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This post has nothing to do with “The Simpsons”, the source of the above quote. This one’s all about me. Since y’all are living in my world and the stars/heaven rotate around the (literal) vastness of Me, here’s a quick update to share with your loved ones:
From Michael Quinon’s World Wide Words listserv (his website: http://www.worldwidewords.org/index.htm).
EDUPUNK This neologism appeared in the online Chronicle of Higher Education on 1 June and has been the subject of a great deal of debate online. Jim Groom, a US-based educator, coined it in late May. Defining it presents a problem, partly because it’s so new the idea hasn’t yet settled down, but also because, as Stephen Downes notes in his blog, “true edupunks deride definitions as tools of oppression used by defenders of order and conformity.”
Edupunk is an anti-authoritarian, even anarchistic, DIY approach to learning and teaching using computers and the Internet. It’s linked to the concept called elearning 2.0, which applies the collaborative and participative ideas behind Web 2.0 to teaching, on the principle that computer-based teaching must be designed for learners and not for teachers. It uses online techniques such as wikis, mashups and blogs to create new ways to learn. The edupunk activists argue that commercial computer applications designed for teaching are ways for big business to package instruction and put a straitjacket of corporate control around learning.
Got the below from the college’s Prison Education Program staff:
[F]or those of you who may not have heard, the Prison Program has been suspended for an indefinite period of time due to significant budget cuts at Western Nevada College. The way it looks now, there will not be prison classes for the 2008 fall semester.
At this point, we do not know when or even if the program will be reinstated.
Thank you for the years of hard work and dedication that helped make the Prison Program successful.
Can’t say I’m surprised but am a little sad at the program’s passing, especially for those prison students who’ve worked so hard to get their lives on track for when they’re released. I sent a response after the jump, but what’s done is done.
Bottom Line: after 16 years with the college in one form or another, it’s time to move on.
Despite what this appears on the surface, this is not a “toot my horn” entry but is a pause to look back at the metaphorical trail behind me as I climb this mountain called Life. Been spending time this morning putting the finishing touches on another college semester of teaching computer classes at the local prisons and got to wondering: how many students have I taught?
The below is a screenshot of my current student dept to UNR for two graduate-level classes.
There’s nothing to be done about the Special Fees (lab fees) or the Surcharge, but I will never use the Health Center, Student Union, or Counseling Services. And the class books and a parking pass ain’t cheap, either. Unless the Financial Aid comes through (and it may not because I don’t have a major), I’ll drop one of the classes.
UNR prides itself on being one of the less expensive graduate schools and here you see why: it nickles/dimes its students as much as they can.
