Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Google Hangout

Last night as a part of a class on self-employed teaching, a trio of us tried out the new google hangout.  It is easy to sign on, and the sound quality is excellent.  The other two were in Chicago and Ontario, Canada, and I in Seattle.  They could see each other and me, but I could not see them, why, I'll have to investigate.

It has a chat function and claims to offer the ability to record and post to youtube the sessions.  That could be very useful.  It allows for desktop sharing and document collaboration, but although we could open each, we say no way to close them except to exit and re-enter.

Google hangout looks promising, and it is in beta, but for now the learning curve is too steep to employ as a classroom medium.


Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Private Libraries

When the state took over libraries they pretty much ruined them for all involved.  I talk about libraries and librarians in my book, and my opinion has not changed.  They are actually more important today than before.  Comes an article from The Atlantic

One of the world’s first and most famous libraries, in Alexandria, Egypt, was frequently home some 2,000 years ago to the self-starters and self-employed of that era. “When you look back in history, they had philosophers and mathematicians and all sorts of folks who would get together and solve the problems of their time,” says Tracy Lea, the venture manager with Arizona State University’s economic development and community engagement arm. “We kind of look at it as the first template for the university. They had lecture halls, gathering spaces. They had co-working spaces.”

All over the USA there are still private libraries, and we need more.  I've toured the Mechanic's Institute Library in San Francisco, with its stacks, meeting rooms and bar. Quite charming.

Most of ancient literature is gone because the huge state libraries were burnt out.  When we have comes from private collections that survived.  As our society descends in to self-immolation, independent libraries are all the more necessary.

Private gyms abound, why not private libraries?  People pay $120 a month for a gym, why not the same for a library?


Tuesday, February 19, 2013

First Market, Then Make

Kevin checks in on a fine point...

On Feb 19, 2013, at 10:42 AM, Kevin wrote:

Hello John,
I have two questions I thought I would ask before tonight's class.
1.      As we begin to send out our proposals to the colleges should we already have in place a delivery system for our course (Mibbit, ed2go,..etc) or do the schools decide how the class is delivered?

One example I came across in my local area is http://ce.d214.org/cep/cep_online_classes.aspx

This is a continuing education course instructing prospective online students to visit ed2go.com/dist214  

Essentially I want to know is there anything I should have in place via web/course ability (before) submitting proposals to the schools?

***Our proposal has to do with marketing our course, to find if people are ready willing and able to promote it as it is.  There is a very good chance they are not ready willing and able, for whatever unknowable reason right now.  

If not, aren’t you glad you have not invested a few hundred hours into developing a course no one will take?

If not, aren’t you glad you can right now make changes, based on school feedback, so the course is in fact marketable?

So, most decidedly, we DO NOT want to have delivery methods yet.***

2.      Do you have any suggestions for how a new instructor should address reference requests on applications? Most of us if not all have no actual teaching experience to speak of.  Any references we’d normally use are unable to validate our teaching skillset.

Is the proposal weighed upon more than the instructor’s experience?

***If not teaching references, then topical references...  who knows and approves of your work?  List everyone you can think of, then arrange them by power, from a noted expert down to your mom.  Good press is probably worthless (what do they know?), but satisfied clients is good.***

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Promotion Headline

I am testing out a way to recruit instructors, that is teach them myself, and the local newspaper has a sale on 1/4 page full color ads.  Do I surveyed my listserv on various headlines for "draw" and here is what I got.


Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Cato Gets It Wrong

Cato is a putative free market think tank, and one of its "scholars" (from the greek, leisurely) advises we have free trade in education worldwide:

One way to promote free trade in higher education is with international trade agreements. 

But not really.  Free trade agreements are never about free trade, they are always bogus.  The only free trade possible is unilaterally pursued.  Anything negotiated is always constrained, not free.

So Cato uses the right words, but means nothing of the sort.  Only Seattle Teachers' College pursues free trade in education worldwide.

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Student's Work Owned By School

Prince George County Schools wants to make it so...  who knows, some public school kid, sometime, somewhere, might actually produce something worthwhile, even profitable, at which point the school wants it.  It is possible somebody in a government school might produce something.

“Works created by employees and/or students specifically for use by the Prince George’s County Public Schools or a specific school or department within PGCPS, are properties of the Board of Education even if created on the employee’s or student’s time and with the use of their materials,” the policy reads. “Further, works created during school/work hours, with the use of school system materials, and within the scope of an employee’s position or student’s classroom work assignment(s) are the properties of the Board of Education.”

What happened to grateful students making donations?

The measure has some worried that by the system claiming ownership to the work of others, creativity could be stifled and there would be little incentive to come up with innovative ways to educate students. Some have questioned the legality of the proposal as it relates to students.

Once we have the idea of intellectual property rights, and the supremacy of the state, ther eis no logical limit to state power.  It is all ours.


Saturday, February 2, 2013

No. 5 on the Seattle Hit Parade

A Seattle band called the Refusers musically review State Education.