Let's Talk about a Dirty Word: Money!

 careerservices.lafayette.edu

The topic of this week's blog entry is the flipped classroom. That is the topic I am addressing here. However, at the risk of being deemed a pariah, I want to look at it from the perspective of money. More specifically, I want to look at it from the perspective of the flipped classroom's potential negative impact on the income stream of educators.  

I want to believe that those of us who become professional educators do so for three reasons. First, we enjoy imparting knowledge, know-how, and wisdom to our students. Second, we believe that through educating our fellow man we can help the world become a better place. Third, well, we need money! We are professional educators, not volunteers!

Judging by events taking place at the college where I teach, flipping my classroom may force me to get an additional job flipping burgers. The administration seems to place a premium on time spent in front of my students lecturing and seems to substantially undervalue lab time spent standing behind each one helping him or her resolve issues and correct errors. 

I teach digital art courses. These courses require that I teach the students how to use computers and software. While it is possible to just lecture to my students, the only way that they will ever learn to master the material I teach is by using the software and working their way through the projects. As necessary, I devote class time to helping my students learn the required computer skills by having them work through each one with me guiding them. The administration considers this sort of instruction as lab work. 

The administration wants to establish a new pay structure which places a premium on lecturing and devalues lab work. If the proposal becomes policy, due to the nature of the courses I teach and the way I teach them, I will either have to teach an additional course to maintain my current level of compensation or I will simply receive even less compensation per credit for the work I do now.

ilearnproject.com

If I flip my classes and, in effect, turn my face-to-face time with my students into lab time, the administration may very well increase my teaching load or reduce my compensation per credit even more than they are already trying to do! Unless someone can figure out how to make the day longer than 24 hours or I decide to live in my truck, I do not know how I could survive if I flipped my classroom and the administration deemed my new class structure as 100 percent lab.

Flipping the classroom does sound good in theory. As an educator I love the idea of flipping the classroom. It would be awesome to have my students come to class prepared. It would be fantastic to be able to spend the precious commodity that is face-to-face class time trying to help my students polish their understanding. However.... Knowing my students, knowing that the vast majority of them do not bother, or cannot be bothered, to read the material I painstakingly create and prepare for their benefit, I doubt, seriously doubt, that they would take advantage of the educational opportunity presented in theory by flipping the classroom. 

Remember that education is the one thing that people will pay dearly for but for which they will often not partake. Even if I could lead my students to the educational waters presented through the flipped classroom, I doubt that many of them would drink!

Flipping the classroom would most likely encourage the administration to try to either increase my workload or decrease my rate of compensation. It would not serve about 90 percent of my students well. Viewed through the lens of these possibilities, in my case, flipping the classroom would just be a bad idea!

Copyright? Copy Wrong!

Source: www.lib.odu.edu

This week’s topic, copyright, is near and dear to my heart. Not only did I study copyright law in Japan, I am also a photographer who zealously protects his copyright. Adding to my natural interest in the topic, the presentation during our class’s Blackboard Corroborate based meeting was excellent and very informative. The only thing missing from this week’s excellent educational opportunity was an actual application of the copyright law. Or so I thought. Fortunately for my education but potentially unfortunately for his educational future, one of my students decided to draw attention to his blatant copyright infringement by lying to me in class. His obvious lie caught my attention and I was forced to confront the reality of his copyright infringing behavior.

Honestly, his lie was just the final straw. Thinking back on the last few weeks I now realize that this student had consistently demonstrated a blatant disregard for the copyrights of both the author(s) of the textbook and the software we use. I now realize how naive I was. I should have put the facts together sooner. I should have realized just how extreme and blatant his copyright violations are. I guess that I just did not want to cause him any trouble. Now, having removed the naive blinders from my eyes, I realize that I have no choice. I have to put the wheels in motion which may put the student’s continued college enrollment in jeopardy.

I have decided to use the opportunity presented by the topic of this week’s reflective blog to think back on all the now seemingly obvious signs of the student’s malfeasance.

On the first day of instruction the student approached me and informed me that he was willing to install the course’s $1000 application on the computers of his classmates for only $50 a computer. He asked me to announce his offer to the class. I informed him that I would not and that making such an offer was inappropriate.

That night he used the Mail Tool from the course’s course management site to email the $50 offer to his classmates. Learning of the misconduct, I wrote to him and informed him that his behavior was in violation of the school’s code of conduct, computer usage agreement, and the copyright law.

Around the third week of instruction, the student used his phone during class to photograph pages from another student’s copy of the course textbook. After I got over the shock of his audacity, I told him to stop and informed him that such conduct violated the author's copyright and the student's code of conduct. 

The textbook we use in the course requires students to use a unique code found inside its back cover to register with the publisher. Only through registering do students gain access to the resource files. These files are required to do both the in class practice and the at home projects. Since the student had been doing the work in class and had submitted the required projects, I had just assumed that he had forgotten his textbook again.

The class I teach is not difficult. However, students do need to pay attention and they do need to keep up with my instruction. I often walk around the classroom looking over their shoulders to confirm that they are “getting it.” During one of these rounds I noticed that, unlike his classmates, the student, once again, was without his textbook. I asked him where his textbook was. I expected him to tell me that he had, once again, forgotten it. Instead, he lied to me. He told me that he had ordered it online and was waiting for it to arrive. 

How do I know he lied? First, his statement does not stand up to the light of reason. At the time, we were four weeks into the semester. There is no way it would take four weeks for a textbook to arrive, especially when I know that the publisher will express mail them to the bookstore overnight. Second, and most damningly, he had been using the resource files that one can only get AFTER they have purchased the textbook, registered with the code, and lawfully downloaded the resource files. That fact that he had been using the resource files to practice and complete his projects means that he already had the resource files. How could he have them if he was still waiting for his textbook to arrive? The only way he could have gained such access is through the illegal copying of them from a classmate.

For the record, the publisher is very protective of their copyright over these resource files. At the beginning of the semester one of my students was unable to access these necessary resource files due to an error in the code. I wrote to the publisher and asked if I could give the student a copy of the necessary files while they resolved the issue. The "absolutely not" response came incredibly quickly. I am afraid to think what they would do to this student if they learned of his blatant violation of their closely guarded copyright.

I guess that I am naive. I never expected a student to so clearly violate the copyright law. Nor had I ever expected anyone to do it so blatantly. As of this moment, the highly protective owner of the copyright does not know of this violation. I do not believe that I am under any obligation to inform them. However, I am not sure of this and I am worried that my silence might put my employer in jeopardy. 

The student also violated the student code of conduct and the University’s computer usage policy. I believe that I am under an obligation to let the University know of these violations. Once I have done so it will be another chapter in my education in copyright or copy wrong.

Oh, the OERs I never knew...

This week's topic in ETEC 647e covering open educational resources (OER) and open courseware was quite possibly the most enjoyable and addictively time consuming one yet. While I had looked at iTunes U before, I had not really paid much attention to what I was seeing. Nor, had I realized its value. That all changed this week as my Team Tokyo teammates and I worked together to complete this week's project. I now realize what an awesome resources OER and open courseware can be.

Having said that, I also learned how hunting down these OERs can become a proverbial black hole which sucks in and devours hours of one's life in the seeming blink of an eye. The material offered at iTunes is just so extensive! And so interesting! 

Being naturally curious and a lover of learning, I was easily distracted by all the educational opportunities I found. Even after my teammates and I had decided upon a particular OER and had decided upon a particular program to learn about, I still searched for more ways to learn more about it. I just wanted to see what else I could find, what else I could learn. In so doing, I learned another lesson.

This lesson, however, was more of a cold blast of unpleasantness than it was an euphoric gush of joy. You see, I was reminded that sometimes technology just does not function as expected. I was reminded that sometimes things just do not work.

My teammates and I had decided to use a particular OER at iTunes U to learn how to use Evernote. The OER looked interesting and it seemed to offer us the means to answer all of the questions asked in the assignment. 

Unfortunately, when, after we had finished our cooperative Google Hangout, I started to utilize the material that we had selected, I discovered that it was not nearly as complete nor as useful as we had first thought. Oh well, in that we all learn a valuable lesson.

To try to make up for this perceived short coming, I began looking for other OERs to supplement the rather seemingly weak one my teammates and I had chosen. 

Low and behold, I found something that looked much better than the one we had selected. I could not help but ask myself "How had all three of us missed it?" Now, I think the answer is clear. We missed it thanks to divine providence. 

You see, the OER I found, while its description looked very good, was really just a frustrating tease. No matter how many times I "subscribed" to it, it never showed up in my iTunes U library. Every time I when back to see if perhaps that material was available where I subscribed, I discovered that my subscription request had not gone through. The button which had switched from "subscribe" to "subscribed" with my previous click, was back to displaying "subscribe." This wonderful seeming OER does not really seem to exist.

Looking at the contributions to our team's success made by my teammates, and looking at the better seeming but actually not functioning better option that I found, I came to realize that we had picked the best OER for our purposes. Judging by their work and by my own discoveries I believe that this experience taught each of us a lot about OERs.

I would also like to say something about Evernote, the program we tried to use the OER to learn. Honestly, I think that it is going to be one of those programs like Twitter. It will take me a while to both get the hang of it and to really understand its value. 

Learning about it through the OER and through the Evernote tutorial on its website was really fun. It too seemed to evaporate the time I had allotted for the project. It too seemed as if one could lose themselves and all their free time just trying to play with, learn, master, and then actually utilize it for its intended purpose. 

These new technologies, if they can get one's attention and spark one's interest with their possibilities they can really consume one's time. I almost have to wonder whether, on balance, some of these more addictive programs are really valuable or are just another way to whittle away the already too limited hours of our days. 

Or then again, maybe it is just me and my overzealousness to learn and master new things?

Lastly, I would like to touch upon my experience with my Team Tokyo teammates. In a word, it was awesome. All three of us are VERY busy. Yet, we managed to make time for both a very productive Google Hangout, create what I believe to be a fantastic presentation for the class, and overcome the difficulties that arose when our "best laid plans" went astray. Both of my teammates were excellent. I look forward to working with them again soon.

Step 1: READ THE INSTRUCTIONS!!!!

Okay, I have a bone to pick. Unlike last semester, I am not going to hold my tongue, or in this case, my fingers. This semester I am going to take advantage of the reflective blog forum and express what I am really feeling. 

I am upset and, more importantly, I am disappointed. I feel that most, but not all, of my classmates let me down with their assignment proposals. 

Reading their proposals I found myself asking the following questions: 

1) Did they forget that this is an emerging educational technologies course? 

2) Did they even read the Assignment Specifications? 

If they did read them, 3) Did they purposefully or accidentally overlook the part that reads "Relevant to emerging technologies"?!?!? 

And 4) What about the part that clearly spells out the need for the proposal to (and again I quote from the assignment page) "Address[...] higher levels of cognitive learning (according to Bloom's Taxonomy) and utilize critical thinking skills"?!?!?

Seriously, READ THE INSTRUCTIONS!!!

Please do not get me wrong. No one is perfect. We all make mistakes. As I sit here writing this reflective blog entry and reading once again the instructions that I admonishingly request my classmates read, I noticed that my group's proposal could have been done better too. Our proposal could have been clearer on the sort of deliverable or learning object it will produce. 

But even having said that, at least my group remembered that we are taking a graduate level course in emerging educational technologies!

And speaking of groups, I want to take this opportunity to write about my group and the experience of working on this assignment proposal together. 

It was like Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. It was "the best of times and the worst of times." 

One of the members was totally on the ball. She took charge and ran things for our group. She caught the things that I and the other member missed. Her efforts clearly made our group more than the sum of its parts. Thanks to being able to work with her, I clearly saw for the first time the up side to working in groups. 

Last semester I worked with a number of good group members. However, none ever reached the positive, contributory, and motivating level of this one group member. It really was an honor and a positive learning experience to work with such a highly functioning and focused classmate.

In contrast, the other group member seemed the proverbial "yin" (the dark side) to the first member's "yang" (the sunny/light side). She was so focused and devoted to her own point of view that she seemingly would not or could not accept a different point of view. Nor would or could she work with us in our efforts to accomplish our 2/3 agreed upon course of action.

That is not to say that she did not try. Oh, she made a great effort. I just do not think that we were all on the same page. Heck, I do not think that we were even in the same forest. Other than being in the same group and at loggerheads with one another, there really was not much of an exchange of ideas or positive cooperative energy.

They say that experience is what you get when you do not get what you want. I believe that is a true statement. The group dynamic was not what I wanted. I do not believe that it was what any of us wanted. We all wanted to work together and to succeed as a team. We all did work hard. That was not the problem. The problem was that we could not come to a meeting of the minds. We were never united as a focused team.  At least we gained some more experience working in groups.

Despite the fact that our group's proposal received the lowest number of votes, and despite the fact that our group was not united in either its ideas or efforts, thanks to the colossal efforts of both myself and especially the "yang" member of our group, I believe that our group's proposal was one of the best generated by this assignment. It deserves to be selected. 

Of course, it will not be selected. If it were selected, in order to complete the proposal, we, the students of ETEC 647E would have to read the instructions. That, it seems, is just too much to ask!