Stranded at sea

OK, It was more of a manmade tide-pool, and we were only in 6 inches of water, but technically we were "aground" or "stranded" and the water was seawater (or at least brakish). Back 10 to 15 years ago when I first came to Taiwan I used to come down to the fishing port and hang out. Before it was reclaimed and gentrified it resembled more of a wharf you might find in a Batman comic - where the Batman goes to find trouble - more than the touristy resort like atmosphere we have today.


I'd seen the bottom of the bay back then before it was dredged and gated - and I'd seen some nasty stuff stuck in the mud. Back then you couldn't walk the beach for more than 50 yards w/out finding a hypodermic washed up on the shore.


It's much cleaner now - but those memories, and my wife, kept me from taking off my shoes and pushing us back in deeper water.

Besides, it seemed so absurdly funny, and the weather was nice.

Twitter and Fortune Cookies

You know the old joke made famous in an episode of “sex in the city” about the true way to read a fortune cookie by adding 2 words to the end. I'm thinking that's funny now for a couple reasons.

1. fortune cookies are as American as apple pie. Invented in San Francisco they are largely unheard of in Taiwan and China, so fortune cookie jokes fall flat. When the IMF – some international banking thing – admitted China, US senators who supported it celebrated with a Fortune cookie photo-op. The Chinese thought it an odd American cultural thing and smiled. The Americans thought they honored a Chinese cultural tradition and grinned. Misconceptions were maintained bilaterally.
2. Twitter forces me to use only 140 characters – including spaces and punctuations. Messages get reduced to what you could fit in a Fortune Cookie.
3. You gotta add “with a 2 yr old” to a tweet from me – then it's funnier and more accurate.
   

If I were more clever I could reduce this to something more witty and pithy.

I'm liking Twitter at the moment. It works well for my needs traveling. I can keep multiple people updated, I can pull myself away from the more time-consuming blog, and access has been easier than email.

Soon I'm going to try tweeting a haiku.

Only in Taiwan: emergency room for a mosquito bite

At the Master Teacher Retreat, we recalled that the great teachers we'd had went beyond the expected, beyond the traditional boundaries of the classroom and beyond the strictly professional to establish connections: between what we knew and what we wanted to learn, and between ourselves and others. They forged relationships by making us feel we mattered. They shared their passion and made it interesting. They thereby shared something personal through transparency and an openness.

That got me thinking. Most bloggers start personal and have a quandary when their audience grows; do you continue writing for personal fulfillment or do you write specifically for your audience? I started writing for teachers and I've put some useful practical pedagogical content in every post: very professional. As a result of the retreat, and since I'm on vacation in Taiwan – I'm going to change my tone. Push the center of gravity toward the audience. I tweeted last night about taking my son to the emergency room for a mosquito bite. Some people have demanded details.

While the bandage accentuates the size - it doesn't add to it. This picture doesn't really do justice to the size either - it looked HUGE last night.

I'm on about the tropical line here – much of the island is subtropical. The island supports wildlife different from what we find in Kansas, tho anything that can be eaten or used for or currency has likely been hunted to extinction, but bugs and the snakes are not to be trifled with. I have stories, having lived in the mountains, but this post belongs to the boy.

People here go to the doctor for things that would annoy a doctor in the states. Like when they get a cold. It’s dramatically cheaper to see the doctor – appointments aren't needed and I've never had to wait over 10 or 15 minutes. Also scratches that heal by themselves in dryer cooler climates get infected quick. This is the part of the world that through crowding and climate produces 75% or more of all the new virus strains. This different attitude toward the health profession causes cultural misunderstandings and friction – but in defense of my hosts, Taiwan and China have lower infant mortality rates than the U.S.

Translations cause problems. For example, the Chinese have 1 word for either a mouse or a rat. The distinction here seems academic; after all they are vermin. Mosquito gets translated as "wen-dz” but I'm not sure there aren't several small blood sucking varieties – and if not those here give tremendous welts - large red swellings with a hard center that produces multiple blisters. Scratch and they break and spread.

About noon on Sunday we noticed a reddening of his right ear. I guessed a mosquito bite.

5 hours later after his nap it seemed noticeably larger, and the multiple blisters presented. Iknow the pic is bad - but I was holding him in one arm, he was squirming, and I felt like I was being judged harshly for taking a picture at an inauspicous moment. I put up token resistance when Ah-gong (Grandpa in Taiwanese) offered to take him to the Doc. He normally drives more aggressively than the average local and that says something. In the late 90's Taiwan had the highest traffic mortality rate in the world. It's better now but I don't know if they've dropped in the rankings. The trip to the clinic put the fear in me a couple times.
The worst part was holding him down so the nurse could clean and dress the ear. If you've read the short story "the country doctor" by William Carlos Williams you can understand why I had to be the one to hold him and why I had to do it right.

For the first time I believed the expression parents use - it hurt me more than it did him. We were cool together afterwards, but the next morning he pointed at me and screamed "j'accuse" in a nasty resentful tone I havent seen before.

Master Teacher Retreat

KCPDC sponsored a faculty retreat for faculty recongnized by their schools as being highly effective, "master," teachers. We have audio that breaks down our early objectives, plans and calls for nominations if you want to see how that process started. I experimented with a video blog addressing our expectations:



We organized the retreat in part on the KCPDC wiki. Once the action started, much of the plans were replaced by photos, links, and items that came out of the event. The extent to which some of our participants took initiative and helped craft the page, and create content and write new pages, surprised and inspired me. Co-facilitated by Dr. Rob Flaherty and I (Greg Dixon) - we pushed the center of gravity toward the participants, banking on the idea that great faculty would make ideal collaborators. That paid off.

I'm still processing what we learned and explored, so expect to see an addtional post or two reflecting on what I took away.

Tech TALK 3.25.09

The last half of this TechTALK will feature activities you can take directly back to the classroom. It will be hand's on and interactive and will use Team-Based Learning strategies to meet it's objectives. I plan on "teaching with my mouth shut" as much as possible - taking a nod from a book I've been hearing about lately.

The objectives: to support the pedagogy (andragogy) required to justify use of web-based network technologies in the classroom. As an object lesson, we will collaborate and create relevant content, and share it with each other using readily available tools/ applications available free online or through ANGEL.
Our Datatel representative recently said that 2/3 rds of the sucess of any technology initiative are cultural, and only 1/3 is the mechanics of using the technology. Scholars from the humanities who tend to write on the subject (Cummins and others) also say that sucess with any computer-mediated communication (CMC) or computer-aided learning comes from pedagogy rather than technology. So we're going to do activities that lend themselves to digital platforms and demonstrate or assess our outcomes -



I've done the activities and they're fun.

The images here come from a book, Using Wikis for Online Collaboration by J. West and M. West (2009). Also from the book we learn important steps in the conceptualization and planning of a wiki, uses of wikis (FAQ page, team collaboration spaces, critical thinking and collaborative writing assignments, and more). The book also contains

1. sample rubrics for every step of the process,
2. advice for managing the process,
   
3. activities for knowledge construction (FAQ, an annotated bibliography, etc.)
4. as well as basic how-to information.

Resources on wiki basics: What is it? Why? How? etc.

Faculty support wiki page to support this presentation available click here.

There willbe door prizes!

Balzac ND Little Chinese Seamstress

• study questions
  
• Map available - large.
• Wikipedia on the book by Dai Sijie
• Wikipedia on author (semi-autobiographical?)
  
• Poster images found at Stefan Landsberger's sight.
• history of Chinese Communist Party
  

Characters:

1. Ma - our narrator most of the time. Dr.s kid. 18 ?
   
2. Luo - Dentist's kid. 19
   
3. The Little Seamstress (aka: ) age?
4. Tailor
5. Village chief - ex opium grower.
   

Setting
Phoenix mtn near ChengDu ? Year (?)

Books worth reading.

• Nien Cheng, Life and Death in ShiangHi
• Kristoff and WuDunn, China Wakes

Pictures from my travel in the area

Celebrating Math Month

March is math month. In addition to Square Root day (3-3-9) there's Pi Day (3-14-9).

If you are looking for math applied to youth oriented pop culture - there's a moving math poem from a Harold and Kumar movie. Maybe it's more surprising than moving.

Let me know if anyone has ideas to use the following geometric brain teaser courtesy of Bruce Stewart via the Boing Boing blog.

Lectures: gone in 60 seconds

The Chronicle of Higher Ed. 3-6-9 has a fascinating FREE article on effective online lectures. Called "microlectures" the context discussed is community colleges. While some doubt that their topics can be boiled down, the article interviews a variety of deans and course designers who have been won over. IMHO, this may be because the format requires the teacher to break complex ideas down into more easily digestible chunks. Students love it.

NOTE: these microlectures should be combined with readings and activities that require them to explore the ideas.

The format encourages active learning. Read more.

The following extended quote is take from the article.

HOW TO CREATE A ONE-MINUTE LECTURE

David Penrose, a course designer for SunGard Higher Education who developed San Juan College's microlectures, suggests that it can be done in five steps:

1. List the key concepts you are trying to convey in the 60-minute lecture. That series of phrases will form the core of your microlecture.

2. Write a 15 to 30-second introduction and conclusion. They will provide context for your key concepts.

3. Record these three elements using a microphone and Web camera. (The college information-technology department can provide advice and facilities.) If you want to produce an audio-only lecture, no Webcam is necessary. The finished product should be 60 seconds to three minutes long.

4. Design an assignment to follow the lecture that will direct students to readings or activities that allow them to explore the key concepts. Combined with a written assignment, that should allow students to learn the material.

5. Upload the video and assignment to your course-management software.

Twitter anyone?

Twitter has gotten a lot of attention in higher ed and beyond lately. The Chronicle has a video on how a prof uses it for teaching, and not only is it widely considered a social justice tool, but also the L.A. Fire Dept. uses it (text and audio from NPR), the Nat'l Red Cross uses it in disaster response, and it was found more effective in saving lives during the Virginia Tech than conventional communication.

What is it?
The folks from commoncraft have a 2 minute explanatory video at YouTube, and Wikipedia breaks it down as well as anyone. In a nutshell - it's blogging in 140 keystrokes or less using primarily phones.

Why is it important?

• Recent studies and projections on the future of the internet and communication see hand held devices/ phones as the dominant connection tool to be.
• The overwhelming majority of students have cell phones

Any texting savvy faculty and staff here? Anyone interested in using Twitter for academic purposes? Early alert?

Would you like faculty development information - opportunities, resources, etc. delivered thourgh twitter?

Fantastic opportunity

Does anyone doubt the impact of Langston Hughes on American and world culture? The distinguished poet, playwrite, novelist/ short story writer defined the Harlem Renaisance and came out of Lawrence, KS - just a stone's throw away. Are there English teachers who haven't taught, "Theme for English B"?

• Langston Hughes E-texts
• lesson plans
• audio - "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" , free thru Librivox - the African American Collection.
  

Ron McCurdy will be presenting his acclaimed Langston Hughes Project sometime on or about March 11, 2009. He's taken this act to Carnegie Hall already. It's a multi-media performance incorporating music, poetry/ spoken word and an impressive visual experience. There's talk of using the Performing Arts Center (PAC).

Barb Clark-Evans tells us he is seeking collaboration - particularly from English literature and composition teachers.

Dr. Ronald C. McCurdy is Chairman of the Jazz Studies Department and Professor of Music in the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California (USC) and is Past President of the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE). Prior to his appointment at USC he served as Director of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz at USC. He has served as Professor of Music and chair of the Afro-African American Studies Department and served as Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Minnesota. In 1997, Dr. McCurdy served as Visiting Professor at Maria-Sklodowska- Curie University in Lublin, Poland. In 2001 Dr. McCurdy received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Kansas. (source - his website)

Enhancing Teaching and Learning Conference

KCPDC sponsored a teaching and learning conference here this weekend. Documents, handouts and an archive of what presenters have sent to me is available. Despite the awful weather (I spun out on I-70), attendance was respectable.

Dr. Mike Neal, assistant dean of the KU school of education, provided the plenary / keynote address. He noted that in the past - life was experience rich and information poor, so that students may have reacted better to instructors who functioned as fonts of knowledge. He conveyed his own past growing up on the farm and his experiences in college. Life today however, is "information flooded and experience poor." This demands new approaches by educators. We face a crisis in education and those who adapt will shape a new and revitalized future.

He added that the days of "Sit and Get" are over. There are a new 3 R's: "relationships, relevance and rigor."

Below will be an compiled video of many of the sessions I got to sit in on.

PODStock: Podcasters' Conference

This spring, in May 1st and 2nd (a fri and sat), Kansas will be home to a national podcasting oriented ...conference (?) The "stock" in the name connotes either love and peace or angst and exploitation - depending on your Generation. Either way it makes you think something will happen beyond the expected or prepared for. I want to go.

According to their website:

Podstock is a brand new conference designed to bring podcast creators and those who see the real value of podcasting as creators and consumers together. We'll have breakout sessions on podcasting for beginners, as well as sessions for and by seasoned pros. We'll explore podcasting as well as many other web 2.0 tools that can enhance learning and communication in your world. We invite you to join this site and add your thinking to the initial planning for this event. The conference will be held in Old Town Wichita, located in Wichita, Kansas and host participants from all over the country. It will be 2 days of education, learning & fun, so we hope you won't miss it!

You can also check out their social networking community (Ning).

By the way, the logo is an owl on a microphone - not Hello Kitty. Am I the only one who saw a resemblance?

KCPDC Workshops

The following workshops are being presented by the Kansas City Professional Development Council during February. These are free to KCKCC employees. To register contact Nancy Gordon at ngordon@ kckcc.edu or at 913-288-7140.

Legal Aspects of Supervision

When: Thu, February 5, 1pm – 5pm

Where: KCKCC

Description:This course familiarizes supervisors with the sources of the law, unlawful employment discrimination, justification and defenses to employee complaints, and considers preventive measures and proper language. It reviews sexual harassment and steps a supervisor can take to prevent it. After this workshop, participants will be aware of the varied complex responsibilities and will understand the impact of diversity on the legal aspects of supervision.

Diversity in the Classroom (FDP Core)

When: Fri, February 6, 6pm – 9pm

Where: Ottawa - Rm 303-305

Description: This course provides an introduction to multicultural education aims and methods as well as a look at the relevance of local history. Participants will study race, class, and gender inequalities and will probe these issues as co-investigators sharing their own best practices.

Online Instructional Strategies (FDP Elective)

When: Sat, February 7, 9am – 12pm

Where: Ottawa - Rm 303-305

Description: brain research shows that people learn best when they use as many of their senses as possible. With that in mind, participants in this workshop will learn about the science behind this teaching/learning concept, but spend most of their time developing, discussing, and practicing active learning strategies for their own courses. Instructors will leave this workshop with an understanding of different active learning strategies and models as well as how they themselves learn best.

Motivating Employees (SDP Core)

When: Thu, February 19, 1pm – 5pm

Where: DeVry - Room 218

Description: A look at what motivation is, how motivation turns into observable behaviors, the aspects of motivation, and how to elicit desired behaviors. The instructor will present the basic motivational theories and his approach to motivation. This course relies on interaction and participation from class members. Small groups, discussion questions and practical application are mainstays of this course. Participants will come to understand the impact of diversity on motivating employees.

Powerful Non-defensive Communication

When: Tue, February 24, 1:00pm – 4:30pm

Where: UMKC - Admin Center, 5115 Oak - Brookside Rm

Description: forthcoming

Money and recognition

Nominations are due Feb. 15 for the Henry Louis Excellence in Teaching Award. In addition to the recognition, it comes with a $2000 prize ($1500 cash + $500 for travel). Available only to full-time KCKCC faculty, the field is still very small. Those who've done course redesigns for Title 3 have examples of documented a success that have already been shared it with the college - at least it will help in filling out the form.

Staff are eligible for the Outstanding Staff Employee of the Year award. It also comes with a $2000 prize ($1500 cash + $500 for travel). Nominations for this are also due Feb. 15.

Click the links above to pages with details and links directly to the forms to be filled out. Turn in those completed forms to the Faculty Staff Development office (Ben's).

Post questions to the comments here.

Research/ articles from the Chronicle

Here's an article from The Chronicle of Higher Education. This article, titled, "Wake Up and Smell the New Epistemology," was sent to Ben by Dr. Steve Vaitl in the Science Division. It provides an interesting view of today's student and argues for a new approach to teach. Let us know what you think.

The Chronicle also has multiple articles on clickers. It looks critically at the applications and pro and con of clickers, also the crucial importance of peer discussion in their use.

A lot of us here would like to hear about the experiences of actual in-class teachers with this technology.

Writing over screen captures with Paint

Jennie asked some good questions in my earlier post on email. As for the Yellow "writing" I put over screen captures to explain the steps for doing things. I start by taking a snapshot of computer screen (screen-capture) by hitting the "print screen" button located on the keyboard between the letters and the number pad. Toward the top - but not in the row of "function" keys.
I then open the Paint program - it's on all PC's - or ought to be. Look into the Accessories folder. Paste into a new project (hit control V - or go to edit and find Paste). Once in Paint, click on the pencil and open your colors palate.

You'll get a pop up or you can use the palette at the bottom of the page (which I always overlook - don't know why).

Actually - to make things easier to see - I've been using the air brush today - more than (or rather than) the pencil. It gives you a fatter line that's easier to see. That's the button just below the pencil.
Thanks for asking.

Upcoming conference: NISOD

The National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD) invites you to register for their 31st annual International Conference on Teaching and Leadership Excellence, which will be held on May 24-27, 2009, in Austin, Texas.

Make sure to register by April 30th to take advantage of the early-bird discount.

General session information is available, and there's time to submit a proposal until Friday, Jan. 23rd.

upcoming conference - KCWE call for proposals

The Kansas Council for Workforce Education (KCWE) is seeking proposals for presentations for the 2009 Career and Technical Education Summer Conference on August 3-5, 2009 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Wichita, Kansas. The conference theme is "CTE: Driving Student Success." KCWE members are encouraged to submit proposals with broad appeal on topics of interest to our membership and other CTE educators. Presenters will lead 50-minute sessions. The deadline to submit proposals is February 20, 2009.
Proposals should include:

• Your name and contact information. Include your institution, academic department, business address, business phone number, fax number, and e-mail address. If you will have co-presenter(s), please send the same information for your colleague(s).
• Title and a brief summary/description of your proposed presentation. This should be suitable for inclusion in the conference program. Keep in mind that the most successful sessions have been interactive, hands-on presentations.
• A description of AV equipment you will need.

Proposals should be sent to:

Bill Osborn (KCWE President Elect)
Associate Vice President of Instruction
Johnson County Community College
12345 College Blvd.
Overland Park, KS 66210-1299
913.469.3868 (office)

Any further questions contact Ben Hayes at (913) 288-7224

Using Email to Welcome Students

The in-service theme was Making Students Feel Welcome. Do that by sending them an email today - before you actually meet - and attach your syllabus to the email. Groups already exist in Groupwise. For additional how to click here.

Please insert hyperlinks to The KCKCC Writing Center or to the Math Tutoring Center in your syllabus and email the links. The process works similarly in MS Word and/or Email programs.

Never inserted hyperlinks before? You aren't alone - but it's easy, clear, and scores cool points with students. Here's how in Email: (1) click on View/ HTML. (2) Notice a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) tool bar appears.

Next: highlight text that you what to become a link (3) and then click on (4) the earth (as in "world wide") that has chain "links."

You'll get a pop-up window that asks for the web address you'd like to direct people too. Enter the address and it's done. The result is shorter, less visually busy, and should work better with ADA compliant mechanical readers.

Team-based learning

At the Sp 09 In-service, several of our faculty presented on Team-based learning (TBL) and how they've used it in designing significant learning experiences for their classes. Most notably faculty recounted how it has improved attendance and engagement while bringing up performance. Since the presentation I've had phone calls, email and several personal requests in the halls for more information.
We plan on interviewing our faculty and getting their insights (either on video of podcast) - because they are the experts on applying the methods to our unique environment. In the mean time.

Further information on TBL - see particularly videos on

1. understanding the difference between groups and teams,
2. understanding the Readiness Assessment Test -
   
3. rubrics / assessment -a) setting grade weights. b) assessing course and team effectivness
   

email

Research shows that connecting with students before the first class improves retention (Lorenzetti 2008). Here, email groups are created for every class automatically before the first meeting making it easy. Why not email a greeting and attach the syllabus before you physically meet? Details on how at the end of this post.

Of course, email has changed the teacher/student dynamic. See the following.

• Does email curb productivity? (NPR text and audio)
• UNC Chapel Hill investigated Email in Academia re: expectations, use and instructional impact in Educause. Faculty and students have different expectations (BTW: a blog might bridge the gap). Another study compares synchronous and asynchrous communication .
  
• A service to send self destructing private notes through email .

On a lighter note - but still relevant and revealing (from the Chronicle of Higher Ed.).

• Professors list "favorite" emails from students part1, part 2
  
• 3 of the funniest email from students and what they say about technology

Regarding expectations - email is often said to be as private as sending a postcard through the mail (e.g. employers have a legal right to read mail sent through a company server or from a company computer). This may complicate discussions regarding FERPA and sending grades through email.

How to:
And if you haven't used the pre-established class groups set up via Groupwise, go to the address book, make sure your are in the Novell groupwise address book - (See yellow arrow - note: not the frequent contacts where it might try and take you first) and at the top the classes start in alphabetical order by 4 letter abbreviation ( e.g. if you teach an English class and the class number were 00990**** - - you'd scroll to where we put the green arrow - ENGL00990*** and click).

Using this option maintains student privacy. Everyone gets the same message - but they don't see individual email addresses. Mail is sent to their KCKCC email account - Remind them to check that.

Lorenzetti, J.P. (2008) 14 ways faculty can improve online student retention. Recruitment & Retention 22 (12)