Gabe plays detective to solve the mystery of the missing father in this episode.
Rosalie “Hotsie” Totsie turns the tables on the boys and they deserved it because of the sexual innuendos they’ve playfully tossed around. We laugh at the jokes and see the justice of her pretense but do we stop to think about the behavior of our own students?
All Rosalie wanted was to be treated like a lady. She can’t help being attractive and its not her fault testosterone rages through the bodies of her male classmates. Is she so different from the women on our campuses?
Young men need positive role models to show them how to behave properly especially when it comes to the subject of the opposite gender. I don’t believe I’m saying this – I must have gotten really old all of a sudden but there it is. Young men need someone to talk with. Their fathers aren’t on campus so they naturally migrate to those faculty members they respect. Its up to us to mentor them. It may not be comfortable but we have to be honest about our own sexuality and the lessons we’ve learned.
Remember to treat the women on campus as ladies. Open a few doors. Rise when a lady enters the room. Its contagious.
A webinar is essentially a meeting broadcast over the Internet. They do vary a bit in nature with some being more interactive than others. Another variable is syncronicity with some offers asynchronous viewing. Asynchronous viewing is essentially the same thing as viewing a vodcast.
How do you know whether or not to participate in a webinar. Like all presentations the things to consider are the topic and the speaker(s). What is the credibility of the speaker? How interesting is the topic to you? My hot topics now are cloud computing and Python. If Google were offering a webinar in cloud computing I’d be interesting because the joint effort between Google and Apple constitutes the most powerful cloud avaliable. Likewise I’d be interested in an O’Reilly webinar on Python because they are a leading publisher and advocate of the programming language. I would not be interested in a webinar on a new version of Windows offered by Bill Gates because I’m a Mac guy but you many would be.
So does this technology promise any radical changes in education? I’ve seen it used in the area of computational biology but I wasn’t impressed. Coordination can be cumbersome because of the synchronous nature of the presentation. Large numbers of participants often make it difficult to participate. Questions are problematic when the webinar is finished and all the players have gone home. I think asynchronous modes of transmitting information are more promising.
Gabe faces pressure to pass an academically failing athlete in this episode of Welcome Back, Kotter. I have to admit I was once faced the same challenge. It was many years ago when I taught at a community college. A key baseball player flunked my class by means of total non-participation. He was under the misunderstanding that athletes didn’t have to work to pass or maybe someone forget to tell me. The coach remembered to fill me in after the fact.
Our baseball coach was very friendly as he stood in my office doorway. He talked about what a fine young man my failed student was and how important he was to the college baseball team. He almost had me for a moment because I’m a big Cubbies fan. Then it happened. He asked me to change the grade because the school’s destiny depended on my student’s performance on the pitcher’s mound. My response was furious as I verbally threw him out of my office with instructions to never return. I thought the matter closed but I was wrong.
A few days later I was asked to come to the Dean’s office. She sat me down and started a bit of comforting small talk which turned to the fine attributes of our star pitcher and his wonderful family. Then it happened. She repeatedly asked me to change the grade with increasing levels of intensity. I finally capitulated with some conditions of my own.
I agreed to change the grade of this student if she would put her request in writing and sign it. I added that I would also change the grades of every student who had ever failed the course so we wouldn’t risk accusations of favoritism. That’s the last I heard on the matter but I also had a terrible price to pay as the Dean’s wrath was an attack on my application for tenure the following year. I won that battle too and left the school immediately thereafter.
Was doing the right thing worth the price I had to pay? Yes. I can still walk the halls holding my head high. Sure its not the same school but my career has been a richer adventure because I didn’t stay.
The grumpy old vice principal becomes popular when he takes over Gabe’s history class for a day.
Today’s lesson is patience and I’m at the head of the line for instruction.
Its easy to criticize our counterparts on campus. The faculty too easily criticize the administration. The administrative staff envies the “free time” of the faculty. Its just too easy to find fault with others because our observational lenses are myopic. Before long we lose respect for others and they lose respect for us. This is no way to live.
We each have our roles to play in the educational enterprise. We each know our own jobs best. Faculty know how to teach. Administrators know how to do whatever it is they do. I’m faculty so I admit my ignorance of the work day of my Dean or the pressures he has to deal with. I need to trust that he will deal with it to the best of his ability and that should be good enough for me. We need a little more trust in each other.
Epstein’s dream of becoming a veterinarian are shattered by a left-brained guidance counselor.
We are the dream weavers. People come to us to build a better life. A few have a full blown dreams with every detail worked out while others have the seed of a dream and need help to create a plan to realize their potential. More come in search of a dream because of the dissatisfaction they feel in their lives. Our avocation is helping each and every one work toward their dream no matter where they are. Sometimes they fail. Sometimes the succeed. Sometimes the dreams change. But our job remains the same, we are the dream weavers.
It is wrong to ever discourage a student. We can point out the difficulties along the path of realization but we should never tell a student their dream is impossible because they just might prove us wrong.
I was once a kid without a dream. Then I met a Claude Beavers who had more faith in me than I did. All I wanted to do was go back to high school and get my diploma. Yes, I was a dropout. Claude challenged me to skip attending high school and enroll in college. I never found out what he was smoking but I got hooked when he made a bet with me. So I took it and enrolled at Lansing Community College knowing full well I couldn’t cut it. However, I would soon have some of Dr. Beavers’ hard earned money in my pocket. I lost the bet to my own amazement. College was fascinating. The professors were beyond interesting. I was inspired at had all A’s at the end of the first term.
Claude was the only person who believed in me and because of that I began an intellectual journey that would go far beyond a doctoral degree. I’ve been a professor, software engineer, engineering manager, and now I’m a professor again. The most important lesson I’ve learned in my life is the power of encouragement.
Claude Beavers was a dreamweaver and we ought to be too.
Vinnie gets some tutoring from a brainy girl and gets harassed by the sweathogs in this episode of Welcome Back, Kotter.
Sometimes learning involves growing pains. It can be scary changing your environment and the people you hang out with and old friends may not understand. This is a time when personal mistakes may be made.
Many of my students are first generation college students. Their families are supportive of their studies but don’t understand many of the things being taught. They often find it difficult to talk with the folks back home about their studies and new lives and this can be a demotivator. I bet you have some students like this too.
As like Lou Rawls says…
This is an opportunity for mentoring. We can help students understand their conflicted worlds are really one place. Show them the commonalities are greater than the differences. And most importantly show them someone understands and cares. After all, “We’re all in this together!” (Red Green).
I’m fortunate to be teaching Computer Science at Mount Marty College because it went wireless in 2002 due to the vision of Dr. Mike Kahlke who served as Dean of Academic Affairs. It wasn’t an easy sell to the faculty who were largely cyberphobic then but he persisted. My life is so much easier because he persisted until the “laptop initiative” was in place.
Kahlke’s vision was to put a laptop computer into the hands of every student and faculty member. This meant the Computer Science department could phase out its use of labs. The students carry their lab equipment with them. They are free to work when they want without regard to lab hours. We still update computers on a regular cycle but I don’t need to justify a budget request to do it because its included in the regular students fees.
The second part of Kahlke’s vision was to create an environment where students could connect to the campus network and Internet anywhere on campus without needing to tether their computers to an ethernet drop. Wireless ethernet frees computing from spatial limitations. I can move a class out into the fresh air on a beautiful day without feeling guilty or losing access to the net!
Its not enough to have computers. You have to know what to do with them.
Classrooms needed to evolve to take advantage of ubiquitous computing power. We started a multi-year project to update classrooms along the lines of the “smart classroom” concept. These rooms feature overhead projection systems to display computer output, sound systems, VHS and DVD players.
The next stage is to create a virtual learning environment of the World Wide Web. We began with Blackboard course management software. Unfortunately the faculty were left to their own devices after a half-day training session on Blackboard. Our Teaching and Learning with Technology Committee offered classes but attendance was dismal. Use of the new classroom technology waxed and waned over the past 6 years but momentum grew with every cycle and avid users emerged over time. The new Web 2.0/3.0 applications such as Google docs creates greater potential to more fully realize Dr. Kahlke’s vision.
Mount Marty is ahead of most colleges in this area but there is still plenty to do. A group of early adopters must find and test new web-based technologies to see how well they impact teaching and learning. Then the solutions identified must be evangelized to the faculty. The school can transform education and prepare millennial students for a digital world with just a little more effort.
Spam is a curse to anyone online. One way to manage it is by using filters to move suspected spam into your trash without bothering you with it. You can also use filters to organize incoming messages. Its really a great tool but its under-used. It too bad too because it could make working with email easier and quicker.
“Adults are ready to learn those things they need to know in order to cope effectively with life situations.”
This assumption begs us to turn an examining eye toward curriculum. Are we teaching the skills needed in today’s world? Consider this Associated Press report from August 1.
Things aren’t so good for the economy now. We’ve lost 463,000 jobs so far this year! The unemployment rate is at 5.7% and rising, 20.3% for teens, and that doesn’t represent the entire out-of-workforce. It hasn’t always been so. I’ve been involved in higher education since 1984 and enjoyed 100% placement of my computer science graduates every year until 2005. As a hiring manager at Zenith Data Systems and Gateway 2000 I couldn’t find enough qualified talent. What happened?
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting the educational system is responsible for our current economic situation. Rather I’m suggesting we can be part of the solution. How’s that?
I teach at a small Catholic liberal arts college so what I’m about to suggest is not going to make me popular on my campus. We need to focus on career skills. The truth is its easier to enjoy the arts when you are warm, fed, and safe. I believe our greatest responsibility then is to give students employable skills and a lifelong hunger for learning.
The good sisters at Sacred Heart Monestary must have known that when the created Mount Marty College. Although we are a liberal arts college our strengths are our fine Nursing and Education programs both of which are occupational programs. We also offer occupational programs in Graphic Arts, Computer Science, and more. This cohabitation of occupational and arts programs are not a dichotomy. Rather they are like two sides of a coin. You need both sides.
Good writing is just as important to a computer programmer as a foundation in programming logic. A graphic artist needs to know about balance and composition so they can apply them to photo editing. A math teacher must be able to speak well. Our nurses must be able to understand a patient’s need for care. And we all need to be good citizens. These are just a few of the necessary contributions from the liberal arts side of the equation. But we fine tune the curriculum to take advantage of those teachable moments when liberal arts can enhance occupational education.
Occupational educators need to have real world experience. Too many of us have never worked in our field but are rather a product of academic inbreeding. Our ivory towers honor works which are unproductive in our fields and do not recognize true contributions to our disciplines. For instance, we hire new faculty in Computer Science because they published in scholarly journals but never stop to consider they ought to have been coding applications instead. We honor unpaid presentations to closed-minded conference attendees while ignoring the fact that talented individuals are too busy earning $150+ an hour addressing the needs of open-minded business executives and helping to build their strategic plans for the future. This is the kind of information you will never see published in a “scholarly” journal until long after it has lost all of its strategic value. First-hand experience is as essential to the occupational educator as the air we breathe and our hiring practices must begin to honor it.
Occupational educators must be current in their field and there is no better way than continuous practice. We need to keep involved by working as well as teaching. Working in the field needs to be recognized as a valid form of academic research. We must also bring our new knowledge back into the classroom in order to make our students more competitive on the job market.
We must keep an eye on the future as well. What new career paths are emerging? What will people in those careers need to know? How can we best teach them? These are the questions we must constantly ask to avoid obsolescence.
Our task then is to keep occupational programs current and forward looking, create the occupational programs needed in the near future, and give our students employable skills in every area.
Kevin Kelly speculates on how the World Wide Web will advance in celebration of its 5,000th day. I’m sharing this talk with the students in my Machine Organization course during its second week because I want them to have a modern context in which to examine the internal workings of the black box.
I agree with Kelly’s depiction of the web as a single machine. Complex as it may be it is interconnected. Each part can communicate with any other part. Information can be shared freely. The video clip you just watched actually lives on one of Google’s servers. Its not at EduBlog. Its not at my site. We don’t even know where the server is and its doesn’t matter. All we need to know is how to access the information we want.
SETI has been using a collaborative network of volunteer computers to search of extraterrestial life for years. This is one of the first cyber collaborations that will become common soon.
Web based applications such as Google docs free users from the limitations of their operating systems because the actual work is done by the web browser and server located around the planet. UNIX, Windows, and OS/X machines can all collaborate regardless of their differences.
Open source software developers have been leading the way. UNIX was the prototype. Since its very inception a loosely knit community of co-developers have been adding functionality to it for the good of mankind rather than personal profit. There are a host of other open source products available today. GNU actively promotes the open source philosophy and offers a host of free products you can download for free. Now there is a movement to provide open source textbooks to help reduce the cost of higher education.
No one really knows what the future holds but it seems to be a better place and time than we have ever enjoyed. All it takes are more bright young minds to make it happen.
