Conference Session Proposals

Educon 2.2 (due Nov. 1, 2009)

http://educon22.wikispaces.com/Call+For+Sessions

My proposal as submitted: The Academy and the You-niverse

Here follows a kind of hodge-podge of notes as I think my way towards this conversation...

Last year's sessions:

http://educon21.wikispaces.com/Conversations

Tweet from @eduinnovation: Professional Development often suffers from "curse of knowing." Presenter clearly sees context of application, while we struggle to find context #edchat

Wiki for sharing: http://college.wikispaces.com

Elluminate Streaming: http://bit.ly/searchfit

The Academy and the You-niverse: college search & fit in the internet age

Personal computers and the internet have increasingly enabled end users to personalize and customize their experience. If you have an iPod, you have your own radio station with listener base of one, perfectly tailored to your tastes. If you use a credit card, you can now get one whose face displays a photo of your choosing.

The admisssions process is one in which people are being transformed into data (via the application process), and also one in which imagined landscapes are being made real (via campus visits, publications, etc.).

Where do I fit in? I stand at the door. Or maybe I stand on the street, in front of a lot of doors. I watch students checking out the doors, trying to imagine themselves into an unknown future. And I try to help.

Here's what I've been seeing as I work in and watch this space...

Mapping the territory

Here's me. Here's my kid doing the baby freeze he taught himself by watching YouTube.

http://rethinkingadmissions.blogs.wfu.edu/2009/10/21/generational-labels-and-institutional-identity/

College Without High School: A Teenager's Guide to Skipping High School & Going to College: Blake Boles: Books http://bit.ly/2Whpfi

"Most of the best tennis players are homeschooled now." -- senior admissions officer, unnamed Ivy League institution

EduCause's Richard Katz:

http://www.educause.edu/thetowerandthecloud/PUB7202d

(via Joshua Kim's excerpt: http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology_and_learning/)

http://www.hastac.org/blogs/cathy-davidson/how-does-internet-change-our-idea-human-nature

If the twentieth-century paradigm for the brain is the hardwired CPU, I would argue that the new paradigm for the twenty-first century brain is the iPod or iPhone, with 75,000 possible Apps (and counting) available for downloading, some created by developers, others by users, all in constant need of updates and customising. There's an App for just about everything in the twenty-first century brain because a changing world needs a brain that is not a product but an interactive processor.

An ability to react with alacrity - with cheerful readiness - requires us to understand and appreciate the interactive nature of our brain, our humanity, and our society. We're not there yet. We have not yet taken full advantage of our capacity for change, individually or collectively.

~ Cathy Davidson

How do colleges encourage creative self-expression through their application process?

Which college will be the first one to require digital portfolio submissions?

Distinguishing between the types of stories told by institutions:

http://astoriedcareer.com/2009/11/distinguish-between-types-of-s.html

Spreadability vs. drillability:

http://justtv.wordpress.com/2009/02/25/to-spread-or-to-drill/

(via Henry Jenkins: http://henryjenkins.org/2009/12/the_revenge_of_the_origami_uni.html )

"Online education is a runaway best seller."

http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Online-Education-Growing/8663

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/11/consumer_protection.html

"Students make customer choices based on available information, interests, abilities and life circumstances that will mostly determine whether they succeed in obtaining an education with a meaningful credential. The problem is our higher education marketplace today does not account for this customer focus that is so important to success. In large measure, this is because education policies that guide this marketplace are largely crafted by the dominant voices in higher education—colleges and universities with the resources to sway elected officials. Students as customers have no voice in this policy conversation."

http://www.racetonowhere.com/trailer

FREE RANGE

http://twitter.com/HHG/status/8389601076

Maybe they need to learn to recognize their own and others' strengths, rather than us telling them.

What would it look like if students were approaching this process not only as consumers, but at learners?

ChristianLong:

One day I'll say w/o a theoretical what-if tone: "I'm paid to be a teacher by day, but I position my students for greatness 24/7." #dreamjob

http://twitter.com/ChristianLong/status/6473084247, Tuesday, Dec. 8th

On imagining your way into the unknown future:

Kurzweil began working on the software for the device in 2002, even though he didn't think it would be feasible for another four years. He eventually met his projection in the summer of 2006 with a portable unit he admitted was cumbersome. Less than two years after that model was produced, Kurzweil now has the entire thing working on a standard-size, feature-packed cell phone. He pulled out a prototype and had it read a passage about advancing artificial intelligence that impressed the crowd, and drew a round of hollers and applause.

(excerpted from http://www.committedsardine.com/blogpost.cfm?blogID=425)

What is college FOR?

http://www.reporternews.com/news/2009/nov/10/crisp/

SEARCH... what might you want to find?

Paul Miller on the nature of data in the internet age:

http://www.slideshare.net/cloudofdata/why-linked-data-2457996

"The Web is about connections. Data is still often siloed. Making data networked takes effort, but is worth it."

Death by pdf

The National Study of Living-Learning Programs

http://www.livelearnstudy.net/home.html

National Survey of Student Engagement: Promoting Engagement for All Students

http://nsse.iub.edu/html/quick_facts.cfm

643 schools participated in 2009

http://www.sc.edu/fye/events/annual/index.html

FIT

"The best college readiness is an undiminished thirst for learning." ~ Josie Holford, Head of School, Poughkeepsie Day School

ConnectEdu developing a "Super App" at the meta level (above Common App, above Universal App)

Johns Hopkins floating student-generated content to the top in this guide to majors:

http://hopkins.typepad.com/academics/

College of Charleston's downloadable school tour:

http://news.cofc.edu/2009/12/college-launches-nations-first-walking-tour-app/

Schools comparing themselves to Hogwarts:

http://greatcollegeadvice.com/college-admission-hogwarts-harry-potter-and-a-lesson-in-marketing/

Aaron Ida's "About Me" page:

http://bengrey.com/blog/2009/12/the-best-about-me-page-youll-ever-see/

Why doesn't the system adapt to the individual student?

http://derondurflinger.blogspot.com/2009/12/why-doesnt-system-adapt-to-student.html

My son has NO patience for commercials, because he's always been able to do an end run around them. Are our schools commercials. Interruptions from the stuff they really want?

I put together a list of things to think about for LGBTQ students about seven years ago.

What would my list for intrinsically motivated, passionate learners look like?

Hints of parental resistance:

"Well, consider me mad and not going to take it anymore. I want to see a widespread protest in response, the formation of a group of powerful people intentionally not signing up for prep classes. A cadre of folks working to make sure their 3 year olds refuse to sit still for an hour, and actively discourage them from taking questions from strangers (whatever that means). Those are the people I plan to surround myself and my kids with, and we'll fight to protect childhood, at whatever cost. That, I think, is what being the "adult" is all about."

http://eduoptimists.blogspot.com/2009/11/resisting-end-of-childhood.html

Praise of personalization:

"The prospective student must decide in which environment her/his development may benefit the most. This may not necessarily be at the most expensive and prestigious school. A superb teaching environment does not depend on prime recreational facilities and posh accommodations. There may be value in simplicity."

http://brainmindinst.blogspot.com/2008/01/on-value-of-education.html (@petermeltzer)

Learn anything for free: http://bulletin.aarp.org/yourworld/reinventing/articles/freelearning.html

What Rich Wong looks for:

http://www.tubechop.com/watch/43559

Rich Wong on social reputation:

http://www.tubechop.com/watch/43564

How one family won the battle to ban homework:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/how-one-family-won-the-battle-to-ban-homework/article1367357/

Sharing as an integral part of learning:

http://blsciblogs.baruch.cuny.edu/projects/

Colleges doing outcomes-based tweeting:

PurchaseSUNY Purchase Music alum Jenny Owen Young in Nashville Music Scene http://tinyurl.com/lydcy5