Day 128, July 22, 2020

Star Gazing

Today's Soundtrack: Kenny Burrell Trio, Subway Club, Germany 1990

The sky is overcast and there has been thunder in the distance for the last hour and a half, but only a little sporadic rain. Somewhere out there, behind the clouds, and invisible in the twilight is the comet Neowise. I hope the skies clear off tonight so I can catch it. I went out too late last night and missed seeing it.

Sometimes you get an egg
with a flat spot.

It feels like life is full of those kinds of missed opportunities. I used to have a lot of anxiety about those missed moments, that by not seeing a musician play a show, or going to see one of my favorite writers give a reading, that I might miss one of those life changing or life defining moments, and if not that, then I might just miss the shared moment of community that happens when you share a collective cultural moment with others.

I remember when I was a freshman in high school, I made the argument that I needed to go see Van Halen because all great guitarists die young and if I didn't see him now, I might never get a chance to see him! Even though it was the start of the Sammy Hagar years, they were still phenomenal. Eddie did his whole schtick, and Michael Anthony made a big show of drinking a lot of Jack Daniels. It was everything a big rock show in the mid 1980s was supposed to be. That was the only time I saw Van Halen. Even back then they had become a little bit like a satire of themselves, but nevertheless they were part of the high school soundtrack. 

Then there are all the musicians that I didn't get to see before they died. My childhood fear of missing out realized. I suppose I mourn those missed opportunities to a degree. But I don't mourn them like I did, even a few years ago. I guess I've transferred more of that energy into a fear of missing out on my own experiences. Whether that is playing music with friends down in Chicopee, like I was doing every Monday night for a period of time, or contributing a chapter to a book being written by a collective of friends, it is a fear of saying no. 

I often at work, one needs to learn how to stop saying, "yes." For the most part I resist that suggestion. I prefer to say yes and explore the myriads of possibilities, and then I can decide whether something is worth my time, keeps my attention, brings me joy, intellectual challenge, or fulfillment. I suppose there should be a point when one seeks a balance and I suppose that naturally happens when I run out of time in the day, but I also enjoy the engaged life. I wish I could engage it further! 

I'll never be able to play like Eddie, but man it is great to watch Kenny Burrell tear up the fretboard, and it is fun to play with friends, make music that is meaningful to us, and sometimes we pretend that we are playing in a venue larger than our little Western Mass bars and clubs. But for me, a great show at the Rendezvous in Turners Falls can be better than Van Halen in the Worcester Centrum (or wherever it was that I saw them).

I plan on slipping outside periodically through the night to see if the cloud cover has lifted and see if I can catch the comet. Wish me luck!

To all of you who are experiencing loss or sadness now,

my heart goes out to you and your loved ones.

You are in my thoughts,

Leo

From Our Friends:

From Academic Impressions:

Inclusive Pedagogy in Higher Education: A Mindset and Continual Practice
August 7, 2020 | Virtual Training
Learn how to shift your mindset and practices so that you don’t exclude your students and limit their learning.

Practicing Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in Higher Education
September 16 - 17, 2020 | Virtual Conference
Take action to examine your knowledge base, unpack biases, and make your classroom and materials more inclusive.

The Words We Use: How Higher Ed is Responding to Calls for Culturally Relevant Pedagogy
Ashvina Patel, Ph.D., Research Analyst, Academic Impressions
This article draws on findings from a recent inquiry into how institutions are thinking about equity within pedagogy.

From Teaching Tolerance:

Confronting the Weaponization of Whiteness in Classrooms

Educators are not immune to the root behaviors we’ve witnessed in viral videos of white people threatening Black people with police intervention. White educators must acknowledge this pattern of behaviors so that they won’t inflict harm on Black students. As viral racist incidents quickly disappear from public discourse, we challenge white teachersto keep those moments top of mind and reflect on their own biased behaviors in classrooms.

From the Community Economies Resource Network:

“Coordinate –  learning from the black social economy and a common wallet ”  is the first of a series of appointments of the project "Coordinate rigeneranti", promoted by the association MAGARI in partnership with the Brave New Alps association of Trentino and Diverse Economies Resource Fund group within the 2020 edition of the call Generazioni.   

What did get lost in the rupture created through Covid-19? What did we learn over the past months? We know that the response to the pandemic has dismantled many of the already precarious structures that where sustaining us and our cultural practices. To regenerate, transform and make ourselves more resilient – both on a material as well as on a psychological level – over the next months we are exploring solidary modes of collaboration. 

We start the path with Caroline Shenaz Hossein (CAN), who will talk about associations for savings and credit on a rotating basis, and the collective Common Wallet (BEL) who will tell us how nine people share all their income through a single bank account.

WE INVITE YOU TO THE EVENING

we see online on Zoom 

the evening will be in English language

⟶ Coordinate – learning from the black social economy and a common wallet 

24 July - 7:00-9:00 pm

ZOOM:  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84439210491

Meeting ID: 844 3921 0491

From the Washington Post:

Perspective | Real progress takes time. Here are 5 ways activists can keep their stamina up.

You cannot pour from an empty cup.

Read more »

From EAB:

Equity gaps persist despite past efforts, and students of color have vastly different experiences on our college campuses. It’s time to examine why. But faced with such an overwhelming problem, it can be hard to know where to start.   Here are seven questions campus leaders should ask themselves to fully examine how racism and other injustices manifest at your college and how you can dismantle these harmful structures.

ASK THESE QUESTIONS

Identify discriminatory policies and practices on your campus

Take the diagnostic to highlight key opportunities for improvement within your student success strategy.

GET STARTED

From National Geographic:

Better food when this is over: The shock to U.S. food chains from the coronavirus has been a boon to small- and mid-size farms and distributors. Could it be the start of a new way to get food? Experts are seeing a new matrix of business and personal relationships around which regional agriculture could grow, post-pandemic, and ultimately advocate for its own interests, Saul Elbein writes for Nat Geo.

From ACE Engage:

[Plenary Webinar Tomorrow] DACA and Dreamers: A Conversation with Jose Antonio Vargas. Jointly presented by ACE and AASCU, President Mildred García of AASCU will be in conversation with Jose Antonio Vargas to discuss the Supreme Court decision against ending the DACA program and what the higher ed community can do for Dreamers. Generously supported by Fidelity Investments. 

Conversations on Student Success: Meeting Student Success Goals During a Crisis. Rebecca Karoff, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs at The University of Texas System, and Susan Cates, CEO of the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE), will discuss how the UT System is ensuring continuity and realizing meaningful progress on student success goals, in the first in a series by ACE and ACUE.

Today's Online Teaching Tips:

From Gary Ackerman:

For the last month or so, the MA community colleges that use Moodle have been hosting "Moodle Monday" workshops that are open to participant from all campuses. 

On August 3, I will be hosting one entitled "Creating Accessible Materials" in which I will demonstrate tools for ensuring your videos and documents meet ADA requirements.

Find details here: https://online.gcc.mass.edu/mod/page/view.php?id=384789 

From the Online Learning Consortium:

OLC Ideate Labs for Online STEM: Innovating STEM Education

The Online Learning Consortium and MERLOT would like to invite you to our OLC Ideate Labs for Online STEM: Innovating STEM Education 2020 event on August 19-21, 2020.

This free virtual expo will showcase a wide range of virtual and distance labs designed to support online STEM education, offered by both commercial and open educational resource (OER) providers. This event brings educators and providers together, not only offering expert guidance on how best to deploy the different types of virtual labs to achieve successful learning outcomes, but also in centering educator use-case virtual lab stories. 

Event Details: The upending impact of the COVID-19 outbreak upon higher education has created an immediate demand for delivering laboratory experiences in online settings. This event will foster conversations, exploration and relationship-building between higher education leaders and established online labs providers, organized around 4 strategic themes/questions:

• WHY CONSIDER VIRTUAL LABS? If you are just getting started, what are the unique affordances of digital, virtual, and distance labs and strategies for intentionally incorporating them into STEM educational spaces into the future?
• HOW TO GET BUY-IN FOR EXPLORING VIRTUAL LABS? How do you center engagement, welcome exploration/failure, and ensure quality within virtual, digital, and distance labs, so people can try these innovations?
• HOW DO YOU PLAN FOR SUSTAINING SUCCESS WITH VIRTUAL LABS? How do you connect with stakeholders to discuss policy, resources, training, and the relationship between innovative virtual / digital / distance content and certifying / governing / professional bodies? 
• HOW DO YOU SUCCESSFULLY IMPLEMENT VIRTUAL LABS? What are demonstrated strategies for implementing virtual, digital, and distance labs with sustainability, affordability, accessibility, and equity in mind?

Anchored in the four major themes above, the event builds intentional space for building meaningful connections between technology partners and educators, creating multiple entry points for various levels of Lab adoption, as well as authentic storytelling around the implementation of Lab technologies, and (re)imagine in community the future of Online Labs for STEM.

In the next few days we will be issuing a Call for Presentations for this event, so watch your email and the OLC website for that! 

The full program for this 3-day event will be posted once it has been finalized. But go ahead and register now - it's free! 

Join this collaborative community dedicated to innovative STEM education and register today for this free, virtual event! Learn more.
 

REGISTER NOW

From EducationAdminWebAdvisor (what a friggin name):

Tips for Preparing for and Teaching Your Live Online Video Class Lesson Thursday, July 23 3:30 PM Eastern; 2:30 PM Central; 1:30 PM Mountain; 12:30 PM Pacific Veteran educator Dr. Robert Hill will show you how to prepare live online lessons infused with the best instructional practices. You will learn how to ensure that your students will get the most from your online synchronous instruction. Please join us!

REGISTER NOW

From Inside Higher Ed:

Teaching With Technology, Technology, Transforming Teaching & Learning

Snapchat, Instagram and Other Unexpected Guests in Class

Kevin Dougherty and Jesse DeDeyne documented how students used their cellphones during a sociology class last fall (spoiler: texting friends and checking Snapchat) and discuss how they'll change their teaching in response. »

From Academic Impressions:

• Free and Discounted Ed Tech Tools for Online Learning During the Coronavirus Pandemic Campus Technology

From The Key podcast from Inside Higher Ed:

[NEW EPISODE] Online Learning’s Outlook for the Fall  Will online offerings from colleges be more sophisticated? What steps need to be taken to ensure academic quality in online learning? And will short-term credentials be more popular?

To get some answers to these tricky questions, we spoke with Lori Williams, president and CEO of NC-SARA. Williams discussed ideas from an opinion piece she wrote for Inside Higher Ed on the role for states in quality assurance in online education.

We also spoke with Marni Baker Stein, provost and chief academic officer for Western Governors University. Stein spoke about how the large, online and competency-based university has worked to help its students cope with disruptions, as well as her outlook for the fall and the potential for short-term programs.