My term for today is “best practices.” It sort of makes me crazy every time I hear this because the practices are not always very good, let alone the BEST!! “Best practices” seems to be very egotistical and most likely just dead wrong. During many of my presentations I’ve made a remark something like this: “Every time I hear the phrase ‘best practices,’ I flip a little switch in my brain that converts the phrase into ‘practices that don’t totally suck out loud.’” That’s very different from “best,” and certainly more accurate.

Unfortunately, some people don’t like it when I use my favorite word (suck), so I’ve been trying to curb that urge.  For a while I found myself saying “good practices,” but that also bugs me, although a bit less than “best.” I always feel as though I’m comparing appliances at Sears – Good, Better, Best (I have no idea if they still do that, but they did about 40 years ago).

From this point forward, I am going to try to use the term “effective practices.” Unless, of course, the practices haven’t been effective and then I’ll call them something else. Effective practices sends me the message that these practices or methods have been tried and been found to be useful or worthwhile. Doesn’t say they’re the most effective; just that they have been at least somewhat effective. Also indicates that there can be several different practices that are effective, but there should only be ONE best – and I doubt that anyone has discovered that one just yet. Especially in an emerging field such as e-Education. But just in case you are the best, and you’ve discovered the best practice: More Power to Ya!!

Now let’s continue to document, to share, and to celebrate our effective practices.

(Graphics are my own. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.)

My topic was Myths and Realities of Teaching with Technology. I’ll post the slides soon, but here are most of the links that I referred to during the address.

1) My Excellence in e-Education site:  http://xlents.com

2) Infographic that says 90% of faculty are using social media in courses they’re teaching (which I don’t believe)
Source: http://www.seo.com/blog/internet-changed-education-infographic/
Same source for Wikipedia/library use by students

3) Pearson Learning (& Babson Group) paper on faculty use of social media:
http://www.pearsonlearningsolutions.com/educators/pearson-social-media-survey-2011-bw.pdf  (PDF)

4) One of many articles related to the myth of learning styles:
http://elearnmag.acm.org/archive.cfm?aid=2070611

5) Infographic on text messaging:  http://www.mbaonline.com/planet-text/

6) Another infographic on texting:  http://cellphones.org/blog/facts-about-text-messaging

7) Broadtexter groups for safe texting w/students:  http://broadtexter.com

8) Remind 101 site for safe texting w/students:  http://remind101.com

9) ECAR Natuonal Study of Undergraduate Students and I.T. - http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERS1103/ERS1103W.pdf  (PDF)

10) Wi-fi.org research on college students and wi-fi:  http://goo.gl/Eg5kp

11) Wi-fi research study reported in ComputerWorld - http://goo.gl/Fh2F2

12) Brain Rules book site - http://www.brainrules.net/  see chapter 4 about multi-tasking (task-switching)

13) Digital Net-Gennials (whatever) – so many sources, so little time. Try these two.
Net Gen Skeptic (blog w/lots of research cited) – http://www.netgenskeptic.com/
Digital Natives – 10 Years After (JOLT) – http://jolt.merlot.org/vol7no4/koutropoulos_1211.htm

14) Broadband penetration:    http://www.websiteoptimization.com/bw/1107/

15) SOPA: hundreds of articles. Try these:
http://lifehacker.com/5860205/all-about-sopa-the-bill-thats-going-to-cripple-your-internet
http://edudemic.com/2011/12/sopa-guide/

16) Online Student Satisfaction data (my previous school) http://studentsatisfaction.wordpress.com/

Not the case this time. The photo at the left is one of the many beautiful buildings at the University of Manitoba. That’s the UM in this story. Further down is a shot from the University of Winnipeg – that’s the UW.

Turns out that Minnesota residents can attend either of these very fine institutions of higher learning for about half the price of the cost of attending those other UM and UW schools.

The reciprocity agreement between the state of Minnesota and the province of Manitoba has allowed Minnesota residents to pay in-province (or whatever) tuition rates at the Manitoba schools – and that agreement has been in place for over 20 years. That tuition rate is between $3,500 and $4,000 per year at the Manitoba schools. Compare that with about $8K per year at the U of Minnesota. Plus, the Gophers football team sucks out loud. Heck it’s cheaper to go to the Canadian schools than it is to attend one of the Minnesota two-year schools.

I’ve written extensively about the high cost of  college in the U.S. Maybe this is the ultimate “work-around” to get a high-quality education at an affordable rate.

Odd that only about 50 Minnesota students currently attend college in Manitoba. It’ll be even more odd if that number continues to be so low once people start finding out about the opportunity that lies in wait.

There is a catch, of course. American students attending in Canada are not eligible for Pell grants, although they are still eligible for student loans. Of course, if the red legislators gut the Pell program as they would like to do, this may become a moot point.

One additional catch. I currently live 5 minutes on the Wisconsin side of the Minnesota border. Can we work out a similar reciprocity agreement between Manitoba and Wisconsin?

Twitter stays at No. 1 for my Top Tools for 2011 for Jane Hart's year-end list @C4LPT bit.ly/pluzib It's the network, not the tool.—
Barry Dahl (@barrydahl) November 03, 2011

1. Twitter. Stays at #1. Still the most valuable online tool I’ve ever used because it’s the place where I able to build the most valuable network of educators. Connect that same network of incredibly smart people into a different tool, then that tool will be #1 on my list.
2. WordPress. I use WordPress.com for my main blog at http://barrydahl.com and during the past year I also created a new business site that is run on WordPress as well (see Excellence in e-Education). The themes, plug-ins, and other extras that are available make it a highly customizable tool.
3. Google Plus (G+). This is a new entry on the list (obviously, since it didn’t exist last year). I’ve been surprised at how functional this young tool is – and how I’ve been connected to a whole new batch of educators through it. I find that I’m spending more and more time there and learning about things that I’m not always seeing in my other educator networks.
4. YouTube. For both me and my kids, YouTube tends to be one of our first stops when we want to learn something. I post many of my own videos here, but I primarily find it to be a fabulous resource for all kinds of content, including educational videos.
5. Picnik. I keep coming back to this super easy-to-use photo editor that integrates so nicely with my Flickr account. This is one of the few tools that I pay a fee ($25 a year) to get the premium service. Now my daughter is also hooked on using Picnik – in ways that only a 15-y-o would find fascinating.
6. Zoho Notebook. I keep waiting for another tool to come along that has the functionality of this one – but that just hasn’t happened. Find another tool where you can make a series of webpages, with any kind of web-based content on any page in any location. It’s really amazing.
7. Flickr. I continue to pay for the pro version ($25 a year) of Flickr because it is my main and almost only repository for digital pics and other graphics. As of 11/3/11, I have 4,520 items stored there. Almost all the graphics used on my websites are served from Flickr.
8. Screencast-o-Matic. I’ve tried just about every screencast tool that is out there. There are lots of good ones and some that are not so good. We also lose a couple of them every year to the dead pool. Screencast-O-Matic has hung in there over several years and just keeps getting better. This year I decided to support them by paying for a pro account (only $12 a year) which gives me access to editing tools, scripting, and offline use. They’ve recently added a feature that allows you to make animated GIFs as well as the standard screencast movies that can be stored on their servers, downloaded locally in various formats, or uploaded to YouTube.
9. Toondoo. I make comic strips fairly often and encourage educators to include more of them in their teaching and learning. This is still one of the most popular tools in the Web 2.0 workshops that I provide at different colleges and universities. Toonbooks are very fun and can be used to deliver educational content that is certain to get the attention of students.
10. Facebook. This stays on the list as I still have quite a few educators in my “friends” list. I also use it with my new business (please “Like” Excellence in e-Education!). I’ve also enjoyed reconnecting with old friends and college buddies, but that’s not why it’s on the list.

• Android OS & Apps. This could have been higher on my list. I love my Droid, but mainly for all the things that Android and the plethora of useful (& mostly free) apps can do for me. First time I’ve felt like I have a computer in my pocket.

Alarming stats via Josh Jarrett. Stud loan debt > $3 trillion. We're locked in the iron triangle: cost, quality and access #wcet11—
Julie Kelleher (@jkelleher) October 27, 2011

Which was then re-tweeted. Then I saw it and tried to set the record straight (falling on deaf ears, no doubt), as follows:

How did student loan debt triple in the last week or two? It's 1 trillion – not 3. @christib @jkelleher #wcet11—
Barry Dahl (@barrydahl) October 27, 2011

So much misinformation about student loan debt size. Why is that? More re-tweeting of inaccurate info. bit.ly/pGAaD0 #wcet11—
Barry Dahl (@barrydahl) October 27, 2011

I learn a great deal from my Twitter network every day. But I also see a great deal of misinformation – mostly from the twitter feed at conferences.

For the record, student loan debt hasn’t yet topped the 1 trillion dollar mark – although it is expected to do so before the end of the year. The current (10/28/11) amount is $952+ billion, according the the Student Loan Debt Clock.

“Alarming stats” indeed! Alarming because they’re just not even close to the truth.

I’ve been doing some contract work for a college by building them a 5-module orientation for new online students. One module is an introduction to online learning which includes a section on the characteristics of a successful online learner. Another module is on academic honesty, which includes a great deal of information about plagiarism.

While scouring websites for resources that might be helpful when forming the list of characteristics of successful students, I saw a disturbing trend. Maybe more of a tsunami and less of a trend.

One of the characteristics that I’ve seen before but never totally accepted goes a little something like this: “Be open-minded about sharing life, work, and educational experiences as part of the learning process.” Personally I think that this should not be a one-size-fits-all sort of suggestion. In fact, sharing too much about your life and especially your work can sometimes put you in a tough spot.

However, the purpose of this post is not to debate whether this is good advice, but whether colleges and universities are eating their own dog food when it comes to academic integrity. To that point, I am simply amazed at how many college websites have used this 16-word phrase, word-for-word, without any attribution to where they got it.

Not all colleges that use the phrase are offenders. A good example of how it should be done can be found from  my friends at VCU where they have a page that references different collections of characteristics of successful online students, with full attribution to sources ECAR and ION. Kudos to them.

The goofy little graphic below comes from one of the offending schools. Let’s just say that their initials are CCC. Funny (to me), but this little “Don’t Plagiarize!!!” admonition is placed on the same page where they plagiarize a great deal of information from other sites. “You must give credit where credit is due.” Unless you’re us, of course.

I’m kinda pretty sure (or a little less) that the original source for this 16-word phrase about being open-minded is the Illinois Online Network (ION). Unless, of course, it isn’t. Most of the websites that use the 16-word phrase in question also use much of the rest of the ION language from “What Makes a Successful Online Student?”

You will get over 1,200 hits in the Google search results if you use the quotation marks with the phrase “Be open-minded about sharing life, work, and educational experiences as part of the learning process.” Of those 1,200+ hits – most of the top 100 are from educational institutions of some sort – mostly higher ed. As best I can tell – about 20% of them cite the source of this phrase. The other 80% provide no citation – and of course, they claim their own copyright to these pages.

I was going to provide a list of some of those schools where you can (easily) find this exact same sentence (and usually much more than just the one lifted sentence) and where no attribution is given. However, I decided against that. Anyone who has an interest can easily do the same thing. Along with a couple of Big12 schools, you’ll find lots of community colleges, some for-profit proprietary colleges, some K-12 virtual schools, and lots of other varieties of educational institutions. You’ll also find a few individual faculty syllabi where you would think they would know better.

In closing – let me draw attention to a few of the schools that DO give some sort of attribution.

1. Isothermal Community College – attribution given to UW-Stevens Point
2. UW-Stevens Point – attribution given to ION
3. Iowa State University – permission given and attribution to ION
4. Bloomfield College – attribution given to ION
5. Walters State CC Math Division – attribution given to ION
6. Brescia University – attribution given to ION

The other 80% could learn a lot from these schools listed above who are giving credit where credit is due.

I look forward to the first interactive infographic – you know, one that you can argue with.

• I take exception to their use of the USN&WR info about “Best Value” in colleges (section 4). This is so completely biased toward elite colleges and the rich people who can afford to go to them. You want real value? Try the University of Wyoming or BYU-Idaho. They are doing great things there at a much lower price tag. Just because US News says something,  doesn’t mean it’s true.
• I also don’t care for section 2 which shows the cost increases from 2000 to 2009. You want a dramatic chart? Show the increases from 1980 to 2009 and also show the rise in health care (about 70% of the rise in education) and the rise in general inflation (about 30% of the rise in education). That would be a chart worth looking at.

Via: Online College Experts

Listen to the Podcast at their site.

A couple of points/corrections:

1. I mentioned (off the top of my head at 32:00) that the cost of college has increased more than inflation and health care – but I didn’t have the numbers at the ready. Here they are. Since 1980, according to HuffPost:
1. general inflation has risen “only” 300%
2. health care costs have increased 700%
3. college costs have increased 1000%
4. So, to be accurate (I wasn’t in the podcast), college costs have gone up almost 50% more than health care costs, and over 3 times the general inflation rate.
2. I mentioned the Vedder study about faculty salaries at UT-Austin at the 27:10 mark. More information about this is available in my Post #8 about the $10Kdegree.
3. At 36:20, I mention that Western Governor’s enrollment is up to 15,000 students. It’s more like 25,000 students, according to their May, 2011 press release.
4. Good gawd, I am a heavy breather. Really bothers me to listen to the audio as I sound like I’m gasping for air. I hope it doesn’t bother you as much as it bothers me.

Here’s a little video they made about animated GIFs.  Here’s some info about the rest of their new features.

They also have a new service called Quick ScreenShare. This is what they say about it.

QuickScreenShare.com is the simplest way to share screens with anybody:

• No registration required and completely free.
• Nothing to install for sharer or sharee (assuming you have Java).
• Works on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
• Even lets you remotely control mouse and keyboard!

This free service is a side project from the creators of Screencast-O-Matic.com and is still in BETA. We use it extensively for remote user support and collaboration. The current version creates a direct peer-to-peer connection, so if you’re on a super duper secure school or company network it may or may not be able to connect, but in most cases you’ll find it works quite well so give it a shot!

Barry: yep, I’ll have it to give it a shot.