The Curmudgeon Speaks

I just finished Douglas Rushkoff’s Program or be Programmed. I have come to similar conclusions but I think a more realistic solution. I am more concerned we are losing the “learning potential” by being consumers rather than producers. Like Rushkoff I think the problem is we do not recognized how we are being influenced. We are losing the creative potential the Internet made available and we are giving up opportunities in exchange for ease of use.

The author proposes we are being shaped by the tools and services we choose. We do not understand how these services work or acknowledge the motives of those making the services available. Shouldn’t we be a little curious – why are they providing us these services for free?

Services that we have grown to expect at no cost collect information based on our behavior and serve us ads based on what can be learned about our interests. If our acquaintances can be drawn into this same environment so much the better – more data and more ad hits. As the social dependencies grow it becomes difficult to escape and operate independently. We can go it alone, but we then lose the opportunity to communicate with friends unwilling or unable to make the jump with us.

The distinction between digital natives and digital immigrants has always annoyed me. It occurs to me that certain digital immigrants have great insight that the natives are unable to grasp. Some of us were interested in technology and benefit from being there from the beginning. We have witnessed the changes and because early experiences depended on our active participation, we have a far better sense of what has changed and how the advances have been accomplished. We may have even had to learn to program to take advantage of the power in these new tools.

I am not certain Rushkoff really believes it is worth the time to develop programming skills in young people. Schools are expected to accomplish so much already. It would not really be fair to add one more thing. It can be a reasonable hobby, but must be understood as such. I can say from experience that doing real work from scratch is difficult. Those who interact with what you create have grown accustomed to sophisticated products and will likely not appreciate workable products that lack polish. The experiences that have discouraged me have had more to do with security and hackers. Protecting yourself and those who take advantage of what you develop can require as much sophisticated as writing code that works.

In the old days, I was fascinated with the potential of any Internet-connected computer to function as a server. Every Mac came with the potential (still does) to offer web pages. ISPs do not make this easy (you are typically assigned a dynamic rather than a static IP, upload speeds are far slower than download speeds, and the ISP may simply have a policy preventing your from offering content if you do not pay a much higher monthly rate). Things have continued to slip. It seems we have moved away from personal blogs toward easy and simplistic services such as Twitter and given in to Facebook. Rushkoff would claim we now have given in to the model of interaction these tools allow.

Here are some things to consider:
1) There is no free. You give up something to get something. You get dumbed down television because of ads or you pay for content that interests you.
– Invest a little money – purchase the base rate access to tools that allow you to share content you create (e.g., DropBox, Evernote). Create rather than consume. Invest your own creativity and a little money.

2) Use tools that allow personal expression – try a blogging platform (Blogger, WordPress) that allows customization. Add your own photos and generate something useful. Be a contributor.

3) Spend a little money and purchase your own domain and server space. You will learn something and you will offer yourself a wider variety of options.

My greatest concern is the consolidation of services. Interesting tools are continually bought up by big companies. As is the case in so many areas of life, there are fewer and fewer alternatives and fewer and fewer people making the most important decisions. While few would suggest giving up independence and influence is a good thing, the slide   whether visible to the digital natives or not is picking up speed.

I think I am regressing to my ‘60s roots. Power to the people, etc.

The North Dakota legislature now has a resolution urging college profs to make use of open textbooks. The concern seems to be that students pay an average of $1000 a year in textbook costs (see beer money ploy – trust me it makes more sense than you might think).

The following is a YouTube video of the discussion. I had no idea YouTube had such content. What I am trying to determine is whether I agree with the definition of “open” textbook that is being used. I am trying to decide if they are confusing ebooks and “open” digital books. If the assumption is that an ebook is sold by textbook companies at a greatly reduced price, this is not actually the case. I checked the Intro Psych book I will use in the Fall – the difference between the digital and the paperback version is less than  $20.

My interpretation of open would look more like the California model. However, California contributed funds to generate this content.

 he [Gov. Brown] also signed off on a proposal for the state to fund 50 open source digital textbooks. He signed two bills, one to create the textbooks and the other to establish a California Digital Open Source Library to host them

Perhaps the North Dakota model is to borrow from California. This is evidently what the politicians mean when they promote the “North Dakota Way.”

There is a statistical concept that might be described as partitioning variance. Outcomes are seldom the result of single factors and the goal of accurate description is thus to accurately explain how much of the variability in the outcome can be attributed to which possible cause.

I include this introductory paragraph to encourage a scientific perspective and to discourage those who seldom bother with deep thinking. I am guessing they did not get to this point.

What I want to address is the political position that educational institutions are responsible for increasing the length of time it takes to earn an undergraduate degree. To be clear, I mean delay in a negative way; i.e., it is a bad thing, it is the fault of the institution, it is more expensive that it should be. The negative interpretation is clearly the view taken by many politicians and even by the few institutions that advertise a funding model based on the guarantee that students will have to pay for a maximum of four years. I often wonder whether politicians say such things because they have no clue or because placing blame resonates with voters who want to blame somebody.

As an academic, my argument is that is is seldom appropriate to blame the institution for students taking more than four years to complete college. There may be a few situations in which I would admit fault, but only to the extent that options are limited by the resources we have to expend.

So, for an example of a situation in which the institution is responsible, but not actually at fault, there are sometimes situations in which a specific course needed by a student is offered once every other year and was offered last just last semester. Translation – the course will now be available for some time. The frequency with which courses are offered can slow students down, BUT required courses are seldom offered infrequently, the resources available determine how frequently courses are taught, and lack of planning is the most common reason for missing the opportunity to take a given course.

Here are some other observations (possible causes of delay with examples):

We seldom require students to see their advisor. While regular meetings with an advisor is helpful, taking advantage of this opportunity is up to the student. Most of us spend a great deal of time sitting in our offices and we do not object to spending some of this time meeting with students. This does not mean that we are always available so making a phone call or sending an email can be helpful. Excuses such as “My advisor was not available Monday at 2:15 and this is the only time available in my busy schedule. How was I to know English composition was a requirement?” are not acceptable and likely an exaggeration.

Students often have little clue regarding what they want to be when they grow up and they often discover there are options mom and dad did not tell them about. I would think that changing your mind when you realize that an intended course of study is not for you or when you have found something that is a real passion is a good thing. It is a good thing even if you need to spend a little more time and a little more money.

Note: I was a biochemistry and biophysics major for a while because my high school guidance counselor could not find biology in the college catalog. There was not such thing as a Biology Department at the time. In fairness, may biochemistry advisor did indicate that he had never been responsible for someone who wanted to be a high school biology teacher before.

Some of the 400 premeds may not earn one of the 40 med school positions. Some of the premeds also did not fully understand the section on probability theory in their introductory statistics course. This is a situation in which it is known from the beginning that some students will be unable to achieve their goal. Who would you blame for this?

10 x 8=80. 80 < 120. So that is how that credit thing works.
– When I talk with students, I think they sometimes do not acknowledge basic arithmetic. To graduate in 8 semesters, you must complete a clearly stated number of credits. When you do not take enough credits or drop courses because you are doing poorly, the math allowing you to complete on the 8 semester plan may not work out. I am not judging here unless you are bewildered by this reality.

I need to take Statistics after 2. I work in the morning and need time for lunch. You have no courses available at this time.
– You are correct. Life is complicated and everyone must set priorities and make decisions. Setting a work schedule before you class schedule is a priority with consequences.

I could continue, but lengthy posts are seldom completed.

P.S. – I should indicate that “wasted” credits are a part of analyses appearing even what are supposed to be scholarly sources (Educause Review). I have a couple of reactions. First, the notion that the focus of an education is to efficiently generate the appropriate credit hours is somewhat off target. An education is intended to increase understanding, skill, tolerance, etc. Heaven forbid, student would contribute to any of these goals in a course that did not count toward their graduation. Second, sometimes what you learn in a course is that you are neither interested nor capable in a given area. This is often money very well spent.

Punishment (by formal definition) occurs when a behavior decreases in frequency as the result of consequences that are aversive to the learner.

During election season we made contributions to several Democratic campaigns and to support an issue of personal interest (Senator Al Franken’s issues with some FCC decisions). The elections are now over (my candidates were both successful) and the issue under consideration by the FCC was resolved. I do not regret supporting these candidates or this cause.

However, it appears that I am now on multiple email lists and am constantly bombarded by requests for additional funds. I guess part of my frustration is that I am no longer certain what any contribution would be used address. I supported certain candidates because I thought I could predict the causes they would support and the values they would implement. Am I now to assume that my initial assumptions were wrong? Additional money should not be necessary to encourage representatives to explain their positions or cast their votes.

One of the things I naively believe is that this process is not about some contest to determine who can generate the most money. This seems to be a growing problem of our system of government and one of what I had hoped was a fundamental differences between Republicans and Democrats. If it is a contest to determine whether the rich or the middle class are willing to spend more to get what they want, the enterprise is a lost cause.

I would prefer that representatives rally their supporters to make their views known or contact other representatives that might be persuaded by additional input. I hate the feeling that what I think does not matter unless I send money.

It is snowing here today. As I was walking out of the door to walk back across campus to my office, I met a coed at the door and she said  “watch the ice”.

My first reaction, possibly because I am defensive about certain things, was – she must think I am an old man and there is some probability I will venture out and break a hip. It did not look that bad. Snow is typically easier to walk on than icy side walks. Then I stopped looking at my feet and looked out a bit.

Students were walking toward the building for class. The first one hit this spot and went down. Students pop up quickly and are seldom damaged. If you look closely, you can see she left her chap stick behind. The other students kept coming. All had difficulty crossing without another fall.

It occurred to me that this was a great example of what I just talked about in class. I was describing the Invisible Gorilla study as an example of selective attention. One of the lessons of the invisible gorilla has nothing to do with selective attention. It is the observation that you can explain to people a known human limitation and they refuse to believe you. They assume that what you describe could not possibly be true of them.

Hence you see the ice coming, but you assume that the situation presents no particular danger to you. Others will slip and fall, but you are sure footed. Sometimes you see it coming and it still doesn’t matter.

I walked through the snow and off the sidewalk knowing that I am an old guy. No pride before a fall for me.

A CAPTCHA is defined as a test a human can pass but a computer cannot. Hmm. Is this supposed to be one of those logic problems? Mark cannot pass this test, therefore Mark must not be human.

I give up. I have been trying for 15 minutes. I am not going to start all over, enter my name and email address so I can get a new puzzle. How many options could we possibly have here.

Not mokler and not mokier. Maybe mokjer.

I have to admit the phrase “digital native” annoys me. It conveys on individuals with far less technology experience or understanding than I expect of my colleagues and myself a special status.

It is not the fault of these young people that their proficiencies have been misrepresented. They make no such claims and frequently admit not to know how to handle the online tools we expect them to use.  What was Pres. Reagan’s line – “I will not hold your lack of experience against you.”  The problem is the misguided perception of those who have popularized this phrase, but who also have encouraged others to believe that growing up after digital technology was widely used provided some special understanding. This representation puts students in a difficult position. Educators would do well to ignore the press releases.

I am thinking this perception of competence was somehow perpetrated to encourage adults who did not happen to be into technology to make the effort to develop their own  skills. These skills are important. However, there is nothing in the water or some critical period that anyone over 25 somehow missed that accounts for who knows what.

My latest frustration with the “Facebook generation” and their skill in taking responsibility for the functioning of their devices (BYOD does assume the user knows their own D) involves student use of an online learning environment I developed. The system generates data on student performance and to assure that students are given proper credit for their activity the system tracks their work based on a their login ID. The system has worked just fine for years and this year I started to receive a common complaint. “I have to log in again every time I go on to a new page. Can you fix it?” It seemed to assume the problem was with my software. I tried the system from several of my own computers, from my iPad, from my phone, and from computers in the department lab. Absolutely no problem. I had students with the problem connect from my computer or from a computer in the lab. No problem. I started to think this might be a scam.

After thinking about this problem it occurred to me that this sounded like a problem that involved cookies (the way the server helps your browser keep track of things). I am guessing some browser release (I am just guessing IE) comes with new security defaults involving cookies.

Now, how do you get these technology experts to fix their own equipment? I tried to explain about security settings and cookies. I think the “cookie” thing was throwing them off – perhaps they thought I was suggesting they accept a second dessert at the cafeteria. I finally hit on a different solution. I told them to download any browser that was different from the one they were using and if they were unable to do this on their own to ask someone in one of the computer labs to help. I gave them some suggestions for options. This approach seemed to fix the problem in every case.

I also suggested if they were concerned about security, they only use the new browser they downloaded for the task I assigned. I know they did not set the security on their preferred browser in the first place, but I thought this would keep me out of trouble for recommending dangerous computing practices to digital natives.

What have I become is one of those big questions of life. Often, there is a realization that you have become your parents. This is supposed to be sobering and indicate your assumption that you were going in a different direction has not been realized. I could do far worse than become my parents. My father was a very intellectual, selfless, and calm person. My mother very caring. These are all great traits.

Actually, I think I am becoming one of those characters in Grumpy Old Men. My sudden interest in ice fishing seems to fit with this assessment. It could be worse. I could see myself becoming a character in On Golden Pond.

Anyway, if you find a rotting perch in the back seat of your car, it may have been me.