#slo 3

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Guest Post: What Are We Doing? | Just Visiting

Have we lost the whole point of education?

This readable guest post by Peter Greene (on John Warner's Inside Higher Education blog Just Visiting) asks us to consider the purpose of education: "What does it mean to be an educated person, a student, a scholar? Why are we in school? What are we trying to do?" Sample: "We have shifted schools in the direction of simple, standardized answers. We are not looking for complex and complicated searches for understanding; we want students to perform the simple response that the test manufacturers have selected as the Correct one. And this approach doesn’t just affect answers. We also confine ourselves to the kinds of questions that can be answered with a short, multiple choice selection." And: "We are preparing students with multiple choice tests, but students have to enter an essay question world." Post is dated 3/18/2018

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Preparing ‘Emerging Adults’ for College and Beyond

A psychologist’s tips on developing emotional and academic readiness include “delay gratification for a less-preferred task” and “make your bed.”

The "Academic Readiness Challenges" listed in this short-short piece might be particularly apropos for U100: • Adhere to a schedule consistently. • Ask for help with or clarification on an assignment or test material. • Walk into a class that’s already begun, rather than skipping it because you were running late. • Speak to your teacher or professor after class. • Make a phone call and ask basic (including “obvious” or “awkward”) questions. • Call and make your own doctor and dentist appointments.

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A New Kind of Social Anxiety in the Classroom

Kids who constantly use phones and computers tend to be more nervous in face-to-face conversations. What can teachers do to help?

U100 faculty member Trista Payte used this piece from The Atlantic (Jan. 14, 2015) in her class. It's likely to be of interest to many of us. General claim: "some academics fear that greater access to technology could exacerbate social anxiety among teens, particularly as smartphones, tablets, and computers become omnipresent in and out of the classroom." Quote from a colleague at CSU Fresno: "If we are glued to technology 24/7, it’s going to have an effect on social skills—-it’s just natural."

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The High Cost of Low Technology Skills in the U.S.--and What We Can Do About It

U100 faculty member Matthew Clements found a highly accessible research report explaining that "6 of 10 Millennials Have 'Low' Technology Skills" (see https://thejournal.com/articles/2015/06/11/report-6-of-10-millennials-have-low-technology-skills.aspx). The report is based on an equally accessible four-page brief ("Does Not Compute" at http://changetheequation.org/does-not-compute/), which includes a tantalizing infographic. You might use either reading and/or the infographic to help students engage in some self-reflection about their use of time and technology. Excerpt from "Does Not Compute": Although American millennials are the first generation of "digital natives"--that is, people who grew up with computers and the internet--they are not very tech savvy. That fact would probably come as a shock to most Americans--especially to millennials themselves. After all, millennials are glued to their phones, tablets, and other devices. Many assume that using technology often means using it well.

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You Probably Believe Some Learning Myths: Take Our Quiz To Find Out

A new survey shows widespread misconceptions and unfounded confidence about learning.

Learning Myths Quiz Kamenetz, Anya. "You Probably Believe Some Learning Myths: Take Our Quiz To Find Out." NPR Ed: How Learning Happens. March 22, 2017. http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/03/22/520843457/you-probably-believe-some-learning-myths-take-our-quiz-to-find-out

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"An Open Letter to High School Students about Reading" by Patrick Sullivan, an English professor at Manchester Community College in Manchester, Connecticut. Reprinted by the blog Tomorrow's Professor at Stanford, from the May/June 2016, Vol. 102, Number 3 issue of Academe, the journal of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) http://www.aaup.org/academe. Excerpt: "I recommend that you start to find a way right now to enjoy reading and to make it an important part of your life. A great deal of research has been done on the importance of free choice in building engagement with reading, so choosing what you are interested in is a great way to start. You can read whatever books or articles you want. Of course, we all enjoy reading social media, but we’re not going to count that. Let’s focus, instead, on books and articles. This kind of reading requires sustained concentration that will help you develop a number of important cognitive skills, including the capacity to focus your attention for longer periods of time and the ability to monitor and direct your reading processes (metacognition). These skills will be vitally important to you in college and beyond." For U100, the theme would be: it's definitely not too late to grow your mind.

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Most colleges and universities encourage students to express their views about social and political issues, but the marketplace of ideas often ends inside the locker room. That’s what Josh Rosen, UCLA's standout quarterback, may be learning from his coach, Jim Mora.

U100 faculty member Jeff Sosner says: This piece is poignant and could be very useful. Aside from the central concern of the article--the notion that NCAA athletes' political expression, whether liberal or conservative, ought never be stifled--we could encourage conversations about whether it is ethical to deny college athletes compensation for product endorsements. Another UCLA student athlete, 1990s basketball star Ed O'Bannon, spearheaded a suit against the NCAA and EA Sports for using athletes' likenesses in video games: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/10/sports/ncaabasketball/understanding-ed-obannons-suit-against-the-ncaa.html?_r=0 Cheryl says: Here's a key pull-quote from the article: "Whether liberal or conservative, college athletes have a right to speak out. When they do, they are going to have to defend their ideas."

And Inside Higher Education has published a broader review of similar decision points and episodes that faculty might find useful as background: What Athletes Can Say by Jake New (3 Aug 2016).

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27 highly successful people share the best career advice for new grads

From "Don't work too hard" to "Relax," here's some of the best — and often unconventional — advice for you from some really successful people.

"27 highly successful people share the best career advice for new grads." Jacquelyn Smith and Rachel Gillett. Business Insider. 16 May 2016. More like a list than an article, this piece offers a snippet for each student in your class (and the mentor, too, if you have one). Nyla Dalferes (U100 faculty member and associate director of the Career Center) submitted this reading. She suggests it could be used in a discussion of goal-setting, or as a way to help students define success for themselves.