Good news! I finally have a link to the World is Open talk I did at the Wisconsin Distance Teaching and Learning Conference in early August. This relates to the book I finished writing this past summer and that I spent a year writing. This book will hopefully be published by Jossey Bass/Wiley next June or July. I wrote too much (some 270,000 words) so I had to carefully remove some 108,000 words. The working title of this new book is: "The World Is Open: How Web Technology Is Revolutionizing Education." That could change between now and June. The main idea for the book is based on my ten trend model called WE-ALL-LEARN. If you watch the talk, you will learn that WE-ALL-LEARN stands for.
The 100,000+ words of removed text will be smoothed over and perhaps made into a free e-book companion or extension of the main book next year. So, if we can do that, the World is REALLY Open. I intend for it to parallel the printed book and maybe have some reflection or retreat questions embedded in it. I am working on that now. I will also blog on it before the book comes out. At a later date, I will begin posting this to my new website: WorldisOpen.com (stay tuned--nothing there yet).
The Wisconsin conference people estimate that perhaps 850 came to the keynote. My sister, brother-in-law, and nephew were there as were many friends. It is always great to present in Madison since the University of Wisconsin is my alma mater. During the keynote, I had people holding up signs that spelled "NOW WE ALL LEARN" during the start of each of the 10 learning technology trends which I highlighted. Paul Kim, mentioned below, was among the sign bearers. Each of 4 sections got a different word to yell out. The loudest 2 sections got a million dollars for each person in their section. It was fun to do. Again, below is the keynote talk if you want to try to experience it. Unfortunately, you only see me. You sorta had to be there to feel the impact.
1. Wisconsin DL Conference main site
2. My keynote description and link to presentation.
3. Direct link to talk.
4. My slides from my "The World is Open: Now WE-ALL-LEARN with Web Technology" talk and a version of the talk from the Pulse pen of James Moore.
Technology trends opening access to education worldwide: Now, we all can learn!
Speaker: Curt Bonk, PhD, Indiana University
Talk Description: According to Thomas Friedman's book, The World is Flat, worldwide economic trends are flattening. In education, however, opportunities for learning are actually expanding through a myriad of emerging distance technologies. From online content in the form of e-books, podcasts, streamed videos, and satellite maps to participatory environments such as social networking, wikis, and alternate reality worlds, technology-based learning continues to open new learning pathways. At the same time, more instructors are sharing their course materials and teaching ideas globally, thereby expanding learning opportunities and resources. And the software used to deliver such online learning contents and experiences is increasingly available as open source.
Naturally, many questions surround such systems, sites, and resources. For example, how can instructors and learners in developed and developing countries take advantage of these trends? For what purpose will people share? How can these trends converge to address individual learner's needs worldwide?
Curt Bonk will address these issues while enticing participants to think of implications for their organizations, countries, and regions of the world as well as for themselves as leaders and learners.
My friend, George Siemens, from the University of Manitoba also had a keynote (see description of it).
Direct lonk to talk: Connectivism: A Vision for Education
Keynote speaker: George Siemens
Talk Description: Information creation, dissemination, and sharing increasingly occur in distributed networks. For decades, educators have sought ways to increase learners' control over their own learning. Social media, such as blogs, virtual worlds, wikis, bookmarking, and networking, create a shift from a centralized to a distributed learning model. However, learner autonomy is not without consequence. What is the role of the instructor in a distributed learning model? How are authority and trust created?
Hierarchies of content, dialogue, and authority are being transformed into learning networks. As these foundational elements of education change, the very model of education itself needs to be reconsidered. What does it mean to learn and to be educated in a digital, global world? How should institutions, educators, and administrators react?
George Siemens will explore the effects of changed learner relationships with each other, with content, with educational institutions, and with a global society. He will present a vision of education that blends the rapidly changing needs of today's learners with the established challenge of education as a transformative agent in society.
In addition to the keynotes, George and I were on a conference panel related to the Web 2.0 which sorta ended the conference.
Forum 3 - The world of Web 2.0 in distance education
Friday, August 8th
"Online learning environments have been changing quickly over the past few years. The Web has shifted from a passive medium to an interactive one in which content is created, shared, remixed, repurposed, and passed along. Learners are playing a more active role in their experience moving content creation and models of teaching to a new level. This forum will discuss the latest innovations, models, and best practices for utilizing Web 2.0 applications in distance teaching and learning."
Part 1: “This part of the forum will concentrate on the many approaches for creating community and increasing social learning utilizing technologies such as wikis and blogs, podcasting, mobile computing, social bookmarking, and personal learning environments.”
Moderator: Pam Scheibel, Clinical Professor, School of Nursing, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Panelists:• Michael Simonson, Program Professor, Instructional Technology and Distance Education, Nova Southeastern University
• Marilyn Lombardi, Director, the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) Center, Duke University
• Paul Kim, Chief Technology Officer, Stanford University School of Education
Direct Link to Part 1 with my friend Paul Kim from Stanford (See his section 25 minutes in to 53 minutes). Paul is loaded with cool mobile, virtual, and interactive Web 2.0 stuff. And his talk is packed with both research data and stories of companies he is working with out in the Silicon Valley.
Part 2: “Panelists in the second part of this forum will discuss writing, publishing, and scholarly pursuit through the use of Web 2.0 tools such as creative commons, electronic publication, and open educational resources.”
Moderator: Pam Scheibel, Clinical Professor, School of Nursing, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Panelists:
• George Siemens, Associate Director of Research and Development, University of Manitoba
• Curt Bonk, Professor, Instructional Systems Technology, Indiana University
Direct link to Part 2 with George and I is here.
The charge of our panel mainly concerned ideas related to digital scholarship. I have spent the past few days extending that talk into more elaborated and refined presentation for a conference at the University of Texas (UT) Medical Center next week Thursday October 9th ("Time Not Wasted: Digital Scholarship in the Web 2.0"). Thanks to George Siemens for all his marvelous ideas that assisted me in this presentation.
Enjoy the Web 2.0 forum and the keynotes! Paul Kim shows some amazing stuff as do the others--Michael Simonson, Marilyn Lombardi, etc. Again, the Web 2.0 forum is here. There were two other panels and a third keynote--all have videostreamed talks at this site. You might check them out.
If you happen to watch my keynote, let me know what you think of the WE-ALL-LEARN model (you can send email to cjbonk@indiana.edu). More on this to come in later posts.
Thursday, 2 October 2008
Friday, 12 September 2008
The Price of an 8 Pack of Learning Theory Lectures? Nothing! Just a Lot of Bonk!
I tried something unique this past week for my P540 Learning and Cognition in Education class (i.e., a learning theories class) and posted 8 lectures for it since I am teaching it online. Yes, talking head stuff and not interactive--there were no students with me in the room. I did not bring my normal array of props either (just a few). Still, the content may be of use for some who read this blog.
Five of these video lectures have picture in picture and the other 3 rotate between me and the slides. The room I used here at Indiana University (Room 2140 of the School of Education) has been recently remodeled with a Hi-Def camera, a new computer, and a large screen monitor so I thought I would test it out. The technology support people at IU were quite great as well in helping me set this up and edit it all the same day. IU is a leader in technology support. We have a wonderful campus and infrastructure!
To add a touch of variety, I wore a different shirt (purple, green, red, blue, black, white, etc.) and Jerry Garcia tie in each one to make them look like I filmed them on different days. However, I did these on just 2 days (Friday September 5th and Wednesday the 10th). Most of them are roughly 45 minutes long. I think they came out pretty good considering I had no direct help in the room with me and no audience. Though one of them I had to start over as I had the microphone muted. Fortunately, I found out only 10 minutes in.
Cost of these educational videos = zero, nada, nothing. These are available without a password—so any instructor teaching a course on learning theories or instructional design can use them if he or she wishes. I think that these are all I will do. They are a set.
All 8 lectures I recorded during the past week can be found at the following URL and are also listed below (they cover Weeks 1-8 or 9 of my course; the remaining weeks I do other things so there will be no more lectures or so I think): http://mypage.iu.edu/~cjbonk/September102008.html
All my online lectures, podcasts, talks, and other resource material from this week and prior years related to this course are here: http://mypage.iu.edu/~cjbonk/streamed.html#p
See below for list of eight talks I did this week. They are not slick or anything but they could be a nice course supplement. I am just sharing--I think Open Educational Resources (OER) is one of the trends that will be a key part of educational reform. Feedback can be sent to me (Curt Bonk, Professor, Indiana University) at cjbonk@indiana.edu. If you sleep through them, it is ok; at least you will get some needed rest.
=======================
P540 Week 1:
Recorded September 5, 2008 (30 minutes)
Introduction to Theories of Learning and Instruction and brief info on the course/syllabus
Archive URL: mms://wms.indiana.edu/ip/istream/EDUC-P_540_8832_20080905_4.wmv
P540 Week 2:
Recorded September 5, 2008 (45 minutes)
Behaviorism (Ivan Pavlov, John Watson, and B. F. Skinner with some associated information on with Hermann Ebbinghaus and Edward Thorndike)
Archive URL: mms://wms.indiana.edu/ip/istream/EDUC-P_540_8832_20080905_1.wmv
P540 Week 3:
Recorded September 5, 2008 (45 minutes)
Social Cognitive Theory and Self-Efficacy from Albert Bandura
Archive URL: mms://wms.indiana.edu/ip/istream/EDUC-P_540_8832_20080905_2.wmv
P540 Week 4:
Recorded September 10, 2008 (73 minutes)
Cognitive Information Processing (CIP)
Archive URL: mms://wms.indiana.edu/ip/istream/EDUC-P_540_8832_20080910_4.wmv
P540 Week 5:
Recorded September 10, 2008 (46 minutes)
Motivation and Self-Regulated Learning
Archive URL: mms://wms.indiana.edu/ip/istream/EDUC-P_540_8832_20080910_1.wmv
P540 Week 6:
Recorded September 10, 2008 (42 minutes)
Meaningful Learning and Schema Theory
Archive URL: mms://wms.indiana.edu/ip/istream/EDUC-P_540_8832_20080910_2.wmv
P540 Week 7:
Recorded September 5, 2008 (45 minutes)
Constructivism to Instructivism: Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, Jerome Bruner, and Robert Gagne (as well a practice test of 30+ items comparing cognitive constructivism (i.e., Piaget) and social constructivism (i.e., Lev Vygotksy)
Archive URL: mms://wms.indiana.edu/ip/istream/EDUC-P_540_8832_20080905_3.wmv
P540 Weeks 8-9:
Recorded September 10, 2008 (41 minutes)
Constructivism, Social Constructivism, Learner-Centered Instruction, and PBL
Archive URL: mms://wms.indiana.edu/ip/istream/EDUC-P_540_8832_20080910_3.wmv
In addition to these video lectures, as I stated in my previous blog post, I am using many YouTube videos and other shared online videos for this class. This is the way in which courses will be taught in the future--blending ones own lectures with content found online. Enjoy!
Five of these video lectures have picture in picture and the other 3 rotate between me and the slides. The room I used here at Indiana University (Room 2140 of the School of Education) has been recently remodeled with a Hi-Def camera, a new computer, and a large screen monitor so I thought I would test it out. The technology support people at IU were quite great as well in helping me set this up and edit it all the same day. IU is a leader in technology support. We have a wonderful campus and infrastructure!
To add a touch of variety, I wore a different shirt (purple, green, red, blue, black, white, etc.) and Jerry Garcia tie in each one to make them look like I filmed them on different days. However, I did these on just 2 days (Friday September 5th and Wednesday the 10th). Most of them are roughly 45 minutes long. I think they came out pretty good considering I had no direct help in the room with me and no audience. Though one of them I had to start over as I had the microphone muted. Fortunately, I found out only 10 minutes in.
Cost of these educational videos = zero, nada, nothing. These are available without a password—so any instructor teaching a course on learning theories or instructional design can use them if he or she wishes. I think that these are all I will do. They are a set.
All 8 lectures I recorded during the past week can be found at the following URL and are also listed below (they cover Weeks 1-8 or 9 of my course; the remaining weeks I do other things so there will be no more lectures or so I think): http://mypage.iu.edu/~cjbonk/September102008.html
All my online lectures, podcasts, talks, and other resource material from this week and prior years related to this course are here: http://mypage.iu.edu/~cjbonk/streamed.html#p
See below for list of eight talks I did this week. They are not slick or anything but they could be a nice course supplement. I am just sharing--I think Open Educational Resources (OER) is one of the trends that will be a key part of educational reform. Feedback can be sent to me (Curt Bonk, Professor, Indiana University) at cjbonk@indiana.edu. If you sleep through them, it is ok; at least you will get some needed rest.
=======================
P540 Week 1:
Recorded September 5, 2008 (30 minutes)
Introduction to Theories of Learning and Instruction and brief info on the course/syllabus
Archive URL: mms://wms.indiana.edu/ip/istream/EDUC-P_540_8832_20080905_4.wmv
P540 Week 2:
Recorded September 5, 2008 (45 minutes)
Behaviorism (Ivan Pavlov, John Watson, and B. F. Skinner with some associated information on with Hermann Ebbinghaus and Edward Thorndike)
Archive URL: mms://wms.indiana.edu/ip/istream/EDUC-P_540_8832_20080905_1.wmv
P540 Week 3:
Recorded September 5, 2008 (45 minutes)
Social Cognitive Theory and Self-Efficacy from Albert Bandura
Archive URL: mms://wms.indiana.edu/ip/istream/EDUC-P_540_8832_20080905_2.wmv
P540 Week 4:
Recorded September 10, 2008 (73 minutes)
Cognitive Information Processing (CIP)
Archive URL: mms://wms.indiana.edu/ip/istream/EDUC-P_540_8832_20080910_4.wmv
P540 Week 5:
Recorded September 10, 2008 (46 minutes)
Motivation and Self-Regulated Learning
Archive URL: mms://wms.indiana.edu/ip/istream/EDUC-P_540_8832_20080910_1.wmv
P540 Week 6:
Recorded September 10, 2008 (42 minutes)
Meaningful Learning and Schema Theory
Archive URL: mms://wms.indiana.edu/ip/istream/EDUC-P_540_8832_20080910_2.wmv
P540 Week 7:
Recorded September 5, 2008 (45 minutes)
Constructivism to Instructivism: Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, Jerome Bruner, and Robert Gagne (as well a practice test of 30+ items comparing cognitive constructivism (i.e., Piaget) and social constructivism (i.e., Lev Vygotksy)
Archive URL: mms://wms.indiana.edu/ip/istream/EDUC-P_540_8832_20080905_3.wmv
P540 Weeks 8-9:
Recorded September 10, 2008 (41 minutes)
Constructivism, Social Constructivism, Learner-Centered Instruction, and PBL
Archive URL: mms://wms.indiana.edu/ip/istream/EDUC-P_540_8832_20080910_3.wmv
In addition to these video lectures, as I stated in my previous blog post, I am using many YouTube videos and other shared online videos for this class. This is the way in which courses will be taught in the future--blending ones own lectures with content found online. Enjoy!
Saturday, 6 September 2008
Fall 2008 Course Syllabi, Learning Theory, YouTube, Wikibooks, and the Web 2.0
Sorry that it has been more than a month since my last post. I have been working on many journal articles and book chapters as well as a couple of new course syllabi.
P540 Syllabus on Learning Theories: I have a new syllabus for my P540 course on Learning Theories and Instructional Design.
YouTube Addendum to P540 Syllabus: I also have an addendum to that syllabus which has a list of YouTube and other online videos which parallel each week of the semester. Feel free to use this list. If you do, please let me know how you use it and what happened when you did. Also note that I wrote an article on the use of YouTube in instruction for the AERA conference in New York last March which is available online. I will try to publish it later this year. Let me know what you think of it.
Webstreamed Lectures for Learning Theories: And I have some new Webstreamed lectures on behavioral, cognitive, constructivist, and social constructivist theory posted which I did on Friday September 5, 2008. I plan to do 4 more such video lectures this coming Friday. And when I do, I promise to wear a different shirt and tie for each one. Smile!
Wikibook for Learning Theories: This class will continue to work on a wikibook I started last year on "The Practice of Learning Theories" or the POLT. You are welcome to expand any chapter in it or add new ones.
R685 Syllabus on the Web 2.0: I use many Web 2.0 activities in that class. However, a better place to learn about the Web 2.0 is my R685 course on "The Web 2.0 and Participatory E-Learning." Every article in that course is found freely available online. The syllabus is now 30 pages so that is a lot of articles! There are also links to open access journals and a couple of open access e-books.
Wikibook for the Web 2.0: This class will continue to work on a Wikibook on "The Web 2.0 and Emerging Learning Technologies" or the WELT which I started last year with colleagues from universities in Malaysia, Taiwan, China, and the USA. You (or your students) are welcome to extend or edit it. Please let me know how you like it and what you did.
Enjoy these resources.
P540 Syllabus on Learning Theories: I have a new syllabus for my P540 course on Learning Theories and Instructional Design.
YouTube Addendum to P540 Syllabus: I also have an addendum to that syllabus which has a list of YouTube and other online videos which parallel each week of the semester. Feel free to use this list. If you do, please let me know how you use it and what happened when you did. Also note that I wrote an article on the use of YouTube in instruction for the AERA conference in New York last March which is available online. I will try to publish it later this year. Let me know what you think of it.
Webstreamed Lectures for Learning Theories: And I have some new Webstreamed lectures on behavioral, cognitive, constructivist, and social constructivist theory posted which I did on Friday September 5, 2008. I plan to do 4 more such video lectures this coming Friday. And when I do, I promise to wear a different shirt and tie for each one. Smile!
Wikibook for Learning Theories: This class will continue to work on a wikibook I started last year on "The Practice of Learning Theories" or the POLT. You are welcome to expand any chapter in it or add new ones.
R685 Syllabus on the Web 2.0: I use many Web 2.0 activities in that class. However, a better place to learn about the Web 2.0 is my R685 course on "The Web 2.0 and Participatory E-Learning." Every article in that course is found freely available online. The syllabus is now 30 pages so that is a lot of articles! There are also links to open access journals and a couple of open access e-books.
Wikibook for the Web 2.0: This class will continue to work on a Wikibook on "The Web 2.0 and Emerging Learning Technologies" or the WELT which I started last year with colleagues from universities in Malaysia, Taiwan, China, and the USA. You (or your students) are welcome to extend or edit it. Please let me know how you like it and what you did.
Enjoy these resources.
Thursday, 31 July 2008
Time for Twenty-Four Terrific Tenure Tips for New Faculty Members: Ideas For Fostering Freedom
My department hired two new faculty members who have now both arrived on campus. Both are great! They sat down with me on Monday and asked my advice on getting tenure here. Since we did not finish the conversation, I created a list of ideas. It is below. Perhaps it will help you as well. Not all of it will apply.
You might skip them all since I was originally denied tenure and had to fight for it. I may not be the best role model. Once tenured, however, my productivity took off. This happened, in part, since I no longer had to sit through the endless and quite boring teacher education reform committees which never interested me (I was an corporate controller and CPA--interested in nontraditional learning, open, and flexible learning; anything but traditional learning and traditional schools and traditional teacher education). I found myself in distance education.
Give me anything that is not eyeball to eyeball or ear-pan to ear-pan and I am happy as a clam. With my research on distance learning taking off since tenure back in 1997, I now have 210 publications and have give over 850 talks. I think I had maybe 20 publications and 100 talks prior to 1997--you do the math since then. Same person I was when I was denied tenure. Same skin. Same smile. Same concern for students and heavy involvement in student mentoring.
The difference has been freedom. Freedom to explore. Freedom to say no to ideas and people that do not fit mine. Freedom to help people who need it. Freedom to suggest things to others to help they succeed when they do not see something that I think is quite obvious. Freedom to create unique partnerships and collaborations. Freedom to send to a journal you are not sure about. Freedom to write a book or an e-book. Etc. But why do we contort our bodies for a decade to get through graduate school and then get tenure for such freedom? If personal freedom to learn, live, and grow is that goal, do not delay! Go for it right now!
Anyway, once tenured, you reassume control over your life which perhaps you did not have for 4 years in graduate school and the six years of the tenure process. Do people realize how much of their lives they are giving up? That is a bloody decade and for many people it is two decades. How can one get out of this cycle of paying homage to everyone else? If you use some of the ideas below, I think you will be assuming more control and personal self-directedness over your life.
Many of these points below relate to time. Life is time. Time is life. Why do we go through routines that the media, our colleagues, our students, our family, and our friends expect of us? We should try to take control over our time. It is our own personal time. Once you do that, you enter a state of flow and your productivity will skyrocket. There is a ton of time for you to do whatever you want. Trust me.
Two dozen things to do on path to tenure and give you more control over your time amd personal freedom:
1. Teach in Bulk: I mean, if you can, teach back-to-back courses or one day a week courses. Free up days to write, rewrite, and reflect. Or perhaps teach some courses online and some face-to-face. I once taught 2 sections of undergrad educational psychology courses on Tuesdays and Thursdays back-to-back. I also once taught a graduate course at 4-6:45 pm on Wednesdays and another from 7-10 pm that same day. My two course load was all completed on Wednesdays, thereby giving me 5 days per week to write (1 day was spent prepping my 2 courses). I work every day if you cannot tell.
2. Avoid Summer Teaching or Teach Summer Intensive Courses: Do not teach all summer and avoid any summer teaching if you can. Save summer for writing and some vacationing. Three week summer classes are the best. Or even 1 week or no weeks. If you teach all summer your first six years as a new professor, your odds for getting tenure are significantly reduced. Simply put, look around you; chances are that your competition is not.
3. Get Vita Line Items: Say yes to many things that are low time that add to vita. Short time, high payoff items are best, especially those involving fun.
4. Avoid Big Things: Say no to most things that are long in nature and only add 1-2 lines to your vita. Unless you are principle investigator or it is your main interest area. If you are in charge, then sure.
5. Service Protection: Get protection from chair from too many service committees. Find out what are the norms and expectations and ask your chair if how many you need to be on. If you are on 2 or 3 service committees and that is the expectation, you can say that your chair told you to say no to anymore. This limits feelings of guilt.
6. Doctoral Committee Commitments: Once you are on the average number of dissertations, post a note on your door number of doctoral committees you are on and that you are not taking anymore. That way, if a student sends you an email to request you to be on a doctoral committee, you can say, well, if you read my door, you can see that I an not taking anymore. It is not you saying no, but the note on your door. This also limits guilt and you are telling the truth--you are not taking anymore (or at least not this day).
7. Schedule Student Meetings Back-to-Back: Have student meetings back to back. If you have 1 meeting, make others wrapped around it. Sometimes I double book appointments so as to speed everything up (not that often--perhaps 1-2 times a year when things get crazy). When another student is waiting, the one in my office gets to the point faster. (Actually, as bad as this sounds, I am the one who likes to dilly dally and socialize, so this keeps me on task too.)
8. Teach at Off Peak Times: I like to teach late at night at 4 or 7 pm or on early mornings or weekends. I love teaching Saturday mornings. You get access to all equipment and resources in the building and it is quiet and informal. It is also a chance to do whatever you want to do. The building is yours! It is like that built the place just for you and your class. It is quite uplifting. Makes your soul come alive! You also avoid disruptions and meetings that were not previously planned for.
9. Publication Goal Chart: Have a goal chart and reflect on progress. Have specific things to do on that chart and mark them off as you accomplish them. This is the most important point of my list of 24 items. Have goals and project into the future. And revise and monitor them as needed! You should have at a minimum the kernel of 4 or 5 articles on this goal chart. It should like at least a 2 year plan or looking out 24 months. I would actually recommend thinking 3-5 years into the future.
10. Goal Chart Mentoring: Discuss physical goal chart with a mentor. This will help keep you on task. It will also give you someone to share your successes and rejections with. Mentors are very important in getting to tenure and in life.
11. Clear Schedule in Bulk: Clear days or weeks from schedule to write and only write. And then write and write and write. Smile.
12. Writing Tips: Read the writing tips in my blog. I have 4 such blog posts.
a. Ten Quick Writing Tips: http://travelinedman.blogspot.com/2008/01/10-quick-writing-tips-in-academic-world.html
b. 20-30 Writing Tips: http://travelinedman.blogspot.com/2007/01/quick-20-academic-writing-tips.html
c. 3 P's of Professorship: http://travelinedman.blogspot.com/2007/08/3-ps-of-publishing-professorship-keep.html
d. 3 P's of Professional Writing: http://travelinedman.blogspot.com/2007/08/3-ps-of-professional-writers-purpose.html
13. Avoid Raising Hand or Volunteering to Chair a Committee: Do not volunteer to be a chair on a committee ever. When asked, just say when you signed up for this committee, it was with the agreement that you would not chair it. Do not go looking for more work that is not recognized prior to tenure.
14. Department Service: At the department level, work on service committees that matter—search committees, new student entrance committees, etc. These types of committees provide the people who you will work with in the future. Hence, they are extremely important ones to your own success. Travel or awards committees can also be fun and worthwhile without killing you.
15. School/College Level Service: At the college or school level, sign up for committees that usually have modest time requirements like student appeals or ethics committee, invited speaker or lectures and seminars committee (limited meetings and you meet cool and important people), and outstanding dissertation or awards committee. Committee on teaching are also worth the time investments. Avoid faculty council committees (political and a sure waste of time and effort--keep in mind that this is my opinion; many faculty love this one)> Also avoid promotion and tenure committees (political) and budget committees (boring! I know, I am an accountant. Higher education accountants, however, take boring to the extreme).
16. University Service: One word--avoid. Unless you like the topic a lot and it is great exposure for you, just say no. Of course, you might sign up for one to get to meet faculty from other departments and units or to work with your favorite friends. Just do not go overboard. If a form comes and you can sign not to be included in the annual voting for a particular faculty committee, then sign away. Why have your enemies vote you on silly committees that waste your time?
17. Grants of Other People: Do not get on another person’s grant (unless small role with high payoff; need to get your role specified in writing—-never just an oral agreement, though I an a hypocrite here…smile). This is one area that I have always seen problems. Weigh summer money and release time from grants of other people against commitments and time away from personal publishing.
18. Writing Environment or Setting: Find a place to write that you like. This is a no brainer and everyone will tell you this.
19. Signage for Visitors: If bothered too much, place a sign on your door about your availability. I have an open door policy at my office so I work for home a lot where I can get much done. Other people prefer their work offices. If you do, try to close the door at times. At home, I have a wondrous view of the woods and a creek at the bottom. Deer walking behind when I work on my deck. I can write a ton. Find your setting (see pt #19 above).
20. Get Help and Thank Help: You cannot do everything by yourself. Get people to give feedback on papers and thank them in acknowledgements. Have a couple of friends who are good editors will go a long way in your success. I just found 2 people here in Bloomington who are currently helping me with a book. Find those people, but be sure to pay them and thank them as well as help them out when they need it.
21. Journal Selection Process: Look for journals to publish in. Target your papers. Think or plan ahead. If you are in educational technology, see my technology journal list at: http://www.trainingshare.com/resources/distance_ed_journals_and_online_learning_books.htm
22. Conference Jumping: Do not go from conference to conference. Try to publish your papers prior to going (after accepted) or right after the conference. If you go from conference to conference, you will never get many things published. I am speaking from experience. Friends need you at conferences, but each conference equates to 2-3 weeks—one week to get ready, one week to be there, and a week to recover. Keep this 3 week rule in mind every time you consider a conference. It is more like 3 weeks of time for an assistant professor. For tenured professors like me, it is more like 1 week since I no longer have to write papers for each conference and can come and go as needed. That being said, I still do conference papers. I do not want to sound like a slug.
23. Annual Publishing Goals or Quotas: Publish on average 3 good articles per year. That is the goal. If you get 2 much of the time and 3 the rest, be happy. My personal quotas are much higher but you need to set yours somewhere and simply get started.
24. Research Strands: Create 2-4 strands of your research. Do not just have 1 strand to your research as some might advise you to do. One strand may never be accepted for publication and so then what do you do? Diversify somewhat.
These are just 24 of my ideas. I could give you 24 more if needed. Get ideas for 4-5 people and synthesize across them. Ok, remember this is about YOUR time. Below is a joke about the time commitments prior to tenure.
Ten Simple Steps to Tenure (this is meant as a joke--smile):
Step #1: Avoid department meetings;
Step #2: Avoid school or college meetings;
Step #3: Avoid university functions and meetings;
Step #4: Avoid mandated meetings;
Step #5: Avoid book publishers, book buyers (though sometimes getting cash for books is nice), and avoid anyone stopping by just to chat.
Step #6: Avoid retreats and other such silliness;
Step #7: Avoid committee meetings;
Step #8: Avoid students;
Step #9: Avoid life;
Step #10: Review other 9 steps each week.
Much of this I say in jest. Still, it is just a way to remind yourself that your time matters and is costly.
What about friends and family? Never forget them. They are the most important. Meet them during conferences or take with you. My kids have been with me to conferences and presentations in Finland, Australia, and Hawaii. That was fun! In addition, my friends meet me at almost all of my conferences. That is also great!
So now you have two dozen ideas to help you get tenure (should you want it). If all else fails, here is a job posting list I recently created (smile this is meant as a joke):
http://www.trainingshare.com/resources/Job-search-Educational-Technology-and-Instructional-Technology.htm
Good luck.
You might skip them all since I was originally denied tenure and had to fight for it. I may not be the best role model. Once tenured, however, my productivity took off. This happened, in part, since I no longer had to sit through the endless and quite boring teacher education reform committees which never interested me (I was an corporate controller and CPA--interested in nontraditional learning, open, and flexible learning; anything but traditional learning and traditional schools and traditional teacher education). I found myself in distance education.
Give me anything that is not eyeball to eyeball or ear-pan to ear-pan and I am happy as a clam. With my research on distance learning taking off since tenure back in 1997, I now have 210 publications and have give over 850 talks. I think I had maybe 20 publications and 100 talks prior to 1997--you do the math since then. Same person I was when I was denied tenure. Same skin. Same smile. Same concern for students and heavy involvement in student mentoring.
The difference has been freedom. Freedom to explore. Freedom to say no to ideas and people that do not fit mine. Freedom to help people who need it. Freedom to suggest things to others to help they succeed when they do not see something that I think is quite obvious. Freedom to create unique partnerships and collaborations. Freedom to send to a journal you are not sure about. Freedom to write a book or an e-book. Etc. But why do we contort our bodies for a decade to get through graduate school and then get tenure for such freedom? If personal freedom to learn, live, and grow is that goal, do not delay! Go for it right now!
Anyway, once tenured, you reassume control over your life which perhaps you did not have for 4 years in graduate school and the six years of the tenure process. Do people realize how much of their lives they are giving up? That is a bloody decade and for many people it is two decades. How can one get out of this cycle of paying homage to everyone else? If you use some of the ideas below, I think you will be assuming more control and personal self-directedness over your life.
Many of these points below relate to time. Life is time. Time is life. Why do we go through routines that the media, our colleagues, our students, our family, and our friends expect of us? We should try to take control over our time. It is our own personal time. Once you do that, you enter a state of flow and your productivity will skyrocket. There is a ton of time for you to do whatever you want. Trust me.
Two dozen things to do on path to tenure and give you more control over your time amd personal freedom:
1. Teach in Bulk: I mean, if you can, teach back-to-back courses or one day a week courses. Free up days to write, rewrite, and reflect. Or perhaps teach some courses online and some face-to-face. I once taught 2 sections of undergrad educational psychology courses on Tuesdays and Thursdays back-to-back. I also once taught a graduate course at 4-6:45 pm on Wednesdays and another from 7-10 pm that same day. My two course load was all completed on Wednesdays, thereby giving me 5 days per week to write (1 day was spent prepping my 2 courses). I work every day if you cannot tell.
2. Avoid Summer Teaching or Teach Summer Intensive Courses: Do not teach all summer and avoid any summer teaching if you can. Save summer for writing and some vacationing. Three week summer classes are the best. Or even 1 week or no weeks. If you teach all summer your first six years as a new professor, your odds for getting tenure are significantly reduced. Simply put, look around you; chances are that your competition is not.
3. Get Vita Line Items: Say yes to many things that are low time that add to vita. Short time, high payoff items are best, especially those involving fun.
4. Avoid Big Things: Say no to most things that are long in nature and only add 1-2 lines to your vita. Unless you are principle investigator or it is your main interest area. If you are in charge, then sure.
5. Service Protection: Get protection from chair from too many service committees. Find out what are the norms and expectations and ask your chair if how many you need to be on. If you are on 2 or 3 service committees and that is the expectation, you can say that your chair told you to say no to anymore. This limits feelings of guilt.
6. Doctoral Committee Commitments: Once you are on the average number of dissertations, post a note on your door number of doctoral committees you are on and that you are not taking anymore. That way, if a student sends you an email to request you to be on a doctoral committee, you can say, well, if you read my door, you can see that I an not taking anymore. It is not you saying no, but the note on your door. This also limits guilt and you are telling the truth--you are not taking anymore (or at least not this day).
7. Schedule Student Meetings Back-to-Back: Have student meetings back to back. If you have 1 meeting, make others wrapped around it. Sometimes I double book appointments so as to speed everything up (not that often--perhaps 1-2 times a year when things get crazy). When another student is waiting, the one in my office gets to the point faster. (Actually, as bad as this sounds, I am the one who likes to dilly dally and socialize, so this keeps me on task too.)
8. Teach at Off Peak Times: I like to teach late at night at 4 or 7 pm or on early mornings or weekends. I love teaching Saturday mornings. You get access to all equipment and resources in the building and it is quiet and informal. It is also a chance to do whatever you want to do. The building is yours! It is like that built the place just for you and your class. It is quite uplifting. Makes your soul come alive! You also avoid disruptions and meetings that were not previously planned for.
9. Publication Goal Chart: Have a goal chart and reflect on progress. Have specific things to do on that chart and mark them off as you accomplish them. This is the most important point of my list of 24 items. Have goals and project into the future. And revise and monitor them as needed! You should have at a minimum the kernel of 4 or 5 articles on this goal chart. It should like at least a 2 year plan or looking out 24 months. I would actually recommend thinking 3-5 years into the future.
10. Goal Chart Mentoring: Discuss physical goal chart with a mentor. This will help keep you on task. It will also give you someone to share your successes and rejections with. Mentors are very important in getting to tenure and in life.
11. Clear Schedule in Bulk: Clear days or weeks from schedule to write and only write. And then write and write and write. Smile.
12. Writing Tips: Read the writing tips in my blog. I have 4 such blog posts.
a. Ten Quick Writing Tips: http://travelinedman.blogspot.com/2008/01/10-quick-writing-tips-in-academic-world.html
b. 20-30 Writing Tips: http://travelinedman.blogspot.com/2007/01/quick-20-academic-writing-tips.html
c. 3 P's of Professorship: http://travelinedman.blogspot.com/2007/08/3-ps-of-publishing-professorship-keep.html
d. 3 P's of Professional Writing: http://travelinedman.blogspot.com/2007/08/3-ps-of-professional-writers-purpose.html
13. Avoid Raising Hand or Volunteering to Chair a Committee: Do not volunteer to be a chair on a committee ever. When asked, just say when you signed up for this committee, it was with the agreement that you would not chair it. Do not go looking for more work that is not recognized prior to tenure.
14. Department Service: At the department level, work on service committees that matter—search committees, new student entrance committees, etc. These types of committees provide the people who you will work with in the future. Hence, they are extremely important ones to your own success. Travel or awards committees can also be fun and worthwhile without killing you.
15. School/College Level Service: At the college or school level, sign up for committees that usually have modest time requirements like student appeals or ethics committee, invited speaker or lectures and seminars committee (limited meetings and you meet cool and important people), and outstanding dissertation or awards committee. Committee on teaching are also worth the time investments. Avoid faculty council committees (political and a sure waste of time and effort--keep in mind that this is my opinion; many faculty love this one)> Also avoid promotion and tenure committees (political) and budget committees (boring! I know, I am an accountant. Higher education accountants, however, take boring to the extreme).
16. University Service: One word--avoid. Unless you like the topic a lot and it is great exposure for you, just say no. Of course, you might sign up for one to get to meet faculty from other departments and units or to work with your favorite friends. Just do not go overboard. If a form comes and you can sign not to be included in the annual voting for a particular faculty committee, then sign away. Why have your enemies vote you on silly committees that waste your time?
17. Grants of Other People: Do not get on another person’s grant (unless small role with high payoff; need to get your role specified in writing—-never just an oral agreement, though I an a hypocrite here…smile). This is one area that I have always seen problems. Weigh summer money and release time from grants of other people against commitments and time away from personal publishing.
18. Writing Environment or Setting: Find a place to write that you like. This is a no brainer and everyone will tell you this.
19. Signage for Visitors: If bothered too much, place a sign on your door about your availability. I have an open door policy at my office so I work for home a lot where I can get much done. Other people prefer their work offices. If you do, try to close the door at times. At home, I have a wondrous view of the woods and a creek at the bottom. Deer walking behind when I work on my deck. I can write a ton. Find your setting (see pt #19 above).
20. Get Help and Thank Help: You cannot do everything by yourself. Get people to give feedback on papers and thank them in acknowledgements. Have a couple of friends who are good editors will go a long way in your success. I just found 2 people here in Bloomington who are currently helping me with a book. Find those people, but be sure to pay them and thank them as well as help them out when they need it.
21. Journal Selection Process: Look for journals to publish in. Target your papers. Think or plan ahead. If you are in educational technology, see my technology journal list at: http://www.trainingshare.com/resources/distance_ed_journals_and_online_learning_books.htm
22. Conference Jumping: Do not go from conference to conference. Try to publish your papers prior to going (after accepted) or right after the conference. If you go from conference to conference, you will never get many things published. I am speaking from experience. Friends need you at conferences, but each conference equates to 2-3 weeks—one week to get ready, one week to be there, and a week to recover. Keep this 3 week rule in mind every time you consider a conference. It is more like 3 weeks of time for an assistant professor. For tenured professors like me, it is more like 1 week since I no longer have to write papers for each conference and can come and go as needed. That being said, I still do conference papers. I do not want to sound like a slug.
23. Annual Publishing Goals or Quotas: Publish on average 3 good articles per year. That is the goal. If you get 2 much of the time and 3 the rest, be happy. My personal quotas are much higher but you need to set yours somewhere and simply get started.
24. Research Strands: Create 2-4 strands of your research. Do not just have 1 strand to your research as some might advise you to do. One strand may never be accepted for publication and so then what do you do? Diversify somewhat.
These are just 24 of my ideas. I could give you 24 more if needed. Get ideas for 4-5 people and synthesize across them. Ok, remember this is about YOUR time. Below is a joke about the time commitments prior to tenure.
Ten Simple Steps to Tenure (this is meant as a joke--smile):
Step #1: Avoid department meetings;
Step #2: Avoid school or college meetings;
Step #3: Avoid university functions and meetings;
Step #4: Avoid mandated meetings;
Step #5: Avoid book publishers, book buyers (though sometimes getting cash for books is nice), and avoid anyone stopping by just to chat.
Step #6: Avoid retreats and other such silliness;
Step #7: Avoid committee meetings;
Step #8: Avoid students;
Step #9: Avoid life;
Step #10: Review other 9 steps each week.
Much of this I say in jest. Still, it is just a way to remind yourself that your time matters and is costly.
What about friends and family? Never forget them. They are the most important. Meet them during conferences or take with you. My kids have been with me to conferences and presentations in Finland, Australia, and Hawaii. That was fun! In addition, my friends meet me at almost all of my conferences. That is also great!
So now you have two dozen ideas to help you get tenure (should you want it). If all else fails, here is a job posting list I recently created (smile this is meant as a joke):
http://www.trainingshare.com/resources/Job-search-Educational-Technology-and-Instructional-Technology.htm
Good luck.
Monday, 28 July 2008
Ice Story Interview with Cassandra Brooks
In my book that extends Friedman’s “The World is Flat,” I discuss many interesting learning situations and adventures. People are learning when in ships, trains, planes, taxis, and simulators. One of the more interesting adventures was the “Ice Stories” of scientists who are conducting research in Antarctic waters. These stories were sponsored by the Exploratorium in San Francisco and ran from January to March 2008, for instance. Scientists were at McMurdo Station near the South Pole as well as ones in the South Shetland Islands and other remote southern locations. This project, which was partially funded by the National Science Foundation, was called “Ice Stories: Dispatches from Polar Scientists.” In the Ice Stories project, students can read about experiments related to Antarctica’s sheet ice dynamics, climate change, penguin breeding behaviors, and the responses of the polar marine ecosystem to the effects of global warming. (Note: for more information, see the links at the end of this post.)
Among the people I found in these Ice Stories was Cassandra Brooks. I wrote her an email about two months after her return from her second trip to Antarctica. It was June 2008 when we chatted. She was just about to submit her master’s thesis at the Marine Science program at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories (MLML) in California and go through commencement. Cassandra’s work focuses on the life history and population of Antarctic toothfish (which we know as the very expensive, Chilean Sea Bass). In 2006, she was able to study krill and Antarctic finfish, including her beloved toothfish. This time she returned again as part of a zooplankton survey focusing on the krill. In a February 23, 2008 blog post, she notes that “I stepped out on deck this morning to find the sea fog had finally lifted, revealing an immense ocean of ice: the world of Antarctica.”
Cassandra definitely likes to write! To give you the sense of one her posts, in her final one, titled “One Gorgeous Day,” on Saturday, April 5, 2008, Cassandra goes on to say:
“We finally finished our zooplankton survey and since we had two days to spare, we steamed down into the Gerlache Straight, off the Antarctic Peninsula for a fun day off. The Gerlache Straight is famous for its scenery, but when I awoke it was snowing and it continued to snow all day. At first we were all slightly disappointed; the snow blocked our view of the landscape. But as the day carried on, the gently falling snow covered the boat, cultivating a surreal landscape. The water was calm and covered in a thick layer of snow which began to clump, forming what’s known as ‘pancake ice.’ There were icebergs and bergy bits everywhere, all covered in a fresh layer of white.”
She ended this post with the following:
“We all have a responsibility to manage Antarctica for the international good, to do our best to learn as much as possible about this polar environment. That includes how humans are affecting it via climate change, which will affect everyone. We have a responsibility to protect its resources and ecosystem, to make the best choices about how we fish Antarctic waters and how we manage Antarctic resources, and to educate each other, as I have tried to do through these dispatches. I thank you for sharing the adventure with me.”
She is right. We must find ways to protect Antarctica and the entire world. For my book, I had many questions for Cassandra. My list of questions and her answers are below.
Here are my questions and Cassandra’s answers:
1. (Bonk.) How did you get picked for this?
1. (Cassandra.) I started graduate school in the fall of 2004 with an interest in marine science with an interest in fisheries and doing a thesis that I thought would make a positive and applicable contribution not only to the science world, but also to management and conservation. My boss was working on a bigger age and growth toothfish project and needed help, so I began working full time on it and later took on a thesis studying one of the two species of toothfish, the Antarctic toothfish. My project focused on age validation of this species. Accurate age and growth information is critical in estimates of maturity, longevity, recruitment, and mortality all of which go into stock assessment models used in setting management quotas and setting catch limits. The problem is that most age and growth studies are incredibly subjective. We age most fish by counting growth zones in their bony parts (i.e. otoliths -fish ear bones-, scales, vertebrate, etc.) in the same way you would count rings in a tree to assess how old they get. But often these growth zones are not distinct or we don't know that the bony parts form only one growth zone per year or if they form one every three years. So we have to test the accuracy by age validation. I did this through lead-radium dating. In this method we actually measure the ratio of the isotopes lead and radium in the fish otolith as an independent chronometer which we can then compare to the ages we obtained through counting growth zones. Then we know if our ages are accurate!
Now, all of my Antarctic toothfish otoliths were obtained from fisheries observers (workers who collect data and biological samples) on commercial fishing vessels in the Ross Sea, Antarctica (the side opposite New Zealand). At the same time I was aging the otoliths, I was also doing a spatial analysis and trying to really understand the glacial dynamics and oceanography of Antarctica. I felt I could not do this project and never actually see Antarctica and a toothfish, which led me to pursue ways of getting down there. A researcher at my lab by the name of Valerie Loeb was one of the head scientists for AMLR (Antarctic Marine Living Resources) and at the same time I was looking for ways down south she was looking for a research technician and asked me to join here. So I went to Antarctica (the region off the Antarctic Peninsula, South Shetland Islands to be exact) with AMLR in January of 2006 and had an incredible time. That year we did a zooplankton survey (focusing on krill) followed by a fish survey where I finally got to see my toothfish!
During my first season with AMLR I wrote long emails to my friends and family about my experience in Antarctica. I loved sharing the adventure and people seemed to get a lot out of it. I believe so strongly in communicating science and in making people more aware of the world out there. I knew being in Antarctica was a unique experience and I also knew many people simply didn't know a lot about the environment down there, so I wanted to teach them. I returned to Antarctica with AMLR this year (2008) and wanted to write for a bigger audience and so I hooked up with the Exploratorium.
The way I got hooked up with the Exploratorium is another story though. You could say that science writing (for the public) has always been my dream job and I began looking into the science communication program at UCSC awhile ago. I had applied to the program just as I was getting ready to go to Antarctica and had voiced to the director of the program my desires to write from down south. One of the alumni of the UCSC program runs the Exploratorium "ice stories" program and so he put us in touch and I began to write for them (that was a REALLY long answer!).
2. (Bonk.) Did you blog from your ship or camp? What kind of connection to the Internet did you have?
2. (Cassandra.) I blogged from my research vessel. We didn't actually have an internet connection, which made things a bit harder. We had satellite email which I was really limited on in terms of how much I could send out, especially pictures. And we only had the connection twice a day.
3. (Bonk.) Do you know the person who replied to you (Naicy) and how old she is? (Naicy had replied to Cassandra March 10th blog posting about what drew her down to Antarctica and invited Cassandra to visit her in the Philippines.)
3. (Cassandra.) I don't know Naicy or how old she is.
4. (Bonk.) How often did K-12 kids reply to your posts? How might such activities be used in education?
4. (Cassandra.) I can't say for sure how often K-12 kids replied to the posts, but there were definitely a few who did who did say their age, but most didn't. I do know that a couple of my friends and colleagues did use the posts in their classrooms as an interactive way to teach their kids about Antarctica. Especially because of the pictures, and many scientists use other multimedia tools like audio and video, I think it’s a great interactive learning tool. Moreover, students can follow the scientists along in their trip and look forward to new posts, meanwhile they are learning about this incredible and extreme environment.
5. (Bonk.) What was the overall experience like?
5. (Cassandra.) I am assuming you are asking about the blogging experience? It was a lot of work, especially because I was working 12 hour shifts on the research side of things, but incredibly rewarding and a great way for me to gain experience in science communication (which the career I am now moving towards). Being in Antarctica is such an amazing experience and something I feel incredibly fortunate to have had. I loved being able to share this with others and to hopefully educate and inspire them about this beautiful place. I cannot stress how important I think it is to educate the public, especially in today's world when all our human actions are having such a growing impact on the world, including Antarctica. I think many people can't imagine that, that they are affecting a land that they have never seen. I wanted to show them that place, through my eyes, pictures and words, in hopes that I am doing something for the ultimate long-term greater good of Antarctica and the southern ocean resources (which is ultimately why I do the science as well).
6. (Bonk.) How long were you there?
6. (Cassandra.) This year I was only there from mid-February to mid-March. In 2006, I was there for January, February and March. And also to clarify, that while my thesis is on toothfish, which led me to going down there, the cruise I was on this year was focused on krill, not toothfish. But it’s all connected of course!
Some Web links:
Exploratorium: http://www.exploratorium.edu/
Ice Stories: http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/index.php
Ice Stories (Cassandra Brooks’ weblog): http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/?author=6
See Article:
eSchool News. “See Science in Action at the South Pole through These Live (and Archived) Webcasts,” eSchool News (January 2, 2008), http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/site-of-the-week/site/index.cfm?i=51354;_hbguid=a9d5d040-8d6d-4eb6-89c7-75e426c9da15
I hope you enjoyed this Ice Story moment. There is a story about Cassandra in the book I am just about done with as well as dozens of other similar stories.
Among the people I found in these Ice Stories was Cassandra Brooks. I wrote her an email about two months after her return from her second trip to Antarctica. It was June 2008 when we chatted. She was just about to submit her master’s thesis at the Marine Science program at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories (MLML) in California and go through commencement. Cassandra’s work focuses on the life history and population of Antarctic toothfish (which we know as the very expensive, Chilean Sea Bass). In 2006, she was able to study krill and Antarctic finfish, including her beloved toothfish. This time she returned again as part of a zooplankton survey focusing on the krill. In a February 23, 2008 blog post, she notes that “I stepped out on deck this morning to find the sea fog had finally lifted, revealing an immense ocean of ice: the world of Antarctica.”
Cassandra definitely likes to write! To give you the sense of one her posts, in her final one, titled “One Gorgeous Day,” on Saturday, April 5, 2008, Cassandra goes on to say:
“We finally finished our zooplankton survey and since we had two days to spare, we steamed down into the Gerlache Straight, off the Antarctic Peninsula for a fun day off. The Gerlache Straight is famous for its scenery, but when I awoke it was snowing and it continued to snow all day. At first we were all slightly disappointed; the snow blocked our view of the landscape. But as the day carried on, the gently falling snow covered the boat, cultivating a surreal landscape. The water was calm and covered in a thick layer of snow which began to clump, forming what’s known as ‘pancake ice.’ There were icebergs and bergy bits everywhere, all covered in a fresh layer of white.”
She ended this post with the following:
“We all have a responsibility to manage Antarctica for the international good, to do our best to learn as much as possible about this polar environment. That includes how humans are affecting it via climate change, which will affect everyone. We have a responsibility to protect its resources and ecosystem, to make the best choices about how we fish Antarctic waters and how we manage Antarctic resources, and to educate each other, as I have tried to do through these dispatches. I thank you for sharing the adventure with me.”
She is right. We must find ways to protect Antarctica and the entire world. For my book, I had many questions for Cassandra. My list of questions and her answers are below.
Here are my questions and Cassandra’s answers:
1. (Bonk.) How did you get picked for this?
1. (Cassandra.) I started graduate school in the fall of 2004 with an interest in marine science with an interest in fisheries and doing a thesis that I thought would make a positive and applicable contribution not only to the science world, but also to management and conservation. My boss was working on a bigger age and growth toothfish project and needed help, so I began working full time on it and later took on a thesis studying one of the two species of toothfish, the Antarctic toothfish. My project focused on age validation of this species. Accurate age and growth information is critical in estimates of maturity, longevity, recruitment, and mortality all of which go into stock assessment models used in setting management quotas and setting catch limits. The problem is that most age and growth studies are incredibly subjective. We age most fish by counting growth zones in their bony parts (i.e. otoliths -fish ear bones-, scales, vertebrate, etc.) in the same way you would count rings in a tree to assess how old they get. But often these growth zones are not distinct or we don't know that the bony parts form only one growth zone per year or if they form one every three years. So we have to test the accuracy by age validation. I did this through lead-radium dating. In this method we actually measure the ratio of the isotopes lead and radium in the fish otolith as an independent chronometer which we can then compare to the ages we obtained through counting growth zones. Then we know if our ages are accurate!
Now, all of my Antarctic toothfish otoliths were obtained from fisheries observers (workers who collect data and biological samples) on commercial fishing vessels in the Ross Sea, Antarctica (the side opposite New Zealand). At the same time I was aging the otoliths, I was also doing a spatial analysis and trying to really understand the glacial dynamics and oceanography of Antarctica. I felt I could not do this project and never actually see Antarctica and a toothfish, which led me to pursue ways of getting down there. A researcher at my lab by the name of Valerie Loeb was one of the head scientists for AMLR (Antarctic Marine Living Resources) and at the same time I was looking for ways down south she was looking for a research technician and asked me to join here. So I went to Antarctica (the region off the Antarctic Peninsula, South Shetland Islands to be exact) with AMLR in January of 2006 and had an incredible time. That year we did a zooplankton survey (focusing on krill) followed by a fish survey where I finally got to see my toothfish!
During my first season with AMLR I wrote long emails to my friends and family about my experience in Antarctica. I loved sharing the adventure and people seemed to get a lot out of it. I believe so strongly in communicating science and in making people more aware of the world out there. I knew being in Antarctica was a unique experience and I also knew many people simply didn't know a lot about the environment down there, so I wanted to teach them. I returned to Antarctica with AMLR this year (2008) and wanted to write for a bigger audience and so I hooked up with the Exploratorium.
The way I got hooked up with the Exploratorium is another story though. You could say that science writing (for the public) has always been my dream job and I began looking into the science communication program at UCSC awhile ago. I had applied to the program just as I was getting ready to go to Antarctica and had voiced to the director of the program my desires to write from down south. One of the alumni of the UCSC program runs the Exploratorium "ice stories" program and so he put us in touch and I began to write for them (that was a REALLY long answer!).
2. (Bonk.) Did you blog from your ship or camp? What kind of connection to the Internet did you have?
2. (Cassandra.) I blogged from my research vessel. We didn't actually have an internet connection, which made things a bit harder. We had satellite email which I was really limited on in terms of how much I could send out, especially pictures. And we only had the connection twice a day.
3. (Bonk.) Do you know the person who replied to you (Naicy) and how old she is? (Naicy had replied to Cassandra March 10th blog posting about what drew her down to Antarctica and invited Cassandra to visit her in the Philippines.)
3. (Cassandra.) I don't know Naicy or how old she is.
4. (Bonk.) How often did K-12 kids reply to your posts? How might such activities be used in education?
4. (Cassandra.) I can't say for sure how often K-12 kids replied to the posts, but there were definitely a few who did who did say their age, but most didn't. I do know that a couple of my friends and colleagues did use the posts in their classrooms as an interactive way to teach their kids about Antarctica. Especially because of the pictures, and many scientists use other multimedia tools like audio and video, I think it’s a great interactive learning tool. Moreover, students can follow the scientists along in their trip and look forward to new posts, meanwhile they are learning about this incredible and extreme environment.
5. (Bonk.) What was the overall experience like?
5. (Cassandra.) I am assuming you are asking about the blogging experience? It was a lot of work, especially because I was working 12 hour shifts on the research side of things, but incredibly rewarding and a great way for me to gain experience in science communication (which the career I am now moving towards). Being in Antarctica is such an amazing experience and something I feel incredibly fortunate to have had. I loved being able to share this with others and to hopefully educate and inspire them about this beautiful place. I cannot stress how important I think it is to educate the public, especially in today's world when all our human actions are having such a growing impact on the world, including Antarctica. I think many people can't imagine that, that they are affecting a land that they have never seen. I wanted to show them that place, through my eyes, pictures and words, in hopes that I am doing something for the ultimate long-term greater good of Antarctica and the southern ocean resources (which is ultimately why I do the science as well).
6. (Bonk.) How long were you there?
6. (Cassandra.) This year I was only there from mid-February to mid-March. In 2006, I was there for January, February and March. And also to clarify, that while my thesis is on toothfish, which led me to going down there, the cruise I was on this year was focused on krill, not toothfish. But it’s all connected of course!
Some Web links:
Exploratorium: http://www.exploratorium.edu/
Ice Stories: http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/index.php
Ice Stories (Cassandra Brooks’ weblog): http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/?author=6
See Article:
eSchool News. “See Science in Action at the South Pole through These Live (and Archived) Webcasts,” eSchool News (January 2, 2008), http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/site-of-the-week/site/index.cfm?i=51354;_hbguid=a9d5d040-8d6d-4eb6-89c7-75e426c9da15
I hope you enjoyed this Ice Story moment. There is a story about Cassandra in the book I am just about done with as well as dozens of other similar stories.
Saturday, 26 July 2008
Now I need some book publishing advice!
Ok, I have written an educational extension of Thomas Friedman's "The World is Flat." I have spend the past year in near seclusion to do it (e.g., no TV, no international travel, and no beer (ouch)) and I have run everyday for the past 13 months. My feet are very sore but getting better with extra pads. It is a long book. This has been the most difficult project of my life. Still, I got to meet dozens of people from around the planet whom I would not otherwise have met. I cover ten key technology trends in the book (e.g., e-books, online learning, wireless and mobile learning, virtual worlds and gaming, open and free software, etc.). This is my title: "The World is Open: Now WE-ALL-LEARN with Web Technology."
I am now about to send the manuscript off for review. I have contacted a couple of publishers who are interested in reading it. I would like to know if anyone has any publisher friends, agents, or contacts whom they might recommend to me. I am particularly looking for a publisher who is innovative, willing to work with me on alternative ways of publishing (e.g., YouTube promos, Kindle, blogs, e-books, PDF of document, etc.).
I have had 11 reviews of the book from colleagues and friends (biased I know) and they have all come back great. I am not able to share anymore at this time; however, if you want to know more, just send me an email (cjbonk@indiana.edu). Thanks so much.
Once published, I hope to blog 1,000 words of the book per day until it is up as an e-book. Thoughts?
I am now about to send the manuscript off for review. I have contacted a couple of publishers who are interested in reading it. I would like to know if anyone has any publisher friends, agents, or contacts whom they might recommend to me. I am particularly looking for a publisher who is innovative, willing to work with me on alternative ways of publishing (e.g., YouTube promos, Kindle, blogs, e-books, PDF of document, etc.).
I have had 11 reviews of the book from colleagues and friends (biased I know) and they have all come back great. I am not able to share anymore at this time; however, if you want to know more, just send me an email (cjbonk@indiana.edu). Thanks so much.
Once published, I hope to blog 1,000 words of the book per day until it is up as an e-book. Thoughts?
Sunday, 20 July 2008
The SCoPE of R2D2!
Hey all, the SCoPE people will have a discussion of my R2D2 book from Monday July 21 to Sunday August 3rd, 2008. You can link to SCoPE here:
Here is the link to the seminar discussions area.
Here is a direct link to the forum.
Dr. Ke Zhang, my co-author, and I look forward to chatting with you about R2D2. May the force be with you!
SCoPE is an "open, online community for people like you!"
By the way, I will be traveling to Denver and Boulder this week from July 21-24. Information on my talks can be found in at my news page.
Finally, my talks for this coming week as well as this past Friday at the University of Houston can be found in my archived talks. I spoke on my R2D2 book as well as my next one, TEC-VARIETY for online motivationand retention and my "The World is Open" book.
Here is the link to the seminar discussions area.
Here is a direct link to the forum.
Dr. Ke Zhang, my co-author, and I look forward to chatting with you about R2D2. May the force be with you!
SCoPE is an "open, online community for people like you!"
By the way, I will be traveling to Denver and Boulder this week from July 21-24. Information on my talks can be found in at my news page.
Finally, my talks for this coming week as well as this past Friday at the University of Houston can be found in my archived talks. I spoke on my R2D2 book as well as my next one, TEC-VARIETY for online motivationand retention and my "The World is Open" book.
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