How to screw up on the first day of class

This fall, I volunteered to participate in a pilot of a software package called "Blackboard Collaborate".  This software is designed to facilitate web conferencing and web lecturing for online students.  I decided to use it in my face-to-face class to capture the student questions and my responses, and then provide it to my online students in recorded form.  They were invited to the real-time session as well, but since many of the online students are working, none took me up on the offer. 

So on my first day of class and my first real experience with Blackboard Collaborate, I totally screwed up.  I spent a couple days prior to class testing the program (including finding a bug in the system).  I thought I knew what to do for the first day of class.  When I got to class, I tested my microphone.  It worked.  I started the program and tested the session recording.  It worked.  Everything looked good!  I then proceeded to talk for the entire hour about the course.  What did I forget?  Well apparently, there is a "Talk" button that allows the microphone sounds to be recorded by the Collaborate Session.  While practicing prior to class, I ran into the same issue, but apparently, it didn't sink in. 

Luckily, I caught the problem quickly and I was able to record a second version of my lecture in my office immediately after the class.  I also informed the students about the problem.

Lesson learned:  No matter how many times you test, something will go wrong when it matters. 
Second lesson:  When things go wrong, don't cry about it.  Just apologize and fix it as soon as possible.  Most people will appreciate your honesty.

Do we need classroom lectures?

After careful thought and feedback from current students, former students, other instructors, and philosophers of education, I have decided to kill the classroom lecture and kill homework assignments.  What, you might ask, am I going to replace it with?  Nothing - I'm not replacing anything.  I'm switching.  I'm going to do things backwards.  Instead of classroom lectures, all of my lectures will be recorded digitally and made available to my students to watch on their own time.  Instead of homework assignments, I will have in-class assignments.  I will present students with worksheets, practice problems, and discussions conducted in class and with my feedback instantly.  This is all in an effort to fulfill my goal of creating an environment for classroom success.

I came to this decision after considering this question: "What is the value to face-to-face classrooms?"  Certainly students can read for themselves or listen to a recorded lecture.  As long as a student has access to those books and lectures, why would they need to come to class?  Most likely because understanding the book's or lecture's concepts are not always an easy task.  Often times, questions come to mind about parts they don't understand, confusing passages, complex concepts, difficult problems, or comparisons with other ideas.  Other times, practice working with those concepts or skills help students to better learn the concepts.  Classrooms are a great oppportunity for students to ask those questions and practice those skills.  Furthermore, I can give instant feedback, rather than hours or days later.  Why then, do we spend such a little amount of time in class discussing and practicing?   Why indeed.  Often times it is pushed out into homework problems or online message boards.  While this helps, I have always wondered if there was a better way to teach concepts.

Here are some of the reasons and evidence for this change:

• One of the premiere private schools in the LA area does not assign homework.  VanDamme Academy, which turns out an endless stream of highly educated graduates, has a no homework policy.
• Many of my face-to-face students listen to my face-to-face lectures again after class.  That's right, I currently record my face-to-face lecture which I provide to my online students.  The face-to-face students have frequently chided me if I'm late in posting the lecture.  They find lots of value in re-watching it at their leasure or while doing homework assignments. 
• Schools are starting to use Khan academy to provide recorded lectures for students, with good results.
• I send my kids to a Montessori school because I believe their curriculum is solid.  Montessori education focuses on classroom materials that facilitate learning (with only introductory instruction, not lectures).  If it's good enough for my kids, why not my students?

Two great podcasts

Over the past month, I have started to listen to two great podcasts - Internet Business Mastery and Smart Passive Income.  Both deal with building website businesses, with slightly different foci, but with great content.  What I love about these two podcasts is their integrated discussions of web technologies and business.  That's right up my alley.  In fact, I see a confluence in my teaching, research, and financial goals.  Awesome.  My brain is swimming with ideas.  All I need now is to execute.

Next actions:

1. Complete business plan
2. Review business plan with Master mind group
3. Complete training concept map
4. Review concept map with other professionals
5. Research search keywords and domain names that match my business idea
6. Buy domain name and hosting service
7. Buy high quality microphone
8. Build site
9. Record killer training videos
10. Post videos
11. Market like crazy
12. Build more killer content
13. Repeat 9-12

Publishing to multiple blogs

I'm looking for some ideas.

In my web development class, I want our students to create their own blog in order to write weekly posts about class topics and in order for manipulation in later assignments.  But I would also like those same posts to appear on a separate class blog.  The class blog will consolidate all of the individual posts into a centralized location, besides providing additional resources for our students.  So I'm trying to discover the best set of technologies for easily setting up this framework. 

Requirements:

• The class blog already exists as a WordPress custom install. No decision has been made on the student blog platform, but I'm leaning towards Blogger for easy integration with Google AdSense.
• The final solution has to be a free and web based.
• It has to be easy to set up and use for my students as most of them are not familiar with web publishing yet.
• It requires minimal effort on my part.

Ideas I have looked into:

• WordPress allows remote publishing with either ATOM or XML-RPC.  So the capability should be there for some sort automated solution.
• Ping.fm does allow publishing to multiple blogs.  The down side is that it does not contain a WYSIWYG editor and may require more set up skills than the students have at this point.
• I'm still researching if FeedBurner can accomplish what I want.  It may require installation of a widget feed reader on the class blog.  Not ideal because of the time it would require of me to setup and maintain.
• Microsoft Word has attempted to integrate Blog writing into the software, but I've had difficulties getting it to work with Blogger.  I haven't tried it with WordPress.  And since Word is not web based, I would prefer to stay away from it.
• I could just require students to copy and paste posts in two places. Bad for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the time involved on their part.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

Creating an environment for classroom success, Part 2

As I stated in my last post, the goal of my web application development class is: To develop sufficient knowledge of web programming and e-commerce concepts to successfully start a career as a web developer.
How can help facilitate success in their careers?  There is the obvious knowledge component, which is a major part of my class.  However, habits and virtues can make or break the long term success of my students.  In this, Rand's ethics provides the perfect basis for developing the habits and virtues necessary.

To be successful, students need to be rational, productive, and proud.  Students must actively try to understand and integrate concepts in a meaningful manner so that they can utilize those ideas later in their career.  Rationality demands a respect for facts and a strict adherence to logic.  Abstract integrative reasoning is necessary to apply knowledge to new situations.  Students must also develop the habit of productiveness, consistently developing their knowledge in order to create web solutions to business problems.   Productiveness is not just about hard work, although hard work can often help.  Productiveness demands a focused effort to produce something of value.  Lastly, students should produce work they are proud of.  The results of their efforts should be something they want to show off - something they are excited they brought into existence - something that shows the best within them. 

Below are some of the things I'm considering in my class to facilitate the adoption of these virtues.  I'm always open to new ideas if you have them.

How can I encourage rationality?
1. Eliminate evaluations that depend on rote learning
2. Encourage abstract integrative reasoning with writing assignments
3. Require application of knowledge to real world situations

How can I encourage productivity?
1. Reward output, not time spent
2. Push them to create increasingly higher valued web solutions
3. Motivate them by keeping reality based and addressing real world problems

How can I encourage pride?
1. Give them a chance to fix their mistakes
2. Reward going above and beyond requirements
3. Do not provide a means for hiding in anonymity

While I could also identify Rand's other virtues of Independence, Justice, Integrity, and Honesty, those are often taken for granted in most classroom environments (I know... not all.  But most).  Those virtues are vitally important to success as well, but not interesting enough for me to write about today.

Creating an environment for classroom success

In my web applications development class, I have created a goal for my students: to develop sufficient knowledge of web programming and e-commerce concepts to successfully start a career as a web developer.

To achieve expert ability, evidence from many fields suggests that we need at least 10,000 hours of sustained focused practice.  Note the wording is sustained focused practice, not just experience or repetition of a skill.  Instead, it's conscious practicing toward improvement.  Although there are no agreed upon numbers for other levels, I suggest that 100 and 1,000 hours also offer plateaus in ability attainment.  At the 1,000 hours of practice, individuals establish their skills in a specialization to be fully productive in most occupations.  At the 100 hours of practice, individuals establish skills sufficient for entry level work.  By 100 hours, most employees have established the basic vocabulary and conceptual understanding to function within a domain for continued growth.  Without that basis, a new employee would be essentially worthless.  Some businesses require a new employee to have at least a little experience in this field.  Other employers might send new employees to 2-3 week training workshops (which takes approximately 100 hours).  My goal is to accomplish that within my class - 100 hours of deliberate practice.

In my class, we meet for 3 hours every week for 15 weeks for a total of 45 hours.  That means I need at least 55 more hours in out-of-class activities to reach the 100 hour mark.  The classroom activities and homework should integrate to form a complete package driving the development of conceptual understanding and programming skills for web application development.

To make this happen, I plan in class to lecture on e-commerce and web programming skills for 1 1/2 hours per week, provide exercises and lab work for 1 hour per week, and review and discuss class topics an additional 1/2 hour per week.  On their own time, students will every week read a chapter in the book for 1 hour, write two blog posts on class concepts in 1-2 hours, and complete web development assignments in roughly 1-3 hours. 

To help supplement their education, I will record all of my lectures and make them available online for later referral.  I will create short video clips on specific topics that might cause problems or that only a small set of students would be interested in learning.  Furthermore, there are numerous free web resources that will be provided to the students.  I will also maintain a Twitter feed that I will update with interesting links and commentary about current web development and e-commerce issues.

I have a number of other ideas on how to make this experience awesome, but I'm keeping a few of them under wraps for now.  It should be a good semester though and I'm looking forward to it.

Concepts in Learning

Lately, I've been rereading Ausubel's Educational Psychology (1968).  Ausubel's Assimilation Learning Theory offers one of the best descriptions of conceptual learning I have found in education research. 

Here's a quote from the book that captures but a small picture of his theory:

"Thus preschool children are likely to classify objects on the basis of nonessential, incidental features, spatial and temporal contiguity, or similarity of action and location.  During the elementary-school years, similarity of structure and function becomes a more important classificatory criterion.  With advancing age, however, as children approach adolescence and become verbal-directed and freed from dependence on concrete-empirical experience in their conceptualizing operations, categorical classification on the basis of abstract criterial attributes becomes the dominant mode of organizing experience." 

The core of his theory is on the dictonomy between meaningful learning and rote learning.  An instructor's goal should be to enable students to meaningfully learn class concepts by providing the proper materials in the proper order.  What are those necessary preconditions to meaningful learning?

1. Clear definitions
2. Must integrate with students' prior knowledge
3. Must provide relevant examples
4. Students must be motivated

While I have some disagreements with Ausubel on the particulars of motivation, these four criteria echo statements made by Peikoff in his Philosophy of Education lecture.  They also share many similarities to Lisa VanDamme's implimentation at VDA.  Objectivists interested in educational and pedagogical theory might find Ausubel's theory a good place to start.

Measuring productivity

One of my 5 year goals is to improve my productivity by 20%.  How will I measure success with this goal?   Well, the most obvious place to start is with my other two goals in Research and Instruction excellence. 

How to measure research productivity?  I could measure the number of publications per year.  I can always crank up the number of hours devoted to research.  But that does not mean I have increased my productivity.  It definitely means I have increased my time commitment, but it must be done at the expense of other values.  I consider productivity as output/input, but for me, my input is primarily time, so we can simplify productivity as output/time.  To improve productivity, I either have to increase my output in the same amount of time or decrease the time it takes to output the same amount.  Output in this case can include both quality and quantity.  My options:

1. I can improve the quality of my research - measured by publications in higher quality journals.
2. I can improve the quantity of my research - measured by the number of publications.
3. I can reduce the time it takes to complete my research - measured in the time spent researching.
4. A combination of all three.

If my current rate of research productivity is 1 average article a year, I can improve that by publishing more often, publishing higher quality articles, or continue my current publishing objective with less time invested.  While my university has certain expectations for publishing (at least 5 articles prior to tenure), I am not letting that be my benchmark.  Rather, I picked this university because their benchmark coincided with my already selected goals.  Up until recently, my thoughts were on improving on the third option, reducing time.  However, I came to a realization that the best way to reduce the time was to learn how to write and research better.  To do that, I need to consider options one and two as well.  So I have started a new research project aimed at a high quality journal.  My expectation are that the knowledge and skills learned from working on this project will help me reduce the time necessary for subsequent projects.

Instruction excellence was also an interesting.  How should I measure productivity in instruction?  For me, the output is similar to research.  I can:

1. I can improve the quality of my instruction - measured with current conceptual understanding and long-term rention. 
2. I can improve the quantity of my instruction - measured with my reach to more students.  If I can extend conceptual understanding to more students simultaneously, the more productive my instruction efforts will be. 
3. I can reduce the time to prepare the classroom environment and evaluate results. 
4. A combintation of all three.

How can I measure conceptual understanding?  Perhaps the best way is by their ability to write about the concepts, which unfortunately is difficult to track over time and very time consumming.  A new possibility, which I have been exploring, is using concept maps.  If concepts map evaluation can be automated, that will alleviate a major time hurdle.  My focus at this point is on the first, improving quality.  However, I am looking at the third optoin as well so as to enable the second.

Education bubble? I don't think so.

As a professor and parent, I read with interest claims about an "education bubble" for some time.  I use bubble in quotations, because I am not sure "bubble" is the right word, but I don't have a better one.  I see it a lot like medical care - rapidly increasing prices largely created by government interference.  ALL previous bubbles that I am aware where in products, commodities, and stocks - things that could be bought and sold.  That is not true of education or medical care.  Whatever you decide to call it, I do not see a rapid change in either the prices or the attendance in our university system anytime in the near future.

From what I understand of economics, a bubble starts in a speculative environment where something is bought with the express purpose of selling it at a higher price to someone else, rather than for consumption.  In some sense education can be seen to fit this pattern, as students speculate that the education they are buying will be worth more than the salary gain they will get for it.  And since education is a service, there is no consumption in the traditional sense.  But speculation does not a bubble make.  Whether using credit or not, students are making a calculation that the value of college is worth the cost of tuition.  If that calculation is irrational or without consideration of all the facts, it could lead to a bubble, but I am not convinced that is the case.

What about the demand?

Some sort of post-secondary education is a necessity into today's world.  That need will only increase, not decrease with time as more careers require advanced skills.  Yes, there some some careers/jobs/business opportunities that do not require that extra education.  Those opportunities are becoming fewer and farther in between.  Most people realize this, so the demand for post-secondary education will not go away.

What about cost?

College costs are going up faster than inflation, yet the output arguably is not.  Government pressures, federal grants, and subsidized loans are all helping drive up the costs (which I believe are huge mistakes for practical and moral reasons) in both private and public programs.  That certainly is a problem, but one that won't change unless our government sudden decides to reduce those entitlements.  If that stops, certainly demand will lessen, leading to a drop in prices.  In fact, a 2009 change in federal education loans directly impacted my last school's enrollment numbers.  But that does not seem to be the argument of education bubble claimants.  Their argument seems to be that, like the housing bubble, easy credit has created an inflated value of education that in and of itself will pop without a change in government policy.

When I think about this, I ask "What would happen if there was an increase in defaults on educational loans, like there was in home loans?  Would this decrease the net present value of a university education?"  Not that I can see.  This is in part because education is a service, not product.  This is a critical difference.  Because education cannot be resold (at least not in the traditional sense a product), once provided, it can not be taken away.  So one student defaulting on a student loan will not impact other students' value from education.  Unlike the housing bubble, where homes in foreclosure drive down the value of all homes, education loans in default will not drive down the value of education to new students entering a university.  How one student values education does not impact the value of education to another student.  A student who miscalculate the value of their education, taking on more debt than they will be able to repay, directly impacts their own financial situation, but does not directly impact other students who take on dept they can pay back.

As a service, universities essentially certify that their graduates have the initiative, knowledge, and skills necessary to work in a particular area (degree).  Students are held accountable to professors for really understanding the material (at least they should be), not just good at memorizing content to pass a certification.  Until another system provides that accountability, universities are the only game in town.  So we can expect a similar percentage of students going to college in the future as do today, perhaps more.  Elite colleges with high tuition, may experience a drop in demand, but given the current extremely high demand to get into those colleges, its doubtful that even a slight drop will effect the prices.  More likely, students (and their parents) will start demanding majors with greater returns on their investment.  Less liberal arts majors and more professional degrees like engineering, journalism, business, medicine, or law.

Is it possible to provide high quality post-secondary education at a much reduced price?  Absolutely.  Administration cost in many universities have lots of run for cuts.  Technology could also provide a means to reduce the number of professors.  I've been working on a solution to the latter myself, as have others.  Will it be rapidly adopted?  Depends on what you mean by rapid.  First you have to prove that a specific innovation really is better.  That can take years.  Then the proof must be disseminated into the culture.  That can take even longer.  As of now, the best medium for dissemination is the university system itself.  Could a disrupter educational model change the game?  In the computer industry, where I work, I see the vast number of certifications available in practically all IT areas.  10 years ago, some people in our industry claimed that you could get jobs with certifications alone.  Some did.  It promised to be a great disrupter to traditional university education.  That promise never came to fruition.  Could it eventually?  Possibly, but even today, most new IT workers come from the university ranks.  I just don't see it changing the cultural expectations of the university experience because certifications are too one dimensional.  If change does come, it'll be a slower 10-20 year process, not a quick 1 or 2 year change as a bubble would predict.

Because of all these reasons, I do not think there is an education bubble.  I fully expect a shift in the university system during my career, but the nature of the change will be slow.  There will not be mass movement away from colleges anytime in the near future, nor will there be a huge drop in prices without some outside influence like a new technology or a change in government policy.  It is far too ingrained in our culture for an alternative educational system to rapidly change this approach.  Even with increasing costs, there are cheaper community colleges and regional universities that do a fair job at education at prices that are affordable without large loans.  If prices do drop, it will be because universities figure out a way to educate larger numbers of students at lower prices and pass those savings on.  Perhaps something like the Khan Academy, adopted at the university level (HT to Paul Hsieh for reminding me).

This by no means I endorse all aspects of the current educational system.  I, like many of you, see many problems with this system, including the massive increase in tuition.  I just don't see a "bubble".

The Art of Nonfiction, Chapter 1

I identified three important concepts in chapter 1; 1. Non-fiction writing is a skill, 2. the goal of writing is clarity, and 3. writing problems can be overcome.

Non-fiction writing can be systematically improved through focus and practice.  While there is some debate as to the extent creativity can be learned for fiction writing, non-fiction writing does not depend on creativity.  As such, learning how to improve the skill at which I write enables me to communicate more effectively.  This makes since, as I spent 12 years in school learning how to write more effectively.  I only wish they had made the purpose of writing more explicit.  Writing can also facilitate capturing my thoughts, allowing me to refer to my ideas at a later time.  As my capacity to think improves, so does the necessity for appropriate skills to translate those thoughts unto paper.  As my thoughts become more complex, my writing should reflect that using more complex sentences, more advanced sentence structures, and a larger vocabulary.  When I go back and review my writing from college, I already witness the evolution of my writing skills.  Unfortunately, they have not evolved enough.  Hopefully, the remaining chapters of this book will help with this process.

The second concept from chapter 1 was that the goal of non-fiction writing is clarity.  At one point, Rand states that similar to fiction, where the three most important elements are plot, plot, and plot - in non-fiction, the three most important elements are clarity, clarity, and clarity.  Clarity exists on a continuum.  If I were to write gibberish, obviously no one would understand it.  As I learn to organize my thoughts on paper, the level of clarity should increase.  The optimal goal is to write as clearly as possible for maximum transfer of the communication message.  This does not mean that the recipient will listen to the message, but that is their problem, not mine.  My goal should be to make my message as apparent and complete as possible.  When writing, I should assume I am writing for someone of equal intelligence as myself but without my knowledge of this topic.  Clarity should come from improving my writing skills.

The last take away from chapter 1 is that problems with non-fiction writing can be overcome.  They should not be seen as faults with my self or self-esteem.  As with the two concepts above, I am in firm agreement.  In fact, the idea that writing problems cannot be overcome is rather foreign to me.  One of the reasons I started this project was because I firmly believe that they can be (and should be) overcome.  But apparently, there are other people who struggle with writing and then blame themselves as somehow inadequate for the task and incapable of improving.  Its hard for me to relate to that mantra in my own life, but I should be cognizant that my students could fall victim to that belief.  Now that I reflect, I do know students who claim they are incapable of learning how to program computers.  That idea is categorically false.  It may be harder for some students to learn how to program, but like writing, programming is a skill (a skill very similar to writing itself) and everyone can learn it.

How to do Abstract Integrative Reading

Inspiration flowed while reading Study Methods & Motivation Chapters "How to do Abstract Reading" and "How to do Abstract Integrative Reading".  I realized that much of his commentary mirrors what I've learned about "meaningful learning" theory proposed by Ausubel.  Besides implications for my own reading, I brainstormed how I can create class exercises for my students that would facilitate this type of reading.  My take away is that I'll spend the first day of class showing students the following process, perhaps even giving them worksheets to fill in.  I provide my own analysis to "How to do Abstract Integrative Reading" below.

1. Start with a definition of the concept you read - but state in your own words.

2. Why is the concept important?

3. Describe the concept (this is where you integrate the concept with your current body of knowledge)

4. Provide examples

1. Definition

Abstract Integrative Reading is a skill used when reading where a book's ideas are integrated into one's current context of knowledge.

2. Importance

Abstract integrative reading is critical for developing a deep understanding of ideas.  This skill makes reading purposeful and useful for thinking and reasoning.  Improving this skill will ultimately help me gain knowledge systematically while reading, allowing me to make better decisions and live a happier, more successful life.

3. Description

Abstract integrative reading includes the ability to define a term appropriately, neither too broad nor too narrow - neither too vague nor too concrete - and avoiding subjective interpretations.  Although Locke never explicitly states it, this approach to study compliments Ayn Rand's theory of concepts.  What I mean by deep understanding of ideas is that this process for reading will make sense to me on many levels.  If I can identify cause/effect relationships, similarities and differences, implications, or categories for concepts, then I can communicate those concepts with ease because I can rephrase my words depending on the context.  Its important that these concepts be integrated with one's context of knowledge because like all learning, concepts should not be floating in the ether regions or else they will fall victim to rote memorization. For example, I identified the similarities with abstract integrative learning with Rand's theory of concepts and Ausubel's Meaningful learning.  I've further integrated his suggestions into another context, my teaching, by developing this process.  Abstract integrative reading provides me with the mechanisms for meaningful learning such that readings will persist in my mind for the long-term and can be used to help me make decisions in the future. 

4. Examples

If a book provides examples, I can brainstorm my own examples that fit within the concept. 

This blog post is an example of the output from abstract integrative reading.  

Notes I take on books or articles I read help facilitate abstract integrative reading.

Popular course?

I need to be careful before emails like this go to my head.

"I recently did some research on your teaching methods by stopping by your department's office, and online.  I've came to the conclusion that you're one of the best (If not the best) IS 215 professor here at Eastern!  I would truly apreciate the opportunity to be in your IS 215 course ..."  [Bold added]

But truly, I thank Lisa VanDamme for the inspiration and Adam Reed for some of the content of this course.  I still have lots of room for improvement and hope to realize that over the coming years.

Concept mapping

Using concept maps in the classroom may offer a means of measuring student understanding and intellectual growth throughout the semester.  It may also provide me with a means of measuring instructional effectiveness... effectively.

With concept maps, its not merely enough to identify and remember concepts, taxonomies, or facts.  You need to be able to identify the relationship between them.  True understanding of concepts comes from integrating an idea with all of the other ideas in one's mind.  Concept maps provide a perfect means of capturing this integration by requesting relationships in the form of verbs.  So for example, a "table has legs".  Table and legs are the concepts.  "has" is the relationship between them.

After creating my 5 year goals, I have been looking for a way to measure conceptual understanding of material to compare instructional effectiveness.  With concept maps, I should have the means to do so.  For reach course module, I will need to develop master concept maps  - which I then compare with student concept maps as they write them.  Grading of concepts maps can be accomplished by ensuring important concepts are included, relationships between concepts is properly identified, and holistic understanding is demonstrated.  Furthermore, I can look at the average grade from a class and compare it to the average grade from other classes to determine how various techniques influence conceptual understanding.

4 article possibilities

As I expand on an article I wrote on the hierarchy of concepts in education, it occurred to me (after reading the reviews from my conference proceeding) that reviewers of most business education journals may find the article less "innovative" (and less worthy of publication) than Ayn Rand' theory of concepts really is.  To that end, I want to transition my original article into a comparison between Objectivism's philosophy of education and other dominant theories.  There are several possible directions I can take and would like your input as to which to pursue:

1. Subjective experience versus Objective knowledge
Subjective experience in education is an artifact of Dewey's philosophy of education.  My original paper could be transitioned to this relatively easily, but the contents may be a bit abstract for the journals I have in mind.  I would still have a difficult sell, but one that I believe is possible.

2. Team work versus Individual work
Team work is very popular topic in business education journals.  Team work in and of itself is not a bad thing to incorporate into the classroom, if an objective of the class is to improve communication, collaboration, and planning skills.  However, it is a poor means of building knowledge of concepts.  Relating the theory of knowledge to team work can offer some tantalizing propositions, but will require much more effort to transition the article.

3.  Academic service learning (ASL)
I've written about my experiences with ASL before and its good and bad aspects.  This topic would be a variation of the first option, but far more publishable.  But it would also require much more effort to transition the article.  In fact it would probably be better to start this one from scratch.

4. Classifications versus Cause-effect relationships
While the meat of my article would remain essentially untouched, the introduction would require some magical writing to convince readers of the problem without empirical data to support my assertion.  Essentially, I've found that most textbooks in IS focus almost exclusively on classifying technologies, nearly completely ignoring cause-effect relationships.   The lack of cause-effect relationships means principles are never addressed.  So students know what technologies are called, but not how to use them appropriately.

Of course, I could write an article on each of these topics (and may eventually), but right now, I need to take the paper I've started and get it published. Any thoughts?

Conceptual confusion

I noticed a bit of conceptual confusion with my son.  When I ask him what country we live in, he sometimes says Michigan.  Other times, I ask him what state we live in, he'll say North America or Ypsilanti.  Its apparent, he is not understanding he differences between the concepts of state, country, and city.  These ideas are simply too abstract for him to understand.  The word state to him has exact meaning.  He knows it represents some category of geography, but does not recognize the hierarchy of concepts and its placement there-in.

While the concepts of city, state, and country are difficult to understand, he can identify the shape and placement of Michigan on a map of the U.S.  We have a puzzle map of the U.S. that he and his sister love to do.  They are both excellent at doing the puzzle through shape recognition.  They can recite the names of about 6 different states.

This brings up an interesting problem with educating children about geography.  It seems at a young age (my son is 5), they can learn about the names of places where they live, but their conception of such places is so vague as to be next to meaningless.  I have tried to use Google maps and slowly zoom out from our house in order to give him perspective of the size and location.  Yet, after I zoom out further than our route to school, I can't really detect if it means anything to him.  Having children learn the names of the 50 states, country names, continent names, etc. is largely pointless at this age because these names have no meaning to him.  Where I should start?   I would think that names of neighborhood streets and nearby parks would be appropriate.  Maybe even nearby city names.  Any suggestions?

Concepts in learning

I recently ran across two educational psychologists, Ausubel and Novak, that argue for a conceptual basis for learning.  While philosophically, they differ in their definition of concepts with Objectivism, they offer an approach to learning that focuses on conceptual understanding of knowledge, the relationship between concepts and the necessity of context when presenting information to students.  This approach emphasizes the importance of "meaningful learning" as opposed to "rote learning". 

According to Ausubel and Novak, meaningful learning occurs only when new concepts are carefully defined, when examples of the concept  relate to a learner's context, and if the new concept is integrated with the learner’s prior conceptual framework.  Because learners have free will, they must be motivated to integrate the knowledge.  In rote learning, the learner memorizes the conceptual definitions or memorizes the links between concepts without real understanding.  Such rote learning is quickly forgotten.  Meaningful learning and rote learning exist on a continuum.

While I am still in the early stages of reviewing Ausubel's and Novak's research, it looks like a promising research stream.  It reminds me of the approach used at the VanDamme Academy.  If anyone is familiar with their work, I would love to hear your thoughts.

Using Blogs Networks in the Classroom

The last couple semesters I have been experimenting with using blogs in my classroom to enhance the class discussion.  My most successful experiment is this current semester.  In the capstone class for Information Systems degree, I have set up a blog where every student is an author.  I required each student to write 1 blog post every week on a topic of their choice, but something related to what is going on in class.  They could write about their confusions with class topics, about examples of class topics, about solutions to programming problems they encounter, about tools to use in class, and so on.  I require each blog post to be at least 3 paragraphs long (along with a few other content items), which naturally encourages students to put a bit of thought into their posts.  I also require that each student comment on at least 3 other student blog posts each week to facilitate knowledge transfer.  Then, during class, I review the blog posts to add to the discussion.

My findings: 
The students have on average posted outstanding material, well beyond my initial expectations.  Many posts are 4-6 paragraphs long and very well thought out.  While a few students struggled with writing blog posts on a regular basis, most of the class maintained the schedule with some exceptional performers posting well more than the minimum.  Take a look at the class blog and judge for yourself.

My understanding of why it was a success:
It allowed students to voice their concerns, to show pride in their work, to show their excitement about new technologies, to commiserate with other students (for those that were struggling a bit), and to build a knowledge network such that students quickly learned who had what expertise and who to go to for specific problems.  Whatever the occasion may be, students had a topic to write about.  I also suspect that students put time and effort to write intelligent posts because they knew other students would be reading their work, not just me.

The benefit to students:
The short nature of the blog posts allowed students to digest small nuggets of information at a time.  A blog network cannot replace a term paper or class project, as they have different purposes.  Term papers and class projects requires an in-depth analysis of a particular topic.  A blog network, on the other hand, encourages comprehension of a particular subject, without the in-depth synthesis that papers and projects require.  Ideally, both should be used.  Before students can synthesis and make meaningful evaluations of topics, they need to comprehend the concepts being discussed.  By formalizing the process of comprehension, the students are better prepared to make solid evaluations.  By making the process public, more ground can be covered since each student tackles different topics or variations of the same topic.  By requiring comments, the students make an effort to read and understand other posts.  In essence, the blog network acts as a class wide study-partner system.  Everyone in the class is a study partner with everyone else.  My interaction was largely unnecessary.

This technology is an effective tool that should be applicable to many disciplines.  While I have direct experience with only the Blogger platform, Dr. Bud Gibson, who inspired me with the blog network idea, has used various other platforms with various degrees of success.  This spring, I plan on performing a workshop on this topic at EMU's SOTL academy.  If you're in the area, stop by. 

Textbook on the Introduction to Information Systems

As I mentioned previously, I expect to gain extra time from improving efficiency and gain time after I complete re-writing my Intro to Information Systems class.  With this time and interest, one project I would like to tackle in a few years is to write a textbook that captures and facilitates teaching this class that objectively identifies the principles used in designing, building, and using information systems. Essentially, I expect for my goal to evolve from one of building my ideal course into one of capitalizing on that work. 

By considering how to capitalize on my intellectual property, I have started to recognize the necessity for marketing this class to other professors and publishers.  Besides exciting me to work harder on my immediate goal, it has prompted me to write up some of my thinking for publication and conference proceedings.  When a colleague of mine suggested writing an article for a track in Innovative Education he is chairing next year at the national DSI conference, I immediately considered writing a manuscript that argues for this new approach in Intro IS classes.  I may do the same for other conferences aimed directly at IS academics, such as AMCIS or ICIS and various regional conferences.  I will also attempt to publish this approach and any objective measures of success in relevant journals.  By demonstrating the logic and practicality of this approach, I expect to create demand for something that does not yet exist, but will.

I would also like to thank Adam Reed for recognizing the value in this approach to teaching Information Systems, for inspiration by writing his own course based on these ideas, and for his offer to collaborate on a textbook.  His excitement has in part helped me to refocus my efforts for long term success.

My first requested interview

Yesterday, I received two solicitations for interviews. Considering that no one has done this before, I was quite tickled. Apparently, a journalism professor requires his students to interview professors that have gone through the Academic Service-Learning Fellowship at EMU. I am one of those professors.

As I've stated before, ASL is a mixed bag of ideas. At first, I was a bit apprehensive about speaking to a journalism student about this experience in part because there is a real possibility that it may get published in the school's newspaper. When I speak, I speak my mind. If my views became public knowledge, it could make my experience at EMU...let's just say interesting. Considering that I have a full plate already, I really do not need the extra distractions.

However, I reconsidered. I realized that the truth about ASL should not be hidden just because it might inconvenience me a bit. If I cannot be proud of my beliefs and willing to stand by them, then by default the wrong ideas will be perpetuated. This does not mean I will be antagonistic. In fact, I will be very careful in how I choose my words so as to respect the other faculty involved. I do still have to work with them after all. But I can still speak strongly against the elements in ASL that should not be part of our education. And this I will do.

Even if these interviews never see the light of day, speaking to the students will be good practice and may - just may - help that student to see things a bit more objectively.

Dewey's wrong approach to education

"Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself. “ ~John Dewey

While in general, I am not a big fan of analyzing quotations out of context, I am familiar with Dewey's educational philosophy. So when I saw the above quote, I immediately winced. This is what is destroying our educational system.

First, "Education is not preparation for life..." is absolutely false. Education is preparation for life. That is why we have degrees that signal the end of a student's studies and a transition to the work world. Students select majors in order to learn a subject that they can later apply in their work. That is why as a professor, I approach each class as if the students will leave my classroom and use what they learned in their life. The classroom may temporarily consume a student's life, but the entire purpose of education is to prepare the students for a productive and virtuous adulthood.

Dewey would have us believe that "education is life itself". Leaving aside that this statement is confusing at best (which I believe he does on purpose), equating education with life accomplishes two of Dewey's goals, to reify knowledge acquisition and at the same time, to de-objectivize (my own made up term) concepts. If education is life itself, then knowledge acquisition through education is an end in itself. If education and life are synonymous, then our life is nothing but education and learning. When do we ever apply the knowledge? When do we act? Dewey would likely argue that the act of acting helps us to gain new knowledge. But that is not necessarily so. A person may act in the same self-destructive ways for many years. The mere act itself does not necessitate learning.

The second goal of Dewey, to de-objectivize concepts, is also accomplished with this statement. Dewey's statement rests on the assumption that life is a complex mixture of emotions, social relationships, ideas, and work. By equating life and education, Dewey proposes that education should be a complex mixture of emotions, social relationships, ideas, and work. By including the social aspects in the definition of education, Dewey attempts to de-emphasize the objective nature of concepts. He attempts to make concepts subjective in nature (de-objectivize). The blatant subjectivism makes education of objective concepts impossible.

"Subjectivism is the belief that reality is not a firm absolute, but a fluid, plastic, indeterminate realm which can be altered, in whole or in part, by the consciousness of the perceiver." ~ Ayn Rand.

If education succumbs to subjectivism, then a person will be presented with no firm or absolute concepts in which to live. They will be left with emotion filed, pseudo-understanding of ideas. Reality will always be a mystery to them and often conflict with what they "believe". This can only lead to suffering with the frequent contradictions of what they believe and the facts of reality.

Dewey's argument gains some logical plausibility because he equates "learning" with "education". But this should not be the case. Certainly, you can continue to learn after school. But "education" is a systematic program of study. A proper education helps a person to learn the conceptual skills he needs to live his life. A person may also learn some of the concepts need to live his life, without a formal education.

The correct approach to education can be glimpsed from this quote by Ayn Rand:

"The only purpose of education is to teach a student how to live his life—by developing his mind and equipping him to deal with reality. The training he needs is theoretical, i.e., conceptual. He has to be taught to think, to understand, to integrate, to prove. He has to be taught the essentials of the knowledge discovered in the past—and he has to be equipped to acquire further knowledge by his own effort." ~ 'The Comprachicos' in The Return of the Primitive

I would further recommend Leonard Peikoff's "Philosophy of Education" lecture for a sketch of a proper education based on Ayn Rand's ideas.