Archive of ‘collaboration and creativity’ category

consensus of mediocrity versus disruptive innovation

Attached below is the entire correspondence:

  1. a committee is formed.
  2. the committee decides “democratically” what needs to be done.
  3. the emphasis, as per administration is on “consensus” not on expertise and per LRS staff on “democratic” (meaning who has more votes), not on expertise.

Who is John Galt?

From:
Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2015 9:19 AM
To: Miltenoff, Plamen <pmiltenoff@stcloudstate.edu>
Subject: FW: Green Screen for Library Lawn Party?

Hi Plamen.  Honestly and respectfully, the idea didn’t move forward because the planning group wasn’t excited about it and the scavenger hunt group had other ideas for ways they wanted to administer the scavenger hunt.

I apologize for not reaching out proactively to tell you that.

From: Miltenoff, Plamen
Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2015 5:00 PM
To:
Cc:
Subject: RE: Green Screen for Library Lawn Party?

I am mighty curious why ideas, which had been repeatedly offered by IMS faculty to the lawn party committee were not considered and responded to, but ideas, which the lawn party committee thinks that fit the ideas of the IMS faculty are proposed.

Just curious. Don’t expecting answers. Not that they are coming anyhow…

—————-

Plamen Miltenoff, Ph.D., MLIS

Professor

320-308-3072

pmiltenoff@stcloudstate.edu

http://web.stcloudstate.edu/pmiltenoff/faculty/

worse then no hope is false hope: based on my experience working with administration

 

From:
Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2015 3:47 PM
To:
Cc:
Subject: Re: Green Screen for Library Lawn Party?

Our green screen has never been set up for these types of activities. It would be really complex to set it up. I’m quite leery of promoting something with no support and no prospect of support. There are no funds for student help and no one available to manage it. Before our days were cut, I offered to continue with some management, using my normal set of extra duty days. Now there are really no resources to operate the studio.

I think this would be logistically difficult to do and not useful for campus communication.

From:
Date: Monday, July 20, 2015 at 12:42 PM
To:
Subject: Green Screen for Library Lawn Party?

Hi    .  We continue to brainstorm ideas for promotion of library services for the Library Lawn Party.  Wanting to learn a little more about the green screen…thinking it would be a nice promotion for the studio.  Would you have ideas for how we could incorporate the green screen into the event?  We could get students down to the studio and in front of the screen.

Perhaps we could have them read something on cue cards and then edit it together…you’ve probably seen things like that…where each word in a string is spoken by a different person.

Or could we somehow put students in front of it and put something crazy in the background and have the image stream to a monitor somewhere?

Would either of these ideas be feasible?  Would it be difficult??

grading

Game-Changing Grading Changes

http://www.techlearning.com/blogentry/9149

Grade the Product AND the Process

With Revision History, I’ve seen students work just two hours on a paper the night before it’s due and others spend considerable time and effort on a paper. Whatever the case may be, I can identify and address what I see in Revision History with a student to help them grow. My note: use wiki or Google Apps to be able to track changes in revision

Use Kaizena for Effective Feedback – Many teachers have discovered the awesome benefits of filming themselves and their lessons, but what about recording feedback? My note: use audio recording for feedback. a more positive place to learn because my students could now hear the intonation and inflection in my voice when I delivered feedback, not have their hearts broken by red ink. They could hear the positivity with which I reviewed their work and provided feedback.

Rethinking How We Grade Group Work

I had students submit group contracts which clearly stated when and where they would meet and who was responsible for completing what, when. This contract was used in our post-project meetings. By having clearly defined tasks and roles, each student was held accountable. Make them be specific. Instead of Tina will do research by Friday get them as close  to Tina will find five usable sources for the project and get them to Tom on the shared planning Doc by 3pm Friday.

Remember Revision History? It’s great for group projects because a Revision History is created for every person the Doc is shared with. Revision History can help a teacher see who contributed to group work and when because on any shared item in Google Drive, each individual is assigned their own color and timestamp. We can now better see how much each group member has contributed to an assignment. We can take this into consideration when grading, or, better yet, be proactive and intervene when a group’s shared planning Doc looks like one person is doing all the work

1) After a project, I gave students a Google Form where they could provide anonymous feedback on their peers efforts during the project. The Form also allowed students to grade these efforts using a rubric. I would then average the grades for each individual student and share the anonymous feedback at the post-group meetings. I would give them an opportunity to reflect on the feedback as a group and speak to the fairness of their averaged grade. Through this process we would come to an agreement on an individual grade for the project and a list of takeaways the could use to improve for next time.

Everyone is Replaceable

“Everyone is Replaceable” and Other Business Lies

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141209145608-52594–everyone-is-replaceable-and-other-business-lies

Only fearful managers say “Everyone is replaceable.” Fearful managers say other hateful things, too, things like “I don’t pay you to think” and “That’s my decision, not yours.” Those fearful statements make it easy to tell which managers are deserving of your talents and which aren’t.

My note:
This line “Everyone is Replaceable” is ascribed to Stalin. In 1939, when he was sending his top officers to the Gulag, later not able to stop Hitler’s 1941 invasion.
When I heard the same expression from my former boss, I was thinking about Sting’s song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNt5iK8EuAU
I was pleased to read the article and I agree with the ideas laid out.
However, it was an eye opener to read also the comments. I realized that the “managers” (even if some of them claimed they are “leaders”) are very critical toward the ideas. I realized that throughout reading the article, I was identifying myself with an “employee,” not the “manager” view point.
It is sad to see how critical the “managers” where toward the article, how behind they are the times; since the technocrat management is passe and people now long for a “human” leadership (Friedman’s “The World is Flat.”)
I was also flabbergasted to read the comments of all these experienced administrators, who cannot see the forest, only the three. Is it cultural? Generational? Gender-based? Whatever it is, it certainly does not paint pleasant picture for the work environment around us, the employees.

team building

Why we shouldn’t always get along

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-we-shouldnt-always-get-lucy-p.-marcus

A bit of disharmony can be very fruitful in a decision-making group. If we are to achieve innovation and disruption, then sometimes we first need discordance and discontent.

But the things that make for a great dinner party are not necessarily the things that make for a good decision-making body. Indeed, in some cases they might be just the opposite.

My note: I see the “dinner party” analogy very much as the “MN nice” analogy. When my previous boss said to me on my second year at SCSU that the foremost goal is to “get along,” my jaw dropped, since my German education and upbringing had taught me that the foremost goal is to “get the job done.”

How To Start Integrating Coding Into Project Based Learning

How To Start Integrating Coding Into Project Based Learning

http://www.edudemic.com/coding-into-project-based-learning/

PBL Tenet #1: Create Real World Connections

Coding Application: Find a solution to a problem by creating an App or Website

PBL Tenet #2: Foster Critical Thinking

Coding application: Coding requires a series of logical steps

PBL Tenet #3: Structured Collaboration

Coding application: Coding creates learning communities

PBL Tenet #4: Student Driven

Coding application: Perseverance and self teaching are important skills learned through coding

PBL Tenet #5: Multifaceted approach

Coding application: A programming language is only one part of an app or website

2014 Best Educational Web Sites

Best Websites for Teaching & Learning 2014

http://www.ala.org/aasl/standards-guidelines/best-websites/2014

Media sharing

Digital Storytelling

Manage and organize

Social Networking and Communication

Content Resources

Curriculum Collaboration

 

Constructivism: Lecture and project-based learning

The blog entry title initially was:

Constructivism: Lecture versus project-based learning

Actually, the article is about both lecture and group work finding a niche in the complex process of teaching and learning.

Excellent points, ideas and discussion in and under a recently published article:

Anyone Still Listening? Educators Consider Killing the Lecture

http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/07/anyone-still-listening-educators-consider-killing-the-lecture/

“Professors do not engage students enough, if at all, when trying to innovate the classroom. It’s shocking how out of touch they can be, just because they didn’t take the time to hear their students’ perspectives.”

The article and the excellent comments underneath the article do not address the possibility of cultural differences. E.g., when article cites the German research, it fails to acknowledge that the US culture is pronouncedly individualistic, whereas other societies are more collective. For more information pls consider:
Ernst, C. T. (2004). Richard E. Nisbett. The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently … and Why. Personnel Psychology, (2), 504.
Nisbett, R. E. (2009). Intelligence and how to get it : why schools and cultures count / Richard E. Nisbett. New York : W.W. Norton & Co., c2009.
The article generalizes, since another omission is the subject-oriented character of the learning process: there are subjects, where lecture might be more prevalent and there are some where project learning, peer instruction and project-based learning might be more applicable.

Venmo Is The ‘Killer App’ That The Mobile Payments Industry Has Been Waiting For

Venmo Is The ‘Killer App’ That The Mobile Payments Industry Has Been Waiting For

http://www.businessinsider.com/venmo-is-the-killer-app-that-the-mobile-payments-industry-has-been-waiting-for-2014-6#ixzz35DtKD2EI

Venmo, owned by eBay’s PayPal unit, already channels as much volume in total dollar value of transactions as Starbucks’ successful mobile payment app, according to BI Intelligence’s estimates.

Venmo allows users to easily send money back-and-forth to one another for expenses like rent, restaurant and bar checks, and event tickets. Venmo is free to use and appears to be gaining the most traction with U.S. smartphone users in their late teens and twenties. It’s very popular on college campuses.

A Quick Start Guide to Participating in Twitter Chats

A Quick Start Guide to Participating in Twitter Chats

http://www.guide2digitallearning.com/blog_tom_murray/quick_start_guide_twitter_chats

This past week, I had the privilege of introducing US Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, as a guest moderator for #edtechchat, an educational Twitter chat that I founded with four members of my personal learning network (PLN).  Over the course of 60 minutes, almost 2,000 people from around the world, shared about 10,000 tweets in response to the Secretary’s six questions related to being a Connected Educator.  Secretary Duncan (@arneduncan) and his Office of Educational Technology (@officeofedtech) deemed October “Connected Educator’s Month” for the second straight year.  To close #ce13, Secretary Duncan used the #edtechchat forum to engage in conversation with educators from all over the world.

In reflecting on the chat, many people asked how to get started, and how to possibly follow such a quick flow of information. For one, 10,000 tweets in an hour is by no means typical; but then again, neither is the opportunity to interact with the US Secretary of Education. Although this particular chat with the Secretary may be an extreme example of what possibilities can arise when connecting with others online, each week there are over 160 chats that occur.  Virtually all topics are covered in some fashion. Whether you’re a 4th grade teacher (#4thchat) in Maryland (#mdedchat), a principal (#cpchat) in Arkansas (#arkedchat), a new teacher (#ntchat) in Rhode Island (#edchatri), or a parent (#ptchat) connecting on a Saturday (#satchat), there’s something for you.

This Quick Start Guide to Participating in Twitter Chats was created as part of the Digital Learning Transition MOOC (#dltmooc), an online “Massive Open Online Course”, developed by The Alliance for Education (@All4Ed) and the Friday Institute (@FridayInstitute) as part of Project 24 (@all4edproject24).  Feel free to download and share the Quick Start resource to help educators get started.

Furthermore, the Official Chat List was created by Chad Evans (@cevans5095) and me (@thomascmurray), with help from our good friend Jerry Blumengarten (@cybraryman1). This resource (shortcut: bit.ly/officialchatlist) is a comprehensive list of the educational Twitter chats that take place each week.

Start small. Choose a chat that peaks your interest. Lurk, listen, and learn. When you’re ready, jump in head first.  Grow your PLN and get connected through a Twitter chat this week!  Your students will benefit.

– See more at: http://www.guide2digitallearning.com/blog_tom_murray/quick_start_guide_twitter_chats#sthash.W1DPfmY1.dpuf

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