Track Your Amazon.com Ranking

Here is a way to track the Amazon.com ranking for your book...  pretty cool.  He provides the code so you can do it for your own book.

What Is Your Website Worth?

I went to http://www.freewebsitereport.org/ and put in my www.johnspiers.com website and found out it is the 4.5 millionth most viewed site on the web.  Say!  And it is worth $539 in advertising revenue per year!   Well, that's about right.  It pays for itself.

I put in http://hbhblog.blogspot.com/ which must bring in more revenue, but there is no report.  Sigh.

Promo Potentials Roundup

Assuming one is self-publishing and gets Bowker ISBN,  then...

1. Amazon

A. Amazon marketplace...  personal account, to sell your defective and signed books ON amazon.com.

B.  Amazon associates... personal selling THROUGH amazon.com... links to your own books and other goods on your own website, blogs, etc... for affiliate fees income.

C. Amazon.com Advantage... corporate selling TO amazon.com, your USA biz wholesaling books to amazon.

i. list your books for sale

ii. set up author central to promote yourself

iii. KDP facilities... book to kindle

iv. inside the book so amazon peple can read the entire book before buying (similar to google books)

D. Amazon.ca Advantage ... 

i same as item C but for for canada, 

ii. needs canadian bank account.  Easy to get.

2. Google books

A. read for free with sales link to self and amazon

b. Worldcat (automatic)

C. distribute droid versions instead of Kindle.

3. Apple iPublish.  So far, I know nothing about this.  I need to develop.

World Association for Online Education (WAOE) invites active global scholars

One of the first global virtual organizations, the WAOE is a free academic association for
individual educators concerned with distance education, e-learning, and online education.  
We are not just seeking to increase membership but rather to give active educators an 
opportunity to make a difference in this sometimes murky field, by collaborating with 
other idealistic educators around the world. We started in 1998 with the purpose of  
turning online education into a new professional discipline, and as an international NGO  
now we see much more to do. So with renewed energy, we are calling for active new members. 

Please take a glance at some of the current WAOE elected and appointed officers:  

President: Prof. Steve McCarty, Osaka Jogakuin College and University, Japan  
Vice-President: Dr. John Afele, U.S.-West Africa Group, Tunisia / Ghana 
Membership Chair: Dr. Ramesh Sharma, Indira Gandhi National Open University, India 
Executive Secretary: Dr. Jodi Richardson-Delgado, Mesa Community College, U.S. 
Treasurer: Mike Holmwood, retired Division Chair, Langara College, Canada 
Chief Technology Officer: Ms. Victoria Ramirez, EFL Teacher / Designer, Mexico 
Cyber-Parliamentarian: Michael Warner,Tempe H.S. / Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, U.S. 
Publicity Coordinator: Dr. Begum Ibrahim, MARA Institute of Technology, Malaysia 
Publications Coordinator: Dr. David Sidwell, Utah State University, U.S. 
Journal Editor-in-Chief: Dr. Rozhan Idrus, Open & Distance Learning, Universiti Sains Malaysia 
Officer At-Large: Dr. Gary Wixom, Assistant Commissioner, Utah System of Higher Education, U.S.

Volunteers are sought for Research Coordinator, Program Coordinator, Associate Editors, etc. 

To reassure everyone, we have endorsements from scholars familiar with WAOE history:  
Society for College and University Planning senior executive Terry Calhoun recently  
called the WAOE a "very good organization." UNC Chapel Hill Professor Emeritus of  
Educational Leadership James L. Morrison added: "with an important mission."  

Dr. Ramesh Sharma writes: "As a member of the WAOE we look forward to your input, ideas, 
insights, interviews, write-ups, videos, etc. on online education. You may like to share 
innovative practices at your institution so that other members can benefit from them too." 

The WAOE is establishing the _International Journal of Online Education_, 
using our imagination to accommodate various categories and media besides double-blind 
reviewed papers. It will be an online journal and an open educational resource. Join us 
as a contributor or section editor for a content area, language, or world region. 

We have opened up our moderated discussion list WAOE-Views so you can join directly: 
http://groups.google.com/group/waoe-views 

You can also like us on Facebook to share resources: http://www.facebook.com/waoepage 

It is best to study our main Web pages (Home, Vision, More About Us, and Archives), 
then go to the Participation page to become a member for free and join WAOE-Views:  
http://www.waoe.org/ 

e-mail membership questions: rc_sharma@yahoo.com | to volunteer: waoe@mail.goo.ne.jp 

Free Stuff vs Free Education

I was having a Basil Gimlet at the new bar in San Francisco called Rye with a continuing education director, with whom I shared the idea that a way to sell classroom seats would be to auction them off.  He replied the idea appalled him, that he believed education should be free.

I replied I though that kind of free is far too expensive, and the auction idea had merit, for say we have 30 seats to auction off, and the dentist who badly wanted into the class bid $250 for the seat and won a place, and son on down to the last seat, which sells for $6 to the nurse's aide who badly wants to take the class. He asked what is all 30 seats went for $250, and the nurses aide never got in.  I assured if I sold 30 at $250 I would add more seats until the $6 person got in.   It is a hypothesis that needs to be tested. 

But in his sense "free" is where economy is ordered to where a basic good, education, is available to everyone, ability to pay of not.

This is a fine sentiment, and it reflects the reality that many worthy people find they cannot afford or otherwise access education.  But pause and ask "how come?"  We once had free trade in education, with people opening colleges as fast as a need was perceived.  We had that with parks, doctor offices and HMOs, housing, food, well, everything.  I remember this very well.

But I also remember the state finishing up on say, parks.  Once upon a time people would take a big piece of land next to a lake and turn it into a place for families to spend a day picnicing, baseball and swimming, for a fee.   The fee was cheap, it covered the overhead, the park owners had a good life, all was well.  but the state came along and starting making rules and regs that made it harder to turn a profit, and then started buying up these parks with taxpayer funded bonds, and made the parks "free."  Hence every city now has "parks and recreation" departments, which cost so much to run that the fed and state ones are all now fee based, and hefty fees at that, and city ones are not afraid of a fee either.

I think it was Aristotle said the thing that creates it sustains it. So it is with small business. One thing we could do to cut the deficits is to return those parks to their original condition, to people who start parks.

Community colleges has only been around about 50 years.  Before that there were some "junior colleges" and very many private voc tech schools.  Like parks, the squeezed these schools and then took them over.  And now, the cost/benefit is out of control.  Before, students could afford to pay cash at these schools and learn a trade, probably less than students pay now. What students paid covered 100% of schools cost, with a profit.  But what students pay now is less than 1/5th of the costs, because these schools have so featherbedded their operations.  Taxpayers are mulcted for the rest.

We can have free trade in education, well we have it.  This is an area where many good things are percolating up.  If you love education, it's time to come up with solutions to problems you experience.

The solution is not free stuff, a band aid over a gaping wound.  The solution is free from force and fraud.  The state uses force to limit who can offer an education.  And they use fraud saying "this is what an education costs." The solution is an alternative in which you can afford what education you need, out of your own pocket.  Let that with the gaping wound bleed to death.  Grow something just instead.

Insights On Online Education

Callum sent in this hour long discussion that I recommend for a listen.

http://files.libertyfund.org/econtalk/y2012/Klingeducation.mp3

I referred to it last night when mentioning the idea of “flipping the classroom.”

I’ve been thinking this through, what would it look like?  I’d put my lectures online for free (done) and assign the lectures as the weekly homework.

What is not the weekly homework...  find a product, name the customers, approach the customers.  How would they approach customers while in class?  Well, what if I was at my desk while the students headed out to businesses (open evenings?) and everyone was tweeting or email or phoning in their experiences?  And then do the research steps in the allotted class time...

Ken Lay, of Enron fame, made an insightful comment:  the point of the web is mass customization, not mass distribution.  For example, to use the web to offer a course to 150,000 students does not help much, anymore than making in essence a video free online.

But to sell a course to 100 participants each quarter, giving them customized attention to their particular problem, and let 149, 900 people observe no charge, might be very helpful to all concerned. those not paying and not participating yet observing will be drawing their own conclusions and can make efforts parallel to the course.

A few other random ideas form the conversation:

The fellows were talking about a teaching technique in which a quiz is given say every ten minutes in class to see if everyone got it.  If vast majority got it, move on.  Vast majority did not, re-present the material.  If it is 50/50, then stop teaching and tell students to convince each other they have the right answer.  The retest to see if the people with the right answers carried the day.  Struck me as a good idea.

IRC is controversial among those who have not taught online because it is ancient technology.  Yet there is none that allow more interaction more efficiently, and one in which that quiz technique above is easy to accommodate.  IRC allows everyone in the class to go into private IM and communicate.  After arguing, they could present their decisions.

Testing was an interesting topic, and they noted how it is conflict of interest for the teacher who teaches to also test the students.  A teacher who grades tests will grade easy so he can get good reviews.  It is proven the easier the grader the higher the ratings.  i did not know this.

So is the answer to have independent grading?  They talked about how hard it is to have even say one economics professor grade another's tests.    I imagine so, there are plenty of  other business teachers out there, how could any of them grade how well my students understood my material?

But the upshot would be with independent grading students would want tough teachers who got them well prepared to do well on tests.  Maybe.

I never liked giving instructor feedback in college as a student.  The rationale is by being secret the student is not subject to retaliation by the professor.   First, I don’t like the idea that professors might retaliate.  Second, it had to be secret, and that offends my sense of fairness - if I’ve got something to say I should say it to his face, the instructor should be able to face his accusers, etc.  Third, adults making secret assessments of other adults is just too much like snitching, and Soviet style reporting on people.  

But what about signed feedback? That is exactly what I do in my classes.  Especially face to face schools all have secret feedback forms, and I also offer signed feedback forms, of my own composition.  

Doesn’t this solve the problem of easy grading?  If feedback is in the open, won’t students be frank and open and thus teachers do not have to worry about poison pen feedback?  It seems to me it would defuse the problem.

There was some discussion of accreditation,  of teacher and school and student.  I think any accreditation is very bad news. the only accreditation needed is student feedback.

They were concerned about community colleges have less than 50% completion rate....Once here were Junior colleges which were mostly private, cheap and plentiful  You paid your own way to learn bookkeeping, haircutting or auto mechanics.  Now they are terribly expensive to run, taxpayer subsidized and crammed with people who don’t care to graduate.  

Partially because the students read at a 4th grade level and cannot understand the anthropology textbook.

The solution is to simply get the state out of education.  Just as there are enough restaurants without state intervention, so there would be schools.

Some talk of degrees, and what it confers.  Why not an unaccredited degree ...? but no, such a person would just be self-employed, and not a cog in the wheel.

You Cannot Make This Stuff Up

Minnesota Bans Free Online University Courses from Outside Minnesota

Gary North

Oct. 20, 2012

The state of Minnesota has discovered a fiendish plot against the residents of the state. Thirty-three major universities are offering free courses online.

The state has warned its residents not to take these courses.

Why not? Because the law says that no out-of-state university can sell education in Minnesota unless it is registered.

But the courses are free.

Yes, but they involve the use of time.

But the law -- decades old -- does not mention the spending of time. Only money.

Well, that doesn't matter. What matters is that the state of Minnesota is determined not to have its residents cheated of their valuable time by such fly-by night diploma mills as Princeton, Johns Hopkins, Cal Tech, Columbia, and Duke. No, sir. The residents of Minnesota are defenseless sitting ducks who must be protected from academic predators.

The target is Coursera, which makes these courses available online for free. No degrees are granted or promised.

Coursera has posted this warning on its site.

Coursera has been informed by the Minnesota Office of Higher Education that under Minnesota Statutes (136A.61 to 136A.71), a university cannot offer online courses to Minnesota residents unless the university has received authorization from the State of Minnesota to do so. If you are a resident of Minnesota, you agree that either (1) you will not take courses on Coursera, or (2) for each class that you take, the majority of work you do for the class will be done from outside the State of Minnesota.

The Department of Higher Education says that residents may take such courses if they are out of state at the time.

Across the Web, howls of derisive laughter have greeted the decree.

This policy by the state is an example of North's Law #1 of bureaucracy: "Some bureaucrat will eventually enforce the letter of the law to the point of absurdity."

In every bureaucracy, there will be a George Roedler. These people are determined. They say things that get normal people to start giggling uncontrollably, yet they say them with a straight face. Forbes reports:

Defending the statute, George Roedler, Manager of Institutional Registration & Licensing for the state of Minnesota says, "We regulate colleges & universities that enroll Minnesota residents. They are required to register as degree granting institutions with us." When I pointed out that students are not actually obtaining a degree upon the completion of these online courses, he argued that, "Our statute does not exempt free and non credit bearing courses."

At some point, the legislature will intervene and re-write the law. It will do this in order to get college-educated people around the world to stop giggling. It is one thing to have Garrison Keillor tease the state of Minnesota. But what if Jon Stewart does a segment on the The Daily Show?