kindle or an
iPad? Or maybe "everything" is too high a bar - but surely you
must know someone who is gone mostly paperless thanks to
the Kindle/iPad?
And what device is better to try this experiment? I like the iPad
because it can also serve as a portable communications and
web device. Take notes in meetings (I guess with an external
keyboard), read what I once would have printed, check e-
mail etc. etc. But the Kindle appeals also, particularly the new
Kindle DX announced today, as the Kindle's e-ink seems like
the best substitute for paper. A single purpose reading device
may also reduce distraction while offering the optimal reading
experience, but I fear that I'd be toting around both an iPad
and a Kindle.
Reasons To Print:
Reading: I find reading on a screen tiring and unproductive.
Can't read long form on a screen.
Notes: I take notes on what I read.
Focus: Having the print out forces me to keep attention
focussed on the paper. If I have a screen the mind and the
mouse might wander to e-mail or the web.
Portability: Paper goes with me easily.
Reasons to Stop Printing:
Clutter: I do all this printing, and then I end up with all this
paper. I want less stuff.
Search: Printing everything is great until it comes to finding it
to do something with it later on. If my files were digital I'd be
able to search for them.
Annotation Reality: The reality is that I never do much
with the annotations I've made after I've made them. All
communication is digital, so I need to be able to share ideas
and feedback through with other people through a mechanism
such as e-mail, document sharing or project management
platforms.
Ubiquity: If had all my documents on an iPad or Kindle then
everywhere I went I'd have all my documents.
Why do this experiment at all? One of the big reasons I'd
like to try to break the printing habit is to get a sense about
the possibilities for moving curriculum to iPads or Kindles.
Wouldn't it be great if all the readings and materials for any
given course or program came bundled together on an e-
reader or tablet?
Are you part of the print to digital movement? Any of you
thinking about trying to kick the printing habit?
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