Wow.

So, it's been over a month since my last post, and my posts this semester in general have been sporadic. At the beginning of this semester, I wasn't sure how I'd fare going full time, and I was certain that I'd look back on this semester as "the semester form hell." -Turns out, it's been a fabulous semester! Though part of me does wish I had more time to digest and reflect, the readings weren't as intense, and I was familiar with most of the theoretical frameworks we've read, so It wasn't to bad. I think in the coming days, I'll have to do a few more blogs about this semester just to decompress.

I love how I'm writing as if the semester is over - I still have a paper to write!!!

Strolling down memory lane...(almost) literally

In today's Honolulu Advertiser, there was an article about Hawai'i (well, technically only O'ahu and Maui) finally making it on the map - the Google street map. During lunch, my coworkers were giddy with excitement, looking up everyone's residences online. After going online and finding my own apartment, I was somewhat freaked out. Isn't it a little...voyeuristic? As I sat and thought about how creepy it was, I shoved Google maps to the back of my brain.

After work, however, other ideas began to surface. With Google street maps, you can literally "walk" down streets and get a good look around you. The first thing I did when I got home was try to find the place I lived (way back in the day!) in Spokane, Washington. We moved to Hawai'i when I was seven, so my memories aren't clear. I remember a park, preschool, and a large rock outside. I had to call my mom to get a few details, but I found it. I "walked" down East Liberty and found the rock (which really wasn't as big as I remember it being) was still there. So was the park. And the Albertson's not too far away.

Satisfied with my discovery, I decided to take a few strolls down other memory lanes. I went to my college campus and though you can't go down the little private roads on campus, you can go down some of the main roads and I took a "walk" from Pearson's Hall to Dwight, down a road past the psychology building and crossed the lake up to Ham and MacGreggor Halls. I was curious to see if the new residence hall was built at the time of the street map, so I hopped over to Morgan street and passed Buckland Hall and the theatre - unfortunately, the new residence hall was still under construction - shucks!

Then I thought about my semester in DC and was able to quickly locate not only where I lived on AU's Tenleytown campus for Washington semester students, I also found the street where my internship was! It was in the same building as the National Press Club and there was a corner store that had the most delicious sandwiches on the planet (google maps reminded me that it was called the "Corner Bakery") and there was a Filene's basement below! Right across the street was my gym, the Washington Sports Club.

I was on a roll, why stop at DC??? My next trip was to Providence, RI where I lived for 3 years after college. I went to my old apartment and then hopped a few blocks up to go to my friend Jen's apartment. It sounds silly, doesn't it? It's completely online, but they are pictures that I can almost "walk" through. I felt like I was really there, walking down Jewett Street, waiting to meet Jen. Then I jumped over to Brown University - to the Arnold Lab - the home of my very first full-time job at the admissions office of the medical school. I was tempted to have a walk down Thayer Street, but then I remembered New York.

Oh, New York. I was only there for the span of a summer internship at an off-Broadway theatre, and it's odd how that really was a blur. I knew I lived in Spanish Harlem so I started there, just poking around. I saw the place where I thought I did my laundry, but I wasn't sure, and there were many laundromats in the area. After being unable to locate where I lived, I dug around in various email accounts, searching for where I lived. I uncovered emails I had sent looking for part time and temp jobs while I lived in NYC and I found my address - roughly around 103rd and Lexington. Many places were still there - a little tiny side park where a Puerto Rican flag flew next to an American flag, and a cafe where an artist once showcased and sold his works. The neighborhood grocery store choke full of Goya products was still there and I instantly recalled many nights of rice and beans with my roommates.

I decided to check out where I actually interned - I couldn't even remember what it was called - but I knew it was on St. Mark's. I was pleasantly surprised to immediately find the bagel shop that I so loved as I "walked" down St. Marks. Then, I found it - The Pearl Theatre. Across the street from that was a pizza place where I can recall buying Italian ice with my fellow interns.

Wow, what a trip. As I "walked" through some of my life experiences, it was quite an odd feeling. Memories, feelings, friends, and experiences came flooding back to me. I remember what it was like to be 22 years old, in a big city, and incredibly lonely; I remember reading a Harry Potter book entirely at a Barnes and Noble (I couldn't afford a hardback book!); I remember the excitement of Times Square; I remember how accomplished I felt as a young intern going into the National Press Club, to IMF/World Bank Conferences, to the Senate gallery; I remember crying into the phone to my mom at the reflecting pond at Lincoln Center; I remember a flood of emotions as I walked past Ground Zero.

So while I do feel it's a little odd that thieves and stalkers now have a much easier way to plan and target their crimes, I have to say that for my purposes, Google street maps have allowed me to, in the span of one evening, take a "stroll" down memory lane and view places from my past that I wonder if I'll ever get to see again - places that I may not have documented as much as I would have liked to - places that I am from.

Civil Rights, Social Justice, and Facebook

In light of all the readings I’ve recently done about how we’ve come full-circle (in a negative way) with regards to the re-segregation of public education (particularly in urban areas) 50+ years after Brown vs. BOE, the recent votes in Maine and New Jersey just make me even more ill.

It’s okay that people voted the way they did – really, because people have opinions and are free to exercise their right to vote. HOWEVER, my issue is that I don’t think this is something that people should even be voting about in the first place!!! I guess our country has a history of putting civil rights issues on the ballot even though…um…hello…they’re CIVIL RIGHTS.

As I’ve been doing research on social networking in higher education, I’d like to share something I’ve seen on facebook before – using facebook for expression and social justice. Here are some of the posts I’ve seen on facebook from my friends (gay and straight alike) with regards to the Maine and New Jersey elections:


"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." come on America, wake up....

Maine, you disgust me.

Oh Maine...sigh...I still love your Acadia National Park...

"Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities." -Ayn Rand

"From the equality of rights springs identity of our highest interests; you cannot subvert your neighbor's rights without striking a dangerous blow at your own." - Carl Schurz --- Equality America has requested that anyone who disagrees with Maine's decision to change their profile picture to black.

"Times can blind us to certain truths and later generations can see that laws once thought necessary and proper in fact serve only to oppress."

disappointed in Maine...

i wonder how you'd feel if we voted on whether or not you could marry

Maine and Jersey, I'm sad and angry.

the Maine results have left me profoundly sad... (but I want to send love out to my mainers... I have a lot of wonderful people from Maine in my life and they are all awesome! Sending you all hugs today...)

not cool, maine

Downfall of Online Courses

So, I’m really excited to do some research about online pedagogy (next semester) and feel what it’s like to be on the other side for an online class.

From the student perspective, I’m frustrated. I read three AMAZING articles at the intersection of African-American culture, education and disability. I scribbled little notes and ideas that came to my head as I read the articles…and I won’t have the opportunity to talk to anyone about this. For some topics we’ve read about, posting and picking each other’s thoughts apart can be a good exercise. But…I just wish I could TALK about some of these things.

It’s like…I have all this stuff in my head…and then adding new information to it creates this…mental gas that wants to escape. And typing about it just doesn’t cut it. I want to talk.

I think I’m going to have to do some research on hybrid classes……..

Reflection of this Semester; Planning for the Next

It is true that having a schedule that is incredibly full sucks your time and your energy from you. However, it is also true that when your schedule is incredibly full, you manage your time more wisely and become even more (dare I say it?) energized. In class last night, Dr. M drew a bell curve on the board with "productivity" on the Y-axis and "commitments" on the X-axis - that there is a threshold (that is, of course, different for different people) to the amount commitments one can have and be at their peak with regards to productivity. (This was all in response to a discussion about busy students and the important lesson of learning how to say "no" to involvements.)

Anyhow, I met with my advisor, Dr. E, last week to discuss the past, present, and future over lunch - as we usually do during advising. She asked me how I was doing with my three classes and working full time. I told her that it's actually going quite well - I think these three classes, and where things are right now, I'm really at my peak. I am challenged, I am able to stay on top of my readings and papers, and I'm getting a decent amount of sleep, too. (No all-nighters yet, though I will admit to taking a day off from work to work on a paper.) I've even managed to watch a decent amount of tv. No, I don't spend a ton of time doing "fun" things over the weekend, but, well...fun to me is sitting in a cafe and reading and writing. (I'm not the stay out late and party hardy kind of gal, in case you haven't noticed.....) Anyhow, I really feel like I'm thriving. Yes, it would be better if I could squeeze in gym time and all, but overall, I'm really happy with where I am. I am also very aware that just one more thing could push me over (and then I'd be sliding down the other end of that bell bell curve.....)

But back to meeting with Dr E...It's always fun to talk to professors -particularly in their offices when you can peruse their bookshelves!- they're always busy, involved, and full of ideas. Due to my decision to go full time this semester, once this semester is over, I'm actually only 9 credits away from being done. Make that 6 credits and my "plan B." Actually, make that 3 credits, higher ed law or finance, and my "plan B." (By the way, can we change the name to something else? Isn't that the name of like...emergency contraception?)

So those extra three elective credits I need...well...I came up with this awesome idea. I realized that I'm interested in the following things: 1) teaching, 2) research, and 3) technology. This semester I've been doing research on online social networking, but wouldn't it be great to learn more about teaching and perhaps...get some experience doing some online teaching? I presented my idea to Dr E - I could take internship credit with her and be a TA for her online research methods course! That way I'd get some actual experience on the "other side" and will give me some direction and motivation for doing some research on online pedagogy. Dr. E thought it was a great idea. Yay! I'll keep thinking and we'll start meeting in December to discuss the class. =) So excited!

In the News.....

So much news to cover! Last week I felt I didn't have as much in The Chronicle that jumped out at me...this week, however, was overload!

Well, I guess we'll start out with the APA 6th Edition ordeal. *sigh* Well, at least we'll be able to cite youtube now, right???

I didn't read the full length of this article, just perused it, but I think it's interesting. It's about God and evolution in higher education. I think it's important to note that some people have grown up believing only in creationism, knowing nothing else and others (like myself) grew up with evolution and literally knew nothing about creationism. While there is bias on both sides, I think it's a good idea for everyone to at least learn about both sides and talk about it...else we walk around in our own worlds not knowing what everyone else thinks and knows...you know?

Related to that, Mark Bauerlein presents an article here on ideological bias on campuses. Now without getting too political, I think that many in academia due tend to lean to the left. I recall that on my college campus, that was a large criticism...our student (and faculty/staff) body was so incredibly diverse in every way...except perhaps politically. Yep, at a women's college where homosexuality was totally okay and totally normal, "the closet" was where the republicans, NOT the lesbians, hid. Those that I knew that claimed to be republicans said they were socially liberal, and I've had several friends that entered college as republicans, and exited college as democrats or moderates.

Another important difference is presented in this great little piece, about what I think is often the big "diversity" elephant in the room...socioeconomic status. I didn't feel completely out of place at my college's campus, but I definitely thought there was more they could have done with regards to SES. (I've heard that more attention has been paid to this since I've left.)

I thought this author made an interesting point in drawing parallels between Project Runway and graduate school (imagine Tim Gunn in the advisor role...) It's fun. Check it out!

This article may well be my Chronicle Article of the Week! Eric Hoover discusses several perspectives out there about the millenial generation. It's long, but totally worth the read.

Talking a little more about generational differences this is a fabulous reflection written by a professor who participated in a theatre production where he got to see students "backstage" and talks about some of the differences between his undergraduate education and that of students these days. Yep, the world is a different place now and students are very busy people! It's great to see professors pondering how to engage with students.

I had hoped to have time to blog and reflect on the surprise (shock, really) that our president, Barack Obama was the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. There was so much talk about it - good, bad, and ugly. My thoughts? Well, initially it was a combination of, "good for him!" and "but what has he done?" After more consideration and thinking about the attitudes and rhetoric of our past leaders when it comes to the U.S.'s role in the world (i.e. UN), Obama has definitely carried with him a message and an air of diplomacy. Admit it, Americans are very insular in their views. Many citizens of other countries have a better understanding of the world than we do...I think it was commedienne Kathy Griffin that said the U.S. is kind of like the "Mary Kate and Ashley" of the U.N. -I thought it was hilarous, but true. We care about other countries, insofar as we are getting the return...a very..."We don't care about you. Unless it concerns us or you have something of interest to us."

Anyhow, Rachel Maddow had an excellent segment on her show about Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize that I hope you take the time to watch. I think it says something that an international body awarded the peace prize to Obama based on "what he has done" and while we can ask "what has he done?" perhaps being an American leader that embodies diplomatic ideals in and of itself is a big enough change to our neighbors around the world.

Leslie Wilcox, Education, & Adventures in Journalism

So I've seen some reference to this on a couple friends' facebook pages (thanks Kealoha and others!) and will add this blog to my blogroll. 

Leslie Wilcox is well known in Hawaii for her many years in broadcast journalism and most recently as CEO & President of PBS Hawaii. I recall watching her on KHON Channel 2 morning news with Kirk Matthews...little did I know I would have an opportunity to work with her on a town hall project when I was a senior in high school called "Hawaii 2000." (Scroll to the December 16, 1999 article.) -A connection which later led to a fabulous summer internship at KHON. 

I'm really glad this came up because I've actually been reflecting on those experiences recently, particularly "Hawaii 2000." That town hall project was actually the first time I really fell in love with education. -I had always loved school and learning and all, but it was the first time I had really talked to teachers and counselors and administrators about the field of education - the problems in the system, and what drove them to do what they do. They obviously weren't in it for the money - they worked with their hearts - in a system that barely appreciated them. The biggest rewards (and often the only rewards they got) were the intrinsic - memories of the students that came in and out of their lives. Here's a quote about my experience doing "Hawaii 2000" from the young me, foreshadowing what would be my future:

This really changed me. It made me realize what demands the future holds for us. As for my future, I've become motivated to become an educator, so I can personally follow through with our plans to improve education.

Anyhow, we were split into groups and my group's mentor/leader was Leslie Wilcox. I recall being extremely excited because of all the reporters that were leaders, Leslie was my favorite. Though I didn't get to know her personally from that experience, I did email her a couple years later, asking about internship opportunities at KHON. I was finishing up my sophomore year at Mount Holyoke College and was going to do my "semester abroad" in Washington, DC in an intensive journalism program with American University's "Washington Semester" program the following semester and thought to myself, "Gee, maybe I should get some journalism experience before I head out there!" 

Lucky for me, Leslie forwarded my email to the managing editor, a fabulous man named Mark Matsunaga. I alternated between coming in at 5:30am and coming in the evenings to get an idea of what went on around the clock. I went out on many assignments with the camera guys, and wrote my own articles side-by side with people like Bernadette Baraquio (who was now doing the morning show with Kirk Matthews as Leslie had been promoted to evening news!), Tina Shelton, and Greg Takayama. Though my voice was never on the news, I wrote the words that came out of Joe Moore's mouth! -Pretty awesome!

After returning to Hawaii several years later, most of the group that was at KHON while I interned was gone, but I was so glad that Leslie Wilcox was on to bigger and better things...and now, I'm so glad she's got a blog to share with the world!

I ended up eating, sleeping, and breathing journalism for only that summer in Hawaii at KHON and the following semester in DC. The semester in DC was an amazing experience where we had intensive classes 3 days a week, and an internship for 2 days a week. Almost every class involved at least one, if not two or three or more "field trips" and guest speakers. My internship was amazing as well. I had a late start on my internship hunt and my final choices were either being a "gofor" girl at This Week With Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts or actually being an intern reporter with Market News International. The choice was obvious to me - I wanted to write. 

Market News International was amazing. The office was in the National Press Building, I loved the people who worked there, and I had fabulous opportunities to report at the senate gallery and at the IMF/World Bank Conferences! (I saved my credentials, too! They're in a box somewhere....) It was somewhat intimidating being someone who knew so little about economics and policy, but it was an amazing experience and my articles were actually published with my name in the by-line on their real-time financial newswire! 

In both my intro to higher ed course and my student affairs seminar we've been talking about the importance of learning that occurs "outside" the classroom and the "bridges" to be built between academics and the real world. I truly can't say enough about the Washington Semester program and if anyone out there, reading my blog is considering it, my advice is DO IT. Even though I eventually decided that while I loved writing and the adrenaline rush of deadlines, it was just not the career for me. Luckily, the experiences I had in DC are ones that I will remember for a lifetime - not to mention all that writing which definitely helped me sharpen my writing skills!!!

So glad Leslie has a blog. So glad I spent a semester in DC doing journalism. So glad I fell in love with education. 

And the answer is...

...yes, it's political.

According to "Right Wing Watch," the NAS was founded to bring together conservatives in academia to fight the 'liberal bias' on college and university campuses and to target multiculturalism and affirmative-action policies. They are indeed, a conservative organization with funded by conservative organizations.

It's interesting because if you read that short, little paragraph on their website of "Who We Are" their mission doesn't sound incredibly conservative...but read further and you'll eventually get the gist, especially in the section "Is it dangerous to join?" --You can even have the info shipped to your home address in case you are afraid that fellow colleagues will find out about your association with this group.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not against academic freedom. I'm also not against a balanced academic curriculum or healthy debate...I just thought I smelled some familiar, far right, conservative rhetoric in their statement "Rebuilding Campus Community: The Wrong Imperative." As I mentioned in my previous blog, I don't think this is a common view among professors. Yes, academic snobbery exists, but to attempt to take down holistic student development with such weak arguments??? It's kind of making sense now...

After re-reading my previous post today (now that some time has passed) I am unsure if I actually communicated the heart of what I was trying to say. The answer, I think, is to change the way this discussion is framed on campuses. Like I said, I'm not against a healthy debate, but perhaps in environments where we are trying to promote bridges between academic faculty and student affairs, it's best not to view it in the "NAS vs. SLI" perspective. We should be framing our thoughts specifically around our students and the issues on our campuses, that way, we aren't arguing against each other, but trying to achieve a common solution. 

Response to NAS Statement and SLI

I read the NAS statement last Monday and - almost a week later - I still haven’t managed to re-group sufficiently. If you’ve seen me wandering around campus, muttering to myself, it’s because I’m debating myself about the NAS statement. At first I thought about creating two responses – one, a “rant”, and the other, a more “collected” statement. After several days, I’ve decided that neither is appropriate. 

Where do we begin? Do we start off by confronting the obvious flaws of their arguments? Or do we perhaps question exactly what they think the imperatives that they so vehemently oppose are? It seemed to me they were perhaps judging a different set of imperatives than the SLI actually has and were instead dreaming up some “hidden agenda” that the “imperativists” are trying to indoctrinate college students with. 

SLI ARGUMENT OR POLITICAL ARGUMENT? 

Reading this article really reminded me of the arguments that people to the far, far right of the political spectrum are making regarding healthcare reform – taking statements that are completely false (for example, that the public option has a hidden agenda to kill old people) and using these lies scare the public. They go as far as comparing Obama to Hitler! Is this something that traditional conservatives agree with? No. It is simply a fringe of the far right that is screaming loudly. Now maybe I am naïve, or perhaps I am just optimistic, but I do not want to believe that the NAS statement is something that the vast majority of faculty and scholars actually ascribe to. I think the people wrote this are on the fringe and are, likely, incredibly conservative and afraid that educating the whole student will lead to an army of ACORN-loving liberals. (Don’t even get me started on that one….)

I also do not believe this statement by the NAS was actually written specifically as a rebuttal to the SLI. I think it was a misplaced response to the incident at the University of Delaware. I cannot claim to know exactly what happened there, but it seems to me that this impassioned statement by the NAS is really directed towards that incident, and fear of a politically liberal indoctrination that places student affairs professionals at the target, and are trying to take the SLI and “whole student” education down with them. 

SCOPE OF NAS SENTIMENTS

Between my college education (undergraduate at Mount Holyoke College, semester exchange at American University, post-baccalaureate studies at Johnson & Wales, graduate education at the University of Hawaii at Manoa) and my employment at Brown University, I have never seen a display like the NAS statement against the education of the whole student. Yes, many professors think they are “above” student affairs professionals - which I attribute to a combination of social awkwardness, and academic snobbery- but these attitudes are very different from the attitude displayed in the NAS statement. This is one of the reasons I would like to believe the NAS statement represents a fringe minority of faculty. From my experience, faculty members do care about students and student development they just often see student development as the responsibility of student affairs while they see themselves as responsible for academic learning. 

ARGUMENT FLAWS

I’m sure many of you also noticed the flaws I saw in the NAS statement. One, that “Imperativists are not scholars.” I will not elaborate on this as I think most of you will agree that many student affairs professionals do have worthy credentials! Another argument flaw is that the statement seems to imply that faculty need to take back a role that it seems they actually do not want. In reality, faculty have become so focused on research that their primary goal is usually not even teaching, let alone guiding students in their development! Another flaw (from my perspective) is that this statement seems to focus on the academic learning of students, and not on anything else. Hrm. Perhaps they don’t know that psychosocial and moral development enables cognitive development…..(just saying…) 

This is all leading up to what I see as the primary flaw of the NAS statement: The SLI is hostile to liberal education. On the contrary! Liberal education goes hand in hand with whole student development. -Anyone at a liberal arts college could have told them that! 

THE FUTURE? 

I don’t think we can be dreamy about a faculty and student affairs staff holding hands and singing kumbaya around a holistic, transformative learning tree. I do, however, think that it is possible to bridge the gap between faculty and staff for the common goal of educating students. I think that one way of doing this may be to put the SLI and the NAS statement aside and come together to identify problems and solutions. Are our students getting the education they need to succeed? How can we help? This may also be a good place to insert assessment of students and graduates. Faculty, administrators and staff can argue about imperatives, objectives, and goals all they want, but if students indicate they are not receiving the education or services necessary to succeed in life and in their careers, we must come together to find a way to meet the needs of the students (and breathe life into what may be a failing institutional mission). 

CONCLUSION

As I have mentioned at least a couple of times, I think this statement may not actually have been a direct response to the SLI, rather, a minority, fringe, conservative response to what they perceive to be a liberal, left-wing movement that they fear the student affairs profession brings to the table. 

I have identified some of the flaws in arguments set forth in the NAS statement and have identified what I think is the way to combat the problem of “faculty vs. student affairs staff” which is simply to stop the SLI/NAS war. Let’s do some assessment and get together and talk bout what is going on at our own, individual institutions and identify problems and propose solutions together.

Thank Goodness

Thank goodness the fact that I am behind in blogging does not reflect that I am behind in my classwork. (Not yet, at least...never say never.)

One of the things that is making this semester incredibly challenging is the content overlap among my courses. One week, all my courses were discussing multicultural/diversity issuesand I think all three courses at some point discussed feminist epistemology. Oh, and of course the actual overlap of assignment due dates. I thought I had everything planned out - so that no major papers were all due during the same week. Unfortunately, I volunteered (without consulting my calendar) to turn in a lit review and do a presentation on it during the same week I had papers for each of my other classes. Not my best work, but hey...it's done!

My motivation for getting my readings and assignments done without procrastinating and dilly-dallying has been The Rachel Maddow Show. I tempt myself by allowing myself to watch the podcast if I complete a certain amount of work that evening. If I do not, the podcast gets postponed to Friday (where I usually watch about 3 episodes in a row). P.S. I totally live for her "Moment of Geek" segments.

In other news, when I am too exhausted to read for class but not tired enough to fall asleep, I've been reading the 6th edition of the APA manual for "fun" (seriously, it's in my backpack right now). I am also tempted to buy this. Dr. M, I blame you for this. (And by "blame you," I mean "thank you.")

A recent reading for my intro class about action research has made me love research even more. While I know that I love research and reading about research methods, I am really feeling this is the direction I would like to go. Not just doing research that gets published into the dark hole of research journals, but research that is for actual change. I have yet to start on the chapter I selected for this week's reading for my seminar (on assessment) but I am excited to read it.

Okay, jumping around - did y'all read the NAS statement? I read it yesterday on the way home from work and I'm still somewhat in shock. Will post about it once I've recovered.

Two final bits:
1) I met with J.J. the "local expert" on geneartional studies. He is incredibly fabulous and supportive and full of information (and we talked about research a little, which was quite fun!) He also pointed me towards a few resources and gave me contact info for a couple of people that might have information for me. --This is for my seminar project on technology/social networking.
2) For my Intro to Higher Ed class, I am going to be interviewing Dr. N - who is the only prof in the department I've never had a class with...which is incredibly unfortunate as I think her work background and research might actually align best with my interests! In any case, she has agreed to meet with me and we will be discussing institutional research, assessment, and evaluation!

More news...

Okay, can I just say that I think this is completely, amazingly awesome. How much of my soul will I have to sell for a seat in those classes? Hrm. Probably more than my soul is worth. Still, wow. Amazing mission.

I also think these folks and these folks are being a wee bit dramatic. Yes, we are headed towards a world of increasing technology, but I don't think higher educaiton is going to go completely digital in the next, oh, 20 or 30 years. Yes, there will be an increase in technology and technology will be increasingly incorporated into teaching pedagogy. But it will take more to dissolve the bricks and ivy out there. What do I think it will take? Well, as of now, the "elite" that run are country are still obsessed with Harvard and Yale. Until the elite start clamoring to go completely digial, I think we'll be safe. (Maybe if I could go to the institution mentioned in the previous paragraph, I'll be able to pick up a better framework for my argument.....)

Need a good laugh? Read this. I nearly peed myself. It made me realize exactly why Brown University does not give out grades below "C." (Well, technically, grades below "C" are given, but it's erased from your record like it never happened......)

In the News.....

So I generally follow the Chronicle (or shall I say, I pick and choose my way through the Chronicle) but since my seminar course involves discussion about current events, I'm also trying to stay on top of Inside Higher Ed, as well as keeping my eyes open for higher ed news in general. I'm just going to point out a few stories that really jumped out at me.

First, I know this isn't higher ed news, but I think it's important. It's Obama's address to America's children. Read the full speech here and look at the recommended classroom activities for K-6 here and for 7-12 here. Can someone tell me where the communist, socialist message is? Hrm. Maybe you have to listen to it backwards. If anything is offensive about this speech it's the last sentence, "Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America." (Though I doubt conservatives will complain about that...) In any case, it's an inspirational speech. As I've said since before Obama was elected, it will be interesting to see if having an African-American president can influence the young African-American children of today. Maybe more will go to school and stay in school and will be able to look to Obama as an example of what they can become. 

On to disgusting news. Personally, I find this appalling. Dr. Sara Goldrick-Rab has great commentary about it here. I completely agree with her sentiments. As if Abercrombie & Fitch weren't bad enough......

In my intro to higher education class, we're talking about the marketing of higher education and how, essentially, you can buy an education and get a degree without having to sit in a classroom (i.e. University of Phoenix). There is so much online learning going on - hybrid classes, online classes that are part of community colleges, distance learning at universities...so many options. This is just another example of that - go as far as you can for $99 a month.

This article makes me think of the problem that is bigger than gossip sites like "Juicy Campus" and others that are springing up everywhere. The bigger problem is as technology continues to grow and expand to college campuses, how do you punish cyber crime? What can a campus do? What is the responsibility of the university? I don't think the government has a good idea how to handle cyber crime...this will definitely become a bigger issue in the future.

Finally, a feel good story! :) Check it out!

Go Figure...

LAST WEEK

Go figure that the only class I am required to be journaling about is the one I'm not writing about. I'm such a rebel. :-) Anyhow, readings for last week consisted of the first two chapters of "The Future of Higher Education" (by Newman, Couturier & Scurry = NCS) an article by Coye, "Ernest Boyer and the New American College: Connecting the 'disconnects'." 

The first chapters of the NCS text were relatively short, but packed with information about change in the realm of higher education due to what the authors attribute to competition, the market, technology, & globalization. Much of what was discussed is not new to me (students competing for colleges, colleges competing for students, rankings, and the consumerism of education) but I'm interested to find out more about things I know little about (i.e. the role of the government - state and federal - at public institutions and college systems). 

The Coye article definitely had me reminiscing of my undergraduate experience at Mount Holyoke College. First of all, can I say that this is my first introduction to Ernest Boyer (who passed away in 1995), who was the president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and seemed to be incredibly passionate about higher education. 

Boyer envisioned a "New American College" that "celebrates teaching and selectively supports research, while also taking special pride in its capacity to connect thought to action, theory to practice" (p. 23). The priorities of this "New American College" are: 1) Clarifying curriculum (a liberal education with a major, electives, and general education) which includes what is taught and how courses are taught, 2) Connecting beyond the classroom to create "interactive regional colleges" where students are engaged with the needs of their region, and 3) Creating campus community to create a scholarly and moral community where students can actively explore their values. In order to create a "New American College" Boyer recommended: service learning, internships, and capstone courses.

In class, Dr. C separated us into small groups based on institution type. Four of us were in the "private liberal arts college" category, three were in the "community college" category, and everyone else was in the "large public university" category. We discussed our experiences based on Boyer's categories of curriculum, connection beyond the classroom, and campus community. When we shared with the class, we found that most of our experiences were related to connection beyond the classroom and community while much of our classmates' had more under the "curriculum" category. Many students at large public institutions found community through their majors or through extracurricular activities (i.e. sports). As a class, we also discussed how location played a role campus community as well. Whether you're a small liberal arts college or a large public institution, if you're in the middle of Iowa, you've probably got more going on in regards to campus life and college community than schools (small or large) in New York City.

THIS WEEK

I managed to get myself ahead of the game for this week and finished my readings for this class over the long weekend. Readings included Ch 3 of the NCS text and two articles, Fischetti et al's "University of Phoenix: Beat 'em or Join 'em" and Hiltz & Turoff's "Education Goes Digital: The Evolution of Online Learning and the Revolution in Higher Education."

I love talking about technology and higher education so I'll talk about text first and save my technology talk for last!

Chapter 3 "The Coming of the Market" made me realize how little I know about how public institutions function in relation to the federal government, state legislation, and within university systems (for example, the Hawaii system that includes 3 universities and 7 community colleges). I received my degree from a private college, I spent a semester in DC at a private college, worked at a private university, and took some post-bacc courses at a private college. Now I am at UH, working for a university system, in a graduate program, and am...well...ignorant with regards to government regulation of education. As multi-campus systems are moving towards autonomy (from each other and from the government), the authors call for state by state debate and analysis of the restructuring of higher education.

"University of Phoenix: Beat 'em or Join 'em" offers an excellent background about the history of the institution and how it came to grow, and how they manage quality control and accreditation. Personally, I don't want to see all of higher education head in this direction. I think college campuses are important environments in which to learn and grow...however, I do see how the University of Phoenix has its niche. Really, it's brilliant. John Sperling saw a need/opportunity and went after it. Business is booming. I also liked how the article highlights other online options - such as community colleges, Keck Graduate Institute, and Ottawa University. As of now each does seem to be filling different needs - for example, community college online programs are more cost-effective than the University of Phoenix, and Keck Graduate institute offers training in very, very specific fields. 

The "Education Goes Digital" article speaks more towards "online learning" - what's out there, driving factors, and consequences. I think the most interesting points this article brings up are 1) the way technology has brought up questions about whether or not higher education is a "right" and 2) that technology is here to stay, technology changes, and campuses need to learn to accept and adapt to (and with) technological change. 

Shifting Paradigms in Student Affairs...

Last week's readings for class were from Jane Fried's text "Shifting Paradigms in Student Affairs." As we discussed in class, I'm not sure exactly where she is headed - and thus far, the reading has been incredibly theory-based. I'm so glad that I took student development, student affairs and qualitative research methods BEFORE this course. Many references were made to paradigms, culture, and lenses, positivism, constructivism, as well as to student development theory - having already done some heavy reading in these areas (I think) make it easier for me to grasp the concepts she is throwing at us.

I think that thus far, the main points of the reading are: 1) the importance of diversity in an emerging paradigm, 2) understanding limitations of paradigms (i.e. of the scientific paradigm), and 3) the principles of American cultural paradigm that serve as the basis of society (and thus, the basis of American higher education) including: monotheism, two valued logic, materialism, individualism, and that a single reality exists.

Have we moved beyond this paradigm? Yes and no. I think we have come far from where society was when this book was written, but perhaps that may be more in understanding than it is in practice.

I've written many notes in the margins of the first three chapters, but for the sake of time, I will share just one. In discussing the limits of the scientific paradigm, Fried discusses the problem that life situations are not completely a cause and effect relationship (meaning that if x happens, this will cause y to happen, regardless). The important thing to remember is context - there is a context and, "Changing the context may well change the facts" (p. 34). This made me think of healthcare and the healthcare debate...imagine how much we could save if dollars were put into prevention and early diagnosis?

Anyhow, I better go read chapters 4-6 and catch up on reading the Chronicle and Inside Higher Ed...but before I run off, I wanted to share what my awesome idea for my project for this course! (Which I am incredibly excited about and mentioned in a previous post!!!) So for this course, one of our assignments is to create an "area of expertise" within student affairs and present a workshop to student affairs administrators. Daunting? Absolutely...what do I have to offer? Then I realized - hello, technology! Exactly what the focus will be, I'm not sure, but it will have something to do with the "digital generation," technology on campus, and the role technology has played in the role of students of this generation. I've found some awesome books on this topic already, and already started collecting articles on technology & social networking in the context of higher education. So, SO excited. (Prospectus due on Wednesday!!!)

Oh! One more exciting note. I took the recommendation of Dr. M and contacted J.J., the "local expert" on generational studies in higher education (he gives workshops, etc.). I've got a meeting with him on Thursday to toss some ideas around with him and see if he's got any ideas/recommendations or other connections for me! Man, I need to get my act together!

If I am able to put something good together, I will consider submitting it to the HERA (Hawaii Educational Research Association) conference. :) Yay for technology, and yay for higher education!

Disability Education

So I'm just starting out in this course - DIS 681 - Multicultural Issues in Disability. I am incredibly excited to learn more about the disability rights movement, disability culture, and the complexities that arise when disability intersects with multicultural issues.

After watching the Power of 504 (part 1 and part 2) Stan and I both recognized our lack of awareness about the history of the disability rights movement. Civil rights? Yes...but disability rights? Hrm...absent from our education. While watching MSNBC, I was appalled to see the behavior of people towards a disabled woman at a town hall on healthcare reform. The woman was in the front, in a wheelchair, making a plea for the voice of the disabled to be heard. A man in the back yelled out, "ASK THE QUESTION!" and was later interviewed and said something along the lines of, "Great, now they have more rights than we do." *Bangs head against the wall.* Ugh. I am utterly disgusted. I really don't know what this world is coming to. Sometimes it feels like two steps back instead of two steps forward. *sigh*

I am looking forward to expanding my disability terminology/vocabulary in this course. I'm not sure how much time I'll have (as I'll have to put my required assignments first) but I think it would be great to interview some of my disabled friends about a topic I love - technology - and its role in disability culture.

I am so glad that I decided to register for this course!

Just a Few Things

Okay, so I'm behind in my blogging (big surprise, I know)...but can I say just one thing? I'm not functioning very well right now. I knew that being a full time student and a full time employee would be crazy, but I'm not used to functioning with so little sleep. I feel like a walking zombie. But other than the lack of sleep...I am so, so, so, so, so happy inside. 

:) Being a full-time student just feels right. I'm where I belong.

Quickly Venting.....

Grassley: Bite me
Enzi: Bite me
Whoever’s idea it was to have these loons on this committee: Bite me
Obama: Stop pandering to the GOP. You have the majority. And if you keep pandering, I’m gonna tell you to bite me, too. Your bipartisan efforts are commendable but some of the kids will never play nice with the other kids. Move on.
GOP for trying to make Ted Kennedy look like he would have been willing to compromise on a bill that was the mission of his life: Blasphemy.

Cheney: Come to Hawaii. I’ll take you to the beach. We’ll go WATERBOARDING.

Mom: Sorry for posting this in a public forum. But if McCarthyism returns, I’m sure I’ll be collected up with all the “communist lesbians” anyway. Save yourself.

Intro to Higher Education

Well, now that I'm half-way done with my degree, it's only appropriate that I'm in this class! The class isn't incredibly huge, but it's larger than I've been used to (there are 21 of us) and the classroom we were in tonight was tiny (they double-booked our original classroom so we all smushed into a small room)! The class seems to have a great mix of students - different ages, levels of experience, areas of expertise, local/mainland, newbies and folks further along in the program. (Though it seemed like half the class was somehow affiliated with the athletic department. How did that happen???) 

One incredibly nice/relaxing thing about this course is that I know for sure that I will be taking it. This is not one that's up for debate. The daunting thing about this course is that it's an "intro" course - which means tons of information. In college, I always found intro courses to be the most difficult - there was so much information to grasp. The more focused the topic is, the easier it is to wrap your brain around. When I find something I like, I prefer to get "deep" with it. Though the wide net is incredibly important - and I'm sure I'll learn a ton of new things.

I'm also excited because this is my first course with Dr C. Yay! (And yes, there will be journaling!) The assignments/papers look reasonable but since this is just the beginning of the course, I have NO IDEA what topic(s) I will choose! Another assignment is to interview someone currently working in higher ed. I'm thinking of interviewing someone with experience in institutional research to find out even more about that area.

Dr C handed out some articles to read for next week. At one point she brought up the relationship between institutions of higher education and its relationship to the market and to the consumers (students). What are the responsibilities of institutions toward their students? Should the students dictate their learning or should institutions say, "This is what we think you should know so we'll teach you this." - What about access issues? She compared it to McDonalds in the sense that someone comes in and says, "I want a hamburger and fries." - Well, McD's isn't going to say, "You know, this really isn't good for you..." - no, they just take your money and give you what you want. Is that what education should be? The first thing that came to my mind was how institution type can play a role in the way that question is answered. Different institutions have different stakeholders - and while many times they may be the same, the extent to which their opinions are taken into consideration can vary a great deal.

Well, this is my first "journal entry" for this class. Another one will come once I've done the reading for next week. :)

First Night of Class

While online classes started on Monday, it didn't really feel like school had begun. Tonight was my first class of the fall (or at least my first in person class of the fall), EDEA 780H Seminar: College Student Affairs Administration. Let me preface this by saying that I'm still not sure what my schedule for this semester will be. Since the Assessment & Evaluation seminar was cancelled, I've been scrambling. 

I like that this is a small seminar (I think there are 8 of us in the class) and that we'll be discussing current higher education and student affairs events in class. I was a little more hesitant about the final project. While flipping through the syllabus in class, I wondered if my heart was in this class. It's been awhile since I've really worked with students (not that I don't enjoy it) but I'm not entirely sure this is the direction I'll be heading in. -However, I think the argument to be made, regardless of what sect of higher education you're in, students are central. You should care about the students and be aware of their circumstances - they are the heartbeat of the university!

The main learning outcome of the course is professional development within student affairs administration - not just development per se, but the capacity and understanding of the importance for continuous professional development - knowing what resources are out there and how to make use of them. As an advocate for the idea of the "lifelong learner," I love that this is the central goal of the course (through a student affairs lens, of course). 

The final project, however, is incredibly daunting. I sat there thinking to myself, "I'm not even sure if my heart is in this course entirely, how can I fall in love with this project???" The project is to propose, develop, and deliver (and later reflect upon) a professional development workshop to student affairs professionals. Ack! My heart sank. I so don't belong in this class. I decided not to make any rash decisions...but if I can't invest my heart and brain into the project, I should invest it elsewhere. 

After letting the idea settle a little longer - and after picking up the syllabus again a few hours after class ended, a BRILLIANT idea hit me. I know what I want to do. I have an AMAZING idea. The wheels in my head are spinning. Is my idea viable? Can I pull it off? -We shall see!!!

Healthcare Reform

If you've been following the news at all, I'm sure you're aware of the insanity surrounding healthcare reform. From the public option and single-payer option to well...nothing. From filibusters, lies (i.e. death panels, calling Obama "Hitler"), to town hall disruptions. -It's been insane. I also love how public opinion doesn't seem to circle around opinions about the truth, but rather, the lies people are led to believe based on what network they get their news from. 

Now, I don't post many political thoughts on this blog that aren't related to education, however, I saw this and it really ticked me off. I'm sorry, but the poor economic state of our nation is not a reason to ignore healthcare reform - on the contrary. As more and more people are losing their jobs and their healthcare, while the democrats have the majority vote, this is EXACTLY the time for healthcare reform. It may be the only time for healthcare reform.

For some wonderful blog posts on healthcare and other political topics, please visit my friend's blog. I've known blpanda for at least 10 years and he offers a thoughtful and well-informed perspective on several topics, including healthcare. I hope you check it out. 

Podcast Junkie

Okay, confession. Since my last blog post I have become a complete podcast junkie. No, you do not need an iPod to listen to podcasts, but if you want to port them around, you do. 

In my attempts to do a ton of cleaning and organizing before the fall semester, I have been listening to podcasts while cleaning instead of my typical weekends of reading or blogging. There are all kinds of podcasts out there on topics from politics to the arts to (believe it or not) fantasy football. Here are the podcasts I've "subscribed" to:

***Anderson Cooper 360

***The Atlantic

***Best of the Left

***nytimes.com book review

***Chronicle of Higher Education: Tech Therapy

***nytimes.com The Ethicist

***Green 960 - Rachel Maddow

***MSNBC Countdown

***MSNBC Rachel Maddow

***New Yorker: The Political Scene

***Wall Street Journal This Weekend

***President Obama's Weekly Radio Address

***NPR: All Songs Considered

***NPR: Education Podcast

***NPR: Food Podcast

***NPR: Technology Podcast

***NPR: Your Health Project

***NPR From the Top Podcast

***NPR: Talk of the Nation

Some podcasts are daily, others are weekly - some podcasts are one-time only. I'm a relatively casual viewer/listener, but have been listening more since I've gone nuts cleaning & purging. My "must see" - or perhaps "must listen" - shows are Rachel Maddow & From the Top. What's better than an attractive, intelligent, eloquent, progressive, and funny (well, I find her funny...) lesbian and classically gifted youth??? -Not much, my friends. Not much. 

This Book is Not Required

...but I wish it was. I wish this book were assigned to me when I was in college. I am half-way through this book and the only reason I haven’t finished it is because I have much to say about it and probably should have been blogging after each chapter (the topics are great)! It is somewhat of a "living document" as it has been updated over the years with contributions from students.

Basically, the book examines “participatory” education and what the author calls “Buddhist sociology” and has some great reading and even some exercises to do. (Anyone who works in higher education - administrator, professor, everyone - should read this book.) It’s not full of citations and references, it’s incredibly readable, and will make students actually think about their education.

Here’s a brief rundown of things I’ve wanted to discuss:

Grades

I definitely agree with the premise that the grading system (particularly for young children) doesn’t really help people learn as it makes the grade the reward instead of the process of learning itself. I do have a couple points of view on this topic that I would like to share:

First of all, I am someone who has had to deal with what I will call the “perfectionism” disease, and it took me time to come to terms with the fact that I am me, not my grades. But, I think that journey was a valuable one. Yes, there may have been points in my life when I thought grade was more important than the learning, but as I’ve gotten older, I found that if I study what I love and enjoy the process, the good grades usually follow.

That said, I am coming from the perspective of someone who has generally always enjoyed school and never had any difficulties in the learning process. I think for people like me, perhaps the process of coming to terms with the fact that I am not my grades is a good lesson, but what about other students out there that may not be as naturally inclined in the academic realm for whom grades are a source of anxiety? I think grades can then start an incredibly negative cycle of self-worth and confidence in young children that should really enjoy “discovery” and “process” and feel good and excited about learning instead of living in fear of bad grades and stress from parents and teachers.

The Standardization of Education

As much as we like to discuss the diversity of the different types of colleges and universities out there, higher education is standardized. - This is not (in my opinion) a good thing. While I do enjoy college campuses (particularly older ones, like MHC), I think it’s important to understand that as “diverse” as types of colleges and universities are, the education system itself is standard. Learning takes place (generally) in classrooms. Students receive grades for their work. Academia is full of “gatekeepers.” Learning shouldn’t be confined to this format (how limiting!) and furthermore, it makes education appear so inaccessible!

Wisdom & Knowledge

Wow, I’ve got many pages in this chapter marked. Okay, so the authors compare wisdom to knowledge where knowledge is all the information thrown at us in school and wisdom is self-knowledge that involves not just the self, but the world around you. A good example from the book is the difference between studying something from a book vs. living it. The author taught a course on race relations - now you can read, and read, and read all you want and get to know all kinds of facts and opinions on the topic. Then the author brought a black activist to talk to the class. After that, the students better understood that, “Intellect alone could not fathom the phenomenon of black anger. The word is not the thing” (p. 71).

The author also talks about how students separate knowledge from wisdom and become “learned fools - people who can rattle off the ideologies of countless groups but still naively trust that their own version of truth is immutable and not to be questioned” (p. 72). Personally, I think the first topic discussed, grading, can lend itself negatively to this problem. Perhaps students think, “Well, I’m graded on the ideologies of others, I’m not graded on how this information influences me.”

Religion is discussed in this section and the author brings in some discussion of Buddhist and Hindu philosophies. While I haven’t particularly looked at my view on knowledge (or my values on a whole) from this perspective, I have to say it makes me feel quite zen. See, as time goes by, I’ve found that to be a good learner, you need to be open. And this is not just in the academic sense, but in life-learning as well. At one point in my life, I thought holding on firmly and tightly to convictions was important. -But if everyone does this, how can there be common ground? How can there be respect? How can we live together? How can we agree to disagree? It’s okay to believe what you believe. But perhaps it is more important to keep your mind open to other perspectives and other views and not just immediately shut other ideas out. It’s important to always have a critical eye - to question things - but you need to question what you know and what you think you know with as much scrutiny as you are critical of other people and unfamiliar ideas.

It’s kind of like “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” - how sometimes teaching a beginner (let’s use playing the violin as an example) is easier than someone more advanced. It’s easier to teach a beginner from scratch how to correctly do something than it is to teach a student that has learned something incorrectly to “un-do” the incorrect way they learned to do something previously. So yes, this idea but applied to the mind - seeing things with a “beginner’s mind” - open, and fresh. Not full of what has been pounded in our brains by parents, school, and the media. Staying open. Questioning what you know. Questioning what others know.

The author advises students to not separate themselves from the process of learning and to always ask, “What can it teach me about myself?” when learning any subject. I think this is sound advice, not just for school, but for life in general.

Pursuing Wisdom in the Academy

This chapter relates similarly to the previous chapter, but gives advice to students on how they can use college to pursue wisdom, not just knowledge. Some of the main ideas here are:

You need to meet others of different views to understand that you have a view of the world (p. 86)
Internal experience combined with other peoples’ outsides lead us to misperceive the world (p. 89)
Attaining wisdom requires engagement of the senses, not just reading and writing (p. 102)

Adventures in Desocialization

This chapter offers up some activities to try to undo, or at least understand the ways we’ve been socialized. “Sociologists study this process in great detail, demonstrating how we are, completely, creatures of our culture. However, they never seem to step beyond this stage and actually try to free us from social conditioning, nor do they point out that this freedom is even possible” (p. 108). The focus of this chapter is to understand the ways we’ve been conditioned in society.

The activities are great and do focus on “The Self” - ideas we have of our “real self” and our “ideal self,” self-criticism, and expectations. I think the idea that the “real self” and “ideal self” are both illusions is interesting - as the book says, “Buddhism tells us that, to get rid of the problematic self, we need not change any aspect of it. We only need to accept what is there” (p. 115). This idea is freeing in a way. This chapter also discusses the idea of “the critical voice” as an enemy (so true) and that expectations ruin satisfaction (again, also true).

In retrospect, since reading this chapter, I honestly think I’ve been less critical of myself and I have tried to focus more on the present (though it is difficult). I have come up with my own exercise as a result of this chapter. I will call it the “apple” project. Assuming I’ve gone grocery shopping, I get an apple (occasionally a plum or nectarine) for everyday at work. Usually, I eat it, absentmindedly while I am working or playing around online. From now on, I am going to try to focus on the present while eating my fruit. Savoring the flavor, thinking about the crunch in my mouth, enjoying where I am - and occasionally eating my apple at different locations on campus, enjoying my surroundings. :)

The Mac Deal

Okay, so as most people know, I am a hardcore PC person. While I did first learn to type on an Apple IIE and remember the days when floppy disks really were floppy, I did convert to the world of PC’s. Not that I’m a Microsoft lover (I do have a hard time complaining as Bill Gates kinda helped put me through college.....) but I do love PC’s. I think better on PC’s. My mind was made for the PC. I will agree that Mac’s have the leg up when it comes to most “creative” things - video editing, art things, etc. But in general, I’ll take a PC over a Mac any day. I have been known to make comments such as “PCs are computers, Macs are toys.”

Fast-forward to now. I own a MacBook. Several factors pushed me towards the decision to become a Mac owner. I think the best one I heard was from a friend of a friend who has similar feelings about PCs and Macs that I do. His logic went something like this, “I go to work with PC’s all day long. PC = work. When I come home, I come home to a Mac. It’s my “fun toy” - it means I don’t have to work.” I still dissed him...I think I told him he went over to the dark side. BUT, after time went by, his logic made sense. Since getting my Mac, here are other benefits I’ve noticed:

-Being able to talk both “PC” and “Mac”
-Becoming familiar with Mac applications
-Allowing my creativity to flow more easily with Mac applications

Now, I’m not saying that everyone who owns a PC should run out and get a Mac. I’m just saying that I’m enjoying the benefits of the world that Apple has opened me up to. (What good does it do any of us to be closed-minded?) Don’t worry, I haven’t tossed my PC love in the trash - in fact, I probably would have bought another PC if it weren’t for the fact that I have a PC laptop for work and am thus able to choose at my convenience which I’d rather use depending on my computing needs and activities. I think having both is actually really nice.....

Also, I don’t know if it really is me or if the media has gotten to me, but I honestly “think” better in front of a PC (i.e. writing papers, etc.) but feel my creative juices flow better on a Mac (i.e. photos, videos, music, blogging). Anyhow, this is my advice: don’t knock it ‘till you try it - why not enjoy the best of both worlds?

Ed Admin vs. Ed Foundations and Other Things...

Recently, I’ve been spending my lunch breaks at work at the campus bookstore, perusing the texts that are trickling in for the fall. I must say, my heart skipped more than just a few beats when I saw the texts out for some courses in the educational foundations department. So, confession: I probably do belong in the EDEF department more than I belong in the EDEA department. I do enjoy my courses and my professors, but I think my academic interests lie more in the foundations of, the philosophy of, and the social contexts of education more than within education administration. –Had I really put more thought into it, I probably would have concluded that I belonged in the EDEF department with a focus in the social & cultural contexts of education, and taking my electives in higher education administration.

From the “credits” perspective, I’m half-way through the EDEA program – and I know almost all the EDEA professors. It hardly makes sense to switch departments. –And I could take some classes in EDEF…I just feel that my lack of time for classes makes it incredibly difficult for me to do this!

Here are the courses I’m drooling over:

EDEF 685 – International Development Education
Texts:
Expanding the Boundaries of Transformative Learning
Transformative Learning

EDEF 698 – Advanced Topics: Feminist Studies in Education
Texts:
Feeling Power: Emotions and Education
World, Class, Women: Global Literature, Education, and Feminism

EDEF 762 – Seminar on the Social & Cultural Contexts of Education
Texts:
Durkheim on Morality and Society
Durkheim – The rules of Sociological Method
Das Kapital
The Great Transformation
(I'd really love the chance to read more Durkheim...*sigh*)

It’s okay. Perhaps I’ll have more of a chance to foray into these topics when I go for my PhD. ☺

In the meantime, I picked up the texts for the intro course to my program (go figure that I’m taking it now that I’m half way done…). I also did the smart thing and emailed the professor for the syllabus! I’m planning to squish the course reading (and perhaps some of the writing, at least the journaling) into my summer reading to make my fall more manageable.

Speaking of summer reading, I’m half-way through “This Book is Not Required." It’s a great, practical read that I think would be beneficial to all college students – and honestly, everyone. Discussion on this book will be forthcoming. I’ve also got some more books on their way (I was hoping they’d arrive today but I’ll have to wait until Monday).

An idea popped into my head while at the bookstore today – to read several books around a central theme from the perspectives of different subjects, and discuss the common threads or subject-specific insights they may offer. Since flipping through Schwartz’s “The Paradox of Choice” and thinking – “Hey, I’m not that burdened by choice…” the more I came to realize that, “Hello, yeah, you are!” From choosing my major, to my career, to where I’ll go to grad school, to what I’ll eat for dinner and even to which book I’m going to read next! Isn’t it odd that I actually feel stress in choosing which book I am going to read next for fun??? And in the big picture of it all, my major didn’t really matter so much, and which book I’ll read next is irrelevant…so why do I feel stress in making that decision? Anyhow, that will be the theme – choices/decisions. The books I’ve selected are:
The Paradox of Choice (Barry Schwartz) - sociology
Blink (Malcolm Gladwell) - psychology
Nudge (Richard Thaler) - economics
Sway (Ori Brafman) – business/marketing

I may not read all four of them, but I will be choosing at least 2, likely 3 of these books for this fun little project.

Banker to the Poor - Discussion

Okay, so it’s been a long time coming, but finally, here is my discussion on Banker to the Poor. I’ll start with a very brief synopsis of the book and the ideas that Yunus discusses. I’ll then talk about the ties I see between his book and the way it relates to technology & social justice. Finally, I’ll talk a little about some observations made my myself and people the book club I joined. ☺

On the whole, I’d say that the beginning of the book is probably the most “exciting.” We hear the story of Yunus’ childhood – what it was like growing up in Bangladesh, from family stories to his education - progressing through different universities around the world, as well as the independence of Bangladesh. The book then proceeds as sort of a timeline, from Yunus’ first ideas of ways to help the poor, to the growth and expansion of Grameen bank.

Yunus contends that credit should be a human right – along with food, clothing, and shelter. Unfortunately, only those that have the collateral are able to access credit. What the Grameen bank does is lend credit to those living in poverty to buy what they need to make a living. For example, someone who makes chairs would be able to buy the supplies to make the chairs that they then sell. –This is opposed to taking out loans from other money lenders that charge such a high rate of interest that the poor can never benefit and just continue living their lives in poverty. The Grameen bank allows the opportunity to grow – where they are able to pay back their loans and profit from their businesses. There are requirements, of course – they must sign up as a group of five. In a sense, this is the collateral – everyone feels the pressure from their friends to keep up their end of the bargain, and if one person is unable to pay for some reason, the others must find a way to pay up. Oh, and one thing I forgot to mention, the Grameen bank focuses on lending to women. His idea for this was that women are the ones that are often in charge of the family and the household and are the ones living in the worst conditions. He found that men that get money will spend it on themselves while women will instead use the money to better their family and their communities.

While a professor at Chittagong, Yunus noticed the dichotomy between the university – a place full of wealth and knowledge – and those in the surrounding areas – illiterate and stricken by poverty. He sees the university as having a responsibility to its surrounding community, “If a university is a repository for knowledge, then some of this knowledge should spill over to the neighboring community. A university must not be an island where academics reach out to higher and higher levels of knowledge without sharing any of their findings” (p. 34).

When he first discovered the plight of those suffering in poverty, he came in contact with a woman who was suffering, essentially, because she did not have twenty-two cents. Yunus realized that he could easily just give her the money, but that would not solve the problem permanently. Here begins a theme that runs throughout his book: charity is not the answer. Yunus calls charity as “a way to shrug off our responsibility” and that it “appeases our consciences” (p. 249). People (including myself) donate to causes they wish to support but oftentimes, charity just perpetuates the cycle of poverty. If we look at the welfare system in the US and really think about it, it’s almost as if it’s designed to keep those living in poverty poor and to then pass this on to their children and their childrens’ children. The benefits they receive from the welfare system help them – but it’s incredibly difficult to get off welfare because jobs they often get pay less and offer fewer benefits than welfare does! –Giving people the opportunity to take out a microcredit loan so they can improve their own lives can offer not only a long-term solution, but can improve their morale and self-esteem.

Related to this is the idea that technology can help. Of course, technology cannot change a situation when it is just presented and given to a community. In a sense, this is like charity – throwing money or technology at a problem does not solve it. For technology resources, effort, and education are essential. Yunus noticed this as one community had large amounts of land that was not being used – it was because the government had brought in modern irrigation technology but it broke, and nobody new how to get it fixed! Access to information is, of course, the key – that all groups of people might have access to the same information is one of the most wonderful things about the Internet.

Okay, let me step back a minute. I just spewed out a bunch of information about microcredit lending, charity, welfare, and technology, but what’s the bigger picture here? In my eyes, the bigger picture is that people can change their lives and become citizens capable of political action. When Yunus started this project, it was really just trying to find a solution to a problem – there was no desire for personal or political gain – it was just a problem that needed a logical solution. Yunus really had no idea how big this would get and how drastically he could change the lives of these people – who eventually proved to play a large role, politically!

Think about it – if you are able to give people the opportunity to make an honest living for themselves and improve their standard of living, they will have higher levels of self-esteem and self-respect. They learn and grow and have a desire to educate their children (Yunus even found that Grameen families even started to choose to have fewer children!), educate themselves, find value in their own opinions, and exercise their political will! In fact, Grameen borrowers (who are predominatly female) voted in the 1996 election and were able to almost wipe out a political party out of the Parliament that was against women’s rights! In fact, more females voted in that 1996 election than males did!

So where does this leave us now? Some of the ideas we talked about in the book group were that this did not (for understandable reasons) work out in the U.S. – part of the problem is the welfare system and part of it is cultural. We also discussed how much time and energy Yunus put into changing the lives of these people. He literally started one person at a time, one village at a time. He exercised incredible patience with women who would not speak to a male – showing up day after day after day just to start his bank out. It is as if he saw every little bit of improvement as positive, and every negative situation he faced as a challenge – incredibly impressive. We also liked how he came at this from neither the left nor the right, but from a position of logic and social-consciousness. He just wanted to help people and was willing to work hard, through trial and error, to find a solution.

Yunus proposes a future of social businesses, a new sector that is driven by social-consciousness because, “We don’t have to put everything on the shoulders of the government. Governments are limited; they cannot do everything and we have responsibilities as citizens” (p. 266). I look forward to reading his next book, Creating a World Without Poverty, to find out more about his ideas of social businesses.

ETEC 698 - Technology and Social Justice Wrap-Up

My 6-week summer course in Technology & Social Justice has come to an end. I find myself feeling the way I feel after every other semester – relieved, yet a little at a loss as to what to do with myself. Anyhow, I enjoyed this course a great deal and thought I’d share my thoughts about it!

I’ve had several people ask me what course I was taking this summer and inevitably, my answer to them elicits some confused looks – “Technology and what?” So what exactly is that about? To be quite honest, I wasn’t entirely sure what I was getting myself into either – but you have to admit, it’s a great course title! The topics we discussed in class varied a great deal from how technology can be used for social justice causes (i.e. political action committee websites), how technology can help disseminate information to all (making information something for all, not just a privileged few), the digital divide, how technology can help people in third world countries, as well as ethical considerations for new technologies and the implementation of technology.

The class was taught completely online with both synchronous class meetings (through Elluminate) and asynchronous discussion (Laulima forums – which is UH’s version of Sakai). In addition to looking at technology from a more global perspective, this course also introduced me to many great sources of information - which I will review at the end of this blog. I was also glad to see many parallels between course reading and some reading that I’m doing outside of class on microcredit as a mechanism for eradicating poverty (Banker to the Poor by Yunus). A blog on my review of Banker to the Poor is forthcoming as well – I’ll also be joining a book group that’s discussing Banker to the Poor tomorrow, which I’m also excited about!

I’ve decided to try to spend some of my “free time” reading in anticipation of a course I intend to take in the fall – EDEA 657 – Intro to Higher Education. I got a syllabus from a friend that took the course and lucky for me, the texts are already in the bookstore and I was able to find all the additional articles she assigned to read online as well! Hopefully the curriculum hasn’t changed much – but if it has, that’s okay…I’m sure the reading was assigned for a reason and they’ll be good!

Here are some of the resources I was introduced to in my Technology and Social Justice class that I thought I’d share:

Elluminate
Our class met online for synchronous discussions through Elluminate. It’s kind of like Skype but it’s mostly for classes or videoconferencing and has a virtual “blackboard” where PowerPoint presentations can be made or you can add text or draw. Also, the moderator can split the class up into smaller groups for discussion. While this does come with a fee, Elluminate.com does offer a “three for free” – meaning you can connect up to three people on Elluminate for free. –So give it a try!

OpenOffice
OpenOffice is incredibly awesome. It’s a suite similar to Microsoft Office except it’s better because: 1) it’s open source, 2) it’s FREE, and 3) it’s giving people an alternative to the mighty Microsoft monopoly (well…almost monopoly at least). Of the whole suite, I’ve only played around with “Writer” (i.e. “Word”) though there is also “Calc” (i.e. “Excel”), “Impress” (i.e. “PowerPoint”), “Base” (i.e. “Access”) and “Draw” (i.e. “Visio”). I think OpenOffice is an excellent option for schools and non-profits (and, well, everyone). Microsoft file formats (i.e. .doc, .xls, .ppt) can be imported into OpenOffice, and exported easily to .pdf and can also be exported to Microsoft formats. Highly recommended. *****

CreativeCommons
Prior to this course I was unfamiliar with CreativeCommons licensing. Since the internet makes it incredibly easy to share and transmit information that one creates (i.e. documents, research, photos) it makes sense that people will want to share and collaborate. When thinking about intellectual property in the information age, it’s important to consider the legal ramifications of what is used and shared and how it is referenced. Enter CreativeCommons – where you can go and apply for your own free licenses to allow others to share in your creations. This appeals to me from two perspectives: 1) everyone is viewed as a creator of knowledge…not just the people who have agents and publishers and 2) it encourages collaboration. I was impressed to see that people not only share images on which they allow others to build, alter, and enhance, but also share and re-mix music – it’s fantastic. Sometimes when I think about the youth of today and the internet, I become concerned because of issues like cyberbullying, cyberstalking, and spending vast amounts of time online – but I also think that the internet offers incredible opportunities to collaborate and connect. –And I think the younger generations see the potential in the internet to become creators and collaborators.

Second Life
Most of my classmates described Second Life as “creepy.” I actually thought it was really cool – and I can see how people really get into it. You basically create an avatar and you can change outfits, undress (which I did accidentally and then had difficulty locating my clothing…), talk to other people online, and become part of totally and completely different virtual worlds. From an educational perspective, I think it could potentially add another level to online learning – the idea that your avatar could actually participate in a virtual classroom is kind of cool (and I believe some colleges have used it for online graduation ceremonies). Personally, I feel like it would take me too much time to master, but overall, it’s pretty neat and I think everyone should try it just to see what it’s like!

American Memory Project
American Memory is a fantastic online resource of public domain content (transcripts, audio, video, etc.) from a variety of subjects that is part of the Library of Congress. I particularly like their sections on Culture/Folklife and Women’s History…they’ve even got some great information on the evolution of the conservation movement from 1850-1920! Anyone that is a fan of archives will love this site.

Columbia University’s Social Justice Wiki
So this is another great example of the intersection of technology and social justice. Here, wiki technology is used to allow people to add to an information archive of social justice topics of all kinds.

Inspiration Software– InspireData
In class, we played around with some Inspiration software including Inspiration, Kidspiration, and (my personal favorite) InspireData. These were all developed to help students (of a wide variety of ages) use computers to learn more visually. I downloaded the trial version of InspireData and was completely wowed by the technological capacity of the software, and how easy it was to use…I seriously wish this had been around when I was younger. Students can set up online surveys for their classmates to take and then can arrange the data into bar graphs, charts, and Venn diagrams! Talk about making data analysis accessible to people of all ages!

Thus ends my discussion of ETEC 698 – a great course that I highly recommend to my fellow classmates in the EDEA department. I will conclude this blog with a great quote: “Equal access to technology is not the same as equal access to equal technology” (NCES, 2004).

Last couple days of the Booksale

I managed to make my way over to the booksale both yesterday and today - and I'm so glad I did! Yesterday, everything was half-off and today, everything was 50 cents! I've learned something new about myself - I have an odd taste for non-fiction that nobody else in Hawaii seems to have. -All the books that I put back earlier in the week were still there on 50 cent day! While I am happy I was able to pick these books up, I am somewhat disappointed that nobody else wants these books as I do! Oh well.

Yesterday's treasures included:
Prodigal Summer - Barbara Kingsolver (Lucky I found this!)
Simple Abundance - Sarah Ban Breathnach (The words of a friendly stranger standing next to me encouraged me to get this book - only a dollar!)
Cecilia Bartoli - Rossini Heroines (CD) - One of my favorite mezzo-sopranos, and definitely the best when it comes to early music...another lucky find for only a $1.50!
Banker to the Poor - Okay, yes, I have this book already, but here's the story: I find Banker to the Poor in hardback in the economics section. A co-worker/friend had recommended it to me but last I talked to her, she didn't have it yet. I thought I'd pick it up for her. Well guess what? She was at the booksale, too! And she didn't need the copy, but her friend (who she always talks to me about) was at the booksale and so she introduced me and I gave the book to her. It always works out. And besides, it's the kind of book you'd just pass on to another person, anyhow. They told me about a book group that's meeting to discuss it in a couple weeks. I'm looking forward to it. :)

Today's treasures:
Moyers on America (Bill Moyers) - I didn't even realize there was a separate section for journalism/media - how did I not find this before? My mother picked up a different Bill Moyers book earlier in the week from the politics section. Perhaps we'll do a switcheroo once she's done.
Development & Social Change a Global Perspective - So this is a text from 2004 so it is slightly out of date, but it was priced at $4! Anyhow, after this class I've become more interested in the digital divide from a global perspective, and I'm hoping there might be some of that in this book.
Can We Talk about Race? (Beverly Daniel Tatum) - I remember when she was "Dean Tatum" at MHC. You had to write an essay just to get into her classes in the psych department because the demand was so high!
Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools (Jonathan Kozol) - I was picking between this and Kozol's "Amazing Grace" earlier in the week. Now, I've got both of them!

The past two days bring my book total up to 16 books and one CD and the cost up to about $22. Not bad! I have to say, as I was picking up those 4 books today, I was feel guilty that I had too much. I already have so many books. I decided it was okay. The education books that are in good condition will be donated to my grad department and others will be given away to interested friends.

The booksale was great fun this year. I look forward to reading all my new books!

Thoughts on Information Literacy at the Booksale

It's Tuesday, and day 4 of the Friends of the Library of Hawaii booksale and I have gone 3 out of the 4 days. :) Books are organized in broad categories (literature, hobbies, art, philosophy, sci-fi, etc.) but aren't always necessarily under the category you'd figure they would be in. Furthermore, broad categories are as organized as it'll get...no Dewey decimal system there! As I wandered through the tables of books today I thought - you know, this is kind of like surfing the internet in a way. There's a ton of information there and you try your best to search where you think you'll find what you want - but really, you've just got to search and dig. You can pull out a book of interest because the title looks interesting, or maybe because the spine or cover appeals to you somehow, but really, until you pull it out and look closely, you really don't know. You need to use some critical thinking and information literacy skills to find what you want and decide whether the book you picked up is what you want.

I picked up some excellent books from the bookfair a few of which I was actively looking for, and some that...how shall I put this...I didn't know I wanted until I found them! I was judicious in my decisions, of course, I put back some books I was definitely interested in but thought that they wouldn't be high on my reading list and perhaps they would be higher up on someone else's list.

Here are the treasures I came away with:
1) Tuesday's With Morrie - Mitch Albom
2) Five People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom
3) Amazing Grace - Jonathan Kozol
4) Research Design - John Creswell
5) This Book is not Required (revised edition) - Inge Bell & Bernard McGrane
6) Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington - Thomas Cathcart & Daniel Klein
7) Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell (SCORE!!!)
8) The Accidental Asian - Eric Liu
9) Waiting for Snow in Havana - Carlos Eire
10) Zami A New Spelling of My Name - Audre Lorde

--All of these for about $16!!! :)

While completely engrossed in Banker to the Poor (while walking to the office) I ran into a woman who wanted to see what I was reading. I came away from that conversation with yet another book recommendation, "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson - I will have to get it, it's totally up my alley. "Reading Lolita in Tehran" is also now on my list. Man, I'd kill for a "pause" button for my life so I could stop everything for a bit and just READ.

I've decided that someday I'll have a (small) library. I haven't figured out where I'd put it. It might be cool to have a library as a room all by itself - but if I ever have kids I doubt I'd have the space. Maybe I'll just have the library in the living room? I could definitely live in a library. The bathroom is (obviously) a logical choice but for sanitation reasons I think I'll pass on that one.......