Obvious Truth

As a result of all the Skype connections on national TV, most personal computers need much better microphones and higher-resolution cameras if we are going to do more of these social-distancing discussions.

Blinders

I was on a Skype call yesterday with some college classmates and I was put in the uncomfortable position of having to explain why I am going to vote for Trump. To a man, my classmates, many of whom profess to be Republicans, were down on The Donald ... and I do understand their aversion ... because Trump has an uncanny way of sticking his finger in the eyes of the establishment. I won't say that they were looking down their noses at him, but they clearly weren't in awe. Nor am I ... but I still think I would prefer having a finger in my eye than a suicide vest going off next to me.

Maybe it is my humble background ... but I have never considered myself as refined. For instance, I still like Dick Cheney when most liberals ... and many conservatives ... hate him with a passion. For what? Because he showed a determination and uncanny competence in protecting us after 9/11. Our current president, Obummer and his presumptive successor, Hellery, refuse to show half the competence to protect us as both Cheney and Trump obviously engender. Those two elite Democrats, Hellery and Obummer, are wearing blinders to our grave dangers for reasons that confound me. Perhaps it is their predilection for globalism? Maybe it is their desire to hold on to power by not admitting incompetence? Maybe it is inherent anti-Semitism that has caused them both to be so pro-Muslim? Perhaps, it is just a Saul Alinsky style revolutionary fervor? Maybe it is all those things and more?

But whatever it is, they both are wearing blinders and Donald Trump, as crude as he comes across, isn't. He is a realist of the first order ... perhaps the reason why he has been so successful in business. That is why I will vote for him whatever are the ancillary risks. I do know that, if Trump is elected, he will do some un-conservative things that I won't like ... and he will blurt out some unpresidential zingers. (So I guess I can also be accused of wearing blinders.) But I am convince that he will do enough good things to help put our country back on a path toward renewed greatness.

Strange

What a cool and strangely impersonal way to tell the American people that you are running for president ... with an adviser's e-mail and a 2-minute video released on social media ... see: New York Times Story. Perhaps Hillary Clinton is trying to tell the younger voters that she is still hip ... but, at the same time, using electronics to keep her distance from any embarrassing questions ... even from her adoring media.

The only analogy that I can come up with is to compare this Clinton announcement with a couple exchanging their wedding vows using Skype. Am I the only one finding this venue strangely detached and hinting of hubris?

On-Line Education

Dartblog author Joseph Asch is a tiny bit of a Luddite in his comments about on-line education at Dartmouth. In referencing a New York Times article in his recent blog, he points out, as does the Times, the repeated current failings of this new approach to education … see: Dartblog Opinion.  I, myself, have often seen shortfalls in the massive open on-line course's (MOOC's) approach whilst tutoring at a high school west of Boston.  However, I believe that MOOC is an economic necessity and must eventually win out as the preferred mode of pedagogy.

For this to occur, I believe that the following wrinkles need to be ironed out:

-        The courses need to be better attuned to the potential of the on-line environment.  This includes instructive animations/videos, hyperlinks to vetted sources, and oral questions and feedback responses.

-        There also needs to be better paced instruction, peer-reviewed content, and testing that stays within the boundaries of the course material.

-        I also believe that Skype-like and even social-network-like interactions with the instructors and other students will greatly increase the learning potential.  These interactions can be in real-time or even on a scheduled-delay basis.

-        The use of celebrities and well-known-experts (ala Sesame Street and Jeopardy) to capture the imagination of the on-line student might bring greater focus to the subject at hand.

-        A feedback mechanism for MOOC students need to be more obvious.  Perhaps a running ranking of a given student versus his/her peers?  Or a monetary reward in the form of a scholarship for outstanding achievement?

-        MOOC courses also should be constructed with the intent to encourage students to strike out on their own to do independent research or make real-life connections with a view toward a career (even in such things as the traditional manual trades).

-        And lastly, there also needs to be a face or fingerprint type recognition system to verify exactly who is on the receiving end of this on-line instruction.  Otherwise there is too much opportunity for fraud

And there will be other improvements that evolve here.  Much of on-line instruction that I have experienced has been class-room instruction shoe-horned into a MOOC environment … and this has often been very frustrating … to both the tutor and the student.  Too much of MOOC today is just going through the motions by those after a fast buck.  But, Joe, don’t give up on the potential of this on-line educational environment.  This does seem to be clinging to the past … in my opinion.

A Pedagogical Prediction

Every so often imbalances occur in a society that get so far out of whack that a simple idea can cause a dramatic snap-back ... that usually takes most inside-the-box thinkers by surprise.  I think we are coming up on such a boomerang in our educational system ... much like what we recently had in our housing market.  Current tuitions at higher-educational institutions are unsustainable ... as are the levels of student-loan debt that our younger generation is burdened with ... about one trillion dollars ... more than the nation's total of credit-card debt.  (I think that the Occupy Wall Street movement has had this spectre as one of the only visible pillars of protests.)

The educational process in our country (and around the world) is shockingly unproductive.  One professor ... or assistant professor ... or teaching assistant teaches a class of 10 to 100 students the fundamentals of a science ... or a language ... or a humanity ... or finance ... or a hyphenated feel-good course for an outlandish fee.  This atmospheric price is mandated by a bloated administration and the heavy hand of government  which pours money at this process with few performance or productivity requirements.  The rationale for this horse-and-buggy approach is that the interchange of ideas requires such intimacy.  The problem with this is that  higher-educational pedagogy is less and less a give-and-take and now much more a "give" only.

A few generations ago the entertainment industry went through such a cataclysmic transformation.  One did not need to attend a Frank Sinatra concert to hear him sing or attend a play to appreciate actors emoting ... records and movies created an enormous transference of services into products ... i.e., "productivity." So far the educational process has resisted such a revolution ... possibly because it sees the dire implications ... loss of sinecures and ivy covered walls. 

But enabling technologies are continuing apace and communications advances such as Skype that allow the two-way networking among many participants ... and software/hardware advances such as Google that permit a world of knowledge at one's fingertips ... will eventually allow universities to take two or three of their best professors from each discipline and offer them to their multitudes with little or no loss of the educational experience.  (I still recall, years ago, a physics professor from Cal Tech who did a bang-up job along these same lines on Public Television.) This would also open up opportunities for decentralized learning and dramatic tuition cost reductions.  Won't that be a kick?

In my current tutoring gig, I have had some dealings with "teaching" programs.  And, unfortunately they are generally of quite poor quality ... taking little advantage of the technological opportunities.  This may be because few administrators have a computer background to understand how good things could be ... and techies know little about teaching.  (Many years ago, I also saw a physics-teaching program on a Macintosh computer that is my idea of how real progress along these lines could be made.)  Anyhow, the confluence of broad-band communications improvements, computer hardware advances, and truly-innovative software will most certainly unlock educational innovation to the point where productivity gains of gigantic proportions will transform this archaic industry.

Any educational institute (or K-12 school) that doesn't see this coming train wreck  in the not-too-distant future ... and factor it into its planning will likely be rudely surprised ... and pity our poor younger generation who must still pay off the loans on their horse-and -buggy educations.

Addendum:  My more-learned wife pointed me this morning to a David Brooks' op-ed in last week NY Times on this same subject, The Campus Tsunami, and a series of related letters to the editor in this morning's newspaper.  The only thing that Mr. Brooks does not focus on is the potential for a Skype-like back and forth during this on-line educational experience.