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Ed Webb

The academy's neoliberal response to COVID-19: Why faculty should be wary and... - 1 views

academicmatters.ca/eoliberal-response-to-covid-19

Canada education online neoliberalism capitalism opinion analysis pandemics

shared by Ed Webb on 29 May 20 - No Cached
  • In the neoliberal economy, workers are seen as commodities and are expected to be trained and “work-ready” before they are hired. The cost and responsibility for job-training fall predominantly on individual workers rather than on employers. This is evident in the expectation that work experience should be a condition of hiring. This is true of the academic hiring process, which no longer involves hiring those who show promise in their field and can be apprenticed on the tenure track, but rather those with the means, privilege, and grit to assemble a tenurable CV on their own dime and arrive to the tenure track work-ready.
  • The assumption that faculty are pre-trained, or able to train themselves without additional time and support, underpins university directives that faculty move classes online without investing in training to support faculty in this shift. For context, at the University of Waterloo, the normal supports for developing an online course include one to two course releases, 12-18 months of preparation time, and the help of three staff members—one of whom is an online learning consultant, and each of whom supports only about two other courses. Instead, at universities across Canada, the move online under COVID-19 is not called “online teaching” but “remote teaching”, which universities seem to think absolves them of the responsibility to give faculty sufficient technological training, pedagogical consultation, and preparation time.
  • faculty are encouraged to strip away the transformative pedagogical work that has long been part of their profession and to merely administer a course or deliver course material
  • ...19 more annotations...
  • remote teaching directives are rooted in the assumption that faculty are equally positioned to carry them out
  • The dual delivery model—in which some students in a course come to class and others work remotely using pre-recorded or other asynchronous course material—is already part of a number of university plans for the fall, even though it requires vastly more work than either in-person or remote courses alone. The failure to accommodate faculty who are not well positioned to transform their courses from in-person to remote teaching—or some combination of the two— will actively exacerbate existing inequalities, marking a step backward for equity.
  • Neoliberal democracy is characterized by competitive individualism and centres on the individual advocacy of ostensibly equal citizens through their vote with no common social or political goals. By extension, group identity and collective advocacy are delegitimized as undemocratic attempts to gain more of a say than those involved would otherwise have as individuals.
  • Portraying people as atomized individuals allows social problems to be framed as individual failures
  • faculty are increasingly encouraged to see themselves as competitors who must maintain a constant level of productivity and act as entrepreneurs to sell ideas to potential investors in the form of external funding agencies or private commercial interests. Rather than freedom of enquiry, faculty research is increasingly monitored through performance metrics. Academic governance is being replaced by corporate governance models while faculty and faculty associations are no longer being respected for the integral role they play in the governance process, but are instead considered to be a stakeholder akin to alumni associations or capital investors.
  • treats structural and pedagogical barriers as minor individual technical or administrative problems that the instructor can overcome simply by watching more Zoom webinars and practising better self-care.
  • In neoliberal thought, education is merely pursued by individuals who want to invest in skills and credentials that will increase their value in the labour market.
  • A guiding principle of neoliberal thought is that citizens should interact as formal equals, without regard for the substantive inequalities between us. This formal equality makes it difficult to articulate needs that arise from historical injustices, for instance, as marginalized groups are seen merely as stakeholders with views equally valuable to those of other stakeholders. In the neoliberal university, this notion of formal equality can be seen, among other things, in the use of standards and assessments, such as teaching evaluations, that have been shown to be biased against instructors from marginalized groups, and in the disproportionate amount of care and service work that falls to these faculty members.
  • Instead of discussing better Zoom learning techniques, we should collectively ask what teaching in the COVID-19 era would look like if universities valued education and research as essential public goods.
  • while there are still some advocates for the democratic potential of online teaching, there are strong criticisms that pedagogies rooted in well-established understandings of education as a collective, immersive, and empowering experience, through which students learn how to deliberate, collaborate, and interrogate established norms, cannot simply be transferred online
  • Humans learn through narrative, context, empathy, debate, and shared experiences. We are able to open ourselves up enough to ask difficult questions and allow ourselves to be challenged only when we are able to see the humanity in others and when our own humanity is recognized by others. This kind of active learning (as opposed to the passive reception of information) requires the trust, collectivity, and understanding of divergent experiences built through regular synchronous meetings in a shared physical space. This is hindered when classroom interaction is mediated through disembodied video images and temporally delayed chat functions.
  • When teaching is reduced to content delivery, faculty become interchangeable, which raises additional questions about academic freedom. Suggestions have already been made that the workload problem brought on by remote teaching would be mitigated if faculty simply taught existing online courses designed by others. It does not take complex modelling to imagine a new normal in which an undergraduate degree consists solely of downloading and memorizing cookie-cutter course material uploaded by people with no expertise in the area who are administering ten other courses simultaneously. 
  • when teaching is reduced to content delivery, intellectual property takes on additional importance. It is illegal to record and distribute lectures or other course material without the instructor’s permission, but universities seem reluctant to confirm that they will not have the right to use the content faculty post online. For instance, if a contract faculty member spends countless hours designing a remote course for the summer semester and then is laid off in the fall, can the university still use their recorded lectures and other material in the fall? Can the university use this recorded lecture material to continue teaching these courses if faculty are on strike (as happened in the UK in 2018)? What precedents are being set? 
  • Students’ exposure to a range of rigorous thought is also endangered, since it is much easier for students to record and distribute course content when faculty post it online. Some websites are already using the move to remote teaching as an opportunity to urge students to call out and shame faculty they deem to be “liberal” or “left” by reposting their course material. To avoid this, faculty are likely to self-censor, choosing material they feel is safer. Course material will become more generic, which will diminish the quality of students’ education.
  • In neoliberal thought, the public sphere is severely diminished, and the role of the university in the public sphere—and as a public sphere unto itself—is treated as unnecessary. The principle that enquiry and debate are public goods in and of themselves, regardless of their outcome or impact, is devalued, as is the notion that a society’s self-knowledge and self-criticism are crucial to democracy, societal improvement, and the pursuit of the good life. Expert opinion is devalued, and research is desirable only when it translates into gains for the private sector, essentially treating universities as vehicles to channel public funding into private research and development. 
  • The free and broad pursuit—and critique—of knowledge is arguably even more important in times of crisis and rapid social change.
  • Policies that advance neoliberal ideals have long been justified—and opposition to them discredited—using Margaret Thatcher’s famous line that “there is no alternative.” This notion is reproduced in universities framing their responses to COVID-19 as a fait accompli—the inevitable result of unfortunate circumstances. Yet the neoliberal assumptions that underpin these responses illustrate that choices are being made and force us to ask whether the emergency we face necessitates this exact response.
  • The notion that faculty can simply move their courses online—or teach them simultaneously online and in person—is rooted in the assumption that educating involves merely delivering information to students, which can be done just as easily online as it can be in person. There are many well-developed online courses, yet all but the most ardent enthusiasts concede that the format works better for some subjects and some students
  • Emergencies matter. Far from occasions that justify suspending our principles, the way that we handle the extra-ordinary, the unexpected, sends a message about what we truly value. While COVID-19 may seem exceptional, university responses to this crisis are hardly a departure from the neoliberal norm, and university administrations are already making plans to extend online teaching after it dissipates. We must be careful not to send the message that the neoliberal university and the worldview that underpins it are acceptable.
Vicki Davis

US teacher is suspended for letting pupils read bestseller | News | guardian.co.uk Books - 0 views

books.guardian.co.uk/...0,,2288658,00.html

edu_news education

shared by Vicki Davis on 04 Jul 08 - Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 04 Jul 08
     
    Class teacher is suspended for letting her students read freedom writers. I would love to have some opinions from other teachers.
  • Vicki Davis on 04 Jul 08
     
    This teacher was banned from using the freedom writers diary in her classroom and now has been suspended. I don't know all of the facts, however, I have to wonder why the school sent her to a Freedom Writers workshop and then wouldn't let her use the book. I do respect the desire to limit the profanity -- I wish that perhaps there was a explitive-free version of the book to handle this issue, however, it looks like this entire issue was mishandled. It grieves me as more issues like this seem to be happening in schools. I haven't read this book to have my own opinion, but would love to hear from some of you who have.
Sandy Kendell

Rise Of The iGeneration: Don't Call Me, Text Me | Online Media Gazette - 13 views

omgzam.com/...eneration-dont-call-me-text-me

digital_citizenship genx netgen igen texting cellphone

shared by Sandy Kendell on 21 Feb 10 - Cached
  • According to Nielsen Mobile, in the first quarter of 2009, the average U.S teenager made and received an average of 191 phone calls and sent and received 2,899 text messages every month. By the third quarter, the number of texts jumped to a whopping 3,146 messages per month. This is equivalent to more than 10 text messages per hour.
    • David Warlick
      David Warlick on 21 Feb 10
       
      Are they communicating with each other less?  or more?  Research seems to indicate that kids are using this hyper-connectedness to actually enrich their personal relationships, not isolate themselves.
  • We are in the midst of four distinct generations: Baby Boomers (born 1946-64), Generation X (1965-79), Net Generation (1980-89) and the new iGeneration (born in the 1990s and beyond). The “i” designation represents the “individualized” nature of their media.
    • Sandy Kendell
      Sandy Kendell on 22 Feb 10
       
      This is one of the most specific categorizations of generations I've seen. I wonder what the writer's source is?
  • David Warlick on 21 Feb 10
     
    According to Nielsen Mobile, in the first quarter of 2009, the average U.S teenager made and received an average of 191 phone calls and sent and received 2,899 text messages every month. By the third quarter, the number of texts jumped to a whopping 3,146 messages per month. This is equivalent to more than 10 text messages per hour.
Anne Bubnic

Today's Question: Should social media be used in education? - Columbia Missourian - 0 views

www.columbiamissourian.com/...l-media-sites-education-system

social media facebook twitter elearning ad4dcss

shared by Anne Bubnic on 07 Aug 09 - Cached
  • Educators, however, find themselves with mixed opinions about the role of social media in higher education and its importance in the classroom. Some see it as the technology of tomorrow, an important piece to the puzzle of connecting with students, while others try it doubtingly in their classrooms, assuming that the traditional face-to-face contact cannot be replaced.
  • Some people find social media to be a positive experience for education. "We’re globally connected,”  said Jason Ohler, a former professor of education technology at the University of Alaska, now a media psychology professor at Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara, Calif. “It only makes sense to be globally connected when we pursue education."
  • Anne Bubnic on 07 Aug 09
     
    Educators find themselves with mixed opinions about the role of social media in higher education and its importance in the classroom. Some see it as the technology of tomorrow, an important piece to the puzzle of connecting with students, while others try it doubtingly in their classrooms, assuming that the traditional face-to-face contact cannot be replaced.
Vicki Davis

How Teens Do Research in the Digital World - 0 views

www.pewinternet.org/...eportWithMethodology110112.pdf

education news socialbookmarking diigo delicious bestpractices literature

shared by Vicki Davis on 21 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 21 Mar 13
     
    In a recent PEW study, National Writing Project (NWP) and Advanced Placement (AP) teachers said that "a top priority in today's classrooms should be teaching students how to 'judge the quality of online information.'"  Furthermore, teachers are concerned that students don't get past Google, Wikipedia, and YouTube into deeper (and more accurate) ways of collecting information. If you want to discuss research sources, social bookmarking is the best way to do this. We should see more classrooms using Diigo (the most superior bookmarking service, in my opinion) or Delicious as they discuss and share the documents they will use in their research papers.  I've found when topics need deeper research or when the sources of research are in dispute, that social bookmarking is the best way to facilitate those discussions. It is a powerful form of pre-writing for students. If they can begin the conversations around research articles and sources, then more accurate information will emerge in their final document. Often students don't verify the sources of information and should learn to view all online information with skepticism and a critical eye as they converse over what makes a good source. Social bookmarking is a key source of discussion, data collection, and citation in the modern classroom.
Nik Peachey

Thinking Critically through Digital Media | PeacheyPublications.com - 3 views

peacheypublications.com/itically-through-digital-media

#criticalthinking #edtech socialmedia elt tesl

shared by Nik Peachey on 15 Nov 16 - No Cached
  • Nik Peachey on 15 Nov 16
     
    In a world where anyone with an internet connection can access, create and share information, opinions and beliefs, it has become increasingly important that students are not only able to assess the credibility of sources but also to look more deeply at the underlying motivations, beliefs and bias of the creator.
Vicki Davis

easel.ly | create and share visual ideas online - 3 views

www.easel.ly

education news apps infographics all_teachers

shared by Vicki Davis on 14 May 12 - No Cached
  • Toni Olivieri-Barton on 14 May 12
     
    creating infographics online
  • Vicki Davis on 27 Oct 13
     
    Another infographic maker that I've tested is easel.ly. I could not use this at all in Chrome but in Firefox it was a nice graphic maker. This is more for narrative story type graphics than Infogr.am, in my opinion. There are several basic themes to choose from and you edit and add your own graphics. Another tool you could use with students although if you want graphics that have a lot of data you should go with infogr.am. I found Easel.ly to be very simple to use with a quick sign up process, although it was totally unresponsive in Chrome, so make sure they are using IE or Firefox if you pick this tool. I recommend this tool for writing teachers, bloggers, and as a nice way to graphically organize stories, etc. Cost: free
Vicki Davis

Google Scholar - 3 views

scholar.google.com

education research

shared by Vicki Davis on 05 Dec 11 - Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 05 Dec 11
     
    Google scholar lets you search articles, patents, legal opinions and journals. It is time to take students into this took, especially now that you can use google scholar citations.
Vicki Davis

Sue Basko, Lawyer for Music and Film: Cyberstalker Attack! - 3 views

suebasko.blogspot.com/...cyberstalker-attack.html

Education autism digital_citizenship

shared by Vicki Davis on 14 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 14 Jan 12
     
    Here is Sue Basko's site about Liz. One point I want to make here is that it could be that Liz's article did in fact inspire cyberstalking against Sue. It does not, however, mean Liz is a cyberstalker. One person hating Liz also does not mean it is true. There are people who have defended me in situations against those who are unkind but I had nothing to do with it. There is a lot more here than a simple to understand interaction. Also, perhaps, it would have been easier for Sue to say that she was wrong when she got out of field and made inflammatory comments hurting those with autism (saying they were claiming it just to get money --- in a way that was insensitive, in my opinion) In all of this, as you look at the interaction there is the surface story but also the fact that with social media and thousands of bystanders watching our interactions that such convoluted scenarios will emerge.
Vicki Davis

Federal Trade Commission tells facebook they can no longer change privacy settings at will - 0 views

lifehacker.com/...on-slaps-facebook-on-the-wrist

education facebook

shared by Vicki Davis on 11 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 11 Nov 11
     
    The days of randomly changing privacy settings that CHANGE EVERYTHING happening on Facebook are over. The FTC has told Facebook when they make changes that they must give people the chance to opt in. Good move, in my opinion.
Vicki Davis

» 2011 Top 100 Tools List and Presentation finalised Learning in the Social W... - 8 views

www.c4lpt.co.uk/...ist-and-presentation-finalised

education edu_newapp edu_trends

shared by Vicki Davis on 16 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 16 Nov 11
     
    Jane Hart's list of Top 100 Tools for Learning in 2011. (Hat tip Stephen Downes) This is from a survey - not just one person's opinion. Topping the list (again): Twitter. I also LOVE how this list shows the previous rankings from the prior 4 years. Youtube is #2 although still blocked in SOOOOO many places followed by Google Docs, Skype, Wordpress, Dropbox, Prezi (something I haven't gotten into yet), Moodle, Slideshare, and Glogster EDU. Take a look at the entire list on her blog post.
Vicki Davis

Why I Will Not Refuse to Give the Tests | Blogging Through the Fourth Dimension - 0 views

pernillesripp.com/...l-not-refuse-to-give-the-tests

education news testing edreform

shared by Vicki Davis on 30 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 30 Nov 13
     
    Pernille Ripp's poignant post shares why more teachers don't refuse to give the tests. Unless it is done en masse, it can't really be done. That said, parents can refuse to have their children take the test without repercussions and in fact, a national opt out movement is brewing. "If I were to refuse administering these state mandated tests, I would get in trouble.  That is an absolute guarantee.  And while I have never been one to shy away from too much controversy, the kind of trouble this time would be much bigger than a write up.  I could even lose my job for failing to do my duties.  To some that may not seem like a big deal, after all, I should be standing up for my students and their rights, my own opinions, I should protect those children that I teach from the tests.  But my job is vital to my own children.  My job is our health insurance.  My job gives us just enough money so that we can pay our bills.  I wish my husband had a huge paying job, he doesn't, and so we are a very dependent two income family.  So losing my job refusing tests just isn't something I can rationally do and in a sense, I am not sure I should be the one refusing the tests anyway."
Vicki Davis

Global education survey puts Shanghai on top - Asia-Pacific - Al Jazeera English - 0 views

www.aljazeera.com/...ai-top-201312422458196183.html

education news PISA testing

shared by Vicki Davis on 04 Dec 13 - No Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 04 Dec 13
     
    Remember one thing as you look at these scores - not all students are tested in many countries and in many countries only the brightest go to school. In my opinion, these tests have some serious flaws. For example, I don't play cricket - my scores would be low -- I don't know that I'm so upset about that. While math, science, and reading are important -- standards vary greatly between countries -- so unless we're going to prep for PISA scores. Also on another note -- comparing "Shanghai to nations makes me wonder - I'm sure there are certain cities in the US that would do very well on such a test. Anyway, I want to look deeper, but I think before we rattle cages and get too upset, the report should be looked at deeply but not only the report - but the test. I remember getting upset that my kindergartener scored in the 60th percentile on "environment" only to see that he missed that a judge was supposed to be a guy in a grey wig (who does that) and couldn't identify a subway turnstile (we live in a town of 5,000). Since that time, I always want to see the test. Lots of people will be talking about this so look at it and be prepared to answer questions. This is the post from Aljazeera so you can see what other countries are saying about the report. "Asian countries have topped the rnakings in a global education report which evaluates the knowledge and skills of 15 and 16-year-olds around the world. The report by Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), published on Tuesday, shows that children from Asian nations continue to outshine their western counterparts in maths, science and reading. The city of Shanghai topped the table in the three-yearly reported which tested more than 510,000 students in 65 countries. Children in Shanghai were, on average, the equivalent of nearly three years of schooling ahead of the majority of nations tested."
Vicki Davis

OPINION: We Need Coding in Schools, but Where are the Teachers? | EdSurge News - 5 views

www.edsurge.com/...ols-but-where-are-the-teachers

computer science education news hourofcode

shared by Vicki Davis on 13 Dec 13 - No Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 13 Dec 13
     
    This is very true. Online tutorials can only get us so far. This is why I'm learning Scratch and brushing up on Java. I may even have to learn Python before I'm done. We need Computer Science but who will teach it? If we only rely on videos, it would be like asking kids to teach themselves math using Khan Academy without a teacher who knew how to work the problems. "The vast majority of my students do very well on their first hour or two of coding using structured lessons, but when they start to write code for a new problem, or hit the first set of bugs, they get frustrated and need help. Sometimes, all they need is a hint, a pointer to a similar problem, or my assurance that they can solve it. In some cases, they need someone to just re-explain it a little differently."
Vicki Davis

Stephen's Web ~ Stephen's Web - 11 views

downes.ca

education news blogs bestpractice pln ict all_teachers

shared by Vicki Davis on 31 Oct 13 - Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 31 Oct 13
     
    I want to point out one of the first blogs I ever read and one I've continued to read since I started building my PLN in 2005 -- Stephen Downes is one of the best resource sharers on the web. He's widely read and interjects his opinions and big picture issues into the conversation. I highly recommend that though leaders and researchers subscribe to his daily updates via RSS or email.
Dave Truss

10 things teachers should unlearn… « What Ed Said - 36 views

whatedsaid.wordpress.com/...things-teachers-should-unlearn

unlearning Admin studentteacher Learning pro-d ML-Pro-D

shared by Dave Truss on 27 Aug 10 - Cached
  • Dave Truss on 27 Aug 10
     
    ...In my opinion, all of the above are outdated ideas. I won't elaborate at the moment, as I'd rather have your input! Which ones do you agree with? Disagree? Challenge? Question?
Dave Truss

English Teacher vs Educator « Sabrina's Weblog - 7 views

sabridv.wordpress.com/...english-teacher-vs-educator

ELL ML-Pro-d language

shared by Dave Truss on 05 Sep 10 - Cached
  • Dave Truss on 05 Sep 10
     
    English is not the object of study in my classes. It is the MEANS to access a bunch of knowledge. It is the tool that will allow me and my students to access lots of information, to get to know new cultures, different ways of thinking, different points of views; that will allow us to reflect on important issues, defend our opinions and why not, also get to know each other more. That's what education is all about after all: developing CRITICAL THINKING and SOCIAL SKILLS.
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