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Edublogger Review: Build Your Own Orientation

This document summarizes and discusses several blog posts on the topic of faculty orientation and perceptions of faculty workloads. It discusses efforts to improve new faculty orientation programs which have struggled with attendance and engagement. It also summarizes an article about perceptions of faculty having "cushy jobs" and debates whether these perceptions are accurate. The document questions whether resentment of research-focused faculty is really behind complaints, as teaching-focused faculty generally enjoy their roles, and research jobs often require long hours for relatively low pay compared to other fields. It argues these perceptions disproportionately impact diversity in faculty hiring.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
128 views9 pages

Edublogger Review: Build Your Own Orientation

This document summarizes and discusses several blog posts on the topic of faculty orientation and perceptions of faculty workloads. It discusses efforts to improve new faculty orientation programs which have struggled with attendance and engagement. It also summarizes an article about perceptions of faculty having "cushy jobs" and debates whether these perceptions are accurate. The document questions whether resentment of research-focused faculty is really behind complaints, as teaching-focused faculty generally enjoy their roles, and research jobs often require long hours for relatively low pay compared to other fields. It argues these perceptions disproportionately impact diversity in faculty hiring.

Uploaded by

philosophyandrew
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 9

August 11th, 2010 Published by: philosophyandrew

Edublogger Review
premature farewell to a stereotype, the enduring myth that
A "mash-up" of postings from nine engaging educational “college professors lead easy lives.” According to reporter Ben
and e-learning bloggers. Gose, once-rampant complaints about the imaginary prof on a
three-day workweek are now hard to find.

Build Your Own Orientation Nonetheless he notes an interesting source for some doozy
“last gasps” of lazy-prof stereotypes–faculty themselves. Gose
Source: http://suburbdad.blogspot.com/2010/08/build-your-own-
speculates that the prof-on-prof stereotypers are trying to do
orientation.html
the profession a favor, in the front line of faculty “policing their
By Dean Dad on August 11th, 2010
own” and targeting “perceived slackers,” etc.
We’ve had some discussions on campus recently about new
The photograph and first third of the article are devoted to the
employee orientation, which starts in a few weeks. The general
emotional and contradictory views of Prof. John Hare, chair of
consensus seems to be that some sort of orientation is called
English at Montgomery College, Maryland. According to Gose,
for, but nobody seems terribly happy with the current version.
Hare “became furious” at a distinguished scholar he doesn’t
know, Florence Babb, the Vada Allen Yeomans Professor of
The constituency for the orientation is new employees across
Women’s Studies at the University of Florida and former
the college. That means faculty, but it also means full-time
president of the Association for Feminist Anthropology, then
staff from various offices. (The faculty start with the staff
serving as graduate coordinator for the Center for Women’s
for the first week, then have a separate series of faculty-only
Studies and Gender Research. Recruited with the named
meetings focusing mostly on classroom issues.) The idea is
professorship to Florida from the University of Iowa in
to help the newbies put faces to names and offices; to go
2005, her scholarship and service to the profession has been
through some basic information on employee benefits; to
massive: multiple stints as department or program chair,
make some statements about the mission of the college and its
numerous editorial boards, etc.
commitments to fairness and diversity; and to introduce a few
basic policies. The trigger for Hare’s rage? Prof. Babb contested the
university’s attempt to violate the contractual terms of
In the past, it was a two-day event, with fairly significant its appointment letter in recruiting her and unilaterally
griping by the end of the second day. downgrade the 2-course release associated with her service
obligation in the Center to zero. Arbitrators eventually settled
Then it morphed to a one-day event with a series of 90-minute on reducing it to a one-course release, citing the figleaf of fiscal
followups monthly for a semester. By the end of the semester, exigency.
though, attendance flagged badly. One way of parsing Hare’s emotion is to see him
as the chair of a teaching-intensive department himself
Since many sets of eyes are better than one, I’m hoping to trading in stereotypes about faculty with research-intensive
crowdsource a solution to this. Given that certain institutional appointments. Babb, by any reasonable estimation, works
needs have to be met -- for legal reasons, for example, it’s pretty hard, so Gose allows Hare to qualify his position pretty
useful to be able to say that everyone was introduced to carefully.
the sexual harassment policy -- is there a way to make new
employee orientation more useful and compelling for the new It seems that Hare’s problem with Babb doesn’t depend on the
employees? factual question of whether she’s actually a slacker or not. It’s
that she’s willing to look like one, fueling “public perceptions”
Do you remember anything particularly good (or awful) about that he claims harm all of us.
your own orientation? If you could have constructed it , what But the article itself says that these public perceptions are way
would you have done differently? (And no, “Not having one” down, so Hare’s own account of his rage just doesn’t make
is not an option.) much sense.
What does? Is it the resentment of someone on a teaching-
Thanks!
intensive appointment?
I wonder, but I don’t think so. By his own frequently
contradictory account, Hare–like most folks with his kind
Cushy For Whom? of appointment–loves his job. Most of the folks I know on
Source: http://howtheuniversityworks.com/wordpress/archives/263 teaching-intensive appointment feel fortunate, like Hare, not
By Marc Bousquet on August 11th, 2010 to be subjected to the constant pressure of publishing, and to
An interesting piece in last week’s Chronicle, Goodbye to those be paid for spending a lot of time with students on topics that
Overpaid Professors in their Cushy Jobs, attempts a possibly interest them.

1
August 11th, 2010 Published by: philosophyandrew
And as many irate commenters on the piece substantiated, to get a job, too arduous an apprenticeship, too poor of a
it’s a fact that many jobs “in industry” are far easier than return on education investment: only the wealthier among
faculty appointments, especially research jobs, which tend to us are able to “irrationally choose” to accept psychic wages–
be radically underpaid for the difficulty of the work–it’s not and the wealthier among us are disproportionately white,
the “ease” of the position, but the challenges and the self- just for starters. All of this has tremendous, documented
directedness that accounts for the willingness of many to work consequences for the achievement and persistence of students
twice as hard for half the pay. from less advantaged economic circumstances and ethnicities
poorly represented among the faculty.
Given what the most successful people in other fields earn
these days and the kind of accomplishment it takes to earn As for gender, the rendering of faculty positions to the extreme
the rank, it’s fairly hard to argue that distinguished research of economic irrationality (six courses a year for $15,000,
faculty in Babb’s bracket– earning $90,000 to $100,000 a eg) assigns them disproportionately to women, especially
year–are either overpaid or underworked. persons–whether male or female–married to professionals
and managers. The other, primary wage earner supports the
In fact, as I’ve written before: plenty of undistinguished civil
economically irrational partner, a person teaching for what
servants, firefighters and military officers have retirement
used to be called pin money. This structural feminizing of the
compensationhigher than the salaries earned for 60-hour
job was traditionally associated with converting the positions
weeks by extremely accomplished teachers and/or researchers
formerly held by men (such as secretarial positions, once
in the humanities!
a high-status job) to those held increasingly by women, as
So what explains Hare’s irrational, data-free anger at Michelle Masse explains in a 2008 interview and is just one
Babb? Especially when the supposedly benighted “public” is of the ways that she says higher ed forms a “pyramid scheme”
increasingly able to do the relevant math? especially for women faculty.
The Gendering of Professional Service Broadly speaking across many disciplines and institution
One dimension of Babb’s situation that didn’t factor into types women still tend to disproportionately hold low-paying,
Hare’s position or come out in Gose’s otherwise well-reported low-status, insecure teaching-only or teaching-intensive jobs
piece is the role of gender in who the University of Florida while men continue to disproportionately hold high-paying,
demanded “pitch in” and make “sacrifices” during the fiscal high-status, secure research-intensive and top administrative
crisis. positions.

It appears that Babb is the only female distinguished professor In an important new book, Over Ten Million Served: Gendered
in the College of Arts and Sciences, and the only one actually Service in Language and Literature Workplaces Masse and
forced to teach more. According to one source and multiple Katie Hogan take the conversation about gender and the
commenters on press reports of the case, of the many male distribution of academic rewards & responsiblities beyond the
faculty with her load and rank, many earning more, only relatively well-understood territory of research and teaching
one man was even asked to teach additional courses and, to service labor. (Disclosure: the book includes a chapter
being eligible to do so–apparently as expected–chose to retire adapted from HTUW.)
instead. The book surveys the complexity of academic service, from the
I was happy to see the comments on the Chronicle manifold senses of a calling (ranging from communitarian,
article overflowing with faculty, including the intrepid Bill sociable, and professional impulses to an opportunity to
Pannapacker, hastening to question Hare’s suitability as “our” rebel or transform the academy) to close connections with
spokesperson. Pannapacker targets Hare’s implication in the the rise of a service economy, to specifically feminized
ideology of teaching for love, a topic I’ve written about several forms of exploitation–ie, doing the university’s “housework,”
times before. or an undercompensated labor of care that in many
circumstances falls harder on women. Women faculty face
It’s too often assumed that “teaching for love” is a win-win larger career penalties for not seeming to “care sufficiently”
situation: some people are happy with psychic rewards instead for the institution, and their research contributions are
of pay, which saves a few bucks that institutions or legislators correspondingly discounted–I think analysis of the comments
can then spend on other important projects. What’s the harm? on Babb’s case at the Chron and other media outlets strongly
But a labor market arranged around working for love– supports this view!
rather than fair compensation–is actually one of the most Among the countless insights that Masse and Hogan develop
sexist, racist and economically discriminatory arrangements in the collection is the emergence of a complex and
possible. From a class point of view, as I emphasize in contradictory “service unconscious” among feminized faculty,
Gose’s piece and elsewhere: by making the professoriate male and female (ie, such as the angry and confused John
an economically irrational choice, you stop sorting for the Hare):
most talented people and begin to sort for the people who
can afford to discount their wages. That cuts out most We know that our [willingness to serve] sometimes damages
people, period, making the best jobs in the academy largely us and supports organizational structures we don’t want
a preserve for persons with fortunate economic backgrounds to reinforce. And yet we nonetheless persevere in these
or circumstances. And via the wealth gap, that primary behaviors and articulate their value for the best of all possible
economic discrimination has direct consequences for the reasons: the ways in which ‘helping’ and ’serving’ please us
racial composition of the faculty. By making it too hard and fulfill our deepest-held beliefs about the importance of

2
August 11th, 2010 Published by: philosophyandrew
existence in a community and the need to achieve change In most cases, and in my case, the community manager
and support for our colleagues and students. We know that also performs the moderation functions. Moderation
service and sacrifice are often necessary to bring about more would be a small part of several people’s jobs.
just workplaces, but much of the service we are pressed into 4. Moderation types- Made by Many, February 4, 2009
is not about creating just and fair workplaces… Whenever companies want to publish user generated
Hogan’s analysis alone is worth the price of the book. content (UGC) they need to look into moderation,
She contends that academic women, and men in feminized which usually consists of the following three types:
sectors, are expected to be “superserviceable,” ie to williingly Pre-moderation: Some sites operate on the principle
do labor not recognized as such. Across vast swathes of that every piece of UGC should be moderated before it’s
the academy, faculty have service-intensive appointments displayed on the website.
(especially involving labor of care for students or the 5. Community Roles: Manager, Moderator, and
institution) in which the nature of their service is not even Administrator, January 8, 2008
recognized. was asked an interesting question last week about the
Using data from significant assessments of the labor best ways to divide the community manager role into
performed by women in both nontenurable and tenured separate manager, moderator, and administrator roles.
positions, Hogan documents the unspoken demands of the In most cases, and in my case, the community manager
academic service economy. In a final twist, she argues that the also performs the moderation functions. Moderation
same is true for the intellectual output of persons in feminized would be a small part of several people’s jobs.
positions, especially feminism itself–ie, that feminist research 6. Moderating for development- I collaborate, e-
and teaching is meant to be especially “serviceable” as well. collaborate, we collaborate, July 15, 2008
It’s a process of several months which started in May and
Effective Web Conferences – includes two live conferences (in a cinema, close to Ede),
papers written by specialists on development issues and
41 Resources an online discussion via the website [link]. The names
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ElearningTechnology/~3/ of these people came from the participants list of the
EfiLK0FyzCc/effective-web-conferences-41-resources.html conferences. It’s a guess why.
By Tony Karrer on August 11th, 2010 7. Ed Mitchell: What are facilitation and moderation,
I wanted to follow-up 19 Tips for Effective Online Conferences February 17, 2008
with some additional resources that relate to this topic. I What are facilitation and moderation February 15, 2008
primarily used the eLearning Learning and Communities and – 1:55 pm A quick addendum about facilitation and
Networks sites and used Conference, Online Facilitation of moderation on online spaces before a longer post about
Conferences, Online Interaction in Conferences, Moderating strategy. Are they facilitating, moderating, re-purposing,
Online Interaction, and others. or nothing at all? Moderation: Is the coalface end end of
the model.
8. Gilbane Group Blog: More on "engage and collaborate"
1. 28 Web Conference Training Tips- eLearning Weekly, vs. "command and control"- April 1, 2007
July 10, 2009 Gilbane Group Blog Gilbane Group analysts, consultants
Learning to use web conferencing technology is pretty and contributors on Content and Web technologies &
easy, but there is a lot more to training via web trends Open to the community and moderated Home
conference than just putting on a headset, dialing up Archives XML Blog Search Blog Globalization Blog
an audio-conferencing bridge, and logging onto the News Conferences gilbane.com Sign In Search More on
application. When developing PowerPoint slides to use "engage and collaborate" vs. research last week, Niall
in web conference training follow these guidelines: Cook comments: You ask: ".what
Simplify content.
9. Backchannel Resources- Full Circle, September 11, 2009
2. How to plan and run a good web conference- Influence, back channel facilitation in online groups where you
May 7, 2009 make a decision to address issues privately and not “in
While the technology is getting better and better ( here's front&# of the whole group. Conference Back Channel.
a good list of options ), putting on a good web conference Raising the bar at online events. Clay Shirkey on
still requires some preparation and practice. Encourage back channels at conferences. Jon Garfunkle on the
people to participate during the conference and identify backchannel at conferences (from a blog post comment).
the ways in which you want your meeting participants to
10. Raising the Bar on Online Event Practices- Full Circle,
engage with you. Below are some helpful tips.
August 11, 2009
3. Community Roles: Manager, Moderator, and Alan Levine wrote a deliciously provocative post on last
Administrator, January 8, 2008 month that I’ve been meaning to comment upon, Five
was asked an interesting question last week about the Ways to Run a Deadly Online Seminar. It has been a
best ways to divide the community manager role into while since I wrote about synchronous online facilitation
separate manager, moderator, and administrator roles. is a focused way. inside the online meeting room). World
Cafe’s online ? Spot on, CogDog!
3
August 11th, 2010 Published by: philosophyandrew
11. Improving Conferences - Ideas & the Year Round 18. How to Moderate Teens and Tweens- eModeration, June
Conference- Engaged Learning, February 6, 2009 26, 2009
WH Says: “…Open up the pool of presenters beyond the We're really pleased to anounce that we've published a
same 10-20 names I see at every e-learning conference… new whitepaper; the second in our series on Teens and
More voices would be a good thing and shows strength Tweens, called 'How to Moderate Teens and Tweens'.
(and depth) in our industry.&#. Maybe Brent Schlenker, Moderation has a role in helping to guide them as well as
Heidi Fisk, someone at ASTD or other conferences can keeping them safe.”. Tags: teens child safety moderation
tell us the # of RFPs vs. into the conference. In this latest publication.
12. Liveblogging an Online Conference- Experiencing 19. References on Lurking | Full Circle Associates- Full
eLearning, April 17, 2008 Circle, March 28, 2010
Wendy Wickham asked a good question in the comments First, is an old discussion summary from the Online
on TCC08: Second Life: Teaching Tips from the Virtual Facilitation list from 2003, compiled by Chris Lang
Frontier: Christy - are you using 2 computers (one for which still has value to me. I’ve written about it here on
blogging, one for the conference), or just one? How the blog quite often over the years!) It is more generalized
are you finding the experience of liveblogging an online reciprocity. Download file. Finally, some fine blog posts
conference? am using two computers. It does feel a little on lurking by friends and colleagues. link]
intense. 20. Is your event worth the price of the ticket?- Social
13. How to Run a Conference That Makes Us Say “WOW!”- Reporter, March 15, 2009
Engaged Learning, June 22, 2010 The other day I was discussing social reporting and
Attending conferences is always a mixed bag. conference other online activities for a £300-ticket, two-day event
, my favorite part was talking to others about each others’ with the organiser, and he said: “Next year we are
issues, concerns, questions. conference Barcamp e2.0 going to have to make it free&#. And in future they’ll
conference keynote session . . Photo on Flickr by Lars have to blend online and offline activities. Limited
Plougmann. We LOVE the other attendees and the idea interactionconference. Problems if not!
we get from each other. More of you. 21. Conference Balance- eLearning Technology, June 6,
14. Online Facilitation, Twitter, Backchannel and Keynotes- 2008
Full Circle, February 24, 2010 Just read a great post by Clive Shepherd - Cutting the Pie
The topic was “Online Facilitation: 14 years on. My topic - where he discusses what the appropriate balance is at
was about my past experience with online facilitation conferences. As you know creating Better Conferences is
and where I thought it was headed. The conference something that very much interests me. Check out that
started with an amazing “Light Night Learning Live&# post, the poll results and the discussion for lots of ideas
biting and sharp comedy set up by Jared Stein and Marc on how to make conferences better.
Hugentobler. First: Reflection. Perfect timing. 22. Rethinking the Conference Structure - Time to Step it
15. You do whaaat? A glimpse behind the scenes of technical UP- Engaged Learning, February 3, 2009
moderation- eModeration, June 10, 2010 Mark Oehlert attended TechKnowledge ‘09 and his
For anyone who believes that a moderator spends his or thoughts were very similarly to mine: Conferences need
her time deleting rude words from forums and hitting to be updated. 8220;Social media should be the default
'reject' on naughty video submissions (although we do and should kick in as soon as I register and continue past
this also), I wanted to give a quick glimpse into the nitty- the conference.&#. I will be MUCH less likely to come to
gritty involved in eModeration's most complex project your conference. Ohhhhhh yes. Yes, Mark, it is.
for a mobile phone provider client. Warning: this gets
23. Online Conference Formats- eLearning Technology,
technical. April 23, 2009
16. How to Develop Robust Moderation Methodology- Also, if you are interested in future conferences, please
Community Guy, March 23, 2010 go sign up on the Learn Trends Ning Group. We've just
Moderation, at its core is about ensuring that published seen an interesting experience with Jay Cross having
content on a particular site, typically submitted by the pulled together a 24 hour, worldwide discussion on the
site’s users themselves, meets the terms of the site’s future of learning at Learn Trends. You can find some of
Terms of Service (ToS). The problem with approaching the recordings here. On Tuesday morning, we had 125
the moderation task as an analog, queue-clearing activity listening in.
is that it simply doesn’t scale. 24. Rethinking conferences- Informal Learning, February
17. 4. Moderation and safety- FreshNetworks, June 6, 2009 17, 2009
Why moderate? 8220;Why moderate?&# Moderators] When I signed up for Spaces for Interaction: An
help and assist new members by welcoming them into Online Conversation about Improving the Traditional
the community.&#. Moderation is essential to a clean, Conference , I didn’t appreciate how timely the topic
healthy, vibrant community. good moderator has a would become. Conferences have traditionally provided
light touch, barely noticeable, and a well-moderated foundation knowledge for instructional designers,
community is spam-free, troll-resilient and buzzing. trainers, CLOs, and others in the field. Is it a Conference?

4
August 11th, 2010 Published by: philosophyandrew
25. Twitter Conference Ideas- eLearning Technology, 32. Be an Insanely Great Professional Conference Attendee -
January 30, 2009 eLearning Technology, September 14, 2006
Twitter has become a pretty great tool to help with As way of introduction to this topic, let me start with
socializing at conferences. There is also an interesting a typical scenario that you will recognize if you've
effect that people who are not attending still hear quite ever attended a professional conference. The conference
a bit about the conference and have some level of organizer has put signs in the middle of each table with a
tangential participation. We also encouraged everyone to topic. What are other activities at the conference where I
put in the hashtag. What do I need to cover by what point. can talk to people? So what LMS are you using?
26. Better Conferences- eLearning Technology, June 18, 33. Conference Preparation- eLearning Technology, March
2007 14, 2007
believe we can build better conferences. And, I need you As I'm thinking about going to the eLearningGuild
to help by doing one or more of the following: provide Annual Gathering in Boston next month and ASTD in
a response to the poll below (won't show in an RSS Atlanta in June, I went back to look at some notes I
feed - sorry) provide suggestions for what you'd like to had created before around getting ready for conferences.
see in future conferences (add comment). because most link] I also ran across this good post: Conference Survival
conferences have these same problems. distributed. Guide for the Web Worker with some good suggestions
27. Online Conferences and In-Person Conferences- 34. Conference Wiki Examples- eLearning Technology,
eLearning Technology, October 28, 2008 November 25, 2008
Lisa Neal asked a great question in a comment on Learn Someone asked me for an example of a conference using
Trends 2008 - Free Online Conference : What do you a Wiki both for organizers during planning, evaluating
see as the main differences between in person and online proposed sessions, etc. can say that this made pulling
conferences? Now, don't get me wrong, I still very much things together for the conference significantly easier.
like to do in-person conferences. It's hard to get all the and for attendees with session pages, participant lists,
way to an in-person conference. that kind of stuff. It was more aimed at the attendee side.
28. Social Conference Tools - Expect Poor Results- 35. Conference Session Breakout- eLearning Technology,
eLearning Technology, April 23, 2008 December 18, 2007
I saw a post by David Warlick - Reaching Out With Your Uh oh, I just saw a post by Donald Clark slamming the
Conference where he suggests that conference organizers use of small group breakouts during conference sessions.
should: Consider a social network for your conference. Update: 12/19/2007. There has been great discussion in
Although I remain skeptical about social networks, social the comments. wanted to provide a bit more context for
networking is essential, and a few conferences have made this. The session will be workforce learning professionals
brilliant use of them. It's rare. (an ASTD audience). Original post. Uh oh. Now I'm
worried.
29. What Exactly IS a Conference?- aLearning, March 2,
2010 36. Prepare for a Conference- eLearning Technology,
What’s the intention of having the conference? Jeff Hurt, January 12, 2009
over at Midcourse Corrections, has a great post about Heading into ASTD TechKnowledge , there's a
opening and keynote speakers, and it made me think particularly timely podcast that I just did for Tom
about conferences in general… …and about my own Crawford of VizThink on the topic of: How to be an
situation. So what’s the purpose of the conference? Is it Insanely Great Conference Attendee If you follow the
an educational event? Meeting? link you can get to the podcast. There will be more
information coming around the use of Twitter at the
30. I Have Seen the Future of Conferences...and it is 3D!-
conference.
Kapp Notes, March 15, 2010
Terrence Linden discussing the new Second Life browser 37. The Rise of Webinars, Virtual Conferences, and Twitter
at VWBPE conference. If you missed the Virtual Worlds' Chats- Element K Blog, May 8, 2009
Best Practices in Education Conference , you missed not Conferences are still being held in the Learning and
only a great conference with really good content and Development industry as in past years, and generally
presentations, you missed a glimpse into the future of they have the same level of quality presentations, hallway
conferences. Check out her entire presentation. discussions, vendor demos, and much more. An example
of the latter would be the “online forums” that the
31. Conference Networking Tools - Do They Work?-
eLearning Guild does each month.
eLearning Technology, May 18, 2007
You may have seen them before and will likely 38. Online Communites are Changing my World-
remember their scatter plot: There are other applications Daretoshare, June 26, 2010
aimed at helping you to network at conferences: Here are four examples of how online communities have
CMC Central - Tradeshow Appointments , Eveni changed my world: I was organizing a conference in
Meeting Matching ExpoMATCH , eXtreme Networking , London UK for a client. The first time we met in person
Introplus , Leverage Software , NetworkingMatch , and was at the conference. Should online communities
PowerMingle.com. Or maybe it's me. have a better reputation? Should Should you join and
participate in one more online community?

5
August 11th, 2010 Published by: philosophyandrew
39. Twittering at Conferences- Learning with e's, May 7,
2009 CampusEAI Consortium
I really missed the Edumedia Conference in Salzburg this Announces Design and
year. have pleasant memories of last year's conference
and the beautiful city of Salzburg. Here's the conclusion Training Services for
in full: Microblogging at conferences seems to be
an additional way of discussing presented topics and
myCampus 6.4.1 Theme
exchanging additional information. Ebner, M., Beham, Customization
G. Source: http://www.educause.edu/node/211256
40. How to Get the Most Out of a Conference- eLearning By Hollie Rybak on August 11th, 2010
Weekly, May 7, 2009 CampusEAI Consortium Announces Design and Training
Conferences have been on my mind quite a bit lately. Services for myCampus 6.4.1 Theme Customization
So you can see why I was pleasantly surprised today
New services available for institutions deploying myCampus
when I ran across an excellent blog post on how to get
6.4.1 and later versions
the most out of a conference. Here’s a summary of his
suggestions: Choose your conference wisely. Conference
Survival Guide for the Web Worker. Cleveland - August 6, 2010 - CampusEAI Consortium today
41. Layered communications will change online announced the availability of Design and Training Services
communities- FreshNetworks, April 14, 2009 for Theme Customization for the myCampus campus portal.
Time for a prediction: layered communications - a CampusEAI's Design and Training Services for Theme
mixing of text, speech and video - will become a key Customization are available to members currently utilizing
issue for onlinecommunities in 2010 and beyond. . myCampus 6.4.1 and later versions.
Two things this week got me thinking about the place As part of CampusEAI's Design Services, members may engage
for layered communications in onlinecommunities and CampusEAI to customize or develop themes by opting for the
social networks. following services:

• Discovery and Assessment


eLearning Technology
Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from • Design Implementation
this blog and other eLearning blogs. • Staff Augmentation

In addition to Design Services, CampusEAI has made available


It Costs Time And Money live, instructor-led courses through its myCampus Training
But Parents Approve Of Services. For the month of August, members can register for
the following courses:
Orientations myCampus Design and Styles Administration
Source: http://keptup.typepad.com/academic/2010/08/it-costs-time-and-
money-but-parents-approve-of-orientations.html • Date: Thursday, August 12, 2010 (part 1)
By StevenB on August 11th, 2010
• Date: Friday, August 13, 2010 (part 2)
Call it Empty Nesting 101: Colleges around the country are
holding orientations for families of incoming freshmen. But • Time: 1:00 - 4:00 PM EST - 6 hours over 2 sessions
these are not simple meet-the-dean receptions the day before • Cost: $367.62 per person
school starts. These are elaborate two- and three-day events,
often on midsummer weekdays, requiring parents to take time Institutions that have recently selected the CampusEAI Design
off from work and pay $70 or $80 in addition to lodging, food and Training Services for Theme Customizations include:
and travel expenses. You might think parents facing massive
tuition bills would balk at more demands on their budgets and • Lehigh Carbon Community College
time. But many colleges report that well more than half their • Pitt Community College
freshmen have family in attendance at these events, and lots
• New York Institute of Technology
of parents think the orientations are the greatest thing since
"What To Expect When You're Expecting." Read more at: • Samuel Merritt University
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-adna-
parents-college-orientation-20100807,0,6414327.story "A portal of this caliber and quality puts us on par with
four-year universities," commented Heather Kuhns, Associate
Dean of Advancement of Lehigh Carbon Community College
(LCCC) after the new design was demonstrated for students.
"LCCC should be proud of [the new design] - students are
going to be wowed."

6
August 11th, 2010 Published by: philosophyandrew
"We are pleased to announce myCampus 6.4.1 Design and Google and everyone else respects people's privacy. People
Training Services for Theme Customization, " said Anjli have a right to privacy; it's natural; it's normal. It's the right
Jain, Executive Director of the CampusEAI Consortium. "Our way to do things. But if you are trying to commit a terrible,
objective in provisioning these services is to enable institutions evil crime, it's not obvious that you should be able to do so
to deliver a fresh new look to students that is attractive and with complete anonymity. There are no systems in our society
fun." which allow you to do that. Judges insist on unmasking who
the perpetrator was. So absolute anonymity could lead to some
For further information, members can contact their
very difficult decisions for our governments and our society as
CampusEAI account manager. Non- members seeking
a whole."
further information can contact Hollie Rybak at
hollie_rybak@campuseai.org or visit the CampusEAI website Your comments always remain your property, but in posting
www.CampusEAI.org. them here you agree to license under the same terms as this
site (Creative Commons). If your comment is offensive it will
be deleted.
About CampusEAI Consortium
CampusEAI Consortium is a global information technology Automated Spam-checking is in effect. If you are a registered
services and consulting provider focused on helping its user you may submit links and other HTML. Anonymous users
members implement enterprise IT solutions cost-effectively cannot post links and will have their content screened - certain
and timely. More than 260 members belong to the words are prohibited and your comment will be analyzed to
CampusEAI Consortium, including University of Arizona, make sure it makes sense.
Albany State University, Curry College, University of Maine
at Farmington, University of North Carolina Wilmington,
Staffordshire University and The Australian National Students Invited To Spend A
University. For more information, visit www.CampusEAI.org. Night At Church Until Their
Rooms Are Ready
About myCampus Source: http://keptup.typepad.com/academic/2010/08/students-invited-
myCampus, the most widely deployed campus portal and to-spend-a-night-at-church-until-their-rooms-are-ready.html
web content management solution in higher education, By StevenB on August 11th, 2010
provides prospective and current students, faculty and staff, A Downtown Madison church is stepping in to ease a
administration and alumni with single sign-on access to chronic late-summer problem — university students forced
their academic and social information. For more information into a night of homelessness because they’re between
on myCampus, visit http://www.campuseai.org/mycampus- apartment leases. Bethel Lutheran Church, 312 Wisconsin
campus-portal. Ave., announced plans Wednesday to let college students sleep
for free in the church the night of Saturday, Aug. 14. Many
leases expire that day, but renters often can’t move into their
new residences until the next day. Bethel Lutheran plans to
open its doors at 7 p.m. on the 14th to anyone with a student
ID and a copy of the lease for his or her new apartment.
Google CEO Schmidt: The church will lock its doors at 11 p.m. In addition to floor
People Aren't Ready for the space for sleeping, the church will provide dinner, movies and
breakfast the next morning. Read more at:
Technology Revolution http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/education/
Source: http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=53094 university/article_336c8cd2-
August 11th, 2010 a02a-11df-8208-001cc4c03286.html
Google CEO Eric Schmidt raised the question of whether there
can be any online anonymity in a talk recently. According
to ReadWriteWeb, on the misuse of information for criminal Good Citizen or Leader: The
or anti-social purposes, he said, "The only way to manage Case for Green IT
this is true transparency and no anonymity. In a world of Source: http://www.educause.edu/node/211235
asynchronous threats, it is too dangerous for there not to be By ckeller on August 11th, 2010
some way to identify you. We need a [verified] name service
for people. Governments will demand it." Yes, there is the This ECAR research bulletin builds on Powering Down: Green
argument from privacy, but for most of us, anonymity is IT in Higher Education, the 2010 ECAR study of green IT.
already pretty much an illusion. Oh, and if you think the last Although this bulletin is not a digest of that study, it is offered
five years have seen a lot of change, just wait for the next five as a general window onto our professional community. ECAR
years. studies continually demonstrate that IT in higher education is
underfunded, relative to our ambitions and dreams, and green
"Privacy is incredibly important," Schmidt stated. "Privacy is IT initiatives are among those that are suffering. In most cases,
not the same thing as anonymity. It's very important that IT leaders can and do discriminate among the noisy and often
subtle exhortations to lead. In many cases, we have learned to
7
August 11th, 2010 Published by: philosophyandrew
“satisfice”; that is, to lead by choosing when “good enough” is, http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/
in fact, good enough, and when it is not. US_COLLEGE_TEXTBOOK_COSTS?
SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Citation for this Work: Katz, Richard N. “Good Citizen or
Leader: The Case for Green IT” (Research Bulletin 16, 2010).
Boulder, CO: EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research, 2010,
available from http://www.educause.edu/ecar.
#MetaOER Project: Open
Repository on Open
Plagiarism Is Not a Big Moral Educational Resources on
Deal Open Educational Resources
Source: http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=53093 Source: http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=53092
August 11th, 2010 August 11th, 2010

I know I'm not supposed to like Stanley Fish, but I can't Jordi Cornet writes to say that the UNESCO Chair at the UOC
help myself. Though he and I may come from very different has been developing MetaOER, "to collect and centralize key
perspectives, he routinely turns to arguments so simple and Open Educational Resources on Open Educational Resources
yet elegant it's hard not to be appreciative. Today's column in (OER documents that show how to create, license, share…
the New York Times is a case in point. "Plagiarism is an idea other OER resources)." There's a PDF Wrap-Up and a
that makes sense only in the precincts of certain specialized Del.icio.us Feed.
practices and is not a normative philosophical notion," he Your comments always remain your property, but in posting
argues, neatly cutting off all debate about whether ideas can be them here you agree to license under the same terms as this
original, whether people can own words, whether it is moral site (Creative Commons). If your comment is offensive it will
to cite these words, whether computers make the whole issue be deleted.
moot. That's all irrelevant. "If it is wrong to plagiarize in some
context of practice, it is not because the idea of originality has Automated Spam-checking is in effect. If you are a registered
been affirmed by deep philosophical reasoning, but because user you may submit links and other HTML. Anonymous users
the ensemble of activities that take place in the practice would cannot post links and will have their content screened - certain
be unintelligible if the possibility of being original were not words are prohibited and your comment will be analyzed to
presupposed." Lovely. make sure it makes sense.
Your comments always remain your property, but in posting
them here you agree to license under the same terms as this
site (Creative Commons). If your comment is offensive it will Stack Supervisor's Nightmare
be deleted. (One Of Them)
Source: http://keptup.typepad.com/academic/2010/08/stack-supervisors-
Automated Spam-checking is in effect. If you are a registered nightmare-one-of-them.html
user you may submit links and other HTML. Anonymous users By StevenB on August 11th, 2010
cannot post links and will have their content screened - certain
words are prohibited and your comment will be analyzed to Except for some scratches, no one was seriously hurt
make sure it makes sense. Wednesday when a few rows of bookshelves came tumbling
down, domino-style, on the second floor of Indiana State
University’s Cunningham Memorial Library. But the incident
Students Have More Choices resulted in the closure of the library for the remainder of
Wednesday and Thursday, and now 25,000 books need to be
When It's Time For Textbooks put back in order and reshelved. Cleanup was the easy part.
Source: http://keptup.typepad.com/academic/2010/08/students-have- Now, the library has to go through those 25,000 books and put
more-choices-when-its-time-for-textbooks.html them back in order. Read more at:
By StevenB on August 11th, 2010 http://tribstar.com/news/x2064740993/Domino-effect-
A new federal law requires publishers to provide textbook Tipping-shelves-send-25-000-books-onto-floor-at-ISU-s-
price information to professors and calls on colleges to identify main-library
course textbooks during registration, giving students more
time to shop around. Experts call it a step in the right direction,
but not a game-changer. At the same time, a robust online Islandora
marketplace of used books and recent inroads by textbook Source: http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=53091
rental programs give students more options than ever. The August 11th, 2010
prospect of digital books and slow-but-steady growth in free
online "open" content loom as developments that could upend William Langley sends me this link to the The Islandora
the textbook landscape and alleviate the perennial problem of repository interface that can be download as Open Source.
rising prices. Read more at: I like the archived Flash video browsing page, as well as
the mechanism that automatically stores and indexes any
attachment to any page in a Drupal server. Langley writes,
8
August 11th, 2010 Published by: philosophyandrew
"It is intended a semantic enabled repository and workflow Automated Spam-checking is in effect. If you are a registered
configuration for management of digital repositories and user you may submit links and other HTML. Anonymous users
archives and associated data." It's by Discovery Garden, a spin- cannot post links and will have their content screened - certain
off company in Prince Edward Island. words are prohibited and your comment will be analyzed to
make sure it makes sense.
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Chat between Personal


Learning Environment ( PLE )
and Learning Management
System ( LMS )
Source: http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=53089
August 11th, 2010

I think it's funny that the PLE boy in this video is named
"Stephen." I like how the argument for PLEs is made via
xtranormal, a service that helps you create cartoon videos. No,
it's not perfect by a long shot. But it's a much better animation
than I could create in a month of trying. Spanish subtitles. See
al;so this site, referenced on the video page.

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