What Digital Books Mean for Everyone in Higher Ed

As a student who dreads checking out the cost of books at the beginning of each semester New Digital Tools Let Professors Tailor Their Own Textbooks for Under $20 in the Chronicle earlier this month caught my eye. The story talks about AcademicPub, a company started in April, that customizes textbooks for professors by using book chapters, case studies and journal articles from over 75 publishers. The site tracks royalty costs and charges students for the specifically-designed textbook accordingly. One example was from a marketing professor who designed a book that students could get for $14.95 digitally, $27 in paperback or $45 in hardcover.

Of course the benefits of AcademicPub are the lower cost to students in a time of ever-growing education costs. I would also imagine that a benefit to faculty would be getting to pick and choose materials from different areas without having duplicate books. On the other hand, the article states that the “big five” publishing companies do not have agreements with AcademicPub so their materials are not available. One also has to wonder about the reading materials being considered for use if the cost becomes the number one factor.

This is a newer concept in higher education, I believe partially driven by technology and what is available in academics. The article also mentions Connexions, an online database that shares educational material for free, and Flat World which “finds scholars willing to build peer-reviewed textbooks published under a Creative Commons license, which lets others edit and customize the books and allows students free online access to them.” Furthermore, there was an article in the Chronicle just yesterday about Steve Jobs having a plan to make textbooks free on the iPad. While his concepts were supposedly geared more for K-12 education, I believe it would only be a matter of time before the notion would spread to higher ed.

I’m curious to know what other people think about all of the concepts that these articles bring up: the use of technology that replaces the need for physical books, the lower costs to students, a professor’s ability to piecemeal a book together, the repercussions of the printing and publishing companies that no longer get the business, and what it means for the authors.

Beyond the loss of money, I have no idea what this means for authors and printing/publishing companies. I see the great benefit to students because of the cost of some books these days. On the other hand, I do think the disappearance of actual books is sad. It’s just a sign of the times I suppose. If the “big five” companies aren’t involved in AcademicPub, what does that say about the materials that do get used? Are they less credible? Contain lesser information? Will faculty members feel pressure to use books and materials they don’t necessarily favor because of the cost to their students? The thought of even books in today’s world going digital is a concept that is hard for me to wrap my head around. I’d love to hear what others think about some of the questions I have!

New blogs are open

Current Issues Students:  the new blog have been created for the second half of the course. Each is based on a student recommendation.  You should receive invitations to join these 5 new blogs this afternoon.  If you do not (or if you need the invitation to go to a different email address), please let me know.  The older blogs will remain open for students who want to post in them for this week.

The new blog titles are: Higher Education in Colorado, For Profit, International, Protest and Conflict, and Graduate Education.

Technology in Elementary Classrooms

Below are the first few sentences of an article appearing in the New York Times (NYT).

LOS ALTOS, Calif. — The chief technology officer of eBay sends his children to a nine-classroom school here. So do employees of Silicon Valley giants like Google, Apple, Yahoo and Hewlett-Packard. But the school’s chief teaching tools are anything but high-tech: pens and paper, knitting needles and, occasionally, mud. Not a computer to be found. No screens at all. They are not allowed in the classroom, and the school even frowns on their use at home. Schools nationwide have rushed to supply their classrooms with computers, and many policy makers say it is foolish to do otherwise. But the contrarian point of view can be found at the epicenter of the tech economy, where some parents and educators have a message: computers and schools don’t mix.

We would certainly want some more rigorous data about the actual number of tech-rich parents who send their kids to a Waldorf school before reaching too many conclusions. However, this does raise questions about what young kids should be learning and why people who have the money to send their kids to any elementary school have them attending a place that keeps technology out of the classroom. I don’t know anything about early childhood education and technology except that I am usually troubled to see a 5 year-old with his/her own Ipad (probably because I am jealous!). Technology is sometimes problematized as a ‘haves’ and haves-not’ situation but this situation suggests a more nuanced frame is needed. Perhaps we need to first ask, ‘technology to what end’?

A commenter on the article observed that “over the history of education we have closets and storage rooms FILLED with defunct technology—some out-dated before it was ever used. In our consumer culture, the nature of technology is to perpetuate consumerism—it isn't having the new thing but the next thing. Education is and has been wasting precious resources for a century trying to stay ahead of a technology curve, instead of putting 20 or 30 books in each child's hands every single year of school: a commitment that would dwarf any technology investment in a matter of years.” I can attest to having seen warehouses filled with 2 year old technology considered out-dated and at the same time wondering why it couldn’t be instead used in school-districts that didn’t have the resources to buy the technology when it was new.

In both course sections we spent the weekends talking about the demise of a “coherent intellectual experiences” at all but a limited number of small, liberal arts colleges. Interestingly, small liberal arts colleges are also the last type of institution to embrace on-line learning and instead have stuck primarily with small classrooms taught in-the-round. Is the general use of technology in elementary schools a new assault on the coherent experience we hope our kids have in school?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/technology/at-waldorf-school-in-silicon-valley-technology-can-wait.html?pagewanted=all%3Fsrc%3Dtp&smid=fb-share

Online Education

Having recently had a conversation with a colleague on online education this article from Inside Higher Ed caught my attention. It caught my attention for two reasons...it addressed faculty burnout in relation to online education and cheating. The article points out that the idea of faculty burnout in relation to online education is more of a fear. It suggests that faculty may be confusing burnout with the amount of time it takes to learn a new application of education.

This got me thinking...how difficult is it really to teach an online class? Is it difficult simply because many faculty have never really used this medium of instruction? Does the learning of how to teach in a different medium cause the feelings of burnout? It is hard to say I think either way.

The article goes on to address cheating. It is stated by the article to be one of the areas online education is often questioned on. The article does not directly address this issue by quoting Philip D. Long in saying "many issues endanger the integrity of online learning, such as assessing individual contributions to group projects, are not unique to online education." And he has a point. Group work, something I am sure we all enjoy, is difficult to assess in the classroom as well. Each person has an their own view of how the work went and it makes it difficult to assess. However, online education is making strides in one realm, if universities can afford it and see the value in it.

It is Proctor U. An interface via webcam that a distance education student can have for proctoring work. If a professor decides they want tests proctored, Proctor U allows for students to comply with this requirement without having to come to campus. From viewing their online videos, Proctor U seems to be fairly user friendly and effective. Student sign into their account (anytime and anywhere) pick a date and time for their exam and when the exam day arrives they log on with a Proctor U representative that verifies their ID, remotely access their screen, and double checks their work space via web cam to ensure their are no other materials out. Then the students takes the test while being viewed by the proctor and is assisted by the proctor if technical issues arise.

I see Proctor U as a successful step in response to the concern of cheating when it comes to distance education. It also seems many universities and colleges do as well. Proctor U has over one hundred universities and colleges listed as partners including Colorado State University and the University of Northern Colorado.

Student ID's tied to Financial Institutions

I read most of my news online, so when I came across an article entitled, "Student banned after debit card/student ID card complaint is reinstated" I had to click.  A student at Catawba Valley Community College (Hickory, NC) was suspended after his complaint that his student ID card had to be tied to a bank.  While his complaint is unclear an the nature of how he complained is unclear, I think he has a fair point.  Why do institutions of higher education offer the "amenity" of linking student ID's to banks?  Not credit unions, banks.  Many schools do this, including Metro State (though theirs is optional, not required--you can get two types of student ID's), Texas A & M, UC Irvine, Creighton University, San Diego State University, and countless others.  These were just the top, relevant hits in my Google search of "student ID bank".  Most of their websites speak of this feature as a Bonus! or a Convenience! or a perk of some kind.

There have been numerous posts on student loan debt and what an issue it is for students to be incurring unreasonable amounts of debt to go to college and beyond.  There's even a a White House "We the People" Petition to eliminate all student loan debt in order to stimulate the U.S. economy (yeah, that is not happening, but what a great thing to wish about).  With that in mind, and with many of us rather irate at the cost of education, why are we allowing our students to incur debt AND making it incredibly easy for them to do so?  We know that banks tend to be predatory to our students, so much so that the Credit Card Act of 2009 actually began to regulate how banks and our student populations are allowed to interact.  The bill includes:

·         Credit card issuers must verify proof of income or otherwise require a co-signer before issuing a credit card to consumers under the age of 21.

·         Credit card issuers cannot send prescreened card offers to those under 21 unless they have consented to receive such offers.

·         Card issuers cannot raise a credit limit on an account for persons under 21 with a co-signer, without written permission from the co-signer.

·         Credit card issuers are prohibited from providing free items in exchange for applications when marketing to students on or near campus. The days of "credit card swag" (free t-shirts, frisbees), in exchange for credit card applications are over. Rewards programs offered with credit cards are still allowed, however.

This just makes me wonder if the Feds are so willing to regulate banking relationships with students, why the heck aren't we as institutions doing the same?  Or at least requiring some sort of financial literacy requirement prior to doing so.

Of course, in all of this there has to be some sort of benefit to the institutions, otherwise we wouldn't do it, or at least I hope not.  I would love to know what kind of money we are making off of these banks by giving them marketing right on our student ID's.  I couldn't find this information on any internet resources, but I suppose there's a good reason for keeping that information close to home.

Connecting more with students through technology – too good to be true?

Two articles this week caught my attention, both focusing on technology but from different directions: marketing and promotion vs. retention and attrition. Separately, the articles had merit enough but I believe the strong discussion is when the concepts emphasized in both are linked together.

The first article, “How colleges use, misuse social media to reach students” on CNN.com by Umika Pidaparthy, discusses an idea that is not entirely new and some people in this class have already blogged about this week: social media.


Colleges are more and more frequently using social media as a pubic relations tool to entice students to attend a particular school or to reach out to students who have already been accepted to the institution. While many schools have been incorporating Facebook and Twitter feeds into their public relations, some schools are doing a poor job of keeping their accounts up to date. The Washington Post subsidiary, StudentAdvisor.com, has been doing critiquing of how schools marketto potential students in its “Top 100 Social Media Colleges” list.

The site’s main purpose is to help students of all ages find the school that is right for them through online information provided by advisors and peers. The idea of letting potential students of any kind ask any questions in a relatively professional forum that is not managed or controlled by administrators for a particular institution is close to what youth in society today expect from the Internet.

Think of this as the Wiki of Higher Education institutions. 

Of course, it is also a not so subtle marketing tool for the Post’s special advertisement sections pertaining to being a college student. Ads and commercials from Bed, Bath and Beyond, Staples and others mix with hot tips and insights, supposedly from other student product testers. However, perhaps this is how youth of today prefer to receive their marketing. They would rather not to be advertised to unless it is catered to their desires and needs, such as with the commercials on Facebook. Needless, irrelevant print material sent by colleges and universities are tossed away without a glance. The “magazines” offered by StudentAdvisor are there for the taking but not forced into someone’s face in the manner of pop-up ads or direct mailings.

Having an alum from particular a school share the inside scoop on the best meal to get on a Tuesday in the dining hall or having a peer relate what to expect at a basketball game makes the potential college seem real and welcoming. Is it all true? Can the real answers be found by asking what seem to be random strangers? Maybe not, but that isn’t stopping potential students from trying.

The other news story from Inside Higher Ed coveredtechnology used as a personal assistant for students who need a little extra boost to their academic motivation and perseverance. 

Paul Smith’s College, akaThe College of the Adirondacks, in upstate New York is known for degrees ranging from the culinary arts to forestry. Now the school may be known for a groundbreaking method of student interventions.

When a student’s grades drop below a certain mark, or if the student has forgotten to submit a form, multiple college personnel are notified through the use of an early warning database. These instructors, advisers and administrations then contact the student and initiate the reminder or conversation about the circumstances that caused the warning. 

Proponents of the “behavioral intervention team” hope this is another way to provide student support and not allow anyone to fall through cracks in the higher educational system. They have put much thought into how much information can be shared and used, according to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). But has there been thought put into how to best help students begin to advocate for themselves? By increasing the amount of guidance provided by the school, are we then taking away from the student’s development? How can students learn responsibility if they are not allowed to fail once or twice?

Considering how popular the Siri personal assistant on the new iphone 4S has already become, I imagine the use of personalized checks and balances to ensure student retention and success will be something students appreciate, if not outright request.

Both the StudentAdvisor website and the database early warning system are new technologies being used to associate with students in a more effective manner. Even though the method of communicating online or electronically may seem less personal, the connection established is meant to be unique for each student. People in society today as a whole expect individualized attention. This attitude bleeds over into how the students of today and tomorrow expect their relationships with their institutions to begin and continue beyond graduation. As professionals in higher education, we’d better be on our toes.

Readings

If you have not received the readings for tomorrow evening please let me know immediately so I may send them to you. It is critical for tomorrow's class that all students have completed them.