Group items tagged

U.S. senators were "graded" on their support for the arts. Interesting to look at who is a strong supporter and who isn't. For example, John McCain received a failing grade. He argued that the National Endowment for the Arts be cut by $50 mil- which is a 3rd of its entire budget! He suggested the NEA has no significant impact on jobs. About 80% of the NEA budget is allocated for grants, which employ thousands of artists. Some suggest that there should be zero public funding for the arts. Well, NASA's budget for 2009 was over $17 BILLION, while the National Endowment for the Arts received $161 million. NASA's budget included $170 mil to invest in entrepeneurs to develop COMMERCIAL transit programs. That's more than the entire NEA budget. Food for thought.

This was a great team building exercise and would be benefical if working with groups.

This is another great article that simplifies conflict resolution skills to keep relationships healthy. Communication and creating healthy relationships is important is both personal and professional lives. I hope you enjoy this article.

This is an awesome visual representation (that I fully intend on showing my boss) that shows the difference between collaborating through Wikis vs. collaborating through email. I feel as though this visual representation shows my entire point I am trying to make with my project, and will be a simple and concise way to show my idea to my boss, who seems to prefer visuals to discussion.

This article peeked my curiosity because I was unsure of how the Wiki worked in the beginning of this course. Now I really like using it. It is also a nice way to communicate important information.

We have used wiki collaboration for some projects at work, and the people that understand how to use it love it, whereas the people less familiar with it find it more confusing and prefer traditional ways like email collaboration. I think people just need to develop a comfort level with it, and then they can see that it is a very useful way of communicating ideas.

More predictable easy pap from Tom Friedman, the NYTImes resident billionaire sage. He reports that we are falling fast and that we, in order to field a strong military and compete in global economics, need to make serious changes in the quality of our national teacher stock. He points to countries that require teachers to graduate in the top third of their college class and he advocates establishing a federal/national teacher's college, similar to a military academy, as a symbolic leader in the all out public relations battle needed to get people to take schooling seriously. He does closes by acknowledging that students and parents have to get on board, too.

I think this is a good example of action research. The article discusses the relationship between stress at work and how it can have an effect on employees' health. It also gives ideas on ways to decrease stress at work thus improving the health of employees.

This is as very interesting article. The action research process is used along side quantitative data collection procedures to determine effects and solutions to employee stress and workplace changes. The article is extensive and I confess I did skip over the details of the subjects involved in order to see the author's results. The inclusion of employee input to determine matters that disturb them, which can be underestimated and overlooked, such as the simple need to be validated in the work they do, or the desire to have more input into decisions, is how the researchers were able to create interventions for change, by learning about the actual areas of stress.

New scientific research study appears in the Dec. 1 issue of TheJournal of the American Medical Association, delves into linking mitochondrial dysfunction with autism. "Certainly, these findings need to be confirmed in larger studies," study researcher Cecilia Giulivi, PhD, of the University of California, Davis tells WebMD. "More research is also needed to understand how mitochondrial dysfunction might contribute to autism." This study helps to bridge scientific and medical uncertainties surrounding the little known causes of autism, which are believed to be both environmental and genetic.

(access full PDF via Umass databases page to SAGE journals online) "In this article we delve into the potential learning capacity inherent in project-based organizations derived from conclusions drawn from action research as well as extensive field experience. We propose project-based learning as a means to deal with the challenge of sustainable growth of learning capacity, i.e. developing learning capabilities that enable reasoning beyond the short term; knowledge creation and sharing beyond the individual or team. Based on stories from the field, we explore the distinguishing features of project-based learning and ways in which project-based learning can be instrumental in building communities of reflective practitioners."

This is an interesting perspective on learning styles and options. I've experienced working in a Charter School with this philosophy, project based learning, which of course is appealing to some learners, but not all. It is an excellent option to pursue for particular students who may thrive in this learning environment, where they might otherwise flounder in a traditional setting. It would be nice to see this option incorporated more widely in regular public schools in addition to traditional tracks (business, college prep, vocational education). Mary Ann p.s. E.K. READ THIS ONE!

This article talks about when it may or may not be appropriate to use action learning. Action learning is an approach you take on with a group to gain a better knowledge of a particular objective that can be achieved through shared reflection and action. Through this process individuals willingly participate to deal with a problem as a group and create innovative ideas that can be carried out and evaluated to continue revisionism. (Our action research class in a nutshell) The example chapters at the beginning outline a clear picture of a kind of problem that needs continued learning and revision to meet a better goal after reflection and reassessment occur.

The article is about a systematic approach and learning about "a problem" resolving them with a group of committed people through reflection and dialogue. This action learning approach may not be suitable for everyone due to the time constraints and the possible need for immediate problem- solving. There are tools that are utilized during the process of trying to learn about a problem that help to facilitate the learning process of that problem.

This article provides more resources to the Action Research Process. This involves identifing a problem and wanting to implement change to improve outcomes. Something each Action Research articles have in common are reflection and evaluation.

Like this interesting tips for teaching my workshop and providing more resources for the staff.