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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

Why INSET Days Fail by David Hughes - 0 views

ukedchat.com/...inset-days-fail

training

shared by Martin Burrett on 15 May 19 - No Cached
  • Martin Burrett on 15 May 19
     
    "Every learning organisation has a culture. This forms an underlying set of values and ways of doing things which determines how practice is maintained, and changes resisted or embraced. This culture changes slowly over time and resides in the experience and experiences of staff and other significant stakeholders in the organisation. A wise leader, before embarking on significant changes, would do well to ensure they understand the cultural drivers of the particular school for these may accelerate, or hinder the pace and direction of change."
Martin Burrett

10 Things To Make Staff Meetings More Productive - 2 views

ukedchat.com/...staff-meetings-productive

staff staff meeting productive productivity

shared by Martin Burrett on 13 Nov 18 - No Cached
  • Martin Burrett on 13 Nov 18
     
    "Drawing from almost 200 scientific studies on workplace meetings, a team of psychological scientists provides recommendations for making the most out of meetings before they start, as they're happening, and after they've concluded. Their report is published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Meetings are a near-ubiquitous aspect of today's professional workplace and there is abundant trade wisdom and written guidance about how meetings should be run. But, as researchers Joseph Mroz and Joseph Allen (University of Nebraska Omaha) and Dana Verhoeven and Marissa Shuffler (Clemson University) point out, very little of this guidance is informed by the available science."
Martin Burrett

Sound of Text - 0 views

ukedchat.com/...sound-of-text

languages computer speech audio speech text to speech text to voice

shared by Martin Burrett on 29 Oct 18 - No Cached
  • Martin Burrett on 29 Oct 18
     
    "Listen or download audio of 100 characters of text in many different languages. Perfect for language students engaged in self-directed study."
Martin Burrett

Windy - 2 views

ukedchat.com/windy

weather waves wind ocean geography

shared by Martin Burrett on 21 Sep 18 - No Cached
  • Martin Burrett on 21 Sep 18
     
    "A mesmerising animated map is weather and other data layers, including winds, wave direction and and height, clouds, CO2 concentration and much more."
Maggie Verster

Reviews for Introducing Project-Based Learning in your Classroom from School Education Gateway - Teacher Academy | Class Central - 3 views

www.class-central.com/...arning-in-your-classroom-10764

courses opencourses selfpaced

shared by Maggie Verster on 18 Apr 18 - No Cached
  • Walter Antoniotti on 06 May 18
     
    I agree! If public education does not go even further in this direction, other private systems which already have many of the best academic students, will take over, We need http://www.textbooksfree.org/Individualized%20Curriculum.htm
Martin Burrett

Independent Learning for Pupils & Teachers - 2 views

ukedchat.com/...t-learning-for-pupils-teachers

shared by Martin Burrett on 29 Nov 17 - No Cached
  • Martin Burrett on 29 Nov 17
     
    "Learning is class or as a staff is great. The learner is guided through the process by expert educators to reach a new goal together. But not everyone is going in the same direction, so it is important to have the skills, ambition and discipline to learn independently."
Martin Burrett

4 Premium Productivity Apps to Support Teachers - 0 views

ukedchat.com/...premium-apps

shared by Martin Burrett on 10 Nov 17 - No Cached
  • Martin Burrett on 10 Nov 17
     
    "As the development of apps has evolved, including the platforms they operate on, the ability to ease the organisational challenges in life have become more refined. Whilst the apps featured in this article come at a premium, the features that they display make organising busy lives less complex, with clever design, features and functionality that will keep you ready for the daily trials of being a busy teacher. The apps mentioned in this article are mainly built for Apple devices (iPhone / iPad / Mac), with links directing to the relevant App Stores, unless otherwise indicated."
Martin Burrett

E-safety policy for schools via @esafety_Kent - 0 views

ukedchat.com/...esafety-policy

technology e-safety school policy

shared by Martin Burrett on 06 Sep 17 - No Cached
  • Martin Burrett on 06 Sep 17
     
    "With technological advances moving spectacularly fast, it is difficult for schools to keep updated with e-safety policy, procedures and advice for their staff and pupils. Ensuring that everyone is informed through following policy directives can be time-consuming, and producing the documents can be equally laborious."
Martin Burrett

UKEd Podcast - Episode 04 - Psychological Pressure - 1 views

www.patreon.com/10586448

Psychological Pressure podcast education audio

shared by Martin Burrett on 05 May 17 - No Cached
  • Martin Burrett on 05 May 17
     
    "In this episode we explore some research published by Dr Stephen Earl from the University of Kent in England that is expected to help teachers identify specific reasons for different types of pupil withdrawal in the classroom. Read more about the research at ukedchat.com/2017/04/26/teenage…ive-psychological/ Also, Richard Rogers shares some great classroom activities and ideas about differentiation - The accompanying blog post is at ukedchat.com/2017/04/25/differe…iation-magic-tool/ Get in touch with us via podcast@ukedchat.com and follow us on Twitter @UKEdPodcast, or Direct Message us via the @UKEdChat  accounts on Twitter or Facebook."
Martin Burrett

To boldly go in a different direction - 5 views

ukedchat.com/...3

science magazine article pedagogy

shared by Martin Burrett on 12 Nov 15 - No Cached
  • Martin Burrett on 12 Nov 15
     
    Article based in a science class discussing the value of seizing opportunities
Vicki Davis

Self publish a textbook with Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing - 4 views

kdp.amazon.com/edu

education teaching publishing

shared by Vicki Davis on 22 Jan 15 - No Cached
madisonmabrey liked it
  • Vicki Davis on 22 Jan 15
     
    You can self publish a textbook using Amazon Kindle Direct. Very interesting.
Vicki Davis

Book News: Happiness Study Says Library Trips Are As Good As A Pay Raise : The Two-Way : NPR - 7 views

www.npr.org/...-make-you-happy-as-a-pay-raise

research happiness reading education woh

shared by Vicki Davis on 04 Jul 14 - No Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 04 Jul 14
     
    "Going to the library gives people the same kick as getting a raise does - a £1,359 ($ 2,282) raise, to be exact - according to a study commissioned by the U.K.'s Department for Culture, Media & Sport. The study, which looks at the ways "cultural engagement" affects overall wellbeing, concluded that a significant association was found between frequent library use and reported wellbeing. The same was true of dancing, swimming and going to plays. The study notes that "causal direction needs to be considered further" - that is, it's hard to tell whether happy people go to the library, or going to the library makes people happy. But either way, the immortal words of Arthur the Aardvark ring true: "Having fun isn't hard when you've got a library card!""
  • Bill Campbell on 07 Jul 14
     
    And going to the public library is free!
Martin Burrett

Slides - Create and share presentations online - 9 views

slid.es

presentation slides

shared by Martin Burrett on 27 Dec 13 - No Cached
  • Martin Burrett on 27 Dec 13
     
    Slides offers an interesting twist on the online presenter genre... literally. The presentation can roll in many directions like a virtual cube allowing multi-track presentations. The site uses html5, so it works on most computers and devices. Editing is simple and you can share or embed your creations easily. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools
Vicki Davis

ECRP. Vol 4 No 1. Moving up the Grades: Relationship between Preschool Model and Later School Success - 2 views

ecrp.uiuc.edu/marcon.html

education research news

shared by Vicki Davis on 14 Sep 13 - Cached
  • This trend is especially prevalent in programs that serve low-income children. Compensatory early childhood programs such as Head Start and state-sponsored pre-kindergarten for low-income families and preschoolers with special needs are designed to help children acquire skills needed for later school success.
  • Beginning in the 1980s, leading early childhood experts expressed concern about the wisdom of overly didactic, formal instructional practices for young children (e.g., Elkind, 1986; Zigler, 1987). They feared that short-term academic gains would be offset by long-term stifling of children's motivation and self-initiated learning. Later research suggests that these early concerns were warranted
  • They cautioned that early academic gains in reading skills associated with didactic instruction of preschoolers "come with some costs" that could have long-term negative effects on achievement.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • imilarly, when the highly didactic Direct Instructional System for the Teaching of Arithmetic and Reading (DISTAR) was discontinued after third grade, children's previously high achievement in reading and mathematics declined
  • Vicki Davis on 14 Sep 13
     
    Interesting study of children, preschool and later school success. "Children's later school success appears to have been enhanced by more active, child-initiated early learning experiences. Their progress may have been slowed by overly academic preschool experiences that introduced formalized learning experiences too early for most children's developmental status."
Vicki Davis

Revised Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule Goes Into Effect Today - 3 views

www.ftc.gov/...coppa.shtm

education news coppa usa government socialmedia tumblr

shared by Vicki Davis on 03 Jul 13 - No Cached
  • The modified rule, approved by the Commission in December 2012, widens the definition of children’s personal information to include persistent identifiers such as cookies that track a child’s activity online, as well as geolocation information, photos, videos, and audio recordings.
  • It requires that operators of websites or online services that are either directed to children under 13 or have actual knowledge that they are collecting personal information from children under 13 give notice to parents and get their verifiable consent before collecting, using, or disclosing such personal information, and keep secure the information they collect from children.
  • Vicki Davis on 03 Jul 13
     
    The revised COPPA act went into effect on July 1, 2013. Take time to read up on and know this act.
Steve Ransom

Talentism: My Son Won't Do His Homework - 9 views

www.talentism.com/...my_son_wont_do_.html

homework talent creativity discipline gr8

shared by Steve Ransom on 03 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • Every employer I know of (and I would assume that you are no exception Colin) wants engaged employees who are passionate about their jobs. Most employers do not want employees who hate their work but persist through it anyway. It is a fallacy to believe that we are teaching our kids that the heart of innovative capability (and therefore their future job prospects) is best served by doing something you hate for an extended period of time no matter the consequences.
  • But I have to focus on what will get them work, even if that will hurt them, society, the companies that hire them and everyone around them.
  • "Why are you so convinced that my son is going to be an academic or an investment banker?" Because as far as I can tell, those are the only two things that schools prepare kids to be.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • and that the stuff that he loves (art and music and video games) will be a great future for him and the stuff he hates (math and science) is something he will never compete in, never have a chance at.
  • But school doesn’t care, because school does not have the objective of helping my son produce the maximum amount of value in the future that he will probably encounter. School cares about ensuring that he knows how to take tests, follow directions and can do math that he will never have to care about for the rest of his life.
  • Steve Ransom on 03 Jun 13
     
    Most employers do not want employees who hate their work but persist through it anyway. It is a fallacy to believe that we are teaching our kids that the heart of innovative capability (and therefore their future job prospects) is best served by doing something you hate for an extended period of time no matter the consequences.
Vicki Davis

Wissahickon School District: WHS Graduation Project - 5 views

www.wsdweb.org/page.cfm

education news graduation pbl

shared by Vicki Davis on 23 May 13 - No Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 23 May 13
     
    I'll be spending time to AJ Juliani, Steve Mogg and Rosie Esposito from Wissahikon school district. Here's a copy of their Graduation project required to graduate from their school. I think all schools should have graduation projects. There is information and manuals if you want to look into this for yourself. I saw this in Evansvlle High school as well. This can be part of your genius work. "As part of graduation from Wissahickon High School, every senior is required to complete a graduation project.  The projects include research, writing and an oral presentation to assure that students are able to apply, analyze, synthesize and evaluation information and communicate significant knowledge and understanding.  This is culminating project in one or more areas of concentrated study under the guidance and direction of the high school faculty. "
Vicki Davis

Introduction to Management - 3 views

management.ou.edu

education news mooc

shared by Vicki Davis on 13 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • Vicki Davis on 13 Apr 13
     
    Another Mooc, I got an email from Jeremy Short, the professor leading this course. I was a management major at Georgia tech, I love the incorporation of graphic novels into this course. Here's what Dr. Short sent me: "I'm a professor at the University of Oklahoma. My co-authors and I conducted a study that will soon be published in Business Communication Quarterly where we find that graphic novels are more effective than traditional textbooks for direct recall of material. The study used material about human motivation commonly taught in introductory management courses. In addition to the superior recall associated with the graphic novel version of the material, more than 80% of students indicated the graphic novel format compared favorably to traditional textbooks. Now anyone in the world can conduct their own study to see if their experiences match our findings, as I will be teaching a class beginning June 10 and ending July 15, that is free under the MOOC format and will feature a graphic novel textbook as well as a traditional principles of management text - both books I've co-authored. OU students can enroll through regular registration and take the course for credit, but anyone interested in the class can enroll for free under the non-credit option. The only cost of the class under the second option is the cost of the two texts, which can be purchased for under $100 total."
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