Grit!

A rainy morning grading papers in Starbucks . When I open the Starbucks log-in page, an article catches my eye: "What a Scuba Diver with a Spinal Cord Injury Has to Teach Us About the Learning Process." Of course, I have to follow the link to Good Magazine, an eMag sponsored by Starbucks.  The title is a tad misleading. The article has great things to say about motivation and character, and how those affect the learning process. In that respect, it's well worth reading. Less micro-detailed than your average academic article on the same subject, which is good. The article does an excellent job of explaining how motivation works in the learning process, and admits the one thing we already know--that we don't really know how to motivate students, not yet.

http://magazine.good.is/articles/scuba-diver-spinal-cord-injury-learning-process-grit

Online vs F2F

In his Rede Lecture, “The Two Cultures” (1959), C.P Snow admitted that “Intellectuals, in particular literary intellectuals, are natural Luddites.” Nothing could be more prophetic, especially when it comes to digital education. A middling few think online can match face to face; and none see it as superior. 

Note M. Edmondson’s Op/Ed in the New York Times, Online Edition: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/20/opinion/the-trouble-with-online-education.html?_r=0

In odd moments, I imagine that opponents such as Edmondson are actually engaged in their own version of Swift’s “A Modest Proposal.” They are dallying in satire that is so subtle, even I, a proponent of online education, don’t notice the hetereglossic play of their words. After all, I think, what could be stranger than someone in the humanities—history, literature, philosophy, or my own discipline, rhetoric—who somehow believes it’s possible to get in touch with someone who lived thousands of years ago through the texts they wrote, not believe they can do the same thing with student writing? How can humanities scholars believe they can enter into Bakhtinian dialogue with those texts (if not the living and breathing person) deny that it’s possible to do the same, and perhaps even more, that is, getting in touch with a living and breathing student through texts they wrote on a blog the night before? 

One would have to buy into the solitary genius theory of literary creation to believe there is any difference.  Let us hope we've left that bit of elitism behind.

So, how about we put this to the test? Take a look at the link below. It will lead you to a blog post written by one of my graduate students. His writing is honest, straightforward, empathetic, in short, full of ethos. Read this and tell me when you get to the end of this brief blog post that you haven’t met this person, haven’t had glimpse into who he is through the text.  

http://fycistheplacetobe.blogspot.com/2015/04/a-leap-of-faith.html

Here’s what blog posts and other texts written by my students tell me: I can meet them without meeting them face to face.

The ability of text to cut through the masks we all carry to make life more livable is why I enjoy reading Plato and Emily Dickenson, two writers who are adept at letting the mask slip. I meet them. Sometimes I enter into dialogue with them. And as ironic as it sounds, that dialogue isn’t always one sided. Plato in particular is rather adept at getting in the last word. 

 

Graduate Student Project

Below is the link to an online learning module for a first year writing course designed by a team of students in ENG 6390, a graduate course in online learning. I thought this team did an excellent job, so much so that I wanted to share their work with others. This link is to the website students in ENG 102 would see. The team also submitted extensive documentation that included SLOs, criterion for success, means of assessment, and an essay that explained the theoretical underpinning of the module. Congratulations on a job well-done, Matt Nolan, Robert Longoria, and Rosa Perez.

ENG 102: Service-Learning & Literacy

Digital Writing Studios

Interesting article on Kairos about Florida State's Digital Studio and the Handbook designed to train tutors to work in that environment.

http://praxis.technorhetoric.net/tiki-index.php?page=PraxisWiki%3A_%3AProcedures_Projects_Programs#Digital_Studio_Tutor_Handbook_as_Training_and_Recruiting_Tool

MOOCS for Freshman Year?

I don't know whether to be impressed for flabbergasted. As this article from Inside Higher Education tells us, Arizona State will start offering the entire Freshman year through MOOCS.

MOOCs seem to be a pretty good medium for certification and professionalization classes. I'm taking a MOOC on gamification myself right now. Given the low completion rates of MOOCs, I'm not sure about a full academic years worth of work, particularly for Freshman. We'll see. 


https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/04/22/arizona-state-edx-team-offer-freshman-year-online-through-moocs

Looks like Arizona State still has to get their MOOCs for credit past the accreditation process. Sounds like I'm not the only one wondering about this.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/04/24/arizona-state-u-moocs-credit-program-faces-unanswered-accreditation-questions

Arizona State is moving fast. Just got this advertisement in my e-mail.

https://www.edx.org/gfa?utm_source=edX+Course+Announcements+Mailing+List&utm_campaign=f7f4fe142b-Student_Newsletter_April_23_ASU_IA&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_237694b56d-f7f4fe142b-81628597

Reading Notes: Gee--Learning Models

In Chapter Six, “Cultural Models,” Gee writes about the difference between the cultural models of learning most of us carry with us, and how those models differ from learning models in video games. The following passage haunted me for several days: 

“If the player [of the game Metal Gear] is inclined to move as straightforwardly and efficiently as possible toward the goal, this game, and almost all video games, will punish this inclination. The player needs to take the time to explore, even if this means moving off the main line toward the goal and delaying getting there,” (172)

As I read this passage I knew that the “straightforwardly and efficiently” model was the one I gave allegiance to, even as I knew it was the one I should not give allegiance to. The more I thought about the “explore” model, the more I realized that this is the model I’d prefer students use, not simply in freewriting, but in every aspect of learning.

How might that change the way students write, the way they study, if they researched the way they played video games? If they didn’t give up until they found every crumb of information, then went on to what that suggested, then dug deeper, even if that meant they went way past what was necessary to find that quotation they needed? Every one of us would love a student like that.

Yet, we do not to reward a desire for learning that works like that. It doesn’t fit our rubrics or SLOs. As to say, we’ve reached a point where if it isn’t measurable it isn’t learning, even if the end goals of learning are all unmeasurable. 

Gee, James Paul. What Video Games Have to Teach us About Learning and Literacy. New York: Macmillan, 2007.

 

Bloom's Taxonomy is Getting Complicated

This revised and interactive Bloom's Taxonomy, though involved--and admittedly a bit complex--is also fun to play with. Not sure if it is immediately applicable to class. But, playing around on it makes me think about what I'm doing in class.

http://www.celt.iastate.edu/teaching-resources/effective-practice/revised-blooms-taxonomy/

Comparison Shopping for eBooks

Reading about a new handbook from Princeton University Press on Inside Higher Education (Link to article) I came across something interesting: When I clicked on Princeton's link to see how much the handbook was ($24.95) I found links to the ebook websites that carried the book.   I compared prices on those sites and found a price range from $14.72 to $19.95. Way to go Princeton UP for providing this information. (Never thought I'd find myself giving kudos to any textbook publisher; I'm OER all the way.)

Here are the ebook publisher websites below. As might be expected, the major players, Amazon and B&N, had the best prices. Of course, if you don't have a Kindle or Nook, those prices have no appeal.I was glad to see some independents stepping up: Kno and Kobo. Hopefully they can become more competitive as they develop a following.  I couldn't find the book on Apple iBooks. They are fairly new to book selling online, so they may not have their site in working order yet.

• Amazon Kindle Store
• Apple iBooks
• Barnes & Noble Nook Store
• Google Play eBook Store
• Kno eBook Store
• Kobo eBook Store