2020 November

Librarians become go-to resource during school closures [De La Rosa]

On 11/24/2020, in A/V -- audio/visual, digital audio, digital learning, digital textbooks, education, education technology, K-12 related, library / librarians, remote teaching and learning, student-related, teachers, youth, by Daniel Christian

Librarians become go-to resource during school closures — from educationdive.com by Shawna De La Rosa

Dive Brief:

School librarians’ roles have been evolving for years, but now they’ve become the go-to resource for innovative ideas and new distance learning technology, District Administration reports.
Shannon McClintock Miller, district teacher librarian and director of innovation at Van Meter Community School District in Iowa, gives presentations on these changes and also administers the 26,000-member Facebook group Future Ready Librarians, giving others in the field a chance to connect and share best practices. In her district — where all 1,000 K-12 students have devices — librarians have been instrumental in helping students and teachers use technology.
Miller also touts the Destiny Discover management system, which connects students to books, audio books and ebooks. The platform also allows librarians to embed databases, digital tools and other resources so students have easy access.

Employers May Drastically Change Benefits in 2021 [Stevens-Huffman]

On 11/24/2020, in business, career development, change, corporate / business world, future, game-changing environment, health, society, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Employers May Drastically Change Benefits in 2021 — from insights.dice.com by Leslie Stevens-Huffman

Excerpts:

As employers continue to rethink all aspects of business and strategy in the wake of COVID-19, many are also exploring major changes to benefit programs and perks for 2021.
…
After access to routine health services became an issue during the lockdown, some 32 percent of employers are planning to add virtual care or telehealth services to existing health coverage, according to a study by Mercer, an HR consulting firm.

Americans aren’t turning their backs on education; they are reconsidering how to obtain it.

Is This the End of College as We Know It? — from wsj.com by Douglas Belkin
For millions of Americans, getting a four-year degree no longer makes sense. Here’s what could replace it.

Excerpt:

For traditional college students, the American postsecondary education system frequently means frontloading a lifetime’s worth of formal education and going into debt to do it. That is no longer working for millions of people, and the failure is clearing the way for alternatives: Faster, cheaper, specialized credentials closely aligned with the labor market and updated incrementally over a longer period, education experts say. These new credentials aren’t limited to traditional colleges and universities. Private industry has already begun to play a larger role in shaping what is taught and who is paying for it.

For more than a century, a four-year college degree was a blue-chip credential and a steppingstone to the American dream. For many millennials and now Gen Z, it has become an albatross around their necks.

What has embittered so many millennials is that they played by the rules and still got stuck. Ben Puckett, a 30-year-old pastor in Michigan, earned a B.S. in physical therapy before a Master’s degree in divinity. He is $95,000 in debt.

“I went to college because I was told by parents, friends, teachers and counselors that it was the only way to ensure a good future,” Mr. Puckett says. “At 18 years old, how was I supposed to defy what my school, parents, society, friends were saying about going to college?”

State Court Budget Forecast: Stormy with Rising Backlogs [Strickler]

On 11/23/2020, in Access to Justice (A2J), budgets, Cost of legal services - including access, law schools, leadership, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, telelegal, United States, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

State Court Budget Forecast: Stormy with Rising Backlogs — from law360.com by Andrew Strickler

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

As state lawmakers begin preparing for upcoming legislative sessions amid a resurgent pandemic, a scattered but largely grim outlook for state court funding is beginning to take shape.

With some judicial administrators already dealing with staggered budgets and new technology costs, experts and advocates say court leaders have their work cut out for them to convince budget analysts and lawmakers to pay for pandemic recovery efforts.

Perhaps nowhere is the coming financial strain more apparent than in Florida, where legislators began gathering Tuesday in Tallahassee to face a historic $5.4 billion budget deficit over the next two years.

There, court leaders have drawn on their experiences dealing with a crush of foreclosures and other litigation following the 2008 financial crisis to project that nearly 1 million additional cases will be in front of the state’s trial courts by the middle of 2021.
…
In New York, where the next fiscal year promises to include a gaping $14.5 billion budget hole, dozens of appellate judges over age 70 are being forced into retirement, a move court administrators said would save $55 million in the coming years and help prevent staff layoffs.

Addendum on 11/24/20:

The recordings of every Civil Justice Fest webinar are now available! Visit https://t.co/TCyoXN26aj to start watching, and keep an eye out for the #12DaysofCivilJustice beginning this Friday! pic.twitter.com/SEW0Ll6glj

— MasonLEC (@MasonLEC) November 24, 2020

Civil Justice Fest: A Month of Dialogues On the Most Pressing Civil Justice Issues — from vimeo.com
Judicial Education Program & Congressional Civil Justice Academy Law & Economics Center Antonin Scalia Law School George Mason University November 2020 Virtual

“Stuck in it until I die”: Parents get buried by college debt too — from hechingerreport.org by Meredith Kolodner
ParentPlus loans have spiked, leading to financial disaster for many low- and middle-income families

Excerpt:

The couple’s original $40,000 loan to cover the cost of their son and daughter attending public universities in Indiana, where the family lived at the time, has snowballed in those 18 years, with interest rates as high as 8.5 percent. Their bill now stands at more than $100,000.

The Rifes would have lost their house if they had been forced to make the original monthly payment, so they negotiated with the federal government to get it down to $733. Still, it’s more than their mortgage, and it doesn’t cover the interest, so the amount owed has continued to grow.

From DSC:
I have fought for over a decade to bring the costs (involved with obtaining a degree) down. Through the years, I have tried to reach anyone who works within higher ed to listen…to change…to find ways to bring the price of obtaining a degree waaaaaay down.

Before 2010, I had written about a future where the cost of obtaining a degree would be 50% less. And that has already happened with a handful of instances. But the future will likely look much different than the past.

Fast forward…and the perfect storm against higher ed continues to build. The backlash continues to build.

There will be change. Count on it. 100% bound to happen. In fact, it has to happen, or this nation is in big trouble otherwise.

(11/24/20) An addendum from the Wall Street Journal:

Is This the End of College as We Know It? — from wsj.com by Douglas Belkin
For millions of Americans, getting a four-year degree no longer makes sense. Here’s what could replace it.

Five ways VR is being used in modern healthcare [Herman]

On 11/21/2020, in health, society, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

Five ways VR is being used in modern healthcare — from vrscout.com by Kristin Herman

Excerpts:

Detecting Vision Problems
Help Mental Injury Recovery
Helping People through Rehab
Augmented Medical Records
Prepping for Surgery

Psalm 95:1-2

On 11/21/2020, in faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships, society, by Daniel Christian

Psalm 95:1-2 — from biblegateway.com
1 Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.

Faculty Pandemic Stress Is Now Chronic [Flaherty]

On 11/21/2020, in adjunct faculty, colleges, community colleges, faculty, health, higher education, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Faculty Pandemic Stress Is Now Chronic — from insidehighered.com by Colleen Flaherty; with thanks to Mr. Bill Knapp for sharing this resource out on LinkedIn
COVID-19-related changes to teaching and dealing with students’ mental health continue to weigh on professors, with implications for their own mental health.

Excerpt:

The early days of the pandemic took a toll on faculty members, but for many, peak stress is now, according to a new study of faculty mental health from Course Hero. Researchers for the study website surveyed hundreds of faculty members on and off the tenure track, across institution types, this fall. The findings suggest that faculty worries about the pandemic have morphed into chronic stress — with serious implications for professors’ mental health, their students and the profession as COVID-19 drags on.

For the Engineering students out there who like working with car designs!

On 11/21/2020, in 21st century, creativity, design, engineering, future, history, ideas, science, society, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

17+ Futuristic Car Designs from Visionaries of the Past — from by Christopher McFadden
Here are 17+ interesting futuristic car designs from the past that will bring a smile to your face.

What’s causing the kinks in the “cognitive hoses” out there? How can we remove them? [Christian]

On 11/20/2020, in adjunct faculty, adult learning, change, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, distance education, education, education reform, engagement / engaging students, face-to-face, faculty, formal learning, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, instructional design, K-12 related, law schools, learner profiles, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning theories, liberal arts, library / librarians, online learning, parents/guardians, participation, productivity / tips and tricks, reinvent, society, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, user experience (UX), Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, web-based collaboration, youth, by Daniel Christian

What's causing the kinks in the cognitive hoses out there? How can we remove them? -- Daniel Christian

https://www.kxan.com/pass-or-fail/students-meet-in-austin-churches-for-free-virtual-learning-pods-during-pandemic/

Ann Arbor church transformed into schoolhouse so immigrant children don’t fall behind — from mlive.com by Martin Slagter

Understanding the learning pods landscape — from crpe.org by Ashley Jochim and Robin Lake

Mapping the Pandemic Learning Landscape — from medium.com by Carolyn Gramstorff

Today we launched a national database that will catalogue and make sense of #learningpod initiatives across the country, with an eye toward equity.

Explore data on the 160 pods and hubs we've found so far: https://t.co/uAINWVPdqr

Read the blog: https://t.co/2yGqKVgSdL pic.twitter.com/Ts3Q9YiIYx

— Center on Reinventing Public Education (@CRPE_UW) November 19, 2020

As with most things, it takes practice...practice...practice. Daniel Christian re: edtech

The Observatory: An interactive platform that allows you to do a preliminary analysis of 600+ legal technologies [Orrick]

On 11/18/2020, in analytics, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, Blockchain, law schools, Legal operations, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, productivity / tips and tricks, research, telelegal, tools, vendors, by Daniel Christian

The Observatory — from orrick.com with thanks to Gabe Teninbaum for mentioning this resource in his Lawtomatic Newsletter (Issue #112, 11/18/20)

The Observatory is an interactive platform that allows you to do a preliminary analysis of 600+ legal technologies in the market today (including some developed by Orrick):

Gain insight into features of legal tools

View leading categories of legal tech, from artificial intelligence to workflow automation

Understand tech use-cases for litigation, transactional and general solutions

Identify legal tech companies with diverse leadership

Excerpt from Gabe’s newsletter:

The Observatory: the tech-savvy biglaw firm, Orrick, has a new interactive platform offering data on 600+ legal technologies currently on the market. A user can click on the type of tool they’d like to learn more about (e.g. document automation or contract management), click on various filters, then get a summary of what it does. It also includes a narrative box for what makes the tool unique. It’s easy to use, free, and also gives a nice preview for clients on the type of value the firm might offer them beyond run-of-the-mill representation.

Bloomberg Law 2021

On 11/18/2020, in 21st century, career development, change, changing business models, future, game-changing environment, ideas, innovation, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Bloomberg Law 2021 — from pro.bloomberglaw.com

Excerpt:

Our Bloomberg Law 2021 series sets the stage for a new year, previewing the themes and topics that our experts will be watching closely, so you can effectively navigate the dynamic legal landscape. Our team of experienced legal analysts leverages the latest data and technology to deliver expert perspectives on the legal market to the legal market.

Best Practices 7 Ways Students Can Maintain Good Study Habits During COVID-19 [Bresnick & U of MI]

On 11/18/2020, in game-changing environment, health, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, K-12 related, law schools, learning, Michigan, productivity / tips and tricks, strategy, student-related, surviving, universities, by Daniel Christian

Best Practices 7 Ways Students Can Maintain Good Study Habits During COVID-19 — from fierceeducation.com by Peggy Bresnick

Excerpts:

Stay organized.
Don’t multitask.
Make the most of video lectures.
Set a schedule.
Swap out study strategies.
Collaborate remotely.
Stay connected to others.

The guide being referenced from the University of Michigan:

Learning Ecosystems

Employers May Drastically Change Benefits in 2021 [Stevens-Huffman]

State Court Budget Forecast: Stormy with Rising Backlogs [Strickler]

Five ways VR is being used in modern healthcare [Herman]

Psalm 95:1-2

Faculty Pandemic Stress Is Now Chronic [Flaherty]

For the Engineering students out there who like working with car designs!

The Observatory: An interactive platform that allows you to do a preliminary analysis of 600+ legal technologies [Orrick]

Bloomberg Law 2021

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