SCC BSAD 2540 Management

Hi everyone,

By now you have found my latest blog entry. As you can see it's been a few months since I last wrote a blog. We used blogging in my Master's program and it was well received by my cohort group.

What does blogging mean to me? I love it for one reason alone, grammatical issues are not relevant. A blog is described as "non-directional writing." So what does that mean? I refer to it as a random stream of thoughts that have some similar meaning to the author, but not necessarily to the readers.

Most of you have probably noticed, typing is not one of my strengths. That is why I love blogs. An author can touch on so many topics without transitions and be completely decrypt. A lot of bloggers comment on current issues with links to the news stories they are offering opinions one.

I read several blogs daily. I am an avid sports person, so naturally I read a lot of sports blogs. One thing I have noticed is how often blogs are updated since they are not held to the same criteria feature stories are held to. Perhaps some of you read blogs often, but just didn't realize they are blogs. The great things about blogs is people can offer up comments to yours.

Hope you enjoy this week's discussion forum.

Doug

P.S-if you want to read some of my posts from my graduate program (don't know why you would) feel free.

At a Crossroads.....

Where do we go from here? This academic endeavor started a little over a year ago has quickly come full circle. We started with twelve and ended up with ten. Thousands of posts (not all of them actually read), hundreds of hours reading and researching, and countless hours on the Internet, our experience is coming to an end. Jessie La Cross asked me this morning if I was going to continue blogging? I couldn't give her a definitive answer. Is anyone in the class going to use some of the components we discovered in this class? Will Windows Movie Maker ever be applicable again? It's hard to say one way or the other, but if you don't have an excuse to use it, it's easier for an individual to use that as a legitimate excuse.

I'm not going to sit around and pat myself on the back for this accomplishment because the bigger picture is about 60% complete. I will be moving on for a PHD from North Central University in what appears to be January. There is one small problem I must figure out between now and then. How am I going to pay for it? Looks like my career in bartending will continue to grow rather than expire as I had hoped in it might.

My passion from this experience has given me the strength to consider alternative employment in the educational sector. I might continue my duties at SCC in another role, perhaps move out of the state, or end up back in a corporate setting. The one thing I do know is that I don't think I am long for my current situation. I have an appetite for online learning and to play a critical role in that development. For now, I will have to settle for being an online instructor in one of SCC's Principal's of Management classes.

Onto the questions
What comments and/or suggestions do you have about the seminar experience?
First and foremost, the seminar experience was a good one. It was a great way to wrap up the course. I might suggest doing the seminar leadership before the class creation project, It can work either way. One thing I can testify to is how difficult it is to lead a seminar online. It has obvious advantages and disadvantages. The most obvious observation being 100% student participation. You might not be so luck in a classroom. It's not as easy to hide in an online classroom as opposed to an actual classroom.


Did the format work for you?
The format is what drew me to the program. I travel a lot in the summer and this worked perfect. I did homework from another country, on the beach, in the car, and other places. This has to be a preferred method for working adult students. The PHD Program is going to be the same format as this program. If I wait for the cards to fall into place, I might not be able to begin that process for years to come.

In general, do you think seminars work well for adult learners?
Seminars are complex and you need to have a proficient level of academic maturity among students in order to conduct a successful seminar. The only suggestion I would offer is letting students define the weekly objectives.

I want to take a minute to thank and congratulate all the member of the GMIT group. We had some hot conversations at times, but everyone worked well in this program. If our conversations got heated, that's good because it shows growth in education.

I am going to sign off on this blog, who knows, I might jump on here in a week, or maybe not again. It's kind of like an anticipation for a bad sequel.

Good luck everyone, I know the choices and paths you enter will only lead to greatness for everyone. I also wanted to give a hearty THANK YOU to Pat Artz. This past year has really changed my outlook on a lot of things and given me a new professional persepctive I never saw coming. I hope there is another GMIT cohort, the students would be lucky to have and share the experience we just concluded!

Ethics vs Morals....

I wanted to drop a quick blog on the 660 topic this week, ethics. I work a part-time job that deals with a lot of college students, some of which are SCC students. Anyway, I was talking with an SCC student about our online classes. The first thing she said to me really struck me. She mentioned she really wanted to take some of her classes online because they are "really easy and you can cheat." I think I paused for 90 seconds before I opened my mouth. I had to ask why she was so convinced on her assumptions. She answered with the ever popular notion that you can use your book during tests and even have someone else participate for you. I have heard all of those arguments before, so I moved onto her "easy theory".

She mentioned all the normal conveniences, no class, easier assignments, and no teacher. I asked her if she thought about how much work actually goes into an online class and that many times the students end up working harder in these classes.

To make a long story short (too late), you have a twenty year old college sophomore looking to take classes based on self perceptions that they are easy and a student can easily cheat. Where did she go wrong? Maybe, she didn't take a wrong turn, she's just driving down the same road as everyone else?

Should student's morals take precedent here? Shouldn't it be assumed that students should just know better? Where do they learn the "know better" concept? When you actually think about it, it's down right startling to think about the perceptions and practices of our younger students.

I wanted to conclude with the Pete Rose story. For those of you who don't know Pete Rose, he's Major League Baseball's all-time hits leader and a sure fire Hall of Famer. There is only one problem, Rose bet on baseball when he was a manager. First, he denied this action, but accepted a lifetime ban from the game. Later, he admitted he did bet on the game when he was set to release a book. I am sure sales had nothing to do with the timing.

The bottom line is this, Rose thought he wasn't doing anything wrong because he was betting his team would win. He is a student of the game, shouldn't he know the ethics of the game. His personal morals are a separate issue, but I don't think he can blame his situation on a gambling disease.

Genuine Development

What a way to wrap up the book. This chapter was by far the simplest to comprehend, interpret, and relate to. I wanted to reflect on a few observations the text mentioned this week.

-There are several types/areas of development. Development includes intelligence, cognition, social roles, moral understanding, and identity. I would want to add that development is also physical. Most people would say that is obvious, but physical development is a direct correlation of the other attributes mentioned above.

-Multiple Developmental Pathways. Development can AND will take alternative routes. This is the biggest obstacle for instructors. It only proves that they are not teaching ONE curriculum among a class of 30, but thirty development factors among one class. So, would that make it a class of 60?

Development Theories
1. Encouraging students to call on and reflect on their experiences. That is really what this quarter has really been about. Some people might argue this quarter's classes have been opinion based, but really they have been a tremendous tool for learning. It's called development.
2. Peer groups and review. I don't one person in this program would ever underestimate the significance and importance of this process.
3. Exposure to conflict and its resolution. I am not saying people threw down their gloves and duked it out, but this week has been an eye opener with ethical conflicts. Ethics will always continue to present conflict, some of which might not be able to be resolved.
4. Recognizing student achievements. We have a wonderful group of complimentary cohort members.
5. Placing students in situations requiring new responses and action. Blogging! Enough said.
6. Providing students with relative freedom (internally and externally) and encouraging them to take risks. Pat has taken us down a technological pathway none of us ever envisioned. It's been a fun and exciting ride.

Next weeks blog entry is really going to be a fun one. I have been thinking about the future a lot lately, but I want to save all of those thoughts for next week's Crossroads blog.

See you then.

Community College Relationships......

When you first look at the title of this blog, you might think it will be based on the faculty/support staff relationship a community college has with its staff. That would be half true, it will touch upon that direct topic, but I wanted to cover a number of things in this week's blog.

Kathy Zabel took the baton this week and did another outstanding job. She found a great article about the personal relationship of teachers and students. She posed the question, "what type of relationship should a teacher/student have?" Okay, it wasn't word for word, but KZ asked whether students and teachers should have a friend-friend relationship within the classroom. my opinion on this matter was an overwhelmingly, NO! I can't say there was an majority answer on either side. My personal thought is higher learning needs designated roles. Teachers need to know that their relationship with a student is a direct reflection on the outcome of the student. If a student and instructor maintain their designated roles, the contingency of the of the student's classroom experience is more likely to be positive.

Here is one for the rest of the cohort. Pat addressed the discussion board and asked an ethical or role question of why students no longer engage in a social setting after a long academia endeavor. Now, there is talk about a social gathering among the cohort after the GMIT series is completed in a couple of weeks. Based on this set of scenarios, is a cohort member going to invite Pat? If so, is he going to accept? I found this topic fascinating and the timing impeccable. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds.

I have a suggestion to Pat for the next series of GMIT classes and I have to credit it to KZ. When the next cohort members reach the 650/660 classes, each student should come up with their own objectives for their seminar leadership week. I think that might be the most difficult part of the week's assignments. It's just a suggestion and I think it would be a nice touch after our final project from last term.

The great thing KZ does for the rest of the cohort is she sets a standard of measurement, I mean besides the class rubric assigned this term.

Learning Objectives:
Compare traditional education and adult education in the area of relationships between students and instructors.
Discuss how community college instructors constrained by accreditation practices can effectively distribute power to their learners.
Share your biggest annoyance, fear, or guilt as you establish teacher-student relationships and what your advance plan is to address it.
Discuss the electronic relationship between teachers and learners.
Explore instructional technology resources at cognitivedesignsolutions.com.
Discuss how the teacher-learner relationship can influence student success and retention.

After reviewing KZ's objectives, I would have to say she did an outstanding job. In fact, Pat might want to make the article she chose as a scholarly reference a must read in the next cohort.
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Enquiring Minds Want to Know!!

Community College prospectives are always a hot button at SCC. It was good to see the cohort members on their best behavior regarding their comments on the college. I don't suppose it wouldn't have anything to do with the fact it is now July and we have not seen a letter regarding our 2007-08 employment and salary increase. I know it's a formality, but it has to be somewhat discouraging the letter haven't shown up.

Jessie LaCross and Al Allen did a great job this week. In fact, the three seminar leaders this week are the most active in the discussion boards. I was pleased to see Jessie was one of the leaders this week because she is commenting on this topic as an adjunct faculty. She is the only member in the cohort that a full-time benefits employee of the college. That does not mean she is less involved on the topics at hand, but she always does not have to go through the motions of LRP's, performance reviews, and staff meetings. In essence, she has the best of both worlds: she's gets to teach and do it without cutting through the red tape.

Al and Jessie gave us another great week of personal experience and theory based questions in the discussion boards. It's a funny thing, the three of us that have not taught at the college in any capacity has decreased by 66%. Al has become an adjunct instructor and I have started to drink the teaching kool-aid as well. **(Did you know kool-aid was invented in Nebraska?)

After I read the Johnson CC assessment article, I forwarded it to our Vice President of Academic Instruction for a couple of reasons. JCC is reasonably close and considered a competitor and I wanted to see what his response was in regards to what we are doing for assessment. I will have to wait for another week to get his response because he is on vacation.

I would not consider myself an expert on assessment, but this past few weeks has really made me curious as to what SCC is doing in this area. I have to remember to be to inquisitive on this topic, I wouldn't want him to think I am questioning his job. Before I know it, my letter will never show up. What's the saying in that old annoying commercial, "Enquiring minds want to know!"

Happy 4th of July Everyone!!!

A Non-directional Approach....

This week I have been looking at my fellow cohort’s blogs. I mean I have really been looking at what they have written the past few weeks. As the 650 class has slowly chewed up and spit out endless counts of theory, the class has taken a large step forward into adult learning. This week was not absorbed with theory overkill, it was plain and simple.

As my fellow classmates shared their previous academic student/teacher experiences with the rest of the class, I thought about this whole “blog” exercise a little bit more. Can you have critical thinking and assessment in a “non-directional” journal style? What does non-directional mean? If it’s mass confusion and incoherent thoughts, then I am on the right track. I have a hard associating assessment and critical thinking with a “non-directional exercise.”

Rex asked a great question in his week six blog. “Is it a blog if no one reads it?” That question has a lot of legitimacy to it. If you wanted to answer that by saying a book is a book because it’s published and therefore it does not have to be read. Getting published on the internet is not quite the same as getting published via press. In fact, it’s night and day.

On to the seminar reflection:
This week was probably the most enjoyable because it wasn’t so theory based. It’s difficult to read a few summarized versions of some of the greatest academic researchers of all time and then translate years of their work into a few pages. This week was pretty cut and dry, adult learning! Jessie really posed some interesting questions in the discussion boards. She used two popular forms of assessment, observation and reflection. She asked the cohort to reflect back on our days as a student and reflect upon our experiences in classroom participation methods.

Jessie used the term “reeseen” this week. Other than the grammar issues, this term really caught my eye. Interviews always ask the question, “How do you see yourself….?” What the interviewers fail to ask is how the interviewee has reflected on that vision, measured the process, and readjusted their rationale. As life long learners, I would more interest in the second question than the first.

I wanted to thank Jessie for the opportunity she gave the class to do some personal reflection in the discussion board. Besides, reflection is a part of critical thinking, assessment, and adult learning.

Practice vs. Skill......

Does disagreement facilitate critical thinking? Hopefully learning facilitates critical thinking, but this week a disagreement really prompted me to think critically. One of our cohort member stated that a person can be as good a writer as anyone as long as they put in enough practice. Several members of the cohort agreed with this opinion and naturally I was left standing on the other side of the fence. The example I gave was in regards to the recently passed Major League Baseball draft. I stated that thousands of collegiate and high school baseball players are drafted and less than one-percent of them will ever reach the major leagues. Sure, with practice, people can achieve greater heights than anyone anticipated, but at the end of the day it comes down to a certain skill level. Shouldn’t the fact that these baseball players already have logged hundreds of hours of practice, yet less than one-percent of them will ever reach their life long dream.

If it was true that anyone can be as successful as they want to be by practice, than the world would be filled with lawyers, doctors, and professional athletes? Essentially, I could be a professional football player if I wanted to? Wrong! Practice is only part of the equation to succeed. The rest consists of physical make-up, determination, lucky breaks, and yes, skill. Perhaps the first part of the previous sentence is where the difference of opinion occurs. What degree are we measuring success by, personal fulfillment, self-satisfaction, or the ultimate fantasy? A disagreement can be as simple as interpretation of the desired outcome.

This week’s articles on assessment covered two really important themes:
1.) There are many different ways to conduct assessment. Some of them work wonderfully and others maybe flawed. The bottom line is that assessment must be done often and without it, it’s impossible to define the quality of education an institute credits its students with.
2.) The time frame and content that is associated with an assessment. Some of the questions this week dealt with cumulative scores of designated tests for assessment while others posed questions on time frames and of conducting assessments.

I have researched how often specific programs should conduct assessment and they answered about the same, “as often as possible or whenever necessary.” The bottom line is that there is not a specific map or book that issues a suggested method. Some of the research I saw concluded that assessment is not conducted as much as it should be. I posed the question, “shouldn’t we be assessing the way we conduct assessment?”

The reason I suggested this question was based upon an article I read about new program assessment. Some colleges wait as long as five years to conduct a follow-up assessment after the program’s inception. I was perplexed by this thought. Shouldn’t a new program be open to annual assessment? Even for a year? Then again, SCC’s Continuing Education Division has gone over ten years since its last formal assessment. Like I said, there are some varying degrees on the interpretation of how often assessment should be conducted. Maybe too long!

Hats off to the Kelly and Gina D. for an outstanding week of seminar leadership. The questions they posed on the college assessments compare and contrasts were great. In fact, their questions could easily have posed as group case studies. They both showed a great deal of critical thinking in preparation for this week!

Learning to learn to learn.....

Remember when we constructed our online courses? How about when we incorporated multimedia files in education? What about blogging? The bottom line is those are all things we learned about and then executed. This week's chapter posed an interesting question, "what does it mean to learn to learn." I would attribute the "learn to learn" concept to a couple of actions, comprehend and execute. I don't think learning can transpire without action. If it's a two step process, wouldn't we call it "learning to learn to learn?"

The reading this week discussed a necessity for learning, autonomy. There are three types of autonomy: intellectual, emotional, and moral. Naturally, I paired moral autonomy with ethics. Although ethics were never mentioned directly with moral autonomy, the characteristics are clearly identifiable. Decision makers with a high sense of moral autonomy must exercise personal and professional ethics when developing young minds.

Autonomy in the student-teacher relationship is a give and take. Instructors take the autonomy given to them and share with their students. Without autonomy, students are less likely to develop their social and intellectual abilities.

Autonomy at SCC is even more powerful. If you lack autonomy, it's going to be very challenging to make a dramatic difference. In Continuing Education, a support staff member (my title) has no freedom to develop program curriculum without autonomy. If you cannot develop curriculum, it's pretty difficult to develop students. Let me refer to my "learning to learn to learn" equation. If I have never developed curriculum, don't I have to "learn" how to do it first? Unless I can prove I have relevant experience in the development process, does that discredit any curriculum I have assisted to development?

The bottom line is this, if someone wants to make a difference, they must have a proven track record, skilled know how, and level of authority to do any type of development.

I promise I will let go of these Yogi Berra blogs next week. I read two many blogs that think they have to incorporate as many Journalistic rules as possible. I guess it's all running together.

Raising the Bar......

I posed an interesting question at the end of my week two seminar reflection. The question was related to the quality of work fellow co-hort memeber will put out over the next eight weeks (remember, I asked this in week 2). This week KZ did conducted what I consider the best student led seminar this quarter. I think KZ used the best combination of interactive media, thought provoking questions, and scholarly articles in any of the weeks. I am not discrediting any of the previous weeks seminar leaders (heck I led two myself), I just came away very impressed this week.

I like to pride myself on the ability to ask thought provoking questions, but KZ asked the most thought provoking question I have encountered this quarter.

The appendix at the back of your text has examples of 5 rubrics beginning on p. 121 used to assess learning goals in the University Studies Program at Portland State University. Look at them and take a moment to be overwhelmed. Now here is your question. You are on the assessment team at your college. Each program (Radiography, IT, Early Childhood Education, Medical Assisting, Media, Continuing Education, Fire Science, etc.) must assess themselves on a yearly basis. You would like the team to consider the use of rubrics for the individual programs. Each program would have the same basic format of rubric with some modifications for program differences. Let’s hear your explanation to the assessment team of why your college programs should use rubrics for assessing their programs. Describe some of the dimensions that might be included in the program rubric.

I am going to assume I was not the only person blown away by that question. It did not draw a student response until Saturday. When I finished my response I was not sure if I had answered the satisfactory. The question asked for specific characteristics and my response basically said this question was not applicable in my current situation. When someone poses a question of "how can" and you get a response of "you can't," is that an open-minded, practical answer?

This concludes our textbook on rubrics. I wanted to finish this blog with some thoughts I have on rubrics.
-When I first read the preface of the book, I thought this book was going to shove Portland State's ideas on them down our throats. I was wrong, the book provided great information and objectivity.
-Every coin has two sides. I was constantly in search of the opposing view of using rubrics. Turns out there isn't an abundance of information on this topic. I am glad my fellow cohort members share the same skepticism as me; meaning rubrics are great as long they are used correctly and in the right situations.
-Although the term rubric is new to me, I have encountered them in many stages of my academic development. Many past teachers were using them already, they just may not have known it.

The Pieces of the Puzzle....

Have you ever spent hours putting a puzzle together? How many times did you want to quit because it just got too frustrating? Once it was finished, weren't you glad you hung in there and finished it? That is the best analogy I could use for my comprehension of rubrics. I think the material this week has brought my understanding of rubrics full circle. I even went all out and read the eight page chapter on external sources using your rubric for grading. Over-achiever, I know.

The more I read this book, the more I like it. At first, I thought we were going to become experts on building rubrics at Portland State. The two-sided opinions of the book continue to amaze me. I am not used to brutal honesty in academic writings. If the rubrics are inappropriate for certain situations, it tells you. The readings aren't try trying to sway the reader, they just want to give us a heads up of what we are heading into before we jump in the pool. The book truly is an introduction to rubrics which might be a little elementary for a graduate level class. Not this one.

I thought the exercise using the SCC Online rubric was brilliant. The rubric is not meant a simple class, it's for the entire college. When you consider we have over 175 online classes, this is a pretty important resource.

I would like to thank Fran for a great job on the scoring rubric information. Perhaps the SCC Online rubric should carry that title. Many cohort member pointed out some potential flaws with the SCC rubric. If we can see them, is it time to revise? That leads to another question, how often is that rubric updated?

For novice rubric people like me, the information this week was great. I enjoyed to see the different approaches our faculty are using in their classes. I asked a question regarding our very first GMIT 510/520 assignment, Did Pat attach a rubric when he handed back our individual papers? I think it would be a great assignment for us to go back and look at the rubric he used and how the feedback was portrayed. Just a thought.

What's half of ten? Five. Five down, five to go!

Socially speaking......

Have you ever been on a roller coaster screaming your lungs out, traveling at outrageous speeds, and then all of a sudden it stopped? Up-side-down! That is how this week has felt. I have been through four states and three times zones over the past several days and it feels like I can't stop. This week reading in GMIT 650 was a great one for this cohort because it dealt with a lot of the social characteristics people in this class encounter. We have a pretty large range in age among our adult learners in this program. I was glad to see none of them view themselves as "golden year" disciples, especially after last weeks article on menopause.

Hats off to Rex for week well done. I really liked the questions and articles he found for us. The flash file was great. I was wondering who would be the first person to use multimedia as a resource rather than a website.

Believe it or not, this was a week I really enjoyed the reading. The content was easy to comprehend and very applicable to me personally. I wanted to conclude this week's blog with my interpretation of Minois' view on social organization influences the social status of the old.

1. Extent of state protection. Has this ever been more correct with the cost of health care, possible reduction of social security, and layoffs in this country

2. Strength of oral tradition. In order to to look to the future, we must first look to the past!

3. Valorization of physical beauty. Experience and knowledge are inner beauty, not external.

4. Extended family. No kids, but one extremely supportive wife.

5. Creation of movable wealth. It helps when someone else picks up 66% of the tab.

Discussing the Discussion Boards

There is a time and a place for everything! Right? This week it was brought up that some cohort members (yes, me) were being disrespectful to the seminar leaders because the conversations and replies took a life of their own. First of all, I think there are two kinds of disrespect; intentional and unintentional. I never meant for my replies to be "disrespectful" to our seminar leaders and fellow cohort members. I always thought I was contributing to the topic at hand. There is one thing we all have in common on the discussion boards, we all work at SCC and I would have to think that factor is going to carryover to the discussion board, especially since we are all students in an academic environment.

Raise your hand if you have gotten off topic once throughout this entire GMIT venture. I hope everyone raised their hand. I have to admit that I am not as inclined to hit "reply" and jump in on the conversations this week. If we are supposed to stay on track, should there only be ten reposnses per question? I will be really curious to see the total number of replies on the 660 board this week compared to the previous four. After all, there is a time and place for everything and I hope a "blog" is an appropriate forum to discuss a topic such as this!

A Two-Way Mirror.......

(seminar reflection)

After successfully leading a seminar in what I consider to be a more complicated text, I thought this week would be a breeze. WRONG! I felt as though I was looking into one of those fun house mirrors. The image looking back at me did not look at all like me, but I knew that image was in fact me. One thing I've noticed in both classes is that the conversation is turning into a lot opinion. That is good because people should share their experiences. Now, people are countering questions with sources and answer questions with articles. It's information overload. As students, we have read more material in the first four weeks, then the previous three quarters.

Resources and questions

I think the chapter was easy to comprehend, but somehow I just felt I couldn't get a grip on the discussion board. I appreciate the fact that Kathy Zabel pointed out that one of the suggested sources was NOT applicable to online classes. She was dead on. The only thing the resource referenced to online rubric construction was in the name. I countered KZ's comment with a couple of good online rubric models. I assume they were good because I just noticed they are being used in Fran's week five seminar.

During my first seminar I offered an applicable question for cohort members to answer based on their experience as student/instructors or both. I definitely think I had more success with the first time around. The situation I used this time was not as effective because it just feels like it did not spark an intense intellectual forum. Students answered the question and then moved onto the next. One thing I have noticed it the amount of discussion between the two classes. It seems the GMIT 650 class is drawing far more postings. Is it because people are so used to posting to one discussion board? Maybe. I would attribute it to the material in the 650 class. There is a ton of information there and a lot of room for conversation.

"How much is too much?" Is there anymore overused cliche than that one? I hate that particular question. I think I rebounded nicely with the references for online rubrics. I was hoping for a little more reflection from the class on personal rubric construction in their classes, but the overwhelming responses were about their kid's experiences.

I really wanted to present the "other" side of the coin this week. I spent hours reading through articles trying to find some facts on the negative effects of rubrics. It appears there isn't much of a market for that. The article I did find discussed some areas of flaws, then it contradicted itself and praised them. Rex concluded this resource the best way, rubrics should be used in applicable situations and every case is different.

Leadership

There is a reason I went first and am the first member of the cohort to have my seminars done, I don't mind going first and trying to set the standard for the rest of the class. I had a difficult time inciting rubric conversation because I don't feel I have a lot of experience to bring to the table in this case. Leading is much easier when you are an SME or at least some degree of experience with the subject. Not having either, I had to work that much harder.

Learning Experience

You always hope students come away with some credible knowledge. With all of the resources being offered up, I don't see how one person cannot come away with some new found knowledge. The text is doing a nice job building on the rubric material and that is what I was hoping to accomplish this week. One of the questions I chose asked for instructors to explain their class rubric experiences with the rest of the board. That didn't turn out the way I hoped. There is all kinds of learning going on within the class. We are learning about each other, our professions, SCC, and our selves as we take the reigns of classroom leadership. It's a continuous process and may not be what Pat envisioned, but my motto is if you learned something from a particular situation (good or bad) than nothing is a waste of time.

Format

My thoughts on this format have not changed since my week two seminar. When I tell people that I am almost done earning this degree, working two jobs, and conducting a semi-social life their reaction is amazing. "When do you go to class?" Simple, I don't! It still amazes me people are not aware of how rapidly online education is becoming available. I was talking to my great-uncle last night about this program and he wasn't exactly sure what I was referring to. He mentioned that the University of North Carolina is considering starting online degree programs. I wanted to correct him, but felt there was no need. BTW, he has PHD in Statistics and writes text books for NC State.

I have to ask, is this a generational thing? I carry the label of "techie" on the discussion boards and some people might consider me to have an advantage over some of the others. I think they have the advantage over me. There is no amount of technological knowledge that can overcome years of experience in the classroom. Man, what I wouldn't do to add that to my resume. After all, it's not about how a text book was assembled, it's what is written inside it that makes a difference.

See you in week 5!

An Intellectual Pool...

I'm drowning, in a pool of intellectual knowledge. This week's reading in the "Learning and Change" book were extremely challenging. I think Jessie summed up the challenge the best, each chapter taps into the research of adult learning authors. The text translates their highly recognized work into a coupe of pages. When you look at that equation, it's certain to spell confusion and doom to introductory readers like me. I don't see how it's possible to take a lifetime's worth of research and work and then translate it into comprhendable material, especially in a few pages. Would a PHD student be able to sum up their dissertation into a blog? No! The text teases the reader with a summary of each author's academic history. The descriptions are great, but can I accurately look at the reading and gain a full understanding of the material? I hope not, because if I am supposed to, I'm not!

I can relate part of my struggles to the simple fact that I am not a theory developed learner. I understand one of the biggest keys to comprehension is gaining a understanding of the initial findings and then build upon those finding. I am not a good "theory development" learner. One of the quotes I often refer to is "live in the 'is' and not the 'was'. A student could spend a lifetime investigating and comprehending the author's work. The introduction to each author's work is an incredible task to take on.

The resources for this week were as good as I have ever seen so far. Props to the cohort leaders for providing outstanding examples for these difficult areas. I am a charts and graphs kind of guy. I like the fact you can see all of the authors listed on a chart and then find all of the summarized information. It's a great way to begin a compare and contrast angle or serves as a great reference tool.

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Chapter four took the information on rubric construction and added student participation to the back end of it. I thought the text did an outstanding job in its description of the five rubric models. I was surprised to read the pros and cons on the model descriptions. The text was very forthcoming about what could potentially happen (positive or negative) if a model is used in certain situations.

The most glaring conclusion I took from the readings was the level of work for the instructor and students. I thought the pass-the-hat and Post-it models incorporated a lot of work from the students and not as much work from the instructor. I wouldn't call it these models an easy way out, but they both involve a tremendous amount of work from the students. Since the instructor is key to the successful development of a rubric, I am not a particular fan of rubric models that have a high level of student involvement.

I don't want to touch an awful on on this chapter because I will do so in my seminar reflection (to be posted Monday) Stay Tuned!

A rubric on rubrics

For novice rubric people, like me, it can be difficult trying to explain an exceptional instructional tool like a rubric. When podcasting in education was introduced I thought a simple way to demonstrate the concept to the faculty was easy, a podcast on podcasting. People get an information and demonstration all in one viewing/listening. I wanted to simulate this type of translation with rubrics. After all, what's better than a

rubric on rubrics? (www.odu.edu/ao/ira/assessment/toolbox/rubrics%20rubric.doc)

It's not in my nature to think negatively about something, but after a while I have to begin to wonder. Most people are familiar with the phrase, "if it's too good to be true, it probably is." That is the assumption I have fallen under with rubrics. All I have read is how wonderful a rubric is and they will clear up all misconceptions in assignments. Is it possible for something to be this effective, probably not? This might be the exception to the rule though.

I really enjoyed the responses people gave on the assignment creation. The number one choice of "Why did you choose to create this assignment" seemed to be the dominat repsonse among the dicussion board. It makes sense though, if you can't answer that question, maybe you shouldn't be creating assignments to shape learning minds.

I will be conducting the week four seminar and I wanted to provide the class with an alternative view on rubrics. I found an article that talks about some of the flaws rubric might encounter. See, they aren't perfect. I am not trying to dissuade my classmates opinions, but I wanted to see some of the arguments against rubrics. I will elaborate more on this after the week four seminar reflection.

***Editors note. I just had to post that picture.

I'm no Expert, but........

I am glad the text decided to tackle this subject this week. After reading the criteria the text refers to in its equation to defining an expert, I can assure everyone that I am no expert on this matter. When I watch the news, I can't help but pay close attention when news anchors interview "supposed experts" in a particular area. Is it credible to call anyone an expert at anything? Is that particular person so correct all the time that they earn the title of expert? If you answered "yes" to the first two questions, then it's safe to say there are "experts on being an expert?"

The one thing I could easily relate to is the fact that experts must excel in their own area of comfort. For the life of me, I don't know how a person can be labeled an expert on particular subject area if they lack real life experience in that specific area. Let me give you an example.

Brad Daugherty is a former NBA all-star player. He played 10+ seasons in the NBA and then went on to become a college basketball/NBA analyst for ESPN. Now, I see him on ESPN's Nascar coverage and he is referred to as a Nascar "expert."
Every time I see him on television, I ask myself, "How is this guy a Nascar expert when he has never set foot in a car during competition? He's been on record and states his "genuine love and passion" for the sport, but does that make him an expert? I love baseball, but I don' think anyone is going to label me as an "expert" on the subject.

I wonder who was coined the first "expert."

Seminar Reflection.....

I have always been comfortable in a leadership role, but this week took a turn on its own for many reasons. The most difficult thing about being the first student to lead a seminar is setting the standard of comparison. I had a difficult time trying to determine the exact role I should play in this week’s discussion. There was one particular question about how many or which assignments a student should partake in. Although, I was the seminar leader this week, that question was for the instructor. If Pat really wanted to make this week difficult, the seminar leader could have issued critiques of other people’s work. This would have been very difficult because the seminar leader would have to teach someone else's curriculum and they would have to use their rubric for grading purposes. Perhaps this idea has some merit, well maybe not.

Questions I chose
I thought the questions I chose were appropriate for this week's readings. Our cohort has a great mix of professional diversity among it and one of the most important factors to remember is not everyone teaches. I did provide alternative questions for all of our non-instructor students. After I re-examined the questions, I do not like the third question I asked because it is too vague. Pat is always telling us not to be too vague. The fact that I asked the other students on their perception of educationally based bias is a leading question. Do I assume there is a bias in education? Yes! I am supposed to be objective and not issue my beliefs in the questions.

Student Learning Experience
I can't say that I was responsible for the students learning, the book took care if that. My job was to promote critical thinking and industry resources. I think I did a good job of that.

My learning experience
I learned a tremendous amount during this week. I learned about all of the great resources that are out there for use. I also learned about all of the work that goes into preparation for one week of class. Now that I have done one, do I have enough in me to do another nine weeks? Probably not. The most difficult thing I encountered this week was going from seminar leader in GMIT 650 back to the role of student in GMIT 660. Replacing one hat with another is not as easy as one person might think. It was difficult to let the conversation evolve. I found myself answering discussion questions differently this time. In the past, I used to comment on the postings, this time I wanted to stimulate the conversation with outside perspectives and keep it flowing. People who know me pretty well know that I am not short on opinion and conversation, so it was difficult to let the conversation progress naturally. Besides, this was not about opinion, more like critical analysis and comprehension.

Overall, I think the format works well. The formula calls for a lot of information to be provided by the seminar leader. Is it too much? Debateable. Besides, the students have to do just as much if not more once it's posted. I wasn't trying to set some type of standard formula this week. It will be interesting to see how the week 9/10 seminars come out as compared to my week 2. Everyone in this program is extremely articulate and will run with this process! Next up is week four in the rubrics book. See you then!!

In a perfect world......Academically speaking

There wouldn't be any confusion
All students would be straight "A" students.
The world of academics would not be subject to interpretation.

Unfortunately the world we live in is not perfect, wonderful maybe, but not perfect. The biggest problem I had with the rubrics chapter this week is so obvious I can't get past it. Maybe it's a little too obvious. What if the person creating the rubric does not have posses the comprehension level a more experienced rubric instructor has? Does that mean the process is flawed from the start? Maybe not, but it certainly can't help facilitate the process. I fully understand all of the characteristics the text suggests that come along with constructing a PROPER rubric. The second most glaring observance I have noticed the text has not mentioned is the proper time to construct a rubric. Many of you know I am not a "teacher" by profession, but I am under the assumption a rubric is created before an assignment is constructed. I think this is such a major factor that is being completely overlooked. Maybe it's just me??
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I thought the Adult Learning book had quite a tease this week that never was elaborated on. On page 16, the text talks about ways to reverse a decline in intelligence with age. Wow, that's great. How can I do that? I'm sure the process is long and drawn out, but can't it withstand being mentioned? Especially if it works?

The last thing I really took away from chapter two was the correct environment in which people choose to partake in learning. The example with the grocery store pricing was amazing. I guess it really proves people do learn/perform better in a less strenuous environment.

Lastly, I can't help but refer to the idea promotions and work performances could be decided by an IQ or some sort of standardized test. This has to be a joke, right? Could you imagine going for your annual performance review and all your boss does is read the results of a test you took? All of the hard work you have accomplished over the past year is being measure by a four hour test? Although, if this was the process in my Division, I can tell you there would be some people without a job. All kidding aside now, a years worth of accomplishments are just that and should never be dictated by some four hour test. Could you imagine someone cheating on a standardized test just to get a raise? Funnier things have happened.

***Editors note: my blog on seminar reflection will be posted Tuesday afternoon.

"Encourage don't Discourage"

The non-credit world is just that, a different world. It seems Continuing Education is the exception to every rule. Every time I ask why the division does something a particular way, the common response is "that is always the way we have done it." How am I supposed to respond to that? I am surrounded by a division that sidesteps emerging technology and does not embrace it. That leaves me asking one question, are we really providing the best educational opportunity for our students?

The reason I feel it is valid to ask this question is because I never see the words assessment used in any of our programs. Grant it, some of them are federally mandated, but isn't it our duty to assess the results locally? Every time I suggest new technological advancements that might be beneficial to some of our classes, I get the same responses; "Not sure we're ready for that" or "We don't have enough manpower to do these types of things." It appears to me that people are discouraging higher learning potentional rather than encouraging it.

Assessing the quality of education we offer our adult students is very difficult to put a finger on because of the lack of academic assessment we actually do. Sure, some classes change to meet the technical demands people in this community desire, but the only reason this change occurs is because of industry demands. Is that enough to qualify as assessment?

When I think about taking classes at a particular academic institution, I often think of eating at one of your favorite restaurants. The food is great until you get a job there. After a while, you see the food over and over and get to know some of the "little secrets" that go on behind the scenes. After I have sat in on hundreds of meetings regarding curriculum development, you come away a little less interested because you see how things progress and are conducted after time.

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I can sum up my initial thoughts on rubrics with one word, WOW! I believe I have shown my novice level with rubrics this week. Before we actually began to formally research this concept, I thought a rubric was something used in psychology. I thought it was a chart medical people used to determine certain levels of diagnosis.

I was even more to surprise to learn rubrics are used in elementary levels of education. Again, my initial thoughts focused strictly on higher education. If adult students have a difficult time comprehending the value of this tool, then how can pre-teen students begin to comprehend them? In case no one raised their hand on the adult rubric comprehension question, don’t worry my hand went straight into the air. I'm almost scared to attempt my first one. One thing Pat mentioned at the face-to-face really stuck out, especially if you have never created a rubric. I thought the example he used on creating a rubric on getting dressed was great. Keep it simple and try not to over think the process.

I wanted to conclude this blog with a great quote I heard from a speaker last week. “I am not here to answer your questions; I’m here to question your answers!”