Wednesday, June 18, 2008

New New SAT -- Still Sucks

I report you decide!  OK I have said it before and I'll say it again.
A standardized test can only predict how you will do on a standardized test.

When they add a competitive "go to class or get hooched with a hottie" MMOPRG section let me know.  'cause that will be  a better predictor.  I have seen the SAT/GPA mighty fall again and again.  Year after year since I started high school.  I have seen them fall. 

I have also seen the slackers rise as the might fall.  Year after year.  Like a clockwork orange.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

A Vision of Students


------------------- Some Feedback Via MySpace ------------------

1. Wow. Can I be completely honest? Whenever I think about going back to school, the **** I have to deal with makes me feel a bit nausious. This country's view of education has nothing at all to do with true education so it becomes not a question to me as to whether or not I want to further my education, but a question of, do I want to jump through all these ******* hoops to get a piece of paper that says Im smart even though it really doesnt make me more educated in reality

2. Interesting post. I found the last three non-fiction books that I listened to in my car to be more enriching than my last three years of formal education.

3.Since I have finished school i have come to know this:
The one thing I was never taught, was how to learn. Such a powerful thing ... overlooked.

Whose Job Is It?

Inside Higher Ed offers: Community college leaders in Florida say they’re filling the need for bachelor’s degree production in the state. But why aren’t universities doing that job?  Read on McDuff!


Oh and a side note to Inside Higher Ed. Maybe the Universities haven't been doing so hot a job. Just a thought.


Friday, June 13, 2008

Plugging and Playing with Information Systems




     Picture this: You are sitting in the audience and I am lecturing. Oh, by the way, you have been having a great time and you think I am really funny. You are wondering why no one ever told you all this before and suddenly I say; “Let’s play a game. Count how many computers you have in your house.” I pause and take a few steps in your direction. “How many have one or more?” Nearly every hand in the room goes up.  You become curious how the people without computers pirate their MP3s. “Two or more?” About half the room has two or more. A beat later you find that a third has three or more. By the time I hit five this young woman is explaining how her family has a business they run out of the house so they have to have all those systems. 


I am about to make my point but you interrupt. “How do you define a computer?” I smile a smile that says—you are so smart. I wag a finger at you and go on.  “Did you count your iPod? Cellphone?  How about your clock radio, stereo, refrigerator, microwave, and dishwasher? If it’s got a chip it’s a computer, and pretty soon all these devices will start ‘talking’ with each other. ” 


The point of this game? To show how ever present computing has become. Remember the globalization trifecta is information, technology and finance. I’ve spent a large section of this book talking about finance, so this section is all about information and information technologies.  


One of the great gifts a college campus offers all its students is a plethora of information technologies. In fact you will probably be around more types of information technology during your years in college than at any point in your life. While you are on campus I strongly suggest you make learning all you can about these systems something of a hobby. Your institution will no doubt have some required course called something like Introduction to Computers, but that is not enough. How much is enough?


Let me tell you this little story, every so often a friend of mine brings in the local weather guy from one of the networks to speak in her Introduction to Mass Communications class. One of the main points he tries to make to her students is “learn to learn technology.” He says this because in the fifteen or so years he has been a news weatherman for this station they have changed computer systems five—yes five—times. I am not talking about a change from Windows XP to Windows Vista.  I mean whole new systems. If you are saying “but I am not going to be a weather forecaster” you have missed the point of my story.  


The point is no matter what your job is it’s going to involve information technologies. The more versed you are in all these systems the more opportunities you create for yourself. Perhaps that is why Indiana State University will be requiring Lenovo ThinkPads for every member of the incoming freshman class of 2007.  I think it’s great that IU wants all their students to have a laptop. I think it will be even better if IU has a commitment that every student learn that laptop’s full capabilities and not just use it as an expensive typewriter/entertainment device.

Truth be told, I am not exactly sure how to accomplish this goal, because I am not exactly sure how much knowledge each reader brings to this book. But I can tell you how I learned and continue to learn everything I know about computers. Ready? I asked someone who knew more than me and I listened. That’s it. I didn’t take classes; I didn’t read a lot of thick manuals. I just asked questions of people who knew more than I did. 


Now when you are on a college campus you are not only surrounded by what may be the greatest diversity of information systems you may ever encounter but you are also surrounded by people who know how to make this stuff work for you. So why not take advantage of this opportunity for which you or someone is paying large sums of money? Just ask and listen and try for yourself. If you do this long enough this magic moment will happen where suddenly it all makes sense. Maybe you are already there, maybe it will take until the last semester of your senior year, but the point is to spend a few minutes a day every day you are in school getting smarter about this stuff.


Did you notice how I keep calling them information systems? That’s not just me being redundant or overly clever. It’s me being descriptive. The point of learning “computers” is it improves our ability to make meaning. That’s what computers are, they are meaning making tools. Back in the day when Apple introduced the “computer for the rest of us” they meant people who were more interested in making meaning with a computer than typing in odd bits of language to make the computer compute.  So if you are thinking, “There’s no way I am going to learn how these things work.”  Remember that’s another way of saying I already know all I’ll ever need to know about making meaning. Then flip back a few pages and reread the weather forecaster story.

 

To that end I am going to give you a starter list of things to do your first semester. Whatever semester you are in you can consider this your first semester. At the end of this section is a list. It’s a list of things I think you should be able to do with a computer by the time you graduate college. Try checking off a few of these every semester.


Buying a new system for school? Get a new Mac.


Whenever I lecture about technology I am always asked by at least one person about what computer they should buy. I sigh inside because I know what’s coming. 


I am going to give them good advice that they probably won’t take. Then I tell them I’d buy a Mac. OK, first it is total disclosure time. I have multiple Macs in my house and I own stock in Apple. I also have many pieces of clothing with the Apple logo on it. None of these reasons are why I think you should buy a Mac. I think you should buy a Mac because if you do you will also be able to run Windows and Linux on it.  


Can you do that if you buy another company’s computer? Probably not reliably and, for sure, not legally. But if you did buy a Mac that means that you will be able to run any operating system and any program made for that operating system. Most incoming freshmen change their major a number of times. What if you chose a major that prefers one operating system over the other. Business programs are all about Windows, Communication programs often favor OS X, Computer Science majors are expected to know both those and Linux. 


Apparently I am not alone in this thinking, Needham and Company (they are an investment firm) surveyed college students about the ability to run Windows applications on a Mac and found the following: “Two important statistics emerged when the Mac could run Windows apps (applications). First, the mean likelihood of purchasing a Mac rose dramatically—from 24.7 per cent to 44 per cent. Second, the percentage of Windows users who would definitely buy a Mac rose from 1.8 per cent to 13.5 per cent.” Pretty impressive.


Of course there are some good reasons not to buy a Mac. Like I said a few pages ago IU wants all their students to run ThinkPads. So if you are going to IU in 2007 looks like it’s Lenovo for you. IU is not alone in pre-selecting a system for their students. So talk to your school and intended program of study and see what they say.  As much as I want you to be able to run every program you possibly can, I also want you to have a reputation as someone who plays well with others.


But if you can pick any system you want and you see the wisdom of being able to run every application, drop by and check out the new Intel based Macs.  


Things To Check Off  Your First Semester


Take the library tour. Another true story from the adventures of Dean in higher education. So it’s the second semester of my students freshman year at a private liberal arts school. I asked them if they had ever had a tour of the school’s library. I thought it was a rhetorical question, but I was wrong. I’ve taught at Community Colleges where they make a point of making sure that incoming freshman have a library tour. So I took them the next week.  


I know that the student union is a more hip place to be than the library, but the library has all the information systems. So in the first few weeks of your first or next semester ask to take the library tour. At some point on most of these tours, quite often it’s the whole tour, the librarian giving the tour will  guide you through the use of the school’s databases. When you get to this point here’s a few questions to be sure and ask:

Which databases are connectable via the internet?

How do I log onto these systems?

Are any of these systems designed to interact with any bibliographic software?


The artist Picasso once said that every act of creation was first an act of destruction. The point being that every creative act tears up stuff that has been made and makes something new out if it. That’s why we go to the library to find out what people already know and use that knowledge to help us create new things. The library in that sense is one of the oldest and most powerful information systems. Get to know your library—it’s a wise investment of your time.


Find out your school’s network policies. O.K. I know this school, I’ll just call it What Were You Thinking Community College, that spent a ton to upgrade its email system so that every student could have an account. I know from solid sources some serious change was dropped on this project. But the students aren’t using it. Someone high up decided that since it was the school’s email and the faculty’s email was already a matter of public record the same would be true for students. Well it only took one student to actually read the network policy before word got out. So now the school has this expensive new email system and it’s hardly being used.


So understand your school’s network policy. It’s that document you sign to get your email. It will probably cover things like; Computer and Acceptable Use Policies, Copyrighted media, security, what can get your computer disconnected, etc. While you are learning about this, see what other accounts you can get. Your school may give you remote access to other systems as well as web and or FTP access. All stuff that can be handy if you know how to use it.  


Do not use freakin’ Wikipedia as a source. The founder of Wikipedia is a man named Jimmy Wales. Every day he gets emails from students freaking out because they have received a bad grade—for using information from wikipedia.org. The thought he has when he receives such email is, and I quote: “For God sake, you’re in college; don’t cite the encyclopedia.” Yeah, so stop that. You’ll get a bad grade and we have warned you.


Buy one program other than Microsoft Word. Would you like an indicator of how with the times your school is? Take a look at their composition classes.  All too often Composition II, ENG 102 or something like that is wasted teaching the MLA guidelines for the citation and documentation of the literary research paper. Now keep in mind I was an English major as an undergrad. So for me it did a bit of good. But if you’re not a Literature or Humanities major it’s sort of an empty experience. Now I am not saying that the critical thinking one can gain from literary analysis is a waste. The waste is learning a bunch of MLA citation rules that, most likely, you will never use again. Every area of study uses its own citation method. Even if you do learn MLA they change it every number of years.  


So if you buy one program besides MS Word your freshman year consider Citation, Endnote or Biblioscape. These are all programs that will manage all your bibliographic information for you. They take a bit to set up and you have to learn to use them, but once you get in the habit they will flawlessly cite your sources. Want to change from one method of citation to another? Click, click. Done. Are any of these programs iPod easy.  No. But they just might be the thing for you.


Which one should you buy? I don’t know but the librarians at your school might. It’s a good thing to ask them on that tour I suggested you take. Ask them if the system the library has prefers one flavor of software over another. That would be a defining characteristic in my selecting this type of software.  


Get an adult email address. This one is easy but critical. Some of you still have email addresses from when you were ten. Consequently, I get emails from smellmyarmpit@grossout.com or jillybee15@something.com. These addresses may have been cute when you first got them, but they will not cut it for your adult professional life or your life in college. Does your professor really want to get an email from thugforlife@gangstakilla.com. No. So, go get an adult email address like dkohrs@hackingcollege.com, deankohrs@hackingcollege.com or drdeankohrs@hackingcollege.com. (None of these are real.) Go get it now.


The shorter your email address is the better. So if you have a common name try taking out letters rather than putting them in. So John Smith might try jsmth@something.com. If your name is really common, add a middle initial or two. Some people add dates, but that is so last century. I really don’t care what email host you use but I do suggest you get a Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail account. Why?  Because when you tell people your email is yournamehere@gmail.com it’s easy for people to remember and where you have web access you have access to your email.  


Oh, this goes for your cell phone message too—especially if you are giving the number out to faculty and staff at the school. You do not want these people calling you and getting a message like “What up Biatch? Leave a message.”


Someone’s watching your MySpace. It’s true. It’s not just your top eight who are interested in the look of your MySpace/Facebook account. School officials are too. How come? I quote from a USA Today piece from 3.08.06. “Students post pictures of themselves holding cans of beer and bottles of liquor—even when they’re underage. They pose suggestively wearing little—sometimes no—clothing. Some appear to be smoking marijuana in bongs or joints, even holding firearms. They openly write nasty comments about each other or their teachers and coaches online.”  

Ever hear about those kids who steal a video camera and then tape themselves committing other crimes. Eventually they get busted and the cops find the tape. That’s MySpace for some people. Oh, and it’s not just schools, I quote now from the New York Daily News 3.19.06:

Just ask 27-year-old Colleen Kluttz. Type the freelance television producer’s name into Google and the second item that comes up is her popular MySpace profile. This online social network has become an outpost for photographic and written self-expression, but it’s not always an asset in landing a job. “A friend of mine posted a picture of me on MySpace with my eyes half closed and a caption that suggests I’ve smoked something illegal,” says Kluttz. She is also pretty sure this post has cost her a few jobs.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not trashing MySpace or Facebook. In fact, I am on MySpace—myspace.com/hackingcollege. I use it to keep you—my readers—up to date on higher education trends. Go check it out. You should probably make your space look nice and safe like mine. The whole point of the web was to make that page you’re on accessible to billions of people. So don’t put anything there you don’t want recorded for all digital time.  About now some of you are wishing you’d kept your shirt on for that photo huh? Remember, you are presenting yourself to the public not just your top eight.


Start learning the language. One of the things that makes computers difficult for people is the language. You know all those tech words:  http, usb, stmp, oss, j2e, G4. A conversation is not a lot of fun when you can’t understand a third of what is being said. So learn the language. There are a couple of ways to do this. First, like I said before, start asking people who know a little more than you to explain some of these things to you. Second, start reading up on technology a little. These three sites www.wired.com, www.slashdot.org and www.digg.com all cover technology trends and will help you begin to understand the conversation.


Let me give you a little life skills tip here. This is true with every academic subject. Once you understand the language you are half way to understanding the subject. These subjects are all what some people call discourse communities. That’s any group of people who have been having a long-term discussion and use insider language. Your family is a discourse community. Once you understand the terms being used you are halfway to understanding the conversation. So the next time you are sitting in a class that has nothing to do with your major know that you are there to learn to move between discourse communities.


Be like Santa!  Make a list and check it twice. First find out how many computer labs you have access to on campus. Then, visit each one, either in person or on the web, and find out what applications are installed on the systems in each lab. Once you know what’s on every system, make a list in order from those you most want to learn to those you least need to learn. Once you have this list just go to Google and put in the applications name followed by “tutorial.” Surf the results and bookmark the ones you like best. Now you are all set up to start learning how all these things work.  You don’t have to do this all at once. Just try and spend at least an hour a week learning something. If you do this you will thank me at the end of the year.

The list at the end of the section

So here is the list of things I think you should know by the time you graduate. You should know how to do these things using either Windows Vista. OS X, or  Linux. Which means you should know the basics of each operating system.


Install and uninstall programs 

Burn a CD/DVD

Some basic Photoshop or GIMP

Make a presentation in Powerpoint/Keynote

Connect your laptop wirelessly to a network

Hook up a simple network

Hook up a printer

Connect your cell phone to your computer via Bluetooth

Make a simple webpage—your MySpace page does not count

Scan a document

Fax a document

Attach a file or files to an email

How to backup your system


Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Cultural training for nurses


I have talked for years about the need for students to become culturally aware if they wish to succeed in the global economy.  I often wonder why more people are not pointing out the pragmatics of this skill set. 

 But today I have great example for you.   I quote my peeps at MarketPlace: "7 of the 10 fastest-growing jobs are in health care, but as demographics change, doctors and nurses will need new cultural skills to go along with their medical training. Alyssa Wagner has the story."  What are you waiting for?   Go listen to the story.