May » 2009 » Carol J. Carter

Texting May Be Taking a Toll

CAROL’S SUMMARY:

Yesterday and today, we worked with a school district, training teachers and administrators from elementary through high school.Â When we asked them what characterizes some of their challenges working with todayâ€™s students, they cited texting and cell phone use as a huge problem.Â The article below is right on with their concerns.Â

Too much texting at school, out of school and in class has caused major problems in focusing and being attentive, teachers say.Â Â Â If studentsÂ are continually distracted by responding to everyone who texts them ( American teenagers sent an average of over 2,000 text messages a month) then they arenâ€™t able to set and maintain boundaries which can allow them to concentrate and follow-through when they need to do that.

Parents and teachers need to work with students on critically analyzing the pros and cons of technologyâ€”especially texting which is the most prevalent Â means of communication among young people. Â Many teens say they would rather text than make a phone call or have an in-person conversation.Â Not only is too much texting an issue of attention, it can also be addicting for students, sucking them into texting all the time at the expense of their own mental and emotional health.Â Â Texting has also fostered an unabashed language of sexual innuendos and trash talk which hamper personal and interpersonal self-respect.

If we really want to help young teens develop their emotional intelligence, as parents and educators, we need to model more attentive interaction ourselves, engage in honest discussions about pros and cons of technology and the basics of how to manage oneself with increasingly complex choices.Â If we are honest about this problem, we can give students the tools to listen to themselves, be brave enough to turn off distractions when needed and say â€œnoâ€ at the right time.

ARTICLE:

New York Times

By KATIE HAFNER

They do it late at night when their parents are asleep. They do it in restaurants and while crossing busy streets. They do it in the classroom with their hands behind their back. They do it so much their thumbs hurt.

Spurred by the unlimited texting plans offered by carriers like AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless, American teenagers sent and received an average of 2,272 text messages per month in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to the Nielsen Company â€” almost 80 messages a day, more than double the average of a year earlier. Â

To view entire article visit

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/health/26teen.html?emc=eta1

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New Push Seeks to End Need for Pre-College Remedial Classes

CAROL’S SUMMARY:
More than 60% of students at community colleges need remediation for math or English or both and 30% need remediation at 4 year colleges. Many are clamoring for colleges to hold high schools to much greater accountability so that they donâ€™t need to do â€œclean-upâ€ work at the college level.

High schools across the country should offer student success classes for freshmen in high school, setting the bar high for academic skills which can help them throughout high school and beyond. In addition to this academic preparation, students need emotional and social skills which will allow them to seek and appreciate challenges in college, career and life. LifeBound resources provide these opportunities.

ARTICLE
New York Times
By SAM DILLON

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. â€” After Bethany Martin graduated from high school here last June, she was surprised when the local community college told her that she had to retake classes like basic composition, for no college credit. Each remedial course costs her $350, more than a weekâ€™s pay from her job at a Chick-fil-A restaurant.

To view entire article visit
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/education/28remedial.html

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Teaching Online: 2 Perspectives

CAROL’S SUMMARY:

In the article below, Gina Greco, a professor of English at Hudson Valley Community College, explains why on-line learning has opened up her true passion for teaching and what you need to do as a faculty member to be
effective at teaching in this environment.Â One big difference is how you communicate to students through writing with a pithy, positive style. Most of her students are older, returning and have lacked success in their other academic endeavors.Â This is a fresh start to change habits and lives through education.Â This medium has tremendous power to transform learning around the world.

Right now, I am in the cab riding to the airport. My cab driver, Tom, is enrolled in all on-line classes through the University of Phoenix.Â As a returning adult student, he says that the fluid nature of his classes keeps his mind mentally sharp all day long as he considers class assignments and issues while driving his cab. Tom makes use of his downtime waiting for clients while he uses his Broadband Access card.Â Â Â He is a marketing major and has creatively developed an internship, which accommodates his schedule, his classes and his family.Â In addition to being hard-working and creative, he showed up to pick me up this morning fifteen minutes early. This type of industriousness is just what our graduates need to create every advantage for themselves in any economy.

Â ARTICLE:
By GINA GRECO
A Reaffirmation of Why I Became an Educator

“Impersonal, disconnected, and unfulfilling.” That is how I would have answered if you asked me 10 years ago what I thought of online teaching. As a teacher, I feed off the energy of the crowd and thrive on exciting and entertaining my students to the point of drawing even the most resistant into attending class. When the economy and my growing family necessitated that I teach online as well as in the classroom, I couldn’t have been more surprised by the satisfaction and joy that could come from a distance-learning program.

To view entire article visit

http://chronicle.com/temp/email2.php?id=qCrbjqTGncnqhhXHJfFNTKshnHCz4rxk

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Internationally, the Business of Education is Booming

International education is here to stay and colleges are figuring out how to provide these opportunities to students as a way to stay competitive themselves. Indeed, as the article below indicates, students today will graduate into a global world so understanding how the world works will be key beyond studying in London or Australia. Going to places like China, The United Arab Emirates, India and Spanish speaking nations will serve students better for the long run.

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AP poll: Most students stressed, some depressed

CAROL’S SUMMARY:
Students today have stress levels which are at an all time high. Some high school students are stressed about the college that they did or didnâ€™t get into and the standard fears all students have about beginning college. Other students are stressed who arenâ€™t going to college because they will be trying to find a job in one of the most difficult markets in twenty-five years. College students are worried about student loans, class size and the pressure to get jobs and internships this summer.

Whether students are in high school or college, many are absorbing stress from parents who have been laid off, suffered financial hardship or have been given double doses of workloads for jobs which still may be in jeopardy. Many students can feel this stress in their families, as well as the typical stressors which entering young adult life brings.

There are some very specific ways that students can deal with stress and depression:

1) Get help. Students with strong self-advocacy skills do better in school and in life than lone-ranger students who â€œgo it aloneâ€ with their problems. There are many professionals available to help you. Access them.

2) Write down your stressors. When problems are defined, they can be solved. Free floating anxiety creates more problems and seems to balloon situations which can be broken down and dealt with.

3) Ask questions about alternate ways to view your problems. Perspective is one of the best ways to see your challenges from the 20,000 foot level. Often, you can find alternatives which can help you greatly.

4) Give yourself some time. Take the time to do one or two things that give you energy and help you feel calmâ€”like running, writing in your journal or sitting quietly as you listen to music.

These are challenging times, yes, but they are also an opportunity to discover what you are made of and what you can withstand. These are life qualities which will serve you well throughout your personal and professional life. As Mary Chapin Carpenter said, â€œKeep the faith, donâ€™t give it away.â€

ARTICLE:
By NANCY BENAC and TREVOR TOMPSON, Associated Press

WASHINGTON â€“ Stress over grades. Financial worries. Trouble sleeping. Feeling hopeless.

So much for those carefree college days.

The vast majority of college students are feeling stressed these days, and significant numbers are at risk of depression, according to an Associated Press-mtvU poll
Eighty-five percent of the students reported feeling stress in their daily lives in recent months, with worries about grades, school work, money and relationships the big culprits.

To read the entire article visit
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090521/ap_on_re_us/us_college_poll_depression

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A Year of College for All: What the President’s Plan Would Mean for the Country

CAROL’S SUMMARY:
President Obama is calling for every American high school student to have at least one year of college, technical training or apprenticeship. Forty-five percent of Americans (101.5 million adults) have never attended college, and the stakes may be higher for advanced education in the coming years. Each year of additional college, as the article below indicates, can significantly increase lifetime earnings.

In the current down economy, those without a college degree have been the hardest hit. In April, people without college were two times as likely to be unemployed as people who had “some” college, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. According to Obama, this is an era where you, “earn what you learn” and Americans need to shore up the current drop-out rate to produce a strong economy in the future. Turning around these trends are absolutely related to quality of life for most boomers in the next twenty
years.

ARTICLE:
Chronicle of Higher Education
By KELLY FIELD

President Obama hasn’t met Serena Baker, but she may be just who he had in mind when he challenged every American to commit to a “year or more” of higher education or training.

To view the entire article visit
http://chronicle.com/temp/email2.php?id=hGZXSmDbxv6n5stM23j9zvcRCVpbq8zw

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Test Preparation May Help High Scorers Most, Report Says

Test preparation and coaching, such as the services that Kaplan and Princeton Review provide, can raise student test scores by 30%. However, those families who need it most, as the article below indicates, are often excluded from this type of service since they can’t afford it.

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Will Higher Education Be the Next Bubble to Burst?

CAROL’S SUMMARY:

In the last twenty-five years, average college tuition in the United States has increased 440%, more than four times the rate of inflation and twice the rate of medical care, states the article below from today’s Chronicle of Higher Education. With the stock market decline of more the 30%, many parents and students are asking if Higher Education might be the next bubble to burst as they scramble to seek lower priced options for learning. Many
students will live at home and go to community colleges this fall, the applications of which are up nationally by 40%.

Colleges are also looking at innovative ways they could avoid a bubble burst. Some are recommending year-long programs and many are already offering more nighttime and weekend classes. Colleges are also looking at increasing on-line course offering to up to 20% or more to compete with
non-traditional establishments like the University of Phoenix. But more institutions need to see this situation as urgent and morph to new, more workable models.

What we can learn from the dot com burst and the current housing crisis, which has sent markets world-wide roiling, is that no established institution is immune from reinventing itself–including education. The earlier we can take charge to establish new, more efficient learning options with higher quality of delivery at more affordable prices, the more we will
be able to educate the masses. Those who need this most to improve their lives and fuel our economic future–low income students who can least afford these sticker prices–will stand to gain the most over the course of their lives if we can turn this around now. As a nation, we stand to have few people in prison, fewer people in low earning jobs and more people contributing to the betterment of their own lives, their community and the world as a whole.

ARTICLE
By JOSEPH MARR CRONIN and HOWARD E. HORTON

The public has become all too aware of the term “bubble” to describe an asset that is irrationally and artificially overvalued and cannot be sustained. The dot-com bubble burst by 2000. More recently the overextended housing market collapsed, helping to trigger a credit meltdown. The stock market has declined more than 30 percent in the past year, as companies once considered flagship investments have withered in value.

To view the entire article visit
http://chronicle.com/temp/email2.php?id=xcrHNkgzDmxtWbgp2dwgffkNbSdZJtw5

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Colleges Seek New Ways to Give Students a General Education

CAROL’S SUMMARY:

What do college graduates today need to know? In the article below, colleges are carefully reviewing a long standing guideline developed in 1945 by professors at Harvard. The call at that time was for: honest thinking,
clearness of expression and the habit of gathering and weighing evidence before concluding. In a nutshell, this is the heart of critical thinking.

But colleges today are looking at those learning components in a larger context. Grads are entering a global world, and they need knowledge as well as these skills which employers require:
Â *teamwork skills with diverse groups
Â *strong written and oral communication
Â *general success skills not tied to majors.

Employers want skills and experience, not merely knowledge and inert critical thinking skills. So today’s colleges must come up with learning outcomes whereby students can measure their progress in class and out in effort to become world-class ready.

ARTICLE:
Chronicle of Higher Education
By David Glenn

A balanced diet of course workâ€”a mathematics class here, a few history and literature courses thereâ€”may be a fine and healthy thing. But course-distribution requirements probably are not enough to guarantee that undergraduates acquire a broad range of knowledge and skills.

To view the entire article visit
http://chronicle.com/temp/email2.php?id=zNnyfgCbvymwsVcGXFgQHT5cx32QngVN

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Not Enough Time in the Library

CAROL’S SUMMARY:

In the article below, the case is made that many of today’s students are tech-savvy and research-stupid. Faculty assume that because students know how to use technology that they also know how to make good judgments,
evaluate sources, acquire information on-line as well as from the library, etc. Indeed, many college students don’t know how to use the library.

The bigger issue here goes beyond research skills to the general ability to have solid critical and creative thinking skills. If high schools begin to work with their freshmen on these skills they will not only have better research abilities, they will also make more informed life decisions, be able
to weigh pros and cons in decisions they make and be much more mature in their overall outlook on college, career and life. If these skills are developed, they will be better students, get better jobs and lead better lives.

LifeBound is publishing Critical and Creative Thinking for Teenagers next month.

ARTICLE:
Chronicle of Higher Education

Just because your students are computer-literate doesn’t mean they are research-literate.

By TODD GILMAN

As an academic librarian, I hear an awful lot of hype about using technology to enhance instruction in colleges and universities. While the very word “technology” â€” not to mention the jargon that crops up around it, like “interactive whiteboards” and “smart classrooms” â€” sounds exciting and impressive, what it boils down to is really just a set of tools. They’re useful tools, but they don’t offer content beyond what the users put into them

To view the entire article visit
http://chronicle.com/temp/email2.php?id=vSG8HzkMfbPHYRzjzzKGxyrkjdztnxKH

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