Monthly Archive for February, 2009

Are graduate students the new “crackhead”

Published
by
Kenneth
on February 17, 2009
in the goody good-good
. 0 Comments

In reference to this, it seems like alot of us who pursue greatness through scholarship are a bunch of anxious, depressed and uninspired pipe smokers and pill poppers.  Thats not to say we are bad people - we just need a lil’ sum’n-sum’n to get by.  :-)  I was never one to take it the extreme of swallowin’ pharmaceuticals,  but I wonder if an anti-depressant or some Riddlin would help me progress to Chapter 2.  It’s eerie to believe that my colleagues may have been suicidal or so overcome with apathy and self-doubt that they were on the brink of shutting down. I guess I can’t say that I’m surprised - obtaining a higher education is, in essence, the last bastion of hope.  Next to a Christian heaven (or *insert appropriate faith-based capstone here*), what else do people have to aspire to.  We believe that a graduate degree will give us greater odds for obtaining happiness, success and a career that provides an 80/20 health insurance plan.  Now, come to find out grad-school is an incubator for socio-psychological paralysis and corrosive mental health?

At the University of California at Berkeley, 67 percent of graduate students said they had felt hopeless at least once in the last year; 54 percent felt so depressed they had a hard time functioning; and nearly 10 percent said they had considered suicide

Couple this with a bleek economic outlook, rescinded tenure and depleting endowments… sounds like a recipe for the perfect Pookie to me (minus the high-top fade and yellow teef).

Are we still having this conversation?

Published
by
Kenneth
on February 10, 2009
in the goody good-good
. 0 Comments

http://chronicle.com/free/2009/02/11232n.htm?rss

I mean it’s totally cool if we are - I like to spin my wheels too, every now and then.  I just figured online learning and distance education would really be taking off right now in the midst of this ailing economy when millions of people need to be re-trained, re-educated, and re-vocationalized.  Efficiency, coupled with low-cost technology and accessibility, is a fiscal administrators dream!

I really became overjoyed from this quote right here:

Instructors’ extra time and effort aren’t being rewarded financially or professionally, and what’s more, online education doesn’t translate into better learning outcomes, said respondents in the faculty survey.

Learning outcomes? Seriously? Last time I checked the “outcomes” from a traditional higher education left 1.4 million folks unemployed in 2008.  Wanna change that with online education? Set up a learning platform at no-cost, remix and rewrite some curricula about how to conserve energy and live green, and then pitch it to the Obama administration as a way to revitalize the American workforce!  Outcome: Someone becomes rich for implementing the idea and millions of others may be somewhat more employable.

I guess contemporary faculty aren’t getting paid enough to teach online - you know, sit at a computer in their house slippers and moo-moo’s, while theorizing about why the sky is blue (all while eating strawberry fig newtons and stale graham crackers)? Pity!  Someone reward them!

In the 21st century, online education knowledge consumption (with or without a teacher) is going to be the norm -  no matter what any ones survey data tell you about the lack of authentic pedagogy - and this is coming from a post-modern pseudo-philosopher who used to think online degrees were one big corporate conspiracy ploy. For those of you who want to continue to criticize and paralytically analyze my field - then by all means!  However, when I become the wealthy, albeit arrogant, mogul who pimped online learning for all it was worth… and you’re still standing there having the SAME CONVERSATIONS you were having in 1999, then might I ask you to not disturb me,  and to, kindly, remove your hands from my pocket!  That is all.

Note: those who know me, I hope you are able to absorb my sarcasm accordingly. :-)

Don’t tell my ex-girlfriends OR my sneaky professors about…

Published
by
Kenneth
on February 4, 2009
in the goody good-good
. 3 Comments

…this right here:

http://www.google.com/latitude/intro.html

I’ve said it time and time again, people are too overly concerned with “Big Brother” (big govt/institutions/city cameras) looking over their shoulder. Folks should be more afraid of ourselves, because its the “Little Brothers” (us/cell phones/flickr/facebook) who are spying on each other.

Can I get a copy of that Facebook 101 syllabus?

Published
by
Kenneth
on February 2, 2009
in the goody good-good
. 3 Comments

So I stumbled across the following article on the Chronicle.com regarding the “generational character” of youthful professors who use Facebook as a platform to extract their subconscious and share random rants about the uber-importance of their existential existence.  It stated that Reiko Ohnuma, a South Asian studies professor at Dartmouth (and an individual who quite possibly excels in both erudicity and sarcasm) could have saved herself, and the College, some embarrassment by either

1.) limiting her use expressive comments that were either inflammatory, inappropriate, or easily misinterpreted in her Facebook status messages,

or

2.) understanding the technical intricacies and details of privatizing ones facebook profile and sub-networks.

The latter recommendation is what so ferociously intrigued me.  How do we inspire those with some degree of institutional authority (faculty, staff, or otherwise) to learn more about the consequences of establishing an online identity.  If incidents such as these begin to become more of a public relations problem, rather than a concern about free speech (and free thought on facebook status messages), then my next would ask “What exactly would a Facebook 101 class look like?”

More specifically, what are the most salient learning objectives that faculty and administrators must attain when managing their place in the social-network nebula?

I’d love to see what folks have to offer!