The Professor's Notes

I am reading Andrew Keen’s The Cult of the Amateur: How blogs, MySpace, YouTube, and the rest of today’s user-generated media are destroying our economy, our culture, and our values. It is a very interesting, and challenging book.  His general thesis is that our move into the world of the “Digital Natives” (see my other blog post on that) has been essentially dumbing down our discourse. Perhaps even more to the point, he puts forward three points that catch my interest:

First, “I”  matter the most. In this new world we are all equally important, and apparently all have an equal right to be heard.  Unfortunately, in our rush to be heard we forget that we should also listen.  We are rushing to be heard, and ultimately result in simply asserting our right to speak.   In discussing an event he attended, he writes

“Everyone was simultaneously broadcasting  themselves, but nobody was listening. Out of this  anarchy, it suddenly became clear that what was  governing the infinite monkeys now inputting away on  the Internet was the law of digital Darwinism, the  survival of the loudest and most opinionated. Under  these rules, the only way to intellectually prevail is by  infinite filibustering.”

He then goes on to write

“The information business is  being transformed by the Internet into the sheer noise of a  hundred million bloggers all simultaneously talking about  themselves. “

So what?  What’s wrong with everyone writing about themselves?    His point is a bit more than simply we are producing too much noise.  When we do take time to read, and to listen, we are no longer availing ourselves of the filters of expertise.  We are starting to read and value uninformed, and ignorant, analysis over the informed and educated.  When we no longer look to experts for opinions on lofty and heady subjects we lose the ability to truly learn, and instead replace that with a sense of knowing and not a reality of knowing.

Second, from this drift away from the works of experts to amateurs, he argues that facts and truth are no longer immutable.

Again, he writes:

As Marshall Poe observed in the September 2006 issue of the  Atlantic:  We tend to think of truth as something that resides in  the world. The fact that two plus two equals four is  written in the stars…. But Wikipedia suggests a  different theory of truth. Just think about the way we  learn what words mean…. The community decides that  two plus two equals four the same way it decides what  an apple is: by consensus. Yes, that means that if the  community changes its mind and decides that two plus  two equals five, then two plus two does equal five. The  community isn’t likely to do such an absurd or useless  thing, but it has the ability.

What’s even more dangerous here than just the self-absorbed cacophony is that this new cult of the amateur actually elevates opinion to the same level as educated fact. Once we believe a few hours of exposure to a topic makes us “as good as” an expert, we substitute our knowledge for real knowledge.

I was listening to an ETS Talk podcast from Cole Camplese and his group at Penn State University — University Park.  They were attending a conference and Cole was mentioning the great work done by Michael Wesch and his students at Kansas State University.  In the discussion Cole talks about the change from the focus on the Professor, with 200+ hours of advanced coursework, to the “wisdom of the crowd.”  When they added up the experiences of the professor,

I gave a presentation last month to the Advisory Board here on campus for our Business School.  I thought I would share the presentation and also the talk as recorded that morning.

I welcome any thoughts you might have on how we can better use technology in business education, and specifically how we can better prepare students to use technology in the “real world” when they graduate.

This podcast took off from a conversation a few of us were having in Twitter.  Cumberland Valley High School was having another “non-emergency lock down” so that police could conduct another drug-dog sweep.  I started asking in Twitter what people thought of locking 2600 students in their classrooms to find (what has historically been) 15 students with illicit drugs in their lockers.  Given that we are constrained to 140 characters per “tweet” you can imagine the limitations we felt in our conversation. So… I asked..

“Should we podcast?”

Dominic Salvucci and Jimbo Lamb both thought it was a good idea, and we set a time, and the podcast proceeded from there!

It turns into a discussion about technology in the classroom, and we are setting stage for further discussions on technology, and how we introduce and allow students to use technology.

Let us know what you think in the comments here, and if you want to join us in a podcast, let us know!

-S

As I mentioned previously, I gave a presentation at the 2008 TLT Symposium, discussing Social Networking with “non-traditional students.”  In that presentation, I talked a bit about what exactly is a non-traditional student, and what it means to have “social networking” for them.  I tried to have it be an open discussion.

You can listen to the presentation at the official TLT Symposium 2008 site, or listen to it right here.

Well–you decide.

Let’s be fair here. Teachers deserve more pay. Okay. Here in the Cumberland Valley School District, The school board made several reasonable (and some would say, beyond reasonable) offers. Higher than COLA pay raises. Lower than average health care costs with better than average benefits. Making the pay raises retroactive. The School Board seems to know the meaning of the word “negotiate.”

What have the teachers offered as compromise? From all reports, the teachers’ union has simply dug in their heels, and tried to convince the populace that the school board is failing to give them a pay raise.

Who wins, and who loses on a strike?

THE WINNERS:

Teachers think they will win, obviously. They have nothing to lose. They strike, they come back and teach, and even if they now accept the latest offer they get their full 9 months of pay (with a bonus check–remember the retroactive bit?)

The school board may or may not meet the (un-reported) demands of the teacher’s union. But regardless, the school board doesn’t “lose” anything.

THE LOSERS:

The students. They lose, because they have a loss of continuity in their education plan. They lose because for months now, teachers have been fostering a “hostile learning environment” keeping the students (and parents) wondering if, in 48 hours, there would be a strike. On top of that, at least one teacher told his students that, if there was a strike, he would be sending a “work packet” home for them to complete during the strike. In addition, they lose because any plans they may have had for a summer (including summer jobs, to help them earn money for, among other things, college) have to be adjusted.

The parents: For those parents of young children that work, there will be an increased cost either through lost wages, or increased childcare costs. What about those parents that can’t afford the additional costs of childcare? Well–they can just stay home from work, right? So for a few, the choice is either pay for more childcare, or lose income. Additionally, parents may have had plans for summer “break.” Imagine a job where you have to request time off for vacation, and schedule it in advance. You know those jobs–the ones where you work 12 months a year?

The taxpayers: Regardless of the final outcome, it is guaranteed that taxpayers will be paying teachers more money to teach. This is a burden that taxpayers are willing to reasonably carry to provide a good education for the children in the community. I suspect though that taxpayers are keenly aware of what is reasonable, and what is unreasonable. It would seem to me at least that unreasonable is a teachers’ union that fails to negotiate. Of course, a “double whammy” exists for the parents, here. They have the burden of increased child-care costs, only to be rewarded with an (undoubtedly) increased tax burden.

One final thought: The teachers don’t “lose” anything here. There is no cost to them for striking. In most strikes, the unions have to balance the near-term lost wages with the long term gains. They must also consider the lost good-will with their customers who may well choose to go elsewhere with their shopping dollars. In this case, students are required, by law, to attend school. The teachers will come back and teach the remaining class days–and get paid for a full year (did I mention the “bonus check” due to retroactive pay?) The teachers essentially get to hold everyone (especially students) hostage–to achieve not a “fair” contract, but one that is “over the top.”

The Teachers Union. Unreasonable. Uncompromising. Unsupportable.

My son put together a project for his history class. He had to do something that reflected some aspect of China. He decided to “visit” China and watch some ping-pong tournaments.

The avid listener and follower will know that he and I blog and podcast together over at “The Father Son Chats.”

Enjoy his video!

My brother (the Targuman) and I have another chat. We briefly chat about the YouTube video that I blogged on previously, and then move on to talk about the Mac Air. As a starting point we talk about the critique that Paul Thurrott of the Windows Weekly podcast gives of the Mac Air, and then discuss the various ways we can define “High End.”

After that, we then move on to talk about Merlin Mann, and his photo with Dr Pepper.

Then–well, we talk about the NFL Films set-up starting one week ahead of time for the Super Bowl.

Then we end it where we started–with the YouTube video.

Enjoy our podcast!

The Prof

I presented my paper on Podcasting in Supply Chain Education. The paper received the “Teaching Innovation Award” for best paper in teaching innovations.

From the paper:

“Podcasting” has taken the technological and hobbyist worlds by storm, allowing for the creation of highly specialized audio (and now video) productions for delivery over the internet. This sort of capability has found its way into the classroom and into courseware, allowing professors to deliver a wide range of content to their students. (King, et al., 2006) This paper discusses the background of podcasting, the technology that enabled it, and how podcasting can be used to enhance supply chain courses with a “blended” or hybrid learning experience.

In addition to the podcast recording of the presentation, I am including the pdf of the paper, as well as the PowerPoint slides from the presentation.

Let me know what you think of it, and as always, leave comments, or send me a voice mail at the number listed in the contact section!

Recorded at Podcamp Pittsburgh 2 in August of 2007, this interview covers why he decided to help start a Podcamp in Pittsburgh (“the need to instigate.”) We take a few minutes to talk about how friendly Pittsburgh happens to be, and how Pittsburgh really is the high-tech city of the Eastern US. It’s good to talk about the “third most blogged about city.”

Additionally, he shares about “Something to be Desired,” the local video series provided online, at http://stbd.tv

You can find Justin, at his blog, Cafe Witness.

Take a few minutes and listen–it’s short!

In this podcast, I interview Chris Brogan, one of the original creators of the first PodCamp in Boston. We talked about how podcasting works, and what our favorite podcasts are. In fact, we both have enjoyed Teaching for the Future with Dave LaMorte. Chris mentions the “Something to be Desired” online TV show produced in Piitsburgh, and politely gives a plug for The Father Son Chats.

We talk about Chris’ social media group, Grasshoppers that is there to answer the question “How can I be helpful?”

How can podcasting be useful for students, or educators? We talk about that as well.