Summer 2010: Volume 14, Issue 2
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
The Collaboration for Learning November 2010 Conference Brochure
November 18-20, 2010
Annual Conference
Radisson Conference Center - Plymouth, MN
New Orleans: What Can't Be Lost: 88 Stories and Traditions from the Sacred City
Lee Barclay, Editor
Book Synopsis
The eighty-eight stories and traditions in New Orleans: What Can't Be Lost are the piano keys in a love song to the city. Alongside Christopher Porché West's alluring black-and-white photographs, New Orleans' culture bearers pay tribute to the city they call home. From Storyville to the Super Bowl, from cover to cover are found Pulitzer Prize-winning writers--four of them gathered on these pages; Creole chefs; float and costume designers; a break-acrobat flipping forward over tourists lying on the pavement like matchsticks across from Jackson Square; Black Mardi Gras Indians; parade captains; musicians; protectors of the city's historic landmarks; writers of its poems and articles and novels and plays; and those who pass down traditions in the performance of New Orleans culture.
'New Orleans: What Can't Be Lost' a must-have book about Hurricane Katrina
http://www.theadvertiser.com/
Published: September 5, 2010
Published: September 5, 2010
Book of essays celebrates New Orleans' enduring spirit
At first glance, New Orleans: What Can't Be Lost, a collection of 88 essays published by UL Press, appears to be another Hurricane Katrina retrospective or one more book celebrating how New Orleans differs from the rest of the world.
Although the unique beauty of the city comes across strong and well, New Orleans: What Can't Be Lost digs deeper into the psyche of natives by writers who live there and finds that what makes New Orleans special may not be Mardi Gras and Emeril but "makin' groceries" and yo mama and 'dem.
Leah Chase describes how New Orleanians live to eat, for instance, and not the other way around, but she relates Civil Rights issues solved over a bowl of gumbo. Christian Champagne tries to give reasons why New Orleanians sound like New Yorkers and Kami Patterson offers a pronunciation guide to the city streets. (Yes, Calliope's pronounced Cally-ope.)
Dennis Formento looks at the city's love affair with coffee and coffeehouses, while Patrice Melnick, owner of Casa Azul in Grand Coteau, remembers a rocking zydeco night at the Mid-City Rock 'n' Bowl. The proliferation of saints around the house, particularly during hurricane season, is the subject of Katheryn Krotzer Laborde's essay on the city's love affair with Catholicism.
Summing up the city's attitude is Lloyd Dennis's "Forgive Us if We Make Lemonade and Refuse to Cry," a testament to not only residents' perseverance through disasters, but the ability to find joy in life even during the worst of times.
"So maybe that is why we can dance at funerals, and celebrate Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest with half our city still broke down and missing," he writes, "because wasting a minute of joy must be a sin ... because after all God is good ... all the time."
New Orleans: What Can't Be Lost is edited by Lee Barclay with black and white photographs by the incomparable Christopher Porché West. Proceeds from the book will be donated to Sweet Home New Orleans, a local nonprofit supporting individuals and organizations that perpetuate New Orleans' musical and cultural traditions.
Lee Barclay
P.O. Box 19226
New Orleans, LA 70179
phone: 504-452-6137
fax: 504-324-0195
Learning Online Info: E-Learning and Educational Technologies News and Resources
Learning Online Info
E-Learning and Educational Technologies News and Resources
E-Learning and Educational Technologies News and Resources
Faculty Focus: Integrating Social Media into Online Education - September 8, 2010
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Academic Leader Issue Update - September 2010
Listed below are the new articles for the issue of Academic Leader posted September 1, 2010. Simply click a title to go to that article page on our site and read the full article.
Establishing, Maximizing, and Refining Your Advisory Board
Defining the purpose and raison d’être of your advisory board is a critical first step in creating your board. A common function of an advisory board is to provide strategic guidance and expertise where you need it most—with an emphasis on the word “advise.” Explore these questions to bring clarity to your thinking: Where do you need assistance as a leader? What kind of expertise do you need to tap, and who has it? Once you have a clear mission and set of goals for your board, you are on your way to writing out a “charge” to your board that articulates members’ roles vis-à-vis your mission statement and goals.
Leadership under Pressure
A great deal of information is available about how academic leaders can cope with the stress and pressure of their positions. Most of these resources offer excellent advice on how to relieve or escape stress and to reduce its negative effects on an administrator’s life. But much less information is available about how to lead under stress, how to (in the words of Kipling’s “If”) “keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you,” and how to focus on the good of your programs and their stakeholders despite serious challenges to your career or integrity. When it’s your campus that is in the midst of a natural disaster or terrorist attack, it’s not enough to cope with the pressure and make sure that your own interests are protected. These are the times when the purest form of leadership is necessary, and these situations can be among the severest tests of any administrator. Here are a few suggestions to keep in mind when facing your next crisis.
Redesigning an Academic Early Alert System: Creating Faculty Buy-in
Amid decreased state funding (McCluskey & Edwards 2009) and calls for increased accountability (Basken, 2008) there is a renewed sense of urgency in retaining students. Undoubtedly, one method to assist in retaining students is to implement an early warning system that effectively helps faculty identify and assist students with academic issues. Establishing such an alert system was the goal of the task force at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith. The task force consisted of the dean of enrollment management; the dean of student success; the dean of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; the executive director of institutional effectiveness; the associate provost; the director of student advisement and career planning; a retention/completion specialist; and a faculty member.
Seven Steps for Dealing with Problem Faculty (The top concern of America’s academic chairs)
In a 2009 survey of America’s academic chairs almost 3,000 participants identified “dealing with problem faculty” as their greatest concern (Crookston, p. 13). The title of this article is not “seven easy steps for dealing with problem faculty.” The task was number one for a reason; rehabilitation is difficult and in rare cases may not be possible. Whether your problem person is a low achiever, a passive aggressive, a prima donna, a bully, or an exasperating jerk—you’ll probably spend far more time dealing with him or her than you want. One challenge is that problem faculty members are seldom self-made deviants; usually they are the product of ongoing department-wide neglect. From my experience as a department head and dean plus my research into the literature on leadership and chairing, I have identified seven steps that can help.
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