Blurts

I recently read this USA article on college majors to ignore if you are worried about college debt. The basic purpose of the analysis provided in the article was to determine which jobs that require a college degree generate little more than minimum wage. I was immediately curious as to whether an undergrad psychology major was included. It was not per se, but several professions such as substance abuse counselor did appear on the list. So did playing professional baseball. Luckily, my goals for college did not include wanting to be a professional athlete. I did want to coach high school sports when I first headed off to college. If you are a college grad, you want to scroll through the list to see if an economic analysis argues you made a mistake.

I think we are in trouble if we look at college as vocational training. We have so many serious problems that transcend what any of us does to earn a paycheck and we a common core of knowledge and skills to take on. I have come to this conclusion considering our present political system’s failure to address inequity, health care, climate change, violence, etc. These problems are attacked by the acceptance of facts and the sharing of some basic values. These problems affect us all – PhDs or high school drop outs. We all vote and should be engaged in the collective conversations that focus those who govern and control.

I don’t know if free college is the answer. However, decision makers must get past the simplistic focus on money and consider the costs of ignorance and indifference.

I have written about sharing Flickr photos with Creative Commons licenses before, but I am now in a situation to do this systematically and with a collection of images learners may find useful. We are spending a couple of weeks in southern Africa and a major goal is to photograph wildlife and other images that most don’t have the opportunity to view. No promises, but this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for us and we hope to offer some interesting images.

Flickr offers multiple ways to designate who can view images (self, friends and family, public), but these designations are focused on who can view and not who can use. Flickr has added creative commons licensing to public images so photographers can offer various ways in which they will allow your images to be used.

I have added CC licenses to individual images before, but I intend to do so systematically on this trip. In addition to storing images in Flickr, it makes some sense to added information to such images to assist those who want to make use of what they locate. Location, image identification, and perhaps a link to additional information would seem useful and I will do this if I have the time and have the information.

Why can’t academics write so nonacademics can understand? In this day of people turning away from science, we better figure it out. We do have our jargon and expectations for stating things with less than total certainty. It turns out this is important because uncertainty is the state of things and offering the impression that there are no questions yet to be asked is dishonest. Still, people have a right to complain.

Scientific writing is not going away and if what are being referenced by those who complain is to scholarly journals the existing approach to expression probably has much to recommend it. Journals are for communicating with peers doing similar work. What annoys me is that scientists are kind of discouraged from writing in other styles. I know that my interest in writing textbooks was not given the same attention among colleagues as the frequency of my journal articles.

I think scientists have been shaped by the reward structure that is the basis for our reputations and pay. Grants and publications rule. Teaching and public communication are appreciated, but certainly not at the same level. Some effort to explain your work to the public could certainly be required if institutions decided it was important. Writing textbooks and even blogs to offer explanations and applications could do a lot to change public perception.

I stumbled across this post from a sixth-grade teacher about how she handles tough topics in her classroom. The issue of what teachers at all levels should discuss in their classrooms seems under added scrutiny as some politicians make claims that institutions of higher ed should hire more conservative-leaning faculty members. What about elementary school?

The author’s point is that learners of all ages are observant and pick up on what is going on around them and part of her job is to teach critical literacy and prepare students for the future. She offers some suggestions describing tactics she uses. She proposes that one of the best approaches is to respond to students with questions rather than offer a personal opinion that could easily be interpreted as biased.

Not to be cynical, but I doubt any approach no matter how neutral the position taken will irritate some. I am certainly aware of my perspective which some would without engagement assume to be biased if for no other reason than I teach of about the process of education and consider some topics such as inequity. No matter the data I can offer to argue for the reality of inequity, some will label the approached as biased. I try to avoid going beyond offering the data, but when asked a direct question I am very willing to respond. I guess we all find our own way trying to deal with actual problems and honest opinions.