Legal professionals: what one piece of advice would you give to students headed to law school this fall?
— Bloomberg Law (@BLaw) August 24, 2020
From DSC:
Check out the thread for some solid advice for 1L’s.
On 08/12/2020,
in adjunct faculty, business side of he, career development, change, changing business models, colleges, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, faculty, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, ideas, leadership, learning ecosystem, United States, universities, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
First They Came for Adjuncts, Now They’ll Come for Tenure: And who will be left to stop them? — from chronicle.com by Ed Burmila
Excerpts:
If, by their own accord or by caving to outside political pressures, university administrators take the current crisis as an opportunity to eliminate tenure once and for all, who’s going to stop them?
Put another way: Are there enough academic workers with a stake in the tenure system left to defend it?
…
As go the adjuncts and the nonacademic staff today, so go the tenured faculty tomorrow.
It is in the interest of tenured faculty to fight for their non-tenure-track colleagues. But the key question, as The Chronicle’s Emma Pettit asks, is: Will it be too little too late? When contingent labor protested for years about poor working conditions, it did not find many allies willing to fight alongside it. Now the roles are reversed: Tenured faculty will soon need the rest of the profession to help fight attempts to erode tenure.
Addendum on 8/20/20:
Higher ed group offers ideas for supporting contingent faculty — from educationdive.com by Hallie Busta
Dive Brief:
- Support for non-tenure-track faculty members continues to be a concern amid pandemic-related cutbacks and pushback over how some campuses plan to reopen.
- A faculty industry group this week put out a list of principles and recommendations for institutions to protect those instructors, calling for them to get paid sick leave, unemployment benefits, and extended access to rehire or promotion opportunities.
- The ideas come as calls for greater shared governance grow across the sector in light of the ongoing health crisis.
On 08/05/2020,
in adjunct faculty, adult learning, colleges, community colleges, credentialing, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, distance education, education, elearning, engagement / engaging students, faculty, higher education, ideas, internet, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, lifelong learning, love of learning, more voice more choice more control, motivation, online learning, parents/guardians, participation, passions, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, United States, user experience (UX), vendors, vision/possibilities, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
I instantly see the inequities involved here — as only those with the resources can choose this route. Also, one would have to be careful about how many others are around you choosing to do the same thing. (Otherwise, it defeats the purpose of social distancing, and one might as well be back in a physical classroom.)
All that said, I post this because I’m intrigued by the different ways people are enhancing their learning ecosystems. The creativity out there is wonderful to see. Learning should be fun.
For that matter, a few words could be interchanged to create a slightly different perspective here…
On 07/30/2020,
in adjunct faculty, community colleges, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, distance education, education technology, faculty, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), IT in HE,
by Daniel Christian
ECAR Study of Community College Faculty and Information Technology, 2020 — from by Joseph Galanek and Dana C. Gierdowski
Community colleges have historically positioned themselves as institutions that respond to local and regional educational needs. Understanding community college faculty technology preferences and experiences can aid institutional efforts to increase student success.
Excerpt:
ECAR Study of Community College Faculty and Information Technology, 2020 provides community college technology and higher education leaders with recommendations for addressing the most pressing technology support and solution needs for faculty, with the goal of enriching faculty teaching experiences on campus and helping advance student success.
On 07/29/2020,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, Access to Justice (A2J), active learning, adjunct faculty, art, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Bring your own device (BYOD), business, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Cost of legal services - including access, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, face-to-face, faculty, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, graphics, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, Microsoft, multimedia, online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, platforms, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, second screen apps, smart classrooms, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, society, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, technology (general), telelegal, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, telepresence, television, tools, transmedia, United States, universities,
by Daniel Christian
Questions/reflections from DSC:
- How might this be used for online-based learning?
- For “learning pods” and homeschoolers out there?
- Will assistants such as the Webex Assistant for Meetings (WAM) be integrated into such tools (i.e., would such tools provide translation, transcripts, closed captioning, and more)?
- How might this type of tool be used in telehealth? Telelegal? In online-based courtrooms? In presentations?
#onlinelearning #collaboration #education #secondscreen #edtedh #presentations #AI #telehealth #telelegal #emergingtechnologies
On 07/27/2020,
in adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, business side of he, career development, change, collaboration, colleges, communications, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, credentialing, curriculum, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, faculty, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, ideas, instructional design, intelligent systems, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, society, staying relevant, student-related, surviving, United States, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC: I’d like to thank Ryan Craig for mentioning several interesting articles and thoughts in a recent Gap Letter. At least 2-3 of the articles he mentioned got me to thinking…
With a degree no longer enough, job candidates are told to prove their skills in tests — from hechingerreport.org by Jon Marcus
Instead of relying on credentials, more employers want applicants to show their stuff
Excerpts (emphasis DSC):
Among the many frustrations ahead for millions of Americans thrown out of work by the pandemic is one that may surprise them: To get a new job, it’s increasingly likely they will have to take a test.
As the number of candidates balloons while health risks make it hard for hiring managers to meet with them in person, a trend toward “pre-hiring assessments” — already under way before Covid-19 — is getting a huge new push.
Skeptical that university degrees are the best measure of whether candidates have the skills they need, employers were already looking for ways that applicants could prove it — including in fields where that was not previously required.
“It’s like try before you buy,” said Price.
Also see:
- College Alumni See Room for Job-Skill Improvement — from news.gallup.com by John Clark
From DSC:
There is a huge misalignment between the Learning Objectives (LO’s) that the corporate world supports — and ultimately hires by — as compared to the LO’s that faculty, provosts, & presidents support.
This happened to me a while back when I was looking for a new job. I traveled to another city — upon the company’s request (though they never lifted a finger to help me with the travel-related expenses). Plus, I dedicated the time and got my hopes up, yet again, in getting the job. But the test they gave me (before I even saw a human being) blew me away! It was meant for PhD-level candidates in Computer Science, Programming, or Statistics. It was ridiculously hard.
The article above got me to thinking….
Higher education increasingly puts a guerrilla of debt on many students’ backs, which adds to the dispiriting struggle to overcome these kinds of tests. Also, the onslaught of the Applicant Tracking Systems that students have to conquer (in order to obtain that sought after interview) further adds to this dispiriting struggle.
How can we achieve better alignment here? Students are getting left holding the bag…a situation that will likely not last much longer. If higher ed doesn’t address this situation, we shouldn’t be surprised to see a mass exodus when effective alternatives pick up steam even further. Last call to address this now before the exodus occurs.
Along these lines see:
Better Connecting College and Career — from insidehighered.com by Steven Mintz
How to improve career readiness.
Excerpt:
How can colleges best prepare students for careers in a volatile, uncertain environment? This is the question recently asked by Marie Cini, the former provost at University of Maryland University College and former president of CAEL.
Career service offices, she observes, are first and foremost job search centers: reviewing résumés, publicizing job openings and arranging interviews. What they are not about, for the most part, is career preparation, a longer and more intense process involving self-analysis, skills building and genuine insights into the job market.
On 07/22/2020,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, adjunct faculty, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, distance education, education, education technology, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, internet, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, multimedia, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, online learning, online tutoring, participation, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, remote teaching and learning, second screen apps, smart/connected TV, society, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, tools, training / L&D, United States, universities, user experience (UX), vendors, videoconferencing, virtual K-12 schools, virtual tutoring, web-based collaboration, webinars, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
Zoom Launches Zoom For Home — from which-50.com
Excerpts:
Zoom Video Communications has announced Zoom for Home, which it describes as a new category of software experiences and hardware devices to support remote work use cases. The focus is on improving employee experiences to connect remotely and be productive.
Features for the all-in-one 27-inch device include: three built-in wide-angle cameras for high-resolution video; an 8-microphone array for crystal-clear audio in meetings and phone calls; and, an ultra-responsive touch display for interactive screen sharing, whiteboarding, annotating, and ideation.
Also see:
- ZOOM FOR HOME – DTEN ME: VIDEO CONFERENCING JUST GOT PERSONAL — from blog.dten.com
- VIDEO CONFERENCE LIKE A BOSS — from blog.dten.com
From DSC:
Again, we see some further innovation in this space. The longer the Coronavirus impacts things, the further ahead the online-learning space will be catapulted. This type of device consolidates several devices into one, while making it intuitive and likely easy to annotate items on it.
On 07/21/2020,
in adjunct faculty, attention, collaboration, colleges, communications, community colleges, Daniel S. Christian, distance education, education technology, engagement / engaging students, higher education, ideas, innovation, instructional design, IT in HE, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, metacognition / metacognitive skills, online learning, pedagogy, platforms, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, remote teaching and learning, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, telepresence, tools, universities, user experience (UX), vendors, videoconferencing,
by Daniel Christian
Pedagogical considerations for instructional videoconferencing sessions — from onlinelearningconsortium.org by Amanda Major
Excerpt:
Presented here are recommendations and strategies to support educators.
We hope you find these pedagogical considerations for faculty holding a synchronous class session via a video conferencing tool as timely, practical, and rewarding. The intent is to allay your anxieties about offering quality instruction to your students; thereby, helping you to adapt quickly to this new situation.
The ending points of your content delivery should make a lasting impression. Try these ideas:
-
- Wrap-up your session with a Parking Lot designed as a quadrant (see below), use a shared document and include the following quadrant headings/questions so students can respond in real time:
Also see the idea of a learning journal here.
On 07/11/2020,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, adjunct faculty, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, blended learning, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, distance education, education, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, faculty, flipping -- inverted learning, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, memory, metacognition / metacognitive skills, microlearning, multimedia, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, online learning, online media, online tutoring, platforms, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, remote teaching and learning, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, tools, training / L&D, universities, usability, user experience (UX), vendors, videoconferencing, virtual K-12 schools, vision/possibilities, webinars, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
As I’ve been listening to some sermons on my iPhone, I end up taking visual snapshots of the times that they emphasize something. Here are some examples:
Which got me to thinking…while tools like Panopto* give us something along these lines, they don’t present to the student what the KEY POINTS were in any given class session.
So professors — in addition to teachers, trainers, pastors, presenters, etc. — should be able to quickly and easily instruct the software to create a visual table of contents of key points based upon which items the professor favorited or assigned a time signature to. I’m talking about a ONE keystroke or ONE click of the mouse type of thing to instruct the software to take a visual snapshot of that point in time (AI could even be used to grab the closest image without someone’s eyes shut). At the end of the class, there are then just a handful of key points that were made, with links to those time signatures.
At the end of a course, a student could easily review the KEY POINTS that were made throughout the last ___ weeks.
****
But this concept falls apart if there are too many things to remember. So when a professor presents the KEY POINTs to any given class, they must CURATE the content. (And by the way, that’s exactly why pastors normally focus on only 3-4 key points…otherwise, it gets too hard to walk away with what the sermon was about.)
****
One could even build upon the table of contents. For example…for any given class within a law school’s offerings, the professor (or another team member at the instructions of the professor) could insert links to:
- Relevant chapters or sections of a chapter in the textbook
- Journal articles
- Cases
- Rules of law
- Courts’ decisions
- Other
****
And maybe even:
- That’s the kind of “textbook” — or learning modules — that we’ll move towards creating in the first place.
. - That’s the form of learning we’ll see more of when we present streams of up-to-date content to folks using a next-generation learning platform.
. - Future webinars could piggyback off of this concept as well. Dive as deep as you want to into something…or just take away the main points (i.e., the Cliff notes/summaries) of a presentation.
At the end of the day, if your communication isn’t in a digital format, there is no playback available. What’s said is said…and gone.
* The functionality discussed here would take a day’s worth of work for a developer at Panopto (i.e., give a presenter a way to favorite existing TOC items and/or to assign a time signature to slots of time in a recording) — but it would save people and students sooooo much time. Such functionality would help us stay up-to-date — at least at a basic level of understanding — on a variety of topics.