Category: Global Education

Why Twitter is Rising in Importance in My Personal Learning Program

DSCN8780It’s my research day. I just helped Leo the Great Pyr onto his Central Bark Doggie Day Care bus
IMG_0013
and had a team meeting with Lizzy and Alison, two of my student research assistants. Before I gave them research assignments, I shared with them my Christmas ritual of opening up Jacquie Lawson’s marvelous Advent Calendar App. Thank you, Jacquie, for giving us reasons to smile and be in awe.
While we are working I receive a Facebook communication (and feedback) that Katerina and Tim Miklos, now in England, enjoyed the wedding video that Alison produced with Imovie as one of her research projects with me on Tuesday. I hope in the near future to research and develop with my students global communication tools such as Skype by communicating with Katerina in England, Ben in Hungary, Maren in Madagascar, Andrew in Switzerland, and Hersonia in Mexico. Who else abroad is willing to help us learn together?
I’m monitoring my Twitter feed as I write this blog piece and find 10 ideas, resources, and thought-leaders worth following. The dross is outweighed by the nuggets as I refine my Twitter filters and make better use of Twitter applications. I still am not quite ready to explore Twitter Chats. Just because a technology learning tool HAS capabilities, doesn’t mean that I need them –or that I should change my teaching to accommodate them.
Thank you Teri Johnson and Jane Hart for firmly but gently nudging me into exploring the use of Twitter.
Here are 10 tweets that informed me or guided my personal learning today:

  1. I see that Maria Konnikova has a new book out in January. She writes so well about psychology and pseudo science. I preorder the book and send her a brief note. Thank you, Maria, for your clear thinking, your lucid writing, and your thought-provoking ideas.
  2. Alec Couros recommends a Ted Talk about “Where Good Ideas Come From.” If I can find time, I’ll take a look at that before teaching my research Seminar. Thank you, Alec, for the inspiration.
  3. The indefatigable Richard Byrne alerts me to some free Technology Tools for Teachers.
  4. While I am data mining resources from K-12 I take a quick glance at my Edutopia feed.
  5. A colleague on LinkedIn suggests reposts an article about skills every young professional should have. I see value in sharing this with my advisees.  Thank you, Rebecca!
  6. I see a Mac 911 MacWorld piece about how to incorporate special characters into documents. I’ll need this as i try blog pieces in different language. I snag it (oops, gotta be careful. I own that App and I am starting to use my Dictation software as I write blogs).
  7. Richard Kiker’s use of Paper.li motivates me to return to exploring its utility as a curating tool. I assign that protect to Arianna.
  8. I am reminded and convinced that it is important that I incorporate thinking about climate change—and doing something about it into my life.
  9. I take a quick look at a recent EverNote blog post since I continue to struggle with most best to master its features.
  10. I glance at recent posts from LifeHacker—always fun to read and read one about how there just doesn’t seem to be enough time.

YIKES! Tempus fugit (or as Mrs. Bode, my Howland  High School Latin teacher often punned, Time fidgets!)
Time to protect myself against Internet Distractions.


“Don’t be who ISIS wants you to be”: Bloggers on Paris and Beirut

Others can better express these things than I. Hence, the repost of these important ideas:
Bloggers in France, Lebanon, and beyond share their stories, analyses, and art after a week of violence.
Source: “Don’t be who ISIS wants you to be”: Bloggers on Paris and Beirut
We need to reaffirm our humanity and  rediscover our common purpose.

  • Don’t worry about doing THE Right Thing, but do A right thing.
  • Live, Love, Learn, and ——Give.
  • Be Good (for Goodness’ Sake).
  • Be Nice to your Brother and Sister.
  • Be Patient.
  • Be Kind
  • Be Giving.
  • Be Forgiving.
  • Be of Good Cheer.
  • Be You.
  • Be—–

and

  • Let it Be.



Nifty Shades of Buzz-Transparently Attempting to Engage the Reader as I Move Forward with Rebranding:)

Branding Love
Three books that I have reread the past few years are George Orwell (Eric Blair)’s 1984 and Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson)’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There.

George Orwell fascinates me on a number of accounts—his mastery of language, his prescience, and his outlook about politics. While I was faculty president, I gave copies of his book to people as a reminder of the chilling threats and effects of totalitarianism and the dangers of doublespeak. Lewis Carroll, though more playful, also is masterful with language and with alerting us to the the dangers of when illogic becomes the norm and when language is misused and abused. I find my institution’s decisions a few year’s ago to redefine the word “department” in our Carroll argot and the changing of our name from “college” to “university” Humpty-Dumpty-like. And the “buzzwords”  and evolving (sometime assaulting) lexicons creeping into our everyday discourse are painfully annoying, hinder communication and add many shades of gray to my beard. I am abuzz with buzzwords
Buzz:

  1. hum
  2. murmur
  3. high
  4. bombination
  5. drone
  6. purr
  7. whirring
  8. sibilation
  9. hiss
  10. whiz
  11. sigh
  12. rustle
  13. sough
  14. rumor
  15. report
  16. gossip
  17. heresay
  18. scuttlebut
  19. scandal
  20. small talk
  21. chitchat
  22. fizzle
  23. sizzle
  24. Look here for more here: 

It is interesting how the “buzzwords” (e.g. transparency, branding, moving forward, engagement, buzz) have positive connotations for some professionals and create a need create a need for a swear jar or playing buzz word bingo for others.
Gotta buzz the dog outside before buzzing a friend to see if he wants to play buzzword bingo tomorrow. Or maybe I’ll buzz over to Melibee to read some of their wonderful posts about global issues and making the world a better place.

 

Language, Culture, and Internationalizing Education

I have long had a fascination with languages. In high school I studied Latin for two years and followed that with two years of Spanish. When I graduated from Oberlin College in 1971 with an A.B. in Psychology I also had studied the equivalent of a Spanish major (including credits earned at the University of Guanajuato, Mexico). While a graduate student at Ohio State University I marveled at the language fluency of foreign fellow graduate students (I spent 6 months doing research at the University of Bergen, Norway and was humbled by the challenges of learning Norwegian and by how much more about the United States Norwegians knew compared to me!). A critical component of these language learning experiences was having opportunities to be exposed to the literature, theater, art, history, and cultural contexts of these languages. It will be interesting to discover what added value such tools as Rosetta Stone software contribute to efforts to internationalize this campus. I have yet to see convincing empirical evidence that the software lives up to its heavily advertised promises. I think something like teletandem may be a more practical way to provide language immersion. I greatly admire a number of thought leaders who write well and think deeply about authentically internationalizing education. Reading two books recently, Richard E. Nisbett‘s The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently… and Why and Malcolm Gladwell’s Outlier’s: The Story of Success, has revitalized my interest in relationships between language, culture, thought, and behavior. Richard Nisbett, whom Gladwell acknowledges as a major influence on his thinking that resulted in this book, was an invited speaker at Carroll University on March 24, 2009. Books such as these shaped motivated my tracking much more regularly global issues in higher education.


 

 

Fifty Ways to Say I Love You, Mom…

Today is Mother’s Day  in the United States—my first since the passing on of my Mother on April 18 of this year. Some variant of this important Day of Recognition is of course celebrated throughout the world. Please pass on these three simple thoughts to your Mom—as I do to mine.

  1.  

    Ek is lief vir jou, Mamma! Dankie, Mamma. Ek is jammer, Ma!
  2. Të dua, mami! Ju faleminderit, mami. Më vjen keq, mami!
  3. أنا أحبك يا أمي! شكرا لك يا أمي. أنا آسف يا أمي!
  4. Mən səni sevirəm, ana! , Ana təşəkkür edirəm. Mən Ana üzgünüm!
  5. Maite zaitut, ama! Eskerrik asko, ama. Sentitzen dut, ama!
  6. আমি তোমায় ভালোবাসি, মা! , মা আপনাকে ধন্যবাদ. আমি মাকে দুঃখিত!
  7. Я люблю цябе, мама! Дзякуй, мама. Мне вельмі шкада, мама!
  8. Volim te, mama! Hvala ti, mama. Žao mi je, mama!

  9. Обичам те, мамо! Благодаря ти, мамо. Съжалявам, мамо!
  10. 我爱你，妈妈！谢谢你，妈妈。对不起，妈妈！
  11. Volim te, mama! Hvala ti, mama. Žao mi je, mama!
  12. Mám tě ráda, mami! Děkuji, mami. Je mi líto, mami!
  13. Jeg elsker dig, mor! Tak, mor. Jeg er ked af det, mor!
  14. Ik hou van je, mam! Dank je, mam. Het spijt me, mam!
  15. I love you, Mom! Thank you, Mom. I’m sorry, Mom!

  16. Mi amas vin, panjo! Dankon, panjo. Mi bedaŭras, Panjo!
  17. Ma armastan sind, ema! Aitäh, ema. Vabandust, ema!
  18. Rakastan sinua, äiti! Kiitos, äiti. Olen pahoillani, äiti!
  19. Je t’aime, maman! Merci, maman. Je suis désolé, maman!
  20. მე შენ მიყვარხარ, Mom! მადლობა, Mom. მე ვწუხვარ, Mom!
  21. Ich liebe dich, Mama! Danke, Mama. Es tut mir leid, Mama!
  22. Σ ‘αγαπώ, μαμά! Σας ευχαριστώ, μαμά. Λυπάμαι, μαμά!

  23. मैं तुमसे प्यार करता हूँ, माँ! , माँ धन्यवाद. मैं, माँ माफ कर दो!

  24. Szeretlek, anya! Köszönöm, anya. Sajnálom, anya!

  25. Ég elska þig, mamma! Þakka þér, mamma. Fyrirgefðu, mamma!

  26. Aku mencintaimu, Bu! Terima kasih, Bu. Maafkan aku, Bu!

  27. Is breá liom tú, Mam! Go raibh maith agat, Mam. Tá brón orm, Mam!

  28. Ti voglio bene, mamma! Grazie, mamma. Mi dispiace, mamma!

  29. 私はあなたを愛して、ママ！ 、お母さん、ありがとうございました。私は、お母さんごめんなさい！

  30. Aku seneng kowe, angel! Matur nuwun, angel. Kula nyuwun pangapunten, angel!

  31. ខ្ញុំ​ស្រឡាញ់​អ្នក​ម៉ាក់​! សូម​អរគុណ​កូន​ម៉ាក់​។ ខ្ញុំ​ពិត​ជា​សោក​ស្តា​យ​កូន​ម៉ាក់​!

  32. 나는 당신을 사랑 해요, 엄마! 엄마, 감사합니다. 미안 해요, 엄마!

  33. ຂ້າ​ພະ​ເຈົ້າ​ຮັກ​ທ່ານ​, ບ້ານ​ມອມ​! ຂໍ​ຂອບ​ໃຈ​ທ່ານ​, ບ້ານ​ມອມ​. ຂ້າ​ພະ​ເຈົ້າ​ຂໍ​ອະ​ໄພ​, ບ້ານ​ມອມ​!

  34. Es mīlu tevi, mamma! Paldies, māmiņ. Piedod, māt!

  35. Aš tave myliu, mama! Ačiū, mama. Aš atsiprašau, mama!

  36. Те сакам, мамо! Ви благодарам, мамо. Жал ми е, мамо!

  37. I love you, mama! Terima kasih, mama. Saya minta maaf, mama!

  38. Jeg elsker deg, mamma! Takk, mamma. Jeg beklager, mamma!

  39. میں آپ سے محبت، ماں! شکریہ، ماں. میں، ماں معافی چاہتا ہوں

  40. Kocham cię, mamo! Dziękuję, mamo. Przykro mi, mamo!

  41. Eu te amo, mamãe! Obrigado, mãe. Sinto muito, mãe!

  42. Te iubesc, mamă! Mulțumesc, mamă. Îmi pare rău, mamă!

  43. Я люблю тебя, мама! Спасибо, мама. Мне очень жаль, мама!

  44. Волим те, мама! Хвала, мама. Жао ми је, мама!

  45. Mám ťa rada, mami! Ďakujem, mami. Je mi ľúto, mami!

  46. Te amo, mamá! Gracias, mamá. Lo siento, mamá!

  47. Tôi yêu mẹ! Cảm ơn mẹ. Tôi xin lỗi, mẹ ơi!

  48. Seni seviyorum, anne! Teşekkür ederim anne. Ben, anne üzgünüm!

  49. Jag älskar dig, mamma! Tack, mamma. Jag är ledsen, mamma!

  50. ฉันรักคุณแม่! ขอบคุณแม่ ฉันขอโทษแม่!



 

 

Remembering Mother Earth: Reflections on Earth Day 2014.

North Lake Flowers

 

1) Earth Day concerns should be unifying every day concerns .

2) We must do more than merely virtually explore the wonders of our precious planet.

3) Preserving, savoring, celebrating, protecting, and nurturing Mother Earth should be a super-ordinate, cross national,unifying effort of international  concern.

4) We are all earthlings.

5) There is much to learn.

6) Mother Earth is fragile and the Pale Blue Dot is tiny in the cosmic scheme of things.

7) So much beauty must be shared, preserved, protected and passed on.

July 10

 

 

Preliminary Personal Responses to the 2014 Higher Education Edition Horizon Report

Though I won’t have time until this summer to deeply explore the 2014 Horizon Report which I alluded to in an earlier post, I wanted to share some initial reactions here:

  1. I concur with the Report’s assertion of the growing ubiquity of social media. The challenge for me is to find the right balance between the kinds of deep thinking which I believe “more traditional teaching methods” correctly implemented can foster and an ability to capitalize on the enabling capabilities of social media for producing, communicating,creating, and collaborating.  I don’t find that my present institution has the appropriate classroom infra-structure for leveraging these social media tools within the physical classroom and traditional class-room meeting time.
  2. I agree with the Report’s suggestion that that it is inevitable that higher education must allow and facilitate an integration of online, hybrid, and collaborative learning.
  3. Though I have always been interested in “adaptive” learning and personalizing the learning  environment, I find the promises of “an emerging science of learning analytics” overblown, premature, and creepy in terms of degrees of invasion of privacy.
  4. I applaud and embrace the identified trend of students as creators rather than merely as consumers though I would urge that one not lose sight of the importance of quality control of their products.
  5. I concur that the time is ripe for university programs to support aggressively “agile, lean  startup models” that promote a culture of innovation in a more wide-spread, cost-effective way as long as there are built in assessment procedures which validly document the weaknesses and strengths of these (maybe) new approaches. Too often I have seen institutions chase after the latest educational fad and fail to benefit from organizational memory of prior, similar failed ventures.
  6. For me, online learning is a useful complement rather than a viable alternative to most forms of face-to-face learning. As I’ve written earlier, I regularly and increasingly use “nontraditional” learning tools to supplement my personal professional development and my digital literacy. I am still sorting out, however,  how to embed and assess that literacy among my students.  In what venues I should foster those kinds of skills and intrude them to top learning tools. I am increasing wary of a “digital divide” that ironically exists between K-12 and higher education instructors with the latter—and their students—being the more deficient!

What do you think? I’m also interested in readers’ suggestions about what I should write:

My Top 10 Personal Learning Resources—Always in Flux

A common theme I’ve encountered in a number of meetings and informal conversations with faculty, staff, students, trustees, and alumni is a growing awareness of the rapidity of change in higher education—in how we teach, in how we learn, in from whom we learn, in where we learn, and even in in what times of the day and night we learn!  These concerns are addressed well by the new learning avenues explored by the shared online learning insights of Debbie Morrison on the distinction between the creation of personal learning experiences (PLE’s)  and personal learning networks (PLN’s) . I am also increasingly influenced by the  “the learning flow” concept advanced by Jane Hart.

Even as I proctor an exam while writing this blog post I am learning online—checking my Twitter account especially for posts by

  1. Julie Lindsay,
  2. Jane Hart,
  3. Michael Sheehan,
  4. Michelle Pacansky-Brock,
  5. “brian@ieducator,”
  6. Richard Byrne,
  7. edutopia,
  8. the GlobalChronicle,
  9. the NYTimesLearningNetwork,
  10. Silvia Tolisano.

Thank you, fellow educators across the world for all you share and how you teach and inspire me. Teaching and learning clearly are not constrained to the classroom.

Thinking Horizontally

Just started reading the  NMC Horizon Report 2014 Higher Education Edition.

A pdf overview can be found here, though the report is well worth reading in its rich entirety.

Much to ponder here—and to compare with the 2013 K-12 report which guides the FlatConnections Project.

I am impressed by the expertise and global breadth of the 2024 Expert panel (and flattered that one of them chose to follow my Twittering). In my judgment one missing expert is Jane Hart.

To be continued…

My World Continues to Expand as It Shrinks

A package from an educator friend, Inci Aslan,  in Turkey who is the principal investigator of an Etwinning project I closely follow
,an email from Luis Miguel Miñarro, an educator in Spain with an accompanying  link to an animoto  Carnival 2014 video, a Facebook chat message from Lithuanian educator Irma Milevičiūtė who befriended me on Epals a year ago and whetted my  interest in global communication, an informative hour-long  Fuzebox.com  conference with Julie Lindsay, an educator in Australia, about the Flat Connections Global Project —my world continues to expand as it shrinks. How does one keep up with “the learning revolution” or Classroom 2.0? How does one keep abreast of developments in International Education? I try to keep reasonably aware of international events through reading articles in the Chronicle of Higher Education and The Guardian. I occasionally shadow  Global Education Conferences  and follow several WordPress blogs dedicated to Global Education. And yet I am so globally illiterate. Here are some of my more recent musing about these questions

  • http://david-in-carroll-land.com/2013/08/06/loosely-translated-a-lithuanian-a-turk-an-american-and-a-teacher-from-poland-enter-a-virtual-meeting-room/

  • http://david-in-carroll-land.com/2013/05/07/three-questions-raised-from-attempting-to-create-a-virtual-cultural-immersion-course/

  • http://david-in-carroll-land.com/2013/04/14/reflections-on-creating-a-virtual-cultural-immersion-course-lessons-learned-part-1/

  • http://david-in-carroll-land.com/2013/04/21/pioneering-a-virtual-european-cultural-immersion-course/

Here are my some of reflections on this topic a few years ago… The world is open. I’ve been thinking about how to make our campus and curriculum more global. Here are some incipient thoughts about how that might de done. I’d welcome your thoughts.

  • Increase awareness and use of media such as BBC News, Google News, and Newsvine.
  • Incorporate Kiva into the classroom.
  • Explore global views of religion, spirituality, and being.
  • Tap into high quality online  or “portable” courses.
  • Explore other languages.
  • Capitalize on cultural universals such as music, cusine, sports, and literature.
  • Reading: Let’s encourage our faculty, staff, and students to read, discuss, and discover world literature. Though no substitute for reading, excellent recordings exist of introductions to world literature, world history, world religions, etc.What suggestions do you have that are simple and cost effective?

And here are even earlier reflections…..

I’m still reflecting on some interesting ideas that emerged in a “listening session” I attended today with two other faculty colleagues concerning a proposed change in our general education program for students at Carroll. I left quite confused, but that is not atypical for me. What is the appropriate foundation for general education in the 21rst century? Are we faculty appropriately educated for teaching in the 21rst century? What skill sets, traditions, and knowledge are as vital today as when this academic institution was founded? Can we change our general education program without intentionally changing our institutional mission? How do we avoid throwing out the baby with the bath water? Should part of a general education be mastery of another language? If so, how does one define mastery—knowing the right phrases to allow one to travel within another country? Or should one be fluent in another culture’s history, customs, idioms, national concerns, and language? Can this be achieved within the traditional four years of a college education and still allow students a traditional major? If we are interested in being more global, shouldn’t we append USA to all our institutional publications? Can internationalization be achieved through the 21rst century equivalence of international pen pals using Skype or VoiceThread?  Through changing the “three r’s” to mastery of 20th century learning tools?   Through BBC language acquisition in 12 weeks courses or by investing time in other such (free) online language learning resources? What does is mean to globalize or internationalize a campus? How can that best be achieved? Is the best way to do so to bring international students and faculty to campus? To send our students and faculty abroad? To create communication opportunities world-wide through Internet means? To expand faculty and students’ knowledge of history, cultures, international economics, and international relations? To conduct collaborative international research and learning projects? Should I join the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology?  Which organizations do I drop out of to allow time and money for these new ones?  What defines global citizenship? Global awareness? How can we continually reaffirm and rediscover our common sense of humanity?

Ayuda me. I’m going postal 🙂  global!