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Ed Webb

The academy's neoliberal response to COVID-19: Why faculty should be wary and how we can push back - Academic Matters - 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
  • ...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

Physical Mathematics by @iwilsonysj - 1 views

ukedchat.com/...physical-mathematics

maths math

shared by Martin Burrett on 24 May 19 - No Cached
  • Martin Burrett on 24 May 19
     
    "I often sit on a Thursday evening about 2000hrs and watch the ukedchat hashtag. This week it was about physical education. Although this is not one of my strong subjects in teaching (or even in real life) I was interested in the first question which asked how physical education could be related to literacy and/or mathematics. Just like a GSCE multiple choice essay question I chose to answer how it could be related to mathematics. You can see the full tweet chat conversation here - but I thought I would expand my response in this week's waffle."
Martin Burrett

A Headteacher's Wonderings; Two Years in! by @susanwalter99 - 0 views

ukedchat.com/...headteachers-wonderings-two

headteacher

shared by Martin Burrett on 07 Oct 18 - No Cached
  • Martin Burrett on 07 Oct 18
     
    "Last week, we had a welcome evening for the new staff joining DBIS at the start of this academic year, and as I was sharing a glass of wine and chatting to our newly arrived teachers, I realised that just two short years ago, it was me who was the newbie; just landed in Hong Kong and starting to settle in my new country and starting to get to know my new school."
Martin Burrett

Is It for the Good of the Children or The Bank Balance? by @sheep2763 - 1 views

ukedchat.com/...-the-bank-balance-by-sheep2763

behaviour wellbeing

shared by Martin Burrett on 15 Dec 17 - No Cached
  • Martin Burrett on 15 Dec 17
     
    "The new code of practice has got rid of behaviour as a category and has replaced it with Social, Emotional and Mental Health Difficulties. This may be the cause of the child's difficulties but the manifestation is often in their challenging behaviour. Within school there are some families where their behaviour could almost be considered to have a genetic component. We appreciate that every child, even identical twins, are individuals and we always treat them as such. Today I wanted to refer a child who appears to have some Social, Emotional or Mental Health Difficulties to our Educational Psychologist. He wanted to have a chat about the child before accepting the referral, fair enough, I was happy to chat."
Martin Burrett

Reflection - Are we part of the problem? by @sheep2763 - 0 views

ukedchat.com/...reflection-problem

reflection assessment feedback

shared by Martin Burrett on 31 Oct 17 - No Cached
  • Martin Burrett on 31 Oct 17
     
    "I went shopping at 8 o'clock one evening in my local supermarket (one of the German chains) and was chatting to the man on the checkout who was moaning about his job and his employer. He says he has to work very long hours (tonight he was going to finish at 1:00am) - longer than his contract says he should; he gets paid for the hours he works but only at standard hours. He doesn't like some of the jobs, they are not really his responsibility but they have to be done. There is a union but they don't seem to be very helpful. His bosses don't always seem to consider the consequences of their actions - the manager was leaving as I was being served and commented that he'd left two bags of garbage on a till further along and they would need moving in a bit. The man serving was the only person on the tills and he said that between customers (there weren't many at this time of the evening) he had to move the garbage and clean all of the tills then when the store closed he needed to work at changing stock and stacking shelves. As the manager left he turned and said, "I asked Matt if he could stay and help you but he gave an unequivocal no!""
Martin Burrett

10 Crucial CPD Questions for Teachers and Schools - 0 views

ukedchat.com/...10-crucial-cpd-questions

ukedchat

shared by Martin Burrett on 06 Sep 17 - No Cached
  • Martin Burrett on 06 Sep 17
     
    "This week's chat is focused upon 10 crucial CPD questions for teachers and schools with the intention of learning more about what is working and why. In addition to this, the other focus is on how we can ensure that every member of staff becomes continually curious to engage with action research and evidence informed practice about what works best for our learners."
Martin Burrett

Video: Edu Tweeps & Blog Nominations For The 2016 UKEdChat List - 2 views

www.youtube.com/watch

education teachers

shared by Martin Burrett on 23 Oct 16 - No Cached
  • Martin Burrett on 23 Oct 16
     
    Nominate via the UKEdChat app - Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.piota.ukedChat and - iOS https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/uked-Chat/id1066940677?mt=8&uo=4&at=11lt9Z.
Martin Burrett

Session 315: Tips for dealing with disruptive pupils - 1 views

ukedchat.com/...dealing-with-disruptive-pupils

ukedchat discussion chat Twitter disruptive pupils students behaviour behaviour management

shared by Martin Burrett on 15 Aug 16 - No Cached
  • Martin Burrett on 15 Aug 16
     
    "The discussion begun which participants talking about what they viewed as disruption. Most people agreed that swinging on chairs, being late and calling out were disruptive to learning (although many felt that the root causes needed to be identified and addressed), but there was genuine disagreement about pupil interaction and banter with some UKEdChatters saying this was an inappropriate distraction, while others said they enjoyed and welcome this, at least to a point."
Vicki Davis

Prizes for EVERY educator - Terms and Conditions | The Hour of Code 2013 - 5 views

csedweek.org/prizes

education news computer science contest technology

shared by Vicki Davis on 04 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 04 Nov 13
     
    There are many prizes for having an hour of code - including a set of laptops for your school or chats with some computer science leaders like Bill Gates. Have you signed up for the "hour of code?"
Randall Fujimoto

Minecraft in Education: Leveraging a Game-Based Learning Environment for Connected Learning | Connected Learning - 9 views

connectedlearning.tv/environment-connected-learning

minecraft gbl

shared by Randall Fujimoto on 29 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • Randall Fujimoto on 29 Oct 13
     
    Come join us during this month-long series to explore and discuss the educational potential of Minecraft through actual, hands-on gameplay inside of the Minecraft world, and open chats with the Connected Learning community.
Vicki Davis

Twitter Education Chats - 6 views

www.google.com/...embed

education news edchat twitter

shared by Vicki Davis on 23 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 23 Oct 13
     
    If you want to subscribe to the Google calendar that keeps up with the education chats, here's the calendar. Just click on +Google Calendar in the bottom right hand corner. Don't worry, you can turn the calendar on and off.
Vicki Davis

Weekly Twitter Chat Times - 6 views

docs.google.com/...ccc

education news twitter twitterchat all_teachers bestpractices

shared by Vicki Davis on 23 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 23 Oct 13
     
    The Twitter chats in education are compiled on this document including chats for each day of the week. Find a chat and join in - anyone is welcome (except trolls who want to take it off topic.)
Vicki Davis

Chat and real-time collaboration - Drive Help - 9 views

support.google.com/...2494891

education google drive news collaboration techintegrator

shared by Vicki Davis on 05 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 05 Oct 13
     
    Little tip: "If you're a Google Apps administrator, note that disabling Google chat across your domain now disables chat in Drive" I think we have to work with chat. It would be nice if chat could be enabled or disabled by document but it is a whole-domain thing right now. I hate to see it disabled.
  • Derrall Garrison on 06 Oct 13
     
    I wish it wasn't a whole domain issue as well. We were allowing students to chat in docs and then noticed it wasn't working because it's now connected with Google chat. I also wish that there was an archive of the chat with some of the issues we've had.
Vicki Davis

Online chat widget |RumbleTalk group chat room platform for websites - 5 views

www.rumbletalk.com

education news eduapps backchannel edu_newapp eduapp edapp

shared by Vicki Davis on 13 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 13 Apr 13
     
    Rumbletalk bills itself as a "boutique" backchannel chat tool for live events, Facebook events. etc. They are marketing themselves for integration into Facebook pages and events but it can be put in other places. Lots of backchannel capabilities are emerging as many educators and event planners see the value of providing, managing and leading in the backchannel chats that WILL and DO occur whether you wish they did or not. 
Vicki Davis

Backchannel Chat - Providing classrooms with backchannel discussions - 13 views

backchannelchat.com

education news tumblr app backchannel wiki_book evernote all_teachers edu_newapp

shared by Vicki Davis on 16 Feb 13 - No Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 16 Feb 13
     
    A new website that many are discussing. I love using BAckchannels in my classroom and thus far have used Chatzy and Ning Chat, however, this website is designed for real time Chat for classrooms. You can mute and remove comments, it has a profanity filter and also a full transcript so you can go back and assess participation and weaknesses. You can set the Chat to discontinue when you leave. When I review for tests, I always like to use a backchannel because I can ask questions and we can document answers and the students can save as notes. This is a great tool. I'll be testing the free Chat room this week. I've heard from some of our Flat Classroom(r) certified teachers that this is a create tool.
Vicki Davis

Edutech Musings: A New Years Rant - 4 views

edutechmusings.blogspot.com/...a-new-years-rant.html

education teaching

shared by Vicki Davis on 02 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 02 Jan 13
     
    As some friends and I have been talking on my Facebook fanpage about how much grading and planning we're doing over Winter break, Chris Fancher shared his wish for teachers on the page which relates. While I don't agree that kids are "{products" I do know that I have to spend quite a bit of extra time to have any hope of considering myself a good teacher. It is a thought provoking read challenging us to be more. WE're all getting so much out of Twitter (many of us are) and the off-time things we're doing and sharing, so you might want to think about it and read his post. Chris says: "My wish for 2013 is that the 2 or 3 teachers who read this go out and find someone on their campus who they can get together with outside of "normal" hours.  Then these same teachers need to get on twitter and find a group of teachers who is on twitter at times they are on and are willing to interact and help with plans and ideas.  Then these same teachers need to pick one day a week when they can devote to a twitter chat and start being an active participant. My wish is that every student has a teacher who is willing to do whatever it takes to make sure they are receiving the best education available. "
Vicki Davis

ChatWing - 9 views

chatwing.com

education chat flatclass

shared by Vicki Davis on 25 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 25 Aug 12
     
    This website offers a free global chat on blogs and is creating quite a stir. While it may not be appropriate for all sites - if you put it on a password protected site of some kind (where you know those viewing the page have permission to view - like a wikispaces) - then you could engage in conversation with all kinds of audiences including parents, etc. around topics of interest. Students could host their own live chats. Interesting possibilities here.
Martin Burrett

Meetings.io - 16 views

meetings.io

video conference VoIP video chat collaboration video

shared by Martin Burrett on 29 May 12 - No Cached
  • Martin Burrett on 29 May 12
     
    This is a wonderful Video conferencing site which works across many types of devices. There is no sign up or login required. Just start a room and share the link to invite afters. You can have five video participates at once. You can watch videos together from YouTube and other sites. There is a collaborative notepad, text chat, file sharing and you can even share your screen with other 'room mates.' You can sign in for free to customise rooms and schedule sessions. A great resource for staff meetings, training and distance teaching. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools
Martin Burrett

Vokle - 12 views

www.vokle.com

streaming video conference webinars chat video

shared by Martin Burrett on 26 Mar 12 - Cached
  • Martin Burrett on 26 Mar 12
     
    Present a live, interactive webinar or presentation quickly and easily with this superb online tool. Setup is simple and you just share the url with your audience. The video is recorded so it can be watched again. Get your class presenting to other children/parents. You may even be able to persuade you head teacher to conduct a staff meeting virtually! http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools
Vicki Davis

Education Department Wants Tweets from Teachers and Students - High School Notes (usnews.com) - 11 views

www.usnews.com/...ets-from-teachers-and-students

education news Twitter socialmedia

shared by Vicki Davis on 24 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 24 Feb 12
     
    Great article on US news about initiatives in the US that have started but of special interest is the request that students and educators tweet. The biggest issues I've had with the town hall meetings is that most of them are in the middle of the day when everyone is teaching. On Thursday at 3 pm there is a chat about rural education. It is nice that they're having these meetings but if they REALLY want teachers to participate it will be when teachers are able to focus on the conversation. You can't have teachers teaching and Tweeting. It doesn't work. If you see me tweet during the day, most of the tweets are scheduled or I'm on break or lunch break. "February has been a busy month for K-12 education. On February 1, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan kicked it off by announcing that all U.S. schools should transition to digital textbooks within the next five years. On the 9th, President Obama waived 10 states from No Child Left Behind. And last week, the president proposed a 2013 budget that includes a $1.7 funding increase for education." Although these federal policy decisions may not seem directly connected to day-to-day classroom activities, the Department of Education is using Twitter to encourage teachers, administrators, parents, and students to play a more active role.
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