What a Tangled Web We Weave...

I am one of the millions of Facebook junkies, hopelessly addicted to reading the status updates from my friends, viewing pictures of their children and their vacations, and finding out about upcoming events. I even use Facebook to get updates on the news, with the political bent that I subscribe to. Checking Facebook, and perusing its many wondrous features, has become a comfortable routine for many of us, similar to reading the morning newspaper.

However, when Facebook recently updated the features of our home pages, many of us were outraged. How dare they change OUR Facebook! We have the right to decide how our own pages look! There have also been rumors of Facebook starting to charge for using the site.

One of the new features is that Facebook decides, based on an algorithm, which stories should be shown first on your page. What!?!? They don’t get to decide which stories I deem important! That’s an invasion of my privacy, to look into updates that I receive, and decide for me which ones I see first!

There have also been many recent stories and rumors about internet regulation, net neutrality, privacy concerns, and charging for the internet. Activists and scholars are becoming quite concerned that some of these rumors may become reality in the near future, and I don’t think that they are too far off track. I’m definitely not a conspiracy theorist, but there is mounting evidence over how much our lives, including our lives online, are monitored and regulated. Algorithms, similar to Facebook’s top stories program, are used to display advertising that is specific to your online profile. If you click the Like button on UNC’s Facebook page, advertising for other universities may pop up. I understand the need to get your message to a targeted audience, but it seems a bit Big Brother-ish to me.

There is a group of people who believe that these rumors are more than just idle. This group will be gathering at a conference in New York in October to discuss, among other topics, the creation of an alternate internet, which is being termed a “mesh network”. With the recent riots and protests in the Middle East that were fueled, in large part, by organizing on social media sites, the group is working on a mesh network that will wirelessly connect computers in close proximity, which in turn will be able to send signals to other nearby computers.

They also do not believe that “the internet has not lived up to its social potential to connect people, and instead has become overrun by marketing and promotion efforts by large corporations.” I think we all remember the time before pop-up blockers were invented. Just by visiting one page, another fifteen windows may pop up. Once systems began using blockers, advertisers found other ways to get their message out there, including ads on main pages. The authors of the article in The Chronicle also compare the internet to a bazaar, where people gathered to trade and share ideas. The internet, as it was imagined, has strayed very far from that ideal.

Perhaps we should be more concerned. Perhaps this group of scholars and activists are not that far off the mark. Perhaps we should be keeping a closer eye on things. But watch what you post online…you never know who may be watching.

Technology in the classroom: iFeel embarrassed to use iPads

Typically, if someone was offered an iPad or a new, technologically advanced piece of equipment for class or work, it is assumed they would be excited. Most would spread the word, share with coworkers or classmates to fuel a little envy, and some might feel intimidated or impartial to learning how to use yet another piece of technology; however, would you ever think that your new perk would cause you embarrassment?

One professor at the University of Kansas informed his class they would be provided iPads for their semester in a Future of Media class. The students were excited, shared the news with other classmates, and continually asked when they would be receiving them. The intent was for students to explore the use of tablets, whether they believed they would eventually replace laptops, and to look at how students, journalists, professionals, and educators could and would use them in their work.

The students, however, found it difficult to use the iPads in public settings. Having such an advanced piece of technology embarrassed them. They felt frivolous in a setting that they normally felt frugal, and saw the iPads as a representation of snobbery. 

As students and professionals in an educational environment, I think this brings up an interesting point about technology and how we use and display it in the classroom and in the workplace. I bought my Mac during the beginning of my senior year of college. Very few of my friends had Apple products aside from an iPod, and I was very conscious about how others were going to view me. I was an RA at UNC, and initially I did not want my residents to see me with my new Mac because I was worried they would think my parents bought it for me and would assume I was a rich, spoiled, white girl. Why would any of my residents come to me with problems about financial aid or when they were worrying about scholarships and how they were going to pay for school when clearly I would not understand?  I had several residents who were receiving a large amount of financial aid, were working, and constantly worried about money. I wanted to be sensitive to that, and for me, I assumed that meant to be quiet and humble about the things I could afford.

Often we do not think about the way we display the things we own in front of our coworkers or students. A former co-worker of mine always had the newest technology and was very open about sharing how great his laptop, e-reader, iPhone, and other things were that he owned. I agree that the new technology we have now can be beneficial to our learning and the way we communicate in and out of the classroom, but often I feel like we assume that everyone is capable of having the same things we have and that everyone knows how to use the same technological devices.

Has it just become an assumption that everyone knows how to use PowerPoint to its fullest extent and that Blackboard should be second nature to students?  Does our privilege blind us in our teaching and interactions with students by creating a barrier for less privileged students or non traditional students who have not grown up using technology in the classroom? (I’m using “our” and “us” in a very loose way. I understand that this may not apply to those of you reading, but I’m sure you can probably see this somewhere within your classroom or in your workplace)

Students who come from less privileged backgrounds are not exposed to the same opportunities to learn and practice with the same technology as a majority of students. As professionals, we should be aware of how we use and present our personal technology and be sensitive to the needs of those who have not had the opportunity to work with it. 

New Hope for Autistic Students

While flipping through the archives of Inside Higher Ed, I was excited to come across this article submitted by Allie Grasgreen on August 26th of this summer. Starting in January, Sage College in Albany, NY will offer an online bachelors degree program for students diagnosed with Autism. Although this program is geared towards those on the Autism Spectrum, it is open to anyone finding it difficult to succeed in a traditional classroom setting due to challenges in communicating or other barriers.

So what exactly is the degree these students will be receiving and how does the program work? The Sage Achieve degree takes place entirely online. The thought behind this is students will be able to learn in an environment that is most comfortable for them. Stress of being in a classroom setting is eliminated, and academic achievement becomes the primary focus. Once the 120 credit program is completed, the student will receive a Bachelor's of Arts in Liberal Studies with an emphasis in computer science. During this four year program, there are 12 required sources focusing on practical life skills including areas such as personal finance and career planning.

Unlike most traditional college programs, this program runs through the summer to keep everyone in an academic mindset. The program is geared to be very individualized and provides one on one mentoring for at least an hour each week. Each student is able to chose the learning style that works best for them. This includes the way they are evaluated and they way they receive course material. Despite these unique features of the program, prospective students are still required to go through the standard admissions process.

Having taken online classes in the past I can say that it is definitely beneficial for many students, however I do not believe it is for everyone. Sitting in front of the computer everyday, with little human interaction, I felt as though I was missing out on learning in a classroom setting. I did not have the opportunity to meet other colleagues and make connections on a personal level. While reading this article, I couldn't help but wonder how this would affect this autistic student population. Does an online learning format prepare autistic students for the possibility of having a job in the future and interacting on a day to day basis? While it does allow for the students to avoid the discomfort they may have in social settings while learning, in everyday life this is not possible. Don't get me wrong, I think this program is great! As with most things, there is always room for improvement.

With the increased cost in education, the Achieve degree does not come without a hefty price tag. The tuition for this program beings at 27k and increases with the course load. Is it logical to burden autistic students and their families with this type of debt? With limited programs available to autistic students, is it fair to charge this much? These questions do not come with easy answers as I realize. This ties into my previous paragraph on preparing students for the workforce. If these students are not exposed to the challenges of human interaction will they be able to hold a job and pay back the loans they may be forced to take out to get a degree? Lots to consider here! I believe this is a big step in the right direction for further helping those with disabilities.

Tomorrow's College: Online Learning

Is online learning going to take over the face to face classrooms at our University campuses? As noted in the article, "Tomorrow's College" online learning is playing a significant role in today's college learning environment. At the University of Central Florida, over half of the 56,000 students are taking either an online course or a blended course this semester of college. Meanwhile, the University System at Maryland is requiring 12 credit hours in alternative learning modes (i.e. some form of online learning).

What all does online learning encompass? There are online classes that require students to log on at certain times to interact with the professor and other classmates. There are online classes that a student signs on and completes assignments at their own pace and the only interaction with the professor is through the grading process. There are courses that meet once a week in the classroom for some face to face time with the remainder of the week's requirements handled through an online system. And there are some courses that the lecture is repeated on the web so that if you miss a class, you can listen to the professors' lecture.

The blended courses (or mixed mode) are becoming increasing popular as they allow both the convenience of an online course but some personal interaction with instructors and students.

Some of the advantages of online coursework include the decrease cost to the University to provide the classroom and the teaching time of the professor. If a University is at full enrollment, it allows for additional sections of a class to be taught that might not be available to a student. Online classes also allow for standardization of what is taught in the class that might be altered by different instructors of the same course. Potential advantages to the student are obviously convenience and lower cost of credit hours.

As far as disadvantages, one has to analyze the effect of the non personal communication and exchange between the professor and student with the use of more and more online learning. In Student Development, the focus is on developing the student as a whole not just providing them with the means of just learning the academics. The psychosocial development is such an integral part of the college learning and environment. Is the online environment only developing the student in academics and not in the other areas of development. Even when discussing the academia of online learning, the University needs to evaluate the level of difficulty of the course. I know, in my experience, that some online classes have been an "easy A" whereas others have required much more work from me than would have been required in a normal face to face course. Also, are online students actually learning and retaining the information. The article discusses one instance where a student had the online course in one window and Facebook in another window.

The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities is pushing to have 25% of credits earned online by 2015. My first response to this is that this is great for some and will not work for others. Most online courses require some self motivation and self management. So a first time freshman that has new found freedoms, many distractions, and always has something better to do is going to struggle. But a student that has many credit hours, a job, and other outside commitments might thrive with such a requirement. Maybe, the decision about the mix of online classes should be up to the individual student and not a requirement of the University.

A student that struggles with anxiety may do much better in certain courses that they can take online. A course like Spanish can be taken online with a lot of interaction with word matching, games, writing, listening and even recorded entries of their own pronunciation. And a student not wanting to participate in face to face class may do much better in an online environment with such a course like Spanish where speaking out loud is a requirement in the classroom setting. Or take an student that has children at home or a full time job, online classes may be the only way for them to further their education.

The postmodernism philosophy where learning is emphasized but relationships are not, where residential life is unimportant and technology outweighs human contact might work for a select few, I do not feel it is beneficial for most. As many brag about the advancement of technology and the number of extended programs available, I hope the benefits of student development are not lost in the process.

Integrated Learning at a Creative Institution

The University of Michigan Rochester has decided, not only to rethink higher education, but to actually change it. A recent news story explores a dynamic new campus, changing the way institutions design classrooms.

The campus is located in a shopping center in downtown Rochester

Stephen Lehmkuhle, a psychologist, spent years studying cognitive processing and how people learn. When he applied for the job of chancellor at University of Michigan Rochester he told them he wanted to create a completely different learning environment. He wanted to develop education based on research about how students actually learn. The campus is a block away from the Mayo Clinic and Lehmkuhle wanted to prepare excellent students who could find learning and employment opportunities at the well-known medical center.

The campus is in a thriving part of downtown Rochester. They are reengineering classrooms, infusing technology and putting traditional tools to new use.

There are no lecture halls. There is no "front of the class." Classes are set up so students are the focus. All the classroom furniture is mobile so students can work together in groups.

The class seating arrangement, designed so students are the focus.

Portable dry erase boards allow students to work together and then hang their work on the walls so others can see. Students can take pictures of the dry-erase boards with cameras hanging from the ceiling. They save these pictures on their laptops for future reference. Projection screens are on each wall so students can see what the instructor is talking about from any seat in the classroom.

While faculty may give a short lecture at the beginning of class, they do not believe the teacher is the only one possessing valuable knowledge. Peer instruction is an important element of this school. The university believes research has demonstrated traditional lecturing is simply not effective. With emphasis placed on peer instruction, students come to class having actually read the assigned materials.

Most of the materials assigned by instructors are delivered online. The university campus does not have a library. Books are delivered from other campuses if needed. Each student accesses almost all of their materials via their laptops.

Teachers circulate around the room answering questions and working with groups. Students come to class prepared and work together to understand the material. This approach allows students to socially construct learning in a way that is meaningful for them. More importantly, Lehmkuhle points out that this teaches students how to learn, a skill they will use throughout their life.

In addition to peer instruction, many of the classes are linked together. Students take groups of classes designed to enhance their learning. Biology students may learn about stem cells in their biology lab, question methods of genetic engineering in their ethics class, and write about their values around the evolution of genetic technology in their writing class. They also have opportunities to volunteer at the Mayo Clinic, practicing the skills learned in their classes.

There are no traditional departmental structures at the institution. Faculty all work together to create the curriculum. "Student-based" faculty are only responsible for teaching and working with students. "Learning Design" faculty, in addition to teaching, are expected to do research in their own field and in the field of education. They are researching how their students learn.

Currently, there are 100 freshman and 35 sophomores, but they expect the campus to grow. The university's goal is to build the student body to approximately 1,000 students. Though small, the campus has an impressive number of student organizations, on-campus housing, and a tutoring center.

The commons

The University of Minnesota Rochester is still a ways from declaring this model a success. However, it is refreshing to hear of an institution thinking and acting creatively!

Online and Outsourced... privatizing online public colleges?

This semester, not only am I in this Current Issues class with all of you, but I am also in the Finance class. Many of the things we are talking about in Finance feel like they relate to Current Issues because fiscal issues are always current. One way, it seems, colleges think they can find tuition revnue in students is by offering more online classes and complete degree programs. However, I am learning that it costs just about as much money to run an online class as it does in person. In addition, online learning may not be the best platform for some subjects or some student learners but colleges keep moving forward with online courses.

So in my skimming of Inside Higher Ed last week, I came across this article on the State of Nevada's attempt to create an online state college. The Nevada Virtual College would be a two year community college aimed at creating technical programs for students to prepare them for the workforce in the state. This is part of  a proposal put forth to rework the community college system in the state. For more information on other parts of the proposal read this article. (I wanted to know more about the proposal and hoped to find the document online somewhere but only news articles turned up.) I thought "no big deal, we have something like that here in Colorado" but as I read further, what makes this a different venture is the online college would be outsourced to Western Governors University.

When I looked further at Western Governors University (WGU), their mission seems to represent the same proprietary goals as other online only schools. Even the tag line for the institution, "Online. Accelerated. Affordable. Accredited." does not tell me anything more about my educational experience, other than I can do it when I want to, it will be fast, and maybe I can pay for it. As an educator, I would want to know the type of educational experience my students would be receiving through this joint venture and the website does little to explain their values towards education other than they are fast, convenient, and affordable. The article did not expand on how the Board of Regents chose WGU or if they had looked into the type of education their students would be receiving.

Online education is here and here to stay and this article just reinforces that point for me. What I am struggling with is why would a public education system want to outsource its education (and those things that come with it like reputation, quality of instruction, etc) to a for-profit institution? I can understand the feelings from faculty expressed in the article. It leaves me with the question, does the State of Nevada Board of Regents actually want to support their current community college system? Do they not believe in the quality of their educational system? Why wouldn't they want their faculty to teach these courses? And is it really cheaper to outsource?

The State of Nevada is one of the most behind states in the country when it comes to higher education. I don't know if they think this will catch them up. While there is no resolution, this will be an interesting story to watch and see if a decision is ever made. Further, if they do choose to outsource, I will be interested to see how two systems working together can create an educational experience online.

Alternate Internet

A recent article in The Chronicle, "Fear of Repression Spurs Scholars and Activists to Build Alternate Internets", describes a movement (primarily of professors and IT professionals) to build alternate internet and social networks, in the event that a repressive government elects to block access to the current internet by its citizens. As I read the article, I kept thinking...'really, do these apparently well-educated people really believe that we are at risk in the U.S. of having the government step in and shut down the internet?'

The one fairly eye-opening piece of the article was the recounting of an experience by a University of Wisconsin History professor, Mr. William Cronon. Mr. Cronon wrote a blog where he "examined the role of conservative advocacy groups have played in formulating legislation recently proposed by Gov. Scott Walker and Republican lawmakers". Following his blog post, the Republican Party of Wisconsin sent an open records request asking for emails to / from Mr. Cronon's state e-mail account related to certain key words (things like Republican, rally, union, names of certain Republican lawmakers, etc.). The professor believes that the open records request was an attempt to find evidence that he had used his state e-mail for partisan political purposes, which would be a violation of state law.

I am the student information system security officer at my institution and I have made the statement, "all of the equiment you are using is state equipment and shall be used for official state business only" to new employees more times than I can count. Not until reading this article and really seeing how someone, especially someone in higher education whose purpose (at least in part) may be to bring topical and sometimes controversial subjects up and have free discourse about them, did the gravity of who controls the exchange of information hit me.

This situation in Wisconsin has become a great marketing tool for a law professor at Columbia Law School, Mr. Eben Moglen, who has built a device called the Freedom Box that scrambles digital data. This scrambling of the data makes it much more difficulty for people to intercept.

While I don't believe that we risk having the traditional internet shut down by government, it's possible that risk is likely more real that I am really willing to believe at the moment, that there are people in the world who would like nothing better than obtain information sent between two people and use it for not-so-good purposes.

The article also describes how people in the movement are concerned because they believe that the internet has become more about marketing for large companies and less about connecting people. If you believe that the internet has indeed become a tool for commerce and not personal connection. Is that a good thing? A bad thing? Neither good nor bad...but just what is? I guess that would all depend on your belief of what the internet was designed for in the first place. Personally, I believe the activity that occurs on the internet is simply a reflection of the activitiy that occurs in the average everyday life...there are connections with other people, there is research, there is commerce, there is invention, there is religion / spirituality, there is education, there is work, and there is sport / leisure. One nice thing the internet has the regular life doesn't...is my ability to simply close a window on any one of those things when I'm done with it at that point in time. Oh...and I'll take one Freedom Box please :-).

Social Media and the Classroom

Beginning college in 2006, at the cusp of the Facebook phenomena, social media has always been a part of the college experience. Many educators today can recall a time when distractions in the classroom, consisted of passing notes, not cell phones and internet. In response to the technological boom, syllabi now explicitly state that use of such devices during class time is prohibited and carry varying consequences.
During my undergrad, I remember hearing rumors of universities that had completely blocked on campus access to social media website before finals week, in an attempt to limit distraction and promote studying. After the initial frustration at the idea of a university trying to impose its values of time management on its students, I began to dismiss these stories as nothing but rumors, and modern day urban legend.
However, it appears these stories may have been based in fact. Harrisburg University of Science and Technology has implemented a week long black of social media sites from its campus. The University is a non residential campus, so the ban only impacts students while on campus, and not at home. Administrators began the blackout with the hopes of demonstrating to students, how much social media use in the classroom can inhibit their ability to learn and be fully engaged.
However, college students are a resourceful population, and approximately eighty-five percent of them found a way around the blackout. Most resorted to using the smart phones in class to access the blocked sites. Student approval of blocking social media on campus almost doubled from the beginning of the week long blackout compared to the end of the week, and disapproval dropped by fifty percent.
Harrisburg University of Science and Technology has found that forty percent of its students spend 11 to 20 hours on social media websites a day, and it is using the blackout as an educational tool, to help students realize a possible addiction. Although students seem to approve of the action, and some have even stated that they are looking forward to the next blackout, is it the university responsibility to force decisions about time management on to the students?
If the students are receptive to the plan, and take notice of improved concentration in class, then perhaps the university is justified in the week long blackout. But if students are not learning from the blackout, or the weeklong event grows, is the university debilitating its students decision making abilities, by making the decision for them about what they are permitted to do while on campus?

Lifelong Learning-- Lifetime Storage.

As a new doctoral student, I have recently been giving some consideration to how I will store documents, articles, and other electronic information. Central to my consideration are the issues of cost and longevity, and I’m certainly looking for an option that will allow me to access my information anywhere I can connect to the internet. I am hopeful that I can find a solution that I can stick with- potentially for the remainder of my career, though if that is not feasible at least for the next decade (hopefully well beyond the completion of my degree). Naturally when considering a long-term subscription or service, cost becomes an important variable.

If I were a student at the ‘other’ UNC, at least if I were in the Library Science program, this would be a non-issue. The University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill is offering new students to the Information and Library Science program free online storage, which is said to be available to the students- at no cost- for a lifetime. Lifetime Library, which was piloted last fall and formally launched this semester, offers incoming UNC Information and Library Science students 250GB of free online “cloud” storage for the student’s lifetime.

Although free online storage options are currently available, there are typically limitations on the amount of data that can be stored at no-cost. One popular option, Dropbox, offers up to 2GB for free—but an upgrade to 50GB of storage will cost you $9.99/month and $19.99/month for 100GB of space. A PhD student, particularly in a field focused on information storage and retrieval, would likely need to purchase the paid version. Over a career, this could easily amount to close to $10,000 of data storage costs—and that assumes the cost of the service does not increase. Considering that UNC’s Lifetime Library is offering more than double the space of even the larger Dropbox option, this becomes a pretty valuable perk of studying Information and Library Science at UNC.

So what is the rationale behind UNC’s decision to offer this lifetime service to new Library Science students? What is the primary objective of offering it at no cost? The initial work on the project was funded, in part, by the National Science Foundation, and was developed by a group of researchers at UNC organized as the institution’s Data Intensive Cyber Environment group. Surely this was an exciting project for the developers (including student developers) to tackle. But now that the system is fully developed, what is the benefit to the institution providing this as a free service to students? Is it intended to be a marketing technique to attract more students to the program? This seems unlikely, given the prestige of the UNC Library/Information Science program. That said, the UNC Library/Information Science news release on the program does sound an awful lot like a marketing tactic, referring to Lifetime Library as “the gift of digital storage throughout your lifetime.” Another likely factor is the opportunity to keep the future researchers and scholars permanently connected to the institution, perhaps even with a sense of indebtedness to the institution for providing this service long after they have completed their studies at UNC. Or, might the Foundation or the Office of Development/Advancement have ideas of their own? Perhaps they will embed advertisements or pleas for financial support into the program? Or are there pedagogical elements to the lifelong connectivity and associated relationship with alumni? In addition to the user’s private space, the system will include public storage space where video streams and social media dialogue can occur. If their relationship to the University remains strong through as a result of the data storage, alumni may be apt to engage with current students through the system using video presentations and discussions or future innovations in electronic communication.

One area that was mostly absent from the institution’s communication regarding this ‘gift’ to students is an explanation of how intellectual property and privacy rights are determined within the realm of Lifetime Library. When the student is in fact a student, let us assume that the institution’s policies in these areas dictate the scope of various policies. What is less clear is how privacy and intellectual privacy policies and rights may shift once the student is no longer enrolled, but uses the Lifetime Library for their personal or professional storage. Communication from the institution vaguely references the “Terms of Service Agreement” for using university computing resources, but policies pertaining to university computing resources do not explicitly include alumni use or the other issues that Lifetime Library raises for UNC.

Despite these areas that need to be considered and communicated to users, I am impressed. Hopefully free lifetime data storage for students is indeed a current issue in higher education that will catch on across the country. In the meantime, I am off to sign up for a Dropbox account…

"Issues"-- group #7

"Issues" exist around change, the impact (sometimes unexpected) of change, and often involve an emotional impact too.
Some key issues facing higher education include:

1. Disconnect between K-12 education and post-secondary.
   
2. Faculty/Student/Institutional fit.
3. Educate the community you are in (representative enrollment and success).
4. Saturation of BA/BS degrees--- does it mean anything? Can I get a job without a graduate degree? Is it really worth it?
5. Debt.
   
6. Stagnation in job market--- new ideas are not flowing freely because people aren't moving within positions and between institutions and regions.
7. For-profit vs. non-profit/publics-- are we one community?
   

Considerations for the next 10 years...

1. Globalization of higher education in new ways.
2. Perhaps more graduate students, where do they fit? What's our responsibility to serve and support them if we have many more?
   
3. Partnerships between community colleges and 4-year institutions.
   

Group 5 Post

1. Technology - the need to keep up with technology and its many advances to engage and service the current generation. We also discussed how to leverage online education, and other non-traditional forms of delivering content, to best meet the diverse needs of the learning styles of our students. We also need to address the competitiveness of traditional institutions with the advances in foreign and for-profit universities.


2. We also discussed how connected students are today, and the need for instant gratification in their communications.



3. Accountability - in our admissions and student advising processes. How do we effectively deliver on the promises, implicit and explicit, that we make to our students?

Group 2 list of significant issues in higher ed

Issue 1: The benefit of higher education and its relation to the marketplace

Issue 2: Inequality of student services based on the grouping of students into specific identities/communities

Issue 3: Normalization of Violence

Issue 4: Access issues: focusing on recruitment and not following it up with support services

According to one of our group members it's like "Let's get 'em in the door and slap 'em in the ass."

Issue 5: covering our liability vs. actual student support

Group 6

As a group, we identified five significant issues facing Higher Education now and in the near future.

• Tuition equity for undocumented students


• Keeping up with technology, online courses/programs, etc.


• Increase in use of the GI bill, additional disability services


• Less job opportunities for individuals with Bachelor's degrees


• Declining number of males in post-secondary education

current issues Group Amazing

One of an upcoming issue that may take place are the following:
a. retention: keeping students at the same university without transferring school. What is causing students and/or parents to have students transfer.

b. Dual enrollment: are the students developmentally ready, are they mentally, physically, academically prepared for school. It is saving family's money, but costing school districts money.

c. Students with disabilities: growing number of students with disabilities, IEP's, 504 plans, how are university's coping with these increasing enrollment of students.

d. Undocumented students: Ongoing/super controversial issue with undocumented students and how they are funding their college education, will there be a positive/negative interaction among classmates and / or faculty or financial contributors.

e. Social media: pro's and cons, CONS:focusing in on hate-crimes/bullying, lack of personal interaction, communication with professors, academic integrity, lack of communication and conversing, spelling, punctuations. PRO: easier communication for students and groups, technology driven world, easier access to online information, more of a global community

f. We love Matt

Do you need a tissue for your issue?

As children, we believed the 21st century would bring flying cars and field trips to the moon. Today, there are a number of prevalent challenges facing higher education:

Success Measurements

• Graduation
• Transfer rates
• Retention rates
• Accountability

Access

• Student readiness and remedial courses
• Cost, affordability, student debt
• Technology, use of online resources
• Government funding, especially relating to diverse identities
• Retention and provision of resources for diverse students

Identifying Purpose

• Students picking an identifiable direction
• Universities identifying a direction and target

Tomorrow will bring both the expansion of current issues and give birth to new issues we haven't yet dreamed of:

Availability and Technology

• Class when you want it, where you want, and how you want it
• Virtual classrooms
• Changes in how we define community
• Virtual experiential education
• Technology changes expectations for scholarship

Access

• Prevalence of homeless and foster students
• Expectation of bi-lingual education
• Access for students on the ASD spectrum
• Genetic information and admissions/hiring practices
• Changing family dynamics and definitions of "family"

Global changes affecting education

• Car-less campuses
• Future unseen impact of possible future tragic events
• Will historic processes continue to guide higher education?
• Allocating space in a hot, flat, and crowded world (Friedman, 2009).
• Learning communities disappear

A brief unsolicited note from group 1:

The language around issues may frame changes in a negative light rather than as an opportunity for growth. We hope to embrace new challenges as catalysts for growth and development, and opportunities to advocate for new populations.

Group 1: Lori, Jenella, Lisa, Katee, Beau

5(ish) Significant Isues in Higher Education

Group 4 identified several areas/themes that we believe will be major issues facing higher education in the next ten years.

Special Populations
We identified several special populations that are currently, or are projected to experience growth in the coming years. Returning Veterans, students with disabilities and autistic spectrum disorders were among the groups identified. We believe that current systems are ill-equipped to truly serve these populations without additional cross-training for staff.

Legislation/Accountability
Gainful Employment, current Colorado legislation concerning performance funding, and increased federal audits of existing legislation and compliance (Title IX, Clery, etc.) and the unknowns about lurking accountability reform raised our blood pressure. We believe that we must become better aware of our current requirements and begin defining accountability for our own industry as opposed to having it defined for us.

Academic Preparedness
The issue of remedial education and the growing demand for community colleges to provide it lead us to believe that serious dialogue and partnership is needed with our colleagues in K-12 education to better prepare incoming college students. The high percentage of students entering the community college in need of remediation is unsustainable given resources and the current and increasing pressure for completion.

Mental Health
In many ways mental health has long been considered and approached as a special population. Increased access to higher education as a result of changes to ADA, and higher number of students graduating from high school with mental health concerns has pushed this into a more general concern. We must increase awareness, cross training and resources to better serve this growing population and avoid potentially negative outcomes in terms of persistence and/or crisis.

Pipeline/Completion/Accountability
While this issue fits within the legislative and accountability concern we also believe it worthy of its own slot in our Top Five. Higher education does a poor job of collaborating and measuring success and completion. While it may be possible to use the clearinghouse and institutional data to measure completion rates we rarely do this effectively. Increased collaboration with K-12 and within Higher Education are needed to create better ways of measuring our success. These collaborations must leverage current and create new technologies that allow us to truly measure and report graduation rates and success.

All of these crises share a certain level of uncertainty and urgency. The answers are not clear and known, nor are the true implications of not adequately finding those answers.

Group 8

These are some of the topics our group discussed:

• Access issues for undocumented students. The Dream Act is a big piece of this.
• Social Justice and balance of matriculating populations. Intersectionality
• Student Loan Default, Financial Aid scams, & regulation of online learning as abuse of the financial aid system
• For-profit institutions and technical/certification programs that practice predatory recruitment and enrollment practices.
• Retirement & Turnover, or lack thereof, in higher institution
• Tenure system (teaching vs. research) and the research base
• The burgeoning work force & whether we're adequately preparing students with the appropriate skills to enter the workforce
• Social under-development. (what our generation perceives as social under-development) & no capacity for confrontation
• Internal & External accountability and self-assessment
• Technology gap
• Different & divergent languages spoken by academic affairs, student affairs, & the business/financial side of the university is problematic.

We discussed these issues under the following definition of "issue":
An issue exists when we can identify a need that we're not meeting, but can anticipate the challenges ahead.