Barry Dahl dot com

I will be serving as a camp ranger for the WCET higher education leadership academy called CatalystCAMP (Changing Academic Methods & Practices) from Oct. 21-24 in Denver.

The leadership academy is wrapped around the WCET annual conference that starts Oct. 22. Myk Garn of the SREB and I will be leading the group through their paces as we talk about the Articulation step in the process. The five A’s are as follows:

1. Awareness
2. Anticipation
3. Articulation
4. Action
5. Assessment

One of the first things we provided to the campers was a suggested reading list. Here are my contributions to the list.

1) The Cluetrain Manifesto by Locke, Searles, Weinberger, Levine

“A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies.”  http://www.cluetrain.com/book.html

Barry says: this book is still as informative and relevant as it was 10 years ago when it was first published. Every leader in higher ed should be familiar with the manifesto and how it represents a fundmental change in how we must communicate with the world by speaking with a human voice. BTW, this book can be read in its entirety for free, online.

2) Disrupting Class by Clayton Christensen

“According to recent studies in neuroscience, the way we learn doesn’t always match up with the way we are taught. If we hope to stay competitive-academically, economically, and technologically-we need to rethink our understanding of intelligence, reevaluate our educational system, and reinvigorate our commitment to learning. In other words, we need ‘disruptive innovation.'”  http://disruptingclass.mhprofessional.com/apps/ab/about-the-book/

Barry says: There’s lots of books out there about how we need to reform education or “fix” schools. This book takes a reasoned approach of how we can use technology effectively to create truly individualized instruction that can help students learn at many different levels – where they are and when they need it. Based on the idea of “disruptive innovation.”

3) The Dumbest Generation by Mark Bauerlein

“50 Million Minds Diverted, Distracted, Devoured. The technology that was supposed to make young adults more astute, diversify their tastes, and improve their minds had the opposite effect.”  http://www.dumbestgeneration.com/home.html

Barry says: Don’t believe the hype about the “tech-savvy” (quote marks intentional) Millennial generation and most definitely don’t make big strategic plans to change the way you provide education based upon that same hype and drivel. If anything, this generation (and presumably the next one, etc.) will need more of our help to make sense of and productive uses of technology in their educational pursuits.

4) 33,000,000 people in the room – by Juliette Powell

“33 Million People in the Room offers practical tools and advice for optimizing every stage of your own social networking initiative, from planning through measurement. The techniques can help you build your company, introduce new products and services, and strengthen your brands, whatever they are: business or personal.”  http://www.juliettepowell.com/book.php

Barry says: We’ll talk about this idea during the camp; you probably won’t need to read the book after that discussion. It’s an important idea about creating your own network of connections. This book is not specific to education, but the examples allow you to make your own connections to higher education.

Filed under: Conference | Tagged: #WCET09 |