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Students pay tuition to work for free ... unpaid internships are growing in this down economy, favoring the wealthy who can afford them. But internships are generally valuable for students, administrators say. The complementary courses involve journals, essays, oral presentations, or work portfolios. Independent studies lean toward academics. Companies often see academic credit as substitute compensation that qualifies interns as legally unpaid trainees and keeps them on their colleges' liability insurance. Advertisements specify: "Candidates must be able to receive academic credit." That makes some campus officials bristle. "What they're saying is holding the institution hostage," says Kathy L. Sims, director of career services at the University of California at Los Angeles. Employers don't know colleges' academic standards, she says. "It's really not their call whether their experience is creditworthy." Colleges have dealt with that quandary in various ways. Some, especially those with traditions of experiential learning, vet and monitor internships, enrolling students in courses designed to complement their real-world work. Others let professors sponsor independent studies based on internships. More and more have devised some form of noncredit recognition to try to satisfy employers without altering academic philosophies or making students pay tuition to work free. At Bates College, the game is up. "We're quite adamant about our refusal to play along," says James W. Hughes, a professor of economics. As chairman of the department eight years ago, he got dozens of calls from students, parents, and employers asking for credit for unpaid internships, mainly in the financial industry. "Why is it that we have to evaluate this experience," he says, "just so some multibillion-dollar bank can avoid paying $7.50 an hour?" But the law is vague, and arguably antiquated. In the for-profit sector, guidelines for legally unpaid internships come from a 1947 U

Nothing more powerfully engages students than video games. It's just be very difficult finding ways to exploit this for educational purposes without destroying that affect in the process. My own best idea on the holy grail of a truly addictive game useful for very general and comprehensive educational purposes is an RTS game from an FPS perspective beginning the neolithic times, in a persistent world. A student would begin as a primitive man and gradually work his way toward inventing all the technologies of the modern world in building his civilization. He'd invent each tool by learning the physics and usefulness of it. Then he could add it to the village he founds to expand it. The village and eventual civilization would be, along with its annals, would be a e-portfolio (why the world needs to be persistent, not starting fresh each time the student logs on--he must always be building upon the foundations already established). The student would design the economic system, etc. and his "subjects" would follow the rules he stipulates. He could trade with the villages of others for items he might need to get ahead but cannot produce them himself until he learns the principles behind the technology. The population might be given needs also for entertainment, thus poetry, etc. for a more pacified people. Many ideas can be added within this framework. It's a student's own world in which he can feel safe and for which he should develop more interest as it continue to operation even when he is offline (to increase engagement). And being multiplayer can also provide the social aspect and teamwork for shared goals.... like say, building a trading route and defending it from bandits, investing materials for construction of a dam and irrigation... etc. I have a basic design to build the infrastructure for this. There wouldn't by chance be any grants out there that might apply?

I really like this game idea. Seems like it would be a monster of an undertaking not just for the game engine itself, but more so for the content. Let me know if you get this one off the ground.

I realized while writing this that it would be difficult to for education professionals to understand this concept. I should have known Shirey would get it. After so much experience in software, one starts to see two personality types--those who design software from a philosophical perspective and those who do so from an immediate, practical point of view. The philosophicals enjoy designing and writing new kinds of software. They are also the kind of people who tend to enjoy RTS games. The immediates struggle trying to write software from scratch, except for where they understand some pre-known framework for writing software of the particular class. They are more often relegated to debugging and tweaking software. These people tend to prefer FPS games. Systems administrators tend to fall more into this category, as well. It's a good complement, I think. I design and they maintain. Philosophicals tend not to be such good maintainers. Immediates tend to make good systems administrators, too. What this all suggests to me is that the only way non-philosophicals (the particular type I mean--don't use the term too generally) are unlikely to "get" the concept until the can see and use it. I would love to be proven wrong. I designed a framework that I think would make building it not so difficult or time consuming. But yes, building content is a chore. Therefore, the way I designed the framework is to allow run-time additions and modifications. That is, you can start simple and gradually add content over time. I think this makes sense in any case because as knowledge changes, so should educational content. Educational methods may also evolve. So I think it is very important that the mechanism for adding and editing be as easy to use as possible. This is where you want the input of non-software engineers.....even non-gamers.

WSU is participating in this survey. Looks interesting, follow up on students who graduate with an arts degree. Could be useful in program assessment in a number of ways ( a model, sample questions, as well as ways to leverage nationally collected data.) Kimberly Welcome to the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP), an annual online survey, data management, and institutional improvement system designed to enhance the impact of arts-school education. SNAAP partners with arts high schools, art and design colleges, conservatories and arts programs within colleges and universities to administer the survey to their graduates. SNAAP is a project of the Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research in collaboration with the Vanderbilt University Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy. Lead funding is provided by the Surdna Foundation, with major partnership support from the Houston Endowment, Barr Foundation, Cleveland Foundation, Educational Foundation of America and the National Endowment for the Arts. improvement system designed to enhance the impact of arts-school education. SNAAP partners with arts high schools, art and design colleges, conservatories and arts programs within colleges and universities to administer the survey to their graduates. SNAAP is a project of the Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research in collaboration with the Vanderbilt University Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy. Lead funding is provided by the Surdna Foundation, with major partnership support from the Houston Endowment, Barr Foundation, Cleveland Foundation, Educational Foundation of America and the National Endowment for the Arts."

Framework for Program Evaluation by the CDC This is a good resource for program evaluation. Click through "Steps and Standards" for information on collecting credible evidence and engaging stakeholders.

and at sub-group significance compared to interaction. She concludes: 'Readers should have a particularly high index of suspicion for controlled studies that fail to report between-group comparisons, because these likely represent attempts to "spin" null results."

"Despite those diverging starting points, the discussion revealed quite a bit more common ground than any of the panelists probably would have predicted. Let's be clear: Where they ended up was hardly a breakthrough on the scale of solving the Middle East puzzle. But there was general agreement among them that: * Any effort to try to measure learning in the humanities through what McCulloch-Lovell deemed "[Margaret] Spellings-type assessment" -- defined as tests or other types of measures that could be easily compared across colleges and neatly sum up many of the learning outcomes one would seek in humanities students -- was doomed to fail, and should. * It might be possible, and could be valuable, for humanists to reach broad agreement on the skills, abilities, and knowledge they might seek to instill in their students, and that agreement on those goals might be a starting point for identifying effective ways to measure how well students have mastered those outcomes. * It is incumbent on humanities professors and academics generally to decide for themselves how to assess whether their students are learning, less to satisfy external calls for accountability than because it is the right thing for academics, as professionals who care about their students, to do. "

Assessment meeting at the accreditors -- driven by expectations of a demand for accountability, with not one mention of improvement.

Lumina Foundation pushes a Eurpopean-style process to define education goals state- and nation-wide, with mixed success. "Chemistry, history, math, and physics have been among the most successful", whileothers have had a hard time beginning. "Supporters of the Lumina project say it holds the promise of turning educational assessment from a process that some academics might view as a threat into one that holds a solution, while also creating more-rigorous expectations for student learning. Mr. Jones, the Utah State history-department chairman, recounted in an essay published in the American Historical Association's Perspectives on History how he once blithely told an accreditation team that "historians do not measure their effectiveness in outcomes." But he has changed his mind. The Lumina project, and others, help define what learning is achieved in the process of earning a degree, he said, moving beyond Americans' heavy reliance on the standardized student credit hour as the measure of an education. "The demand for outcomes assessment should be seized as an opportunity for us to actually talk about the habits of mind our discipline needs to instill in our students," Mr. Jones wrote. "It will do us a world of good, and it will save us from the spreadsheets of bureaucrats."

"I am afraid that if we continue to get cuts at the level we are seeing, we may see a very quiet and disturbing transition from comprehensive, open door community colleges to niche colleges that are not comprehensive in their missions." Delta is also eliminating academic programs that don't fit into the two missions that are being protected: pre-transfer programs and job training. What will go? A lot of remedial education. The college will keep remedial courses for those who need just a course or two to be ready for college level work. But for the courses that enroll hundreds of students a semester who need years of remedial education to get ready for college, Delta is going to say no. Includes basic math, English as a second language (for beginners, newly arrived immigrants), courses aimed at senior citizens

QuickTopic free message boards and the Quick Doc Review collaborative online document review service are excellent tools for all kinds of teachers. Below are a few examples of citations by teaching resource sites that we've found. * "...this amazingly easy site will also send you emails of newly posted messages. ... Also check out the Document Review tool for posting text and eliciting feedback generously provided by QuickTopic" NC State University - Teaching Literature for Young Adults - Resources for teachers.

Vander Ark was the first Executive Director for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. From his post: "There are plenty of theories about how to improve education. Most focus on what appear to be big levers--a point of entry and system intervention that appears to provide some improvement leverage. These theories usually involve 'if-then' statements: 'if we improve this, then other good stuff will happen.'" "One problem not addressed by these theories is the lack of innovation diffusion in education--a good idea won't cross the street. Weak improvement incentives and strong bureaucracy have created a lousy marketplace for products and ideas." "Key assumption: teacher effectiveness is the key variable; more good teachers will improve student achievement" "I'm betting on social learning platforms as a lever for improvement at scale in education. Instead of a classroom as the primary organizing principle, social networks will become the primary building block of learning communities (both formal and informal). Smart recommendation engines will queue personalized content. Tutoring, training, and collaboration tools will be applications that run on social networks. New schools will be formed around these capabilities. Teachers in existing schools will adopt free tools yielding viral, bureaucracy-cutting productivity improvement."

"Key assumption: teacher effectiveness is the key variable; more good teachers will improve student achievement" Vander Ark was the first Executive Director for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. From his post:"There are plenty of theories about how to improve education. Most focus on what appear to be big levers--a point of entry and system intervention that appears to provide some improvement leverage. These theories usually involve 'if-then' statements: 'if we improve this, then other good stuff will happen.'" "One problem not addressed by these theories is the lack of innovation diffusion in education--a good idea won't cross the street. Weak improvement incentives and strong bureaucracy have created a lousy marketplace for products and ideas." "I'm betting on social learning platforms as a lever for improvement at scale in education. Instead of a classroom as the primary organizing principle, social networks will become the primary building block of learning communities (both formal and informal). Smart recommendation engines will queue personalized content. Tutoring, training, and collaboration tools will be applications that run on social networks. New schools will be formed around these capabilities. Teachers in existing schools will adopt free tools yielding viral, bureaucracy-cutting productivity improvement."\n\n\n

Another one in which the comments say more than I might--but the range of these accountability pieces underscore the work to do....

Freedom of speech and the right to assemble are limited in Egypt, which since 1981 has been ruled by Mubarak's National Democratic Party under a permanent state-of-emergency law. An estimated 18,000 Egyptians are imprisoned under the law, which allows the police to arrest people without charges, allows the government to ban political organizations and makes it illegal for more than five people to gather without a license from the government. Newspapers are monitored by the Ministry of Information and generally refrain from directly criticizing Mubarak. And so for young people in Egypt, Facebook, which allows users to speak freely to one another and encourages them to form groups, is irresistible as a platform not only for social interaction but also for dissent.

Browsealoud makes using the Internet easier for people who have: * Low literacy and reading skills * English as a second language * Dyslexia * Mild visual impairments Browsealoud is _not_ a replacement for a screen reader, but is convenient for some classes of users. As critical learning functions move increasingly online, we will need to know about this kind of affordance.

"What's Your Big Idea for Change in America? President-Elect Obama says he wants to hear ideas from all Americans, so we're taking him up on his offer. Here's your chance to pose innovative solutions to the major problems we face and to get them heard." Submit your ideas for how to change America, and vote for your favorites. The top idea for each cause will be presented to the Obama administration on Inauguration Day, and that's just the beginning. (Much more to come)

FROM OVERVIEW: "They Say/I Say: The Moves that Matter in Persuasive Writing is recommended for use in Sages First Seminars. Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein have created a book of templates useful for "Demystifying Academic Conversation" (Preface ix). While the book has received mixed reviews (mostly related to the contentious issue of whether or not templates are useful/proper tools for use in writing instruction; see "Responses to TSIS" below), we present the following information to help you decide for yourself. In addition, you will find sample exercises from the text (some of which have been tested in the classroom) under "Links." '