Staff get little to no say in campus governance. That must change. — from chronicle.com by Lee Skallerup Bessette
As professors and administrators debate how to reimagine academe after Covid-19, that reform must include a greater voice for staff members.

Excerpts:

Why, then, in all of this recent (and needed) hand-wringing and speculating about the future of the university, post-pandemic, have we not heard many (if any) staff voices? Or for that matter, any calls for our voices to be included in any planning and restructuring?

Faculty members are the experts in their disciplines, but they do not have a monopoly of knowledge around pedagogy, programming, student success, inclusivity, equity, accessibility, among other things. We shouldn’t expect already overtaxed faculty members to be experts in everything and anything. In fact, the intense pressure that many of them are feeling lately is largely because of structures and traditions that discourage professors from collaborating with staff members who are experts in those areas.

With college campuses selling themselves as an entire “experience,” not just a set of courses, it’s high time for those of us responsible for that campus experience to be included in the larger conversation.

 

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Be My Eyes is a FREE mobile app designed to bring sight to blind and low vision people. With the press of a button, the app establishes a live video connection between blind and low vision users and sighted volunteers. Every day, volunteers are lending their eyes to help with anything from simple tasks, like checking expiry dates, to more complicated situations, like navigation or finding a lost item. With more than a million users across 150 countries, Be My Eyes has grown to become the largest online community for the blind and low vision people, and it is now possible to request assistance in more than 180 languages. The app harnesses the power of generosity, technology and human connection to help blind and low vision individuals lead more independent lives.

 

 

Care over IP — from Inavate EMEA October 2020
Care over IP The Covid-19 outbreak has put working from home centre stage, but what happens when you work in a hospital? Paul Milligan speaks to those proving remote/virtual alternatives for patient care.

Care over IP [Inavate EMEA; Covid's impact on remote healthcare continues]

 

From DSC:
I continue to wonder how telelegal will be impacted by what’s happening with telehealth/telemedicine/virtual health…my guess is that telelegal will also grow quite a bit in the future. 


Addendum on 9/25/20, below is an excerpt from a press release sent to me by Ashley Steiger at AristaMD:

University of Colorado School of Medicine and AristaMD Partner to Expand eConsults to Community Providers

SAN DIEGO – Sept. 22, 2020 – AristaMD, an innovative telehealth platform that delivers primary care providers (PCPs) timely and documented specialist insight through eConsults, has partnered with the University of Colorado School of Medicine (CU) to expand eConsults to a network of community providers. The partnership begins with Salud Family Health Center, which has 13 clinic locations and serves communities in northeast and southeast Colorado.

“AristaMD is pleased to be working with our first partner that is a part of the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Project CORE: Coordinating Optimal Referral Experiences. We can support health systems, including those already using eConsults within their own electronic health records (EHR), to more broadly expand to clinics on any system,” said Brooke LeVasseur, CEO of AristaMD. “The AristaMD platform works with all EHRs, seamlessly integrates into physician workflows, and will allow us to scale to community providers throughout the state of Colorado as the partnership grows.”

 


Also see:

Model of the future

 

Purdue Shares Look Inside HyFlex Classroom — from campustechnology.com by Rhea Kelly

Excerpt:

He started blending both face-to-face and online instruction in his classrooms weeks before Purdue officially shifted to remote learning last spring.

Mentzer wanted his students to be able to participate in class remotely in real time or physically attend on any given day, according to a university news story.

“If students are unable to come to class for a period of time because they are in isolation or quarantined, they can complete the requirements online and continue progressing in the course,” she noted.

 

 

With thanks to Gabe Teninbaum for posting this in his Lawtomatic Newsletter| Issue #104, September 23, 2020

As Gabe points out, also see:

 

 

Zoom, but for X: How startups are building for our new video normal  — from protocol.com by Biz Carson
Meet the startups building the next take on video.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Trying to liven up the monotony of Zoom meetings, Phil Libin hung up a green towel behind his desk and started projecting images onto it, like Dr. Anthony Fauci hovering over his shoulder, just to make his team laugh. At first, it was a bit of a performance and a way to break up the monotony as Zoom fatigue set in a few months into the pandemic at the end of May. But then Libin, the former CEO of Evernote and founder of startup studio All Turtles, realized the “Weekend Update” style could be more than just a gimmick.

A bit of coding and a fantastic demo later, Libin closed a seed round of $4.5 million to launch his new company, Mmhmm. His big belief is that we’re moving to a hybrid world where things don’t fit neatly into boxes like in-person or online or live or recorded. Instead, it’s all going to be a mix.

Also see:

 

‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes.
There will be no more death’
[a] or mourning or crying or pain,
for the old order of things has passed away.”

He who was seated on the throne said,
“I am making everything new!”
 Then he said,
“Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 

From DSC:
Our dad, in his younger days, used to sing a song with Revelation Verse 21:4 in it. It was a beautiful piece that he had recorded years ago. That recording recently resurfaced, and our family is glad that we located it again. (Our dad sang quite a bit throughout his lifetime, and still likes to recall/sing some tunes. He and our mom met in college, both studying within the School of Music.)

Music was a big part of our family -- my dad used to sing quite a bit. He had a beautiful voice!


Anyway, that song will likely be played at one or more of the funerals within our family in the near future. Any day now we could get “that call.” Or, if we’re lucky enough, we’ll be able to be present with him when he passes away (though Covid19 is making that very difficult these days). 

Add to these experiences the recent loss of a dear, lifelong friend to cancer — and I’ve once again been reminded of the brevity of our lives. These reflections bring a couple more verses to my mind…


From DSC:

If you doubt that last sentiment/lesson, watch a different version of this song, from a present-day recording.

Our lives move quickly. Carpe Diem!


Time flies. So as our mom would say, “Carpe Diem!”
(i.e., “Seize the day!”)

 

Digital transformation: 5 ways the pandemic forced change — from enterprisersproject.com by Gordon Haff
The pandemic has reshaped consumer behavior and team expectations. At a recent MIT Sloan CIO Symposium event, CIOs detailed what it means for organizations, IT, and the CIO role

Excerpt:

The new CIO role: Chief Influencing Officer
Zemmel says that the evolution of the role of the CIO has been accelerated as well. He sees CIOs increasingly reporting to the CEO because they increasingly have a dual mandate. In addition to their historical operational role running the IT department, they now are also customer-facing and driving revenue. That mandate is not new for forward-looking IT organizations, but the pandemic has made other organizations hyper-aware of IT’s role in driving change quickly. CIOs are becoming a sort of “chief influencing officer who is breaking down silos and driving adoption of digital products,” Zemmel adds.

Experian’s Libenson puts it this way: “The pandemic has forced us to be closer to the business than before. We had a seat at the table before. But I think we will be a better organization after this.”

 

WMU-Cooley Named Top 10 Law School For Ethnic Enrollment in 2019 — from fox47news.com

Excerpt:

LANSING, Mich. — Western Michigan University Cooley Law School, with campuses in Michigan and Florida, was named a top 10 law school for racial and ethnic minority enrollment in 2019 by Enjuris, a collection of independent legal resources for legal professionals.

With Black students comprising 22.4 percent of WMU-Cooley’s total student enrollment in 2019, the law school is ranked in Enjuris’ recently released, Law School Enrollment by Race & Ethnicity (2019) [enjuris.com] report.

WMU-Cooley Named Top 10 Law School For Ethnic Enrollment in 2019

 

Will Pandemic Disruption Drive More Legal Operations Transformation? — from prnewswire.com
Deloitte Releases 2020 Legal Operations Survey

Excerpt:

NEW YORKSept. 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — While 86% of in-house counsel surveyed said they see opportunity to modernize legal services provided to their stakeholders, Deloitte’s “2020 Legal Operations Survey” found that challenges remain. Respondents described their corporate legal departments’ maturity level for technology as just “foundational.”

Ashley SmithDeloitte Risk & Financial Advisory managing director, Deloitte Transactions and Business Analytics LLP said, “Organizations everywhere have undergone massive change as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and related economic uncertainties. As business strategies shift and the corporate legal department is called on to do more to help organizations navigate through disruption, focusing on legal operations transformation could help in-house counsel and their teams to evolve beyond heavy manual, tactical work – into leveraging technology to offer more strategic insights and value.”

Also see:

Deloitte's 2020 Legal Operations Survey

 

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Champion Of Gender Equality, Dies At 87  — from npr.org
by Nina Totenberg

Excerpt:

“Our nation has lost a justice of historic stature,” Chief Justice John Roberts said. “We at the Supreme Court have lost a cherished colleague. Today we mourn but with confidence that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her, a tireless and resolute champion of justice.”

Architect of the legal fight for women’s rights in the 1970s, Ginsburg subsequently served 27 years on the nation’s highest court, becoming its most prominent member.

 

RBG's Biggest Opinions, From Civil Rights To Civil Procedure

UNITED STATES – JANUARY 20: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg arrives for President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address in the Capitol on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2015. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

 

RBG’s Biggest Opinions, From Civil Rights To Civil Procedure — from law360.com by Cara Bayles

Excerpt:

But from the early years of her tenure on the high court, the justice, who died Friday at age 87, wrote majority decisions that showed her breadth as a lawyer and a thoughtful scholar, who gently guided the reader to her conclusion using evidence and careful, persuasive argument.

“She strongly believed that if you disagree with people, you have to convince them with the strength of your position,” said Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP appellate attorney Tiffany Wright, who clerked for Justice Sonia Sotomayor. “Her majority opinions are less fiery, but very much RBG.”

But she was also “a lawyer’s lawyer — precise, analytical, and evenhanded,” according to Joseph Palmore, her former clerk and a former assistant to the solicitor general who now co-chairs Morrison & Foerster LLP’s appellate practice. She loved even the more granular rules of litigation.


Women Lawyers Share Lessons They Learned From Ruth Bader Ginsburg
— from abovethelaw.com by Staci Zaretsky
The Notorious RBG changed women’s lives and law practices across America.

Remembering Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Early Career — from abovethelaw.com by Kathryn Rubino
Impressive, even from the start.

 

Inclusion in Law Firms Should Be About Everyone—Not Just Lawyers — from law.com by Jennifer Johnson
Too many firms leave nearly half of their employees out of diversity and inclusion efforts, only partially delivering on the the full commitment that clients expect.

Excerpt:

Unfortunately, most of these firms are focusing only on their lawyer population, leaving a major component of the diversity and inclusion (D&I) equation without consideration: the contributions of law firms’ business services professionals. These are professionals who are working within the business of a law firm that are not fee earners.

This is no small issue. Among larger firms, it is quite common for so-called “nonlawyers” to comprise as much as 50% of total head count. These business services professionals—members of legal operations, human resources, finance, information technology, marketing and administration functions—are critical to a law firm’s success, but far too often are not treated as valuable members of the larger team.

 

Best Practices for Teaching Online -- K12 -- Laurel Springs School

[K12] Best Practices for Teaching Online — from Laurel Springs School; with thanks to The Journal for their article on this entitled, “While Schools Go Online, Here’s How Teachers Can Turn Uncertainty Into Opportunity” by Megan O’Reilly Palevich

Excerpt:

As I was reflecting on the magnitude of what is happening in K-12 education, I wanted to figure out a way to help the teaching community. It dawned on me that Laurel Springs has just over 150 teachers and almost 30 years of distance learning experience as a school. So, I asked our expert teaching faculty—what are your best practices for teaching online? I was overwhelmed by the responses and goodwill from my team. I am excited to share with you a guide to help with working remotely, communicating with students and families, and the best tips and resources for lower, middle, and upper school.

I hope that you find this information useful and share it with your colleagues. Feel free to pass it on and share—we are all in this together. As a parent, teacher, and leader, I appreciate you and all of the wonderfully creative things you are doing to do what you do best: TEACHING.

Please feel free to contact me for any additional support!

Warmest regards,

Best Practices for Teaching Online -- from Laurel Springs School by Megan O'Reilly Palevich

PDF file here.

 

First time director, Lillian LaSalle’s award-winning, powerful documentary, MY NAME IS PEDRO, explores what public education meant to South Bronx Latino maverick educator, Pedro Santana, and what he, in turn, meant to public education. The film is also especially timely in this moment of national reckoning since the murder of George Floyd, subsequent protests and high attention being paid to public school parity.

Infectious in his optimism, Santana becomes one of the most influential public-school teachers and then administrators in the New York public school system after turning his troubled Bronx middle school, MS 391, around. He is unapologetic in his commitment to create change for kids, no matter the odds. When a glowing front-page New York Times article catapults him into the spotlight, he is recruited and then accepts a promotion to use his famed ‘out of the box’ and transformative practices to save a corrupt and divided suburban school district. But the political challenges there may simply be too great, even for the infallible Santana.

In order to continue his life’s mission that ‘every kid can learn’, (he himself was labeled ‘special ed’ as a child), he realizes that he must venture beyond not only the restrictive ‘four walls’ of the public education system, but also his own neighborhood, city and even his own country. 

MY NAME IS PEDRO is a profound story of how one person actualizes learning and positive change in children, adults, environments and communities through an ‘impact’ ripple effect strategy that he has effortlessly perfected. The film is also an essential and timely reminder of the importance of great educators that exist within the infrastructure of our country’s public education system. 

OFFICIAL SELECTION AND AWARDS:

Winner: Best Documentary, Golden Door International Film Festival
Winner: Spotlight on Documentary Award, St. Louis International Film Festival
Winner: Audience Award, Chicago Latino International Film Festival
Winner: Audience Award, Brooklyn Film Festival
Winner: Award of Merit, Impact Docs
Winner: Honorable Mention, Woodstock Film Festival
Official Selection: Women’s Filmmaker Showcase, BAFF
Official Selection: San Diego Latino International Film Festival

MY NAME IS PEDRO- Connect on Social Media:

Award-winning documentary MY NAME IS PEDRO opened [yesterday] in virtual theaters in NYC on September 17 (Maysles Cinema) and will open in the following cities soon: LOS ANGELES on October 2 (Laemmle) with major cities to follow (on October 9) including: Philadelphia (Film Society), Minneapolis (Parkway Theater), Buffalo (North Park), Baltimore (Senator, The Charles), Vancouver (Kiggins Theater), Tucson (Loft), Cleveland (Cleveland Cinemas), Phoenix (Film Bar), Bellingham (Pickford Center). Winston Salem (Aperture Cinema), Tampa (Tampa Theater) and more.

 


Per Emma Griffiths (EG-PR), if you go to the link below, you can watch this film virtually and buy a ticket by clicking on the Tickets button next to Maysles Cinema — New York, NY:


 
© 2024 | Daniel Christian