105 Matching Annotations
  1. Jun 2021
    1. there is really no way to know whether those learners will experience what we want them to (that is, learning)

      And/or learning by means other than we have designed/planned/expected happens?

    2. We get the dynamics of a class when students put the mechanics into action.

      and so "design" is never finished, or it is not "complete" until students participate in creating dynamics/experience aesthetics....

    3. In a play-testing session, the game designer might then explictily ask the player questions about their experience but they might also observe instances of enjoyment or frustration or boredom. Observing such aesthetics or reactions to the game, the game designer might rethink the mechanics of the game, making changes to improve the aesthetic exprience of the player. The figure below showst hese lenses and how they interact.

      I am interested in how, to some degree, every semester of course I teach regularly is an ongoing play-test. (And how, in Creative Writing, the work we do with writing exercises might also be considered a kind of play-testing......of genre, technique, etc.?)

  2. May 2021
    1. Some amount of stress is unavoidable in the competitive world of doing research, just as there will always be some injuries in professional sports.

      I think this author has created a pro sports team/league metaphor for a certain kind of "competitive world of doing research," not so much for "academia" or higher ed.

    2. mandatory wellness programs

      Health insurance and livable wage = the BEST mandatory wellness programs!

    3. If mental resilience training is fine for soldiers, then it should definitely be fine for academics too

      I guess I don't know that A follows B here.

    4. An institution which, to put it mildly, is not known for coddling or for indulging weakness is the military. And the military, it turns out, has invested heavily in programs aimed at boosting mental resilience.

      I'm not sure the military makes a better institutional metaphor than the (professional) athletics team/league.

    5. In order to stay competitive, the athlete must get medical treatment and allow the injury time to heal. In academia, it is often necessary to work hard even when one is exhausted, and to “push through” the pain in order to meet a deadline. However, too much such pushing will reduce performance, leading to depression, burnout and dropping out.

      Especially a huge problem if you don't have the option to seek treatment due to lack of health insurance.

    6. the research environment

      Definitely the major focus of this article (as opposed to the teaching/advising/service environment)

    7. Along similar lines, it might at first sight seem that the only way to make academic research less stressful would be for people to try less hard. Fewer discoveries would be made, fewer insights would be generated, and intellectual innovation would dwindle. This does not seem like a promising approach.

      Again, my particular experience in/of academia is just not about "academic research," pretty much at ALL. (Not disagreeing with the claim of dangerous, problematic, un-dealt-with stress here AT ALL though!)

    8. My story is just one of many thousands, at least. Academia has a serious and very widespread mental health problem, but nobody seems to know what to do about it. Doing research is always going to be challenging, and grants and high-profile papers are always going to be competitive. However, even if one ignores the human cost and concentrates only on productivity, it seems unlikely that the status quo is optimal.

      I agree with all of this -- and also -- the emphasis on research and papers and that kind of productivity is so utterly unlike my personal experience of "academia." I'm trying to think about it in sports metaphors, too -- but then I start to get stuck in hierarchies. (like, is my regional public university the bush leagues? the semi-pro? Not sure if that line of thinking is helpful here....) I will say my particular experience of academia causes me to notice the absence of teaching from this description of what is challenging/"productive" about academia.

    9. Imagine that, one day, it was pointed out to the team that hiring a doctor and physiotherapist might improve overall performance, yielding more wins and increasing ticket sales. A program of injury-prevention was put into place, with strength-training, the use of joint-supports and frequent check-ups. Players no longer tried to hide their injuries, and so received earlier treatment before the injuries became severe. The team started to play better and win more games. Ticket sales went way up. And, by the way, the players were happier and healthier too.

      Play better = (is this piece/metaphor primarily focused on scholarly/research "productivity" or is it inclusive of teaching as a central piece of labor/"productivity?") Win more games = Ticket sales went way up = more grant funding? more students? higher retention? graduation rates? (I tried to just highlight/annotate the last few sentences, sorry)

    10. team

      Is it a team or a league?

    11. entire sports league

      Professional sports leagues are motivated by some different stuff than academia as a whole, yes? Am thinking of for-profit/not-for-profit and public/private dynamics here. Also the nature of the "crowd," the audience/"customer"/fan. And of competition. And of "owners."

    12. sports

      Thinking of levels of sports -- recreational, competitive, non-competitive, professional, collegiate, etc. Hm.

  3. Nov 2020
    1. To fix this, try adjusting the angle of your head a bit and focus on the screen rather than the webcam. You can also turn down the brightness on your computer monitor. You may remove your glasses in order to pass the pre-check and put them back one once the exam begins.

      In what way is this compatible with the mandate of a "neutral" testing environment???

    2. a neutral testing environment

      I'm sorry, I just can't let this go -- there is no such thing as a "neutral" "TESTING ENVIRONMENT!" Neutral how and to whom? Taking a test under any conditions, but especially these, seems to preclude "neutrality."

    3. in a neutral area like the living room or dining room

      What makes a living room or dining room a "neutral area?!" Also -- assumptions about how many rooms someone has available.

    4. exam administrator

      I definitely always wanted to be an "exam administrator" when I grew up.

    1. agents

      They are AGENTS. Detection agents. Detectives. POLICE.

    2. Consistently affirming expectations of academic integrity while validating authorship improves learning outcomes and increases success and retention.

      The empty rhetoric/jargon here is SO THICK and, again, strangely un-personed. What are the nouns/things in this sentence? Expectations (whose?), integrity, authorship, outcomes, success, retention. Blergh.

    3. sign a pledge of originality

      This is so creepy. As a writer/academic/faculty member I have never had to sign a "pledge of originality." ALSO -- what do they mean by "originality?" What is the "value" (and to whom) of "originality?"

    4. Nothing gets past our Proctorio screening tools.

      A gauntlet. A guard. A gatekeeping. GROSS.

    5. Proctorio employs a variety of tools for avoiding plagiarism

      Proctorio employs tools to avoid -- they don't even bother suggesting that writers/learners are being offered tools connected with learning. Proctorio does the employing and the avoiding. #AnnotateEdTech

    6. protect the value

      This is really striking me. "Protect" the "value" of "degrees" and "programs." Where are the "students," where is the "learning," etc. The (not very)sub-text here is that the "value" of degrees/certification-products/programs (curricula?) is seen as housed in the institution and its conventions/traditions, not in the learner/learning, not in wider publics, etc. #AnnotateEdTech

  4. Aug 2020
    1. fail to reach their full potential

      just want to gently notice how the language of "reaching full potential" can be weaponized (like "completion" and "grit" and so on)

    2. spending time with individuals who are not traumatized

      But...who's "not traumatized?" The numbers starting out this reading seem pretty clear that "individuals who are not traumatized" (somehow) are the significant minority. Maybe I am misunderstanding what "counts" as traumatized.

    3. Any educator who works directly with trauma-affected learners is vulnerable to the effects of trauma—and susceptible to compassion fatigue and secondary traumatic stress, or “vicarious trauma” (

      And, I'll say again, data seem to suggest that educators are survivors of trauma ourselves. Like, not having to do with the students' trauma -- our OWN trauma.

    4. he staff and organizational level because they reshape a college’s culture, practices, and policies

      This seems important -- what is baked into our language and policy at program/catalog level that undermines interpersonal (teachrer/advisor-student) efforts at trauma-informed practices in classrooms, offices, etc?

    5. a student advisory board

      this is such a great idea

    6. what educators often identify as maladaptive behaviors are really misapplied survival skills that may be functional in other settings . Some researchers even argue that trauma-informed behaviors are important coping mechanisms developed to help an individual survive extremely stressful experiences and that eliminating these behaviors can be damaging

      This seems SO important -- that the "maladaptive" behaviors are strategies for SURVIVAL that actually often WORK.

    7. safe learning spaces

      or "safer" learning spaces. I guess I'm wondering whether trauma-informed pedagogy might want to be very careful around the label of "safe," safety often being so relative and context-informed.

    8. constantly evaluating your own knowledge and skills; acknowledging power imbalances; and committing to respectful, humble, and sincere collaboration

      This goes against the very ways many of us were "trained" (hazed) into academia. And the work of cultural humility described here does not always seem to be modeled or encouraged in academia, generally.

    9. persistence and completion

      I wonder about the potentially traumatic connotations of this language, this higher ed discourse around "persisting" (when perhaps pausing is called for) and "completion," to almost a fetishizing degree.

    10. Traumatic life experience

      This list suggests to me that possibly everybody has had traumatic life experiences.

    11. they don’t ask them, ‘What is wrong with you?’ but rather, ‘What happened to you?’

      Both of these questions make me kind of uncomfortable, to be honest.

  5. Jul 2020
    1. he one and only essential

      To be honest, it seems like more than "one" thing!

    2. why it is worth it to make the effort

      Or, possibly, why it might not be "worth it" right now? Thinking again of the "good for you" language from above.

    3. Now, all the predictions seem like some dystopian futuristic novel.

      "predictions" makes me think also of "course outcomes" or "learning outcomes," as also maybe disrupted/more difficult to articulate and believe in right now?

    4. What, if anything, from your old life do you want to leave behind?

      WHOA.

    5. their restricted and socially distanced lives--on walks alone on formerly busy city streets; or talking to grandparents they live with; or video'ing the different forms of friendship that blossom on Zoom. They are making interesting films and also they have a tool for coping with the new social distancing constraints of their lives.

      I wonder about this dynamic at play on the re-opened campus -- and I wonder about it as a faculty member who may be the only one (or one of the few? so hard to say right now?) who are still isolating/not seeing folks/at home.

    6. We need to think about what we all can offer one another

      I might steal this language as a prompt for initial conversations about class community in the fall. What we can offer -- and maybe what we ask for? What we want and need from one another, from the course?

    7. Distraction is the single biggest deterrent to learning

      I am finding this to be the case for work generally. My attention span is shot. My focus is fragmented. Multiple loops of noise/worry seem to be playing at varying speed and volume in the back of my mind at ALL TIMES.

    8. six feet

      Or, like, three feet now? Because...reasons?

    1. direct action to prevent widening of the digital divide

      I wish I had a sense of where we are with this, institutionally.

    2. multiple engagement channels

      rule of two?

    3. connection

      This word feels different to me than "engagement." I'm not sure why. Certainly less jargony to my higher ed ears, but I think it's something else?

    4. engaged

      This word. Added to my pile of words that at once I want to cling to and simultaneously sort of no longer understand.

    5. May 13, 2020

      Does anybody else feel like May 13, 2020 is, like, seventeen months ago? Or something?

    1. Incommensurability is an acknowledgement that decolonization will require a change in the order of the world (Fanon, 1963).

      If reading this has made one thing patently clear to me it's that I need to read Fanon.

    2. the opportunities for solidarity lie in what is incommensurable rather than what is commonacross these efforts.

      Wow. This feels so counterintuitive to me, and, yes, unsettling.

    3. Occupy draws almost directly from the values of the French Revolution: the Commons, the General Assembly, the natural right to property, and the resistance to the decolonization of Indigenous life/land.

      WOW. This is something.

    4. These responses, resistances by settler participants to the aspiration of decolonization in Occupy Oakland,illustrate the reluctance of some settlers to engage the prospect of decolonization beyond the metaphorical or figurative level.

      It doesn't seem like much was being asked for! This surprises me.

    5. how the pursuit of critical consciousness, the pursuit of social justice through a critical enlightenment, can also be settler moves to innocence

      like, right now, reading this in preparation for a university-based discussion about this text -- META

    6. Under Freire’s paradigm, it is unclear who the oppressed are, even more ambiguous who the oppressors ar

      I remember wondering about this when I first read Pedagogy of the Oppressed as a 22-year-old first-year grad student, but feeling that asking about it would. make me look dumb.

    7. e wonder whether another settler move to innocence is to focus on decolonizing the mind, or the cultivation of critical consciousness, as if it were the sole activity of decolonization; to allow conscientizationto stand in for the more uncomfortable task of relinquishing stolen land.

      "As if it were the sole" and "to stand in" seem key here

    8. the misery of guilt makes one hurry toward any reprieve.

      True in so many ways.

    9. hose bodies and lives become the property

      and whose bodies become a resource for extraction

    10. extraction of which continues to fuel colonial efforts

      This metaphor is compelling -- the notion of the extraction of "resources," and the "fuel" metaphor as well. A using up.

    11. remind readers what is unsettling about decolonization-what is unsettling and what should be unsettling.

      This language seems both literal and metaphorical, potentially! (I want to add "and what unsettling should be" or "what unsettling is" to the end of the sentence, kind of.

    12. When metaphor invades decolonization, it kills the very possibility of decolonization; it recenters whiteness, it resettles theory, it extends innocence to the settler, it entertains a settler future.

      "invades" and "kills" -- whew! The idea of a metaphor is an invader (as a settler/colonizing force!)!

      And -- metaphors as about entertaining (limiting? enclosing?) possible futures.

    13. Yet, this kind of inclusion is a form of enclosure, dangerous in how it domesticates decolonization. It is also a foreclosure, limiting in how it recapitulates dominant theories of social change

      Wow -- inclusion as enclosure! And as FOREclosure!! This feels really important.

    14. he ease with which the language of decolonization has been superficially adopted into education and other social sciences

      I am wondering about "antiracist" being similarly adopted/subsumed/rebranded

    15. compulsory

      thinking about (public) higher ed along the line of "compulsory"

    16. metaphorization

      I am interested in this verb, and this idea of harmful/dangerous (or at the very least counterproductive) metaphor-making.

  6. Jun 2020
    1. This view presupposes authenticity

      curiosity is authentic so authenticity in pedagogy aims to (among other things) honor/tap into that curiosity?

    2. A student who can recite electrical formulas on an exam, eg., but can’t complete a circuit suffers from inert knowledge.

      This makes me think of needing/having to "show my work" on math problems (like, if I can give a right answer, but can't say why/how, is that inert in some way as well? Or does it not matter so long as the problem is solved?)

    3. “the problem of inert knowledge”

      I found this a helpful concept in Eyler's book

    4. fully real or merely simulated

      Okay, so "mere simulation" is "partly" real? (a spectrum of realness = a spectrum of authenticity?)

    5. In aviation, on the other hand, a simulator provides an authentic flight experience.

      Oh I do love thinking about "simulations" in relation to the "real" and the "artificial" and the "authentic" and RESEMBLANCES (semblance/resemblance/resemble/assemble)

    6. resemble

      The word "resemble" here is kind of blowing my mind! :-)

    7. traditional lecture.

      "traditional lecture" versus "entire genus of 'active learning'"

    8. real-world

      What is the not-real-world? Is that what some folks mean by "artifice," as in "artificial" as in not "natural" or not "real?"

    9. active learning

      All active learning is, by its nature (genus) authentic?

    10. practice

      I think that "practice" can include artifice. (practice can BE "an artifice?)

    11. artificial

      I think that "artificial" is not the opposite of "authentic." Not exactly. That is, I don't think "artifice" in necessarily inauthentic. I think it certainly CAN be. I am still working through this.

  7. May 2020
    1. Reaches beyond the walls of the classroom: The work of the project touches the world outside the classroom in some way.

      I'd like to think a little more about what this might mean -- is there classroom project work that would be completely "not touching" the world outside the classroom in SOME way?

  8. cluster-learning-at-plymouth-state.press.plymouth.edu cluster-learning-at-plymouth-state.press.plymouth.edu
    1. Even though I am chronically worried that I have nothing new to say, I will keep playing with this blog and keep attempting to find my place on Twitter [LINK].  I’m starting to feel that even when what I share isn’t groundbreaking, it can help build connections within and outside of the university. 

      I struggle with this, too -- that I have nothing new to say, or that it isn't polished enough, or that surely somebody else has already said it and said it smarter/better. The idea of "helping build connections" is definitely useful here.

    2. Start by trusting students Purposefully leave gaps in the lesson plans, spaces for student contribution Think about how to provoke confidence in students Aim for imaginative outcomes: “for us to have an epiphany” or “for us to change our minds about something significant” Explain why the work matters, expose our own thinking about the work we do with students Encourage metacognition through process letters, self-evaluation, and discussing articles about metacognition, learning, grading, and outcomes. Acknowledge students’ whole experiences, including non-academic issues (working full time while in school or basic needs not being met) that will hinder their growth.

      I like this list very much, and am thinking about how much potential it has, not just to sort of "allow students to contribute," but to maybe make ALL of the work more mutual and multi-directional? Like, 100% "start by trusting students," and/also maybe "start by trusting each other." (inclusive of students and faculty). Or with the second item, something about "leaving gaps in our plans/expectations, spaces for unexpected learning," or to emphasize that everybody in the community has a stake in "explaining why ... work matters," and that in the sharing of that "mattering," everybody in the community is perhaps afforded opportunities to (re)think." Everybody acknowledging everybody's "whole experiences," shared metacognitive activities, etc. I am enjoying thinking about this, so thanks for the thinking, Christin!

    3. The confluence of all these books and conversations has set my brain on fire

      Just a poet chiming in to comment on the language here -- the interesting combination of water (confluence -- rivers of ideas/thoughts/texts/dialogue) and fire -- provocative metaphor. Some strange and wonderful alchemy.

  9. cluster-learning-at-plymouth-state.press.plymouth.edu cluster-learning-at-plymouth-state.press.plymouth.edu
    1. level of anxiety and fear I feel for our institution, our students, myself as an individual, our country, our entire world.

      So amplified right now, and ME. TOO.

    2. In project-based learning, the students learn the concepts while they are engaging in the project.

      Would we say that for the INCAP, the project is both the main course and the dessert? Like, students bring what they have learned (in/through Gen Ed and their major programs) to the project table -- like, the very nature of the project itself may likely reflect which students/skillsets "sign up?"

    3. I love this idea for a lot of reasons but particularly because it presents a great way to discuss purposeful communication.

      I am interested in how this particular idea/activity might be especially useful to folks who are having to transition to a fully online (or mostly online? TBD?) course experience.

  10. Apr 2020
    1. ineffable conversation between the body’s experiences and our perception of the world.

      This language is helpful to me. Is the body the main INSTRUMENT of or CONDUIT for our "perception of the world?"

  11. Feb 2020
    1. the not-there always-there-ness of social media.

      THIS LANGUAGE! Love how she describes it.

    2. To be put in a Beatric position

      This has me thinking of the objectifying gaze, the lover/beloved construct in so much poetry, etc etc

    3. the generative possibilities of the feeling of having seen her

      I love this language!

  12. Jan 2020
    1. Is the space between them properly an “opening” as one finds in a codex or accordion book? Yes. And no. In an accordion or codex, the author and designer have conceived of the opening and the interplay between the facing pages. In an unbound book, that interplay will be different each time it is read, since we can shuffle and reorder them at will. If the cards or pages are not numbered, then the order is truly left up to the reader, and perhaps even the orientation—the page can now be rotated (though in some cases, this will render its text illegible without a mirror or Blake’s skills).

      !!!!

    2. score

      I am interested in thinking about this notion of "score" as compared with texts made of ... alphabetic language? (as opposed to...musical language of musical notation?)

      Looking at etymology online, I am surprised to find that the musical use of the word is so recent. (Also -- what a word!)

      https://www.etymonline.com/word/score

      score (n.)

      late Old English scoru "twenty," from Old Norse skor "mark, notch, incision; a rift in rock," also, in Icelandic, "twenty," from Proto-Germanic skur-, from PIE root sker- (1) "to cut."

      The connecting notion probably is counting large numbers (of sheep, etc.) with a notch in a stick for each 20. That way of counting, called vigesimalism, also exists in French: In Old French, "twenty" (vint) or a multiple of it could be used as a base, as in vint et doze ("32"), dous vinz et diz ("50"). Vigesimalism was or is a feature of Welsh, Irish, Gaelic and Breton (as well as non-IE Basque), and it is speculated that the English and the French picked it up from the Celts. Compare tally (n.).

      The prehistoric sense of the Germanic word, then, likely was "straight mark like a scratch, line drawn by a sharp instrument," but in English this is attested only from c. 1400, along with the sense "mark made (on a chalkboard, etc.) to keep count of a customer's drinks in a tavern." This sense was extended by 1670s to "mark made for purpose of recording a point in a game or match," and thus "aggregate of points made by contestants in certain games and matches" (1742, originally in whist).

      From the tavern-keeping sense comes the meaning "amount on an innkeeper's bill" (c. 1600) and thus the figurative verbal expression settle scores (1775). Meaning "printed piece of music" first recorded 1701, said to be from the practice of connecting related staves by scores of lines. Especially "music composed for a film" (1927). Meaning "act of obtaining narcotic drugs" is by 1951.

      Scoreboard is from 1826; score-keeping- from 1905; newspaper sports section score line is from 1965; baseball score-card is from 1877.

      score (v.)

      "to cut with incisions or notches," c. 1400; "to record by means of notches" (late 14c.); see score (n.). Meanings "to keep record of the scores in a game, etc." and "to make or add a point for one's side in a game, etc." both attested from 1742. The slang sense, in reference to men, "achieve intercourse" first recorded 1960. Meaning "to be scorekeeper, to keep the score in a game or contest" is from 1846. In the musical sense from 1839. Related: Scored; scoring.

    3. Shuffle in 2007 that, in Cagean fashion, presents the reader with seventy-five images of musical notation in situ (as a decorative element on mugs, jackets, murals, and the like), which are meant to be shuffled to create a playable score.

      I should ask J.S. if he has seen/played with this

    4. he Unfortunates (Panther Books, 1969
    5. Publishers and book artists have used the deck of cards as another playful model for the book that can be sequenced by the reader.

      I do have/enjoy some of these, for sure.

    6. Mad Libs, storytelling dice and decks, and magnetic poetry.

      Here I start to bump against my own (why?) imaginative boundaries around what I consider a book and what I consider something else. Like, of these three maybe Mad Libs seem book like, and decks seem book like, but the magnetic poetry and dice seem less book like? Oh how I do like to sort.

    7. lack the tactile pleasure of the interlocking strips that compose the book. They also cannot replicate the sense of potential made palpable by seeing these strips in front of you, lifting themselves away from the spine of the open book and fluttering apart.

      the physicality, the physical interaction, the "tactile pleasure" all seem so important. I'm interested in the idea of the physicality of the "potential" here

    8. flap books or turn-up books composed of a printed page with a sequence of flaps that alter the narrative each time the reader lifts a hinge. Also known as transformation books or Harlequinades, for the London pantomime figure they often depict, such eighteenth-century novelty books were among the first marketed to children (by London bookseller Robert Sayer around 1765) offering morals and lessons through the transformations they depicted. The harlequinade’s legacy continues in children’s mix-and-match books that use sliced pages and a spiral binding to allow one to swap a face’s features, create hybrid bodies, or otherwise interchange an image or text’s parts.

      This also makes me think of pop-up books for children (and adults I guess)

    9. volvelles,
    10. seeing across the folds’ peaks and valleys to survey

      This language of book as landscape is interesting. This makes me think of a reader/book-user as an explorer.

  13. Nov 2016
    1. we are not able currently to assess the outcomes of our Gen Ed program

      Why are we not currently able to assess the outcomes of our General Education program?

    2. there is often not enough critical mass to establish that coherence in an individual course

      I am unclear about what this means -- not enough critical mass of what? What evidence suggests that "theming" and offering certificates will help students better "see connections, context or relatedness?" What is the value of this "seeing?" What is our evidence that they don't see these things now?

    3. understanding to theirs and other clusters

      unclear

    4. cluster learning
    5. challenge question

      I would like to have faculty from various disciplines talk about what "challenge question" means. What or whom does a "challenge question" challenge? Where does the question come from?

  14. Jul 2016
    1. where to host the content (more on this in a future blog)

      Can we just host content on an LMS? On our own independent blogs?

    1. To interact successfully with other disciplines, researchers must appreciate their differences, and this requires recognizing how the research landscape looks from the perspective of other disciplines.

      "Researchers" = students and faculty = learners?

  15. Aug 2015