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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

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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.
Martin Burrett

Remote Working For Teachers & Schools - 3 views

ukedchat.com/...remote-working

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shared by Martin Burrett on 12 Mar 20 - No Cached
  • Martin Burrett on 12 Mar 20
     
    We will discuss what schools are doing to prepare for possible closures, how teachers can work efficiently at home, how schools and colleagues can offer support, and how technology can help to keep learning happen.
Vicki Davis

Virtual Participants for Flat Classroom Conference 2013 Japan - Sign up Here - 0 views

docs.google.com/...viewform

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shared by Vicki Davis on 22 Feb 13 - No Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 22 Feb 13
     
    The Flat Classroom conference is coming up March 7-10. We have an option for receiving credit (if you're international) and also for full participation. Virtual participants are an important part of our face to face conference as we seek to create experiences that flatten the conference as we collaborate in a problem-based environment. You'll have a team and work with them to create a project that can be brought to the world based upon principles that WORK. Click on this link to learn more about how you can participate in the conference remotely FOR FREE. ;-) We want you.
Martin Burrett

Mapswipe - 5 views

ukedchat.com/mapswipe

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shared by Martin Burrett on 02 Jan 17 - No Cached
  • Martin Burrett on 02 Jan 17
     
    "Want to explore the world through maps and help with humanitarian work at the same time? Map remote locations to help the Red Cross and Medecins Sans Frontieres and do just that!"
Vicki Davis

The Power of One: Greg Mortenson's Crusade to Promote Peace through Project Learning - 9 views

www1.gotomeeting.com/...612375937

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shared by Vicki Davis on 09 Apr 10 - No Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 09 Apr 10
     
    Excellent Webinar opportunity this Thursday from edutopia. The Power of One: Greg Mortenson's Crusade to Promote Peace through Project Learning Thursday, April 15, 2010 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM PDT Webinar Registration Host: Suzie Boss, journalist and Edutopia.org blogger Presenter: Greg Mortenson, best-selling author of Three Cups of Tea Can one person really make a difference in the world? Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea, describes his own unlikely path from mountaineer to humanitarian. His best-selling story has inspired thousands of students to contribute to school-building efforts in remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan through a service-learning program called Pennies for Peace. Supported by a multimedia, standards-based curriculum for grades K-12, Pennies for Peace culminates with student-driven projects that develop leadership skills and build cross-cultural understanding. Mortenson explains how the program works, how teachers can get involved, and why students benefit from authentic opportunities to make their own difference in the world.
Martin Burrett

ClassKick - 8 views

ukedchat.com/...classkick

iPad sharing screen assessment

shared by Martin Burrett on 17 Nov 15 - No Cached
  • Martin Burrett on 17 Nov 15
     
    An iPad app which allows a teacher to set work remotely on the students' devices, including with recorded audio instructions. The teacher can see what the students are doing and get feedback instantly on the their iPad. The students can put up a virtual hand to ask for help from the teacher, or from fellow students.
Dave Truss

Blogging Rubric | Remote Access - 28 views

www.evenfromhere.org/?p=1282

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shared by Dave Truss on 23 Mar 10 - Cached
  • Dave Truss on 23 Mar 10
     
    With a nod to the ever-brilliant-and-willing-to-share Kim Cofino, here is the rubric I've lately begun to use in my classroom for grading student blog posts. This is an experiment in action and depending on how this tool works, it is very likely that it will come under some revision.
Dave Truss

Connecting Assessment | Remote Access - 12 views

www.evenfromhere.org/?p=1352

rubrics community assessment BlogProD networkedteaching

shared by Dave Truss on 23 Mar 10 - Cached
  • Dave Truss on 23 Mar 10
     
    I've been working on another assessment to help students think about the connections and global understandings they are establishing. I've developed a rubric and a checklist to use in a classroom with middle school students.
Maggie Verster

Next Generation User Skills Working, Learning & Living Online in 2013 - 0 views

www.sqa.org.uk/...t_NextGenerationUserSkills.pdf

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shared by Maggie Verster on 12 May 09 - No Cached
  • Maggie Verster on 12 May 09
     
    In order to ensure the relevance and influence the ongoing enhancement of user ICT provision and the associated awards, Digital 2010 (the regional digital skills partnership for Yorkshire & Humber) and the Scottish Qualifications Authority jointly commissioned Sero Consulting Ltd in spring 2008 to undertake research in ICT User skills. The focus was exclusively on the vision for ICT user skills in 2013 - referenced as 'Next Generation User Skills' - taking account of: * Skills that all employers will need, which they may not currently recognise - including web presence, information productivity, market research, infrastructure management * Skills that people (especially young people) will already have, but which may not be recognised or accredited * Generic occupational skills that people will need - such as remote working, online communication, information research, lifelong learning and, not least, management of their digital environment * Essential skills for living and learning in a digital age - including communication, accessing public services and underpinning personal econfidence
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