Indiana U. negotiated low student prices for E-Textbooks required in some courses

55% students read less; 22% more.  
"Slightly more than half of the students surveyed—about 55 percent—said they read less of the e-textbook than they would have read from a printed copy, while 22 percent said they read more from the e-textbook than they would have from a printed copy."
"... the university requires certain students to purchase e-textbooks and negotiates unusually low prices by promising publishers large numbers of sales—now has the participation of major textbook publishers, and university officials plan to expand the effort."
- Excerpts above/below from "Major Publishers Join Indiana U. Project That Requires Students to Buy E-Textbooks," By Jeffrey R. Young, September 15, 2011, 7:00 am, Wired Campus - The Chronicle of Higher Education

"..if you put the Internet on the device I am supposed to be using to read, I will never read again."

Joke re Amzn Fire? Can't really multitask!
"..books are wastes of screens. You give me a dual-processor, web-reading, multitasking wonder-screen for just $199 —it would be almost insulting to use it for books. That’s like hiring a porn star to read you the Encyclopedia Britannica. It’s a waste of resources."
"If all these studies about multitasking have taught us anything, it is that we all think we can multitask but no one actually can. In the course of writing this I have eight times run off and reloaded the page to see if anything had happened on YouTube that I should know about.
"This is not theoretical.
"It’s times like this that I think how delighted I would be if the Internet stopped.
“Finally, no Twitter to keep me from reading ‘Madame Bovary’!” I would exclaim.
- Excerpts from "Dear Amazon: About that new Kindle Fire tablet," Posted at 03:59 PM ET, 09/28/2011 By Alexandra Petri, "ComPost," Washington Post Opinion, http://wapo.st/p4ZuF8

IMAGE
Photo of painting "This portrays the story of a dispution between Saint Dominic and the Cathars in which the books of both were thrown on a fire," Pedro Berruguete 15th century.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7d/Santo_Domingo_y_los_albigenses-detalle.jpg/500px-Santo_Domingo_y_los_albigenses-detalle.jpg
//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Santo_Domingo_y_los_albigenses-detalle.jpg
Permission
Pedro Berruguete [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
"This is a faithful photographic reproduction of an original two-dimensional work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason: This image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired."

eTextbooks via iPad? Amazon Fire? iPhone 5? Time to think about textbook transitions!

Students want lighter backpacks!

Keeping Up: eTextbooks FridayLive! 9/30 2pm ET Free Online
More info, resources - homebase Web page for FrLv 9/30   

Publishers offering/exploring eTextbooks: "John Wiley & Sons; Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishing Group; W.W. Norton; and Flat World Knowledge... "

Successful online stat course textbook transition! $180/stdnt PRINT to <$90/stdnt DIGITAL

tlt.gs/CAutub201109 = video; Also join "Keeping Up: eTextbooks" FridayLive! 9/30 2pm ET Free Online tlt.gs/frlv;
Charles Ansorge - Teacher of Statistics Online, et al.
Testimonials re: Ansorge’s Online Courses

Keeping Up - New Tools for Teaching Online Students - Charles Ansorge, YouTube video produced 20110924, includes description, screen shots of successful transition from $180 print to <$100 per student digital statistics textbook - including supplemental online resources (e.g., weekly assignments automatically checked and tracked THAT STUDENTS REPORT THEY APPRECIATE!).

What is a Correspondence Course?

"..exchange of teaching materials between a student and teacher geographically remote from each other. 

The student obtains a textbook locally, and lesson plans, lecture notes and problem sets are sent by the instructor to the student. The student sends completed assignments back to the instructor for grading, and exams are administered by a proctor local to the student." - From "What is a Correspondence Course?" on Wisegeek website 2011092

"In the United States William Rainey Harper, first president of the University of Chicago developed the concept of extended education, whereby the research university had satellite colleges of education in the wider community, and in 1892 he also encouraged the concept of correspondence school courses to further promote education, an idea that was put into practice by Columbia University.[7] - From Wikipedia 20110928

IMAGE

Cropped from photo of "Arabian Gulf (Mar. 18, 2003) -- Postal Clerk ...sorts through 16,000 pounds of mail piled in the ship's hangar bay"

U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 2nd Class Alicia Tasz. (RELEASED), 18 March 2003

File:US Navy 030318-N-4048T-007 Postal Clerk 3rd Class Samantha Miller sorts through 16,000 pounds of mail piled in the ship's hangar bay.jpg - Wikimedia Commons:

"This Image was released by the United States Navy with the ID 030318-N-4048T-007.

This file is a work of a sailor or employee of the U.S. Navy, taken or made during the course of the person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain."

73% college students willing to give up sex to get etextbooks! Really?

Keeping Up: eTextbooks FridayLive! 9/30 2pm ET Free Online 
"Seventy-three percent of college students who responded to a new Kelton Research study sponsored by education software startup Kno said they’d be willing to do something they might not normally do — including giving up dating or sex — if they could never carry another textbook.
"...Sixty-two percent of respondents said they would study more often if they could access their textbooks from anywhere without having to carry them around

Most college online educ still like old correspondence schools digitized?

Text-based, asynchronous, scheduled assignments, proctored exams? Sound familiar? In spite of growing availability of tools, services that support synchronous interaction via text, voice, video?  
In spite of growing availability of tools, services that support access to teaching/learning resources in growing variety of media?  


How well do entirely online text-based asynchronous college-level courses reflect commitment to the role of liberal arts in higher education?  


More ... OCICU as puzzling example

Counterimplementation Tactics: Samples show how thoughtful caution differs from undue restraint of innovation. More examples?

What's the difference between careful planning and undue restraint of innovation?  Send us your examples from one side or the other of the fine line!  gilbert@tltgroup.org

• Oh, I don't know if we should go ahead with this until we have every last little thing nailed down.   
• We haven't really done anything like this before so we need to be really careful.
• Besides I have so much to do that I can't really help, but you two go ahead.
• I'm not sure it will make us any money so is there something else we should be doing instead?
• Oh, what will people think about this session?  I'm sure there will be negative reaction so we really shouldn't move ahead

Reprise of excerpt from TLT-SWG blog posting 20110926 "We can only hope for incremental change..except.....:

Residential Campus vs. Commuter College vs. Online Educ? NO ONE WAY!

"I loved living on campus..it’s something I want my children to do, too"  

- Excerpts above and below are from a series of articles about "ways that parents who send their children to college could cut their expenses." These excerpts are among Singletary's thoughtful responses to reader criticisms of her  "One tip — that students live at home and commute to classes."

More excerpts:

Keeping Up: eTextbooks FridayLive! 9/30 2pm ET Free Online tlt.gs/frlv; Charles Ansorge et al.

Register Progress Report: Shift from print to digital textbook for online statistics course.
eTextbook includes useful supplemental materials that students appreciate. 

 More info to follow soon!

UNISA "pioneer of higher distance educ. in the western world"

"Nelson Mandela obtained a law degree from Unisa during the time he spent in jail on Robben Island."   More excerpts below from  About University of South Africa, UNISA

"Founded in 1873 as the University of the Cape of Good Hope, the University of South Africa (or UNISA as it is commonly known, spoken as you-nee-suh) spent most of its early history as an examining agency for Oxford and Cambridge universities and as an incubator from which most other universities in South Africa are descended. In 1946 it was given a new role as a distance education university and today it offerscertificate, diploma and degree courses up to doctoral level." - from Wikipedia "Univ. of South Africa"

"In the 1940's, as its colleges became fully-fledged universities, UNISA entered another phase. It was clear that students trying to study on their own for examinations needed tuition, so UNISA began teaching them by correspondence.

"We can only hope for incremental change..except..in situations of mild crises,”-P.Keen,1980,re Counterimplementation

Valuable concepts from Peter G. W. Keen:  Counterimplementation Strategies and Countercounterimplementation Strategies!

"...Obviously there is a fine line between honest resistance to a project one feels is misguided and selfish sabotage of a necessary innovation. The difference is a matter for conscience and self-scrutiny. In both cases, the response is political, whether "clean" or "dirty" politics. 

"...Whether we like it or not, we can only hope for incremental change [except, as Ansoff points out [2] in situations of mild crises, where the status quo is no longer satisfactory, and organizations rethink their goals and are more willing to think "rationally"].  

"The bringers and sellers of change--academics, computer specialists, and consultants-- assume that what they offer is good. In practice, there are many valid reasons to go beyond passive resistance and actively try to prevent implementation. Many innovations are dumb ideas. Others threaten the interests of individuals and groups..."

- Excerpts above & below from article  “Information Systems and Organizational Change,” Peter G. W. Keen, May 1980, Communications of the ACM, January 1981, Vol 24, No. 1, pp. 24-33 pp. 27-28, 30-31.

PDF for downloading tlt.gs/PKCounterImpStrats
Article Converted to Published Google Doc 20110719

I first encountered "Counterimplementation Strategies" in one of the most memorable and useful lectures I've ever heard - by guest speaker Peter G. W. Keen at the Wharton School, Univ. of Pa. ca. 1980.

More excerpts, including suggested tactics, strategies...

"Protect My Tweets" - Useful in Courses? Examples?

"Protected" Tweets visible ONLY to people who REQUEST to follow you and get your APPROVAL.  

See below for excerpts about HOW to make your Tweets "private".

Useful to teachers, students?  In ways not more easily done via FaceBook or Google+?Examples?  e.g., anyone using "remind101" ... "what if a program could send reminders to students before their assignments are due?... allows teachers to text message or email students and parents."

Unfortunately, some "unlock" tools are available that claim to permit anyone to view any protected Tweets if it is possible to find the Twitter username for those tweets.

[Thanks to Carol Bradley for explaining this feature during one of our FridayLive! free online sessions. I didn't know about this and was skeptical. Now I'm interested. - Steve Gilbert 20110924]

BYOD "outsource your I.T. department to Apple" Pendulum of Tech Support Centralization/Decentralization Still Swinging!

BYOD = Bring Your Own Device
"...48 percent of information workers buy smartphones for work without considering what their I.T. department supports.
"Throughout the information age, the corporate I.T. department has stood at the chokepoint of office technology with a firm hand on what equipment and software employees use in the workplace."
- See below for more excerpts from "More Offices Let Workers Choose Their Own Devices" By VERNE G. KOPYTOFF, New York Times, September 23, 2011, on page B1 of the New York edition
- See also:  "Whatever you're doing now is wrong” - Gilbert's Corollary to Moore's Law [About centralizing/decentralizing tech support.]

"Whatever you're doing now is wrong”-Gilbert's Corollary to Moore's Law [About central/decentral tech support.]

"Whatever you're doing now is wrong."  
That's still my best answer to "Should we be centralizing or decentralizing our tech support?" a question I've been asked many times in the past 30 years.   I try to soften the blow by adding "Whatever you're doing now is right, too." and then explaining why.
[See also BYOD "outsource your I.T. department to Apple" - TLT-SWG Posting]

Since 1965 we've been living with Moore's Law, which has become both a prediction and a prescription:  "performance of digital computers doubles every year or two".  So, every few years some of the functions that took advantage of the capabilities of the most powerful digital devices can be adapted to new personal devices. Of course, technology and consumer products can change much more rapidly and often than organizational structures - in businesses as well as educational institutions.  

• Every few years we want a more decentralized, flexible support system that focuses on individual needs, personal devices, and tools neither owned nor controlled by the institution. 
• And every few years we want a more centralized, stable, expert technology support group that focuses on providing access to resources neither owned nor controlled nor accessible to individuals.

CC Search - Helpful way to find legally useable images! And more!

"not a search engine, but..access to search services provided by other independent organizations."
Creative Commons (CC) Search Portal = http://search.creativecommons.org/ can be used to find "music, video, writing, code, or other creative works"!
NOTE: CC wisely advises "always verify that the work is actually under a CC license by following the link... If you are in doubt you should contact the copyright holder directly, or try to contact the site where you found the content." - From CC Search Portal

I admire and recommend Creative Commons for its continuing commitment to facilitate sharing and creating intellectual works worldwide, especially via the Internet. CC provides licensing options that are described simply and clearly enough to enable each of us to decide the preferred limits for others' use of our own work and to communicate those limits effectively and legally. - Steve Gilbert

More about Creative Commons & CC Search Portal

Need Better Listening in Higher Ed. Why? How? Join us FridayLive! 9/23 2pm ET

Free Online Webinar Registration for "Mindful Consulting: 

Protecting Ourselves and Faculty from Tidal Waves of Information" Guest presenter, Ben McFadyen, Academic Technology Consultant from Teaching and Learning Technologies and the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning, Elon University.

IMAGE

Photo of person whispering into giant upholstered ear on head, "maybe it will help.. whisper@ gemeentehuis den haag" by Hans van Rijnberk, June 21, 2008, 
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3254/2598234846_4dba75c81e.jpg
 Some rights reserved by Hans_van_Rijnberk

Usual support for local students taking distant education consortium shared courses: Tech/admin YES. Academic NO.

Common practice(?) in "Local Facilitation" [See example below Hudson Valley Educ. Consortium]
1. Staff from each participating institution and/or staff from the consortium enable students to register, pay, get academic credit recorded appropriately for online consortium courses almost as conveniently as for local classroom-based courses.
2. Students are responsible for attendance, participation, communication, transportation as needed.
3. Proctoring or other student identification/security measures for testing and related activities are provided by the consortium and/or participating institutions.
4. No academic support is provided for online consortium courses. Students may be eligible for academic support in general from the participating institution in which they are enrolled.


EXAMPLE: HUDSON VALLEY EDUCATIONAL CONSORTIUM

"What is connectedness?..feeling in your bones that you are not alone..there is a hand for you in the dark.” E. Hallowell

Oklahoma City 1995, NOT NYC 9/11/2001

Time again for Edward Hallowell's idea of "connectedness."
"While ambition drives us to achieve, connectedness is my word for the force that urges us to ally, to affiliate, to enter into mutual relationships, to take strength and to grow through cooperative behavior.

"What is connectedness? It is a sense of being a part of something larger than oneself. It is a sense of belonging, or a sense of accompaniment. It is that feeling in your bones that you are not alone. It is a sense that, no matter how scary things may become, there is a hand for you in the dark. "

[p. 196] This is Edward M. Hallowell’s definition of “connectedness” from an essay of the same name: "Connectedness," pp. 193-209,  in Finding the Heart of the Child, Association of Independent Schools in New England, Inc., 1993.

PDF OF FULL TEXT OF GILBERT'S INTRO [EXCERPTS FOLLOW] AND HALLOWELL'S CHAPTER "CONNECTEDNESS"
Steven W. Gilbert, December 31, 1995, AAHESGIT [later, TLT-SWG] listserv.
As I neared home Tuesday night I saw two policeman talking
with my wife in front of our house. 

Straighterline.com re: faster, cheaper college credits is offering "bad advice to other people’s children”

Because “.. the only thing more expensive than going to college is not going to college." 

- from "The main lesson from a down job market? Stay in school. As long as you can." - The Washington Post By Anthony P. Carnevale, Published: September 16, 2011

For every new technology, there are zealots who prove that it is possible to accumulate credits, certificates, and degrees without getting an education.  See:   A Course is not a Pizza "Pizza & course materials can be delivered. Courses cannot. Even online. 'Delivery' denies interaction.  - TLT-SWG blog posting May 2, 2011.

"Straighterline is an awesome way to obtain college credits for courses."
"Remember, colleges want you as a student. Remind them you can do your learning elsewhere."
- Above from Straighterline.com "Transferring Credits to Other Schools and Universities"

Frugal Innovations: Colleges/Univs SHARE Courses, Faculty at a Distance? Examples? Challenges? 3 Central Questions

As part of our Frugal Innovation initiative, I'm looking for different ways in which colleges and universities can share courses, especially at a distance. Do you have suggestions, examples, or resources that might help address these important emerging questions:
1. GENERAL
What could be done by each collaborating institution to encourage and enable its own students to BENEFIT from taking courses in which the lead faculty member is based on a distant campus - too distant for face-to-face meetings?
2. DISTANT FACILITATION
What could be done by the lead faculty member and other academic professionals to support the "distant" students in a course that has both "local" students AND students who participate only online?
3. LOCAL FACILITATION
What could be done by a faculty member or other academic professional at your own campus to support local students who are taking courses in which the lead faculty member is based on a distant campus - too distant for face-to-face meetings? This is especially important to avoid having students who participate in such courses online not feel disenfranchised if some other students can participate in the same course face-to-face on campus with the instructor.

Many thanks for your help.
Steve Gilbert, President, TLT Group

"Local Facilitation" - Better Term for Home-Campus Support of Students Taking Distant, Online Courses? Examples?

"Support provided by a faculty member or other academic professional at the home college/university for students who are taking courses in which the lead faculty member is based on a distant campus - too distant for the students to participate in face-to-face course meetings"

I've been referring to this support as "local facilitation", but I welcome suggestions for a label that gets this idea across more simply, or a term that is already being used to refer to this kind of support.
Please recommend a better term.
I'm also looking for examples of different ways of providing "local facilitation" - face-to-face, online, synchronous, asynchronous, provided by peer students, specially trained and assigned staff, ....

Exchange Grad Program Tuition Waivers: Policy, Guidelines, Course Registration Form - Western Canadian "Deans' Agreement"

"reciprocal enrichment of graduate programs":  
tuition waivers for grad & undergrad credit courses that are "an integral part of the applicant's graduate degree program" for "visiting students" who are "paying normal required tuition fees to their home institution."  See links, excerpts below for more details.

• Western Canadian Deans of Graduate Studies - Policy on Shared Interuniversity Graduate Programs
• Guidelines for the Distance Delivery of Graduate Programs
• Authorization & Course Registration Form
• Western Canadian Deans' Agreement [excerpts follow]

"Planning Fallacy" Limits Efficacy "in the grip of a big, complex mess” e.g. Curriculum Revision. Need Frugal Innovation!

"When you are in the grip of a big, complex mess, you have the power to do discrete good but probably not systemic good." - From "The Planning Fallacy," by David Brooks, in print on September 16, 2011, on page A29 of the New York edition of the New York Times. More excerpts below.

"Frugal Innovation" is a constructive approach that can work under the daunting circumstances and within the limits to efficacy that Brooks' describes.

• Frugal Innovation is guided, supported, visionary, and persistently incremental.
• Frugal Innovation demonstrates commitment to improving teaching and learning by taking better advantage of available resources (including rapidly changing technology) without sacrificing what matters most to us all.

More Excerpts from Brooks - See esp. daunting history of curriculum revision below:

Calgary Instructors Video to Remote Classrooms with Local Facilitators

Part-time non-credit learning for adults

Community Learning Network: 

"The Community Learning Network provides ...leadership, resources and connections through partnerships and collaboration.

"Community Adult Learning Councils address the part-time, non-credit learning needs of adults within specified geographic boundaries.  Currently 80 in number,"

From Bow Valley Learning Council Success Story for September 2010:"A pilot series of video conferencing is about to run ‘Bridges for Rural Immigrants’ and this is being developed and delivered in partnership with Bow Valley College and the Hanna Learning Centre. The pilot project tests the development and delivery of English language programs to rural and remote areas using a videoconferencing platform and the SuperNet/Internet. The goal is to establish a community based partnership and a delivery model that is transferable to rural or remote areas with compatible technological supports. The project addresses local and regional needs related to access to learning, low class numbers, lack of transport, lack of LINC (Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada) funding for participants and high course fees. "

"Cross-Registration" available at 17 GCCCU colleges/univs.

Students attend/participate fully at teacher's campus or online.

"Cross-Registration" offered by 17 members of Greater Cincinnati Consortium of Colleges and Universities (GCCCU).  Since 1974.  It seems that all enrolled students have same responsibilities and opportunities for transportation, attendance and participation on campus and/or online regardless of whether they are enrolled at the "home" institution or at a different institution.

"Lead & Partner Model" eCampusAlberta

Student takes course from distant institution, gets services from nearby institution.

Excerpts from About Us | eCampusAlberta: 

"Lead and partner model

"The lead institution develops and offers the [fully online] course or program and provides the instruction and materials in an online environment. The partner institution offers support services, such as access to the library and exam supervision as well as research and study skills support.

"In addition to providing the infrastructure (website, server and software) that facilitates the learning experience for the student, eCampusAlberta also researches and shares high quality standards for online education with member institutions and offers monthly seminars and professional development opportunities for online educators.

"Participation in online education has increased steadily since the organization was formed in 2002. The number of registrations in eCampusAlberta courses increased by approximately 24 per cent to 16,213 in fiscal 2010/11, up from 13,107 in 2009/10."

More - Membership, Objectives of eCampusAlberta 

“independence, freedom within limits..respect..natural psych development..tech advancements"

New educ? Guess OLD source?

If you remove the student age references, most descriptions of Montessori-style education sound remarkably similar to innovations proposed for higher education ...  again and again and again... Why don't these old innovations take hold widely and deeply enough to satisfy their advocates?  In what ways, and where, are these innovations already working effectively?  For how long?  Montessori's ideas, practices, and materials have influenced many teachers and many schools, even beyond the thousands of institutions that operate under her name today. 

Maria Montessori

Full quote:
"Montessori education is characterized by an emphasis on independence, freedom within limits, and respect for a child’s natural psychological development, as well as technological advancements in society. Although a range of practices exists under the name "Montessori", the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) and the American Montessori Society (AMS) cite these elements as essential:[2][3]

• Mixed age classrooms, with classrooms for children aged 2½ or 3 to 6 years old by far the most common
• Student choice of activity from within a prescribed range of options
• Uninterrupted blocks of work time
• A Constructivism or "discovery" model, where students learn concepts from working with materials, rather than by direct instruction
• Specialized educational materials developed by Montessori and her collaborators."

From -  Montessori education - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sharing Courses? Sharing Faculty? Really?

9/16 2pm EDT Free Online tlt.gs/frlv 

Undergrad interinstitutional courses?

• How could a few colleges or universities each benefit from collaborating to enable their own enrolled undergraduates to take some of each others' courses? 
• What could be done by each institution to encourage and enable their own students to take courses in which the lead faculty member is based on one of the other distant campuses - too distant for face-to-face meetings?
• In what ways can faculty be shared among course-sharing institutions?

FridayLive Registration Info tlt.gs/frlv

100 FRLV Sharing Courses Frugal Innovation - Google Docs:

Frugal Innovation: Colleges Share Courses? - TLT-SWG 20110811

"Are You Ready For Online Learning?" WHAT KIND? Synchronous/Asynch? Text/Voice/Video?

2 self-tests from OntarioLearn.com for prospective online students below.  
Good prep/background for our FridayLive! session this week:  Frugal Innovation:  Colleges Sharing Online Courses Sept 16, 2011 Register (FREE) to receive login information.


However, these tests would be more helpful if accompanied by better information about the kinds of online courses for which the tests have been designed.  The technology options for teaching/learning online are changing VERY FAST.  The self-tests should be introduced by explanations of how much, if at all, these courses can vary in schedule, pedagogy, media - should answer some questions like these:  

• Do these courses include synchronous options?  
• Is most interaction only via text online?  Live or recorded audio?  Video?  Are telephone conversations permitted, encouraged, or forbidden?
• Is most learning expected to be via reading printed materials?  Reading online?  Engaging in specific tasks that must be done independently?  
• How and when can students get feedback about their progress?  
• How and when are students tested or graded?
• How often and in what ways is the teacher available to respond to questions?

SELF-TESTS  DESCRIPTIONS & LINKS BELOW HERE

"Easy Rider" Space Potty? REALLY needs user-friendly ergonomics!

Only time keyboard SHOULD be attached to the screen! Otherwise, typical laptop configuration is undesirable. So if you have an iPad or other tablet computer, the on-screen keyboards are fine for brief use; but for other purposes, get  a keyboard that can be positioned further from the screen.  Being able to easily rearrange your screen and keyboard - and doing so often - is an ergonomic advantage!

"'You know what I think of? I think of Peter Fonda in 'Easy Rider' riding a chopper,' [Astronaut Michael] Massimino said of his preferred space toilet position, holding his arms up to grip the handles of an imaginary motorcycle. 'That's the right position for me.'" - from Space Potty Training Secrets Revealed by Astronauts | Space.com

See also Stand up. Move now! "Are you using your laptop unsafely?" - TLT-SWG Blog posting 20110223

Juncture vs. Crossroads - Optimism vs. Pessimism

Are the waters rising or receding?

What do you most want to gain? 

What do you most cherish and want not to lose?  

Where are we now? 

Where are we going? 

Where have we been?

 - from Fundamental Questions for Frugal Innovations: Transform? Preserve?, Steven W. Gilbert, TLT-SWG Blog August 1, 2011

"We still stand at the juncture of many possible futures." - from "Loss and Hope - As a nation, we can work to retrieve the compassion that surged after 9/11." New York Times editorial September 11, 2011.

"More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly." - from "My Speech to the Graduates," Woody Allen, New York Times, August 10, 1979

Big Picture vs. Act Now - Both important in small collaborative groups!

Preview Guidelines for 9/9 2pm ET Online: 
Most groups include BOTH 

• Some participants who focus more on the "big picture" AND 
• Some who focus more on immediate action

See books by Peter G. W. Keen ("Counterimplementation" etc.)

Guidelines:  

• Respect the needs and capabilities of BOTH.
• Take advantage of the needs and capabilities of BOTH.

Above guidelines were added after TLT Group's 2011 Online Symposium.  

For more, see Sample Guidelines in "Guidelines/References for Frugal Innovation thru Small Group Collaboration:  Working draft from TLTG Annual Online Symposium 2011" tlt.gs/SGCguide, and, of course,

Join TLT Group's first free online FridayLive! session of 2011-2012. September 9 at 2pm Eastern.  Click here for more info, registration FREE! 

“Can Anyone Keep Up With Anything Anymore?”

"...use electronic resources to establish a personalized professional development program" 9/9 2pm ET Online Join TLT Group's first free online FridayLive! session of 2011-2012. September 9 at 2pm Eastern, includes an interview with Steven Bell, Associate University Librarian for Research & Instructional Services, Temple U. and ACRL vice-president/president-elect.

See work on Blended Librarians

9/9 Session working title:
Sharing Overabundant Good Teaching/Learning Resources More Effectively Through Small Group Collaboration and Other Methods
Finding, Browsing, and Drowning in Overabundance “You are not alone!” and “Why didn’t you tell me?”

9/9 session also includes Recap, Extension of TLT Group’s Online Symposium 2011 (4th Annual) "Frugal Innovation thru Small Group Collaboration "

Quotation excerpt at beginning of this posting is from Bell's article:  

"Keeping Up: Using E-Resources for a Personalized PD Program," Educause Quarterly V.26, N.3, Fall 2003.

Politics Trumps Facts? Is Rational Discourse Still an Option? "Motivated Skepticism" vs. Reasonable Civility

What kind of evidence counts?  Who decides?

See George Lakoff "Elephant in the Room" etc.

What happens if we allow reason and facts to die?  


Ezra Klein: Why does the GOP oppose stimulus? Ask a psychologist. - The Washington Post: "I don’t believe this sort of behavior is quite that cynical. Psychologists and political scientists talk often of a phenomenon known as motivated skepticism. The idea, basically, is that we believe the evidence and arguments we want to believe, and reject ideas and information that undercut our preferences."

Too late to talk about the elephant in the room?

Ignored too long, elephants in the room can die. 

To understand this challenge to rational discourse better, see 

George Lakoff's books re "Don't Think of an Elephant"  

You don't REALLY want another collection of good stuff, do you?

How to share overabundant good teaching/learning resources? 9/9 2pm ET Online
Join us for our first free online FridayLive! session of 2011-2012. September 9 at 2pm Eastern. Working title:
“You are not alone!” and “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Finding, Browsing, and Drowning in Overabundance
Interview of Steven Bell, Associate University Librarian for Research & Instructional Services, Temple U. and ACRL vice-president/president-elect.
AND

Recap, Extension of TLT Group’s Online Symposium 2011 (4th Annual) "Frugal Innovation thru Small Group Collaboration "