United States

DC: Way to go Sister Sue Ellen!

On 10/25/2022, in business, corporate / business world, creativity, culture, ideas, informal learning, instructional design, K-12 related, Learning Experience Design, learning spaces, library / librarians, media/film, Michigan, social learning / networks, social media, television, United States, universities, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
I’m very proud of our sister Sue Ellen — who worked hard to bring this idea/vision/exhibit to reality.

Kalamazoo Valley Museum explores media & its messages — from woodtv.com by Jessica Jurczak

Excerpt:

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) – We are constantly on the lookout for fun ideas that also involve learning and one of our go-to spots is the Kalamazoo Valley Museum! There’s a big exhibition there now called “Wonder Media: Ask the Questions!” As we all know, we’re bombarded everyday with messages from all types of media: TV, movies, social media and this exhibit encourages us to stop and evaluate some of those messages. The Kalamazoo Valley Museum also has a planetarium, and vast science and history galleries and today, we’re taking you inside!

Returning Joy to Teaching & Learning — from gettingsmart.com by Trace Pickering

Key Points

Too many school-based reform efforts continue to have educators implicitly standing with the standards against the students.
Pivot your perspective for a moment to the opposite.
What does a school where its educators stand with the students against the standards look like?

From DSC:
My hunch is that we need to cut — or significantly weaken the ties — between the state legislative bodies out there and our public school systems. We shouldn’t let people who know little to nothing about teaching and learning make decisions about how and what to teach students. Let those on the front lines — ie., the teachers and local school system leaders/staff — collaborate with the community on those items.

With Google’s latest push, a blending of industry and higher ed — from workshift.opencampusmedia.org by Elyse Ashburn
Google’s new industry specializations were co-built by its experts and faculty at four top universities—part of a larger push to combine forces with higher education to drive economic mobility.

Excerpt:

Google is making a bigger push into higher education, partnering with name-brand universities to offer more advanced credentials that build on its signature Career Certificates program. The four new industry specializations—for fields like construction management and financial analysis—were co-designed by Google’s technical experts and university faculty with subject matter expertise.

The specializations are open to anybody on Coursera’s platform, and typically cost several hundred dollars to complete.

It’s a blending of industry and academic expertise—with an eye toward helping more Americans get high-demand jobs—that Gevelber calls a tipping point for higher education.

The arts truly matter! [TeacherGoals]

On 10/21/2022, in art, creativity, curriculum, drama/theater, Emotion, engagement / engaging students, health, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, K-12 related, media/film, music, student-related, teachers, United States, youth, by Daniel Christian

The arts truly matter! ? pic.twitter.com/JKawmiAxNz

— TeacherGoals (@teachergoals) October 18, 2022

How Wayne Brady ‘Yes, Ands’ His Way to Success [Sherry]

On 10/21/2022, in business, collaboration, corporate / business world, drama/theater, experimentation, ideas, innovation, productivity / tips and tricks, United States, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

How Wayne Brady ‘Yes, Ands’ His Way to Success — from inc.com by Ben Sherry
At the Inc. 5000 Conference & Gala in Phoenix, the legendary performer shares how the art of improvisational comedy can help business owners innovate.

Essentially, “Yes, and” is a process of accepting what your “scene partner” in an improv comedy sketch has said and then expanding on that line of thinking to come up with a new, original idea on the spot. Instead of shutting down suggestions from peers or potential business partners, Brady says, you should look for ways to build on others’ ideas. The resulting camaraderie can help you and your partner create a potentially breakthrough idea together in real time.
…
The “Yes, and” attitude, says Brady, “means saying, ‘I like what you’re doing. Now let me put my own sauce on it, and we’ll see what happens.'” In order to effectively improvise, you need to actively listen to people, the same way improvisational comedians listen closely to their “scene partner,” and identify an idea that you can make even better. Next, you should encourage your “partner” to continue this process, so both parties are actively responsible for creating the new idea.

How Might Engineering Education Transition From In-Person To Hybrid and Online Modalities? — from insidehighered.com by Joshua Kim
Three questions for Rick Hill, professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Detroit Mercy.

Excerpts:

Tools I use in my classroom, including MATLAB and Simulink, are key to recreating the in-person lab experience and giving engineering students access to the same equipment as engineers in the field. Students can gain experience analyzing data, developing algorithms and creating models. They’re developing skills in the design of systems with multidomain models, simulation and deployment without the need for code.

Virtual labs allow an instructor to easily introduce “experiments” into nonlab classes, either in the middle of a lecture or in homework. I do this with live scripts and simulation models. It saves me and the students the time of having to set up and debug the lab hardware and saves the cost and space of the physical laboratory while providing a very quick and controlled environment for doing experiments.

It’s time to modernize workplace development programs — from chieflearningofficer.com by Jason Mundy

Excerpts:

So, what exactly do employers need to do to improve L&D? Incorporate individualized microlearning into workforce development.
…
Microlearning-based L&D is used to solve key business objectives and is useful for many types of employee education, such as compliance training, on-the-job skills and administrative responsibilities. Microlearning programs can be tailored to individuals and administered in a way that is not disruptive to employees. Through modern microlearning solutions, it’s also possible to implement scenario-based learning and gamification, both of which increase employee engagement.

From DSC:
After reading this article, some questions come to my mind:

Who decides what’s next on the training regime for an employee?
Is it a team of people doing that for each position? The employee, the supervisor, two levels up supervisor(s), L&D, other?
And/or is it tapping into streams of content created by former people who have done that exact job?

For each position, is it possible to capture a knowledgebase containing which topics, learning modules/courses, blogs, websites, people to follow on social media, or other resources?
Is there a community of practice for each position?
How and who keeps these knowledgebases pruned and up-to-date?

Hmmm…thanks for letting me think out loud with you.

Reflections on “How do colleges decide when to schedule courses?” [Seltzer]

On 10/21/2022, in adjunct faculty, business side of he, colleges, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, Daniel S. Christian, faculty/staff, higher education, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, online learning, United States, universities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

How do colleges decide when to schedule courses? — from highereddive.com by Rick Seltzer

Dive Brief (excerpt):

Two-thirds of colleges are thinking about the courses students will need to complete their degrees on time when they build their schedules, according to a survey released Tuesday by Ad Astra, a scheduling software and analytics provider.
Meanwhile, 51% said they considered when they could offer courses to help students avoid conflicts in their schedules, and 30% looked at balancing in-person, online and hybrid courses.
Almost two-thirds of respondents, 65%, said they use retention rates and enrollment ratios to gauge the effectiveness of a course schedule.

From DSC:
This is a tough one, as faculty members and staff members have obligations outside of work as well. They may have families. They may need to transfer kids to/from school or drop them off at music lessons, sporting events, etc. So many people working within higher education like to keep to “normal business hours” as much as possible. Obviously, that’s not always true and I’m likely painting with too broad a paintbrush.

That said, online-based learning opens up a lot of possibilities for faculty members as well as for students. Schedules can often be opened up quite a bit. This level of flexibility is becoming increasingly important, given the prices of obtaining degrees out there. Students often need to work as well — and their places of employment don’t always provide the required flexibility.

Higher Ed’s Enrollment Fell Again This Fall, if a Bit More Slowly [Williams June]

On 10/21/2022, in business side of he, colleges, community colleges, higher education, trends, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Higher Ed’s Enrollment Fell Again This Fall, if a Bit More Slowly — from chronicle.com by Audrey Williams June

Excerpt:

New data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center provides a somber message about college attendance in the fall of 2022: Undergraduate enrollment, under severe pressure since the start of the pandemic, is still on the decline.

While the 1.1-percent dip in undergraduate enrollment this fall was less severe than the drops during the same period in 2020 and 2021, the loss of undergraduate students still hit every sector, according to the data, released on Thursday.

Also relevant/see:

The college enrollment drop is finally letting up. That’s the good news — from npr.org by Elissa Nadworny
US enrolment declines slow to pre-Covid levels — from timeshighereducation.com by Paul Basken
America’s Ph.D. Production Experienced Its Steepest Drop on Record — from chronicle.com by Audrey Williams June
According to the survey, 52,250 doctoral degrees were awarded in 2021. That’s nearly 3,000 Ph.D.s fewer than in 2020, when the number of Ph.D. recipients, at 55,224, had fallen 0.7 percent from the previous year.
College Enrollments Decline For Third Straight Year Amid Strong Job Market, Student Debt Fears — from forbes.com by Emma Whitford
As the Pandemic Wanes, All Eyes Are on Enrollment — from insidehighered.com by Liam Knox and Sara Weissman
Institutions are eager to see this fall’s enrollment numbers as they prepare to strategize for a post-pandemic landscape. The data are scattered, but some trends are starting to emerge.

Reflections on “Higher Education in Motion: The Digital and Cultural Transformations Ahead” [O’Brien]

On 10/20/2022, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Alternatives, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, colleges, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, culture, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, disruption, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, face-to-face, faculty/staff, future of higher education, game-changing environment, Google, health, higher education, ideas, innovation, instructional design, K-12 related, leadership, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, new business models, online learning, reinvent, staying relevant, strategy, student-related, surviving, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, traditional / tradition, ubiquitous learning, United States, universities, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Higher Education in Motion: The Digital and Cultural Transformations Ahead — from er.educause.edu by John O’Brien

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

In 2015 when Janet Napolitano, then president of the University of California, responded to what she saw as a steadily growing “chorus of doom” predicting the demise of higher education, she did so with a turn of phrase that captured my imagination and still does. She said that higher education is not in crisis. “Instead, it is in motion, and it always has been.”

A brief insert by DSC:
Yes. In other words, it’s a learning ecosystem — with constant morphing & changing going on.

“We insisted then, and we continue to insist now, that digital transformation amounts to deep and coordinated change that substantially reshapes the operations, strategic directions, and value propositions of colleges and universities and that this change is enabled by culture, workforce, and technology shifts.
…
The tidal movement to digital transformation is linked to a demonstrably broader recognition of the strategic role and value of technology professionals and leaders on campus, another area of long-standing EDUCAUSE advocacy. For longer than we have talked about digital transformation, we have insisted that technology must be understood as a strategic asset, not a utility, and that senior IT leaders must be part of the campus strategic decision-making. But the idea of a strategic role for technology had disappointing traction among senior campus leaders before 2020.

From DSC:
The Presidents, Provosts, CIO’s, board members, influential faculty members, and other members of institutions’ key leadership positions who didn’t move powerfully forward with online-based learning over the last two+ decades missed the biggest thing to hit societies’ ability to learn in 500+ years — the Internet. Not since the invention of the printing press has learning had such an incredible gust of wind put in its sails. The affordances have been staggering, with millions of people now being educated in much less expensive ways (MOOCs, YouTube, LinkedIn Learning, other). Those who didn’t move forward with online-based learning in the past are currently scrambling to even survive. We’ll see how many close their doors as the number of effective alternatives increases.

Instead of functioning as a one-time fix during the pandemic, technology has become ubiquitous and relied upon to an ever-increasing degree across campus and across the student experience.

Moving forward, best of luck to those organizations who don’t have their CIOs at the decision-making table and reporting directly to the Presidents — and hopefully those CIO’s are innovative and visionary to begin with. Best of luck to those institutions who refuse to look up and around to see that the world has significantly changed from the time they got their degrees.

The current mix of new realities creates an opportunity for an evolution and, ideally, a synchronized reimagination of higher education overall. This will be driven by technology innovation and technology professionals—and will be made even more enduring by a campus culture of care for students, faculty, and staff.

Time will tell if the current cultures within many traditional institutions of higher education will allow them to adapt/change…or not.

Along the lines of transformations in our learning ecosystems, also see:

OPINION: Let’s use the pandemic as a dress-rehearsal for much-needed digital transformation — from hechingerreport.org by Jean-Claude Brizard
Schools must get ready for the next disruption and make high-quality learning available to all

Excerpts:

We should use this moment to catalyze a digital transformation of education that will prepare schools for our uncertain future.

What should come next is an examination of how schools can more deeply and deliberately harness technology to make high-quality learning accessible to every learner, even in the wake of a crisis. That means a digital transformation, with three key levers for change: in the classroom, in schools and at the systems level.
…
Platforms like these help improve student outcomes by enhancing teachers’ ability to meet individual students’ needs. They also allow learners to master new skills at their own pace, in their own way.

As Digital Transformation in Schools Continues, the Need for Enterprising IT Leaders Grows — from edtechmagazine.com by Ryan Petersen

K-12 IT leaders move beyond silos to make a meaningful impact inside and outside their schools.According to Korn Ferry’s research on enterprise leadership, “Enterprise leaders envision and grow; scale and create. They go beyond by going across the enterprise, optimizing the whole organization and its entire ecosystem by leading outside what they can control. These are leaders who see their role as being a participant in diverse and dynamic communities.”

This is another area where the incredibly slow pace of the American legal system is having a negative effect [Christian]

On 10/18/2022, in 21st century, art, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, copyright/ownership/NFTs, Daniel S. Christian, innovation, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, pace of change, society, United States, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
This is another area where the slow pace of the American legal system is having a negative effect. The American Bar Association and the majority of the law school graduates (i.e., those who passed the Bar and have been practicing law in one form or another) for the last 30 years have a lot to do with this situation. They have stimied innovation and have protected their turf — at the increasing expense of the American people.

Online learning has been going on since the late 1990’s, yet the ABA STILL doesn’t let law schools have 100% online-based learning without their special consent.

Artists say AI image generators are copying their style to make thousands of new images — and it’s completely out of their control — from businessinsider.com by Beatrice Nolan

Excerpt:

OpenAI, a company founded by Elon Musk, just made its DALL-E image generator open to the public.
Artists say they work for years on their portfolios and people can now make copycat images in seconds.
But some AI companies argue that the new artworks are unique and can be copyrighted.

People are creating thousands of artworks that look like his using programs called AI-image generators, which use artificial intelligence to create original artwork in minutes or even seconds after a user types in a few words as directions.

Rutkowski’s name has been used to generate around 93,000 AI images on one image generator, Stable Diffusion — making him a far more popular search term than Picasso, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Vincent van Gogh in the program.

2022 EDUCAUSE Horizon Action Plan: Hybrid Learning [educause.edu]

On 10/18/2022, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, accessibility / UDL, adjunct faculty, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), blended learning, business side of he, change, changing business models, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, credentialing, economics, education technology, experimentation, face-to-face, faculty/staff, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, hybrid learning, instructional design, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, learning spaces, liberal arts, more voice more choice more control, new business models, online learning, pace of change, political science, professional development, reinvent, society, strategy, student-related, teaching & learning, technology (general), traditional / tradition, United States, universities, user experience (UX), vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

2022 EDUCAUSE Horizon Action Plan: Hybrid Learning — from library.educause.edu

Excerpts:

Building on the trends, technologies, and practices described in the 2022 Horizon Report: Teaching and Learning Edition, the panel crafted its vision of the future along with practical action items the teaching and learning community can employ to make this future a reality. Any stakeholder in higher education who teaches in or supports hybrid learning modalities will find this report helpful in preparing for the future of hybrid learning. The future we want is within reach, but only if we work together.

Asked to describe the goals and elements of hybrid learning that they would like to see 10 years from now, panelists collaboratively constructed their preferred future for institutions, students, instructors, and staff.

Institutions

Higher education is available on demand.
Learning is not measured by seat time.
Collaboration across institutions facilitates advancement.
College and university campuses are not the sole locations for learning spaces.

Students, Instructors, and Staff

Everything is hybrid.
Student equity is centered in all modalities.
Professional development is ongoing, integrated, and valued.

Student Preference for Online Learning Up 220% Since Pre-Pandemic — from campustechnology.com by Rhea Kelly

Excerpt:

According to a recent Educause survey, the number of students expressing preferences for courses that are mostly or completely online has increased 220% since the onset of the pandemic, from 9% in 2020 (before March 11) to 29% in 2022. And while many students still prefer learning mostly or completely face-to-face, that share has dropped precipitously from 65% in 2020 to 41% this year.

“These data point to student demand for online instructional elements, even for fully face-to-face courses,” Educause stated.

Also relevant/see:

A Surge in Young Undergrads, Fully Online — from insidehighered.com by Susan D’Agostino
Tens of thousands of 18- to 24-year-olds are now enrolling at Western Governors, Southern New Hampshire and other national online institutions. Does this represent a change in student behavior?

How to Cope With Presentation Anxiety [Lang]

On 10/18/2022, in adjunct faculty, colleges, communications, community colleges, face-to-face, faculty/staff, higher education, ideas, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, teaching & learning, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

How to Cope With Presentation Anxiety — from chronicle.com by James M. Lang
Here’s how a professor and experienced public speaker has learned to deal with the academic version of stage fright.

Excerpts:

Build a pause into the initial minutes of a presentation, so that you can stop and catch your breath. I don’t mean the kind of brief pause you might make between two sentences. I mean a substantive pause in which you are able to stop speaking — for at least 30 seconds — because you have given your audience something to view, think about, or discuss.
…
The remedy: Don’t envision yourself speaking for 45 minutes. Instead, soothe your brain and nervous system by persuading them that you only have to get through the next five minutes.

Your audience wants to learn from you. But real learning requires active thought from the learner. So use those early moments of your talk to start them thinking and take some of the pressure off you.

If We’re Serious About Student Well-Being, We Must Change the Systems Students Learn In [Klein & Liang]

On 10/18/2022, in change, Design Thinking, education, education reform, health, hearts -- matters of the heart, K-12 related, leadership, learning ecosystem, student-related, teachers, United States, youth, by Daniel Christian

If We’re Serious About Student Well-Being, We Must Change the Systems Students Learn In — from highereddive.com by Tim Klein and Belle Liang
Here are five steps high schools can take to support students’ mental health.

Excerpt:

The truth is, the best school systems in the world succeed without homework, standardized test scores or an obsession with rigorous courses. And many U.S. schools have found creative and empowering ways to showcase student merit beyond rankings and test scores.

If we aren’t willing to change policies and practices that have been shown to harm students’ well-being, we have to ask ourselves: Do we really value mental health?

Thankfully, it doesn’t have to be an either/or scenario: We can design school systems that help students thrive academically and psychologically.

Learning Ecosystems

With Google’s latest push, a blending of industry and higher ed [Ashburn]

How Wayne Brady ‘Yes, Ands’ His Way to Success [Sherry]

Reflections on “How do colleges decide when to schedule courses?” [Seltzer]

Higher Ed’s Enrollment Fell Again This Fall, if a Bit More Slowly [Williams June]

How to Cope With Presentation Anxiety [Lang]

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