273 Matching Annotations
  1. Nov 2023
    1. What sense is there in an argument that values a lesser evil when the evil is still so great?

      Because it's not about evil but about policy consequenes. The only way to discipline politicians is at the ballot box, so this is a dilemma.

    2. You have an obligation to help the poor, fight inequality, and work for climate justice, racial justice, reproductive rights, and basic democracy; there is only one party in Washington willing to make a contribution to your goals

      Similar to women's rights. Women are supposed to support the "progressive party" because it sometimes takes an interest in issues important to them.

    3. By identifying himself with Zionism, Biden expressly indicated his support for the outcome of these policies: a Jewish-majority state, for Jews only.

      This is the logical consequence, but most don't get that far. Most just stop at, "homeland for the Jewish people" - a kind of historical, cultural Zionism of the "next year in Jerusalem" aspirational variety.

  2. Oct 2023
    1. collapse of the US republic

      This is the pending eclipse of the monopoly of white power in America. It has been a long time coming. As with slavery, this new Confederacy will not compromise to share power with others outside their class.

    2. transgenderism, anti-white racism, censorship, cronyism …

      Strange shopping basket of imagined grievances. It would be one thing if they had anything approaching a valid argument, but this is pure propaganda.

    3. the radical left

      Code for anyone outside their ideological camp.

  3. Sep 2023
    1. Heller laid great stress on the text of the Second Amendment, which protects the right to keep and bear arms, while also giving provisional approval to bans on the concealed carry of firearms.

      With respect to absolute right to "freedom" from any gun control legislation, they will admit to registration, to disarming of felons, the mentally ill, carrying in schols and government building, regulation of commercial sales, concealed carry, and atypical weapons.

    2. individuals to keep and bear arms for the purpose of self-defense.

      needs support.

    3. defense against criminal violence that the government cannot or will not prevent.

      Polemics

    4. Many courts concluded that citizens have no constitutionally protected right to arms at all, and the federal courts never invalidated a single gun control law.

      Conflates gun control with denial of 2nd Amendment rights, claims 2nd Amendment was 'all but forgotten". Needs evidence.

    5. vaguely worded constitutional provision like the Second Amendment

      Appears to refer to the "meaningless" phrase, "a well regulated militia" again.

    6. Another important legal development was the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment.

      Post slavery. Cites due process clause as further defining 2nd Amendment.Caims that the 2nd only restricted the federal government not the state governments.

    7. The animating concern behind the amendment was fear that the new federal government might try to disarm the citizenry in order to prevent armed resistance to political usurpations.

      This contention is supported only with polemics. If the argument were so strong, then ample evidence of this fear and distrust could be found, and its difficult to accept that the Constitution was ever ratified were this really the case.

    8. Americans have largely lost their fear that the federal government will use that power to oppress them politically

      This is a modern fear conjured up by the gun lobby to sell guns

    9. tate-based militia organizations were eventually incorporated into the federal military structure

      In 1916, that is. Not really so quickly.

    10. As a political gesture to the Anti-Federalists—a gesture highlighted by the Second Amendment’s prefatory reference to the value of a well-regulated militia—express recognition of the people’s right to arms was something of a sop.

      And back to the alleged "meaninglessness" of the words, "a well regulated militia".

    11. federal government needed or rightfully possessed the power to disarm American citizens

      This is the zero sum argument that they typically go to. "All regulation is illegal".

    12. new constitution gave the federal government almost total legal authority over the army and the militia

      If this is true, why did Congress pass a law in 1916 defining the 'militia' and placing it under ultimate federal control? https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artI-S8-C16-1/ALDE_00013673/

    13. he convention therefore decided to give the federal government almost unfettered authority to establish armies

      Needs support.

    14. Experience during the Revolutionary War had demonstrated convincingly that militia forces could not be relied on for national defense,

      This "fact" is just tossed out there without evidence or support. Where is this critique of Washington's Continental Army?

    15. Citizens were always going to resist undergoing unpaid military training, and governments were always going to want more professional—and therefore more efficient and tractable—forces

      And, of course, the greatest threat they faced from from the British Empire, which possessed a well trained regular army. Not for national defense but for colonial conquest and control.

    16. Alexander Hamilton, for example, thought the militia system could never provide a satisfactory substitute for a national army.

      Hamilton was a federalist and believed that power should be located in a central authority, above that of each state, or commonwealth.

    17. permit the government to raise armies (consisting of full-time paid troops) only when needed to fight foreign adversaries.

      And indeed, this was the common practice at the time. Hardly to be seen as an alternative to non existant standing armies. It is just how things were done.

    18. governments of large nations are prone to use soldiers to oppress the people

      This is just projection. People had always struggled to limit authority and in the English speaking world, this officially begins with Magna Carta.

      What the Constitution does prohibit is billiting, which frames this discussion in a different light.

    19. The Founding generation mistrusted standing armies.

      Maybe. But there was no provision for a standing army in the Articles of Confederation and no precedent for one. Standing armies weren't even a thing throughout the middle ages. Rather armies would be "called up" as needed, from the general population.This was the case in the English Civil War, and in the many American wars with native people, and indeed with the American Revolution. Hard to say people distrusted a thing that had not existed for 2000 years.

    20. Modern debates about the meaning of the Second Amendment have focused on whether it protects a private right of individuals to keep and bear arms or a right that can be exercised only through militia organizations

      That is certainly one aspect of modern gun control discussion, but not the primary focus. This line of argument is in response to gun advocates often omitting the words, "A well regulated militia being necessary..." in their claims and argumentation.

    21. focused instead on whether it added anything significant to the original Constitution

      The contention is that the words "well regulated militia" are meaningless, which is surprising given the terseness of the document over all and the care with which it is written. Alternately, the meaning of the phrase is inconvenient for "gun rights" argument so some attempt to simply erase it.

  4. Aug 2023
    1. Extend the sphere, and you take in a greater variety of parties and interests; you make it less probable that a majority of the whole will have a common motive to invade the rights of other citizens; or if such a common motive exists, it will be more difficult for all who feel it to discover their own strength, and to act in unison with each other. Besides other impediments, it may be remarked that, where there is a consciousness of unjust or dishonorable purposes, communication is always checked by distrust in proportion to the number whose concurrence is necessary.

      Madison's argument for the viability of a large republican democracy.

  5. Jul 2023
    1. Italian immigrants were welcomed into Louisiana after the Civil War, when the planter class was in desperate need of cheap labor to replace newly emancipated black people, who were leaving backbreaking jobs in the fields for more gainful employment.

      They were sent directly to New Orleans. Here begins the association with African Americans.

    2. a “slanderous and nasty-minded mulattress” for rightly describing rape allegations

      This language actually sounds like Trump, except for "mulatress" which most people probaby wouldn't understand today.

    3. a rape charge could occur in the absence of an actual victim

      Like the wedding planner complaint about being forced to plan a gay without a gay wedding to plan.

    4. The lynchings of Italians came at a time when newspapers in the South had established the gory convention of advertising the far more numerous public murders of African-Americans in advance — to attract large crowds

      Advertising lynchings in advance to attract large crowds and "mark it on your calendars".

    5. Few who march in Columbus Day parades or recount the tale of Columbus’s voyage from Europe to the New World are aware of how the holiday came about or that President Benjamin Harrison proclaimed it as a one-time national celebration in 1892 — in the wake of a bloody New Orleans lynching that took the lives of 11 Italian immigrants. The proclamation was part of a broader attempt to quiet outrage among Italian-Americans, and a diplomatic blowup over the murders that brought Italy and the United States to the brink of war.

      Origin of Columbus day is to respond to anti-Italian racism.

    1. there are tools you can use, like blocking, without losing access to the wider community

      Allows each user to moderate their own space, to choose whom to see and engage with to and whom not to.

    2. It takes energy and commitment to run a discord or a community.

      It's passively managed, like a publc square, not like a meeting hall, or private venue.

    3. It centres on the point about different circles.

      Social network is distributed around nodes, not centralized with a single leadership group.

    4. So our community will dissipate. It will break apart into much smaller, much less powerful blocs.

      This is true of many specialize interest groups that use Twitter to connect.

  6. Jun 2023
    1. but the death threats we’re getting now — you should see the things people send me.

      I would like to see. Death threats are a thing on the right.

    2. It forced parents to basically become assistant teachers. We all became teacher aides.

      Ask teachers about parental involvement. They did not "stumble" onto anything in the curriculum. Their objections are not about school text books or lessons teachers design or deliver. It's always about something they've "found" in a library somewhere.

    3. curriculums that parents could see firsthand through the computer screens

      This is bullshit.

  7. May 2023
    1. Karen taught phonics by the script for the first year of the mandate.

      And failures will be blamed on "incompetent delivery" by classroom teachers. This is the only way for admin to escape accountability for their gormless leadershiip.

    2. The district has appropriated her decision making.

      The district has chosen to trust a sales person over a professional working in her field.

    3. Karen says, “That is harder than we’re supposed to make.”

      Discourage the child from moving beyond expectations.

    4. “You all seem very restless because of all this phonics.”

      Oddly derogatory. The teacher is telling them that she thinks phonics is BS and she's apologizing for wasting their time.

    5. Karen explains that the push to complete the lesson makes discussion impossible, and it is not called for in the script.

      The "lesson" is likely designed to occupy the entire period. Designers were told to leave no time for anything other than direct instruction since unscripted time could not be accounted for.

    6. “I was told by [a district reading administrator] that for too long teachers in this district have thought that their job was to create curriculum. I was told that is not our job. Our job is to ‘deliver’ [she makes quote signs in the air with her fingers] curriculum.”

      This has implications for instructional designers and is one of the main reasons why a teacher of record should participate in the design of a course to the fullest extent possible. It isn't just about "buy in". It's about authenticity, authority, and teacher agency.

    7. The texts used in reading instruction shifted from predictable books to phonetically regular texts that were referred to by the publisher as “predictable” and “decodable,” but that actually consisted of phonetically regular words organized into sentences that strain young readers’ sense-making.

      This sounds similar to the use of the Dolch word list to teach reading / writing. The list is designed to enable work with grammar and syntax, but because it is so small, requires considerable linguistic skill to use expressively.

    8. Following the demands of the district and her principal, Karen adheres to the script for the entire lesson.

      Online design can easily enforce this perscriptive approach to "delivery" as opposed to teaching.

    9. A few of the children rock back and forth, not paying particular attention to Karen (although it is conjecture to suggest they are not paying attention merely because they are not looking at her)

      Indeed, many children move to quiet their minds while not looking at the teacher is another form of concentration. The idea that only students who sit still and stare, like cats, are the only ones "paying attention" is kind f like saying that your cat is liseening to you because it's looking at you.

    10. They are used to the routine; it’s almost October, and they’ve been at this for weeks.

      They are also likely shutting down. The routine is stupefying to kids who "don't get it" while the kids calling out the answers are annoyingly monopolizing the teacher's attention. "No child left behind"...

  8. Apr 2023
    1. we can meet the needs of any class, any course, any individual, without altering the grade translation chart

      The target is the end of year goal for whichever type of class (Regular / H / AP) and the overall grade is the agregate distance from each target following the translation table. This says, overall, the degree to which a student has met the target - which remains unstated. I see some problems with reporting there, and with students actually understanding how their grade is calculated.

    2. A always means “meets all target levels”

      Does this not violate the premise that a grade means something that we can reliably identify. If target levels constantly change for each student and among students, then the same target could be anywhere on the grade scale at any time.

    3. at the targeted level

      This is quite important. Success is achieving the goal. If the goal is unattainable, then so is success.This is how we set students up for failure.

    4. towards their goal

      These are the eight canonical SEP (Science and Engineering Practices) from the Next Generation Standards plus two additional practices. These should be distributed among courses? Ten outcomes is a lot for SS to track in a single course. Progression is also a form of grading.

    5. specific benchmarks that students are expected to reach by the end of a unit

      Does this establish an expected progression of learning that is linked to time?

    6. The goal of this progression is to build up gradually, with each step building on the previous one,

      This may benefit from adoption of SOLO and simplification of the rubric model.

    7. Developing, where they write a scientific claim and provide some evidence,

      SOLO - unistructural = write a claim (Toulmin, Claim)/ multi structural = provide evicence of the claim (Toulmin, Grounds) relational = relate evidence to claim (Toulmin, Warrant & Backing), extended = provide theoretical analysis - evaluate theory in light of argument.

    8. progression starts with Beginning, where the student tries to write a conclusion

      Resembles SOLO, though the rubric is wordy and includes a lot of subjective descriptors. Each level is distinct and adds a level of complexity to the previous level. "Expert" clearly aligns with SOLO extended/abstract level. Levels are not clearly linked to levels of cognitive function (uni / multi structural / relational, etc.)

  9. Jan 2023
    1. Standards codify and institutionalize values.

      This is a very important point. When approaching Common Core and State Standards, we should be mindful of the values these standards impose and approach them from a position insistant on issues of race, socio-economic class, identity, and power..

    2. the design becomes the architecture that structures and often is the foundation for students’ learning.

      Curriculum design, and its underlying pedagogies, is critically important to the creation of less oppressive, more open and democratic educational practice.

    3. Google frames the practices of teachers toward the banking model of education (Freire, 1970), potentially setting up a dynamic wherein the teacher has the most power and students are present to “receive” the knowledge of the instructor (Gleason & Heath, 2020).

      This framing is likely the result of an uncritical approach to traditional pedagogic practices, similar to HE faculty who simply teach the way they were taught because "that's how it's done". Unlike faculty, tech tools can't be trained in better or more responsive methods but rather contribute to further fossilization.

    4. Big tech has benefited from an educational dynamic that consistently underfunds public education but demands increased technology to prepare the workers of the future, providing low-cost solutions in exchange for data and the potential for future product loyalty

      This is a pattern most of us are familiar with. The best example I know is Apple's launch of the iPad in LA schools without saying, or knowning, how it will be used. Apple has a long history of testing its products out on users. Google habitually does the same, offering products for "free" in exchange for data and expanding a user base for its products.

  10. Nov 2022
    1. useless people

      Recalls the Nazi Lebensunwertes Leben, Life unworthy of life category into which they dumped people they deemed to be economically "non-productive" - sick, handicapped, old, etc. and thus a "burden" on society best gotten rid of.

    2. Diseases don’t have to follow rules.

      Reminds me of something Carl Sagen said - I think it was Sagen though might have been Feynman - in the context of quantum physics, that the universe is under no obligation to observe our rules, or something like that.

    1. Keynesianism works by stimulating consumer demand to promote economic growth. Consumer demand and economic growth are the motors of environmental destruction.

      Yes. This is, again, the doctrine of infinite growth. There may be more interest today in sustainable prosperity but general acceptance of this requires substantial cultural change. The Climate Crisis may be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

    2. Rent is another term for unearned income.

      Quotable.

    3. competition relies upon universal quantification and comparison. The result is that workers, job-seekers and public services of every kind are subject to a pettifogging, stifling regime of assessment and monitoring, designed to identify the winners and punish the losers.

      This cultural entrenchment infects may other areas of activity, including education practice, where a gospel of competeition undermines the core ethos of practice to turn a core function of human culture and civilization into a winnowing process assuring maintainence of privilege.

    4. In 1951, Friedman was happy to describe himself as a neoliberal. But soon after that, the term began to disappear. Stranger still, even as the ideology became crisper and the movement more coherent, the lost name was not replaced by any common alternative.

      This achieves two aims: it conceils the existence of the movement and prevents infighting and fragmentation over definitions.

    5. Its anonymity is both a symptom and cause of its power.

      No need to defend itself or assert its authority. It presents as a force of nature, like gravity, beyond question, beyond understanding. When threatened it responds ferociously, claiming to be "freedom", "liberty", "decency" itself - goodness and light, Christ manifest. Clearly, it is fascism.

  11. Aug 2022
    1. He hoped the people of America would always be satisfied with having a majority to govern. He never wished to see two-thirds or three-fourths required, because it might put it in the power of a small minority to govern the whole Union.

      This is the filibuster, described as empowering miniority rule.

    2. Hartley

      Col Thomas Hartley, Federalist, PA

  12. Jun 2022
  13. heathercoxrichardson.substack.com heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
    1. at the end of the hearing that witnesses said they had been pressured by Trump’s people to remain “loyal” when testifying, and having just tipped their hand about just how much information the committee has, Thompson urged those witnesses to come back and revise their testimony.

      Witness tampering here. Waiting for more to come out of the woodwork.

    2. “You heard it, Pat. He thinks Pence deserves it. He doesn’t think they’re doing anything wrong.”

      This is so sophmoric. It reminds me of the mean kids in high school.

    3. The president is only supposed to go into the House chamber when specifically invited

      British Parliamentary rules prohibit monarch from Parliament without an invitaion. Possibly modeled on this practice. Remember Trump's disinvitation from the House for his last state of the union, which he had to give from the WH.

    4. Hutchinson connected Trump to the insurrection attempt

      To Stone, Flynn and the Oath Keepers, via Meadows.

    5. “There’s a lot going on…things might get real, real bad on January 6.”

      Meadows has to explain what's going on with Rudi. He's the Rudi whisperer.

  14. Feb 2022
    1. co-constructed with students

      This is important since it ensures that students know and understand what the standards mean and how they are measured. It is more about this than it is about negotiation of standards, with students attempting to lower them. This does happen and can be controlled by adopting an underlying archetecture for performance standards, such as SOLO

    2. overcome grade inflation

      A polite way to say bumping up marks without linking them to standards and to students actual performance.

    3. triangulation of evidence

      alignment

    4. Learning Map and clear Overarching Learning Goals

      alignment

    5. Overarching Learning Goals that are achievable for your students

      Multiple tiers of interconnected and aligned goals link classroom activity with published standards and curricula.

  15. Jan 2022
    1. standards and formulate relevant assessments as a sort of quality control for instruction

      That is one way to look at it, but it's a teacher centered approach. How do standards help students? If they do not help students, then they are useless and should be abandonned.

    2. working with all of their classmates

      Standard for review

    3. They need to understand space and how to judge where different movements will fit

      Standard for review

    4. have familiarity with the properties of various types of equipment

      Standard for review

    5. how to move safely in dynamic situations

      Standard for review

    6. Awesome Gym Days every student is active, engaged, working on something

      This is why every day should be and "Awesome" one. If Ss are not active, engaged, and working on something they are just passing time.

    7. These used to be part of a reward system

      "Rewards" are extrinsic motivators - like the carrot and the stick. Make every session an Awesome Gym Day and let Ss reward themselves by achieving goals they set for themselves. Give them some autonomy and be patient with those who just want to play. They need time.

    8. fun, fairness, and challenge

      Fun, fairness, and challenge could inform the development of three standards with students that could be used to structure their PE sessions. Ask them how do you measure fun? How do you measure fairness: How do you measrue challenge? If they participate in the development of standards, they will be more interested in using them as a guide to improvement - have more fun, play more fairly, ramp up the challenge.

    9. My students do not arrive in the gym thinking about how their performance will be evaluated.

      If they are focused on improving something - like catching - then they should come with the intention of working on that. PE class is not recess. They should have fun, but if they are not focused on anything other than having fun, then they will not be able to improve in any substantive way and it will be impossible to provide any coaching that might lead to that.

    10. They will demonstrate the art of the catch. Their art of the catch.

      Similar problems in language and writing instruction. Ss want to show off their skills and to experiment and do things their own way. That is fine - accomplished writers do this all the time Shakespeare made up hundreds of words. We are not all Shakespeare though - we can make up words in specific contexts, but in writing instruction, the goal is to master common forms and structures before moving on to display personal creativity, yet, even within common forms, there is room for personal creativity. When assessing in this way, it is important to focus on the standards and what those mean in terms of performance - otherwise, be become bogged down and unable to provide clear, consistent, and actional feedback that can lead to improvement in performance.

    11. there are thousands of pieces that I miss

      All performances are complex, and when coaching, it is impossible to attend to every minute detail. Formative assessment - active coaching - is individualized feedback to improve overall performance. Evaluating that performance, is to focus on the performance as a whole.

    12. “performance'' because I teach physical education

      I think a performance focus in important in a lot of fields because, ultimately, education is about what folks are able to do. Knowledge of things is not useful until it is applied to some problem or task. A performance focus could improve assessment across the board and shift teachers away from merely testing "content".

    13. address both the process of learning as well as the performance or outcome

      Assessment of process is commonly formative; while assessment of performance outcome is often summative, though formative assessments do look at performance outcomes too - from the perspective of informing improvement.

    14. what useful things I could say about assessment that wouldn’t expose me as a fraud

      Imposter syndrom is common as people move into more specialized fields. It's common to hear about it from PhD candidates and from PhDs.

  16. Dec 2021
    1. Once we introduce evaluation into our learning spaces, we change the way we interact with student work.

      Evaluation is not the same as feedback. Evaluation is almost always directed at unsolicited advice. Feedback may praise or criticize, but usually seeks value in something.

    1. The central conservative truth is that culture matters most;

      This summarizes Brooks' argument, but he failed to demonstrate how culture is not important to the left. Politics cannot change culture, but reflects it.

    2. Conservatism is essentially an explanation of how communities produce wisdom and virtue.

      A kind of definition, but... mystic?

    3. about how we build institutions that produce good citizens

      Sounds like social engineering and top down control - what happened to "human nature"?

    4. “I think therefore I am”

      Decartes, not exactly a liberal icon.

    5. believe they have the ability to plan history:

      A shopping basket of disparate things and likening economic policy under Capitalism to autocratic movements. Also ignoring the fact that French and American revolutions spring from the same source.

    6. enable leaders to engineer society from the top down

      Another misrepresentation of liberalism as autocratic.

    7. the planners never really consulted the residents themselves. They disrespected the residents by turning them into unseen, passive spectators of their own lives.

      Yes. This is common, but "liberalism" isn't about imperious exercise of government authority over others. Many liberals would also criticize this type of planning that excludes communities. This criticism is about exclusion, rather the opposite of modern liberalism which tends to promote inclusion.

  17. Sep 2021
    1. Or maybe my participation adds to the experience

      Yes, it does, following constructivist theory learning is a collaborative effort involving both students and instructors, a position first described by Vygotsky. Also consistent with Wenger, Community of Practice model: expertise is learned from expert communities.

  18. Nov 2020
    1. We’re creating laws that stop students from looking for information.

      This, and the use of propriety snooper software like TurnItIn, places commercial interests in a position of authority to actually define what academic integrity is, and to do that narrowly enough, to lock in their customer base and convince educators that they provide an essential service. In the end, they will define cheating so narrowly, and make it so universal, that it becomes impossible to avoid and so convince everyone that cheating is the only way to "learn".

    2. Plus, let’s face it, it’s exhausting. I know faculty that are constantly monitoring for cheating. And they hate it. It’s wasted effort. 

      Teachers should monitor students, but for learning not for cheating. By assuming that students are learning, or trying to learn, they will engage more effectively and they will also know when students aren't really "doing their own work", and know enough about that to move the student to more productive activity. Not only is policing a waste of time, it corrupts the learning process and pits teacher and student against one another.

    3. If you give any question to a student that has a clear, definitive answer, you are tempting them to cheat.

      Closed ended questions are information based, boring, and not challenging to students. They do not lead to any significant learning. Teachers ask them because they are easy to grade, so the question is really, do we organize education around the convenience of teachers or around the benefit to students?

    4. They know that all the answers are already online.

      This depends on the question. It's important that folks know that the answers are NOT online; that what is online is argument and evidence that they need to use to build their own answers.

    5. We can no longer find an answer and be comforted that our search is finished. We are instead confronted with hundreds of answers and need to choose what to do, choose this one or that one or, more likely, pick bits and pieces from them to build our own answer

      This is a good thing. We may no longer need to struggle against misplaced reverence for expertise and argument from authority, but address argument and evidence instead.

  19. Aug 2020
    1. Anger becomes a habit. Divisiveness becomes normal.

      So, does social media have a role in creating or amplifying this, or is it merely uncovering something that is there anyway?

  20. Jun 2020
    1. many Gulf-Arab women feel uncomfortable breaching cultural taboos and showing their faces online.

      Why should anyone be expected to 'breach cultural taboos' in the first place. Surely this is a personal choice. Others should not pressure people to move one way or another.

    1. Each module will include

      Unclear whether a 'module' is a conceptual unit or a template.

    2. Learning Activities

      This maps to TLAs though they seem to be mostly passive activities,

      Course Module Structure document presents Activities as mostly passive activities or materials / content.

      The Module Content Template is a planning table in Word that identifies "Learning Activities" as content: "PowerPoints, videos, articles, lectures" and "Assignments" as stuff students do, including quizzes.

    3. Modules are used to organize course content by weeks, units, or a different organizational structure

      Why is this important?

    1. The lower part of the pyramid focuses

      This and video talks about "levels of learning".

      These materials appear to repeat one another. I suspect they are created by instructional designers who do not necessarily have experience teaching. They are not grounded in research or practice but simply repeat ideas in circulation.

    1. Objectives

      Objective or Outcome? She says these are the same thing. Later she talks about goals that can become objectives.

      Begin with a "stem" (condition), then add "actor" (student), then add "behavior" (verb), then "degree" Resembles Mager's performance based model. Performance, Condition, Criteria. She adds another - 'Actor" but this is superflous.

      Mager's model is built for training type activities and does not work that well in other contexts.

    2. Writing Effective Learning Outcomes

      This video is about course intended learning outcomes. It explains about Blooms but casts them as suitable for lower or upper division courses.

    3. Writing Clear Learning Objectives

      List of Bloom's verbs

    4. Action Verbs for Writing Powerful Outcomes

      Another list of Bloom's verbs

    5. learning

      These are additional materials that need to be downloaded and viewed. They are hacked into the course and do not always match it. Here, Writing Clear Objectives starts people off by asking, "What do you want ss to do"? Then gives a table with six columns for Blooms Verbs - without any explanation of how to use the table.

    6. Identify the noun

      By saying 'identify the noun' we orient course design around content and content delivery rather than around activity that develops skills and knowledge the activity requires. It places activity in the back seat.

    7. learning outcomes for each module

      This begins with MILOs. Where are the course outcomes and how do these MILOs align with them?

    1. Describe and create are two different levels of learning

      This refers to Bloom's taxonomy. When we talk about "levels of learning" we refer to cognitive skills. SOLO posits them as levels of "difficulty" where 'describe' would be uni structural and 'create' relational or extended. 'Create', in fact, is difficult to circumscribe and should probably be recast as something more concrete: plan, design, structure..

    2. goals

      Goals or outcomes? Aims, goals and outcomes are technical terms. Each has a nuanced meaning.

    1. moving it from a “solo sport” of a sage on the stage to a community-based one where teams build and design learning materials and experiences — and continually refine them.

      Collaboration is the key to quality both from the point of view of designing instruction, and from that of learning. Learners support and learn from one another.

    2. “A substantial part of the nation’s resources are being devoted to higher education,” Simon said. “The nation has a right to expect more than talented amateurism.”

      This will offend some, but the truth often hurts.

    3. Teaching at colleges is often done without any formal training. Mimicry of others who are equally untrained, instinct, and what feels right tend to provide the guidance. As a result, teaching is, to use another building metaphor, not up to code.

      A PhD is a research, not a teaching qualification. In the UK, there is a teaching qualification for HE. I do not know of anything similar in the US.

      https://www.postgraduatesearch.com/birkbeck-university-of-london/56641018/postgraduate-course.htm

    1. The New York Times on Twitter, when they have a headline like “Trump Says Testing No Longer a Problem, Governor Disagrees.” Grant writes, “Well, next they’re going to be ‘Trump Says Earth Flat, Scientists Disagree.’”

      And then Cotton's OP ED 6/3 calling for military intervention in George Floyd demonstrations. Part of a pattern for NYT.

    2. appeals to the imaginary past

      Also Salafism.

    1. So the retort to that critique has been “intersectionality.” Yes, there’s a black perspective, but what you do is fragment it, so there are multiple black perspectives, because each potential—or each sacralized—social position becomes discrete. That's what gives you intersectionality.

      An attempt to prove that CRT is not reductionist.

    2. But the Times’ 1619 Project reflects the agenda of the Democratic Party today. They’re trying to cobble together an electoral coalition based on identities.

      The Black vote, the Latinx vote, the women's vote, the Muslim vote, the Evangelicals... Asians, immigrants, LBGTQ, and on and on. The GOP has old white folks, rust belt, farmers... So, where is democracy?

    3. how can you imagine putting together a political alliance that would be broad enough so that you win on this issue?

      Excluding folks from your 'party' does not build support. So, what is the intended outcome of this? It can re-enforce racial identities and sharpen distinctions, build barriers, etc. all of which work to support neo-liberal agendas.

    4. The idea, and I think the 1619 Project very much promotes this, that slavery was created as a form of racial oppression, rather than a form of labor exploitation that ultimately became rationalized ideologically by racism.

      If this is the case, then what was the need to import people?

    5. applying to PhD programs saying that they wanted to get a credential to help them become public intellectuals.

      According to Kendi's website, he studied journalism and worked in sports reporting, then switched to African American studies in grad school, MA and PhD, then began teaching African American History.

    6. launched into a Twitter tirade against them, dismissing them as “white historians.”

      This is a disturbing aspect of identity politics: that one qualified to speak because of membership in some category, and then only those in that category have a right to speak. It assumes that one's presumed 'identity' determines everything else about them right down to beliefs and attitudes. It seems primed to provoke a backlash from whomever it excludes, perpetuating divisions and obstructing progress.

    7. an industrial reserve army who will work for little enough to make that culture of upscale consumption profitable

      This is how you compete with China and other developing economies, by driving wages down. You need an equalization of the bottom 90%. It this "globalization"?

    8. And the common knowledge, so to speak, is that this is a racial problem. The reality is that the largest number of those killed are white, but blacks are disproportionately killed.

      Disparatism would say that justice requires the reduction of the number of blacks killed to be on parity with population distribution. This is absurd. Ultimately, reducing everything to race risks alienating whites from the discourse, denying their right to speak and identifying them as oppressors or beneficiaries of systemic racism. Ultimately, this is a neoliberal position. We will mitigate oppression to a tolerable while not implicating capitalism.

    1. He said on a recent podcast that he's been to jail "eight or nine" times

      49 subscribers - probably mostly friends. 109 views, 1 like and no comments after five weeks up.

    2. they don't actually share a common goal once power is achieved

      So, not a cohesive group or movement. Just a loosely defined category, like 'hippies'

    3. smaller groups of criminal opportunists seeking to profit by stealing merchandise

      That too, but it usually comes with the territory.

    4. identifies as an anarchist

      As do right wing libertarians, from time to time.

    5. the movement started in obscure online platforms

      Which ones? Dark web?

    6. Boogaloo members appear to hold conflicting ideological views with some identifying as anarchists and others rejecting formal titles.

      Right Libertarian?

    1. The chair said he wasn't sure whether that was an acceptable grading policy, so he would have to check with the dean.

      This is so funny! Chair went full admin. Like the robot in Lost in Space.

    2. That climate of fear benefits no one

      The main risk is that a student will complain about their mark. They are more likely to complain if they feel they are victims of some injustice. Beyond this, teachers should be able to explain the basis of a mark - even a meaningless one. Oddly, the meaningfulness of marks is not generally a consideration, so wrong answers to random, silly, and irrelevant questions on MCQ tests can easily justify a low mark!

      That's how the banking system works.

    3. I would ask that in the meantime we stop averaging those meaningless letter grades into the even more meaningless GPA

      The GPA is institutionalized in countries that take a banking view of education. I went to university in the UK (1980s) - there were no grades or GPAs, nothing but a final exam at the end of the year. We worked all year, got feedback on our work, then prepared for finals in May. We were told pass or not pass for each. The pass mark was 40 but we were not told marks either. Final degrees are ranked in four categories: First, Upper Second, Lower Second; Third. Graduate work usually requires an Upper Second. Other than that, rankings are irrelevant.

    4. When you eliminate grading, that gives you a chance to consider the real purpose of the assignment, and you might find that you are able to create more meaningful assignments as a result.

      Very important point here. If you are not grading, then this dross that exists only to spin a mark out of nothing will not appear in your course. This alone would be an improvement.

    5. it's simply what you do so you can improve and learn more.

      Or, maybe it's just an acknowledgement that nothing is ever really finished - everything is just "good enough" for whatever purpose one has in mind. In this case, display or 'throw away' assignments have very low value, while an assignment that has some other purpose "In the world" may have a high enough value to continue to develop: a blog post, for instance, or a poster, photograph, piece of art etc.

    6. At best, students see revision as a way to raise their grade.

      And at this point many take a pragmatic decision to raise their grade or not to bother. Again, grading is distinct from learning - nothing at all to do with it, in fact.

    7. grades punish students for any mistake they make, large or small.

      This means, of course, that formative work should not be graded since the premise is that students must practice to improve - we assume "room for improvement" otherwise, the requirement to "practice" is ludicrous. So, why grade this type of work at all?

    8. We may have good intentions with our students' best interests at heart, but that does not change the fact that we are using grades as a form of control.

      Such good intentions are themselves a violation of personal integrity. Teachers are forever deciding what 'students need' - often times without any clear evidence. I once asked a math teacher why students needed to know quadratic equations and all reasoning was circular. Asked what he used this for, he could not think of any time in his life when he actually needed this.

    9. I can give each student the freedom to choose their own learning goals, and it then becomes my job to help them get there.

      The terms 'goals,' 'outcomes,' and 'objectives,' are loosely defined in Education literature, so the meaning of this is not very clear to me. We assume that a course has some purpose, or 'value added.' In transformative education, this is seen as some change in the person who experiences the course. When we say, "choose your own goals" aren't we really asking students why they are taking a course in the first place?

  21. May 2020
    1. The disdain for proprietary software on the part of free software advocates

      This sounds oddly polemic for an academic paper. I wonder what Critical Discourse Analysis could tell us about this text?

    1. Reuse, Remix, Revise, Redistribute: remixing and revising may be most common in order to adapt materials to a local use rather than to reiterate for redistribution with specific value added. Need to check source on this (Wiley, Bliss, McEwen, 2014) - oops - paywall.

    2. This sounds oddly polemic for an academic paper. I wonder what Critical Discourse Analysis could tell us about this text?

    3. Joseph, K., Guy, J., & McNally, M. B. (2020). Toward a Critical Approach for OER: A Case Study in Removing the ‘Big Five’from OER Creation. Open Praxis, 11

      Reuse, Remix, Revise, Redistribute: remixing and revising may be most common in order to adapt materials to a local use rather than to reiterate for redistribution with specific value added. Need to check source on this (Wiley, Bliss, McEwen, 2014) - oops - paywall.

    1. resists static definitional claims

      Open Pedagogy can't be defined? This sound more like a cluster of ideas that people explain in many different ways.

    1. The inclusion of requirements and restrictions in open licenses make open content and OER less open than they would be without these requirements and restrictions.

      Degrees of openness. Is it really 'open' with strings attached?

    2. download and keep your own copy

      I'm wondering why there is this insistence on digital formats. Public domain materials could be reproduced by any means and redistributed.

      Before printing technology, distribution required a copy, written by hand, in manuscript form. With additions in margins, and additions to the additions, and commentary in concentric waves emanating from the center. This was how knowledge spread and grew. And without it, human progress would have been impossible. There was no copyright.

    3. (1) in the public domain or (2) licensed in a manner that provides everyone with free and perpetual permission to engage in the 5R activities:

      Of course,this means that the vast majority of resources are open and that this is, in fact, the default category for everything save what is explicitly excluded from it. Oddly, however, exclusion appears to be automatic - for a period of years - so exclusion from the exclusion requires explicit declaration via CC or some other mechanism.

      No surprises, this convoluted system is designed to protect the "proprietary" rights of distributors. Viz: George Michael vs Sony

    1. But if access, use, modification and sharing are impaired, by whatever mechanism, then conversion has taken place, and the resource is no longer open.

      Conversion happens with some distributions of Linux, which are not free. This does not mean that the Linux OS is no longer open, just that this or that distribution - which is Linux plus whatever added value has been built into it - is not open. The alternative to it is any free distribution.

    2. the purpose of a functional definition - one based on the ability of a person to access, use, modify and share the resource - is that it enables a simple empirical test. Instead of metaphysical discussions about the nature of an object

      This is unique to Downe's definition. The openness of the object is not a function of the object itself, but of what one can DO with it: "Can I access it? Can I use it?" etc.

    1. seeks any profits made off of the Moulton study guides

      Karma. In the mean time, what about all of those students who were told they would learn something valuable and all they learned was how to repeat canned answers on an exam?

    2. notes can be re-sold to other students in advance of exams

      This is only possible if it brings benefit to students, and the learning environment in which this is profitable is so impoverished that students should actually be suing the university for dereliction of duty, incompetence, and deliberate misrepresentation.

      Worrying about whether this violates someone's property rights is hardly worth the effort.

    3. What if a student took notes, but didn't copy anything verbatim from a professor's lecture, and then decided to publish the notes online or sell them?

      That would be research. God forbid that students should do research!

      What if someone read the Torah and didn't quote it verbatim but explained it in their own words.That would be exegesis and expansion on meaning, extending and applying this. Talmud.

    4. protected infringement

      "Protected infringement" - such a beautiful concept. You have to love law. It is as counter intuitive as quantum physics.

    5. Cliffs Notes, which summarize copyrighted novels

      Cliff Notes - a god send to generations of students who can't be bothered with reading or thinking. This works only in broadcast pedagogy, where there is a "correct answer" to every question and that answer is in the PowerPoint presentation "that I gave you" or in Cliff Notes, if I was smart enough not to do a PPT.

    6. students who don't always want to go to the classes they are paying for

      Red flag. The writer's animosity toward students is thinly veiled. This is a general manifestation of American anti-intellectualism.

    7. Moulton and his e-textbook publisher are suing Thomas Bean, who runs a company that repackages and sells student notes, arguing that the business is illegal since notes taken during college lectures violate the professor's copyright.

      This is actually common practice in Saudi Arabia though it is often the professors who collate the notes and sell them via "student services" bureaux located near university campuses. These services also package and sell exams, which are typically reused year in and year out. This provides professors with an extra revenue flow upon which many depend.

  22. www.hewlett.org www.hewlett.org
    1. What are the reasons for this rising cost?

      According to a study by U Michigan Library, 1) short revision cycles - often unnecessary and only intended to force new purchases and prevent students from selling their old books back; 2) bundling of new materials - software, workbooks etc. 3) market features: those who chose to buy (faculty) are not those who buy (students) - chooser does not bear the cost - as in prescription medicine selected by a doctor - separation of choice from payment influences cost dramatically.

      That is to say: exploitative market practices cheat students and drive them significantly further into debt.

  23. Mar 2020
  24. academiapedagogilor.ro academiapedagogilor.ro
    1. a pedagogy which engages and challenges students and provides them with learning experiences relevant to the 21st Century (collaboration, problem solving, critical thinking and technology integration)

      Direct alignment with KFSC curriculum.

    1. Good online teaching requires intentional design and intentional practices that share some things with face-to-face teaching, but which also require significant mental and procedural shifts on the parts of both instructors and students.

      Does this require detailed planning before the first day of class?

    1. Did learners achieve the intended knowledge, skills, and/or attitudes that were the focus of the instructional experience?

      What to evaluate?

    2. In reality, it is a way of thinking about delivery modes, methods, and media, specifically as they map to rapidly changing needs and limitations in resources, such as faculty support and training

      What is ERT?

  25. Feb 2020
    1. predictive data analytics that employ the LMS as a surveillance tool

      Prediction and surveillance are two distinct functions. Predictive analytics may be useful to students in some ways.

    2. I see the LMS merely as an online service to students

      That is one of its functions, but there are others. All LMS are not the same.

    3. data in an LMS should be limited to the courses in which students are enrolled, and any use of data beyond that purpose should be protected by a data privacy policy, requiring permission for reuse beyond that original purpose

      Institutional policy could declare this to be so, but the institution may not be able to enforce this policy on the LMS vendor without legislation. Business does the right thing for business - almost always.

    4. it's better to acknowledge the tension rather than to pretend that it does not exist

      The tension between business and public interest in education policy and practice has been around for a long time. The standardized testing industry has had significant influence on public education for a long time, they even have a term for it - "washback". The educational publishing industry is another example, with large states like Texas and California virtually dictating content and curricula for smaller states that publishers don't see any material advantage in catering for.

    1. providing an environment of active learning for the students in large classes

      Lays out reasons for using method: compels students to pay attention, be responsible, prepare for class, think critically.

      Explanation reflects lecturer's view of students as subjects to be acted on. It is patronizing and degrading. The lecturer's monopolization of authority to speak undermines her stated goals in using the method. The actual goal appears to be to maintain authority through a type of call and response activity.

    2. developing the ability to present ideas forcefully and effectively in such contexts is integral to becoming a lawyer.

      This is not the same as speaking in a group. People speak when they feel safe - if they do not feel safe, they may not speak. Extroverts speak when they have noting to say / introverts hesitate even when they have something important to say. This outcome: present ideas effectively - is not directly associated with speaking in groups.

    3. understanding

      Why use Socratic method and how does it differ from lecturing?

    4. Lawyers are, first and foremost, problem solvers, and the primary task of law school is to equip our students with the tools they need to solve problems. The law will change over the course of our lifetimes, and the problems we confront will vary tremendously. Law professors cannot provide students with certain answers, but we can help develop reasoning skills that lawyers can apply, regardless of the legal question.

      I think this applies to most fields today.

    5. the possibility of activities that will be as delightful as they are useful

      This core pedagogical principle, that people need to feel safe to learn, and pleasure is a key element in learning. The writer immediately abandons both principles in her discussion of her 'Socratic Method' of lecturing.

  26. May 2019
    1. Six key themes emerged from the data: benefits of an ePortfolio at the curriculum level, ePortfolios as an enabling technology, the value of reflection, the role of user support, the speed and quality of feedback, and mitigating distance and isolation.

      The role of reflection is important when considering education as a transformational experience. This could be a key distinguishing feature between training and education.

  27. Feb 2017
    1. President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Saturday ordered the government to take all necessary measures to help resettle Christians who have fled Egypt’s Northern Sinai after Daesh killed several members of the community.

      No source for this information is given though the phrase "take all necessary measures" suggests an official communique.

  28. Dec 2016
    1. Sometimes I think of it in terms of a figure. You try to stretch people's minds and their understanding, but if you move too fast then you break the connection.

      Keeping your purpose in mind. There is no point in leaving students behind, though many do this, some unwittingly and some deliberately. If the purpose is to stretch minds, then you need to be mindful not to break the connection.

    2. The acceptance of doing something different has to do with the understanding of a former experience in which there were subjects that were discussed.

      Very important construct in change - central to Cultural Historical Activity Theory - Engstrom.

  29. Nov 2016
  30. Sep 2016
    1. studies indicate that a text needs to be about 98% comprehensible in order for it to help the reader acquire new vocabulary

      Source: Hu and Nation - seems to contradict "context clue" argument for uncovering new vocab. This may work if 98% is already there. May still be dark for jargon and technical terms.

  31. May 2016
    1. What is clear is that the LMS has been highly successful in enabling the administration of learning but less so in enabling learning itself.

      LMS are most often institutionally mandated and maintained so it is not surprising that institutional interests would predominate.

    1. affords a broad coverage

      Oops! What is to be "covered" exactly?

    2. planned focus-on-form of the kind illustrated inDoughty and Varela’s study is time consuming. Whole lessons (even series of les-sons) need to be devoted to a single form. In this respect, it is like focus-on-forms.

      This is less interesting. It is just another type of explicit grammar instruction.

    3. s‘thefactorthatdistinguishes focus on form from other pedagogical approaches is the require-ment that focus on form involves learners’ briefly and perhaps simultaneouslyattending to form, meaning and use during one cognitive event’

      This appears to be based on some type of "brain science".

    4. This has led some researchers (e.g. Long, 1991; Doughty, 2001) to suggest that anapproach based on focus-on-form would work better.

      They suppose it might work. Is there evidence that it does work?

    5. Whilethere is substantial evidence that focus-on-forms instruction results in learning asmeasured by discrete-point language tests (e.g. the grammar test in the TOEFL),there is much less evidence to show that it leads to the kind of learning that enableslearners to perform the targeted form in free oral production (e.g. in a communicativetask).

      Students can answer correctly on grammar tests but they cannot use the same forms correctly when speaking or writing.

  32. Apr 2016
    1. useless to think that technology is somehow going to wake us from our thousand-year stupor and reinvent education.

      Totally.

      How radio will transform education circa 1935.

    2. I am not in the world simply to adapt to it, but rather transform it

      Assuming everyone seeks transformative change. This proposition is naturally egotistical. How is enforced change better than enforced stasis? I read about Sumaria. This society existed in a changeless state for thousands of years. What a world that must have been. How secure people must have felt. Who knows? The point is that change is possible, if you want it. Autonomy and agency mean we are able to choose, not that we must choose this or that.

    3. digital culture hangs its hat on the ideal of openness and access

      This is a very important point. The thing that brought me to ed tech was the ability these tools gave me to redefine my role in the classroom - and this redefinition is essential if students are to attain any freedom, independence, and autonomy. Tech is a tool that can lead to a transformation. The LMS is an attempt to build a wall around this openness - plagiarism obsession is another. Just using tech, thought, does not bring openness. Tech can be used to build a prison just as effectively as bricks and mortar.

    4. posting to Tumblr or Pinterest isn’t or can’t be educational

      It's very common for people to wonder how doing anything outside the canon can be "educational". Today at school, my son filled a balloon with sand. He showed this to me with wonder. A balloon you can squish and it changes its shape. Oh! Balloons can't be educational. I forgot!