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We’re Back in Business, Part II

As promised Higher Ed By Baylis LLC (HEBB) is officially back in business. This post is a continuation of Today is April 11! This is no April Fools’ joke. We’re Back in Business. So I begin this post with the third and fourth announcements which I had planned to make.

The above picture of a store front with a Grand Reopening  sign is only symbolic. HEBB doesn’t yet have a physical building. However, we are in the process of building a new viable, and vital business entity. I have placed emphasis on several words and concepts in the preceding sentence.The emphasis is on the word we.  From January 2013, the official beginning of Higher Ed By Baylis LLC, By Baylis was the only investor and only operating  consultant. My loving, loyal and responsible wife of 47 years, had access to all records of the HEBB, including the finances. I took this prudent step in case something happened to me, since twice in 2009, I entered a hospital as a member of the ABB (All But Bagged) Club. What does “All But Bagged” mean? The best description I can give probably came from the doctor that greeted Elaine when she got to the hospital when I first experienced the exploding artery, imploding tumor, and what looked liked a stroke. The doctor truly thought that I would leave the hospital in a body bag. When Elaine was introduced to the attending doctor, the doctor told her to call the family together. Elaine asked for an explanation. The doctor said, “If he survives the operation, he’ll never be the same.”

The first significant change is that HEBB will very soon officially be a “we” It will no longer be just By Baylis. Over the past several years, as I talked with potential clients about their needs, it became obvious that the needs and the potential solution to these clients’ problems were well beyond the capabilities of one individual. To remedy this deficiency, quoting the Lennon and McCartney song title, I have called for “a little help from my friends“. I have been in discussion with a number of former colleagues and the friends that I have built up over my 40 years of experience in the world of higher education. Out of those discussions, I am pleased to announce that almost a dozen highly qualified, experienced consultants and coaches, have agreed to work with me. There are several possibilities concerning the final cooperative arrangements. In some cases, the individuals may actually join HEBB and become principals. In other situations, HEBB and some consulting/coaching practices may form an alliance and work together cooperatively.

The above discussions are ongoing because they involve intricate legal negotiations. As soon as individual arrangements are finalized, we will make those announcements. I know I am pleased with the caliber of my current, potential partners. I am very confident that potential clients will find the collection of experts that emerges from these discussions to be a powerful force, which can easily and economically help them identify their watershed decisions and find practical and feasible answers to those organizational, world-changing questions.

It is not yet clear what form the final entity will take when it emerges from the above mentioned discussions. I guarantee that the final entity will share the dream that lead to the founding of Higher Ed By Baylis LLC. It was a dream of resilient, welcoming, wise, listening, flexible, entrepreneurial organizations that had a strong sense of integrity, honesty, confidence, determination, and quality. For Christian colleges, this meant they had to have a central anchor of Christ. Emanating from the proposition and relational truth expressed in Christ, were cultures of learning, scholarship, engagement, hospitality, evidence, excellence and worship. A culture is a group of people who have a foundational set of values, beliefs and principles. These people generally or habitually behave in a manner consistent with their values and have developed a collective knowledge base that has grown out of their beliefs and actions. A culture is who the people are, what they know, and how they  typically behave. I expressed my dream of  21st Century Christian University in the following diagram that appeared in the 2006 Winter edition of the Cornerstone magazine:

 

courtesy of By Baylis and Cornerstone University

Returning to a discussion of the words emphasized in opening paragraph of this fourth announcement,  some of you may be asking the question, “Don’t the terms viable and vital mean the same thing?” In one sense, they both carry the connotation of being alive. However, in another sense, they mean something very different. I am using the term  viable in the sense of being capable of success or continuing effectiveness. I see HEBB as having a good probability of being successful. It can easily be very effective. I am using the term vital  in its sense of having remarkable energy, liveliness, or force of personality. I foresee HEBB as a force with which to be reckoned in the coaching and consulting world. The team which we are assembling will be second to none. They will all be recognized as experts in their fields and masters of their trades. It is very important to note the plural designation on the words field and trade. HEBB will be a one-stop shop for organizations seeking help. In the educational arena, we are assembling a team that can cover the waterfront of accreditation, accountability, admissions and recruiting, advancement and fund raising, alumni relations, athletics, curriculum development and management, educational law, facility planning and management, finance, information technology, human resources and professional development, leadership development and succession, planning (including strategic, operational, tactical  and master planning), regulatory compliance, and student development.  HEBB will be able to work with and help any institution, whether public or private, at any educational level including primary, secondary, or higher education. Do you get the feeling of why I am excited to be back in business? Although the emphasis to this point has been with educational entitities, I foresee in the near future extending the vision of HEBB to service Christian and non-profit public service ministries, since there are many similarities in mission and operations with educational institutions. 

If you are an individual who would be interested in joining HEBB as a principal or you represent a  coaching/consulting practice that would be interested in collaborating in an alliance with HEBB, I would be very interested in talking with you. Please leave a comment in the reply box with your name, area(s) of expertise, an email address, a  phone number, and the best time to contact you. Since I have the protocols set so that I must approve any comments before they appear, your contact information will not be shared with anyone.

from Presenter Media
from Presenter Media

The fourth and final announcement in these two blog posts relates to the HEBB website which you can find by clicking here: HEBB. For almost 18 months the website has been effectively shut down. With the reopening of Higher Ed By Baylis LLC, that’s about to change. The website is going to experience extensive remodeling to reflect the changes in HEBB.

The first change you will see is a new welcome page which will introduce people to Higher Ed By Baylis LLC, its mission, vision and core values. There will be a staff page that will introduce people to the HEBB team, a brief bio and their areas of focus. There will be a blog page with links to the blogs written by our people. There will be page of introduction to HEBB services for institutional clients. There will also be a  page of introduction to services for individual and family clients. There will be a page of resources available to the general public. There will be a page of the cost of various HEBB services. These changes should be in place by the end of April.

 

 

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Aphasia and the Art of Navigation

If you have been following my blog, you know that a little more than three years ago a hemorrhage introduced me to the world of aphasia. The hemorrhage occurred in a meningioma attached to the right frontal lobe of my brain. The hemorrhage created all the appearances, symptoms and after effects of a bleeding stroke. One common after effect of a stroke is aphasia, literally a loss of words.

Aphasia is a communication disorder resulting in the partial or total inability to process language but does not affect intelligence. In my case, aphasia has diminished the speed at which I can process language and make decisions. I don’t believe it has affected my ability to make correct decisions. It has only affected the speed at which I can make, communicate or implement those decisions. Since verbal communication is more spontaneous and offers less time to process language and reflect on the underlying ideas, I have more problems with verbal communications than written communications.

This difference has been brought home to me many times in the past several weeks as I have had to serve as navigator for me and my wife as we have had to find our way around our new town. With my history of seizure activity and potential for future seizures, I have had to relinquish my driver’s license and quit driving. This has forced us to rely on my wife to be our chauffeur.

My wife is basically a good driver. However, she would readily admit that she doesn’t like driving in heavy traffic. She would also admit that she is “geographically challenged.” East-west-north-south do not register with her. She doesn’t like to read maps. She wants to know whether to go straight or to turn right or left at the next intersection.

My wife and I approach driving very differently. Our approaches to driving are the exact reflections of our approaches to cooking. My wife is an excellent cook. People are always complimenting her cooking and asking her for her recipes. Prior to my episode and before I was told to stay away from electronic utensils and objects that had sharp edges or points, I liked to experiment in the kitchen and try different combinations. People would also compliment my creations. However, when asked for my recipes, I couldn’t supply them because I didn’t use fixed recipes. On the other hand my wife is a recipe cook. She wants a list of instructions to follow precisely. This practice carries over to her driving. She much prefers a list of directions over a map.

In my battle with aphasia, I have come to the conclusion that, “I am a lousy navigator.” In familiar areas, I know where to turn and what is the best lane to be in. In unfamiliar areas, by reading a map I know where to turn. However, in both situations I can’t seem to find the words quick enough to give my wife sufficient warning of what to do next. When I find the words to indicate an impending turn, I raise the volume of my voice to emphasize the urgency of an upcoming turn. This sometimes startles my wife or makes her think I am yelling at her. Both of those outcomes could be disturbing in the least or dangerous at the worst. When she misses a turn or makes a wrong turn, I get very upset with myself. Because I am angry my next several comments will usually reflect those feelings. I am not upset with my wife. I am just upset that I didn’t direct us appropriately.

I can hear some of you saying right now, “Why don’t you use a GPS?” We have tried two different GPS’s with less than satisfactory results. GPS’s operate off of optimization principles and programs. I am reminded of the computerized room scheduling programs that were being offered to colleges 30 years ago. The claim was that these programs would greatly increase room usage efficiency by filling dead space. The claims these programs made concerning more efficient use of space were undeniable. However, the results of these scheduling programs were neither satisfying to faculty or students. It was difficult for these programs to take into account the room preference of faculty, or the desire of students to have back-to-back classes scheduled in nearby rooms. There were too many variables for these programs to account for. The human mind of an individual who knew the curriculum, the facilities, and understood faculty and student preferences was a better scheduler than a computer.

GPS’s are only as good as the optimization programs on which they operate and the information that is entered into the data bank of the GPS. How old is the basic map that is used in the GPS? New roads are added every year and occasionally roads are closed. The major choices GPS’s give you to calculate optimal routes are: 1) shortest route (based on mileage); 2) shortest time (based on estimated time to cover the route calculated using posted speed limits); 3)toll roads (use or don’t use toll roads); and 4) roads to avoid. Any changes to the optimization strategies are difficult if not illegal for the driver to make while the car is moving. Construction and local conditions like accidents are not always known before one begins the trip. Dangerous intersections are not always accounted for by the GPS. Shortest or normally quickest routes may include left hand turns against traffic, which during rush hours or school change hours can be very problematic.

We do use a GPS on longer distance trips. However, on trips around town where road conditions seem to be more volatile, even with the speed at which I can communicate route changes, I seem to be a better navigational choice for us.

These events have convinced me that there are at least two jobs that are beyond my capabilities at this moment. I would be a disaster as a spotter for a NASCAR racing team or as an air traffic controller.

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Distance Eduction Begins at Twelve Feet

Most people think of distance education requires instructor and students to be physically separated by time, distance or both. I would like to offer a new definition that permits instructors and students to be in the same room at the same time. Under my definition, in addition to being separated in time and space, the separation may also include psychological separation, also known as cognitive distance. I have indicated this by suggesting that this psychological separation can typically begin at twelve feet. Why twelve feet? Twelve feet is the usual distance between the teacher’s station and the second row of seats in a typical lecture style classroom with tablet-arm chairs. Many instructors find it difficult to generate and keep cognitive connection with students outside the front row of a class. Most instructors have found that if a class has “open seating, without assigned seats,” the students who sit in the front row are usually very interested in the class. Students who are less interested will tend to sit further back in the classroom. This means instructors will have to work harder to keep those students connected, interested and learning in the class.

Most surveys of faculty and students indicate that the lecture modality is the most used course delivery system today. There are other modalities, such as discussion, seminar classes and blended modalities that are gaining in popularity, but lectures are still number 1. In the 1970’s, surveys of students and faculty suggested that in as many as 90% of all courses, the predominant teaching mode was the lecture. Even with the emphases of the 1990’s on active learning and using teaching styles geared to student learning styles, as late as 2000, surveys of students and faculty were showing that still in approximately 75% of all courses, the dominant teaching mode was the lecture.

A straight lecture modality can be characterized as a “jug and mugs” approach. In such an approach, the instructor brings a jug that is full of ideas or content to the classroom and has the students hold out their individual mugs, and the instructor fills them up from the big jug. It has derisively been described as the transfers of knowledge from the instructor’s notes to the students’ notes without touching the minds of either. If we really consider the operational aspects of this approach, there is no necessity for the instructor to be physically present. Why have faculty remained loyal to the lecture? I believe the lecture is the most popular modality because instructors are most comfortable with this style. It was the way they were taught and the way they learned. They are just modeling what their instructors and mentors did. Plus, there are few rewards to experiment with different modalities. Instructors have little or no access to developmental resources to do something different. Short of no preparation, where the instructor goes into class and “wings it,” the lecture is the easiest modality for which to prepare and to use. It is hard work trying to come up with learning artifacts or objects to engage students in compelling problems that direct their learning in other ways toward the desired goal of learning specific things or ideas.

The “jug and mugs” pedagogy grows out of a “tabula rasa” or “blank slate” approach to teaching, where the teacher has all of the knowledge and the students possess blank slates that the teacher then writes on. This model of education is not congruent with the best of today’s or even yesterday’s theories of learning. From brain and learning theory research, we know that students are more apt to remember and understand things in which they have a real interest and things of which they have had some experience. We have to link new knowledge to current knowledge and we need a reason to do so. Brain research also suggests that we are more able to make connections if we perform activities related to the item or idea. Confucius knew this 2500 years ago when he said, “If I read or hear something, I forget it, if I see it, I remember it. If I do it, I understand it.” Current research with well-functioning adults has found that after three months, these adults retain only 10% of what they read, 20% of what they hear, 30% of what they see, 50 % of what they see and hear, and 70% of what they say or write. These are great rules of thumb to use in the preparation of lesson plans and presentations. If you can involve the audience in the topic, they will have a much greater chance of remembering what you were trying to say. However, the research goes on to show that these adults will retain more than 90% of what they say while doing something that illustrates it. This should become our guiding force in the preparation of learning assignments.

Dr. William Pfohl, former president of the National Association of School Psychologists in discussing how adults and children learn has said, “The best process to ensure learning take places is to guarantee the individual sees it, hears it, and then gets some experience using it. And that way it’s most likely to stick.”

If distance learning begins at twelve feet because it is difficult to connect with students in the second row when they are in the same room, then wouldn’t that suggest that distance learning via other means is impossible?  I don’t think so. There is a whole body of literature that speaks to engaging students via distance learning technologies. Conversely, if we can engage students that are hundreds of miles away, why can’t we engage students, that are physically in our presence in the same classroom? We can and must do a better job in both venues.

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Do Computers and Their Owners Look and Behave Like Each Other?

Do Computers and Their Owners Look and Behave Like Each Other?

By Baylis

I am sure many of you have heard the old joke and have seen the pictures that suggest, after a period of time, dogs and their owners begin to look and act alike. I am beginning to wonder if this is true with computers, especially the behavioral aspect. I am pretty sure that I don’t look like my computer.

However, living with aphasia and epilepsy, I am finding that my computer is imitating my symptoms. Recently it had a “grand-mal seizure” when it completely shut down.  It took a day in the “intensive care unit” to bring it back to consciousness and to restore some semblance of usability. Since that seizure, it has had numerous mini-seizures. It will “zone out” for about 30 seconds several times an hour. There appears to be no discernible pattern to these mini-seizures. The tech doctors are prescribing certain procedures to help prevent seizures. However, since they are not sure what the original problem really was, they will not guarantee their solutions will completely prevent another grand-mal seizure. All they can offer is a pledge that these procedures will help reduce the chance of a reoccurrence. For people with epilepsy, does this sound familiar?

Also after that grand-mal seizure, my computer is exhibiting signs of aphasia. It has “lost” programs and files. I know they are in there, but it takes lots of work on my part to find them. Does the computer really have a type of aphasia? Or is it my aphasia not allowing me to find what I want? Either way, the computer is behaving just like me. If my computer starts growing a beard, I am really going to be freaked out.

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Can Faculty Learn from a Broadway Musical

An article that first appeared in the July 4, 2010 e-edition of the Technology Section of The Chronicle of Higher Education was repeated in the July 9, 2010 e-edition of Academe Today. The article was entitled “Linked In With: A Writer Who Questions the Wisdom of Teaching with Technology.”  Because I was familiar with Carr’s writings, this article caught my attention and I had to read it, even though I was confident of what I was going to find. The author of the article, Marc Parry, was talking about and interviewing Nicholas Carr, the author of a book entitled, “The Shallows,” and many articles, including “IT Doesn’t Matter” and “Is Google Making Us Stupid?“As usual, Carr was questioning the efficacy of technology in assisting in the teaching and learning process. This article was vintage Carr.

I believe education is meeting students where they are and helping them to get to where they want and ought to be. If where they want to be is not where they ought to be, then our first job in education is to help them see where they ought to be. I believe every prospective teacher should watch the musical, “My Fair Lady.” Can teachers learn anything from a Broadway musical? I think they can if they are paying attention, especially if they are asked to reflect on one particular scene. The scene takes place in the Professor’s study, when he and the Colonel are celebrating Eliza’s triumphant debut at the gala. Colonel Pickering keeps saying, “You said that you could do it, and you did it.” Professor Higgins replies:”Yes I did it.” But did you see Eliza in the corner of the room crying and sobbing, “What have you done? “ They replied:”We made you a lady.” Eliza responded, “I never asked to be a lady. All I wanted was to be able to speak well enough to sell flowers at the corner shop. Now that I am a lady, there is nothing left for me to do, but to sell myself and marry a gentleman.” The Professor and the Colonel used good pedagogy and “taught her well”, but they didn’t listen to what she wanted, and they definitely didn’t help her understand what it was to be a lady and why that was important.

The following exchange between Perry and  Carr reminded me of that scene from “My Fair Lady:”Perry asked Carr: “If the Internet is making us so distracted, how did you manage to write a 224-page book and read all the dense academic studies that much of it is based on?” Carr responded, “It was hard. The reason I started writing it was because I noticed in myself this increasing inability to pay attention to stuff, whether it was reading or anything else. When I started to write the book, I found it very difficult to sit and write for a couple of hours on end or to sit down with a dense academic paper.” I have found that most of our students today don’t know how to sit down for a couple of hours to read or write. They mentally and physically can’t sit for a couple of hours to read or write. They definitely don’t know how to sit down and read a dense paper. They also don’t know why that should be important. It is not enough for us to tell them just to do it, because it is important and it is good for them. How often to our question of why, do we accept the answer, “Because I told you so; besides it is good for you; or you ought to do it.” At one point in the article after renouncing the use of the internet, Carr says, “my abilities to concentrate did seem to strengthen again. I felt in a weird way intellectually or mentally calmer. And I could sit down and write or read with a great deal of attentiveness for quite a long time.” Our students don’t know why that is important for them unless we help them learn that. Just telling that it is good and that it works for us is not enough. If we want to reach these students, we need to meet them where they are and help them see the benefits of the reflective pursuit of knowledge and truth for them. If we don’t do that, these students might well be like Eliza, sitting in the corner crying that we didn’t listen to them, and we haven’t. The other more likely possibility is they will give up, walk away and never engage in the reflective pursuit of knowledge.

My next question may sound like heresy coming from someone within the academy, “Is the reflective pursuit of knowledge the only way to obtain knowledge? The ancient Greeks allowed and even encouraged at least three different ways of knowing, theoria, poiesis and praxis. Theoria is the word from which we get our words theory and theoretical. In ancient Greece, it meant contemplation or seeing by observation. It developed into the idea of the theoretical pursuit of knowledge and truth through contemplation or reflection. Poiesis is the word from which we get our word poetry. It meant to make or produce. It developed into the idea of creating something of value. Praxis is the word from which we get our words practice or practical. It meant action. It developed into the idea of knowledge applied to one’s actions. The goal of theoria  was truth. The goal of poiesis was a product. The goal of praxis was action.

I challenge those of us in the academy, are we open to different ways of knowing and learning? Are we willing to meet our students where they are, listen to where they want to be, and help them see where they could and ought to be? Are we willing to help them get there, even if it means using multiple ways of knowing and learning that may not at first seem comfortable to us?

is the word from which we get our word poetry. It meant to make or produce. It developed into the idea of creating something of value. Praxis is the word from which we get our words practice or practical. It meant action. It developed into the idea of knowledge applied to one’s actions. The goal of theoria was truth. The goal of poiesis was a product. The goal of praxis was action.
I challenge those of us in the academy, are we open to different ways of knowing and learning? Are we willing to meet our students where they are, listen to where they want to be, and help them see where they could and ought to be? Are we willing to help them get there, even if it means using multiple ways of knowing and learning that may at first not seem comfortable to us?

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Centralized or Decentralized Online Learning Offices

In a June 30, 2010 news item in the Wired Campus Section of Chronicle of Higher Education, Marc Parry wrote: “One university’s decision to close its central distance Education office has stirred a national debate over the best way to operate online programs.”

Continuing he remarked, “Under a restructuring of Texas A&M University at College Station, individual colleges will now manage online learning. And tuition paid for those programs will flow directly through those colleges.”

That last phrase captures at least half if not most of the debate. The various colleges want their piece of the revenue pie, if not the whole pie; however, they still expect the university to pick up all the infrastructure costs. The other major portion of the debate is control of the courses offered.

I have seen this debate played out at two different universities. The primary arguments for centralization that I have seen are: 1) A centralized office is more likely to be more economical for the university in terms of equipment and software costs. Bundling the hardware and software needs, the university is more likely to get better pricing and usage discounts from its vendors. Working with fewer vendors usually provides quicker and better service. 2) A centralized platform and centralized course management system is more student friendly. In situations where students may have to or want to take courses from different colleges (e.g. general education requirements), it is much easier for the students to have to learn only one platform. 3) A centralized office is more likely to avoid scheduling conflicts and more widely publicize the whole range of offerings. 4) Expenses are paid from one checkbook. A particular college can’t decide to skip payment of a particular bill (e.g. extra storage or bandwidth to cover usage, upgraded software and new or upgraded servers to handle the new software, or extra personnel to cover programming needs, course design assistance, and help desk features) and thereby curtail or eliminate online learning for that college. 5) It is easier to plan and provide for redundancy requirements, e.g.,( if one college is not using enough bandwidth all the time to warrant the expense of that extra bandwidth, there is the possibility of time-sharing among the colleges). If one server goes down, it is easier and quicker to off-load the work to other servers. Just ask students what they think of your program if they experience a week, a day, or even an hour of down time waiting for you to restore service.

In addition to the revenue argument, other major arguments for a decentralized approach are control of course content and faculty assignments. The various colleges want to make sure the assigned faculties are qualified to teach a given course and that the assigned faculties include all the “appropriate content” and none of the “inappropriate content.”

These are good arguments both for and against a centralized approach. With as much intellectual genius that exists in our institutions, it seems as if we should be able to design a workable hybrid approach. Such an approach would allow the separate colleges to participate in some of the revenue intake, still have some control over individual courses and faculty, and yet makes the whole process economically feasible for the university and accessible to both internal and external audiences of students.

Along with the revenue and expense questions, “To whom are the online courses targeted?” If the target of the online courses is only currently enrolled campus-based students, a decentralized approach may work. If the targeted audience includes a wider audience focusing on part or primarily on external students, a centralized or partially centralized approach makes more sense. External students not familiar with the university structure will be put off with what they view as a runaround, going from college to college to get what they need or want, and they will go to another university they view as more convenient. Internal students may complain about the “runaround” but they will negotiate the winding path to reach their desired goals. To make the online programs economically feasible, it makes more sense to make the intended audience as wide as possible. As in any compromise, both sides will not get everything they want and will have to give up something. That is the nature of compromise. Each university will have to decide what its negotiable items are.