Expectations and Learning Styles

First paragraph about class expectations ....

Second paragraph learning styles...

Please email me your blog title: be12@my.fsu.edu

Technology & Tenure

The article by Kevin Carey from the Chronicle of Higher Ed examines sensitive issues on the role of tenure and technology in academic institutions. I disagree with the the author that tenure limits a social voice or community to speak out on issues because of obligation to an institution. If anything, tenure allows education researchers and faculty members to balance grant and fundraising along with theory building and course instruction. Tenure is necessary so that researchers pursue the latest technology tools required to meet the demands of students in the 21st century. However, academic institutions may want to adopt policies incentivizing faculty to improve instructor evaluations and develop innovative course plans to facilitate instruction. Abolishing tenure threatens to reduce the amount of progressive scholars looking to engage students with immersive technology and web 2.0 applications that permeate mainstream culture. Granting more influence to administrators over faculty presents an   environment that subjugates students to the will of an academic oligarchy.

Educational Residency

A great article by Professor Leah-Wasburn Moses at the Chronicle of Higher Ed outlines a path for teacher education programs to adopt a model of educational residency similar to a medical residency. Students require the necessary interactive experience of delivering instruction and observing student behavior in a formal learning environment. One of the solutions includes aligning college teaching programs to 2 years of liberal arts courses and 1 years of internship, or professional development with a local school. The idea alleviates problems of aligning practice and theory into meaningful course credit within a degree program. The practical experience and naturalistic or qualitative approach informs students on the schedule and balance of work embedded in teaching K-12 education. The dynamic proposal of a 3 year bachelors program targeted at specific learning contingencies to practice, theory, assessment, and evaluation conforms to the restructuring of teacher education in academic programs.

MOOC'S aren't the problem...

...people are the problem. The worst fear come true for educators centers on universities offering exclusive rights courses (MOOC's) that are intentionally selective without any kind of dynamic engagement. Video recordings of lectures are insufficient alone to justify consortium college credit. The process entertains ideas of disparity among wealth in students and permeates an elitist culture of business as usual. The article by Steve Kolowich from WIRED Campus, posted on the Chronicle of Higher Ed, examines how Southern Methodist (SMU) offers students in the fall online classes to receive credit from a consortium of colleges using the online education company 2U. The privatization of higher education represents a moral hazard which needs to be avoided at all cost. MOOC's adhere to principles of open access, not selective, exclusive rights. The abuse of instructional technology and web 2.0 applications in education may derail years of progress to advance educational technology in academic institutions.

Reflective Experience

Over the course of the semester, becoming a produser with web 2.0 tools enhances my learning experience and broadens my perspective with various instructional applications/software. Moreover, the chance to blog and collaborate with fellow peers enriches the structure of the class.  Feedback is essential for online learning and the course allows users to development a personal presence on the web for either prototypes or cultural artifacts. The wealth of free resources means a collection of research ideas form over instructional technology topics. One of my goals for the course focuses on creating a digital presence updated with web 2.0 tools. I am satisfied with the work completed for the course and it demonstrates to me how much I need to learn about the role of theory, practice, and design principles with web 2.0 tools in education.

Hopefully, as a future faculty member my work with the web 2.0 artifacts propels a research agenda that engages students with visually immersive content. My desire for games and education, as well as instructional pedagogy to reform education practices stems from the collaborative work in classes and observing the discourse of gaming as a legitimate topic of study. My fellow peers inform me how games situate into the expanded discussion on web 2.0 and instructional applications. Finally, the overall experience illustrates the importance of blogs and the outlet various modes of communication help with work/life balance. The discussion of health and human performance in the course also reminds students of the sound mind, sound body philosophy to promote inner harmony. 

Defining Success in Higher Education

One of my favorite articles in recent memory from the Chronicle of Higher Ed, written by Audrey Williams June, identifies several factors among administrators that measure success in academia. Some of the common themes, include fundraising endowments, faculty achievements, student graduation rates and job placement, networking, professional development and presence at conferences. The recurring themes of creating a team of support, instead of focusing on bringing in star faculty by themselves demonstrates a shift in culture of higher education from individual achievement to a more cosmopolitan effort focused on students needs, aligning research interests and generating a collaborative presence online for enrollment and recruitment.

However, one of the glaring omissions from the article includes the role of technology in higher education departments and the importance of building a strong online/web/mobile presence to meet student needs in the 21st century. While all of the factors mentioned in the article are important and generally conform to a paradigm shift focusing more on the whole rather than the sum of its parts, in terms of faculty development and course-building, the lack of technology initiatives listed as accomplishments is alarming. If administrators measure success by revenue streams, team building and conferencing, why is technology not central to each of these performance standards?

Moreover, if administrators are serious about meeting the demands of students and providing students with skills needed in the academic workforce, then technology initiatives must be at the top of the to-do list. Establishing an online or continuing education program at a college of education remains a vital component to future success and survival. The time is now for administrators to realize the power of technology to transform education and provide faculty with the technology tools necessary for grants, research and content delivery.

Innovations for the Future

Another great article from the Chronicle of Higher Education, by Professor Steven Mintz, accurately describes fifteen innovations currently underway or in early stages of adoption in higher education including evidence-based pedagogy, collaborative instructional design process in course building, and specialty course sequences for certification. The author gets the future of education, disregarding how we feel about a changing landscape and instead choosing to focus on the virtue of collaboration among students, educators and policy makers to determine the best approach to fuse learning objectives with student demand. Budgetary constraints and the need for increasing revenues are a reality that many traditional professors simply underestimate. While it seems nice to attack the problem of politics in education, there is no escaping the fact that legislatures starve public institutions of funding, and the burden falls on the colleges to earn back the profits. If colleges of education focus on building technology infrastructure to meet students needs and integrate professional development with technology tools into FTE for faculty, then many of the tensions between technology enthusiasts and traditionalists may be subdued. The call for collaboration and cooperation of both parties is of paramount concern for the survival of higher education in the 21st century.