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Tuesday, January 31, 2012

TLT Group FREE FridayLive! Webinar: TGIF -- What pushes a college to the brink of closing?


This Friday, February 3, we are pleased to host our friend and colleague, Alice Brown, to discuss her new book Changing Course: Reinventing Colleges, Avoiding Closures. If you are part of a college or university community, then you'll want to join us for this important conversation about the stability of our institutions, our roles within them, and what can be done when a college is in crisis.

What are the warning signs that a college is on the brink of closing?



Interview with Alice Brown about her book: Changing Course: Reinventing Colleges, Avoiding Closures.


Friday Feb 3, 2:00pm EDT....Free to all


Guests: Alice Brown, Past President of the Appalachian College Association


“No thriving college is immune from unforeseen disaster, just as no struggling college is irreversibly destined for closure.” Sadly, if you are part of a college or university community -- student, alumni, board member, faculty, president, any other academic professional -- you can no longer be fully confident of the stability of your institution or of your role within it.


In this live online session, we’ll discuss the dangers, the warning signs, and how to deal with them. Alice Brown will summarize and extend the ideas in her new book Changing Course in which she “... presents stories of colleges in crisis and considers what makes the difference between a college that closes and one that nearly closes but manages to remain open.” First Brown, then other participants, will be invited to share their observations and insights in response to these and other questions: What pushes a college to the brink of closing? What are the differences between colleges that "reinvent themselves" or barely avoid closing, and those that disappear? Are there any positive opportunities that can be grasped in these crises?






Registration for Feb. 3


What's ahead on FridayLive!... FridayLive! full event calendar


Also, a thanks to everyone who joined us for last week's FridayLive! on Ender’s Game! We had a great turnout which yielded a flurry of conversation and stimulating discussion. Come back on February 10th for more about the book's ideas and what Steve calls Ender's Game Test for Artificial Instruction. How can a student tell if a live person is the teacher in a course? Does that matter?

What pushes a college to the brink of closure? Warning signs? Too late? Can you help?



"Good enough for other people's children, but not yours?" - Innovation, degration, or rupture?


Ender's Test - Is your course a pizza?


Sustaining New Year's exercise resolutions in spite of 5 (out of 9) common problems


"Encouraging critical thinking using the case study method and cooperative learning techniques" - Appreciation of R.W. Grossman, Kalamazoo


Educational Video Games with Real/Virtual Missiles?


Online Institute
Is Meta Really Betta? Using Metacognition and Reflection Online

February 14, 21, and 28, 2012
2:00 - 3:00pm EDT
Three presenters skilled in developing strategies for improving the success of students and teachers in courses will present a highly interactive three-session workshop on using reflection in teaching, helping participants learn how to teach the way we want to teach.


Leaders: Lucy MacDonald, Florida State College Jacksonville, Saundra McGuire, Louisiana State University, John Zubizarreta, Columbia College


REGISTER
This workshop is free to TLT Group Individual Members. Check your institution's status here if you have your membership through an institutional subscription.

























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PBS Slavery by Another Name

Dr. Sharon Malone speaks during the 'Slavery By Another Name' panel during the PBS portion of the 2012 Winter TCA Tour held at The Langham Huntington Hotel and Spa on Jan. 4, 2012 in Pasadena, Calif.
http://www.eurweb.com/2012/01/eric-holders-wife-tells-her-story-in-pbs-slavery-by-another-name/




Eric Holder’s Wife Tells Her Story in PBS’ ‘Slavery by Another Name’

January 11, 2012 by Cherie Saunders




*Imagine this…

You do some research into your family tree and discover that your uncle, who was born nearly 30 years after slavery, was one of thousands of black men pulled back into a forced labor system in which they were arrested – largely on trumped up charges – and compelled to work without pay as prisoners.


Imagine that this “convict leasing” system saw the groups of prisoners sold to private parties – like plantation owners or corporations - and that it was not only tolerated by both the North and South, but largely ignored by the U.S. Justice Department.


Now, imagine that nearly a century after your uncle served 366 days in this penal labor system, you find yourself married to the head of the U.S. Justice Department, who, ironically, just so happens to be the first African American in the position.


Dr. Sharon Malone, wife of U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, tells the heartbreaking story of her uncle Henry in the upcoming 90-minute PBS documentary “Slavery by Another Name.” The film is based on the eye-opening book by Douglas A. Blackmon, which exposes a part of American history that most folks either had no clue existed, or didn’t know existed to the extent that it did.

“I want people to understand that this is not something that’s divorced and separate, and this doesn’t have anything to do with them,” Dr. Malone told EURweb exclusively at the Television Critics Association press tour last week. “If you were a black person who grew up in the South, some way or the other – whether or not you were directly involved in the system as my uncle was – you knew somebody who was, or your daily lives were circumscribed by those circumstances.”

“But more importantly,” she continues, “why I really want people to see this film is because this is American history. This isn’t just southern history, or African American history. It explains a lot of who we are as a people. It is a missing puzzle piece for what happened. You had the Civil War, you had reconstruction, gap, gap, gap, and then you’re at Martin Luther King. This fills in that gap.”



“Slavery by Another Name,” narrated by Laurence Fishburne and produced and directed by Sam Pollard, premieres Monday, Feb. 13, 2012 at 9 p.m. ET on PBS. Scroll down to watch the promo.


Below, Dr. Malone says she sensed that something was always on low boil with Uncle Henry.


Dr. Sharon Malone of PBS’ ‘Slavery By Another Name’ on her uncle Henry by CherieNic


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5s8ccKepCms


History has repeated itself with the rate of incarcerations of this century!!!



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Higher Education Webinars and Conferences - Higher Ed Experts




Professional development and continuing education opportunities for professionals and executives working in web marketing and communications for higher ed institutions around the world.





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Google Launches Redesigned Education Site MindShift





Google has revamped its site for educators, creating a redesigned repository for all its educational tools and resources for teachers, schools, and students. MORE




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Monday, January 30, 2012

Mediasite: Most Popular FREE Lecture Capture Webinars of 2011




Each month we host webinars on Lecture Capture Best Practices – we’ve done over 150 so far with 100,000 views to date.

In case you missed out, here’s our countdown of the Most Popular Lecture Capture Webinars of 2011.
  1. Go Mobile with Mediasite: What’s New in Live Streaming and Lecture Capture for Today’s Students, Employees and Learners
  2. The Streaming School of Business: How the University of Minnesota Leverages Lecture Capture Technology for Online Courses, Webinars and Special Events
  3. 5 Reasons Faculty Shouldn’t Fear Lecture Capture
  4. Choose Your Own Adventure: Using Lecture Capture and Social Media to Customize Learning Experiences
  5. Evaluating Lecture Capture's Impact on Student Outcomes
  6. The Future of Capture on Your Campus: Lessons Learned in the First Ten Years of Lecture Capture
  7. Lecture Capture Systems in the Cloud: Why New York Law School Outsourced Hosting for Campus-Wide Capture

Happy viewing,

Team Mediasite

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The Council for Higher Education Accreditation's 2010-2011 Annual Report




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Epigeum releases new University and College Teaching Online Training Program



LONDON, UK – January 26, 2011 - Epigeum has released their latest online training program, University and College Teaching. According to Eric Shotwell, Sales Manager for Epigeum, “the program is the result of a collaborative effort between Epigeum and people from 17 universities, including several past presidents of the POD Network, which is why we’re offering an additional 5% discount to POD Network members who mention their affiliation.”

The University and College Teaching program is designed to provide training in conjunction with face-to-face workshops or online instructor training programs offered by college campuses, and contains 9 courses of two hours each, plus 180 additional hours of associated activities. “The courses are a unique blend of rigorous course content alongside interactive activities, all firmly rooted in the latest online pedagogic theory,” according to David Babington-Smith, CEO of Epigeum. "The overarching goal of the University and College Teaching program is to enable instructors to deliver compelling courses that will ensure student success."

Epigeum has already conducted several implementation workshops to support the earliest adopters of the University and College Teaching program, including Florida International University, the University of South Florida, and the New York Institute of Technology.

Contributors to the program include well-known faculty practitioners such as: Graham Gibbs, former director of the Oxford Learning Center; Marilla Svinicki of the University of Texas at Austin; Nancy Chism from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis; Mike Theall of Youngstown State University and Barbara Gross Davis from the University of California, Berkeley, among others. Course topics include effective lecturing, resources to enhance student learning, making the most of discussion, supervising projects and dissertations, giving feedback, designing a course, and teaching with patients.


About Epigeum
Epigeum was founded in 2005 as a spin-out company from Imperial College London and has since become a leading publisher of online training courses for higher education faculty, researchers, and students. Epigeum's aim is to help faculty, researchers, and students in academic institutions fulfill their potential by providing top-quality online courses in key skill areas such as teaching, studying, research, and leadership and management. Epigeum now has offices in both the United States and the UK, and Epigeum’s online course catalog currently extends to 39 courses, with a further 15 in production. All Epigeum courses are built in collaboration with leading experts and top universities and colleges around the world. More information on Epigeum courses can be found on their web site at www.epigeum.com, or by emailing eric.shotwell@epigeum.com in the US and Canada, or wendy.harbottle@epigeum.com for institutions in the UK and Europe.

CONTACT:
North America:
Eric Shotwell, Sales Manager, Epigeum
Phone: (248) 660-9449
eric.shotwell@epigeum.com
www.epigeum.com

UK and Europe:
Wendy Harbottle, Sales and Marketing Manager, Epigeum
Phone: +44 (0) 207 594 7365
wendy.harbottle@epigeum.com
www.epigeum.com

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Tomorrow's Professor Blog: Integrated, Competency-Based Three-Year Model (for bachelor's degree completion)



The posting below looks a one of several models for a three year bachelor's degree presented in the book, Saving Higher Education

The Integrated, Competency-Based Three-Year Bachelor's Degree Program, by Martin J. Bradley, Robert H. Seidman, and Steven R. Painchaud. It is from Chapter 1, The Need for Change: Why some Institutions Will Embrace New Pathways to the Bachelor's Degree. Copyright ? 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Published by Jossey-Bass, a Wiley Imprint. 989 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94103-1741 www.josseybass.com

The third model employs an integrated, competency-based curriculum approach. A predetermined set of competencies are foundational to the students' educational experience. In addition to the set of competencies, the curriculum is redesigned and integrated wherever possible to maximize student learning opportunities throughout their entire educational experience. Teaching faculty that participate in the program receive an orientation outlining the curriculum design and are mindful of the program competencies, as well as accreditation standards and expectations. Utilizing a collaborative approach, faculty members deliver courses over a period of six semesters (120 credits), with no summer sessions or winter intersessions needed. The content is configured in a way that facilitates collaboration by faculty across disciplines.
The competencies serve as guideposts for the content of all the academic experiences within the curriculum. Because the development of competencies occurs at varying levels of intensity throughout the three years, a key strategy is the use of master planning documents for each academic experience. For each of the educational experiences, an academic plan is developed that details the overarching strategy for addressing the competencies within the experience along with specific implementing activities that the faculty can employ. These academic plans are regularly reviewed and updated as part of an ongoing assessment of the program. The academic plans serve as the basis for the development of model syllabi that demonstrate the relationship between the academic requirements, assignments, and the competencies.
For reasons that will become evident in Chapters 2 and 3, we use the term module instead of course when speaking of the integrated three-year-degree program. Each module that a student takes has an academic plan developed by faculty experts. These academic plans provide a strategic framework allowing faculty, administrators, accreditation organizations, and other interested parties to see how each of the courses in a given semester or year support the program-level competencies and learning outcomes. These academic plans and model syllabi are discussed further in Chapter 3.
Each semester concludes with an innovative week-long, credit-bearing "integrating experience." These experiences place students in academic work teams in which they are given challenging case-based problems related to their major. Teaching faculty hold special consulting hours to provide guidance and support to the student teams.
Integration of academic content throughout the three years is achieved in a number of ways, including program themes, joint assignments across modules and between various disciplines, end-of-semester integrating experiences, and experiential learning opportunities. During the last week of each of the first four semesters, students engage in a team-intensive activity exercising their newly acquired knowledge and skills to address real-world case studies. Each experience focuses on the competencies stressed during the semester and culminates with a formal presentation to the faculty and invited members from the internal university community as well as invited guests.
Accelerated versus Integrated, Competency-Based Models
A major perceived advantage of the accelerated three-year model is that very little curriculum modification needs to occur. In fact, in most instances the curriculum does not change at all. Only the time frame for delivering the curriculum is modified in order to meet the thirty-six-month timetable. So for traditional institutions, launching an accelerated curriculum might be politically feasible although it might not be the most attractive scenario for potential students. Because curriculum changes can be very time-consuming and must navigate various university governance mechanisms, working with a curriculum that is already in place more easily meets faculty needs and stays within many administrators' comfort zone.
On the other hand, designing and implementing an integrated, competency-based, or outcomes-focused, curriculum model requires faculty to collaborate and to be flexible in their pedagogical approaches. An integrated model requires that traditional courses be thought of in new ways, such as modules that are premised upon the principles of student knowledge acquisition and skill development. Further, an integrated curriculum is premised on a set of programmatic and school-based competencies. These competencies influence and in some cases drive the choices of content acquisition, delivery, and demonstration.
Building an integrated curriculum can by its very nature be labor-intensive and will likely meet with resistance at some institutions. On the other hand, creating an integrated curriculum can inspire faculty to collaborate and think of education in new ways, such as placing the student at the center of learning (Barr & Tagg, 1995; Tagg, 2003). Implementing an integrated curriculum also demands that administrators think in new ways regarding programmatic delivery needs such as classroom space, awarding of credit hours, and the coordination of the course registration processes. The curriculum redesign also requires the support of key institutional leaders in order for the curriculum to survive the academic governance process.
Changing the Way We Think about Higher Education
Changing the way we think about the design and delivery of the higher education experience demands that university leaders think in new ways. This means that modules will look different in an integrated curriculum than in a traditional three-credit, one-hour-and-15-minutes, twice-per-week course. For example, faculty may deem it educationally beneficial for students to spend more class time on a particular subject area. Thus the module might be delivered in a two-hour class that meets four days a week over seven weeks as opposed to the more typical two-day-a-week, one-hour-and-15-minute class that meets for fifteen weeks.
Accelerated-curriculum models fit more easily into a traditional administrative mindset because typical tuition and seat-time practices remain undisturbed. On the other hand, an integrated curriculum requires administrative leaders who are willing to break decades of traditional practices in order to create new value for their students. Providing the leadership to promote true innovation is no easy task. As Collins (2001) reminds us, "good is the enemy of great," and many institutional administrators are happy to be just "good enough".
One of the clear challenges facing university presidents and other senior leaders is to envision new ways in which to construct the college experience?ways that promote learning and create new value for their students. Successfully meeting this challenge requires a willingness to examine long-held assumptions regarding administrative practices such as credit hours and seat time. Instead, a new focus on learning, competency attainment, and demonstration should drive how we design and deliver the curriculum.
As competition increases, more colleges and universities will look to offer new ways for students to earn a bachelor's degree. The accelerated model will be attractive given that initially, institutions will see the model as a means of retaining tuition income because students will be required to complete the same number of courses. Yet many universities already offer full-time students the option of adding up to one course above the standard load (that is, six instead of five three-credit courses per semester) at no additional cost. These students can shave six courses off the total in six semesters, thereby needing to complete the remaining four courses by some alternative means, such as night school, intersession term, and summers.
In these scenarios, institutions will lose tuition revenue without cutting delivery costs, thus speeding up the downward financial spiral. Many institutions will need more students in order to balance their budget. Thus, many small, less-selective institutions will experience increased pressure to lower entrance requirements as a means of attracting more students. At the same time, these institutions will feel growing pressure from the competition whose size or scale will continue to increase price pressure in the market place?pricing more cheaply for credit courses.
Reducing Price for Students and Costs to Institutions
The integrated, competency-based model will be particularly attractive and useful to small and mid-sized institutions that seek to enhance current enrollments or that are interested in attracting new enrollment segments. In the subsequent chapters, readers will learn how institutions can launch an integrated, competency-based program that reduces delivery costs.
This book puts forth an already proven model of a three-year integrated, competency-based curriculum that by design offers students a faster pathway to graduation while protecting tuition revenues. This model significantly reduces delivery costs by integrating content and focusing on learning outcomes and the attainment of program competencies. Philosophically, the act of learning supersedes seat time. This model eliminates unnecessary redundancies within the curriculum, and it adds semester-ending credit bearing summative experiences. This model does more than rearrange existing curriculum; it leads to a complete redesign that enables institutions to pass along a 25 percent savings to students and their sponsors. It is a win-win for all concerned.
The integrated, competency-based model offers a legitimate response to the criticism of the continued high expenses of postsecondary education. Addressing the issue of cost while improving quality will prove to be the formula that saves many colleges and universities over the next several decades. But will institutional leaders be able to leave their comfort zones and challenge many of the basic assumptions that American higher education has held on to for so long? It seems to be clearer now than ever before that institutions need to embrace new practices or pay the ultimate price for their lack of will.
As the knowledge economy continues to rapidly expand, college graduates will need new skill sets in order to participate and successfully compete. Colleges and universities can and should play a central role in the preparation of citizens but only if the institutions have rethought the way that students acquire, tie together, and demonstrate new knowledge. Compartmentalized and silo-driven learning, so often redundant, is no longer meeting organizations' needs in today's global marketplace. The integrated, competency-based model that is discussed in detail in this book offers a proven approach that answers the growing chorus of concerns being expressed by business leaders, government officials, students, their sponsors, and academicians. The learning process can and must change in ways that improve its effectiveness while offering a clear solution to the continued escalating tuition crisis.
Three-Year Degrees in a Global Context
Today, there still remains substantial confusion as to what a three-year degree equals when comparing degree programs of various countries from around the world. For example, some believe that a three-year bachelor's program in the United States would be similar to degrees long offered in Europe and other countries globally. Although it is true that many Europeans can and do earn their bachelor's degree in three years, it is important to note that these students have participated in a system that requires thirteen years of elementary and secondary education: examples include the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy. Indeed, in these instances the European model introduces students to many components of general education/liberal arts before they begin their bachelor's degree work. As a result, the bachelor's degree earned in Europe can be much more technical or professionally focused. Yet educators in the United Kingdom are quick to point out that the graduates of the system are
equally if not better prepared for a well-rounded life, given the rigorous exit examination process that is required of all students.
In Europe today, forty-seven countries have agreed to the Bologna Process, a nongovernmental initiative designed to provide students with a more standardized or common educational experience (European Higher Education Area, 2011). One of the proposed benefits of the Bologna Process is to improve transferability of students' educational experiences across Europe. However, in some parts of Europe, students participate in a twelve-year elementary and secondary experience as opposed to the thirteen years of pre-university education. The harmonizing that is sought through the Bologna Process will be tested in these situations. Yet if the Bologna Process is successful, some have suggested that such a shift in educational strategy will assist Europe in regaining its educational might. In order to achieve the aims of the Bologna Process, countries will need to adopt common frameworks and measurable learning outcomes (Gaston, 2010).
In India, liberal arts degrees and courses receive less emphasis than subjects in technology, engineering, and business. Earning a bachelor's degree in technology or a bachelor's degree in engineering (both of which are four-year programs) provides students with a strong technical foundation. Students who then go on to earn an MBA from a different university compete strongly in the professional marketplace. Still, many three-year bachelor's degrees are available to students, such as the Bachelor of Commerce, Bachelor of Science, and Bachelor of Arts. However, U.S. institutions often require students with these degrees to complete an additional thirty credits of general education in order to earn a U.S. bachelor's degree.
The educational approach in India has been influenced by the rapid growth of that county's population. Because of the many thousands of outsourced jobs that have come to India from around the world, there is a premium on the development of technical skills and practical applications.
In Southeast Asia, the educational systems continue to show the influence of other nations: the British system in Malaysia, the French system in Vietnam, and the U.S. system in both Thailand and China. With that said, there remain fairly significant differences in the specific educational practices employed around the region. For example, outcomes assessment is not often used to demonstrate educational success. Rather, country-wide proficiency examinations have been used for decades in order to determine which students will have access to limited university educational opportunities. More recently, countries such as Thailand and China have placed greater emphasis on advancing their university-level educational systems in order to compete more effectively in the global economy.
Educational systems vary from country to country and have been developed and shaped over many decades by a multitude of factors including governmental structure, economic need, cultural norms, and political beliefs of the ruling party. What seems to be clearer today is that world leaders see the importance of strengthening regional educational systems in order to advance the opportunities that come with increased globalization. These proposed alliances have exciting possibilities, particularly with the Bologna process, given that one of its core focuses is on developing measurable outcomes. This approach will be discussed as this book examines the details of the integrated curriculum model and its reliance on competency demonstration (Keller, 2008; Wildavsky, 2010).
References
Barr, R. B., & Tagg, J. (1995, November/December). From teaching to learning: A new paradigm for undergraduate education. Change, l3-25.
Collins, J. (2001). Good to great. New York, NY: Harper Collins.
Keller, G. (2008). Higher education and the new society. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
European Higher Education Area. (2011). About the Bologna Process. Retrieved from http://ehea.info
Gaston, P. (2010). The challenge of Bologna. Sterling, VA: Stylus.
Wildavsky, B. (2010). The great brain race. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.


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Simple K12 FREE Technology Webinars!



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Inside Higher Ed: A Call to Action

 
 
January 30, 2012 - 3:00am 

The New Faculty Majority, representing professors off the tenure track, gathers for first-ever summit.

Read more:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/01/30/adjuncts-come-together-demand-fairer-treatment#ixzz1kyV98dM2
Inside Higher Ed
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Dillard University Melton Foundation...Looking for Students!


“The Melton Foundation actively promotes global citizenship as a way for individuals and organizations to work together across boundaries of place and identity to address global challenges.”
Dear Faculty members,
The Dillard University Melton Foundation is asking for your help. This spring, as we begin our selection process for new Melton fellows, we would like the faculty members to help identify students who you think would likely successfully complete and benefit from this competitive fellowship. We are looking for students who:
•Graduate in 2014 or later
•Appear to be curious learners
•Achieve a GPA of 3.2 or higher
•Demonstrate an interest in global issues and social responsibility

If you know of any students who fit these criteria or if you would like to recommend anyone, please contact either Dr. Chambliss, Candace Banks, or Lauren Lemonious via email at lchambliss@dillard.edu, candacebanks13@gmail.com, or lauren.lemonious@gmail.com

Thank you so much,
Melton Fellow,
Lauren Lemonious
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Friday, January 27, 2012

Diverse Issues in Higher Education: Obama Maps 2012 Education Agenda



                                                                    January 26, 2012 by Charles Dervarics

President Obama on Tuesday outlined an election-year higher education plan that includes a major expansion of college work-study programs, more help for student loan borrowers and a stronger role of community colleges in workforce training.

In his State of the Union Address, the president called for a doubling of slots in the work-study program, through which low-income students earn funds, largely through campus jobs, to help pay for college. The move caught at least one budget expert by surprise.

“It’s a program that hasn’t had an increase in a long time,” said Jason Delisle, director of the Federal Education Budget Project at the New America Foundation. “Many student recipients may not even recognize it as a federal program.”

Delisle told Diverse that the White House decision to expand the program may be linked to the themes of jobs and work, which the president emphasized heavily in his address. The federal government allocates $978 million a year to work-study activities.

The president said his community college plan would help 2 million Americans receive education and training for emerging jobs. In his speech, he cited the work of Central Piedmont Community College in North Carolina, which worked with Siemens Corp. to design technical training programs closely linked to new jobs at a regional gas turbine factory.

“You need to give more community colleges the resources they need to become community career centers,” Obama said, where they could support information technology and emerging manufacturing industries.

The president did not attach dollar figures to the community college proposal, though the administration two years ago helped secure $2 billion for similar initiatives. At a discussion forum after the speech, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said two-year colleges are a logical destination for these business/education partnerships.

The two sectors “should be partners,” he said, noting that some community colleges are open “24 hours a day” to meet the education needs of returning students seeking job-ready skills. “Everyone is stretched for resources,” he said, and these colleges provide cost effective training.

Student groups, among others, said they would welcome the additional spending on two-year institutions, which typically carry lower costs for students. “Funding is being cut left and right, and class sizes are going up,” said Victor Sanchez, president of the United States Student Association. The plan is “one way of investing in the future.”

The president is expected to outline more details of these plans later this week and in his fiscal year 2013 budget proposal in mid-February.

Obama also challenged the House of Representatives and Senate to pass an extension of low 3.4 percent interest rates on government-subsidized loans to undergraduates. Under a law passed in 2007, those rates are scheduled to double to 6.8 percent on July 1.

“At a time when Americans owe more in tuition debt than credit card debt, this Congress needs to stop the interest rates on student loans from doubling in July,” the president said.

In a presidential election year where taxes are a hot-button issue, Congress and the White House face a potential battle over this issue, Delisle said. The main reason is that the lower rate costs “several billion dollars” a year, he noted. “It’s too expensive to pay for over 10 years,” he told Diverse, making a year-by-year extension one potential compromise. 

In addition, the president proposed to make permanent the American Opportunity Tax Credit, through which families can get a tax credit of up to $2,500 a year for college tuition payments. Without congressional action, this credit would terminate at the end of the year along with tax breaks for wealthier Americans that began under former President George W. Bush.

While outlining new or expanded education initiatives, however, Obama also called for greater accountability and cost-cutting by colleges.

“We can’t just keep subsidizing skyrocketing tuition,” he said. “We will put colleges and universities on notice. If you can’t stop tuition from going up, the funding you get from taxpayers will go down.”

While he did not offer many details, a paper circulated by the White House with the speech said the president would propose to “shift some federal aid away from colleges that don’t keep net tuition down and provide good value.”

With more students returning to school and seeking more flexible ways to earn a college degree, Obama said post-secondary education is a national priority. “Higher education can’t be a luxury,” he said. “It is an economic imperative that every family should be able to afford.

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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Tomorrow's Professor Digest, Vol 60, Issue 8



Tomorrow's Teaching and Learning: Demonstrated - the Importance and Significance of the Subject Matter
Background








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TLT Group Inc. FridayLive! Ender's Game & Ender's Test of Artificial Instruction



Encourage. Enable. Engage.
www.tltgroup.org
Who needs teachers?

Interesting question (among many) that we posed following a recent staff read of Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. So interesting, in fact, that we scheduled a FridayLive! to talk more about it!
Join us this Friday Jan 27 for a special book discussion about Card’s great story. We’ll consider the educational implications of Ender’s world, the role of games and simulations in a teaching/learning environment, as well as our own personal reactions to Card’s dystopian vision.

We also want to draw your attention to a fantastic workshop coming up in February: Is Meta Really Betta? Using Metacognition and Reflection Online. Highly interactive, rich in content, presented by skilled, experienced educators - it's a valuable offering that we are most pleased to bring to you. Read below for more information and to register.



Ender's Game & Ender's Test of Artificial Instruction
Does a course need a teacher?
A new kind of test for a new kind of plagiarism?

A special two-part FridayLive!


Friday Jan. 27, 2:00pm EDT.....and.....Friday Feb. 10, 3:15pm EDT.......Free to all


On Jan. 27, Steve and company will lead a book discussion of Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. 

On Feb 10, we'll ponder the challenge of developing a test for determining whether an undergraduate course is being "taught" by a human or not.  What activities or features would convince a student who is taking a course that there is a human teacher in a meaningful role, even though the student cannot see/touch/smell the teacher?  I.e., what are the characteristics of a “teacherless” course essential to convince the students who take it that they have a teacher?  Who cares?  Why does/doesn’t this matter?  For whom?

The context is the growing pressure on faculty and other academic professionals to adapt, recreate, etc. courses that have been entirely or mostly based on face-to-face interaction and "traditional" teaching/learning resources into "courses" that include more online activities or elements or resources.

Registration for Jan. 27 "Ender's Game Book Discussion"

What's ahead on FridayLive!... ...Reinventing Colleges...and more...FridayLive! full event calendar
Sign up for the new FridayLive! season today through FASTPASS

Winter/Spring 2012 season FASTPASS is now available for registration for TLT Group Individual Members. Benefit of FASTPASS -- automatic registration for all FridayLive! sessions and login reminders emailed automatically to you on the Thursday before a FridayLive!



Is Meta Really Betta? Using Metacognition and Reflection Online

February 14, 21, and 28, 2012
2:00 - 3:00pm EDT


Three presenters skilled in developing strategies for improving the success of students and teachers in courses will present a highly interactive three-session workshop on using reflection in teaching, helping participants learn how to teach the way we want to teach.  

Leaders: Lucy MacDonald, Florida State College Jacksonville, Saundra McGuire, Louisiana State University, John Zubizarreta, Columbia College

REGISTER
This workshop is free to TLT Group Individual Members.  Check your institution's status here if you have your membership through an institutional subscription.

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Partnership for Youth Development: I need a leader...


                                                     http://nolayouth.org/

In October 2010, New Orleans overwhelming voted for the complete overhaul of a broken New Orleans Recreation Department (NORD). As this overhaul moves forward with the selection of the first permanent leader of the New Orleans Recreation Development Commission (NORDC) we at PYD feel it is vitally important to hear directly from our children and youth about what they need from the NORDC Chief Executive Officer.

With our community partners, we are asking New Orleans children and youth what they need from a leader and will be sharing their responses as the NORDC Chief Executive Officer final interview schedule moves forward. Every NORDC stakeholder agrees that creating exceptional service and opportunities for New Orleans children, youth and families is the ultimate goal of the Chief Executive Officer search so please help us reach this goal by sharing these direct pleas from youth to the adults who help shape their future.

Be on the look out for each new video and please share with your mailing lists to help publicize youth voice! As soon as the Search Committee provides a way for community members to submit questions to the candidates and the schedule for the final interviews we will pass on that information. We encourage all interested community members to attend the NORDC Chief Executive Director Search Committees' final candidate interviews and help make sure the needs expressed by youth are heard.
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