21
Apr

MOOCs, Machines, and Music

Written by Blog Editor. Posted in Academic News

School Prepared Writing
by UrbanDigger.com under CC BY-ND

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School Prepared Writing

Remember how I said that we really should take “clapping for credit” classes a lot more seriously (and a lot more usually)? Coursera (which Audrey Watters alluded to here on IHE but examines far more fully here) is supplying a MOOC in Listening to World Music. And Science Fiction and Fantasy! There is a complete list of intriguing classes getting provided. I’m drawn to the humanities offerings (I admittedly require to brush up on my Greek mythology, and I am a sucker for SF), but if I am trying to enhance the digital side of my DH academic identity, the computer system science courses may well be the way to go.

Since, as Audrey says, I have so considerably cost-free time on my hands.

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Machine grading. There has been very a lot of discussion about this lately. I’ve been following the discussion on the WPA listserv, and added to the conversation by sending out Mark Bousquet’s piece outlining how robot grading is a logical conclusion to the drive to automate education. It’s a longer piece, but it’s really instructive and an important wake-up contact. I was astounded by the response I received, if only due to the fact a lot more and much more on the web/digital “services” for college students are fundamentally quote mining to make the investigation and writing process much more efficient.

As one response put it, we are the Ctrl (or Apple) +F generation. I wonder, though, how a lot (once yet again) the way larger education is set up truly can make us as complicit in this shift. In a publish or perish surroundings wherever quantity typically outweighs quality, how considerably do we really read, believe deeply, and genuinely realize all of these secondary sources we are necessary in numerous instances to include in any of our perform. I bear in mind for my qualifying examination in Globe Literature, we all received the comment, “superficial” on our solutions from one particular of the professors (who, notably, didn’t educate any classes in the program since of various program releases for investigation). My response was, what did you anticipate when you attempt to teach us ALL of world literature in two semesters, then ask us to research for 4 more months, then give us two hrs to hand-compose our solutions to two questions?

It’s remarkable to me that the two (politically) opposite Mark’s more than at the Brainstorm blog site (Bousquet and Bauerline) look to be coming down on the very same side of an issue. Bauerline talks about speed and how we publish also much, which fits in with the ideas Bousquet puts forward concerning the industrialization of education (and analysis). We are a Ctrl+F generation of academics simply because that’s what we have been told to become. Is it any wonder that we teach our students the exact same habits.

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This week’s chat talked about ecocomposition and sustainable composition. I wonder if college students don’t see deep thinking and analysis/near reading through as sustainable offered their chaotic lives and the speed at which the globe moves these days. Productivity is key. And I know that they are more interested in breadth, not depth. I’m not saying they’re appropriate. I’m just saying that it’s an uphill battle, not only simply because of our students’ attitudes, but also due to the fact of the messages that we ourselves and the institutions are sending the students. For numerous of my college students, between working to assist shell out for school, taking care of family members, and having a daily life, there isn’t significantly time for deep pondering and shut, slow reading through.

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Oh, by the way, the folks above at Coursera apparently are making an attempt to move AWAY from robot graders. Go figure. There’s more to creating and understanding than an algorythm? Radical notion.

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This is late since I took the children to see the Imagination Movers in concert in Cincinnati. There have been tons and lots of families with each mothers and fathers there at a four PM show, and I doubt really much they have been all academic couples taking benefit of the flexibility academia offers. Looks like folks get to consider afternoons off in the “real planet” as nicely.

I’m not positive who was a lot more excited about the display, me or the young children. We also got to go to an smaller sized immediately after-celebration with the band. I hugely advise checking these guys out if you have kids under about the age of eight. Their music is great (and not just tolerable) they use rock, ska, New Wave, and punk influences in their music, and the lyrics variety from goofy to downright poignant. I also value the truth that they never talk down to kids, nor do they try out to dumb-down their music. They are genuinely wonderful guys from New Orleans who started producing music for their youngsters and grew to become (fairly) renowned. They asked us to spread the word about them.

Contemplate it spread.

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