This might be something you look at over the break or after you graduate.
Saturday, September 30, 2017
Friday, September 29, 2017
From a Talk I Attended at the Educause Learning Initiative
Below is one slide from a PowerPoint presentation given back in 2008. The talk was done by Thomas Reeves. Many of the ideas in the presentation resonated with me. You can click through the entire PowerPoint and get a sense of the ideas and issues. It might also help you to understand the methods we are using in our class. They derive from the considerations discussed in this talk.
Here is one other point. While I think much of your education should be ethical, I am somewhat uncomfortable being put in the role of provider of that education. I am trying to contain my role to getting you to consider the issues. How to resolve the issues is for you to determine on your own or in consultation with friends, family, and your spiritual advisors.
Regarding the discussion we had in class yesterday about tipping, where I jokingly said that members of the class are too nice, you should be aware of some more current research that shows many people are very nice in certain contexts and then not nice at all in other contexts. The current research tries to reconcile this inconsistency.
Here is one other point. While I think much of your education should be ethical, I am somewhat uncomfortable being put in the role of provider of that education. I am trying to contain my role to getting you to consider the issues. How to resolve the issues is for you to determine on your own or in consultation with friends, family, and your spiritual advisors.
Regarding the discussion we had in class yesterday about tipping, where I jokingly said that members of the class are too nice, you should be aware of some more current research that shows many people are very nice in certain contexts and then not nice at all in other contexts. The current research tries to reconcile this inconsistency.
Discovery as Learning
I liked this quote.
Quote Details: Albert Szent-Gyorgyi: Discovery consists of seeing... - The Quotations Page via kwout
If you find connections between your experience and the topics of the course as you compose your blog posts or during discussion in class, that would fit in with the quote and make you a budding social scientist!
Thursday, September 28, 2017
Evaluation of Tenth Class Session
The comments on the previous evaluations were interesting and useful to me. So I will continue with the evaluation for this session, even if it is more lecture than discussion.
Budgeting at the U of I - For Class Session on 9/27
PowerPoint on Budgeting Fundamentals - we'll look at slides 6 and 7
Question: What determines how much revenue a unit has in its budget?
Library Model - Funding off he top
Responsibility Centered Management - Funding determined by a formula that relates last year's activities and last year's budget to this year's budget.
Grants and gifts treated differently - those might go directly to the unit, in all or part.
Tuition surcharge that some colleges charge and graduate student tuition treated somewhat like grants and gifts.
Cost Recovery Model - Unit sells its services to other units on campus. The revenue from those sales determine the unit's budget.
In times of stability of revenue and activity this year's budget looks remarkably like last year's budget. When there are dramatic changes in revenues and/or the demand for services, that creates stress on budgets.
New (2016) Report from Campus Budget Advisory Task Force
Graph from page 8 of the report
Question: What determines how much revenue a unit has in its budget?
Library Model - Funding off he top
Responsibility Centered Management - Funding determined by a formula that relates last year's activities and last year's budget to this year's budget.
Grants and gifts treated differently - those might go directly to the unit, in all or part.
Tuition surcharge that some colleges charge and graduate student tuition treated somewhat like grants and gifts.
Cost Recovery Model - Unit sells its services to other units on campus. The revenue from those sales determine the unit's budget.
In times of stability of revenue and activity this year's budget looks remarkably like last year's budget. When there are dramatic changes in revenues and/or the demand for services, that creates stress on budgets.
New (2016) Report from Campus Budget Advisory Task Force
Graph from page 8 of the report
About the Course Project - Process
The previous post described the format and length requirements for the paper. In this post we will consider more about what you are to deliver and when.
There will be two drafts - a first draft and a subsequent revision. The first draft needs to be an earnest effort. I will then provide detailed feedback on that first draft within the body of the paper using the Track Changes feature of Word and the Comment tool. I will provide a demo of how to use those tools in class.
When you submit your second draft, accompanying your revision you will included to me a memo of how you addressed each comment from what I sent in the first draft. This memo is very helpful to me to understand what you did in response. I will comment on your second draft, probably not inline only at the end, unless there are egregious errors that still need to be fixed.
Assuming your second draft is okay, I will let you know that. From there you are to make a virtual elevator speech - an overview presentation of your project. In form, those will be like the PowerPoint presentations I've made for the first few weeks of the class. These will be posted in Moodle for the class to see. I will give more instructions on the virtual elevator speech neared to when you will be working on it.
Please remember - in all communication with me about your project copy your teammates on your message.
Deadlines:
First Draft Due - October 27 at noon. The October 27 part is a hard deadline. I will not accept a paper turned in the next day. I will process these as fast as I can so you can start on the revision asap.
Second Draft Due - Novemeber 17 at noon. This is the Friday before the Thanksgiving break. There is a soft deadline here because we don't have class the following week. But you will enjoy your break more if you meet this deadline as well.
Virtual Elevator Speech Due - December 14 at noon. This is Reading Day.
There will be two drafts - a first draft and a subsequent revision. The first draft needs to be an earnest effort. I will then provide detailed feedback on that first draft within the body of the paper using the Track Changes feature of Word and the Comment tool. I will provide a demo of how to use those tools in class.
When you submit your second draft, accompanying your revision you will included to me a memo of how you addressed each comment from what I sent in the first draft. This memo is very helpful to me to understand what you did in response. I will comment on your second draft, probably not inline only at the end, unless there are egregious errors that still need to be fixed.
Assuming your second draft is okay, I will let you know that. From there you are to make a virtual elevator speech - an overview presentation of your project. In form, those will be like the PowerPoint presentations I've made for the first few weeks of the class. These will be posted in Moodle for the class to see. I will give more instructions on the virtual elevator speech neared to when you will be working on it.
Please remember - in all communication with me about your project copy your teammates on your message.
Deadlines:
First Draft Due - October 27 at noon. The October 27 part is a hard deadline. I will not accept a paper turned in the next day. I will process these as fast as I can so you can start on the revision asap.
Second Draft Due - Novemeber 17 at noon. This is the Friday before the Thanksgiving break. There is a soft deadline here because we don't have class the following week. But you will enjoy your break more if you meet this deadline as well.
Virtual Elevator Speech Due - December 14 at noon. This is Reading Day.
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
Suggestions for Course Paper
The paper is meant to be formal writing, yet with the intended audience students who will take the class in the future. I know much student to student communication is quite informal and full of abbreviations, driven by how texting has changed the way we communicate. So what I mean here is that student readers should find your paper not too difficult to understand, if they put in the effort to read it. This means that if you use jargon, you must define it in understandable terms. It also means that you shouldn't take long excerpts from the paper you are reviewing and instead put the arguments in the paper into your own words. Beyond that, here are several specific suggestions.
Chunk the paper and use section headings for each chunk.
Some specific sections that you should include are (You can have other sections as well and/or have multiple sections associated with any one of these.):
1. What is the main issue that the paper deals with? (You should come up with your one section heading for this and the remaining sections.)
2. What is the contribution of the paper? If others have also written on this issue how has this paper added to our understanding as compared to what came before?
3. How do the issues of the paper tie into what we've done in the class?
4. What are some lessons learned from the paper?
5. Do you have your own views on the matter or some examples you can bring in that are not discussed in the paper but that might illustrate ideas in the paper?
6. Conclusion
A big deal issue with formal writing is the sequencing of your presentation. Even after you know what you are going to say, you need to order your presentation that will make it logical for the reader. One thought that guides formal writing is that the authors do the work so the readers don't have to.
Each team member needs to own the whole paper.
This means, in particular, that if one team member writes a section of the paper, the other edits that section and makes changes to it in an effort to improve things. It also means that each team member is concerned with whether one section flows into the next in a smooth way. Abrupt transitions are to be avoided, because they confuse the reader.
Format of the paper
Please submit a Word document, preferably a docx file. I may use Track Changes in giving my response. I will try to give a demo in class of how to use Track Changes, as my prior experience is that some students are unfamiliar with it.
You need a title page. It has the name of the paper, the team name, the date, and an abstract, which is a brief summary of what the paper is about.
Starting with the next page, the body of the paper should be between 6 and 10 pages, single space within paragraphs, line space between paragraphs. Font size should be 11 or 12 point. Margins should be 1 inch. Since the paper this would be printed out on is 8.5 x 11 inches, this means the writing area is 6.5 x 9 inches.
Please use page numbers as it makes it easier to refer to parts of your paper in an email. Do not number the title page. I prefer page numbers to be on the bottom of the page. If you start a New Section after the title page and you format page numbers so the new section begins with page 1, that will give you the desired result.
After the body of the paper you need a page for references, rather than put footnotes to references in the body of the paper. My preferred way of doing this is that the first time you refer to the reference in your paper you list authors only, not the title of the piece. If you make subsequent use of the references you can then repeat the authors names. Then in the reference area, you can make a full reference. I like to have those hyperlinked to the source if possible. And if you are real slick, you can put in internal links in the paper from where you refer to the piece to the reference item. That makes things quite convenient for the reader.
Chunk the paper and use section headings for each chunk.
Some specific sections that you should include are (You can have other sections as well and/or have multiple sections associated with any one of these.):
1. What is the main issue that the paper deals with? (You should come up with your one section heading for this and the remaining sections.)
2. What is the contribution of the paper? If others have also written on this issue how has this paper added to our understanding as compared to what came before?
3. How do the issues of the paper tie into what we've done in the class?
4. What are some lessons learned from the paper?
5. Do you have your own views on the matter or some examples you can bring in that are not discussed in the paper but that might illustrate ideas in the paper?
6. Conclusion
A big deal issue with formal writing is the sequencing of your presentation. Even after you know what you are going to say, you need to order your presentation that will make it logical for the reader. One thought that guides formal writing is that the authors do the work so the readers don't have to.
Each team member needs to own the whole paper.
This means, in particular, that if one team member writes a section of the paper, the other edits that section and makes changes to it in an effort to improve things. It also means that each team member is concerned with whether one section flows into the next in a smooth way. Abrupt transitions are to be avoided, because they confuse the reader.
Format of the paper
Please submit a Word document, preferably a docx file. I may use Track Changes in giving my response. I will try to give a demo in class of how to use Track Changes, as my prior experience is that some students are unfamiliar with it.
You need a title page. It has the name of the paper, the team name, the date, and an abstract, which is a brief summary of what the paper is about.
Starting with the next page, the body of the paper should be between 6 and 10 pages, single space within paragraphs, line space between paragraphs. Font size should be 11 or 12 point. Margins should be 1 inch. Since the paper this would be printed out on is 8.5 x 11 inches, this means the writing area is 6.5 x 9 inches.
Please use page numbers as it makes it easier to refer to parts of your paper in an email. Do not number the title page. I prefer page numbers to be on the bottom of the page. If you start a New Section after the title page and you format page numbers so the new section begins with page 1, that will give you the desired result.
After the body of the paper you need a page for references, rather than put footnotes to references in the body of the paper. My preferred way of doing this is that the first time you refer to the reference in your paper you list authors only, not the title of the piece. If you make subsequent use of the references you can then repeat the authors names. Then in the reference area, you can make a full reference. I like to have those hyperlinked to the source if possible. And if you are real slick, you can put in internal links in the paper from where you refer to the piece to the reference item. That makes things quite convenient for the reader.
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