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Ed Webb

What Cliff? Data and the Destruction of Public Higher Ed | Just Visiting - 2 views

www.insidehighered.com/...d-destruction-public-higher-ed

education future futures demographics data policy politics neoliberalism analysis opinion

shared by Ed Webb on 01 Mar 22 - Cached
alexabliss and oktayakk liked it
  • That higher education institutions are facing a “demographic cliff” in the coming years has become conventional wisdom. But what if there is no cliff? What if we’ve instead been subjected to a narrative rooted in limited data that serves the interests of corporations and is doing real damage to our public institutions?
  • Currently, the NCES projects relatively constant numbers of high school graduates through 2030, with total graduates expected to increase in the mid-2020s, followed by a modest decline, making the projected 2029–30 number slightly greater than in 2016–17. Further, it is important to note that since the 1970s, the total number of high school graduates in the U.S. has declined several times before. More importantly for higher education, the NCES projects modest increases in higher education enrollments through 2029.
  • WICHE is an interest group with an explicit policy agenda—“focus areas”—which includes “developing and supporting innovations in technology and beyond that improve the quality of postsecondary education and reduce costs.”
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • The purported demographic crisis is being used around the country to fundamentally remake higher education. For example, this is the main argument being advanced by Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature seeking to radically reshape the University of Wisconsin system. This plan calls for the significant expansion of online education, regionalization of the comprehensive campuses, increased campus specialization and program consolidation and elimination, among other long-standing priorities.
  • The current context of higher education provides fertile ground for the uncritical acceptance of the demographic cliff. Higher education enrollments have declined since reaching historic highs in 2010. And decades of political decisions have made higher education tuition-driven, one state budget cycle at a time. We are vulnerable to the demographic cliff framing because of the politically imposed financial crunch in which we exist. Enrollments dictate everything we do.
  • the demographic cliff is an austerity-driven narrative that assumes that public funding will never—and should never—come back
  • Programs must be eliminated, online education must be expanded and, if necessary, even entire campuses must be closed. Higher education must be agile because tax increases are off the table, even as stock markets reach new highs and the income and wealth of the highest earners skyrockets. The interests of corporations and the wealthy will dictate public policy.
  • official population and education data—which come with no political assumptions, narrative or products for sale—show a slowly increasing population, including higher education enrollments, in the coming years.
  • demographic cliff is a manufactured crisis
  • takes advantage of a tuition-dependent higher education system to implement even greater austerity while imposing an education policy agenda that could never be adopted through normal political means
Vicki Davis

Game Mechanics | Gamification.org - 4 views

gamification.org/...Game_Mechanics

education gamifi-ed game_based_lng bestpractices

shared by Vicki Davis on 17 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 17 Feb 14
     
    The mechanics of games that gamers use as they plan games and design them. I've learned about this from Ray Yan from Digipen in the Gamifi-ed OOC last week.
Ed Webb

Office of Educational Technology (OET) - 2 views

www2.ed.gov/...index.html

education technology edtech DOE government Duncan

shared by Ed Webb on 12 Mar 10 - Cached
  • Secretary Arne Duncan invites comments on the draft National Educational Technology Plan.
  • This plan is a draft. "We are open to your comments," Secretary Duncan said. "Tell us about how technology has changed your school or classroom." Read the plan. Share your comments, videos and examples of how technology is changing and improving education.
Vicki Davis

Ceri Williams (cerirwilliams) on Twitter - 1 views

twitter.com/#!/cerirwilliams

education spedchat specialneeds_teacher kinect news

shared by Vicki Davis on 23 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 23 Jan 12
     
    Ceri is from the UK and is going to live demo a program he's written for Kinect (that he plans to give away for free) that emulates the program Soundbeam. This program lets you move parts of your body and plays music and is going to be an incredible thing to use for special ed students with the Kinect. This is his twitter handle. Follow him to Keep up with what he's doing.
Ed Webb

Brainstorm: Junk Analysis of Higher Ed by the 'Times' - Chronicle.com - 0 views

chronicle.com/...article

chronicle.com academic labor

shared by Ed Webb on 10 Mar 09 - Cached
  • This isn’t good for anyone’s education: The only virtue of the arrangement is its cheapness, and that cheapness hasn’t lowered tuition; it’s simply served to provide money pots for high-rolling administrators to spend on favored projects and the expansion of the business curriculum. It’s also created a need to expand the ranks of management to train and supervise the constantly-churning mass of student and other casual workers.
  • journalists are living the same permatemping as the faculty, under the same quality management gutting the public sphere under both Republicans and Democrats
  • four decades of student casualization
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  • What about Joel Westheimer, who they illegally fired for supporting the grad student union, despite having the support of his entire discipline? Or any of the grad students themselves, who are doing better analysis of their employment than Stimpson.
Emily Vickery

Top News - McCain, Obama float education plans - 0 views

www.eschoolnews.com/...top-news

ed plans educators policy

shared by Emily Vickery on 17 Jul 08 - Cached
  • McCain, Obama float education plans Candidates’ proposals reveal very different ideas about public schooling
Vicki Davis

Lesson Planning Information for US Presidential Speech to Students Grades 7-12 - 0 views

www.ed.gov/...7-12.pdf

education government politics edu_news

shared by Vicki Davis on 03 Sep 09 - No Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 03 Sep 09
     
    Here are the lesson planning guides for grades 7-12.
Vicki Davis

Grades PreK-6 Lesson planning guide for Obama speech - 0 views

www.ed.gov/...prek-6.pdf

education government edu_news

shared by Vicki Davis on 03 Sep 09 - No Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 03 Sep 09
     
    This is the lesson planning guide for grades PreK-6th grade for the President's speech on September 8th.
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
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  • 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

Coursera forced to call off a MOOC amid complaints about the course | Inside Higher Ed - 4 views

www.insidehighered.com/...c-amid-complaints-about-course

mooc tumblr gatech online_course wiki_book evernote bestpractices edu_news news

shared by Vicki Davis on 04 Feb 13 - No Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 04 Feb 13
     
    Sad to see that the first major fail of a MOOC would happen at my alma mater, Georgia Tech, but I do applaud their transparency and moving forward with it. I hope they do it soon. With 41,000 students in the #foemooc - they had 40,000 students in a google doc which has a limit of 50 simultaneous editors - and with no backup - they weren't ready for the problems that would happen. This was a Coursera course and it just couldn't handle the load. Interestingly this was a Fundamentals of Online Education MOOC which makes it even more ironic. Read this article for more about what happened. "Maybe it was inevitable that one of the new massive open online courses would crash. After all, MOOCs are being launched with considerable speed, not to mention hype. But MOOC advocates might have preferred the collapse of a course other than the one that was suspended this weekend, one week into instruction: "Fundamentals of Online Education: Planning and Application.""
Christine Sherk

Loan Forgivness - 0 views

studentaid.ed.gov/...LoanForgivenessMarch18.pdf

education loan forgiveness loans

shared by Christine Sherk on 28 Jul 08 - No Cached
  • Christine Sherk on 28 Jul 08
     
    he new program provides for the cancellation of the remaining balance due on eligible federal student loans after the borrower has made 120 monthly payments on those loans under certain repayment plans while employed in certain public service fields.
Vicki Davis

Ed Tech Trek: I'm beaming! - 0 views

edtechtrek.blogspot.com/...im-beaming.html

education profess professionaldevelopment techintegrator

shared by Vicki Davis on 03 May 08 - Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 03 May 08
     
    This is the best example of how professional development works.
  • Vicki Davis on 03 May 08
     
    I love this post. This is how Web 2.0 spreads. I want to quote from the author: "Then I showed him wikispaces and the lightbulb went off. In a voice full of what I can only describe as awe, he said, and I'm paraphrasing him, "This could change the way we teach." (Cue the heavenly music). While I was showing him each tool, we discussed how he could integrate it into his teaching practices. I know I probably overwhelmed him, but he's excited and energetic. He left with a brand new Google account and having created his classroom wiki. That and he's vowed to share what he's learned with his fellow teachers. Here's hoping this goes viral - if at least a little." I love it. It is the one on one time and the lights go off. This is how it works best. we need to have more one on one time planned in order to promote change. People want the attention -- no one likes to feel like an underappreciated cog in an overworked machine.
Ben Rimes

Executive Summary | U.S. Department of Education - 9 views

www.ed.gov/...executive-summary

shared by Ben Rimes on 15 Mar 10 - Cached
  • regardless of background, languages, or disabilities,
  • personalized learning
  • critical thinking, complex problem solving, collaboration, and multimedia communication should be woven into all content areas.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • In all these activities, technology-based assessments can provide data to drive decisions on the basis of what is best for each and every student and that in aggregate will lead to continuous improvement across our entire education system.
  • Another basic assumption is the way we organize students into age-determined groups, structure separate academic disciplines, organize learning into classes of roughly equal size with all the students in a particular class receiving the same content at the same pace, and keep these groups in place all year.
    • Ben Rimes
      Ben Rimes on 28 Mar 10
       
      For good reason at the elementary level. It's called socialization. Students that are 2 or 3 years apart can exhibit radically different thought processes, levels of self-control, but more importantly, there are huge developmental differences socially, emotionally, and physcially.
  • The NETP accepts that we do not have the luxury of time – we must act now and commit to fine-tuning and midcourse corrections as we go. Success will require leadership, collaboration, and investment at all levels of our education system – states, districts, schools, and the federal government – as well as partnerships with higher education institutions, private enterprises, and not-for-profit entities.
    • Ben Rimes
      Ben Rimes on 28 Mar 10
       
      Perhaps one of the most frightening statements in the document to a large number of school districts. Teachers quite often are able to enact a mid-course shift, and students are most always extremely flexible, but at the administration and district level change can often be glacial as such radical change could very well mean replacing the hierarchy of leadership throughout a district, shifting positions, or eliminating them, and large organizations have a tendency towards self-preservation.
  • Vicki Davis on 15 Mar 10
     
    Current update to National Education Technology plan in the USA. Highlighted with diigo with comments.
  • Ben Rimes on 28 Mar 10
     
    Current update to National Education Technology plan in the USA. Highlighted with diigo with comments.
Claude Almansi

Technology in Schools Faces Questions on Value - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...-faces-questions-on-value.html

shared by Claude Almansi on 29 Sep 11 - No Cached
  • recession
  • Civil War
    • Claude Almansi
      Claude Almansi on 29 Sep 11
       
      link 11
  • National Education Technology Plan
    • Claude Almansi
      Claude Almansi on 29 Sep 11
       
      link 13
Jeff Richardson

PBS videos for educators hit iTunes U | ijohnpederson - 1 views

www.ijohnpederson.com/...eos-for-educators-hit-itunes-u

shared by Jeff Richardson on 14 Apr 08 - Cached
    • Jeff Richardson
      Jeff Richardson on 14 Apr 08
       
      There's even stuff for those that teach ELL students! What a great resource for those who like to use ITunes.
  • once. 35 mins ago I become crippled when expected to rant more than 300 characters. Damn you Twitter. 36 mins ago @speters Good luck! 4 hrs ago I totally just figured out @teach42 and his secret plans to conquer the world. Nice touch. Looking forward to seeing this go public. 5 hrs ago Or "Thank you for not unsubscribing!" Whatever the case may be. 21 hrs ago More updates... Recent Comments Jen Dorman on Why We’re All Blogging Less Rick on Why We’re All Blogging Less Kate Olson on Must View Video Dan Meyer on Must View Video John Pederson on Resistance My Blogroll Alec Couros Andy Carvin Anne Davis Brian Crosby Bud Hunt Carolyn Foote Cathy Nelson Chris Betcher Chris Lehman Christian Long Christopher Craft Christopher Harris Christopher Sessums Clarance Fischer Clay Burell Connectivism Blog Dale Basler Dan Meyer Darren Draper Darren Kuropatwa David Jakes David Warlick Dean Shareski Diana Laufenberg Doug Johnson Ewan Mcintosh Gary Stager George Siemens Jeff Utecht Jennifer D. Jones Judy O'Connel Julie Lindsay Karl Fisch Kate Sheehan Kim Cofino Konrad Glogowski Kristin Hokanson Lea Hansen-George Lisa Durff Marcy Hull Naomi Harm Ryan Bretag Scott Anderson Scott McLeod Sharon Peters Sheryl Nussbaum Beech Stephen Downes Steve Dembo Steve Hargadon Sue Waters Tim Stahmer Tom Hoffman Vicki Davis Wes Fryer Will Richardson Zac Chase Read more...
Guillermo Lopez

FREE -- Teaching Resources and Lesson Plans from the Federal Government - 0 views

www.free.ed.gov

learning

shared by Guillermo Lopez on 28 Jan 09 - Cached
  • Anne Bubnic on 28 Jan 09
     
    Free teaching and learning resources from the Federal Government. Divided by subject area. Includes external links, animations, primary documents and photos.
  • Guillermo Lopez on 29 Jun 09
     
    Now everything is for everybody
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