Resources

LiveScience has an interesting article called 9/11 Science: 10 Ways Terrorist Attacks Rocked America

Research that was energized or changed due to the 9/11 attacks:
Climate impact (of airplanes)
Memory
Dreaming
Impact on temperature of planes
Lowered drug and alcohol abuse
Blood pressure
Stoicism good
Closer involvement = raised alcohol abuse
Storage of memories for dementia patients
Collective trauma makes people sick

ScientificAmerican also has an article, called Science After 9/11: How Research Was Changed by the September 11 Terrorist Attacks.

research direction blossomed as a result of 9/11. Scientists and science policy experts say the federal government’s response to terrorist events in 2001, both the September attacks and the anthrax letters in October, have had a profound effect on U.S. research in areas as diverse as forensics, biodefense, infectious diseases, public health, cyber security, geology and infrastructure, energy, and nuclear weapons. Even the social sciences have been affected by the emergence of “terrorism studies” and the new emphasis on the threat in the field of risk analysis.

I don’t see how having planes out the sky for a few days can tell us the impact of planes. The temperatures in Texas have been the highest ever in the history of the state. Does that mean that ten years after 9/11 we are seeing the results of more flights? If so, then the average temperatures will continue to go up for the rest of time until flights drop down. It won’t though.

Others of the scientific breakthroughs or foci are interesting though.

This element of the conceptual age, according to Daniel Pink, is incredibly important. I agree. My experience has shown that what we do and HOW we do it makes a difference.

If you don’t think so, remember this. Long ago researchers found that typed papers did better than handwritten papers. The design was more uniform and, therefore, seen as better.

Here is an article on how design, and digital visualization, can impact résumés.

This is what such a résumé might look like:

A link to sign up for Vizualize.me.

LiveScience has an article about how the names were configured for the September 11 memorial. Math Keeps Friends and Colleagues Together narrates the search for a way to connect those on the memorial who were connected with each other in life.

There is special meaning for the North and South Memorial as well.

This is an excellent example of conceptual elements which are part of the Conceptual Age and, the more I read and think on this topic, the more I am sure that we are already IN the Conceptual Age.

I have been listening to A Whole New Mind. While I have only heard the theoretical chapters, for some reason, those have expanded in my head and I see all kinds of relevance and practical applications in my teaching and my own work.

One of the elements of the conceptual age is play.

I think that The Tempered Radical has a great idea for encouraging innovation and, in part, it involves play.

Christensen and company argue that the most innovative thinkers often force themselves to find metaphorical connections between their fields and seemingly unrelated objects.

We used to do this with our family while driving in the car. Fun times!

The authors of the book write:

“Start a collection of odd, interesting things (e.g., a slinky, model airplane, robot and so on) and put them in a curiosity box or bag…Then, you can pull out unique items randomly when confronted with a problem or opportunity…

When brainstorming for new ideas, odd, unusual things often trigger new associations. It may sound silly, but seemingly silly things can provoke the most random associations, literally forcing us out of our habitual thinking patterns.”

One of the teachers at my old college does this. She even gave me one of her curiousity box tokens. I don’t know if she used it quite like they suggest, but she would pull them out when she needed help thinking.

I think that this could be an interesting and engaging process. What if, for example, everyone had to pull three things out of their car or dorm room that were unique or odd? What would they bring? How would that relate to their writing assignments?

I am seriously considering engaging this aspect of the conceptual age in class. I think it might be a great way to jumpstart their thinking.

Tempered Radical also provides handouts! (Yay! I don’t have to make them up.)

Update: Tempered Radical wrote more on the topic.

A twenty-second exercise: How does a gryphon relate to teaching college English?
A mix of various parts. Often dismissed. Folkloric. Unsure of how to grow or feed it. Interesting mix makes for long-term captivation of thoughts and ideas. Design matters. All the disparate parts have to work together.

Update:
First, I explained the Conceptual Age idea, including a brief history of the Industrial Revolution and the Information Age. They were able to explain why we are seen as being in the information age.

Then we talked about what kind of jobs are being outsourced.

Then I presented the Conceptual Age elements of Daniel Pink (and Innovation, which I added because of Tempered Radical).

Finally, I took a box of clever toys (and not so clever ones) as well as a few simple things (pinecone, lock, empty glass Coke bottle, and a spatula) and passed one out to every student.

I did this twice. The first time, the students had three minutes to come up with some way in which their item was like a class they were in.

The second time they had to either say how the second item was like their major or their experience (in the last 2.5 weeks) of college life.

Got a great response on many things. The ones I remember:
pinwheel = exercise science, Need to keep moving. Need to work together.
ViewMaster = psychology, So many thoughts that I have to figure out how to see.
slappy hand = required intro to college class, which is not as the student expected
Silly String = scary but no reason, fun afterwards– about college experience

SEO Course for Writers.

I saw this listed somewhere as being for sale. I know my husband can help me with all of that information, but perhaps he doesn’t have time. I should talk to him about whether or not it would be better to do it by purchasing that or if what I need to know can be explained quickly.

What’s Wrong with Research Communication is an interesting article. It talks about the increase/proliferation of journals, to the negative results for libraries and end users. It also talks about the fact that impact factors are messed up.

Although impact factors are based on citation counts for their articles, journal impact factors do not predict article citation counts, which are in any case easily manipulated. For example, a citation pointing out that an article had been retracted acts to improve the impact factor of the journal that retracted it.

There are also interesting ideas on other things. For instance, peer review and both the time it takes and the problems that reviewing incurs:

Peer review depends on reviewers, who are only very indirectly rewarded for their essential efforts. The anonymity of reviews makes it impossible to build a public reputation as a high-quality reviewer. If articles had single authors and averaged three reviewers, authors would need to do an average of three reviews per submission.
…
Peer review is often said to be the gold standard of science, but this is not the case. The gold standard in experimental science is reproducibility, ensuring that anyone repeating the experiment gets the same result. When even a New York Times op-ed points out that, in practice, scientists almost never reproduce published experiments it is clear that there is a serious problem.

So, we have research that is proliferating, costs to “lease” the publisher’s copy, reviewing which does nothing for the careful reviewer, and accessibility issues. Within the article, the library’s experience with this is detailed.

One answer to sustainability in access for libraries is not only presently available but actually economically successful.

A distributed network of local library collections called LOCKSS (Lots Of Copies Keep Stuff Safe), modeled on the way libraries work in the paper world. Publishers grant permission for LOCKSS boxes at subscribing libraries to collect and preserve a copy of the content to which they subscribe. Fewer libraries are using the LOCKSS system to build collections than subscribe to Portico for post-cancellation access. Despite this the LOCKSS program has been financially sustainable since 2007.

I am going to check with how my library and see if we are doing this…

Have we left the Industrial Age and the Information Age and moved into a new era, the Conceptual Age?

Think about it. Other than our classrooms, what else is all about cogs in a row now? Are those jobs still in the US? Nope. They have been outsourced. We are past that age. What about information? Isn’t that a rare and valuable commodity? Nope. It’s all on the internet and anyone can have access to an “expert” quickly. So what age are we in?

I have been listening to A Whole New Mind. While I have only heard the theoretical chapters, for some reason, those have expanded in my head and I see all kinds of relevance and practical applications in my teaching and my own work.

In the book, Daniel Pink says that we are in a new age: the Conceptual Age. And the elements that are not going to be able to be outsourced in this age are:
design
play
empathy
meaning
narrative
symphony (This means the big picture. Not just the second violinist, but all the violinists and how they work with the cello and the viola and the drummer and the percussionist and where do those bells fit, anyway?)

Having been reading The Innovator’s DNA, I would add:
innovation

These are the elements that I am going to be focusing on in my teaching because I am convinced that most of my students are going to be out reconfiguring work so they can stay employed. Having some notion of which direction to reconfigure it in will be helpful, I believe.

Tschannen-Moran describes five components called the “Facets of Trust”: benevolence, honesty, openness, reliability, and competence. I agree with these components, and they hit home with me regarding how I want to earn or continue to earn trust in my classroom. Benevolence comes from genuinely caring about our students. This is something that is vital to not lose sight of. Remember why you beame a teacher; think about your professors who mentored and inspired you. Honesty is a component of a healthy relationship; this is something I struggle with. I don’t lie to my students, but is is often difficult for me to be brutally honst – sometimes I want to be too nice and couch honesty only in constructive criticism. This is something I am working on! Openness is another facet that does not come easily to me – I am, by nature, a very private person. I make it clear that my students can come to me with their issues, however, but I am guarded about sharing too many personal details of my life. Reliability and compentence are two areas I would rate myself with high marks on a self-evaluation. I am punctual, organized, and studious in my classroom; I work hard to remain educated and aware of current research and content knowledge. These qualities are often noted on my student evaluations, which is rewarding.

from AdjunctNation

This must be the topic of the day, since I have notes all over my paper and my iPad on this topic from orientation.

Questions:
Why were you attracted to the field you are in?
What did I love about the teachers and classes I enjoyed the most (remember the best)?
What did I pay attention to?
Who am I as a teacher?
Who do I want to be?
What I wish I had known as a freshman…

Answers:
I picked English because
1. I love to read
2. I love to write
3. Every educated person needs to know how to write well.

I picked English because
I did English well and my teachers encouraged me in English.
Not math. I did poorly, even when my teachers encouraged me.
Not science. I did well, but was discouraged. My high school teachers picked on me for the way I studied for their classes. (I made As, but the classes were too easy, so I didn’t study a lot.) My college teachers neither encouraged nor discouraged me. They just basically ignored me.
Not PE. I did poorly and my teachers did not spend time with me.
Not foreign languages. I did well, but I was not encouraged.
Not history. I did well. Some of my teachers encouraged me. BUT I did not think that I could encourage my students to love history nor did I think I could explain to them why they should.

What did I love?
personal stories from the teachers
praise from the teachers
challenging coursework that I could accomplish (not something I could not)
This is a problem for me. I am great with personal stories. I think that I do well with the appropriate level of challenge on coursework. However, I have not previously been very good about praising. I am working on this.

I also think this relates to the “explain your credentials” post.

Today I was listening to the audio book of Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind.

Left-brain Outsourced:
The premise of the book is that left-brain thinking, predominate in Western history (as is evident in our left to right reading), is on its way to being outsourced permanently in developed countries. Logical, sequential, knowledge that is emphasized in schools is left brain. Folks who are left-brain dominant are what Peter Drucker called “knowledge workers.” They have the ability to acquire and apply information.

Right-brain, the Brain of Tomorrow:
The right-brain thinking, which includes taking the long view, is more intuitive and non-linear, looks at things simultaneously, and concentrates on context, is going to be, according to Pink, the thinking which is successful in developed countries.

Right-brain thinking is all about:
forging relationships
synthesizing the big picture
invention

Despite the idea that work will be outsourced at an increasing level, and my disagreement with his understanding of the computer science field (My husband is a programmer.), Pink’s ideas about right-brain thinking are actually encouraging to me.

Why?

If Pink is right, then my teaching freshman composition is actually MORE important now than it was in the “information age.” And the graduate students in our English program, despite the lack of tenure-track positions for MAs, is actually preparing our graduates for the workplace of the future.

Pink declares that we are in or going into the Conceptual Age. He argues that there are six elements needed for this new time in history.

The six elements of the Conceptual Age:
design (and the engagement of the senses)
symphony (the big picture, not just a focus on the details)
empathy (the engagement of emotions)
narrative/story (not just argument)
play (humor and light-heartedness)
meaning (purpose and meaning, transcendence, spirituality)

These are things I can teach my students. These are things that they can learn, integrate, and use in their college careers and afterwards. These are things which will make them better people and more enjoyable friends.

What does this mean for my classroom?
For one thing, I am going to reframe the essay as “communicative works of art.” If the students think of what they are doing as art, hopefully the design elements will more readily be integrated. Also, if they think of them as communicative, that foregrounds the purpose. And, hopefully, describing them as works will indicate that effort is required to produce them.

Many of our students have been stifled in creativity through the rote memorization, excessive regurgitation, and emphasis on objective multiple-choice exams. That doesn’t even include the students whose creativity has been squashed by teacher attitudes, the need for practice, or because of comparison with some (known or unknown) “better” artist.

Sir Ken Robinson speaks at TED. “Schools kill creativity.

For another, it means I am going to concentrate on document design in my freshman composition classes in focused ways that I have not previously used outside of my own scholarship and my business and professional writing courses.

I have already begun to focus on document design in my own work. When I presented at a writer’s conference this summer, I worked very hard on the design aspects of my PowerPoint. Colors, images, and words were all carefully balanced.

I also focused on design in the QEP I handed in to my CC this spring. I knew that the dean was not interested in my topic, despite faculty support. So I decided that I would do something with my QEP that could be used even if my topic were not. The first thing I did was make my QEP beautiful. I chose colors, images, and graphics that spoke for what I was trying to say, representing and presenting it in an artistic way. Thus, my QEP, though originally about critical thinking, was really about design.

A third thing, I believe, is the focus on invention–a focus which was indicated to me as a higher priority eighteen months ago when Parlor Press’ call for papers brought out so many invention papers that the second CFP specifically delimited invention. I need to help my students begin to think of themselves as not just repositories or receptors of knowledge, but as folks involved in the creation of knowledge. That may be a bit harder than I envision.