Moving

I've decided to move. You can find me here.

Protesting the Protesters?

A story on CNN.com today notes that "activists have a reputation for being early adopters of technology" and they use new communications methods "to disseminate information, connect with each other and gather en masse." From the article:

". . . Internet technologies -- particularly mobile technologies -- have made it dramatically easier to organize groups of people in protest -- and far harder for police to know where to target their defensive efforts.

"[Protesters] have made it impossible for the defenders to adopt a cut-off-the-head-and-the-body-will-die strategy," he told CNN. "[Technology] has made the idea of a frontline of protests almost completely amorphous."

So the police are crying because they can't figure out who is the leader or organizer of a particular protest? Don't we have the right to assemble peaceably in order to protest actions we find disagreeable? As long as the protesters don't begin to act out violently, it seems that the police don't really have any need to know who organized the protest. This complaint seems to me to be the government lamenting the fact that more and more people are dissatisfied with what our elected officials are getting away with and allowing their friends to get away with. These elected officials seem to be afraid that the people will remember that the government is supposed to be “by the people and for the people” and that when the government oversteps its bounds, “it is [the people’s] right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government.” The elected officials and police would like nothing better than to quell any opposition before it begins, and that’s why they’re lamenting technology that allows people to rapidly spread news and ideas.

The CNN article notes that the invention of the printing press “made broad dissemination of information possible” and was adopted by early civil and religious libertarians to help spread their messages. Maybe our political leaders would like to go back to the days before the printing press when the people learned the news of their government’s actions too late to do anything about it.

Nothing to see here

Just as I was getting ready to head home from work yesterday afternoon, I got the text message that advised the campus community of a gunman in one of the buildings on campus, two buildings away from where I happened to be. Because I didn't hear any sirens, I figured it was safe to go on out to my truck and leave, and it was. Outside my building, there was no evidence of any emergency except for the police officer who used his motorcycle to block the road leading to the KUC building. This officer wasn't allowing any vehicles through to that area, but pedestrians still lingered on the sidewalk past the barrier, where they stood and chatted and watched the KUC building as if they were watching the scene of a car accident. I'd be willing to bet that mothers at home who have signed up to receive the text alerts were much more alarmed by the situation than we here on campus were.

I No Longer Trust the Weatherman

This morning, based upon the weather information on the news, I cancelled my afternoon classes. According to the weather forecasters, we were to experience freezing rain and sleet which would change to snow, and this would last most of the morning, giving us about two inches of snow. Furthermore, the temperatures would fall throughout the day. One could assume, listening to this information, that we would have snow/ice on the ground, and that this snow would last at least until tomorrow, based upon the promise of low temperatures.

No more than thirty minutes after I cancelled classes, it stopped snowing, and the snow that was beginning to stick onto surfaces began to melt away. Right now, I am looking out my window and can see the shadow of my house because now the sun is starting to shine.

Today, the weather forecasters look at several computer models and pick what they think is the most likely one, but I think that the weather people did a much better job years ago before they began to rely on computers. I think that the old folklore that people used to rely on (example: number of fogs in August equals number of snows in winter) are more accurate than most of the computer models.

Next time, I won't cancel class until I can't get out the driveway.

Nothing to say except that I like dates

I haven't blogged much in a while because I just don't feel like writing about anything. I don't want to write a complaint about the government because I've already said it all before. I'm not feeling creative, so no creative writing. I'm reading things, but nothing I really want to blog about. So that doesn't leave much except for what I ate today.

Actually, that's something pretty good. Last week I ordered some fresh jumbo Medjool dates from Dateland, Arizona, and they arrived today. Take my word for it--they are delicious! If you want to stop eating processed sugary sweets, get yourself some really good dates. They'll make you forget about candy!

Christmas-time Home Improvement

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas or just a nice day if you didn't do Christmas. I've been away from the blogs because Husband and I have been doing a home improvement project. This seems to be our Christmas tradition. This year it's our living room. We took up the carpet (you wouldn't believe how much dirt was trapped under there--scary!) and are putting down porcelain tile. We also repainted the walls. We're installing the last of the tile today, and we'll probably grout it on Sunday--we have to take tomorrow off to go have Christmas with his family.

We did take some time to have fun by going to the Ryman to hear Vince Gill and Amy Grant. It was the first time we'd gone to one of their Christmas concerts, and we weren't disappointed. Great show!

Back to work.

They all know my name

Do you remember on the TV show Cheers whenever Norm would come into the bar, everyone would yell "Norm!" like they were glad to see him? I just had my last class meeting with a group of students who always yelled "Hey Mrs. G!" every time I walked in. It's been really cool. I'll miss them.

You might want to start saving up to send your kids to a private university.

In light of heavy budget cuts and an economy that continues to deteriorate, the Tennessee Board of Regents is looking for ways to save money. Specifically, the TBR wants to change its current business model so that Tennessee's universities achieve "a greater level of productivity" particularly in the way that faculty interact with students. The TBR is seeking ways to save money in the long term by reinventing the way that college instructors disseminate information to their students, and the board recently sent a memo to its university presidents seeking input from the universities on ways to accomplish this goal.

The memo briefly describes the way that the TBR sees the current educational experience and then asks if this model can be changed:

(My questions and comments will be added in bold.)

The faculty is the overseer of the educational process, and the business model for higher education recognizes the importance of the faculty's role. Our current business model (Education is simply a business whose only concern is a bottom line?) has faculty teaching courses populated by students. What are the possibilities for the role of faculty evolving more toward the orchestrators of an educational process to the point they are not directly involved in the dissemination of course material (Is that all that faculty do--simply deliver information?) in a classroom setting? Would such an evolution provide opportunity for a business model that increases efficiency while continuing to improve the quality of students' educational experience?

Within this concept there could be possibilities for productivity and quality enhancement in at least the following five areas: 1) collaboration across a large system; 2) empowering students with technology for understanding a concept and for drill and practice (How does technology replace discussion for understanding a concept?); 3) collaboration among students (Students forming study groups? What a novel concept!) and use of advanced students to assist beginning students (Tutoring sessions? Nothing new there.), along with a similar peer to peer collaboration by faculty (Do the administrators think that faculty do not already share ideas with each other?); 4) focusing by faculty on learning outcomes and using technology to deliver and monitor the learning process (Students already spend enough time focusing on the outcome--the final grade. Most of them don't really care about the "learning process." I guess faculty are supposed to shift their attention away from getting students to learn something and just "teach to the test" so to speak.); and 5) abandoning some of the ingrained structures that restrict our approach to traditional models.

How could these goals be accomplished? The memo goes on to outline possiblities, some of the more "interesting" of which are:

• Increase the number of students completing on-line courses by taking steps such as

Providing a discounted tuition to students who expect to work online with no direct support from a faculty member except oversight of testing and grading when the student is ready. (So teachers simply post assignments and grade tests. No discussion of concepts.)

Specifying in the curriculum that students must take a defined number of on-line courses in order to graduate at the baccalaureate and associate levels.

Designing master's level degrees and work to be taken exclusively on-line. (Shouldn't earning a higher degree involve intensive discussion of theories and concepts? The collaboration between students that is spoken of earlier cannot take place in an exclusively online setting.)

• Formalize a system that anticipates even greater use of adjuncts (part-time, low paid faculty--one cannot live on adjunct salary alone) to help in the delivery of education under the oversight of full-time faculty and clearly delineate and expand that relationship (Senior, PhD level faculty spending less time in the classroom where students could benefit from their knowledge and experience?).

• Build into students' curriculum and into financial aid that advanced students are expected to assist beginning students and financially support the advanced students in that effort (We already do this to an extent with the use of graduate students to teach labs and some beginning courses such as freshman writing or math).

Obviously the TBR would like to see more students enroll in more online courses which are taught by fewer full time faculty. While some courses are perfectly suited for conversion to an online format, others simply cannot make the transition without seriously affecting how much a student comprehends the material. If achieving "a greater level of productivity" means simply reducing the amount of money spent while boosting the grade point averages of its graduates, then the TBR is on the right track. However, if the TBR wants to produce graduates who are knowledgeable in their chosen fields of study, then this is the wrong way to go about it.

I would imagine that this type of discussion is taking place not only in Tennessee, but in many states in our country. I just thought that those of you who have children who may attend a state university sometime in the future may want to be aware of what the bean counters have in mind for higher education.

You can see the entire memo here.

Irony

I just read a plagiarized essay. Passages were copied directly from Wikipedia.

The ironic part? The topic of the essay is "deception."

Do they really need a handout?

According to a story in the China View news website:

The General Motors Corporation (GM) has decided to invest 1 billion U.S. dollars in Brazil to expand business there, local media reported Tuesday.

The investment was part of a U.S. bailout package and would be used to upgrade car production lines before 2012, said Djame Adila, a GM's official in charge of the markets in Brazil and other member-countries of the South American Common Market which also groups Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Although the company has laid off employees in some other countries in face of the current U.S. financial crisis, it still needs time to valuate the Brazilian market before making any decision, said Adila, adding that a recent announcement of a 3.5-billion-dollar loan plan to automakers by the Brazilian government should boost the car sales in the Brazilian market.

"To withdraw capital from an expanding market is obviously illogical. What we should do is to protect investment to the emerging markets," Adila said.

The company's car sale at the Brazilian market is expected to reach 2.9 million units in 2009, while that for this year is to reach 2.85 million, up 15 percent from last year.

Does this mean that GM is using their part of the $25 billion that Congress already granted the "Big Three" for retooling their factories to make more energy efficient autos and instead using it in their factories in other countries? If GM has a billion dollars at its disposal to invest in Brazil, why is it asking Congress for more money now?

Is there something that I don't understand, or are the American automakers being less than genuine?

Another Gem!

"Plastic is a two faced, backstabbing friend when it comes to being economically friendly."

Covering the (wrong) bases

From a second-year college student's paper:

Physical Activity is one of the most significant aspects of a child's health while their young. A child who doesn't participate in physical activities while there young has a high percentage of becoming obese.

Apparently she wasn't sure how to spell the word, so she chose to use two different spellings in order to cover her bases, but as Husband said when I showed it to him, "She covered the wrong base."

Another gem from the same essay:

A child who is social with friends is more likely to be a more content child and can even avoid a child from becoming obese.

The entire essay was poorly written, and by the time I finished reading it, I was mentally drained and had to stop grading for the night. It would not have been fair to the next student to grade his or her paper when I was in that mental state.

From another student's essay that I had read earlier that day:

" . . . less than five percent of the worlds scientist where present at the meeting."

The sad part about this is that this sentence was part of a direct quote from a source. The student had the correct sentence in front of him but still made mistakes.

Some days when I'm standing at the whiteboard trying to write something for my students, my mind draws a blank, and I can't figure out how to spell the words. And when I'm typing, I find myself spelling even simple words incorrectly. I feel that I'm becoming dumber and dumber with each poor essay that I read. I'm going to have to spend more time reading good writing, or my mind is going to deteriorate. I can see that in order to preserve my sanity, I'm going to have to spend more time on my personal reading.

Internet Soap

An article in the UK Times Online reports that:

Microsoft has just been awarded a patent for technology designed to automatically detect and remove “undesired words or phrases” from all manner of digital communications, ranging from YouTube broadcasts to internet chat and songs.

The patent describes a system that listens out for phonemes (word fragments) likely to be part of a swearword. If it thinks it hears a forbidden phrase, the software either fades out the offending syllables or simply replaces the rude word with a similar-sounding but clean alternative lifted from earlier speech without a second’s delay.

With Microsoft’s software put in place by parents, children could listen to the most explicit rap music and hear nothing stronger than “gosh darn mother flippers”. Theoretically, the software could monitor thousands of digital TV broadcasts, radio stations and web chats simultaneously.

I suppose it's all well and good if parents want to use this to clean up what their kids listen to. (However, I do wonder why parents can't just tell their kids "hell no, you're not going to listen to that garbage in my house" the way my parents did.) But what about other potential uses of the technology, such as government censoring the Internet to keep bloggers from criticizing its actions? I see a potential for violation of free speech.

This is Maddening

I thought you might find this article interesting. It is about how much money banking executives are continuing to be paid despite their banks' being recipients of bailout money. Here's an interesting nugget from the article:

At one point last week the Morgan Stanley $10.7bn [billion] pay pot for the year to date was greater than the entire stock market value of the business. In effect, staff, on receiving their remuneration, could club together and buy the bank.

Maybe I'm reading this all wrong, but it seems that we the taxpayers are being swindled, big time, worse than what we initially thought.

Campus Excitement

As I type, a campus building has been evacuated and the fire department and police and the county Decon unit are inspecting the building for a "suspicious substance."

Threats and fires last week, and now this. You'd think I work in a public school. Oh wait....

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Update: 10:54 a.m.

Just got the all clear. We can resume our daily routines now. Channel 2 is here to tell us all about it.

What are they teaching kids in school these days?

Yesterday, in a class of college sophomores, I used the word extrapolate. The word fell out of my mouth just as naturally as you please. I remember learning this word in high school science classes.

Several of my students, however, were unfamiliar with the word and asked me to define it for them. I defined it and told them that they should have learned this word already, and that they likely would encounter it in chemistry class. They assured me that they would not be taking chemistry.

I've come to believe that most university students tried very hard not to learn anything when they were in high school, and they have come to the university with the goal of learning as little as possible while still getting out with a degree. Fewer and fewer students ask substantive questions anymore. Typically their questions deal with process--how to get the assignment done and achieve the highest possible grade with the smallest amount of effort.

I love my students, but sometimes I fear for our world if they are to be our future leaders.

I'll bet you didn't see this on the news!

Lots of people showed their opposition to the bailout by protesting on Wall Street.



I wonder why Katie and Brian and Charles didn't tell us about this?

Domestic Violence?

Wednesday begins a new era in our country:

From the Army Times:

The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent 35 of the last 60 months in Iraq patrolling in full battle rattle, helping restore essential services and escorting supply convoys.

Now they’re training for the same mission — with a twist — at home.

Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the 1st BCT will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.

It is not the first time an active-duty unit has been tapped to help at home. In August 2005, for example, when Hurricane Katrina unleashed hell in Mississippi and Louisiana, several active-duty units were pulled from various posts and mobilized to those areas.

But this new mission marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to NorthCom, a joint command established in 2002 to provide command and control for federal homeland defense efforts and coordinate defense support of civil authorities.

I thought this was the National Guard's job.

I found the following statement from the Department of Homeland Security a little unnerving:

There is no credible, specific intelligence suggesting an imminent threat to the homeland at this time. Still, we are closely assessing potential threats and response planning leading into and following the electoral process in 2008 to 2009. Heightened coordination and planning among intelligence community and law enforcement partners is being undertaken solely out of an abundance of caution, and focuses on preventive and preparedness measures for the transition period between administrations.

Maybe it's just me--I haven't been around for a great many "transition periods between administrations"--but I never noticed any sort of conditions that would be considered "potential threats" during previous elections and transition periods. I've seen more people upset after their particular football team loses than what typically happens when their presidential candidate loses.

_____________________

While we were distracted by the economic bailout news over the weekend, the Senate passed and sent to the president a spending bill which includes $25 billion worth of loans to American automakers so that they can retool their factories in order to produce more energy efficient cars.

Ford is already producing energy efficient cars in South America, so why can't they do so here without the help of U.S. taxpayers?

Perhaps this kind of stuff is what the government is anticipating making us mad enough to be considered threatening.

How to Entertain Your Writing Professor

I just came from one of my small group writing workshops where I supervised my students' critiquing of each others' essays. Today's assignment was a process analysis essay, in which each writer had to describe how to accomplish a task and make that task relevant to a particular audience. There were some really good essays today, but one stood out from the rest. Its title:

Get in and Get Her Out: The Guide to Getting Laid While Still Living With the 'Rents

I have to say, it was one of the most entertaining and well written process analysis essays I've read in a while, and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Two Reasons Not to Pass the Bailout Bill in its Current Form

From the text of the bill (emphasis mine):

Sec. 2. Purchases of Mortgage-Related Assets.

(a) Authority to Purchase.--The Secretary is authorized to purchase, and to make and fund commitments to purchase, on such terms and conditions as determined by the Secretary, mortgage-related assets from any financial institution having its headquarters in the United States.

(b) Necessary Actions.--The Secretary is authorized to take such actions as the Secretary deems necessary to carry out the authorities in this Act, including, without limitation:

(1) appointing such employees as may be required to carry out the authorities in this Act and defining their duties;

(2) entering into contracts, including contracts for services authorized by section 3109 of title 5, United States Code, without regard to any other provision of law regarding public contracts;

(3) designating financial institutions as financial agents of the Government, and they shall perform all such reasonable duties related to this Act as financial agents of the Government as may be required of them;

(4) establishing vehicles that are authorized, subject to supervision by the Secretary, to purchase mortgage-related assets and issue obligations; and

(5) issuing such regulations and other guidance as may be necessary or appropriate to define terms or carry out the authorities of this Act.

In other words, the Secretary may interpret this Act as allowing him to create whatever rules he deems necessary.

Translation: This bill gives the Secretary the power to do whatever the hell he wants to do.

Sec. 8. Review.

Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

In other words, the Secretary's actions are not subject to scrutiny from anyone.

Translation: This bill makes the Secretary above the law and answerable to no one.

No one man should ever be handed this much power. Ever.