Tar Heel
First Shared Blog Entry Review: Academic Fraud
My daughter Xernay, attends Elon University in Elon, North Carolina [a 35 minute drive west from Chapel Hill] and for some time now she has been telling me ‘stories’ of student athletes – from Chapel Hill – being recruited with all sorts of promises such as- first pick on ‘easy’ classes, monetary stipends and private tutors, along with a realm of other ‘amenities’-just for playing ball. I had sort of brushed off my daughter’s comments thinking this was ‘urban myth’, until I read the Stripling article describing academic fraud, which Professor Testori posted on our Shared Resources Page.
When I read Stripling’s list for the football team’s eligibility
- They didn’t go to class
- They didn’t take notes, have to stay awake
- They didn’t have to meet with professors
- They didn’t have to pay attention or necessarily engage with the material.
I was infuriated! But, probably not as angry as Carol L. Folt, chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and others who had been having the wool pulled over their eyes for so many years.
The article also cemented, in my mind, my daughter’s opinion that most of Chapel Hill’s football team were, as my daughter stated, “idiot guys who were only there to play football and never even went to class.” This article went on to describe how ‘anguished’ Ms. Folt was in the prolonged nature of the crisis.
I think those die-hard Tar Heel fans will be more closely watched-especially those who are ‘still’ employed by Chapel Hill. I gather there will be much stricter ‘management’ of academic registration and oversight of the Chapel Hill athletes. I wonder what Professor Debby [Ms. Crowder] is doing these days?
Second Shared Blog Entry Review: The Future of Distance Education
Having just spent 3 days attending, listening and presenting at the Online Learning Consortium 20th Annual International Conference I was anxious to further dissect the article written by Steven Cohen and posted by Carol Dykas entitled Distance Learning and the Future of Education. The article’s use of ‘distance’ vs. ‘online’ does date the content. That said, this article has solid information.
Carol stated in her review how Cohen makes the point, “Advances in educational technology provide new ways to teach, new ways to learn, and new ways to measure the effectiveness of educational offerings.” I agree that face-to-face educational experiences allows, learning to happen in lounges, cafes and bars around the physical campus. Personally, I felt Cohen was ‘suggesting’ this could not be replicated in an online environment.
To this I would disagree. I do believe we can virtually replicate a face-to-face experience and build connections and friendships just like those a ‘real address’ gives. Cohen’s article was written in 2012 which means that Moore’s Law [which states that computer processing power doubles about every 18 months] has had enough time to further and virtually replicate the face-to-face experience Cohen mentions. And, we have had time to further our human interaction with technology and ability to interact with technology; think iPhone’s FaceTime, Skype, Google Hangout and the array of webinar conferencing technologies we have to use to augment our online experience. In my humble opinion, mobile technology is at the forefront of this trend, which lead me to review the article Jill Motyka shared.
Third Shared Blog Entry Review: Intensification of Online Retention
The Chris Tilghman, As CE Becomes More Central, Focus on Online Retention Will Intensify. Chris interviewed the vice-president of program development at InsideTrack. The very first ‘trend’ discussed is mobile technology and the hope that it will be the folks in higher education who will bring online learning to the tiny computers that everybody is carrying around in their pockets these days.
We have to start thinking of the ‘learning we desire to exchange’ in terms of the fluid movement that mobile technology allows. As Chen and Denoyelles state, “In order to improve mobile learning effectiveness, students and instructors need help adopting more effective learning and teaching practices across content areas.” Chen and Denovelles remind of that the use of mobile learning on the rise in higher education. They conclude that, “Instructors must gain knowledge of these innovative technologies and integrate them into the curriculum with sound facilitation and assessment strategies, as well as be able to support the mobile practices of students.”
To prove the importance of why the shift to implement technological innovation is import, watch this 4 minute video entitled A Vision of Students Today by Michael Wesch. If you have not yet seen this, I highly recommend the couple of minutes it takes to watch. It summarizes the characteristics and vision of students today and while it was uploaded 7 years ago, it is still relevant today.
“Today’s child is bewildered when he enters the 19th century environment that still characterizes the educational establishment where information is scarce but ordered and structured by fragmented, classified patterns subjects, and schedules.” -Marshall McLuhan 1967
Additionally this 3 minute video [below] created by Erin Brethauer, describes how teacher colleges are working to improve technology literacy of future educators. The accompanying article by Robin L. Flanigan describes how Clemson University is challenging traditional teaching techniques and placing an emphasis on focusing on how educators can, “… improve their curriculum, in technology and other areas, to help educators and benefit students…”
Change takes time and it is especially challenging for colleges and universities who tend to hold onto traditional methods of teaching. Slowly change can occur and I enjoy and am excited to be a part of that change.
References:
Chen, B., & Denoyelles, A. (2013). Exploring Students’ Mobile Learning Practices in Higher Education. Why IT Matters to Higher Education EDUCAUSE Review Online. Retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/exploring-students-mobile-learning-practices-higher-education
Cohen, S. (2012, October 1). Distance Learning and the Future of Education. Retrieved October 25, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-cohen/distance-learning-and-the_b_1928535.html
Flanigan, R.L. (2014. January 27). Teacher Colleges Seek to Shift to Digital Age. Education Week. Education Week. Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/01/29/19el-teachers.h33.html
Stripling, J. (2014, October 23). Widespread Nature of Chapel Hill’s Academic Fraud Is Laid Bare. Retrieved October 23, 2014, from http://chronicle.com/article/Widespread-Nature-of-Chapel/149603/
Tighlman, C. (2014, March 12). As CE Becomes More Central, Focus on Online Retention Will Intensify. Retrieved October 27, 2014 from http://www.insidetrack.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/as-ce-becomes-more-central-focus-on-online-retention-will-intensify-c….pdf
X. Aniwar, (personal communication, November 1, 2014)
