What about the co-curricular activities?

Maybe because I view students participating in co-curricular activities as a valuable component of university life, or perhaps because co-curricular activities is my profession, I wonder how students will still be able participate in all the things that happen on a campus outside of the classroom once colleges go predominately online. As I have come to grips of the fact that online education will no longer be a choice, but a reality, and as I read the literature that describes the future of higher education, I have been thinking about how students can still be exposed to some of the same learning and social opportunities that they are today. I am referring to living in a dorm, joining a Greek organization or club, running for student government, sitting on committees with faculty, and participating in intramural sports or even NCAA sports. And so, even when I get excited about learning and thinking about the possibilities of distance learning, I find myself stuck on the co-curricular and extra-curricular aspects of campus life. Ernest L.Boyer in his book Campus Life: In Search of Community (1990) lists 6 Principles of Community that include Purposeful, Open, Just, Disciplined, Caring, and Celebrative. How can distance learning support community?

Okay, so I need to think creatively. Perhaps instead of being on a school athletic team, cities or communities have club teams, maybe Greek communities are locally based along with other clubs. Maybe there are learning bases or communities where students meet to study or have discussions no matter what online college from which they are taking classes. Mark Baulein, in his article Literary Learning in the Hyperdigital Age in the World Futurist Society Magazine, articulates that nondigital space will still be needed to learn classic writing – a balance will need to be made between digital and nondigital outlooks that create a productive tension between technology and the conventional approach to writing. Perhaps online colleges and universities will contract with such centers that offer particular courses like writing and then enable community to be created around opportunities that were once available on the traditional campus. In the name of student development theory and my profession as a dean of students I need to be thinking outside of the box and dreaming of the possibilities to engage students where they are challenged with social, civic,  athletic, and pre-professional opportunities to facilitate the growth for students to become productive and global citizens. 

Digital Natives

Watching Julie Evans from Project Tomorrow - NetDay at the EDUCAUSE 2007 was interesting and relevant to the research I have been doing for the ED 400 project as my group is working on question 2 - higher ed goes completely online. Julie Evans shares some great stuff that gets me thinking about what to expect in 2020 - and I also notice that the talk is already about out of date. I mean, who uses Myspace anymore? Facebook is a better buzz word when talking about social networking - everyone knows that MySpace is best for music, not so much for socializing. Julie Evans introduced to me the term digital natives. She shared that it will be 5 to 7 years, probably more like 5 now since the talk is three years old, until we who work in higher ed will feel the true impact of the digital natives. Our students currently in college didn't have as much technology in elementary school as the kids do now in those grades. This fits with what I have been finding in the research about the students will soon expect, heck, demand, more flexibility with when they want to learn and how. I think of my 17 year old who a couple of years ago was in a math class that utilized an online math tutoring program. He could go to a website and he could listen to instruction on how to tackle a math program that was part of his homework assignment. Believe me, this was helpful as I was a Sociology major and could be of no help! I think Spencer is on the brink of that digital native and that my 13 year old will be right in there with being ready and wanting more use of technology in the classroom - or having class outside the traditional classroom. This is big news that our brick (UCSB) better thinking about the click! My now 13 year old was making friends online as early at 8 years old as he played online games - and only just left the computer where he loyally played World of WarCraft (WOW) and had many online friends for his bike - a new found freedom of roaming the neighborhood. Even though he has traded WOW for the face to face social life and his bike, he is jumping on to Facebook when he gets home and meets the expectation of the typical teenager by averaging over 2,000 text messages a month (thank goodness for the unlimited text message option with Verizon!). As Julie Evans labels us "older" folks - we are digital immigrants! I'm paying attention to my kids and what they are doing in hopes this will help me navigate what to expect in my future work with college students!

Waiting for "Superman"

I just got home from the theater and my head is spinning. I'm pissed off, I''m frustrated, I'm sad, and now I'm motivated. I went into the theater after spending a few hours reading about NCLB, the ESEA re-authorization, and Race to the Top trying to understand what it was all about. Waiting for Superman helped me get to the simple truth about education - it is broken and needs to be fixed! The bureaucracy of funding and policy from the federal level to the state level and then the district and school board levels is enough to complicate any school system. Teachers are not valued, or teachers continue to teach but do not value kids and only think of themselves. My head hurts and my heart aches. And yes, I am now motivated to make a difference and have more clarity - paper, here I come!

Personal Growth Goal

My personal growth goal is to continue my journey of thinking differently. Thinking differently for me is approaching challenges from a leadership perspective, not just as a practitioner's perspective, and to push myself to look at my work through the lens of a person who has the ability to facilitate change.

I was introduced to a new technique using multimedia this summer that was so simple but worked brilliantly. My colleague, Don Lubach, is a technology junkie, much like my instructor, Patrick Faverty. Don turned me on to the concept of using a PowerPoint presentation with a speech (we both had to act the part of deans at Orientation sessions this summer by presenting a deans address that was packed with information and was also serious) where only a few words or a picture was shown on each slide and was timed with our speech. There were about 25 slides for the 10 minute presentation with some that had a word, or a sentence, or a picture that illustrated or brought home the concept or seriousness of the message. Don learned this technique from Lessig.org. Lawrence Lessig is known for his book Code and other Laws of Cyberspace.
I was nervous about doing these presentations, not feeling like I was dean enough, but using this method I felt like it gave the audience, the presentations were in Campbell Hall in front of about 600 people, something to pay attention to as I read along (there was no way I could have memorized this speech - it was too serious and the message was one that needed to be thorough, not told from the hip. Reading Mayer and Moreno's paper on cognitive theory of multimedia made me think that not only did using this technique during my serious dean talk help me get through it, but perhaps the audience retained more of the information then they would have if I just simple read it to them because they got to see something visual to support the message that was being delivered verbally.

Parents educate their children naturally outside of the classroom...

Thinking about how our children are taught in schools and imaging how teaching  can be approached differently I began to think about how parents teach their children. Children learn tons from their parents, and the setting is usually (even for the home schooled) not in the traditional classroom setting behind a desk and in front of a chalk board. Some of the most interesting conversations I have had with my boys have been in the car driving to soccer games and talking or listening to music, in the grocery store looking at ingredients, walking downtown and seeing a homeless person or a kid getting arrested or watching a movie and them asking me questions about is going on. Interacting with real life as it is happening and through the use of technology my children are learning - outside of a traditional classroom.