adjunct faculty

Here Comes Generation Z — from bloombergview.com by Leonid Bershidsky

Excerpts:

If Y-ers were the perfectly connected generation, Z-ers are overconnected. They multi-task across five screens: TV, phone, laptop, desktop and either a tablet or some handheld gaming device, spending 41 percent of their time outside of school with computers of some kind or another, compared to 22 percent 10 years ago. Because of that they “lack situational awareness, are oblivious to their surroundings and unable to give directions.”

Members of this new generation also have an 8-second attention span, down from 12 seconds in 2000, and 11 percent of them are diagnosed with attention deficiency syndrome, compared to 7.8 percent in 2003.

Also see Sparks & Honey’s presentation:

From DSC:
I have been wondering about the possibility that gaining students’ attention is becoming harder and harder to do. The above items seem to confirm that attentions are, in deed, shrinking. We must get through “the gate” (i.e., getting someone’s attention) if we want to have a chance of getting something into someone’s long term memory.

So what should professors, teachers, and trainers do?

For me, this is where things like active learning, project-based learning, and real-world learning come in. Highly relevant, hands-on learning where we turn over more control to the student, helping them own their own learning. We need to provide more choices as to how students can meet the learning objectives.

More choice. More control. Tap into their passions and internal motivations, introduce more play and more opportunities for students to display and cultivate their creativity.

The following article also has some solid thoughts/ideas that seem very relevant for this topic:

The Science of Attention: How To Capture And Hold The Attention of Easily Distracted Students — from opencolleges.edu.au by Saga Briggs
Excerpt from section entitled, “Tricks for Capturing Your Students’ Attention“:
1. Change the level and tone of your voice.
Often just changing the level and tone of your voice – perhaps by lowering or raising it slightly – will bring students back from a zone-out session.
.
2. Use props or visuals.
Presenting a striking picture related to your topic is sure to get all eyes on you. Don’t comment on it; allow students to start the dialogue. Here are a few resources on how to use animations and storyboards as a teaching tool.
.
3. Make a startling statement or give a quote.
Writing a surprising statement or quote related to the content on the board has a similar effect. In a lesson about linebreaks in poetry, write, “I am dying” on the board, wait a minute, and continue on the next line with “for a bowl of ice cream.” See what kind of reaction you get.
.
4. Write a challenging question on the board.
…

Six questions that will bring your teaching philosophy into focus [Haave]

On 06/05/2014, in adjunct faculty, faculty, pedagogy, teachers, teaching & learning, by Daniel Christian

Six questions that will bring your teaching philosophy into focus — from facultyfocus.com by Neil Haave

Excerpt:

These questions are best answered in conversation with a colleague or two.

Describe the best learning experience you have had as a student.
Describe the best teaching experience you have had as an instructor. Are there any similarities to the learning experience you described above?
What are you trying to achieve in your students with your teaching?
Why is this important to you?
How do you achieve your objectives you wrote down for question #3 above?
Why do you use these particular teaching strategies as opposed to others that are available to you?

Losing Focus: The Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2013-14 [aaup]

On 04/07/2014, in adjunct faculty, business side of he, career development, colleges, community colleges, faculty, higher education, universities, by Daniel Christian

Losing Focus: The Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2013-14 — from the American Association of University Professors

Excerpt from 4/7/14 announcement:

Washington, DC—Developments in recent decades—diversion of resources to administration, ballooning of contingent positions, and runaway spending on athletics—signal that our colleges and universities are losing focus on their academic missions. Losing Focus: The Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2013–14, released today by the AAUP. The AAUP’s annual report has been an authoritative source of data on faculty salaries and compensation for decades.

Also see:

Excerpt:

As is traditional in this annual report, we begin with an overview of full-time faculty compensation. For those who are interested, the report is supplemented with numerous detailed tables covering all aspects of pay, benefits, and employment status for full-time faculty members. Following the introductory section, we examine trends in the employment of administrators and in spending on administrative positions of various kinds. Administrative spending is a perennial topic, and the data reviewed here indicate that it deserves continuing attention, especially when we contrast it with declining expenditures on instruction. The final section analyzes another frequent concern of this report, the “irrational exuberance” (to borrow an apt phrase from another context) surrounding intercollegiate athletics. When we tally up the score on the economics of college sports, we find it hard to avoid the conclusion that current practices are harming our academic programs.

We offer this report as a step toward helping all of us who are dedicated to academic freedom and high-quality higher education to regain our focus.

Steve Wheeler: A short series on new and emerging pedagogy

On 02/27/2014, in 21st century, adjunct faculty, assessment, faculty, heutagogy, higher education, internet, learning spaces, more voice more choice more control, online learning, pedagogy, teaching & learning, traditional / tradition, UK, by Daniel Christian

A growing divide? — from steve-wheeler.blogspot.com

Excerpt:

The question we now need to ask is: Will there be a divide between learning that continues to rely on traditional learning spaces, compared to learning that takes place largely outside the walls of the traditional classroom? Moreover, if there is such a divide, will it be delineated by its cost effectiveness, its conceptual differences, or its pedagogical impact?

Power sharing — from steve-wheeler.blogspot.com

Excerpt:

Many agree that technology has a role to play in this shift in pedagogical emphasis. Students now bring their own devices into the traditional learning environment, creating their own personal networks and learning environments. They are intimately familiar with the functionality of their devices, knowing how to use them to connect to, create and organise content. They are adept at connecting to their friends and peers too, but will they be willing to power share with their professors, take on greater autonomy and assume more responsibility to direct their own learning in the future?

Digital age assessment — from steve-wheeler.blogspot.com

Excerpt:

Assessment and learning are inseparable in any good pedagogy. If the first does not fit the second, then we see a failure of that pedagogy. Far too often assessment fails to delve deeply enough, or fails to capture actual learning. If students are relying increasingly on digital technology to connect them with content, peers and tutors, and to facilitate new, distributed forms of learning, then we should endeavour to assess the learning they achieve in a relevant manner.

Professors, We Need You! [Kristof]

On 02/16/2014, in adjunct faculty, education reform, faculty, higher education, society, United States, by Daniel Christian

Professors, We Need You! — from nytimes.com by Nicholas Kristof

Excerpts:

Some of the smartest thinkers on problems at home and around the world are university professors, but most of them just don’t matter in today’s great debates.

The most stinging dismissal of a point is to say: “That’s academic.” In other words, to be a scholar is, often, to be irrelevant.

…

Yet it’s not just that America has marginalized some of its sharpest minds. They (professors/academics) have also marginalized themselves.

…

A basic challenge is that Ph.D. programs have fostered a culture that glorifies arcane unintelligibility while disdaining impact and audience. This culture of exclusivity is then transmitted to the next generation through the publish-or-perish tenure process. Rebels are too often crushed or driven away.

“Many academics frown on public pontificating as a frivolous distraction from real research,” said Will McCants, a Middle East specialist at the Brookings Institution. “This attitude affects tenure decisions. If the sine qua non for academic success is peer-reviewed publications, then academics who ‘waste their time’ writing for the masses will be penalized.”

A new pedagogy is emerging… and online learning is a key contributing factor — from contactnorth.ca

Excerpt:

THREE EMERGING PEDAGOGICAL TRENDS
Underlying these developments are some common factors or trends:

1. A move to opening up learning, making it more accessible and flexible. The classroom is no longer the unique centre of learning, based on information delivery through a lecture.

2. An increased sharing of power between the professor and the learner. This is manifest as a changing professorial role, towards more support and negotiation over content and methods, and a focus on developing and supporting learner autonomy. On the student side, this can mean an emphasis on learners supporting each other through new social media, peer assessment, discussion groups, even online study groups but with guidance, support and feedback from content experts.

3. An increased use of technology not only to deliver teaching, but also to support and assist students and to provide new forms of student assessment.

It is important to emphasize that these are emerging pedagogical trends. More experimentation, evaluation, and research are needed to identify those that will have lasting value and a permanent effect on the system.

…

Impact on Student Learning
Student learning is the other key component of an emerging pedagogy, with their success as the goal of all our efforts.

What new demands are student making in terms of how they want to be taught and assessed and what are your responses?
What new roles are students taking in their online or hybrid learning and how has this changed your teaching practice?
What new strategies for and areas of student support are being built into course structures to facilitate effective online learning?

Reflections on “The Campus of the Future: Hybrid and Lean” [Winkler]

On 01/15/2014, in adjunct faculty, blended learning, change, changing business models, colleges, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, Daniel S. Christian, disruption, distance education, education technology, elearning, faculty, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, hybrid learning, IT in HE, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, lifelong learning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, online learning, online media, online tutoring, organizational change, reinvent, smart classrooms, social learning / networks, staying relevant, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, UK, United States, universities, videoconferencing, virtual tutoring, by Daniel Christian

The Campus of the Future: Hybrid and Lean — from edcetera.rafter.com by Kirsten Winkler

Excerpt:

When people imagine the campus of the future, two main ideas seem to come up. On the one hand, the campus experience will be blended or hybrid, meaning that even with the majority of learning taking place online, there will still be demand for activities in a classic brick-and-mortar setting. On the other hand, the campus of the future will be more like a technology startup, focused on cutting expenses and running a lean operation.

Three recent articles in Education DIVE, The Times Higher Education, Slate and Inc. underline this trend.

The above article links to:

Internet mentors could supplant traditional lecturers — from timeshighereducation.co.uk by Jack Grove
Horizon Scanning study points to a ‘new kind of pedagogy’ in higher education by 2020

Excerpt:

Traditional lecturers may soon be replaced by networks of online mentors working for several universities, a new study predicts.

In the report, titled Horizon Scanning: What will higher education look like in 2020?, the Observatory on Borderless Education suggests that academic staff are likely to be employed part-time by several universities – often working remotely via the internet – rather than relying on a single employer.

…

With one undergraduate module, Forms of Identity, already taught via video conferencing to students at both institutions, the alliance “may be pointing the way to a new kind of pedagogy”, the report says.

“Undergraduate lectures, for example, may be delivered simultaneously to any number of participating institutions, either across a whole sector or indeed across borders,” it states.

From DSC:
With adjunct faculty members playing a significant role at many institutions of higher education, I could see a scenario like this occurring. In fact, even years ago I knew an adjunct faculty member who sat behind her PC all day, servicing students at multiple universities. I’m sure that this is not a rare occurrence. Plus, we are already above 30% of the workforce working in a freelance mode, with estimations of this going to 40% or more by 2020.

Learning hubs: (how I define it)
Places of blended/hybrid learning whereby some of the content is “piped in” or made available via the Internet and whereby some of the content is discussed/worked on in a face-to-face manner.

Questions:

What if learning hubs spring up in many types of facilities, such as in schools, libraries, buildings on campuses, corporate spaces, parks, cafes, other places? How might such a trend affect the possible scenario that there will be online mentors working for several universities?
Will these mentors make enough to cover insurance costs, retirement costs, etc.?
Will this be a potential model for lifelong learning? For learning-on-demand?
How might MOOCs — and what they morph into — affect this type of scenario?
How might this scenario affect how we teach student teachers? (Will it involve more efforts/endeavors like this one?)
Could this type of scenario also happen in the corporate world?

Last comment:

I’m not saying that this sort of setup is better than a seminar-like experience that has a dozen or so students setting down with a highly-trained professor in a strictly face-to-face setting. However, that model is increasingly unobtainable/unaffordable for many people.

Lecturers need research time off campus to best teach students [Tickle]

On 12/23/2013, in adjunct faculty, faculty, higher education, pedagogy, real-world assignments, student-related, teaching & learning, UK, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Lecturers need research time off campus to best teach students — from theguardian.com by Louise Tickle; with thanks to strategic foresight practitioner Marie Conway for this resource on her University Futures Update

Louise Tickle meets four university teachers whose work in the field enriches their students’ learning

John Roberts

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Roberts’ new film, Day of the Flowers, is set in Scotland and Cuba and features ballet star Carlos Acosta. The lecturer invited students on to set as both extras and assistants, and used their observations of the practical reality of film-making to spark tutorial discussions. In the current debate around higher tuition fees and what purpose universities exist to serve, he argues that providing students with a combination of practice and theory is vital in equipping them for working life.

This means, he says, that it’s “vital” for lecturers to have a professional life away from university, “and really be engaged in their own industry in order to be the best teachers they can be and offer something special to students.” The chance to gain genuine insight into working practice, particularly in highly competitive industries, is the holy grail for soon-to-be graduates desperate to stand out from the crowd. And applying academic study into practical reality can feel hard to do, so an academic who takes the trouble to involve students in their professional practice is likely to be very popular indeed.

…

Close contact with someone working on the “inside” also means that students start to grasp more about the realities of what her working life is like.

From DSC:
Trying to change higher education is sooooo tough because no one person has all of the knowledge, wisdom, time, and energy that’s required. Faculty members — like Staff and Administration — are often just trying to stay afloat. With calls for increased productivity, it’s hard to create/experience the sorts of valuable opportunities described in the above article. However, I do think that if faculty members were also practicing their trade in a professional manner, they could stay abreast of what the markets require — what skillsets are key, how the employment landscape in their fields are changing, etc.

“Online Branding for Academics” — Keynote for EdMedia 2013 by Sidneyeve Matrix

On 11/26/2013, in adjunct faculty, career development, faculty, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, marketing/social marketing, by Daniel Christian

Online Branding for Academics
— from cyberpopblog.com by Sidneyeve Matrix; Keynote for EdMedia 2013 in Victoria BC

From DSC:
Sidneyeve’s presentation made me wonder…in the future of higher education (if it’s even called higher education), will adjunct faculty and faculty members be their own brand? It’s already heading in that direction for many adjunct faculty members.

Google Helpouts — Is this where things are heading?

On 11/06/2013, in adjunct faculty, collaboration, communications, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, curriculum, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, disruption, education technology, elearning, faculty, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, Google, higher education, innovation, internet, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, platforms, reinvent, second screen apps, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, staying relevant, streams of content, surviving, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, videoconferencing, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Items re: Helpouts by Google, which was just introduced on Monday, November 4th, 2013:

Google Helpouts: Need Help With Your Shakespeare? — video from The Wall Street Journal
Google Launches Helpouts, Paid Video Chats With Experts To Address Whatever Is Bothering You Right Now — from techcrunch.com by Alex Wilhelm
Google’s Helpouts could be the company’s secret weapon to take on healthcare — from gigaom.com by Janko Roettgers
Will Google Helpouts Undercut Freelancers? — from mashable.com by Chris Taylor
Per Paul Simbeck-Hampson

All things Helpouts
Thanks for compiling +Denis Labelle .

+Helpouts -> helpouts.google.com
1. Help/Support: support.google.com/helpouts
2. Google Help: support.google.com/helpouts/topic/3168357
3. Meet with a Helpouts Specialist: helpouts.google.com/supporthelpouts
4. Settings: helpouts.google.com/settings
5. On Google+: Circle +Helpouts
6. Helpouts Community on Google+:
plus.google.com/communities/103151120922119140466
7. On YouTube: youtube.com/helpouts
8. Mobile app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.helpouts

Video -> Introducing Helpouts by Google

From DSC:
This type of thing goes hand and hand with what I’m saying in the Learning from the Living Room vision/concept: “More choice. More control.” This type of thing may impact K-12, higher ed, and corporate training/L&D departments.

It this how we are going to make a living in the future? If so, what changes do we need to make:

To the curricula out there?
To the “cores” out there?
In helping people build their digital/online-based footprints?
In helping people market themselves?

A new pedagogy is emerging..and online learning is a key contributing factor — from Contact North ; with thanks to Stephen Downes (@oldaily) for putting this on The MOOC Newsletter

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

What is clear is that major changes in the way we teach post-secondary students are being triggered by online learning and the new technologies that increase flexibility in, and access to, post-secondary education.

…

What drives the development of this new pedagogy? Changes in society, student expectations, and technology are motivating innovative university and college professors and instructors to re-think pedagogy and teaching methods.

…

As professors and instructors become more familiar with digital technologies for teaching and learning, pedagogical challenges and strategies are emerging. The developments listed below have had an impact on how teaching is structured and how and where learning happens.

The Educator’s Ultimate Twitter Guide 2013 [Waters]

On 10/31/2013, in adjunct faculty, education, education technology, faculty, professional development, strategy, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, by Daniel Christian

An excerpt from:
Helping educators get started with Twitter — from theedublogger.com by Sue Waters

This is why we’ve updated our Twitter guide and are proud to announce The Educator’s Ultimate Twitter Guide – 2013.

It includes everything educators need to know including:

signing up for Twitter
understanding Twitter language
how to tweet, reply, retweet, send DM’s
use twitter clients like TweetDeck
participate in Twitter chats
use Twitter with students
and so much more!

Packed full of how to’s and video tutorials, it’ll walk you step by step through the process of getting started with Twitter or getting more out of using Twitter.

Check it out here! (which was last updated in October 2013)

Why I won’t try to publish as I move towards tenure [King]

On 09/03/2013, in 21st century, adjunct faculty, faculty, higher education, ideas, internet, open courseware and systems, publishing, research, by Daniel Christian

Why I won’t try to publish as I move towards tenure — by Brad King

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

A growing number of faculty, including myself, have begun to reject that road to tenure.

The reason: the academic publishing system is built around a 1-2 year publishing process that requires the best and brightest minds to turn over all of their intellectual property without any compensation for that work.

…

For years, academics had no other option. If they wanted to distribute their research, they had to go through the academic journal system. Thanks to the Internet, the Web, and the mobile Web, there are now have alternate ways to distribute their work.

The California Universities are encouraging faculty members to only publish in open-access journals, which make the dissemination of information the priority over the construction of lucrative business models.

Getting published in a prestigious scholarly journal is a big deal in academia because it’s one of the ways that universities decide who will be promoted and receive tenure.

But in this traditional publishing process, authors usually sign away exclusive first publishing rights to the journal. The journal makes its money by charging subscription fees to university libraries and others, and doesn’t allow the research to spread outside of its publication for a year or two.

The reason for this switch: faculty are tired of being held hostage by these journals that use the system of tenure as a way to hold academic hostage. Harvard University faculty have said that “major publishers had created an ‘untenable situation’ at the university by making scholarly interaction ‘fiscally unsustainable’ and ‘academically restrictive’, while drawing profits of 35% or more.”

Some additional questions for next year’s “Inside Higher Ed Survey of Faculty Attitudes on Technology”

On 08/27/2013, in 21st century, adjunct faculty, blended learning, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education technology, elearning, engagement / engaging students, face-to-face, higher education, innovation, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, online learning, student-related, teaching & learning, using teams, by Daniel Christian

Inside Higher Ed 2013 Survey of Faculty Attitudes on Technology — by Scott Jaschik and Doug Lederman

From DSC:
I would like to propose some additional — and/or different — questions for next year’s survey:

Original question:

Can online courses achieve learning outcomes that are equivalent to inperson courses?

Another potential question:

How will face-to-face courses compete with what’s being achieved via online/digitally-based courses and mechanisms? (One potential answer, go hybrid.)

Original questions:

What do professors and administrators see as the most important indicators of quality in online education? How does the quality of online courses compare with the quality of inperson courses?

Another question:

If we turned the level of scrutiny (which is good and appropriate, BTW) that’s being applied to online courses to our face-to-face (F2F) courses, how would our F2F courses look/perform? How would they compare in terms of quality, achieving learning outcomes, and in terms of long-term ROI?

Original question:

What do faculty and technology officers make of MOOCs (massive open online courses), and how do they perceive media coverage of the phenomenon?

Another potential question (to students, ed tech staff, admins, faculty members):

What might MOOCs morph into and how might those innovations affect the higher education landscape?

Other questions:

Should we be looking to faculty members to initiate change? Or somewhere else?
(Faculty members’ plates are full, they may or may not believe in the value/benefits of technology, they may or may not be gifted in using technology, and many faculty members don’t have the incentive systems necessary to move forward with online learning or even enhance their F2F courses with more hybrid-based learning approaches.)
.
Will it take a team-based approach to be competitive in the future?
.
(Addressed to faculty members teaching F2F courses)
Do you know each student’s name in your F2F course and what each of them are majoring in? How often do you talk to them? Do you keep track of who you’ve talked to and when? Do you know what goals each of your students are pursuing? How often can/do they contact you? Do you find it more difficult to engage your students in the year 2013 as opposed to 2000? Do you hold the power to change things at your institution? If so, what have you done with that power?
.
Are curriculums keeping up with what’s needed or are institutions of higher education falling behind? Are we being responsive enough, realizing that the rate/trajectory of change is now exponential, not linear?

Learning Ecosystems

Six questions that will bring your teaching philosophy into focus [Haave]

Losing Focus: The Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2013-14 [aaup]

Steve Wheeler: A short series on new and emerging pedagogy

Professors, We Need You! [Kristof]

“Online Branding for Academics” — Keynote for EdMedia 2013 by Sidneyeve Matrix

The Educator’s Ultimate Twitter Guide 2013 [Waters]

Why I won’t try to publish as I move towards tenure [King]

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