The Shadow Scholar

The Chronicle of Education had an interesting interview/article (November 12, 2010) on the sale of academic papers by a "Shadow Scholar".  This process seems to be widespread (and profitable) for those who have writing abilities and worthwhile to the hoards of students needing a paper. Or a draft, thesis statement, or revision.  They interviewed a "shadow scholar" to better understand this phenomenon which probably has been under scrutinized by those of us in academia. An area of concern for me personally was that he occasionally had parents order papers from him because "failing is not an option" for their students. In other words, success did not equate learning. Success was having something to turn into the professor.  This article should be taken seriously but there were some areas of humor. I especially liked his quote that students were "communicating in haiku, each  less decipherable than the one before it".

http://chronicle.com/article/The-Shadow-Scholar/125329/ 

The "Shadow Scholar" participated in a Live Chat on November 17, 2010 and the transcript is available at http://people.stu.ca/~hunt/temp/livechat.htm.  In essence, the "Shadow Scholar" is saying that grades are "killing" students and we should be looking at other ways to effectively encourage actual learning instead of encouraging to make a good grade.    Let me know what you think.

A colleague passed on an interesting YouTube video about using Twitter in the Classroom at the University of Texas at Dallas.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WPVWDkF7U8&feature=player_embedded  Here at the University of South Carolina I know that foreign language faculty (Dr. Lara Ducate and Dr. Lomicka-Anderson) have used it in past in their German and French classes respectively.  Is anyone else using it?

As faculty, do we just provide customer service?

We are generally told as faculty members that we should try our best to teach tomorrow's leaders and give forth our knowledge to our students. We take courses and enrich our teaching skills when possible. Most of us teach because we love our field and want to give back to society. Not many of us truly just teach because they pay us so much. Of course these statements are just my opinions.
Interestingly, I was speaking with some University students the other day about this subject and about their perceptions of faculty and the relationship that they have with faculty. I was frankly stunned by what I heard.  It seems that these students perceived faculty as customer service "clerks" who only wanted to do the very least in teaching.  Students felt that when faculty tried to motivate them to do better (i.e. get better grades, learn the materials, do their assignments) that there was an ulterior motive. The ulterior motive was that faculty try to get students grades up "so that they can look better and make more money".  Once I picked up my jaw from the floor, I asked them "seriously do you really think that is why we want you to do well in college? So we could get raises from the good evaluations?"  They replied, "yes, why would you be in a profession if you weren't trying to get a raise?"
This (Millennial) generation, as someone wrote recently, "values money and what it can buy."  When we teach, we "render customer service, a somewhat menial calling, to a society that doesn't value abstraction, intellectual discourse, or knowledge for knowledge's sake."
As I ponder how to make my class on Friday more meaningful for my students, I would love to hear others' thoughts.

Oktoberbest- University of South Carolina October 1, 2010

Oktoberbest at the University of South Carolina was a success last Friday.  I was pleased with my session entitled "A Multi-faceted Approach to Teaching Freshman Students- UNIV 101".  I showed the pros and cons of using several types of communication/community building tools in Blackboard as well as my classroom Facebook presences. The session participants were active and we had some meaningful discussions on what inhibits students engagement and how we can get students to participate in the discussion forums.  Thanks to everyone who came to my session.

Special thanks go out to my University 101 students- I have attached a few photos of them here!

Interesting event coming up at the University of South Carolina

Here is an interesting event coming up at USC later on in October.

Voyages into the Technology Frontier:  Mobile Applications for Teaching

 Thursday, October 28, 2010, 2:00 - 3:15 p.m.

Center for Teaching Excellence, Thomas Cooper Library, Room 511

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Description

iPhones, iPads, iPods, Blackberries, Droids. They’re everywhere, no matter how far we travel. They’re an integral part of our students’(and often our own) lives. If these communication devices are so prevalent, how can we harness this mobile wave to enhance teaching and learning? This session will demonstrate three mobile applications that can be used inside or outside the classroom to expand the learning experience beyond the brick and mortar. Dr. Joe Johnson, Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Physics, will demonstrate QRECT, an application for classroom assessment, using the iPad. The development of a virtual tour smartphone application will be discussed by Dr. Duncan Buell, Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, and computer science student, Maliek McKnight. Chris Brown, Director of Teaching and Technology Services, will present the new Blackboard mobile building block. Please join us for a voyage into our mobile technology as we showcase pioneers at the University of South Carolina.

Please RSVP by email cte@sc.edu , phone 803-777-8322, or CTE RSVP form.              

Help your students succeed with blogs, wikis, and discussion boards

As we know, not all students have the same academic/personal backgrounds as witnessed in one of my current classes. In this class, one of the students has lived in an elite boarding school and regularly meets with dignitaries including the Queen of England while another student has never had the opportunity to leave South Carolina. The educational background and basic skills differences can sometimes be quite apparent.  This disparity can bring an unlevel playing field into your classroom and dumbfound a faculty member who is trying to grade each one fairly and equality.  I believe that everyone can learn and succeed, but they have to have the tools to do it.

I incorporate blogs, wikis and discussion boards into my classes.   While some of my students have used these features in high school, others have not.  Many think that replying or posting online means leaving jokes, scathing comments or “one-liners” like “I agree with Bill”.  This certainly puts a damper on the quality of the discussions.

One way to make sure that everyone is on a level playing field and to encourage meaningful participation is to use a rubric.  A rubric is a scoring or assessment tool which can help faculty and students score/grade the quality of the academic material based on set criteria.  Being introduced to a rubric, students can then know how they will be graded and learn what they need to do in order to succeed.  The grading rubric can be used for blogs, discussion boards, wikis, and modified for classroom discussions.  Whether you assess each post, blog, etc. on its own individual value, is up to the faculty member. I personally evaluate the overall depth and quality of a blog as a whole not by a particular post.  Rubistar is a website which contains a vast array of rubric templates to choose from or allows you to create and save your own.  http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php  

By incorporating the use of rubrics in your classes, you can alleviate those posts which begin and end with “I agree with Bill”.  In the end, you can also help all students have the tools to succeed in your course.

A few weeks into classes...

A few weeks into Fall 2010 classes and all seems to be going well, though, I have been seeing that my freshman students aren't really taking the syllabus seriously. Though we have gone over its importance, several students (who missed a deadline) have already mentioned to me that they didn't know that what was written down in the syllabus was truly expected of them. There seems to be a disconnect in the course expectations.  This brings me to an interesting article that I read entitled "How to Avoid being a Jerk in the Classroom".   Bottom line is treat everyone like you would like to be treated. I tell myself to remember what it was like to be a freshman. http://chronicle.com/blogPost/How-to-Avoid-Being-a-Jerk-in/26427/

Thinking upon my freshman year (it has been awhile) leads me to my next note. Since I am middle-aged (loosely defined as being between 40-68), I am sometimes wary of the rise of forgetfulness and distraction.   New research however shows that my middle aged brain can "develop new functions and abilities for a very long time, especially with a little care."   Age and education can help by helping the brain hemispheres work together more efficiently. So there is hope.  http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Your-Mind-at-Middle-Age-A/26380/

Finally, those of you who have attended my workshop on Web 2.0 (Social Media) have heard me mention the social bookmarking tool called Delicious.  Here is a short synposis of reasons to use it in your daily life even if you don't want to be "social".   http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Social-Bookmarking-Even-When/26375/
Continue success with your teaching