Monday, February 20, 2012

Getting It Right

by Sharon Warkentin Short

            A friend of mine told the story of how their eldest daughter (upper elementary age) had taunted her little sister for being “ig-NOR-ant” of some fact. The mother had responded, “If you are going to call somebody ignorant, you should probably pronounce it correctly.”
            I feel a little bit like that mom when I see scholars using inaccurate forms of terms borrowed from other languages. If we are going to toss around Latin phrases, we should probably make sure our grammar, spelling, and pronunciation are correct. I am referring to variations of the phrase represented by the abbreviation CV, which is widely used in academic circles. It stands for “curriculum vitae,” and can be translated “course of life.” Although “vita” is the correct nominative form of the word for “life,” when it is used in the prepositional phrase it must be written “vitae” meaning “of life”. (“Vitae” is also the plural nominative form, which might be a source of some of the confusion.)
            All that to say, “curriculum vita” is never correct. Only when it stands alone could “vita” be used to describe the summary of an individual’s life. “Curriculum vitas” (meaning more than one CV) is also erroneous. To refer to more than one such document, the correct form is “curricula vitae” (“courses of life”). Oh, and it is properly pronounced “vee-TIE,” not “vee-TAY.”
            Who cares? Or more to the point, who would even know? Probably only a handful of Latin scholars would recognize these errors, but excellent scholarship by definition demands accuracy in as many details as humanly possible. Practicing precision is habitual for outstanding scholars, in small matters as well as large. 

Sunday, February 12, 2012

The Third Thing

by Sharon Warkentin Short 

       Every now and then, an idea from a book changes forever the way you think about something. This was my experience when I read The Courage to Teach by Parker J. Palmer (Jossey-Bass, 1998). Parker challenges the traditional teacher-centered model of education not by defending a student-centered alternative, but by introducing a “third thing”—a subject-centered approach. Gathered around the subject that draws them together, neither the teacher nor the students control the learning experience, but all are held accountable to the subject itself.
            This style of teaching replicates the process by which all knowledge is gained: it is the work of “a community of people looking at a subject and debating their observations within a consensual framework of procedural rules” (p. 104). Rather than merely delivering to students the conclusions of their community of learners, subject-centered teachers invite students into the community to participate in the process of coming to know the subject. Sometimes this kind of pedagogy produces that awkward moment when a student catches the instructor in a contradiction or an inaccuracy. To Parker, such a moment is cause not for embarrassment but for celebration, because it demonstrates that “students have direct, unmediated access to the subject, and they can use their knowledge to challenge my claims” (p. 118).
            Parker’s “third thing” corresponds to a quality that many students rate highly in their evaluation of their professors, which is “passion for the subject.” This passion, Parker observes, is more than simply excitement or fascination with the content: “Passion for the subject propels that subject, not the teacher, into the center of the learning circle” (p. 120).
            I have realized that, for all my commitment to the active involvement of students in the construction of their knowledge, I still often default to standing between the content and the learners rather than gathering around the content with them. For me, the most enjoyable aspect of teaching is often the learning that precedes the presentation to the class. I like to collect, study, organize, summarize, and deliver neat packages of information to my students, but in that process all the immediate interaction with the subject matter is mine. How much richer my students’ experiences would be if I invited them into exploring that subject with me.
            I love the little rhyme by Robert Frost that Parker quotes to capsulize the joy of gathering around a subject and coming to know it together as teachers and learners:
We dance around in a ring and suppose,
But the Secret sits in the middle and knows. (p. 105)

Saturday, February 4, 2012

ePortfolios for Assessment and Professional Job Opportunities


Promote Yourself As a Job Candidate Using an ePortfolio


  
Overview of 4 ePortfolio Platforms 
for Educators & Doctoral Students 


These below are used primarily for academic assessment
·         
     They also have limited application for professional purposes, which is also important (students may need to set those up separately if they used these educational tools, rather than using the resources listed in a recent Academii blog on Virtual CVs and similar resources)



1. Live Text

www.livetext.com   OFFICIAL SITE

2. Mahara Open Source e-Portfolios

www.mahara.org  OFFICIAL SITE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y32NoAgN9Ik VIDEO, INFORMAL but INFORMATIVE
http://demo.mahara.org/ Demo/Try It Out


3. Task Stream



4. Nuventive Web Folio

http://www.uc.edu/honors/eportfolios/tutorials.html Example of university using iwebfolio

 _________________________________________________________________

Analyzing and Evaluating ePortfolio Products 
(designed by iwebfolio, but still good)

 


Additional Resources: 

Also see pages 27-31 in the WASC Resource Fair Guide at http://db.tt/dFpiS76J
Sales reps are willing to come to your academic campus if you’re interested in a test drive