Michigan - Learning Ecosystems

Female scientists challenge stereotypes | Not the Science Type — from 3M.com
Female scientists challenge stereotypes and blaze paths for future generations in this 3M-produced docuseries

Excerpt:

STEM education has an access issue: let’s change that.

Around the world, people believe the we need more people in STEM careers. Eighty-seven percent of people believe we need to do more to encourage and retain girls in STEM education. At the same time, barriers remain – 73% of people believe underrepresented minorities often lack equal access STEM education.

Not The Science Type gets to the heart of access and gender inequity in STEM education and STEM fields. This four-part docuseries features four female scientists who are challenging stereotypes and confronting gender, racial and age discrimination as they rise to prominence.

Not The Science Type highlights four brilliant minds, showcasing women who break down boundaries within their fields – biology, engineering and science and technology-based applications.
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While each woman has taken a different path to pursue scientific excellence, they are bound by the common experience of feeling excluded, or “not the type” in traditionally homogenous fields.

Michigan flags 112 low-performing schools for intensive intervention — from mlive.com by Matthew Miller

Excerpt:

“These are the urban high minority districts, right? So they were the ones that had the highest death rates, the highest case rates, the highest income and economic hits because of the pandemic,” she said. “We know that all of this goes into what we label as school quality even though it’s about so much more than the school or the district.”

The full list is here >>

From DSC:
I surely hope that what’s going on in the image below isn’t what’s going on within the state of Michigan (as well as other states) — but I have my fears/concerns in that regard. Though admittedly, my focus here isn’t so much about the financial pictures, but rather it has to do with the straight-jacketing of the teachers and students by legislators in Lansing (and other state capitals). If I were to redraw this image, I would have legislators in (far-away) Lansing seated in comfortable chairs and offices while frazzled/overworked educators are straight-jacketed in the classrooms.

We have too many standardized tests and too many one-size-fits-all methods of “doing school” that aren’t coming from the people on the front lines. Those same people, given the right environment, could unleash a far greater amount of joy, wonder, relevance, creativity, and counsel — for themselves as well as for their students.
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The ‘Digital Equity’ Students Need to Learn May Not Come Without Community Outreach — from edsurge.com by Daniel Mollenkamp

Excerpt:

And that means, more than ever, getting an education requires access to fast, reliable internet. But while the infrastructure to make sure that everyone can use the internet has improved in the last couple of years, the process isn’t complete.

If we want to keep the digital divide from growing, experts say, it’ll mean districts thinking about themselves as just one part of the larger community composed of families, nonprofits, businesses—all of them potential partners in expanding internet access for students.

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Missing an Opportunity: Ed Dept. Criticized by GAO for Teacher Shortage Strategy — from the74million.org by Marianna McMurdock
In recent report, GAO finds key recruitment, retention challenges impacting the profession, and why current federal strategy lacks teeth to succeed

Excerpt:

The challenge of cost of entry into the profession and concerns of return on investment, the GAO report found, is also significantly straining the country’s supply of teachers. Compounding the financial reality, many candidates fear being overworked and mistreated.

“The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare teachers’ discontent with aspects of their jobs, including a lack of support for their safety and value as professionals and an increasingly disrespectful and demanding workplace culture—and exacerbated teacher shortages nationwide,” the GAO stated, pulling data from focus groups held throughout the pandemic.

Addendum on 12/10/22:

What is Snopes and How Can It Be Used to Teach? Tips & Tricks — from techlearning.com by Luke Edwards
Snopes is a fact-checking website that can help students in education to better navigate online media

The Justice Gap: The Unmet Civil Legal Needs of Low-income Americans

On 11/28/2022, in Access to Justice (A2J), ethics, hearts -- matters of the heart, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legislatures / government / legal, Michigan, morals/values, policy, political science, society, sociology, trends, United States, by Daniel Christian

The Justice Gap: The Unmet Civil Legal Needs of Low-income Americans — from the Legal Services Corporation

Legal Services Corporation’s 2022 Justice Gap Report provides a comprehensive look at the differences between the civil legal needs of low-income Americans and the resources available to meet those needs. LSC’s study found that low-income Americans do not get the help they need for 92% of their civil legal problems, even though 74% of low-income households face at least one civil legal issue in a single year.

The consequences that result from a lack of appropriate counsel can be life-altering – low-income Americans facing civil legal problems can lose their homes, children and healthcare, among other things. Help can be hard to access, so LSC is working to bridge this “justice gap” by providing pro bono civil legal aid for those in need. Find out more about LSC’s work to ensure equal justice for all by tuning in to the rest of the Justice Gap video series.

For more information on the Justice Gap, visit https://justicegap.lsc.gov/.

Also relevant/see:

This report was mentioned by the Chief Justice of Michigan’s Supreme Court, Bridget McCormack, at her 11/4/22 presentation at the University of Pennsylvania’s Law 2030 event.
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Buyer Beware: First-Year Earnings and Debt for 37,000 College Majors at 4,400 Institutions — from cew.georgetown.edu

Summary:

Did you know that in the first year after graduation you can make more money with an associate’s degree in nursing from Santa Rosa Junior College in California than with a graduate degree from some programs at Harvard University? Data from the College Scorecard reveal many more surprising details of post-college outcomes for students and families about that all-important first year after graduation. Buyer Beware: First-Year Earnings and Debt for 37,000 College Majors at 4,400 Institutions finds that first-year earnings for the same degree in the same major can vary by $80,000 at different colleges and universities. It also reveals that workers with less education can often make more than workers with more education, and that higher levels of education do not always result in higher student loan payments.

Speaking of Georgetown, also see:

Georgetown University partners with Coursera to launch an online bachelor’s completion program for adult learners — from blog.coursera.org

In the U.S. alone, more than 39 million students leave college without a degree. Black, Latino, and Native American students are overrepresented in this population.

SCS’s program is designed to help students of all backgrounds complete their degrees and unlock their earning potential. The degree’s most recent on-campus cohort is composed of 62% students of color and 40% military-connected learners. SCS is introducing this fully online degree to scale this program to learners worldwide.

2022 Winners of the LegalTech Breakthrough Awards — from legaltechbreakthrough.com

Categories include:

Case Management
Client Relations
Data & Analytics
Documentation
Legal Education
Practice Management
Legal Entity Management
Legal Research
Online Dispute Resolution
Contract Management
eDiscovery
Marketplaces
RegTech
Leadership

Also see:

Soaring Travel Costs Put Lawyers Back on Zoom –– from kift.com Matthew Parsons
Rising airfares and travel costs are prompting legal professionals involved in dispute resolutions to return to video conferencing.
Global Dispute Resolution: The Future of Virtual Legal Proceedings Is Shaped by Soaring Travel Costs — from matlawreview.com

With the cost of international air travel rising sharply, remote hearings are a practical alternative to in-person proceedings. International travel is expensive, and the virtual option means that it is no longer necessary to count travel as a “cost of doing business” when pursuing an international dispute. The widespread use of technology in global dispute resolution proceedings gives attorneys and their clients the option to participate remotely, which is a compelling cost saver for all parties.

Most debt lawsuits get decided without a fight. Michigan leaders want to change the rules. — from mlive.com by Matthew Miller
Excerpt:
Most of the 1.9 million debt collection cases filed in Michigan’s district courts over the past decade or so never went to trial. Usually, the defendants don’t show up to court, and debt collectors win by default, according to data compiled by the Michigan Justice for All Commission. In most cases, the courts end up garnishing defendants’ wages, income tax returns or other assets, sometimes on the basis of complaints that include little more than the name of the creditor, an account number and the balance due.

And both debt lawsuits and garnishment are more common for people living in primarily Black neighborhoods, regardless of their income.

Members of the Commission say Michigan’s rules around debt collection lawsuits don’t do enough to protect regular people, who sometimes don’t find out they’ve been sued until they see money coming out of their paychecks.

They say those rules need to change.

World-first virtual legal clinic opens for business across BC, aiming to increase affordability, diversity and reach of legal professionals — from finance.yahoo.com by Access Pro Bono

An early participant in the Law Society of BC’s Innovation Sandbox, the Clinic offers the in-person and virtual help of 25 articling students located in 15 different BC communities —from Tofino to Cranbrook— with the support of 15 supervising lawyers, four staff and dozens of local mentors. Together, they provide fixed-fee services in a wide range of areas covering everyday legal problems.

The Shrinking of Higher Ed — A Special Report from The Chronicle of Higher Education
A special report on the implications of the enrollment contraction.

Excerpt:

Nearly 1.3 million students have disappeared from American colleges since the Covid-19 pandemic began. That enrollment contraction comes at a precarious moment for the sector. Inflation is driving up costs and straining budgets, stock-market volatility is putting downward pressure on endowment returns, and federal stimulus funds are running out. Why is the enrollment crunch happening now? How are colleges responding? What might turn things around? Those are the questions fueling this special report.

A Public Regional on the Edge — from chronicle.com by Eric Kelderman
New Jersey City University’s plan to grow its way out of financial trouble backfired. What went wrong?

Excerpts:

NJCU’s story is a cautionary tale for similar institutions — small public regional colleges with ambitions to expand in a crowded higher-education market. While its real-estate dealings have drawn unfavorable scrutiny, the university was responding to challenges that face its peers, in northern New Jersey and around the country: increased competition for a declining number of high-school graduates.
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Public regional universities, like NJCU, enroll about 40 percent of all college students nationally, and a far larger percentage of minority, low-income, and first-generation students than better-known flagships and top research universities do.
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But a lack of state support, limited ability to attract students from outside the region, and sparse fund raising have made the university vulnerable to economic downturns and demographic shifts that have led to fewer high-school graduates, especially in the Northeast and upper Midwest.

Linked to in the above article was this article:

Declining enrollment has Western Michigan University on budgetary tightrope — from mlive.com by Julie Mack

Excerpts:

KALAMAZOO, MI — Western Michigan University has 17,835 students this fall, its lowest enrollment since the 1960s.

The number is down 6% from last fall. Down 27% from a decade ago, when the fall headcount was 24,598. Down 41% from 20 years ago, when WMU’s fall count peaked at 29,732.

And thanks to a declining birthrate and a shrinking percentage of new high school graduates enrolling in college, that downward enrollment trend is likely to continue indefinitely.

Rather, “what COVID did was force our hand after years of pressure created by declining enrollment and demographic trends that suggest declines will continue for the next decade,” she said. “So while COVID brought our financial situation into sharp relief, the budget cut was a measure taken to relieve pressure created over many, many years.”

A relevant addendum here:

Avoiding the Trap of Too Little Too Late — from tytonpartners.com by Trace Urdan; with thanks to Ryan Craig for this resource

Excerpt:

The challenges facing higher education are well understood: a demographic cliff of traditional-aged applicants, a declining proportion of full-pay families, and a growing skepticism of the value of (ever-more) expensive post-secondary degrees with resulting student consumerism. Add to this rapidly rising technological complexity, deferred maintenance on deteriorating physical assets, escalating administrative costs associated with student services and supports, and a burgeoning array of college substitutes, and the challenges are clear. The combination of lower tuition revenue and higher costs points toward an inevitable sector consolidation. And while many college administrators will readily acknowledge this point in the abstract, few will consider that it might apply to them.

From DSC:
I virtually attended the Law 2030 Conference (Nov 3-4, 2022). Jennifer Leonard and staff from the University of Pennsylvania’s Carey Law School put together a super conference! It highlighted the need for change within the legal industry. A major shout out to Jennifer Leonard, Theodore Ruger (Law School Dean), and others!

I really appreciate Jen’s vision here, because she recognizes that the legal industry needs to involve more disciplines, more specialists, and others who don’t have a JD Degree and/or who haven’t passed the Bar. On Day 1 of the conference (in the afternoon), Jen enlisted the help of several others to use Design Thinking to start to get at possible solutions to our entrenched issues.

America, our legal system is being tightly controlled and protected — by lawyers. They are out to protect their turf — no matter the ramifications/consequences of doing so. This is a bad move on many lawyers part. It’s a bad move on many Bar Associations part. Lawyers already have some major PR work to do — but when America finds out what they’ve been doing, their PR problems are going to be that much larger. I’d recommend that they change their ways and really start innovating to address the major access to justice issues that we have in the United States.

One of the highlights for me was listening to the powerful, well-thought-out presentation from Michigan’s Chief Justice Bridget McCormack — it was one of the best I’ve ever heard at a conference! She mentioned the various stakeholders that need to come to the table — which includes law schools/legal education. I also appreciated Jordan Furlong’s efforts to deliver a 15-minute presentation (virtual), which it sounded like he worked on most of the night when he found out he couldn’t be there in person! He nicely outlined the experimentation that’s going on in Canada.

Here’s the recording from Day 1:

Jeff Selingo’s comments this week reminded me that those of us who have worked in higher education for much of our careers also have a lot of work to do as well.

Addendum on 11/8/22:

Reflections on Proverbs 11:1

On 11/02/2022, in business, corporate / business world, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, ethics, hearts -- matters of the heart, Michigan, morals/values, parents, relationships, society, trends, United States, vendors, workplace, by Daniel Christian

11 The Lord detests dishonest scales,
but accurate weights find favor with him.

From DSC:
I thought about this verse the other day as I opened up a brand-new box of cereal. The box made it look like I was getting a lot of cereal — making it look like a decent value for the price. But when I opened it up, it was about half full (I realize some of this occurs by pushing out the box as the contents settle, but come on!). In fairness, I realize that the amount of the cereal is written on the box, but the manufacture likely kept the size of the box the same but decreased the amount that they put within it. They kept the price the same, but changed the quantity sold.

This shrinkification of items seems to be happening more these days — as companies don’t want to change their prices, so they’ll change the amounts of their products that you get.

It just strikes me as yet another deception.
We BS each other too much.
We rip each other off too much.
We bury stuff in the fine print.
Our advertising is not always truthful — words are easy to say, and much harder to back up.
We treat people as though they just exist to make money off of. It’s like Philip Morris did to people for years, and it still occurs today with other companies.
In today’s perspective, people are to be competed against but not to be in relationships with.

I hope that we can all build and offer solid products and services — while putting some serious quality into those things. Let’s make those things and offer those services as if we were making them for ourselves and/or our families. Let’s use “accurate weights.” And while we’re trying to do the right things, let’s aim to be in caring relationships with others.

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!

U-M partners with Google to offer job-ready tech skills program — from record.umich.edu by Sean Corp

Excerpt:

A new flexible online training program on data science will prepare job-seekers in Michigan and beyond to quickly enter one of the fastest-growing labor markets and advance their careers.

The Center for Academic Innovation created the program, “Data Analytics in the Public Sector with R,” for data science and other professionals interested in how public data sets can drive decisions and policymaking in the public sector. The course complements current Google career certificates, flexible online “Grow with Google” job-training programs for high-demand fields.

Also relevant/see:

Google Cloud and edX Partner to Launch Cloud Computing Professional Certificate — from prnewswire.com 2U, Inc.

Excerpt:

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Google Cloud and edX, a leading global online learning platform from 2U, Inc. (Nasdaq: TWOU), today announced the launch of a Professional Certificate program in Google Cloud Computing Foundations. The certificate will bring edX’s global community of 45 million learners access to skills that are central to cloud basics, big data, machine learning, and where and how Google Cloud fits in. Registration is open today at www.edx.org, with courses beginning November 2022.

“We are excited to launch our Google Cloud training content on the edX platform,” said Chris Pirie, Director of Google Cloud Learning Profile and Partnerships. “This partnership presents a fantastic opportunity for learners around the world to build in-demand cloud skills on a proven learning platform.”

Struggling small colleges are joining the ‘sharing economy’ — teaming up to share courses and majors [Marcus]

On 10/09/2022, in colleges, consortiums, content development, aggregation, repositories, curriculum, education technology, higher education, ideas, innovation, instructional design, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, liberal arts, Michigan, streams of content, student-related, United States, universities, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

Struggling small colleges are joining the ‘sharing economy’ — teaming up to share courses and majors — from by hechingerreport.org by Jon Marcus
Faced with declining enrollment, colleges find ways to add in-demand courses and attract reluctant students

Excerpt:

“I couldn’t say no to getting the degree I wanted from a smaller school instead of at a big university where you’re looking at 200 students in a class,” said Smith, now an Adrian sophomore.

Adrian is among a fast-growing number of mostly small, liberal arts colleges that are adding explicitly career-focused programs through a little-noticed innovation called course sharing.

It’s a sort of Amazon Prime approach to higher education that lets majors in the humanities and other disciplines, without leaving their home campuses, “stream” classes, often taught by star faculty from top universities, in fields such as coding.

“You get an Adrian degree, you have an Adrian experience, you play your sport,” said Ryan Boyd, another Adrian student who through course sharing was able to add a minor in computer science to his business management major. “But you get to take courses from Michigan and Harvard.”

From DSC:
As a person who enjoys peering into the future, I often wondered what the place of consortiums would be within higher education. Would organizations share content with each other? This article is along those lines. I will continue to pulse-check that area.

What 4 Atypical Shocks Are Coming in Education? [Gentz]

On 09/22/2022, in change, economics, education, future, game-changing environment, homeschooling/homeschoolers, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, Michigan, by Daniel Christian

What 4 Atypical Shocks Are Coming in Education? — from techlearning.com by Susan Gentz
Preparing for a potential wild ride in education over the next few years

Excerpt:

What are the 4 Atypical Shocks on the Horizon?
None of these atypical shocks should come to a surprise to anyone who understands how the market works. The team at Edunomics Lab did an excellent job succinctly predicting what these shocks will be (the extent of each shock will be unknown for some time):

* Federal funding will end: Fiscal Cliff (September 2024)
* Enrollment is declining
* Inflation and labor
* Economic slowdown (recession)

Also relevant/see:

Attendance rates drop 4% in Michigan schools compared to pre-pandemic numbers — from mlive.com

Excerpt:

As Michigan schools continue to rectify the effects the COVID-19 pandemic had on students, the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) recently announced that attendance rates have also taken a hit when compared to pre-pandemic levels.

School attendance for Michigan’s approximately 1.4 million K-12 students dropped to under 89% in the 2021-22 school year, down from 93% in the 2019-20 school year when the pandemic began.

‘Wake-up Calls’: New Parent Survey Shows 9% Enrollment Drop in District Schools — from the74million.org by Linda Jacobson
Experts urge treating the results with caution, but several of the nation’s largest districts are already reporting huge losses

Excerpt:

“These are wakeup calls,” said Jenn Bell-Ellwanger, CEO of the Data Quality Campaign. “Is there something bigger happening here that we need to understand?”

The results, she said, should prompt district leaders to “interrogate” their own enrollment data, especially at key transition points like kindergarten and middle school. If families aren’t coming back, she said, officials should ask why.

Future of Learning Council on Statewide Grassroots Strategies & Pathways — from gettingsmart.com

Description of podcast:

On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast Shawnee Caruthers is joined by Dr. Dave Richards, the Executive Learning Strategist for Michigan Virtual and a key part of Future of Learning Council, a partner that we’ve loved working alongside over the last year.

We are also joined by two superintendents who are a part of this project – Dr. Christopher Timmis, Superintendent of Dexter Community Schools and Dr. John VanWagoner of Traverse City Area Public Schools.

Arts Integration and STEAM Resources for K-12 Educators — including a new podcast!

On 09/15/2022, in art, content development, aggregation, repositories, creativity, curriculum, design, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, education, graphics, ideas, K-12 related, learning, Learning Experience Design, learning preferences, love of learning, media/film, Michigan, multimedia, music, online media, participation, passions, pedagogy, podcasting, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, skills, STEAM-related, story, storytelling, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, United States, vendors, vision/possibilities, web design and production, youth, by Daniel Christian

Arts Integration and STEAM Resources for K-12 Educators

Official Trailer (Art Works for Teachers)

Excerpt:

Introducing the Art Works for Teacher Podcast Trailer! Get a quick sneak peek at what you can expect from this new show, launching September 22, 2022. New episodes will be available each Thursday on your favorite podcast platform, on YouTube, and right here on our site.

From DSC:
Along these lines, also see WEST MICHIGAN CENTER FOR ARTS + TECHNOLOGY. Such a learning environment builds skills and creativity while supercharging participation and engagement!

Learning Ecosystems

The Justice Gap: The Unmet Civil Legal Needs of Low-income Americans

2022 Winners of the LegalTech Breakthrough Awards + several other legal-related items

Lawyers already have some major PR work to do — but when America finds out what they’ve been doing, their PR problems are going to be that much larger. [Christian]

Reflections on Proverbs 11:1

U-M partners with Google to offer job-ready tech skills program [Corp]

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