"We Chose Survival"

     

    We Chose Survival, 2021, by Ruth Lindemann

    The first thing you do when you get a copy of a newly-released book written by your mother's one and only lifelong friend is to stare at the pictures on the cover. Next, you flip through and look for more pictures of your mom, who has  been gone for 10 years already She hardly ever spoke about her childhood. You flip past the first part of the book in Austria (which you discover later is filled with betrayal and fear) and with interest, you see the two of them in Longview, Washington standing in a field, wearing shorts and halter tops with saddle shoes. (It's on the bottom left on the cover.) In 1949 they have grown, and stand together again with peter pan collars and sweaters. There is also a picture of Ruth with Shirley and Ruth's boyfriend Fred (later her husband for fifty-six years)  sitting outside of a lodge at Spirit Lake,  posing like they are going to be on the cover of an album, confident and cool as only high schoolers can be. 

    Then, you start to read the words around the pictures. This is a life of ongoing upheaval and stress. Attending fourteen different grade schools, each with "vile racism and anti-semitism." This is a life that includes pain I  never thought about; her stomach being literally pinned together after surgery due to lack of proper supplies during the war; the smell of kids who can't bathe regularly, the school fights and being called a nigger, the weariness and fear during the ongoing cloud of the war. 

    I know very little about my mother's youth; much of what I know was confirmed here;  she went to Camp Fire Camp in the summer, she loved Spirit Lake, and she dated in high school.  I didn't know about her extensive list of daily chores, or how much she and her brother both played piano. Ruth was envious of her in many ways; her life had stability and white privilege,  even in their meager circumstances. How my mom once stopped talking to Ruth so that she could attend a dance with a boy who didn't want to go with someone who was friends with a Jew. Those are the kinds of things that only a very strong bond can move beyond. 

     I later heard the skinny dipping story from Ruth and my mom when I was much older and they decided to visit us in Japan, and was pleased that they had been so daring. Whenever Ruth was around, there was always a lot of laughing; they had a shared enthusiasm for adventure. Together, we watched pearl divers and they bought pearl necklaces. 

    I was glad to read the testament to the closeness and ongoing friendship with my mother, but even then, Ruth is always aware of possible danger at every turn.  "My criterion for non-Jewish friends was this: Would this person hide me from the Nazis? If the answer were no, we would not be friends. Only two or three times in my life was the answer yes, and these were friends I could trust. I most cases, the answer was maybe, and the friendship was only on the surface and would not last. Shirley was a special case. Our friendship lasted for over sixty years, but through all those years I fortunately didn't need to test it.

    The book was written to "share recollections of a Jewish child in fascist Europe." I share the preface here as a testament to the spirit of this book -the bulk of which I've ignored here in my own selfish search for memories of my mother: 

The sentences and syntax are, at times, awkward and repetitive. These flaws reflect that fact that I had to translate my memories from the thoughts of a child who had a sparse knowledge of English, and later from the disconnected diary entries of a teenager, traumatized by the dichotomy and mixed messages of her world. 

Thank you,  Ruth. 

John Henryism

 Sharing this guest post from Renton Technical College VPI Dr. Stephanie Delaney's February 12th newsletter, with her permission. You can find her at www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniedelaney 

Do you remember the legend of John Henry? He tried to out hammer a steam powered machine and he succeed! Unfortunately, he later dropped dead of exhaustion. I remember watching the Disney cartoon about John Henry when I was a kid (this isn't, of course, a link to the cartoon, but gives you the idea).

"Successful Black people tend to die much earlier than their white colleagues."

A couple of years ago I was at a conference where they talked about John Henryism, a term I had never heard of before. It referred to a situation where Black people worked incredibly hard to succeed in this white world. And they often did succeed. But at what cost? Mortality. Successful Black people tend to die much earlier than their white colleagues.

Being Black in the white workplace is really stressful and stress can be lethal. When we have conversations about white privilege and some white people say they don't have any privilege, they are not thinking about not bearing this incredible burden - the burden of simply being Black. You can think of being white as being the steam engine and Black as trying to do the same work with two hammers instead of steam power.

When we succeed, it is not accurate to say, "See, there is no racism because Black people hold positions of power or experience success." It is accurate to say that success can happen in spite of the racism in the workplace . . . or the college. And at what cost? Poor health outcomes? Early death?

We often celebrate when people succeed despite the odds against them (think every commencement ceremony you've been to). We need to change that narrative. There is no glory in suffering.

Trying to reduce and eliminate that pointless suffering is one of the key reasons our college needs to be laser focused on dismantling the systems of racism - the policies, procedures, and negotiated agreements that keep barriers in place that are designed to hold people back. Rather than celebrate when people manage, against all odds to succeed, let's get rid of the barriers and celebrate that instead.

On Un-Proctoring Exams, Unleashing Learning

In the current sudden expansion of online learning due ot COVID-19, many institutions are increasing spending on proctoring services for classes; some, for the first time.  The proctoring platforms are jumping at the chance to increase their sales, and are offering special discounts to new users.  

Proctored exams, it seems, are the ultimate way to prevent online cheating. Using a proctored exam system, students cannot navigate beyond their test to the Internet itself, and in many cases are actually watched - monitored by video feeds - to ensure that they do not look down to check notes or their phones, speak to another person, or - heaven forbid - take a bathroom break. In many cases they must pass through an airport security-like check-in; showing their ID cards, stating their name, and making sure their faces can be seen clearly.  Any student who is “flagged” is reported to the teacher, who can then - with complete and utter confidence - give the student a 0 on the exam.

Photo by Surface on Unsplash

This assumes that the students will be working on computers with built-in webcams or that one is purchased for exam use; some faculty require that students purchase a second webcam, to show their hands as well as their faces during an exam. Beyond the equipment purchases,  proctoring makes more unrealistic assumptions; it assumes that all students have a desk and chair in a quiet room where they can take the exam for 1-2 hours, uninterrupted.  No kids asking questions, no work calling to say you are needed. It assumes students are native speakers with academic backgrounds, and will never have to look up a word or phrase. And last but not least: It assumes that students are trying to cheat.  

Here's a tweet by an Instructional Designer Dale Coleman at Tacoma Community College (used with permission):

Accessibility score: Perfect Click to improve

The spy-like visuals of this experience are not only nerve-racking, but fly in the face of the culture of online learning,  where students and teachers not infrequently do their work from the comfort of their beds, back porches, or living room couches, laptops on laps or cellphones in hands. In my own experience as both an online student and teacher, working online means working in pajamas, working in the car, working while eating, and working while others are holding conversations in the same room. One of the main differences between the online experience and the face-to-face experience is the independent study opportunities they provide; we can interact on our own time, in our own way. 

Proctoring takes everyone's focus away from course content and puts it on a very big billboard-like message that says: Trust not Found here. Proceed with Caution.  It causes student discomfort even before it happens; taking a quiz is made into daunting experiences akin to airport security checks; Do I have my passport? Do I have my ticket? Where's my driver's license? Many of our students have stressful experiences in refugee camps and visa offices that still reverberate in their minds. Often this process results in - at the very least - a section in the course devoted to how to take an exam (which could have been used for actual course content); students spending time and often scant resources buying onetime use equipment and preparing to take exams (which could have been used for studying); and multiple, repeated tech issues and help desk requests that must be resolved by support offices (which have many other issues to take care of).  Proctoring - besides the actual high cost of the service - costs in many other ways as well. 

Un-proctoring exams can mean unleashing learning;  supporting lifelong learning involves skillfully utilizing our many free online tech tools, the Internet itself, and our own creativity and knowledge to enhance learning. The Learning Management systems already provide a secure login, and offer a wide array of assessment types that go beyond the proctored environment, from practice quizzes to video projects and everything in between. Combine these options with teaching strategies that chunk material and a UDL mindset that finds ways for students to show what they have learned by creating assessments that build learning, this is exactly the time that the costly add-on of proctored exams should be falling out of fashion, shifting the institutional funds instead towards better empowering faculty to teach online with the resources and professional development  they need to promote academic integrity and trust.  

Digital Literacy: The Benefits of a Being Bilingual

Recently a faculty member at my institution who is traveling to a country where folks simply can't afford Microsoft products, asked me to find out:  If a student does NOT have word on their computer would they be able to upload a Canvas assignment as a Word document? I experimented on my laptop that does not have Word installed; downloading a Google doc as a Word doc and then submitting an assignment in Canvas. The results: It works GREAT!!! I also had the option of letting Canvas go to my Google Docs file for this; if I had chosen to do so, it would have worked as well. 

     This is important in several ways for our very diverse students, because even though institutions offer Word products while they are students, they are on their own after that. Microsoft products are quite pricey....as compared to Google, which is FREE,  with access everywhere. When you don't have an internet connection, you can even work on Google docs offline: here's how. https://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-set-up-and-use-google-docs-offline/

I am beginning to see this as an equity issue. Our students are mobile users and learners. If we encourage students to make use of their Gmail accounts, it comes with the complete suite of Google Drive offerings. With Google docs, they will never, ever lose their work, or have to buy a flash drive.  They can easily collaborate together on projects, store all their photos in one place, use Google Sheets for statistics and Google slides for presentations that they will be able to access and keep even after they graduate. In the meantime, sheets would be uploaded just like Excel and slides as Powerpoints in Canvas. 

    As a teacher, you have the option of easily avoiding Word altogether and having students hand in Google docs as an assignment, where you can easily make comments on their documents, and also view their version history to see the progress of their work.  You can create collaborative assignments as well, harnessing the power of the Internet and helping create knowledge-building learning communities. 

But perhaps you are not familiar with using Google...your "go-to" place is Microsoft Word.

 Google is for the people, and my educator mind bonds with that. But perhaps you are not familiar with using Google...your "go-to" place is Microsoft Word. If you are an educator, you are probably familiar with the various articles and research relating to the benefits of the bilingual brain.  It thinks outside a bigger box: Being fluent in another language means you have broader perspectives that make your conceptual toolbox bigger, with extra sets of tools to work with.  Something that looks all the world like a scarf - a furoshiki -can be used to carry things.  A traditional kimono sleeve can be used as a pocket. Once your concepts have expanded, you transfer them in multiple ways.  This is why, for example, the New York Times Article, Why Bilinguals Are Smarter points out that bilinguals "seem to be more adept than monolinguals at solving certain kinds of mental puzzles."  Certainly, increasing one's ability to simply think about things from a different perspective is, in itself, good exercise for the brain.

Google inspires and transcends boundaries set up from a closed environment.

    Working with computers is no different.  Digitally speaking, I was raised speaking Microsoft Word - my first computer language - which is akin to being raised in a conservative, privileged family. Then, when I traveled to visit the culture of Google a few years ago, I fell in love with the openness and complete transportability of my digital life, and have now become quite fluent, a self-professed Google advocate. In my capacity as an educator, I often find myself introducing others to Google culture with much enthusiasm; "Here's our collaborative document. Add your thoughts here," I say, and share it out on Microsoft Outlook in my work email.  "But where do I save it?" comes one reply.  "Who will see this?" says another.  I happily respond with "No need to save. No one but who we want to see it will see it."  

     I use Microsoft word documents and "suite" because they are the supported and expected system to use at work.  I suppress my nearly daily annoyances for the sake of standard conformity when needed.  Microsoft is my standard work uniform.   But whenever possible I turn to Google for myriad Internet information and tools, for my reports, presentations, and collaborations with others. Google inspires and transcends boundaries set up from a closed environment. After discovering a  growing number of free applications and add-ons - that actually keep getting better - I have a growing irritation with the idea of being asked to pay for tools. 

It takes a while to learn this second language...there is always interference from your native tongue at first. When your writing life has been dominated by the word SAVE - based on numerous mistakes in the past that led to having to re-type documents - entering the culture of "It's always there, and it's yours" is hard to adjust to.  But there are muscle memory habits that need to be adjusted; the toolbars are laid out differently; there are sure to be a few keystroke errors at first.  But being digitally bilingual is empowering. The options keep changing and growing..and so should we. 

Photos by Augustine Wong on Unsplash

Affecting, not Correcting

     Last week I was talking with an English instructor, and he mentioned one of his least favorite aspects to the job, having a seemingly endless pile of  "too many papers to correct."  We talked for a bit about ideas to help reduce that load he carries, such  having students read drafts and provide feedback to each other as part of the writing process.  I also mentioned that he can encourage  and guide students to use tools such as Grammarly,  https://www.grammarly.com/, Google's Language Tool, both of which go beyond just spell checking, before they turn their papers in, to reduce the amount of correcting that needed to be done. He had done none of these things, and nodded distractedly, and afterwards I felt that my message had not been loud enough. Or perhaps he was unable to hear due to the mental din created by being completely resigned to a lifestyle of correcting papers every weekend. 

    It is no longer necessary for this type of attitude or lifestyle.  Making effective use of tools is one of the digital competencies of 21st-century learning.  These tools empower our multilingual and new-to-writing students to write research papers and post to discussions with confidence, giving them the ability to express themselves clearly.  They give all learners the ability to gain and use new knowledge with much more ease than ever before.  And they shift the teacher's job of "correcting" to something much more connected to the deeper levels of learning and richer conversations than simply putting squiggly lines under sentence fragments, circles around dangling modifiers. and question marks in the margins. 

     Language matters.  Instead of "correcting" - which implies from the outset that something is wrong - we should be thinking of ourselves as affecting.  Imagine how that concept in itself would change the way we approach looking at student writing; we are there to help them clarify with "Tell me more about this" and build on their own experience "What makes you feel this way?" leading to a more satisfying and engaging learning experience for both teacher and student. This kind of approach also allows for individuality of voice for the student, and shifts the role of teacher to facilitator; someone who moderates and encourages the learning process. 

     The bottom line of teaching is affecting student lives. In all aspects of our relationships with students, if we  shift our mental state to affecting, instead of correcting, we will enhance both the enjoyment and depth of the learning process. And who knows how much it would add to our energy and spirit  if that pile of weekend paperwork disappeared? 

Image source: http://competendo.net/en/Facilitation 

The PedaGOgy of Pokémon GO, Part Two

Part Two: Professor Willow and the Four Connections

    In 2010, Odessa College had a student retention problem.  A concerned dean, Dr. Donald Wood began to look at both data and classroom teaching, and discovered that the teachers with higher retention rates consistently did four things that stood out - things that had nothing to do with their teaching methods. He honed it down to four things. What are those four best practices?

1. Interact with students by name
2. Check in regularly
3. Schedule one-on-one meetings
4. Practice Paradox

Professor Willow could have told him that; he has been retaining students since 1996.  He always calls you by name checks in regularly and schedules one-on-one meetings for continued engagement. When you start the game, you have a one-on-one meeting with him.  When you first start to play, his greeting is:

"Hello there, ________! I am Professor Willow. Did you know that this world is inhabited by creatures known as Pokémon? Pokémon can be found in every corner of the earth. Some run across the plains, others fly through the skies, some live in the mountains, or in the forests, or near water... I have spent my whole life studying them and their regional distribution. Will you help me with my research? That's great! I was just looking for someone like you to help! You'll need to find and collect Pokémon from everywhere! Now, choose your style for your adventure."

Then when you get yourself set up, he says,

"There's a Pokémon nearby! Here are some Poké Balls. These will help you catch one!"

     From there on, he appears regularly in your Poke-life, encouraging you and giving you special research tasks to carry out. Professor Willow practices 21st-century teaching in that he is not the old-school  "sage on the stage"  but follows the current teaching practice of being a  "guide on the side," urging us to learn new skills and move forward, even when things get frustrating. 

     Professor Willow leans in to talk to you. He outlines his expectations for your research tasks and clearly explains what your rewards will be.  When you finish them, he personally congratulates you as well. Using your name, and re-iterating what you have just accomplished, and what it means in the bigger picture of Pokémon research. He is always outside, reinforcing the GO aspect of Pokémon GO. 

Practicing Paradox:  Community Events 

     Practicing Paradox in teaching refers to teachers setting up clear expectations, and then allowing for exceptions; in other words, being willing to meet students where they are in order to help them succeed. In the case of Pokémon GO,  Community Days bring double points and "extras" that you don't normally have. They are paradoxical. These are offered about once a month, and often bring with them a focus on a certain Pokémon and lots of chances to interact with other players. What a great way to build an understanding of a subject. I was cajoled into participating in my first one last spring...and now mark my calendar in advance. These "paradox" events give you a chance to get ahead with extra points and opportunities, and skillfully teach you more about the game as they do so. Extra points means extra learning. 

The Delight of Learning 

     Pokémon GO includes what I call the "delight" factor in teaching and learning; my own personal favorite "best practice" for engagement.  Building knowledge, new skills and discoveries should be - as much as possible - a fun experience. I find that the more I can delight and intrigue my students with creative assignments,  multiple ways to achieve goals, and occasional surprise extra credit opportunities as part of their learning, the more they stay engaged. (I would argue that this should be connection #5 on the list, but it can often take a lot of experience and skill to develop.)

     Pokémon GO has this down to a fine art, because at any given moment, the Pokémon you catch could be shiny!!  Or it could be a "perfect," scoring 100 on the IV scale, when most are between 50 and 80.  Shiny Pokémon are few and far between...and catching one makes one feel lucky indeed. You may catch one in a raid, or  you may  just be walking down the street in front of your own house and catch one.  Trading your Pokémon with a friend also gives you an opportunity to maybe  - just maybe  - have them become "special"  or jump in their rating.  

     Shiny Pokémon that are offered up here and there to all players is, in my mind, one of the compelling elements that keep people like me - interested not so much in the points but in the process - participating. The pokemon characters range from adorable to fierce. Who knows...maybe today you'll catch a shiny Magicarp, flopping around on your screen, that can be evolved into a red dragon? 

     

     I love finding inspiration in unexpected places. Professor Willow and Pokémon GO understand the four connections, and practice them with aplomb. My small foray into this world has helped me to better appreciate the importance of connection, celebration, and creativity in my role as an educator. 

The PedaGOgy of Pokémon GO

Part I

     I had never played an online game in my life when I opened Pokémon GO while walking with a friend who was playing.  This first experience was compelling enough for me to write a blog post, 10 Days of Pokémon GO.

My friends Stephanie, Tim and my husband John

     In the year and a half since that time, I picked it up again as a social activity and play with a small group of friends, and it has become a regular activity in my weekend life.  As an educator, with a special interest in online education, this game has reinforced my ideas about student engagement and opened my eyes in surprise and delight to some new ones.  It is an artful, amazing game that allows players to interact in their own ways, continue learning, and stay engaged long-term with constant challenges and rewards.  And yes - it makes me walk more and meet new people in the process.  Here are some of the great pedaGOgy strategies I have enjoyed: 

Personalized Learning 

     Each day, you are given the opportunity to complete research tasks that you receive by spinning stops. These are tasks you can either fulfill, or - if you don't like them - delete. There are a total of three you can work on at one time. If you delete one, you simply find another to replace it. This allows you to help to structure your own experience, and directly ties into adult learning styles, because we like to help control our learning experiences.  It also allows for different learning styles; some people love the raids, and tend to focus on research tasks that ask you to battle in a raid; others love the journey of capturing different types of Pokémon, and will work on those tasks.  Any one person will be moving forward in the game by picking and choosing their pathway. And the tasks for any given stop change daily, making each day a new adventure. 

Competency-based Learning 

     At the core, you are capturing Pokémon  of various sizes, forms, and skills with balls. You are given multiple chances to catch them; if you miss the first time, try again. You can use different berries to help entice them to hold still for you; you gather those berries by spinning stops as you move around.  If you absolutely can't get one, you can choose to escape and try another one.  There are always more Pokémon to capture, so no matter how few or many you end up catching, you can always try again. Each time you catch one, it is tallied; if you miss one, you move on. You receive metals for catching them, and you can work at your own pace. 

Scaffolded Learning Opportunities

     Pokémon GO helps you to become a better player by reinforcing information as you play with low-stakes activities such as powering up Pokémon and offering medals for capturing certain numbers and types with badge-like rewards that suddenly appear on your screen. It is like suddenly learning you got extra points on an assignment, boosting your confidence.  Pokémon reminds you of how to play the game in this way, and helps you advance in subtle ways.  With this support you can move forward gracefully. My research tasks remind me that I need to use my berries.  Slowly, by advancing from level to level, I gain an understanding of the various components of the game.  Pokémon GO starts with lower levels that are short and easy to move through, while the higher levels take much longer (ie more points) to complete. In that way, beginning players are rewarded easily as they learn the basics, while more advanced players are given bigger challenges to move forward, but no one is given something they can't handle at their level. Excellence in teaching!

Group Work and Building Community

My box becomes full and I have to decide which Pokémon to power up, send off to Professor Willow to clear space in my box, or trade with someone.  These decisions are part of the everyday tasks in the game, and there are as many approaches to them as there are players.  Learning from others on how they approach the game is part of the game itself.  And as you reach higher levels and start to raid, you naturally meet other players, as some raids take at least 10 people in order to win. Even those quieter among us share information and help each other; I have been in more than one raid where we all backed right before it started to allow someone time to reconnect their phone, or arrive late. There is as much a culture of respect as there is one of competition that is cultivated by the game. It allows for both introverts and extroverts in the learning community. 

Next: Professor Willow, Shinies, and Luck

Feedforward: Save Time, Save Students

     No matter what our subject, our level (K-12, College, Graduate) our modality (online or classroom) we are serving increasingly diverse classrooms of learners. The topic of underprepared students has come up in many places in my life recently; in departmental meetings, conversations with faculty, and on social media. "If only the students were better prepared, they would not have: flunked/dropped the course or program/stopped coming to class." You pick the ending; frustrated teachers are feeling that students aren't "ready" to succeed in their classes.  "How can we make them prepared?" they ask, heads shaking, and hoping someone will come up with a remedy for the problem. What they don't seem to ask as often is, "How can I reach these students?"  (Not because they don't care; faculty tend to be busy.)

     Remedies to this issue are now being written about from various perspectives; one excellent example is the  book, "Become a Student-ready College: A New Culture of Leadership for Student Success" which addresses various aspects of this dilemma, and the chapter "Becoming Whole-Person Educators" is especially pertinent.  But for those faculty who don't have the luxury of time or money to purchase and read largely on this topic - or any other -  are simply looking for something that will:

Stop. 

Students. 

From. 

Failing.

Now.

     Unfortunately, I fear there will not be a magical week zero course that will prepare the incredibly wide range of students walking into our real or virtual classrooms, although I am one of many who is at least half-tackling the concept. And we have learned already that admissions testing has very little to do with predicting student success, in spite of some faculty hopes that we can just admit the "ready" students. But as I explore this issue, I am stumbling upon some ways that faculty can address this issue on their own. 

     Without too much fuss. 

      One do-able step faculty can take is to utilize the concept of giving  "Feedforward" - a pathway to success for their specific subject. I recently heard this term used by  Dr. Jean Mandernach in her presentation, "10 Tips for more Efficient and Effective Online Teaching" at the fantastic virtual conference, "Transforming the Teaching and Learning Environment" offered by the University of Idaho. 

     In a nutshell, Feedforward turns Feedback on its head.  Her focus was the online environment,  but I would assert that this could be used for all modalities, with an intentional  focus on the students in your own area who are struggling. Do you find yourself sighing with despair quarter after quarter, with students making the same kinds of mistakes? Then change the way you are presenting your material by inserting a Feedforward aspect to your course.  Instead of spending so much time telling students what they did wrong afterwards, tell them how to do it right before they do an assignment. Give them tools for success before they start. (We may think we already do this. We may need to do it more.) This takes some time shifts (you have to allow some space in your course for this to happen) but the time and frustration you ultimately eliminate will be more than made up for.  

     Feedforward ideas: Show examples of what you are looking for. Walk students through rubrics, and explain what they mean.  Give them some links to online tools to help them improve their English/writing/reading skills. Offer multi-lingual vocabulary lists or important concepts, easily put together at sites such as https://quizlet.com. Start with an example of a past exemplary student work, or have past students give advice on how to succeed. Building curriculum with the Feedforward concept in mind can help catch those struggling students in myriad ways. 

What are your thoughts? How might you incorporate this concept? 

Hey Liz! Your shoe's untied!

     Sometime between June 2017 and November 2017, it became alright to address colleagues in work email with "hey."   I am not sure when who or what started this, but one day we only used it in casual, spoken interchanges and the the next day my email inbox was full of "Hey, Liz". 

     I remember when I was in elementary school and kids were using the phrase "hey!" and every time we did, whatever adult was in the room (back then, usually a parent) would invariable respond with, "Hay is for horses."  The gist being, it is not a word for people to use with each other.  In spite of  - or because of - this, the word continued to thrive in casual, spoken settings. The kind of situation where you wanted make sure you got someone's attention. As in, "Hey Liz! Your shoe's untied!" 

     Since then it started to be used as a spoken greeting; "Hey, how are you?" But I had not seen it in my academic work email until this year.  And then suddenly, they were everywhere.  And every time I see it, I have a visceral reaction: This is inappropriate, and I don't feel like you are treating me very nicely.  I consider myself open minded and inclusive of various voices and ways of expression.  But being asked to do something via email with an "Hey Liz" start does not make me feel very included. It makes me want to check to see if my shoe is untied. (Ah. So this is what it feels like to get old!)

     I write this after a lot of reflection.  After all, it does matter how we address each other in professional situations. Last year, I changed the greeting from "Dear RTC Student" to "Dear Awesome RTC Student' in my welcome student email from eLearning, and I was surprised that for the first time ever, I got several responses of "Thank you" from students.  Buoyed by that response, I have started sending emails to faculty groups with "Dear Awesome Faculty" headings as well.  It makes me feel good to write that.  It makes them feel good to see that.  Language matters, especially the language that sets a tone for a written exchange.

     I know that language changes is inevitable ("Hi Liz" seems fine to me, but at one point "hi" was not used as a written greeting in the workplace) but being aware of nuances is crucial for effective communication.  The ability to adjust language to fit with different situations seems like a skill we should be both using and teaching our students. At this point, I would model that approach.  What do you think?

x

Lurking or Learnking?

lurk

lərk/

verb

gerund or present participle: lurking

1. (of a person or animal) be or remain hidden so as to wait in ambush for someone or something.

   
   

   "a ruthless killer still lurked in the darkness"

   
   

   synonyms:

   skulk, loiter, lie in wait, lie low, hide, conceal oneself, take cover, keep out of sight "is someone lurking in the bushes?"

   • (of an unpleasant quality) be present in a latent or barely discernible state, although still presenting a threat.

     
     

     "fear lurks beneath the surface"
   • informal

     read the postings on an Internet message board or in a chat room without making any contribution oneself.

   
   

1. 
   

According to articles on the subject of lurking, there is a  1% rule of internet culture: Only 1% of the users of a website actively create new content, while the other 99% of the participants only lurk.

How is it that the creepy term of lurking - started around1990 in a chat room - continues to be used for picking up information on the internet? When you go shopping and don't buy anything, but you are interested in what's on sale or in fashion this season, you aren't "lurking" in the stores, but rather doing something fun like window shopping, browsing, or mall walking.  And if you go to a webinar or meeting and get information without asking a question, you are simply attending a webinar or meeting, not lurking. 

Using the word as a way to describe all people who are using the internet with low interactions seems unfairly negative.  There should be a difference made between people who are lurking in a creepy way (perhaps the types of chat rooms or message boards that are focused more on adult content) is different from people gathering information for educational or self-edification purposes. With the rise in the various ways we can educate ourselves and increase our everyday learning  on the internet, I propose that we use a term that differentiates this purpose: Learnking. 

Last week I dropped in to two short self-paced Canvas network MOOCs to pick up some information, completing one and not the other. I have taken several MOOCs and comleted them, but more often than not, I am dropping in with the intent of looking at the course design,  seeing how the tools are used, and in general checking out how the course is taught. As an educator with a passion for engagement, these things are first and foremost on my mind in any course I encounter. 

I  recently navigated to the Canvas Community space looking for an answer to a question I had, but - as often happens online - I ended up reading a bunch of other posts about other stuff people are asking about. And I ultimately learned even more than what I had come for. Almost every day, I spend a few minutes scrolling through my twitter feed and checking a couple of groups on Facebook for teachers. When there happens to be an alignment of time/brain/need I will actually contribute to those sites.  But  more often, I am just leaernking. Picking up information and seeing what's up in the minds of others.  (If you follow the right people, those minds can be astoundingly insightful and inspiring.) 

I think we need to add a new informal  term to the dictionary, that would look something like this 

learnk

verb

gerund or present participle: learnking

Using the internet with the main purpose of collecting of information for future use, mainly pertaining to educational purposes 

noun 

learnker 

A person who spends time learning on the internet without a focus on interacting with others 

Learnkers, Unite! It doesn't have to be creepy.  What do you think? 

An Open Letter to Faculty Who Do Not Participate in PD

     We are finishing up our carefully-crafted, collaborative, and offered-with-stipend Winter Quarter Professional Development options at my institution. Our theme for this year, "Intentional Teaching" has a focus on building a shared teaching vocabulary for faculty around Reading Apprenticeship (RA) and Universal Design for Learning (UDL), two teaching approaches that are making a difference in helping our students succeed. In response to feedback from faculty, we have organized these to best fit everyone's hopes, needs and schedule:

• They are offered online, so that both evening and daytime instructors can participate, on their own time. 
• They are for BOTH full time and adjunct instructors; no one is excluded. 
• But wait! Faculty like to see each other in person too, so a quarterly, free, "Connect with Faculty" lunch is provided, on a non-teaching day, for all participants. 
• They offer a small stipend for participation; last year with the first time this was made possible. 
• They have been planned, based on feedback, as 6-week workshops, offered mid-quarter so that faculty can concentrate on getting their classes going and wrapping up at the beginning and end of each quarter. 
• Faculty have the opportunity to both suggest topics and lead a workshop, for an extra stipend.
• They are "learn today use tomorrow" workshops that tie directly to teaching.
• They have flexible weekly deadlines for busy faculty.

     I am thrilled with our participation; we have had about 40 faculty each quarter take part in the workshops.  Each quarter, new faculty give it a try and become "hooked."  But as the coordinator, I am still distressed at the number of faculty who do not participate at all; some are newer faculty who feel overwhelmed and don't know how much these would help; some are old-timers who have a set policy among buddies to Not Let Them Make Me Do Anything Not In My Contract, and some are (surprising, in my mind) tenure-track faculty. Since they don't participate, they don't know what they are missing. The workshops offer:

• A chance to better your student engagement
• A chance to get to know faculty you don't normally see or have time to talk to
• A chance to share your own ideas and get some great ones from others
• A chance to experience our learning system as a student, so you can better understand the student experience
• A chance to get a stipend; recognition from the college for your efforts.

     According to surveys and conversations, the #1 reason non-participants cite is that they are too busy. But while they are too busy, the world of teaching and learning are changing.  While they are too busy, participants are gaining teaching expertise that they have never even heard of.  While they are too busy, participants are finding ways to better engage our students. While they are too busy, participants are discovering that this actually helps reduce the workload of their busy schedules.While they are too busy, data shows that participants are helping their students succeed at a higher rate than the non-participants. Higher. Retention. Rates. 

     Well-crafted PD - the kind I am talking about here - is meaningful, enjoyable, and fun.  If you have already decided you are too busy, you should think again. It is easy to think that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence; that other institutions offer get-rich-quick PD and you are stuck in a demanding job that just keeps demanding more from you, and you don't have the time. But the grass is watered and green right in your own backyard, if you step out and take a stroll.

The Secret to Increased Student Retention

There is a big push in our local community and technical college system to both increase retention and move more students towards degree completion.  This is an ongoing struggle, as we are working with students whose lives are split between work, family and school. Sometimes it feels like the harder we - the institutions -  try, the harder it gets. My own institution, Renton Technical College, has an open entry system that  allows for anyone in the community to register for the program of their choice with relative ease and get started on learning job skills.  The problem is keeping them until program completion.  Why would someone invest the time, money and effort  in starting a program only to leave after one or two quarters? The pat "look on the positive side" answer is usually that they found a job; the less flattering one is that their language skills or study skills weren't up to par.  But amazingly,  it is never that they weren't being taught well.

This is the elephant in the room. We need to train our teachers to reach our learners where they are at.  At community and technical colleges we have so many teachers who are subject matter experts from the field who have very little or absolutely no training in how to teach.  This is a glaring problem that we need to face.  We have older teachers who have been teaching in a "sage on the stage; read a chapter and take a test" form for years who are now seeing internet-savvy students walk away because they can get so much of what they need on their own, and who want to learn from someone who engages them on multiple levels. And immigrant students  - who used to be a classroom minority - are now the majority, and need to be recognized and have their needs identified and their abilities acknowledged.

This could all be solved with some expectations and guidelines for teachers to be updated with current teaching practices and ongoing chances to experiment, share and collaborate.  Just like students, they need a clear pathway to success, not a foggy "go and do it" approach to their jobs. Unlike K-12 educators, higher education does not require teachers to be certified in any way on teaching itself, but perhaps this is the moment where that should shift.  No amount of expertise in any given field will help you when you are working with students from all ages, backgrounds, and goals. If a system and a school want to increase retention and completion rates, they should look first and foremost at improving the very thing that education is all about: Teaching and Learning.

English 101 students at RTC