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Steve Ransom

Technology in Schools Faces Questions on Value - NYTimes.com - 11 views

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

technology schools change critique measurement effectiveness integration

shared by Steve Ransom on 04 Sep 11 - No Cached
  • When it comes to showing results, he said, “We better put up or shut up.”
  • Critics counter that, absent clear proof, schools are being motivated by a blind faith in technology and an overemphasis on digital skills — like using PowerPoint and multimedia tools — at the expense of math, reading and writing fundamentals. They say the technology advocates have it backward when they press to upgrade first and ask questions later.
  • how the district was innovating.
  • ...24 more annotations...
  • district was innovating
  • there is no good way to quantify those achievements — putting them in a tough spot with voters deciding whether to bankroll this approach again
  • “We’ve jumped on bandwagons for different eras without knowing fully what we’re doing. This might just be the new bandwagon,” he said. “I hope not.”
  • $46.3 million for laptops, classroom projectors, networking gear and other technology for teachers and administrators.
  • If we know something works
  • it is hard to separate the effect of the laptops from the effect of the teacher training
  • “Test scores are the same, but look at all the other things students are doing: learning to use the Internet to research, learning to organize their work, learning to use professional writing tools, learning to collaborate with others.”
  • Good teachers, he said, can make good use of computers, while bad teachers won’t, and they and their students could wind up becoming distracted by the technology.
  • “It’s not the stuff that counts — it’s what you do with it that matters.”
  • creating an impetus to rethink education entirely
    • Steve Ransom
      Steve Ransom on 04 Sep 11
       
      Like teaching powerpoint is "rethinking education". Right.
  • “There is a connection between the physical hand on the paper and the words on the page,” she said. “It’s intimate.”
  • “They’re inundated with 24/7 media, so they expect it,”
  • The 30 students in the classroom held wireless clickers into which they punched their answers. Seconds later, a pie chart appeared on the screen: 23 percent answered “True,” 70 percent “False,” and 6 percent didn’t know.
  • rofessor Cuban at Stanford argues that keeping children engaged requires an environment of constant novelty, which cannot be sustained.
  • engagement is a “fluffy
  • term” that can slide past critical analysis.
  • that computers can distract and not instruct.
  • guide on the side.
  • Professor Cuban at Stanford
  • But she loves the fact that her two children, a fourth-grader and first-grader, are learning technology, including PowerPoint
  • The high-level analyses that sum up these various studies, not surprisingly, give researchers pause about whether big investments in technology make sense.
  • Mr. Share bases his buying decisions on two main factors: what his teachers tell him they need, and his experience. For instance, he said he resisted getting the interactive whiteboards sold as Smart Boards until, one day in 2008, he saw a teacher trying to mimic the product with a jury-rigged projector setup. “It was an ‘Aha!’ moment,” he said, leading him to buy Smart Boards, made by a company called Smart Technologies.
  • This is big business.
  • “Do we really need technology to learn?” she said. “It’s a very valid time to ask the question, right before this goes on the ballot.”
suzannah neill

'We don't need a Twittericulum' - Telegraph - 0 views

www.telegraph.co.uk/...dont-need-a-Twittericulum.html

shared by suzannah neill on 14 Apr 09 - Cached
    • suzannah neill
      suzannah neill on 14 Apr 09
       
      Surely a computer can also teach a love of words seeing as text on a screen is still words?
Dave Truss

It's OK. You Can Let Go. « Chalkdust101 - 0 views

chalkdust101.wordpress.com/...you-still-need-to-know-stuff

studentvoice studentresponsibility

shared by Dave Truss on 31 Mar 09 - Cached
  • Dave Truss on 31 Mar 09
     
    Focused instruction, according to Fisher, is pointed modeling of expert thinking and behavior. It's in this mode of instruction where we help students build the requisite background knowledge and vocabulary they need for success in higher level tasks. This argument, which is raging throughout the educational world right now, about content v. skills, then becomes moot.
Fabian Aguilar

What Do School Tests Measure? - Room for Debate Blog - NYTimes.com - 1 views

roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/...what-do-school-tests-measure

nytimes all_teachers math science

shared by Fabian Aguilar on 12 Aug 09 - Cached
  • According to a New York Times analysis, New York City students have steadily improved their performance on statewide tests since Mayor Michael Bloomberg took control of the public schools seven years ago.
  • Critics say the results are proof only that it is possible to “teach to the test.” What do the results mean? Are tests a good way to prepare students for future success?
  • Tests covering what students were expected to learn (guided by an agreed-upon curriculum) serve a useful purpose — to provide evidence of student effort, of student learning, of what teachers taught, and of what teachers may have failed to teach.
  • ...18 more annotations...
  • More serious questions arise about “teaching to the test.” If the test requires students to do something academically valuable — to demonstrate comprehension of high quality reading passages at an appropriate level of complexity and difficulty for the students’ grade, for example — then, of course, “teaching to the test” is appropriate.
  • Reading is the crucial subject in the curriculum, affecting all the others, as we know.
  • An almost exclusive focus on raising test scores usually leads to teaching to the test, denies rich academic content and fails to promote the pleasure in learning, and to motivate students to take responsibility for their own learning, behavior, discipline and perseverance to succeed in school and in life.
  • Test driven, or force-fed, learning can not enrich and promote the traits necessary for life success. Indeed, it is dangerous to focus on raising test scores without reducing school drop out, crime and dependency rates, or improving the quality of the workforce and community life.
  • Students, families and groups that have been marginalized in the past are hurt most when the true purposes of education are not addressed.
  • lein. Mayor Bloomberg claims that more than two-thirds of the city’s students are now proficient readers. But, according to federal education officials, only 25 percent cleared the proficient-achievement hurdle after taking the National Assessment of Education Progress, a more reliable and secure test in 2007.
  • The major lesson is that officials in all states — from New York to Mississippi — have succumbed to heavy political pressure to somehow show progress. They lower the proficiency bar, dumb down tests and distribute curricular guides to teachers filled with study questions that mirror state exams.
  • This is why the Obama administration has nudged 47 states to come around the table to define what a proficient student truly knows.
  • Test score gains among New York City students are important because research finds that how well one performs on cognitive tests matters more to one’s life chances than ever before. Mastery of reading and math, in particular, are significant because they provide the gateway to higher learning and critical thinking.
  • First, just because students are trained to do well on a particular test doesn’t mean they’ve mastered certain skills.
  • Second, whatever the test score results, children in high poverty schools like the Promise Academy are still cut off from networks of students, and students’ parents, who can ease access to employment.
  • Reliable and valid standardized tests can be one way to measure what some students have learned. Although they may be indicators of future academic success, they don’t “prepare” students for future success.
  • Since standardized testing can accurately assess the “whole” student, low test scores can be a real indicator of student knowledge and deficiencies.
  • Many teachers at high-performing, high-poverty schools have said they use student test scores as diagnostic tools to address student weaknesses and raise achievement.
  • The bigger problem with standardized tests is their emphasis on the achievement of only minimal proficiency.
  • While it is imperative that even the least accomplished students have sufficient reading and calculating skills to become self-supporting, these are nonetheless the students with, overall, the fewest opportunities in the working world.
  • Regardless of how high or low we choose to set the proficiency bar, standardized test scores are the most objective and best way of measuring it.
  • The gap between proficiency and true comprehension would be especially wide in the case of the brightest students. These would be the ones least well-served by high-stakes testing.
Dennis OConnor

Funny2 - Computer Haiku - 0 views

www.funny2.com/haiku.htm

curriculum

shared by Dennis OConnor on 13 Aug 09 - Cached
  • Out of memory. We wish to hold everything! But still we cannot. Rather than beep Or a rude error message: These words: "File Not Found".
  • Dennis OConnor on 13 Aug 09
     
    Twitter loves haiku or is that The other way around?
Dave Truss

Teaching as transparent learning « Connectivism - 0 views

www.connectivism.ca/?p=122

newliteracy learning learningconversations

shared by Dave Truss on 28 Apr 09 - Cached
  • My argument is this: when we make our learning transparent, we become teachers. Even if we are new to a field and don’t have the confidence to dialogue with experts, we can still provide important learning opportunities to others.
  • Prominent and transparent learners I can’t speak for them, but from reading prominent educational technology bloggers - Will Richardson, Terry Anderson, Stephen Downes, Grainne Conole - I’m left with the impression that they too seek not to proclaim what they know, but rather to engage and share with others as they explore and come to understand technology and related trends. Watching others learn is an act of learning.
  • Dave Truss on 28 Apr 09
     
    Prominent and transparent learners I can't speak for them, but from reading prominent educational technology bloggers - Will Richardson, Terry Anderson, Stephen Downes, Grainne Conole - I'm left with the impression that they too seek not to proclaim what they know, but rather to engage and share with others as they explore and come to understand technology and related trends. Watching others learn is an act of learning.
Vicki Davis

westwood - Joy J - 0 views

westwood.wikispaces.com/Joy+J

education learning netgened flatclassroom bestpractices technology

shared by Vicki Davis on 03 May 09 - No Cached
  • Along the way, we have found that even though we are hundreds of thousands of miles apart, we can still find something in common.
  • Vicki Davis on 03 May 09
     
    Excellent efolio of work from Joy J in the 10th grade Introduction to Computer Science course. You can see an overview of the types of things done in this course and how Flat Classroom and NetGenEd were integrated into the curriculum as well as some videos. Joy is an excellent student and this portfolio with exception of a few tiny omissions is near perfect.
Dave Truss

Diigo in Writing Class « What Else? 1DR - 0 views

askwhatelse.wordpress.com/...diigo-in-writing-class

Diigo

shared by Dave Truss on 30 Jun 09 - Cached
  • Here a student simply highlights the information she needs to review later in her document (wiki, MS Word, presentation, etc.) in order to analyze the information for her needs.
  • By gathering the information needed, the student is able to synthesize the ideas into his/her own connections
    • Dave Truss
      Dave Truss on 30 Jun 09
       
      Check out the link.
  • By saving the information to a Diigo group, students can connect with each other and share the important ideas for discussion or writing later:
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • In addition, after students write online (Google Docs, Wikis), the teacher can “Diigo” feedback. What was well done in the writing? What still needs improvement? This fifth grade student read the first annotation about the need to add examples.
  • Through individual or collaborative Diigo annotations, students connect to facts in ways that allow comprehension and connections that deepen their understanding.  Through Diigo annotations for feedback, students easily understand what aspects of their writing need improvement. Diigo is our friend in the writing classroom.
  • Dave Truss on 30 Jun 09
     
    Here a student simply highlights the information she needs to review later in her document (wiki, MS Word, presentation, etc.) in order to analyze the information for her needs. ...Through individual or collaborative Diigo annotations, students connect to facts in ways that allow comprehension and connections that deepen their understanding. Through Diigo annotations for feedback, students easily understand what aspects of their writing need improvement. Diigo is our friend in the writing classroom.
Ruth Howard

I'm sure I'm doing it wrong | Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech - 8 views

ideasandthoughts.org/...im-sure-im-doing-it-wrong

blogging education inflection network pln digital literacy edtech assessment flixr wiki

shared by Ruth Howard on 08 Oct 09 - Cached
  • According to many definitions of good teaching, I don’t qualify: I don’t clearly state objectives If I do state them, they are as fuzzy as all get out I have a hard time measuring student progress My course syllabus changes almost daily I never use tests I constantly stray off topic
  • I do constantly question whether or not I need to be more structured.  Do I need to be able to define my outcomes more succinctly than this? Students will learn that: Learning is social and connected Learning is personal and self-directed Learning is shared and transparent Learning is rich in content and diversity
  • I do provide rubrics, build criteria together, emphasis and utilize descriptive feedback.  Providing supports and the odd insight best describes my role.  I’m of total confidence they are learning. Just read their blogs.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  •   I’ve read, listen and thought  more about assessment than most and yet it still baffles me. Mostly because the kind of assessment that makes most sense (immediate and descriptive feedback) isn’t really valued in schools.
Ed Webb

Op-Ed Columnist - The Uneducated American - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...09krugman.html

krugman opinion education NYT

shared by Ed Webb on 12 Oct 09 - Cached
  • we have a college graduation rate that’s slightly below the average across all advanced economies.Even without the effects of the current crisis, there would be every reason to expect us to fall further in these rankings, if only because we make it so hard for those with limited financial means to stay in school. In America, with its weak social safety net and limited student aid, students are far more likely than their counterparts in, say, France to hold part-time jobs while still attending classes. Not surprisingly, given the financial pressures, young Americans are also less likely to stay in school and more likely to become full-time workers instead.
  • we need to wake up and realize that one of the keys to our nation’s historic success is now a wasting asset. Education made America great; neglect of education can reverse the process.
Janet Schutz

My Best of series | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 5 views

larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/...my-best-of-series

resources websites best sites

shared by Janet Schutz on 12 Oct 09 - Cached
  • Dave Truss on 12 Oct 09
     
    I've separated my "The Best…" lists here by topics. A number of the lists, though, can fit into multiple categories, so it still might be useful to scan all of them.
yc c

Does the Brain Like E-Books? - Room for Debate Blog - NYTimes.com - 0 views

roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/...does-the-brain-like-e-books

shared by yc c on 16 Oct 09 - Cached
  • Still, people read more slowly on screen, by as much as 20-30 percent. Fifteen or 20 years ago, electronic reading also impaired comprehension compared to paper, but those differences have faded in recent studies.
    • yc c
      yc c on 16 Oct 09
       
      Gloria Mark, below, mentions the opposite
  • displays have vastly improved since then, and now with high resolution monitors reading speed is no different than reading from paper.
    • yc c
      yc c on 16 Oct 09
       
      here
  • A hyperlink brings you to information faster but is also more of a distraction.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • More and more, studies are showing how adept young people are at multitasking. But the extent to which they can deeply engage with the online material is a question for further research.
anonymous

Google Wave Extension List - 18 views

www.docstoc.com/...Google-Wave-Extension-List

Google wave

shared by anonymous on 03 Nov 09 - Cached
  • anonymous on 03 Nov 09
     
    A very nice list of Robots and Gadgets for the Google Wave.
  • anonymous on 03 Nov 09
     
    Remember, this is still all quite new, so things may not work as you would hope. But when they do, it's SO much fun. :)
Vicki Davis

UK Team is focusing on online comment defamation - 1 views

www.birminghampost.net/...ment-defamation-65233-25030203

education digitalcitizenship edu_news

shared by Vicki Davis on 17 Nov 09 - Cached
  • a new team to track down people who make anonymous comments about companies online.
  • a new team to track down people who make anonymous comments about companies online.
  • a new team to track down people who make anonymous comments about companies online.
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • a rising problem with people making anonymous statements that defamed companies, and people sharing confidential information online.
  • the new team would ensure there was “nowhere to hide in cyberspace”.
  • a story from six years earlier about United Airlines going bankrupt was voted up on a newspaper website. This was later picked up by Google News and eventually the Bloomberg news wire, which published it automatically as if it were a news story.
    • Vicki Davis
      Vicki Davis on 17 Nov 09
       
      Could this be considered the new "insider trading" - hmmm. Surely there are issues if it is done maliciously but isn't there a line here?
  • rogue employees
    • Vicki Davis
      Vicki Davis on 17 Nov 09
       
      Uhm, how about rogue companies?
  • trying to get Internet Service Providers to give out details of customers who had made comments online
  • shares in American firm United Airlines fell by 99 per cent in just 15 minutes after an outdated story that the firm had filed for bankruptcy was forced back onto the headlines.
  • the numbers of disgruntled employees looking to get their own back on employers or former employers was also on the rise.
  • could stifle free speech, and the ability of people to act as whistle-blowers to expose actions by their employers.
  • an outlet for anonymous reporting.
    • Vicki Davis
      Vicki Davis on 17 Nov 09
       
      Is it possible to have accountability AND anonymity? Must these be mutually exclusive?
  • This is known as the ‘Streisand effect’ online, after a case where singer Barbara Streisand tried to suppress photos of her California beachside home from a publicly-available archive of photos taken to document coastal erosion.
  • Nightjack. This was the guy who was blogging on the front line about police work and he was forced to stop this story because he was unmasked by The Times
  • If you allow a lot of anonymous debate by people who are not regulated, you can get it descending to the common denominator. If you allow people to register with an identity, even if it’s not their real one, you bring the level of debate up.”
  • There was one case a couple of years ago that we just keep referring back to where a defamatory comment was made and it wasn’t taken down for a period of time. Because of that the host of the website was held to be liable.”
  • the ‘Wild West’ era of the internet was in some ways coming to an end, with firms starting to crack down
  • I think companies are still grappling with whether it’s better to take it on the chin and hope people don’t see the comments, or on the other hand cracking down on everything that’s particularly damaging that’s said online. Maybe this is set to change.”
  • Vicki Davis on 17 Nov 09
     
    While this article starts out about a lawfirm in Birmingham UK that is going to "track down people who make anonymous comments about companies online" it becomes an amazingly poignant article on the very nature of the Internet today and the push pull between anonymous commenting and accountability of the commenter. Push pull between free speech and online identity and brand protection. One person in this article claims that this sort of thing is the sign that the "wild west" of the INternet is coming to an end. Oh dear, I hope someone invents a new one if somehow anonymous commenters are now going to risk such! Also love the article's discussion of the Streisand effect wherein Barbara protested the sharing of some photos of her eroding beachfront which caused a stir and more people looking at the photos than if she had left it alone. This article is going to be a must read for Flat Classroom students and would be great for college-level discussions as well.
Wade Ren

Still Learning: Next Installment on Diigo - 7 views

snobles.blogspot.com/...next-installment-on-diigo.html

diigo-in-education

shared by Wade Ren on 24 Nov 09 - Cached
  • Our work started out well. We read in class a section of Antigone, and that night, they annotated spots where they saw characters developing moral dilemmas (these dilemmas are our entry point into the play -- we will eventually write compare/contrast essays on modern moral dilemmas and what we can learn from ancient dilemmas -- more on that later!). Here is an example of one of their comment threads (with their typos and all!) on this quote from Antigone to Ismene, "Yes, I'll do my duty to my brother -- / and your as well, if you're not prepared to. / I won't be caught betraying him.
  • This is only one example of many where they read each other's ideas and built their own thoughts on them. I was thrilled. We started class the next day just skimming the play -- I asked them to notice who had a moral dilemma so far just by looking at where the annotations were. They could SEE that every character so far had some kind of dilemma. We were on a roll ...
Ed Webb

Seventy-One Stories About Being Trans in School - 0 views

grace.substack.com/...-one-stories-about-being-trans

LGBT LGBTQ education college colleges universities university

shared by Ed Webb on 18 Jul 19 - Cached
  • (a) some of the biggest challenges trans students face are infrastructural, both bricks-and-mortar structures (the housing of trans students; bathroom facilities), and digital architecture (course information software, transcripts, diplomas and email databases all routinely misidentify students);(b) an overwhelming majority of students and graduates described the experience of being misgendered and/or deadnamed by their professors as an extremely common experience.
  • I do think there’s real value in hearing stories of what it feels like to be misgendered or deadnamed
  • Anti-trans academics who claim that their rights are being infringed are heard far more frequently in the mainstream media than are the students who are apparently doing the infringing.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • academic freedom is a value of deep institutional importance to the independence of the University from entrenched power. Free speech demands no such institutional defense, and is rightly deprioritized when in conflict with other interests such as equity of access to education, or the health and wellbeing of students
  • To listen to trans students and graduates is to be sure that, whatever the British gender critical academics argue, the training of the professoriate on this issue is woefully inadequate
  • Many trans and non-binary students reported challenges finding built environments where they could feel safe at college. “They keep housing me with men,” wrote one trans woman; another trans woman reported that, despite being roomed with “transphobic students,” her administrators “weren’t, in general, willing to cut me a whole lot of slack because I hadn’t legally changed my gender marker.” A trans man reported being “placed on an all-girls floor even though I stated clearly on my housing form that I’m a trans guy.” Another student described the non-accommodation of trans students as an official policy: “my school matches roommate based on assigned sex, and refuses to accommodate trans students.”
  • Many students wrote with great enthusiasm about LGBTQ support centers on campus, which provide trans students with community and guidance. One writes that “younger uni empoyees and employees who were queer or allies were actually pretty great”; another says “the campus LGBT centers at two of the institutions where I experienced […] discrimination were amazing”; another writes that “the gender equality center is really working to help students and we have queer profs and Pride programming.” Another describes the vibe at the LGBTQ center as “quite tumblr but very supportive.” Students reported valuing the opportunity to invite speakers and guests themselves, though some report a wish that more resources for such programming were available.
  • A number of students wrote to express their dismay at the poverty of counselling resources for trans students
  • A large majority of respondents – close to all - explicitly reported experiences with “deadnaming” and “misgendering” by their academic advisors – their professors and mentors. Some of these instances were “deliberate,” “malicious,” “continued,” or “transphobic,” while others were merely “ignorant” or “accidental.” One respondent reported having been taught by two kinds of teacher: “profs who never asked for pronouns and always misgendered me, and profs who asked for pronouns but would still misgender me every time and apologize every time under the guise of ‘trying their best’.”
  • Sometimes being misgendered at a key moment in one’s school career throws students into emotional disarray at an inopportune moment.
  • colleges and universities are failing to establish adequate infrastructure for trans and non-binary students (especially in respect of digital architecture, which perhaps receives less attention than bricks-and-mortar)
  • staff and faculty, far from being the mindwiped drones of the gender critical academics’ fantasy, are mostly pretty incompetent at addressing and discussing trans students
  • I have a responsibility as a teacher to ensure minimum standards of care and equitable access to education for all my trans students, but also that I have a responsibility to push back against those institutional disincentives
Dave Truss

Teaching in Social and Technological Networks « Connectivism - 17 views

www.connectivism.ca/?p=220

teachers networks networkedteaching newliteracy

shared by Dave Truss on 20 Feb 10 - Cached
    • Dave Truss
      Dave Truss on 20 Feb 10
       
      Note my comment relating to this.
  • This model works well when we can centralize both the content (curriculum) and the teacher. The model falls apart when we distribute content and extend the activities of the teacher to include multiple educator inputs and peer-driven learning. Simply: social and technological networks subvert the classroom-based role of the teacher.
  • the role of the teacher. Given that coherence and lucidity are key to understanding our world, how do educators teach in networks? For educators, control is being replaced with influence. Instead of controlling a classroom, a teacher now influences or shapes a network. The following are roles teacher play in networked learning environments: 1. Amplifying 2. Curating 3. Wayfinding and socially-driven sensemaking 4. Aggregating 5. Filtering 6. Modelling 7. Persistent presence
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • An interesting side-note, when you said, …The model falls apart when we distribute content and extend the activities of the teacher to include multiple educator inputs and peer-driven learning. Simply: social and technological networks subvert the classroom-based role of the teacher. It came to mind that what’s really being subverted is not so much the classroom-based role as it is the teacher-controlled learning.
  • We’re still early in many of these trends. Many questions remain unanswered about privacy, ethics in networks, and assessment. My view is that change in education needs to be systemic and substantial. Education is concerned with content and conversations. The tools for controlling both content and conversation have shifted from the educator to the learner. We require a system that acknowledges this reality.
  • Dave Truss on 20 Feb 10
     
    The following are roles teacher play in networked learning environments: 1. Amplifying 2. Curating 3. Wayfinding and socially-driven sensemaking 4. Aggregating 5. Filtering 6. Modelling 7. Persistent presence
Ed Webb

Literacy Levels Among College Students | Faculty Focus - 0 views

www.facultyfocus.com/...-levels-among-college-students

literacy US USA education students reading study

shared by Ed Webb on 19 Oct 20 - Cached
  • While we’d like to think that our students are prepared for the challenging content we assign, collegiate students are still developing as readers and we need to help them in this process.
  • Looking at the average literacy levels for students enrolled in two- and four-year institutions, the authors report that while college students on average score significantly higher than the general adult population in all three literacy types, the average score would be characterized at the intermediate literacy level.
  • some important findings for those institutions of higher education whose missions include working with first-generation college students or with international students. Students whose parents are college graduates score significantly higher across all literacy types than those students whose parents did not attend any post-secondary education. Foreign-born students score significantly lower across every literacy type than their US-born peers.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • researchers did not find significantly different literacy levels when comparing students at public vs. private institutions or at selective vs. nonselective institutions. While the findings may be a little disheartening, the report shows that ALL institutions of higher education need to be aware of their students’ literacy levels.
Ed Webb

Bill Maher vs. higher ed | Bryan Alexander - 1 views

bryanalexander.org/...bill-maher-vs-higher-ed

education higher-ed US USA analysis bryanalexander

shared by Ed Webb on 09 Jun 21 - Cached
  • First, Maher gets certain things wrong, and many people share those errors, so addressing them might be beneficial. Second, several of his criticisms point to more broadly held American attitudes.  Better understanding them can help higher ed as it tries to navigate an increasingly challenging battle for public support.
  • Accurately, he points out that published prices have risen faster than inflation for a generation. However, setting aside the reasons for that inflation, this misses two key points. First, the tuition amounts cited are published prices, not what institutions actually charge most students.  Widespread tuition discounting means only the richest tend to pay full price, which subsidizes everyone else, who pay less.
  • ignoring the wide range of low cost colleges and universities
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Maher gets some points dead right, like the general – and especially Democratic – idea that everyone should get some post-secondary schooling.  This is still the default American idea, with persistent popularity.
  • not all of higher ed is about those teenagers, and it’s a mistake to assume it is
  • Ignoring these swarms of campuses with low (sticker!) prices in favor of complaining about the most expensive slice of American academia is, alas, a popular mistake.
  • He wants the college and university sector to shrink back in size and influence.  He advises an end to college for all, wanting instead college for even fewer.
  • Maher reminds us of the power of economic populism, and not just in the ways Trump mobilized it. Academia’s sometimes intention of mitigating inequality runs smack into our role in making inequality happen
  • to whatever extent Bill Maher is representative, the public has woeful gaps in its understanding of how higher ed works.  Our elite institutions stand in for the entire sector too often. Our high tuition, high discount strategy just looks like very high tuition.  Adult learners are nowhere near visible enough.
  • the cost of today’s education is likely to be somewhat higher than what I paid 30 years ago, but the price is definitely dramatically higher because today’s students aren’t enjoying the taxpayer support that I did. The price went up for sure. How much the cost went up is less clear
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