Tidbits on May 24, 2012
Bob Jensen
at Trinity University
In pictures this week I feature
Churches and Chutters Near Our Cottage
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Churches/Set01/ChurchesSet01.htm
More of Bob Jensen's Pictures and
Stories
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
Tidbits on May 24, 2012
Bob Jensen
For earlier editions of Tidbits go to
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
For earlier editions of New Bookmarks go to
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Click here to search Bob Jensen's web site if you have key words to enter ---
Search Site.
For example if you want to know what Jensen documents have the term "Enron"
enter the phrase Jensen AND Enron. Another search engine that covers Trinity and
other universities is at
http://www.searchedu.com/.
Bob Jensen's past presentations and lectures
---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/resume.htm#Presentations
Bob Jensen's Threads ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
Bob Jensen's Home Page is at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/
The Cult of Statistical Significance:
How Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/DeirdreMcCloskey/StatisticalSignificance01.htm
How Accountics Scientists Should Change:
"Frankly, Scarlett, after I get a hit for my resume in The Accounting Review
I just don't give a damn"
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm
One more mission in what's left of my life will be to try to change this
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm
Online Video, Slide Shows, and Audio
In the past I've provided links to various types of music and video available
free on the Web.
I created a page that summarizes those various links ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm
In 2010 David Michael Walker was inducted into The Accounting Hall of Fame
---
http://fisher.osu.edu/departments/accounting-and-mis/the-accounting-hall-of-fame/membership-in-hall/david-michael-walker/
"We've lost control of the Federal Budget"- The Honorable David Walker
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L9o6qAj2a8
The U.S. Economy is Unsustainable (David Walker on Sixty
Minutes) ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6Q14HOBThM
The Federal Fiscal Crisis (David Walker) ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjmCiDB_72g \
The Fiscal Wake-Up Tour Online (David Walker) ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cBnP8jDUMg
The London School of Economics and Political Science: Video
and Audio (Invited Speaker Collection) ---
http://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/Home.aspx
Five Historical Misconceptions Debunked ---
Clicked Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/05/five_historical_misconceptions_debunked.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
The History of Rome in 179 Podcasts ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/05/the_history_of_rome_in_179_podcasts.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Space Time Travel: Relativity Visualized ---
http://www.spacetimetravel.org/
Peabody Essex Museum: Videos ---
http://www.pem.org/collections/video
Ken Burns on the Art of Storytelling: “It’s Lying Twenty-Four
Times a Second” ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/05/ken_burns_on_the_art_of_storytelling.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
What Goes on in a Garden? ---
http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/xHkq1edcbk4?rel=0
British Council Film: British Council Film Collection ---
http://film.britishcouncil.org/british-council-film-collection?film_query=&search=&year=Any&series=Any&genre_old=
UCLA Film & Television Archive ---
http://www.cinema.ucla.edu/
Cultural & Academic Films ---
http://www.archive.org/details/culturalandacademicfilms
Free music downloads ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm
Flash Mob Fun Part II: Copenhagen Philharmonic
Plays Grieg’s Peer Gynt in the Subway ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/05/peer_gynt_in_the_subway.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Duke Ellington Plays for Joan Miró in the South of France, 1966:
Bassist John Lamb Looks Back on the Day ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/05/duke_ellington_plays_for_joan_miro_in_the_south_of_france_1966_bassist_john_lamb_looks_back_on_the_day.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
A Child’s Introduction to Jazz by Cannonball
Adderley (with Louis Armstrong & Thelonious Monk) ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/05/a_childs_introduction_to_jazz_by_cannonball_adderley_with_louis_armstrong_thelonious_monk.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Great Puppet Show ---
http://www.youtube.com/embed/kPvciIdDZAE
Willie Nelson Sings Pearl Jam’s “Just Breathe”
(And We’re Taking a Deep Breath Too) ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/05/willie_nelson_sings_pearl_jams_just_breathe_and_were_taking_a_deep_breath_too.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
FOR POP MUSIC LOVERS..
Forwarded by Maureen
Web outfits like
Pandora, Foneshow, Stitcher, and Slacker broadcast portable and mobile content
that makes Sirius look overpriced and stodgy ---
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2009/tc20090327_877363.htm?link_position=link2
TheRadio (my favorite commercial-free
online music site) ---
http://www.theradio.com/
Slacker (my second-favorite commercial-free online music site) ---
http://www.slacker.com/
Gerald Trites likes this
international radio site ---
http://www.e-radio.gr/
Songza:
Search for a song or band and play the selection ---
http://songza.com/
Also try Jango ---
http://www.jango.com/?r=342376581
Sometimes this old guy prefers the jukebox era (just let it play through) ---
http://www.tropicalglen.com/
And I listen quite often to Soldiers Radio Live ---
http://www.army.mil/fieldband/pages/listening/bandstand.html
Also note U.S. Army Band recordings
---
http://bands.army.mil/music/default.asp
Bob Jensen listens to music free online (and no commercials)
---
http://www.slacker.com/
Photographs and Art
NYC Photos from 100 Years Ago ---
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2134408/Never-seen-photos-100-years-ago-tell-vivid-story-gritty-New-York-City.html
Dinobase ---
http://dinobase.gly.bris.ac.uk/
Russian Churches ---
Click Here
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Russian+Churches%22&hl=en&lr=&as_qdr=all&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=7kayT8_OB4atgwfotIGtCQ&ved=0CHEQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=604
Peabody Essex Museum: Videos ---
http://www.pem.org/collections/video
Oregon Institute of Marine Biology Slides & Photographs ---
http://oregondigital.org/digcol/oimb/
The Warhol: Time Capsule 21 ---
http://www.warhol.org/tc21/main.html
Lalla Essaydi Revisions: Introduction (African
Art) ---
http://africa.si.edu/exhibits/revisions/index.html
Brooklyn Museum: Andy Warhol: The Last Decade ---
http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/andy_warhol/index.php
The Warhol: Heroes & Villains: The Comic Book Art of Alex Ross ---
http://www.warhol.org/exhibitions/2011/heroesandvillains/
University of Florida Digital
Collections: Florida Photograph Collections ---
http://ufdc.ufl
Utah State University Digital Library: (Animal
Bells) ---
http://digital.lib.usu.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/Bells
TES: Resources: Art and design resources ---
http://www.tes.co.uk/art-and-design-secondary-teaching-resources/
Art Education 2.0 ---
http://arted20.ning.com/
Bob Jensen's threads on history, literature and art ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#History
Online Books, Poems, References, and Other Literature
In the past I've provided links to various
types electronic literature available free on the Web.
I created a page that summarizes those various links ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
Columbia Library Columns ---
http://library.columbia.edu/content/libraryweb/indiv/rbml/digitalcollections/columns.html
The History of Rome in 179 Podcasts ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/05/the_history_of_rome_in_179_podcasts.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Free Electronic Literature ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
Free Online Textbooks, Videos, and Tutorials ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks
Free Tutorials in Various Disciplines ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Tutorials
Edutainment and Learning Games ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Edutainment
Open Sharing Courses ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Now in Another Tidbits Document
Political Quotations on May 24, 2012
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2012/TidbitsQuotations052412.htm
The booked National
Debt on January 1, 2012 was over $15 trillion ---
U.S. National Debt Clock ---
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
Also see
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
Peter G.
Peterson Website on Deficit/Debt Solutions ---
http://www.pgpf.org/
Bob Jensen's health care messaging updates ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm
The generic safe things to tell a graduating class
Neil Gaiman Gives Graduates 10 Essential Tips for Working in the Arts ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/05/neil_gaiman_offers_graduates_10_essential_tips_for_working_in_the_arts.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
"Is America Philosophical?" by Carlin Romano, Chronicle of Higher
Education, May 20, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Is-America-Philosophical-/131884/?sid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en
The Unsafe things to tell a graduating class
"The Unabomber's Pen Pal," by Jeffrey R. Young, Chronicle of Higher
Education, May 20, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/The-Unabombers-Pen-Pal/131892/?sid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en
Jensen Comment
This is a long and serious article about the philosophy of technology.
Innovations nearly always have side effects and must be embraced at a price. As
I read this is can appreciate the insights of George Orwell who saw much of this
long before modern day philosophers. In many ways this is a philosophy of
despair regarding the paradoxes of technology and innovation. I say "despair"
because because like so many scholars who find fault, Ted Kaczynsk has no
suggestions of hope and improvement. Everything seems so predetermined to fail.
It is important to read the comments that follow this article.
For example, I like cb's comment:
Gee Whiz!
"Highest-Paid Public-College Presidents, 2011 Fiscal Year," Chronicle
of Higher Education, May 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Public-Pay-Landing/131912/
Note that you can click on any of the 50 states in order to access the data for
that state.
OSU President Gordon Gee ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Gee
"Scrutiny of Gordon Gee's Travel Expenses," Inside Higher Ed,
May 8, 2012 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2012/05/08/scrutiny-gordon-gees-travel-expenses
Ohio State University has spent more than $800,000 on
President Gordon Gee's travel expenses since 2007, including more than
$550,000 in the last two years,
The Dayton Daily News reported. Ohio State
officials noted the value of Gee's travel, in reaching donors and others,
and in spreading the word about Ohio State across the world. But the
newspaper noted that Gee's travel expenses exceeded not only those of two
Ohio governors, but also of the presidents of other big public universities
with global ambitions and intense fund-raising efforts -- the Universities
of Michigan, North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Virginia.
How Public-College Presidents’ Pay Compares With Professors’ Salaries ---
Click Here
http://chronicle.com/article/Compare-Presidential-and/131915/?sid=wb&utm_source=wb&utm_medium=en
Pass the mouse over a dot
Bob Jensen's threads on university CEO compensation ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#TaxForm990
"What Does $1-Trillion in Student Debt Really Mean? Maybe Not That Much,"
by Beckie Supiano, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 16, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/What-Does-1-Trillion-Mean-/131900/
Student-loan debt is having a moment in the
spotlight. An interest-rate hike planned for July 1 has become a
hot political issue.
New graduates, the majority carrying loans, are entering a still-weak job
market. Through it all, near ly every public analysis on education debt now
cites the same statistic: The total amount of outstanding student-loan debt
is more than $1-trillion.
That milestone made headlines in The Wall Street
Journal, Forbes, tabloids, and blogs; it was on CBS and NPR.
Pundits and interest groups have used the number to raise eyebrows about the
high volume of education debt, sometimes suggesting a crisis.
A trillion is a big, round number. It has some
shock value. But what does crossing the $1-trillion mark really tell us?
For one thing, that more people are going to
college—and graduate school. The sum is an estimate of all outstanding
education debt: private and federal student loans for undergraduates,
parents, and graduate and professional-school students. And greater
educational attainment is a goal the Obama administration and many nonprofit
groups are pushing.
At the same time, in the wake of severe state
budget cuts, tuition is rising, and students and their families are footing
a larger share of the bill. A greater percentage of bachelor's-degree
recipients have borrowed, and the average amount of debt per borrower has
also risen. About two-thirds of graduates of public and private nonprofit
colleges have loans, with the borrowers' average debt about $25,000,
according to the most recent analysis, of the Class of 2010, by the Project
on Student Debt. (The average debt for the Class of 2004 was under $19,000,
according to the federal government, which counts somewhat differently.)
Total outstanding student-loan debt—even
$1-trillion of it—may not have broad economic implications. It's still too
small a sum to derail the economy, at least for now, says Mark Kantrowitz.
He runs a well-known consumer Web site, FinAid, that displays a Student Loan
Debt Clock, perpetually ticking up. But the clock is "intended for
entertainment purposes only," the site says.
The student-loan market can't be viewed like the
housing market, says Mr. Kantrowitz. No one speculates on the value of an
education, artificially inflating its price.
Total annual student-loan payments, which come to
$60- or $70-billion, now represent only about 0.4 percent of GDP, Mr.
Kantrowitz says. And should a day come when the federal government—which
makes most student loans—is too hard up to offer them, that will be the
least of the nation's worries.
Besides, education debt is "good debt," says
Anthony P. Carnevale, director of Georgetown University's Center on
Education and the Workforce. "This is exactly the kind of debt a society
wants."
A homeowner might find himself underwater on a
mortgage, but an education doesn't lose value. And the government's new
"gainful employment" rules, which attempt to prevent borrowers from ending
up with worthless degrees, should make student debt an even better bet, Mr.
Carnevale says.
Still, student loans have been called the next
bubble. That doesn't faze Judith Scott-Clayton, an assistant professor of
economics and education at Columbia University's Teachers College. It is
"not something that keeps me up at night," she says.
Parallels with the housing market, she says, are
unconvincing. But rising debt levels could affect graduates' pursuits,
potentially deterring them from careers in public service. The government
does offer income-based repayment programs, but few borrowers take advantage
of them, she says, a fact that puzzles economists.
Individual
Impact
The $1-trillion total, which varies depending on
where data come from and how interest is counted, didn't hit 13 digits
suddenly. It has been climbing for years, and there's little reason to think
it will stop now.
So today's tally doesn't necessarily matter, says
Robert A. Sevier, senior vice president for strategy at the higher-education
marketing company Stamats. "It's the trend line that's terrifying."
But pointing to an impressive number can be helpful
to groups that want to raise awareness about student debt and what they see
as its repercussions. "It represents the impact to the economy as a whole,
not just to individuals," says Jen Mishory, deputy director of Young
Invincibles, an advocacy group that has called itself the AARP for young
people. Debt delays some recent graduates from buying homes or starting a
family, she says, decisions that affect the economy. (The group conducted a
poll last fall of about 900 people ages 18 to 34, finding that almost half
had delayed purchasing a home, but because of the "current economy" in
general, not student loans specifically.)
Meanwhile, the total student-loan debt now has
enough zeros to get the attention of policy makers, who are used to thinking
in trillions, says Andy MacCracken, associate director of the National
Campus Leadership Council, a new student advocacy group. But students
themselves are more concerned with the numbers that bear on them directly:
how much they have borrowed, what their monthly payments are, and whether
they can afford to make them.
Individual calculations, of course, have more
impact on students and colleges. And the total amount of debt isn't
inherently bad. "If it can be paid off the way it's supposed to be, it's not
a problem," says Kathy Dawley, president of Maguire Associates, a
higher-education consulting firm. What matters is who has borrowed, and if
they can pay it back.
Someone who borrows a reasonable amount to help
finance a good education, finds a well-paying job, and repays loans
comfortably is evidence of the system's working. But if a borrower has
either taken on too much debt, attended a subpar college, or failed to
graduate or find work, that's a different story. Last week The New York
Times posited that student loans are "weighing down a generation with
heavy debt." Unemployment for recent college graduates stood at 8.9 percent
at the end of 2011.
When the Institute for College Access & Success, an
independent nonprofit, started the Project on Student Debt in 2005, its goal
was to bring attention to an overlooked issue, says Lauren J. Asher, the
group's president. Now, she says, it is no longer on the sidelines: "Student
debt has touched more and more people's lives."
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
I'm a long-time advocate of having financial literacy somewhere in the general
education core curriculum ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#FinancialLiteracy
What I found more interesting than Supiano's article (that I thought was
naive) were some of the comments following her article. One in particular is
quoted below:
Additional Jensen Comment
Among the comments
Ms. Sapaiano stated: "A homeowner might find himself
underwater on a mortgage, but an education doesn't lose value. And the
government's new "gainful employment" rules, which attempt to prevent borrowers
from ending up with worthless degrees, should make student debt an even better
bet, Mr. Carnevale says."
I find the real estate mortgage versus student loan debt comparison to be
misleading. Firstly, the value of an education is only a heart beat away from
having no future value. An insured house has future value that is far less risky
since home ownership is easily transferred in full.
Secondly, the amount of mortgage is highly correlated with quality where
usually a high quality house qualifies for a much larger mortgage than a low
quality house. In the education market, the highest student loans are often
going to the lowest quality education, especially some of those for-profit
university scams. This begs the question of why students will opt to borrow more
for a low quality education given the choice of higher quality education,
including distance education degrees, from state universities?
The answer is that students are borrowing for grades rather than education.
They are gaming the system for grades and are willing to borrow more for a low
quality education as long as they can game for an A grade average ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#GamingForGrades
The Cult of Statistical Significance:
How Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/DeirdreMcCloskey/StatisticalSignificance01.htm
May 11, 2012 reply from Jagdish Gangolly
Hopefully this is my last post on this thread. I
just could not resist posting this appeal to editors, chairs, directors,
reviewers,... by Professor John Kruschke, Professor of Psychological and
Brain Sciences and Statistics at Indiana University.
His book on " Doing Bayesian Data Analysis: A
Tutorial with R and BUGS " is the best introductory textbook on statistics I
have read.
Regards to all,
Jagdish
Here is the open letter:
___________________________________________________
An open letter to Editors of journals, Chairs of departments,
Directors of funding programs, Directors of graduate training, Reviewers
of grants and manuscripts, Researchers, Teachers, and Students:
Statistical methods have been evolving rapidly, and many people think
it’s time to adopt modern Bayesian data analysis as standard procedure
in our scientific practice and in our educational curriculum. Three
reasons:
1. Scientific disciplines from astronomy to zoology are moving to
Bayesian data analysis. We should be leaders of the move, not followers.
2. Modern Bayesian methods provide richer information, with greater
flexibility and broader applicability than 20th century methods.
Bayesian methods are intellectually coherent and intuitive. Bayesian
analyses are readily computed with modern software and hardware.
3. Null-hypothesis significance testing (NHST), with its reliance on
p values, has many problems. There is little reason to persist with NHST
now that Bayesian methods are accessible to everyone.
My conclusion from those points is that we should do whatever we can
to encourage the move to Bayesian data analysis. Journal editors could
accept Bayesian data analyses, and encourage submissions with Bayesian
data analyses. Department chairpersons could encourage their faculty to
be leaders of the move to modern Bayesian methods. Funding agency
directors could encourage applications using Bayesian data analysis.
Reviewers could recommend Bayesian data analyses. Directors of training
or curriculum could get courses in Bayesian data analysis incorporated
into the standard curriculum. Teachers can teach Bayesian. Researchers
can use Bayesian methods to analyze data and submit the analyses for
publication. Students can get an advantage by learning and using
Bayesian data analysis.
The goal is encouragement of Bayesian methods, not prohibition of
NHST or other methods. Researchers will embrace Bayesian analysis once
they learn about it and see its many practical and intellectual
advantages. Nevertheless, change requires vision, courage, incentive,
effort, and encouragement!
Now to expand on the three reasons stated above.
1. Scientific disciplines from astronomy to zoology are moving to
Bayesian data analysis. We should be leaders of the move, not followers.
Bayesian methods are revolutionizing science. Notice the titles of
these articles:
Bayesian computation: a statistical revolution. Brooks, S.P.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A:
Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 361(1813), 2681, 2003.
The Bayesian revolution in genetics. Beaumont, M.A. and Rannala, B.
Nature Reviews Genetics, 5(4), 251-261, 2004.
A Bayesian revolution in spectral analysis. Gregory, PC. AIP
Conference Proceedings, 557-568, 2001.
The hierarchical Bayesian revolution: how Bayesian methods have
changed the face of marketing research. Allenby, G.M. and Bakken, D.G.
and Rossi, P.E. Marketing Research, 16, 20-25, 2004
The future of statistics: A Bayesian 21st century. Lindley, DV.
Advances in Applied Probability, 7, 106-115, 1975.
There are many other articles that make analogous points in other
fields, but with less pithy titles. If nothing else, the titles above
suggest that the phrase “Bayesian revolution” is not an overstatement.
The Bayesian revolution spans many fields of science. Notice the
titles of these articles:
Bayesian analysis of hierarchical models and its application in
AGRICULTURE. Nazir, N., Khan, A.A., Shafi, S., Rashid, A. InterStat, 1,
2009.
The Bayesian approach to the interpretation of ARCHAEOLOGICAL DATA.
Litton, CD & Buck, CE. Archaeometry, 37(1), 1-24, 1995.
The promise of Bayesian inference for ASTROPHYSICS. Loredo TJ. In:
Feigelson ED, Babu GJ, eds. Statistical Challenges in Modern Astronomy.
New York: Springer-Verlag; 1992, 275–297.
Bayesian methods in the ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES. Berliner LM, Royle JA,
Wikle CK, Milliff RF. In: Bernardo JM, Berger JO, Dawid AP, Smith AFM,
eds. Bayesian Statistics 6: Proceedings of the sixth Valencia
international meeting, June 6–10, 1998. Oxford, UK: Oxford University
Press; 1999, 83–100.
An introduction to Bayesian methods for analyzing CHEMISTRY data::
Part II: A review of applications of Bayesian methods in CHEMISTRY.
Hibbert, DB and Armstrong, N. Chemometrics and Intelligent Laboratory
Systems, 97(2), 211-220, 2009.
Bayesian methods in CONSERVATION BIOLOGY. Wade PR. Conservation
Biology, 2000, 1308–1316.
Bayesian inference in ECOLOGY. Ellison AM. Ecol Biol 2004, 7:509–520.
The Bayesian approach to research in ECONOMIC EDUCATION. Kennedy, P.
Journal of Economic Education, 17, 9-24, 1986.
The growth of Bayesian methods in statistics and ECONOMICS since
1970. Poirier, D.J. Bayesian Analysis, 1(4), 969-980, 2006.
Commentary: Practical advantages of Bayesian analysis of
EPIDEMIOLOGIC DATA. Dunson DB. Am J Epidemiol 2001, 153:1222–1226.
Bayesian inference of phylogeny and its impact on EVOLUTIONARY
BIOLOGY. Huelsenbeck JP, Ronquist F, Nielsen R, Bollback JP. Science
2001, 294:2310–2314.
Geoadditive Bayesian models for FORESTRY defoliation data: a case
study. Musio, M. and Augustin, N.H. and von Wilpert, K. Environmetrics.
19(6), 630—642, 2008.
Bayesian statistics in GENETICS: a guide for the uninitiated.
Shoemaker, J.S. and Painter, I.S. and Weir, B.S. Trends in Genetics,
15(9), 354-358, 1999.
Bayesian statistics in ONCOLOGY. Adamina, M. and Tomlinson, G. and
Guller, U. Cancer, 115(23), 5371-5381, 2009.
Bayesian analysis in PLANT PATHOLOGY. Mila, AL and Carriquiry, AL.
Phytopathology, 94(9), 1027-1030, 2004.
Bayesian analysis for POLITICAL RESEARCH. Jackman S. Annual Review of
Political Science, 2004, 7:483–505.
The list above could go on and on. The point is simple: Bayesian
methods are being adopted across the disciplines of science. We should
not be laggards in utilizing Bayesian methods in our science, or in
teaching Bayesian methods in our classrooms.
Why are Bayesian methods being adopted across science? Answer:
2. Bayesian methods provide richer information, with greater
flexibility and broader applicability than 20th century methods.
Bayesian methods are intellectually coherent and intuitive. Bayesian
analyses are readily computed with modern software and hardware.
To explain this point adequately would take an entire textbook, but
here are a few highlights.
* In NHST, the data collector must pretend to plan the sample size in
advance and pretend not to let preliminary looks at the data influence
the final sample size. Bayesian design, on the contrary, has no such
pretenses because inference is not based on p values.
* In NHST, analysis of variance (ANOVA) has elaborate corrections for
multiple comparisons based on the intentions of the analyst.
Hierarchical Bayesian ANOVA uses no such corrections, instead rationally
mitigating false alarms based on the data.
* Bayesian computational practice allows easy modification of models
to properly accommodate the measurement scales and distributional needs
of observed data.
* In many NHST analyses, missing data or otherwise unbalanced designs
can produce computational problems. Bayesian models seamlessly handle
unbalanced and small-sample designs.
* In many NHST analyses, individual differences are challenging to
incorporate into the analysis. In hierarchical Bayesian approaches,
individual differences can be flexibly and easily modeled, with
hierarchical priors that provide rational “shrinkage” of individual
estimates.
* In contingency table analysis, the traditional chi-square test
suffers if expected values of cell frequencies are less than 5. There is
no such issue in Bayesian analysis, which handles small or large
frequencies seamlessly.
* In multiple regression analysis, traditional analyses break down
when the predictors are perfectly (or very strongly) correlated, but
Bayesian analysis proceeds as usual and reveals that the estimated
regression coefficients are (anti-)correlated.
* In NHST, the power of an experiment, i.e., the probability of
rejecting the null hypothesis, is based on a single alternative
hypothesis. And the probability of replicating a significant outcome is
“virtually unknowable” according to recent research. But in Bayesian
analysis, both power and replication probability can be computed in
straight forward manner, with the uncertainty of the hypothesis directly
represented.
* Bayesian computational practice allows easy specification of
domain-specific psychometric models in addition to generic models such
as ANOVA and regression.
Some people may have the mistaken impression that the advantages of
Bayesian methods are negated by the need to specify a prior
distribution. In fact, the use of a prior is both appropriate for
rational inference and advantageous in practical applications.
* It is inappropriate not to use a prior. Consider the well known
example of random disease screening. A person is selected at random to
be tested for a rare disease. The test result is positive. What is the
probability that the person actually has the disease? It turns out, even
if the test is highly accurate, the posterior probability of actually
having the disease is surprisingly small. Why? Because the prior
probability of the disease was so small. Thus, incorporating the prior
is crucial for coming to the right conclusion.
* Priors are explicitly specified and must be agreeable to a
skeptical scientific audience. Priors are not capricious and cannot be
covertly manipulated to predetermine a conclusion. If skeptics disagree
with the specification of the prior, then the robustness of the
conclusion can be explicitly examined by considering other reasonable
priors. In most applications, with moderately large data sets and
reasonably informed priors, the conclusions are quite robust.
* Priors are useful for cumulative scientific knowledge and for
leveraging inference from small-sample research. As an empirical domain
matures, more and more data accumulate regarding particular procedures
and outcomes. The accumulated results can inform the priors of
subsequent research, yielding greater precision and firmer conclusions.
* When different groups of scientists have differing priors, stemming
from differing theories and empirical emphases, then Bayesian methods
provide rational means for comparing the conclusions from the different
priors.
To summarize, priors are not a problematic nuisance to be avoided.
Instead, priors should be embraced as appropriate in rational inference
and advantageous in real research.
If those advantages of Bayesian methods are not enough to attract
change, there is also a major reason to be repelled from the dominant
method of the 20th century:
3. 20th century null-hypothesis significance testing (NHST), with its
reliance on p values, has many severe problems. There is little reason
to persist with NHST now that Bayesian methods are accessible to
everyone.
Although there are many difficulties in using p values, the
fundamental fatal flaw of p values is that they are ill defined, because
any set of data has many different p values.
Consider the simple case of assessing whether an electorate prefers
candidate A over candidate B. A quick random poll reveals that 8 people
prefer candidate A out of 23 respondents. What is the p value of that
outcome if the population were equally divided? There is no single
answer! If the pollster intended to stop when N=23, then the p value is
based on repeating an experiment in which N is fixed at 23. If the
pollster intended to stop after the 8th respondent who preferred
candidate A, then the p value is based on repeating an experiment in
which N can be anything from 8 to infinity. If the pollster intended to
poll for one hour, then the p value is based on repeating an experiment
in which N can be anything from zero to infinity. There is a different p
value for every possible intention of the pollster, even though the
observed data are fixed, and even though the outcomes of the queries are
carefully insulated from the intentions of the pollster.
The problem of ill-defined p values is magnified for realistic
situations. In particular, consider the well-known issue of multiple
comparisons in analysis of variance (ANOVA). When there are several
groups, we usually are interested in a variety of comparisons among
them: Is group A significantly different from group B? Is group C
different from group D? Is the average of groups A and B different from
the average of groups C and D? Every comparison presents another
opportunity for a false alarm, i.e., rejecting the null hypothesis when
it is true. Therefore the NHST literature is replete with
recommendations for how to mitigate the “experimentwise” false alarm
rate, using corrections such as Bonferroni, Tukey, Scheffe, etc. The
bizarre part of this practice is that the p value for the single
comparison of groups A and B depends on what other groups you intend to
compare them with. The data in groups A and B are fixed, but merely
intending to compare them with other groups enlarges the p value of the
A vs B comparison. The p value grows because there is a different space
of possible experimental outcomes when the intended experiment comprises
more groups. Therefore it is trivial to make any comparison have a large
p value and be nonsignificant; all you have to do is intend to compare
the data with other groups in the future.
The literature is full of articles pointing out the many conceptual
misunderstandings held by practitioners of NHST. For example, many
people mistake the p value for the probability that the null hypothesis
is true. Even if those misunderstandings could be eradicated, such that
everyone clearly understood what p values really are, the p values would
still be ill defined. Every fixed set of data would still have many
different p values.
To recapitulate: Science is moving to Bayesian methods because of
their many advantages, both practical and intellectual, over 20th
century NHST. It is time that we convert our research and educational
practices to Bayesian data analysis. I hope you will encourage the
change. It’s the right thing to do.
John K. Kruschke, Revised 14 November 2010,
http://www.indiana.edu/~kruschke/
The Cult of Statistical Significance:
How Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/DeirdreMcCloskey/StatisticalSignificance01.htm
When Research Gets it Wrong
"Something Does Not Add Up," by Joan O'Connell Hamilton, Stanford
Magazine, May/June 2012 ---
http://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id=53345
Too much medicine relies on fatally flawed research. Epidemiologist John
P.A. Ioannidis leads the charge to ensure health care you can count on.
Last June, Stanford orthopedic surgeon Eugene Carragee and his editorial
team at the Spine Journal announced they had examined data that Medtronic
Inc. presented a decade ago to get approval for the spinal bone graft
product sold as Infuse.
Not only did the team find that evidence for Infuse's benefits over
existing alternatives for most patients was questionable; they also
discovered in a broad array of published research that risks of
complications (including cancer, male sterility and other serious side
effects) appeared to be 10 to 50 times higher than 13 industry-sponsored
studies had shown. And they learned that authors of the early studies that
found no complications had been paid between $1 million and $23 million
annually by the company for consulting, royalties and other compensation.
Carragee, MD '82, estimates Medtronic has sold several billion dollars'
worth of Infuse for uses both approved and "off label." Medtronic issued a
statement saying it believed the product was safe for approved use and gave
a $2.5 million grant to Yale University researchers to review the data.
Their analysis is expected this year.
Continued in article
Question
In a 2010 AAA Plenary Session, what did Harvard's Bob Kaplan accuse accountics
scientists of getting wrong?
Answer
What accountics scientists got wrong, according to Bob, is limiting the scope of
their research to accountics epidemiology and not enough focus on the clinical
side of accountancy.
Members of the AAA who have access to the AAA Commons can watch Bob's video
at
Note that to watch the
entire Kaplan video ---
http://commons.aaahq.org/hives/531d5280c3/posts?postTypeName=session+video
I think the video is only available to AAA members.
"Accounting Scholarship that Advances Professional Knowledge and Practice,"
AAA Presidential Scholar Address by Robert S. Kaplan, The Accounting Review,
March 2011, pp. 372-373 (emphasis added)
I am less pessimistic than Schön about whether
rigorous research can inform professional practice (witness the important
practical significance of the Ohlson accounting-based valuation model and
the Black-Merton-Scholes options pricing model), but I concur with the
general point that academic scholars spend too much time at the top of
Roethlisberger’s knowledge tree and too little time performing systematic
observation, description, and classification, which are at the foundation of
knowledge creation. Henderson 1970, 67–68 echoes the benefits from a more
balanced approach based on the experience of medical professionals:
both theory and practice are necessary
conditions of understanding, and the method of Hippocrates is the only
method that has ever succeeded widely and generally. The first element
of that method is hard, persistent, intelligent, responsible,
unremitting labor in the sick room, not in the library … The second
element of that method is accurate observation of things and events,
selection, guided by judgment born of familiarity and experience, of the
salient and the recurrent phenomena, and their classification and
methodical exploitation. The third element of that method is the
judicious construction of a theory … and the use thereof … [T]he
physician must have, first, intimate, habitual, intuitive familiarity
with things, secondly, systematic knowledge of things, and thirdly an
effective way of thinking about things.
More recently, other observers of business school
research have expressed concerns about the gap that has opened up in the
past four decades between academic scholarship and professional practice.
Examples include: Historical role of business
schools and their faculty is as
evaluators of, but not creators or originators of, business practice.
(Pfeffer 2007, 1335) Our journals are replete with an examination of
issues that no manager would or should ever care about, while concerns
that are important to practitioners are being ignored. (Miller et al.
2009, 273)
In summary, while much has been accomplished during
the past four decades through the application of rigorous social science
research methods to accounting issues, much has also been overlooked. As I
will illustrate later in these remarks, we have missed big opportunities to
both learn from innovative practice and to apply innovations from other
disciplines to important accounting issues. By focusing on these
opportunities, you will have the biggest potential for a highly successful
and rewarding career.
Integrating Practice and Theory: The Experience
of Other Professional Schools
Other professional schools, particularly medicine, do not disconnect
scholarly activity from practice. Many scholars in medical and public health
schools do perform large-scale statistical studies similar to those done by
accounting scholars. They estimate reduced-form statistical models on
cross-sectional and longitudinal data sets to discover correlations between
behavior, nutrition, and health or sickness. Consider, for example,
statistical research on the effects of smoking or obesity on health, and of
the correlations between automobile accidents and drivers who have consumed
significant quantities of alcoholic beverages. Such large-scale statistical
studies are at the heart of the discipline of epidemiology.
Some scholars in public health schools also
intervene in practice by conducting large-scale field experiments on real
people in their natural habitats to assess the efficacy of new health and
safety practices, such as the use of designated drivers to reduce
alcohol-influenced accidents. Few academic accounting scholars, in contrast,
conduct field experiments on real professionals working in their actual jobs
(Hunton and Gold [2010] is an exception). The large-scale statistical
studies and field experiments about health and sickness are invaluable, but,
unlike in accounting scholarship, they represent only one component in the
research repertoire of faculty employed in professional schools of medicine
and health sciences.
Many faculty in medical schools (and also in
schools of engineering and science) continually innovate. They develop new
treatments, new surgeries, new drugs, new instruments, and new radiological
procedures. Consider, for example, the angiogenesis innovation, now
commercially represented by Genentech’s Avastin drug, done by Professor
Judah Folkman at his laboratories in Boston Children’s Hospital (West et al.
2005). Consider also the dozens of commercial innovations and new companies
that flowed from the laboratories of Robert Langer at MIT (Bowen et al.
2005) and George Whiteside at Harvard University (Bowen and Gino 2006).
These academic scientists were intimately aware of gaps in practice that
they could address and solve by applying contemporary engineering and
science. They produced innovations that delivered better solutions in actual
clinical practices. Beyond contributing through innovation, medical school
faculty often become practice thought-leaders in their field of expertise.
If you suffer from a serious, complex illness or injury, you will likely be
referred to a physician with an appointment at a leading academic medical
school. How often, other than for expert testimony, do leading accounting
professors get asked for advice on difficult measurement and valuation
issues arising in practice?
One study (Zucker and Darby 1996) found that
life-science academics who partner with industry have higher academic
productivity than scientists who work only in their laboratories in medical
schools and universities. Those engaged in practice innovations work on more
important problems and get more rapid feedback on where their ideas work or
do not work.
These examples illustrate that some of the best
academic faculty in schools of medicine, engineering, and science, attempt
to improve practice, enabling their professionals to be more effective and
valuable to society. Implications for Accounting Scholarship To my letter
writer, just embarking on a career as an academic accounting professor, I
hope you can contribute by attempting to become the accounting equivalent of
an innovative, worldclass accounting surgeon, inventor, and thought-leader;
someone capable of advancing professional practice, not just evaluating it.
I do not want you to become a “JAE” Just Another Epidemiologist . My
vision for the potential in your 40 year academic career at a professional
school is to develop the knowledge, skills, and capabilities to be at the
leading edge of practice. You, as an academic, can be more innovative than a
consultant or a skilled practitioner. Unlike them, you can draw upon
fundamental advances in your own and related disciplines and can integrate
theory and generalizable conceptual frameworks with skilled practice. You
can become the accounting practice leader, the “go-to” person, to whom
others make referrals for answering a difficult accounting or measurement
question arising in practice.
But enough preaching! My teaching is most effective
when I illustrate ideas with actual cases, so let us explore several
opportunities for academic scholarship that have the potential to make
important and innovative contributions to professional practice.
Continued in article
Added Jensen Comment
Of course I'm not the first one to suggest that accountics science referees are
inbred. This has been the theme of other AAA presidential scholars (especially
Anthony Hopwood), Paul Williams, Steve Zeff, Joni Young, and many, many others
that accountics scientists have refused to listen to over past decades.
"The Absence of Dissent," by Joni J. Young,
Accounting and the Public Interest 9 (1), 2009 ---
Click Here
ABSTRACT:
The persistent malaise in accounting research continues to resist remedy.
Hopwood (2007) argues that revitalizing academic accounting cannot be
accomplished by simply working more diligently within current paradigms.
Based on an analysis of articles published in Auditing: A Journal of
Practice & Theory, I show that this paradigm block is not confined to
financial accounting research but extends beyond the work appearing in the
so-called premier U.S. journals. Based on this demonstration I argue that
accounting academics must tolerate (and even encourage) dissent for
accounting to enjoy a vital research academy. ©2009 American Accounting
Association
We could try to revitalize accountics scientists by expanding the gene pools
of inbred referees.
The Cult of Statistical Significance:
How Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/DeirdreMcCloskey/StatisticalSignificance01.htm
“An Analysis of the Evolution of Research Contributions by The Accounting
Review: 1926-2005,” (with Jean Heck), Accounting Historians Journal,
Volume 34, No. 2, December 2007, pp. 109-142.
Bob Jensen's threads on what went wrong with accountics research are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#WhatWentWrong
Ethics Education Library (and tutorials) ---
http://ethics.iit.edu/eelibrary/
"Score One for the Robo-Tutors," by Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher
Ed, May 22, 2012 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/05/22/report-robots-stack-human-professors-teaching-intro-stats
Without diminishing learning outcomes, automated
teaching software can reduce the amount of time professors spend with
students and could substantially reduce the cost of instruction, according
to new research.
In experiments at six public universities, students
assigned randomly to statistics courses that relied heavily on
“machine-guided learning” software -- with reduced face time with
instructors -- did just as well, in less time, as their counterparts in
traditional, instructor-centric versions of the courses. This largely held
true regardless of the race, gender, age, enrollment status and family
background of the students.
The
study comes at a time when “smart” teaching
software is being
increasingly included in conversations about
redrawing the economics of higher education. Recent investments by
high-profile universities in “massively open online courses,” or MOOCs, has
elevated the notion that technology has reached a tipping point: with the
right design, an online education platform, under the direction of a single
professor, might be capable of delivering meaningful education to hundreds
of thousands of students at once.
The new research from the nonprofit organization
Ithaka was seeking to prove the viability of a less expansive application of
“machine-guided learning” than the new MOOCs are attempting -- though one
that nevertheless could have real implications for the costs of higher
education.
The study, called “Interactive Learning Online at
Public Universities,” involved students taking introductory statistics
courses at six (unnamed) public universities. A total of 605 students were
randomly assigned to take the course in a “hybrid” format: they met in
person with their instructors for one hour a week; otherwise, they worked
through lessons and exercises using an artificially intelligent learning
platform developed by learning scientists at Carnegie Mellon University’s
Open Learning Initiative.
Researchers compared these students against their
peers in the traditional-format courses, for which students met with a live
instructor for three hours per week, using several measuring sticks: whether
they passed the course, their performance on a standardized test (the
Comprehensive Assessment of Statistics), and the final exam for the course,
which was the same for both sections of the course at each of the
universities.
The results will provoke science-fiction
doomsayers, and perhaps some higher-ed traditionalists. “Our results
indicate that hybrid-format students took about one-quarter less time to
achieve essentially the same learning outcomes as traditional-format
students,” report the Ithaka researchers.
The robotic software did have disadvantages, the
researchers found. For one, students found it duller than listening to a
live instructor. Some felt as though they had learned less, even if they
scored just as well on tests. Engaging students, such as professors might by
sprinkling their lectures with personal anecdotes and entertaining asides,
remains one area where humans have the upper hand.
But on straight teaching the machines were judged
to be as effective, and more efficient, than their personality-having
counterparts.
It is
not the first time the software used in the
experiment, developed over the last five years or so by Carnegie Mellon’s
Open Learning Initiative, has been proven capable of teaching students
statistics in less time than a traditional course while maintaining learning
outcomes. So far that research has failed to persuade many traditional
institutions to deploy the software -- ostensibly for fear of shortchanging
students and alienating faculty with what is liable to be seen as an attempt
to use technology as a smokescreen for draconian personnel cuts.
But the authors of the new report, led by William
G. Bowen, the former president of Princeton University, hope their study --
which is the largest and perhaps the most rigorous to date on the
effectiveness of machine-guided learning -- will change minds.
“As several leaders of higher education made clear
to us in preliminary conversations, absent real evidence about learning
outcomes there is no possibility of persuading most traditional colleges and
universities, and especially those regarded as thought leaders, to push hard
for the introduction of [machine-guided] instruction” on their campuses.
Continued in article
"‘Free-Range Learners’: Study Opens Window
Into How Students Hunt for Educational Content Online," by Marc Parry,
Chronicle of Higher Education, April 25, 2012 ---
Click Here
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/free-range-learners-study-opens-window-into-how-students-hunt-for-educational-content-online/36137?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Concept Knowledge, Competency Testing, and Assessment of Deep
Understanding ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#ConceptKnowledge
Bob Jensen's threads on Tools and Tricks of the Trade are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on the explosion of distance education and training
---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#DistanceEducation
"Textbook publisher Houghton Mifflin files Ch. 11 bankruptcy,"
Chicago Tribune, May 21, 2012 ---
Click Here
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-textbook-publisher-houghton-mifflin-files-ch-11-bankruptcy-20120521,0,747063.story
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishers Inc. filed for
bankruptcy protection on Monday after the textbook publisher reached
agreement with a majority of its creditors to cut about $3.1 billion of
debt.
The Boston-based company and two dozen affiliates filed for Chapter 11
protection in U.S. bankruptcy court in Manhattan. It said it had more than
$1 billion in both assets and liabilities.
Houghton Mifflin has struggled as state and local governments cut spending,
reducing demand for textbooks for students from kindergarten to 12th grade,
Moody's Investors Service has said.
On May 11, Houghton Mifflin said its agreement with more than 70 percent of
its senior secured lenders and bondholders would permit a "pre-packaged"
bankruptcy.
It said it expected to be able to emerge from Chapter 11 by the end of June.
The restructuring calls for Houghton Mifflin to convert its bank and bond
debt into 100 percent of the equity of a reorganized company, saving $250
million in annual cash interest costs, according to the company. Trade
creditors and unsecured creditors would be paid in full.
Houghton Mifflin has lined up $500 million in financing from
Citigroup Inc.
Boston University Libraries: Research Guide ---
http://www.bu.edu/library/guides/index.html
Ask a
Librarian
Cited References: How Do I Find Who Cited an Article or Book?
Citing Your Sources
Classes and Tutorials
Dissertations (Guide for Writers of Theses and Dissertations)
Information Literacy
Locate Full-Text Articles
Open Access
Primary Sources
Reference Services
RefWorks [About]
Research Process
Jensen Comment
There are 50 research guides in this resource, from accounting to zoology.
The Accounting and Auditing Link is at ---
http://www.bu.edu/library/guides/pml/accounting.html
Accounting researchers should not forget Jim Martin's great MAAW site ---
http://maaw.info/
The London School of Economics and Political Science: Video and Audio
(Invited Speaker Collection) ---
http://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/Home.aspx
Tracking Ships at Sea
May 17, 2012 message from David Fordham
Hey, let's face it... it's fun. A fiction writer
named Orwell had a blast doing it, and made a boatload of money , plus he
became famous while doing it.
I came across this blurb about watercraft a couple of minutes ago:
http://defense.aol.com/2012/05/17/google-satellites-can-track-every-ship-at-sea-including-us-na/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl34%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D161955
And if tracking navy subs, cruise ships, tug boats,
and America's Cup yachts isn't your thing, well, you can always go back to
tracking planes, cars, trucks, motorcycles, trains, and you can even track
individual people, too, as long as they have a cell phone or GPS with them.
Once you figure out how to do it, you can have all kinds of fun. Here's
where I am right now, although I've modified my phone to only update
periodically instead of the default every three minutes:
http://kd9la.blogspot.com/2012/05/where-am-i_279.html
David Fordham
James Madison University
"Top Business Schools Look to Social Scientists to Enhance Research,"
by Michael Stratford, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 13, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Top-Business-Schools-Look-to/131850/
As a doctoral student at Yale University's
psychology department, George E. Newman became increasingly interested in
applying the theories he studied to people's business decisions.
He began exploring, for instance, why people prefer
buying original pieces of artwork over perfect duplicates and why they're
willing to pay a lot for celebrity possessions.
"What we found is that a lot of those decisions
have to do, importantly, with psychological essentialism," he said. "People
believe the objects contain some essence of their previous owners or
manufacturers."
Wanting to further pursue such application of his
psychology training, Mr. Newman accepted a postdoctoral appointment at
Yale's School of Management, and last year became an assistant professor
there.
The career path he has followed, as a social
scientist moving to a top-tier business school, is becoming relatively
common, particularly for Ph.D.'s in psychology, economics, and sociology. As
those institutions have sought to bolster and broaden their research,
they've been looking to hire faculty with strong scholarship in disciplines
outside of business. The prospect of teaching and researching at a business
school can be alluring to scholars, too. And a rough academic job market in
the social sciences has also helped push people with Ph.D.'s in that
direction.
Focus on
Research
Adam D. Galinsky, professor of ethics and decision
in management at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern
University, was trained as a social psychologist. Mr. Galinsky, who was
hired by Kellogg more than a decade ago, says he was among the first wave of
social scientists to join the faculties of top-tier business schools. The
push to hire more psychologists and sociologists, he says, was motivated by
the institutions' desire to improve the research they produced.
"There was a sense that the quality of research in
business schools was inadequate," he says. "The idea was to hire strong
discipline-based people and bring them into the business schools with their
strong foundation of research skills."
That trend may have started to slow recently, Mr.
Galinsky says, in part because of the improved training that business
schools can now offer because they have hired social scientists. As a
result, business-school graduates are more competitive when they apply for
faculty positions at business-schools that trained psychologists and other
social scientists are also seeking.
Many social scientists are attracted to business
schools because they provide an opportunity to approach fields of study from
more applied and interdisciplinary perspectives.
Victoria L. Brescoll, who completed her Ph.D. and
held a postdoctoral appointment at Yale's psychology department, is an
assistant professor of organizational behavior at Yale's School of
Management. She says that moving from a psychology department to a business
school was something she had always thought of doing, because her research
on how people are perceived at work is at the intersection of various
disciplines, including social psychology, women studies, communications, and
organizational studies.
"The distinctions between disciplines can be
somewhat artificial," she says. "Part of why I like being in the business
school is that I can do that kind of interdisciplinary work."
Ms. Brescoll says she enjoys the challenge of
considering an economic or business perspective to her work.
"You have to rethink what high-quality evidence is
because you have to think about it from the perspective of someone from a
totally different discipline," she says. "Things you might have taken for
granted, you just can't."
Job-Market
Pressures
For some Ph.D. candidates, the tight academic job
market can be an incentive to explore faculty positions at a business
school.
After completing his doctoral degree in social
psychology at Princeton University in 1999, Mr. Galinsky says he applied to
50 psychology departments and three business schools. He barely received any
responses from the psychology departments but heard back from two of the
business schools. He accepted a postdoctoral appointment at Kellogg. "It was
a path that was chosen for me," he says.
"For a lot of people interested in social
psychology, there are just not a lot of jobs in that field in general," says
Mr. Newman, the Yale professor who studies decision-making.
Moving from psychology to business is "not an
expected path at this point, but it is a common path," says Elanor F.
Williams, who completed her Ph.D. in social psychology at Cornell University
in 2008 and then accepted a postdoctoral appointment at the University of
Florida's Warrington College of Business. Her research focuses on how people
think in a social or realized context.
Though she applied to some psychology departments,
Ms. Williams says she focused her job search heavily on postdoctoral
positions at business schools because of the transition they can offer. In
her case, her postdoctoral appointment at Florida even paid for her to
participate in an eight-week program to train nonbusiness Ph.D.'s to teach
in business schools. The Post-Doctoral Bridge to Business Program was
started in 2007 by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of
Business, an accrediting agency, as business schools faced a shortage of
qualified professors to teach growing numbers of students.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
It's not clear why business professors would "look to the social sciences for
research" since PhD programs focus mostly on graduating social scientists ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms
"Business Education Under the Microscope:
Amid growing charges of irrelevancy, business schools launch a study of their
impact on business,"
Business Week, December 26, 2007 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/dec2007/bs20071223_173004.htm
The
business-school world has been besieged by criticism in the
past few months, with prominent professors and writers
taking bold swipes at management education. Authors such as
management expert Gary Hamel and
Harvard Business School Professor
Rakesh Khurana have published books this fall expressing
skepticism about the direction in which business schools are
headed and the purported value of an MBA degree. The
December/January issue of the Academy of Management
Journal includes a
special section in which 10 scholars question the value of
business-school research.
B-school
deans may soon be able to counter that criticism, following
the launch of an ambitious study that seeks to examine the
overall impact of business schools on society. A new Impact
of Business Schools task force convened by the Association
to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB)—the main
organization of business schools—will mull over this
question next year, conducting research that will look at
management education through a variety of lenses, from
examining the link between business schools and economic
growth in the U.S. and other countries, to how management
ideas stemming from business-school research have affected
business practices. Most of the research will be new, though
it will build upon the work of past AACSB studies,
organizers said.
The
committee is being chaired by Robert Sullivan of the
University of California at San Diego's
Rady School of Management, and
includes a number of prominent business-school deans
including Robert Dolan of the University of Michigan's
Stephen M. Ross School of Business,
Linda Livingstone of Pepperdine University's
Graziado School of Business & Management, and
AACSB Chair Judy Olian, who is also the dean of UCLA's
Anderson School of Management.
Representatives from Google (GOOG)
and the Educational Testing Service will also participate.
The committee, which was formed this summer, expects to have
the report ready by January, 2009.
BusinessWeek.com reporter
Alison Damast recently spoke with Olian about the committee
and the potential impact of its findings on the
business-school community.
There has been a rising tide of
criticism against business schools recently, some of it from
within the B-school world. For example, Professor Rakesh
Khurana implied in his book
From Higher Aims to Hired Hands
(BusinessWeek.com, 11/5/07) that
management education needs to reinvent itself. Did this have
any effect on the AACSB's decision to create the Impact of
Business Schools committee?
I think that
is probably somewhere in the background, but I certainly
don't view that as in any way the primary driver or
particularly relevant to what we are thinking about here.
What we are looking at is a variety of ways of commenting on
what the impact of business schools is. The fact is, it
hasn't been documented and as a field we haven't really
asked those questions and we need to. I don't think a study
like this has ever been done before.
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on the growing
irrelevance of academic accounting research are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms
The dearth of research findings replications
---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#Replication
Bob Jensen's threads on higher education
controversies are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm
ComputerWorld's Spotlight on Cloud Storage ---
http://resources.idgenterprise.com/original/AST-0062134_DS2_FINAL.pdf
Bob Jensen's threads on storage ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob4.htm#archiving
The New GMAT: Part 1
"The New GMAT: Questions for a Data-Rich World,: by: Alison Damast, Business
Week, May 14, 2012 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-14/the-new-gmat-questions-for-a-data-rich-world
Editor’s Note: This is the first in a three-part series on the
new GMAT, which makes its official debut on June 5. In this article, we
examine the conceptual building blocks for the test’s new Integrated
Reasoning section.
On a blustery day in February 2009, a group of nine deans and faculty
members from U.S. and European business schools huddled together in a
conference room in McLean, Va., at the Graduate Management Admission
Council’s headquarters. They were there to discuss what would be some of the
most radical changes to the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) in the
exam’s nearly 60-year history.
Luis Palencia, then an associate dean at Spain’s
IESE Business School, was eager to press his case
for the skills he thought today’s MBAs needed to have at their fingertips.
Business students must be able to nimbly interpret and play with data in
graphs, spreadsheets, and charts, using the information to draw swift but
informed conclusions, he told his colleagues.
“The GMAT was not becoming obsolete, but it was
failing to identify the skills which might be important to warrant the
success of our future candidates,” he said in a phone interview from
Barcelona three years later.
By the time the faculty advisory group commenced
two days later, they had come up with a set of recommendations that would
serve as a framework for what would eventually become the new “Integrated
Reasoning” section of the
Next
Generation GMAT, which has been in beta testing
for two years and will be administered to applicants for the first time on
June 5.
Until now, the B-school entrance exam, which was
administered 258,192 times worldwide in 2011, was made up of verbal,
quantitative, and two writing sections. The new section, which replaces one
of the writing sections, is
the biggest change to the GMAT since the shift to
computer-adaptive testing 15 years ago, and one that has been in the works
since 2006, when GMAC first decided to revisit the exam and the skills it
was testing, says Dave Wilson, president and chief executive officer of
GMAC.
“At that time, we got a pretty good handle that the
GMAT was working, but we wanted to know if there was anything that we
weren’t measuring that would provide real value to the schools,” Wilson
says.
It turned out there was a whole slew of new skills
business school faculty believed could be added to the exam. The
recommendations put forth by Palencia and the rest of the committee that
convened in 2009 served as the conceptual building blocks for what a new
section might look like. Later that year, GMAC surveyed nearly 740 faculty
members around the world, from business professors to admissions officers,
who agreed with many of the committee’s findings and suggested that students
needed certain proficiencies to succeed in today’s technologically advanced,
data-driven workplaces.
For example, they gave “high importance” ratings to
skills such as synthesizing data, evaluating data from different sources,
and organizing and manipulating it to solve multiple, interrelated problems,
according to the Next Generation GMAC Skills Survey report.
Those are all examples of skills that can now be
found on the 30-minute Integrated Reasoning section, which GMAC has spent
$12 million developing over the past few years, Wilson says. It will have 12
questions and include pie charts, graphs, diagrams, and data tables. The
section employs four different types of questions that will allow students
to flex their analytical muscles.
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on assessment are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm
"Texas A&M Gathers Accountability Data on New Web Site," Chronicle
of Higher Education, May 18, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/texas-am-launches-new-web-site-in-response-to-demand-for-accountability/43387?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Amid calls for more accountability, Texas A&M
University has unveiled a website that makes data such as graduation rates,
faculty workloads, demographics and student debt easily accessible.
The site — accountability.tamu.edu — is composed of
data that already was publicly available, but administrators say the effort
is an unprecedented step toward ensuring public trust.
“It is unfortunate that higher education faces new
questions about its impact,” said Texas A&M President R. Bowen Loftin in a
news release. “We want to do everything in our power to ensure the public
trust in all we do.”
Accountability was the subject of a public fight
last year between the state’s two public research universities, A&M and
UT-Austin, and the Gov. Rick Perry-backed conservative think tank, the Texas
Public Policy Foundation.
The group’s “seven breakthrough solutions” were a
series of ideas with which the group aimed to address perceived
accountability issues. The universities’ regents, all of whom are appointed
by Perry, embraced some of the ideas and flirted with others until the
schools pushed back following media attention.
One of the most criticized of the ideas was one
that reduced a faculty member’s value to a “bottom line” financial figure,
represented by a number in either red or black, by subtracting his or her
salary and benefits from money brought in through teaching and research.
The document was taken down amid numerous
complaints of inaccuracies in the data.
“I’m not opposed to accountability,” said Peter
Hugill, a Texas A&M faculty member and state conference president of the
American Association of University Professors. “I was opposed to that crazy
red and black report.”
The new accountability website has no such measure.
The site provides large amounts of information in a
compact format with real-time changes, said Joe Pettibon, associate vice
president for academic services, in the news release.
“This is a bold step in transparency that holds the
university to the highest standards regarding how we use our resources,”
Pettibon said. “However, the site will always be a work in progress as
information is added, updated, and improved to address what is happening in
higher education and the university.”
The accountability site is at
https://accountability.tamu.edu/
Texas A&M University is committed to accountability
in its pursuit of excellence. The university expects to be held to the
highest standards in its use of resources and in the quality of the
educational experience. In fact, this commitment is a part of the fabric of
the institution from its founding and is a key component of its mission
statement (as approved by the Board of Regents and the Texas Higher
Education Coordinating Board), its aspirations found in Vision 2020
(approved by the Board of Regents in 1999), and its current strategic plan,
Action 2015: Education First (approved by the Chancellor in December 2010).
Texas A&M Case on Computing the Cost of Professors and Academic Programs
Jensen Comment
In an advanced Cost/Managerial Accounting course this assignment could have two
parts. First assign the case below. Then assign student teams to write a case on
how to compute the cost of a given course, graduate in a given program, or a
comparison of a the cost of a distance education section versus an onsite
section of a given course taught by a tenured faculty member teaching three
courses in general as well as conducting research, performing internal service,
and performing external service in his/her discipline.
From The Wall Street Journal Accounting Weekly Review on November 5,
2010
Putting a Price on Professors
by: Stephanie Simon and Stephanie Banchero
Oct 23, 2010
Click here to view the full article on WSJ.com
TOPICS: Contribution Margin, Cost Management, Managerial Accounting
SUMMARY: The article describes a contribution margin review at Texas A&M
University drilled all the way down to the faculty member level. Also
described are review systems in place in California, Indiana, Minnesota,
Michigan, Ohio and other locations.
CLASSROOM APPLICATION: Managerial concepts of efficiency, contribution
margin, cost management, and the managerial dashboard in university settings
are discussed in this article.
QUESTIONS:
1. (Introductory) Summarize the reporting on Texas A&M University's Academic
Financial Data Compilation. Would you describe this as putting a "price" on
professors or would you use some other wording? Explain.
2. (Introductory) What is the difference between operational efficiency and
"academic efficiency"?
3. (Advanced) Review the table entitled "Controversial Numbers: Cash Flow at
Texas A&M." Why do you think that Chemistry, History, and English
Departments are more likely to generate positive cash flows than are
Oceanography, Physics and Astronomy, and Aerospace Engineering?
4. (Introductory) What source of funding for academics is excluded from the
table review in answer to question 3 above? How do you think that funding
source might change the scenario shown in the table?
5. (Advanced) On what managerial accounting technique do you think
Minnesota's state college system has modeled its method of assessing
campuses' performance?
6. (Advanced) Refer to the related article. A large part of cost increases
in university education stem from dormitories, exercise facilities, and
other building amenities on campuses. What is your reaction to this parent's
statement that universities have "acquiesced to the kids' desire to go to
school at luxury resorts"?
Reviewed By: Judy Beckman, University of Rhode Island
RELATED ARTICLES:
Letters to the Editor: What Is It That We Want Our Universities to Be?
by Hank Wohltjen, David Roll, Jane S. Shaw, Edward Stephens
Oct 30, 2010
Page: A16
"Putting a Price on Professors," by Stephanie Simon and Stephanie Banchero,
The Wall Street Journal, October 23, 2010 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703735804575536322093520994.html?mod=djem_jiewr_AC_domainid
Carol Johnson took the podium of a lecture hall one
recent morning to walk 79 students enrolled in an introductory biology
course through diffusion, osmosis and the phospholipid bilayer of cell
membranes.
A senior lecturer, Ms. Johnson has taught this
class for years. Only recently, though, have administrators sought to
quantify whether she is giving the taxpayers of Texas their money's worth.
A 265-page spreadsheet, released last month by the
chancellor of the Texas A&M University system, amounted to a profit-and-loss
statement for each faculty member, weighing annual salary against students
taught, tuition generated, and research grants obtained.
Ms. Johnson came out very much in the black; in the
period analyzed—fiscal year 2009—she netted the public university $279,617.
Some of her colleagues weren't nearly so profitable. Newly hired assistant
professor Charles Criscione, for instance, spent much of the year setting up
a lab to research parasite genetics and ended up $45,305 in the red.
The balance sheet sparked an immediate uproar from
faculty, who called it misleading, simplistic and crass—not to mention,
riddled with errors. But the move here comes amid a national drive, backed
by some on both the left and the right, to assess more rigorously what,
exactly, public universities are doing with their students—and their tax
dollars.
As budget pressures mount, legislators and
governors are increasingly demanding data proving that money given to
colleges is well spent. States spend about 11% of their general-fund budgets
subsidizing higher education. That totaled more than $78 billion in fiscal
year 2008, according to the National Association of State Budget Officers.
The movement is driven as well by dismal
educational statistics. Just over half of all freshmen entering four-year
public colleges will earn a degree from that institution within six years,
according to the U.S. Department of Education.
And among those with diplomas, just 31% could pass
the most recent national prose literacy test, given in 2003; that's down
from 40% a decade earlier, the department says.
"For years and years, universities got away with,
'Trust us—it'll be worth it,'" said F. King Alexander, president of
California State University at Long Beach.
But no more: "Every conversation we have with these
institutions now revolves around productivity," says Jason Bearce, associate
commissioner for higher education in Indiana. He tells administrators it's
not enough to find efficiencies in their operations; they must seek
"academic efficiency" as well, graduating more students more quickly and
with more demonstrable skills. The National Governors Association echoes
that mantra; it just formed a commission focused on improving productivity
in higher education.
This new emphasis has raised hackles in academia.
Some professors express deep concern that the focus on serving student
"customers" and delivering value to taxpayers will turn public colleges into
factories. They worry that it will upend the essential nature of a
university, where the Milton scholar who teaches a senior seminar to five
English majors is valued as much as the engineering professor who lands a
million-dollar research grant.
And they fear too much tinkering will destroy an
educational system that, despite its acknowledged flaws, remains the envy of
much of the world. "It's a reflection of a much more corporate model of
running a university, and it's getting away from the idea of the university
as public good," says John Curtis, research director for the American
Association of University Professors.
Efforts to remake higher education generally fall
into two categories. In some states, including Ohio and Indiana, public
officials have ordered a new approach to funding, based not on how many
students enroll but on what they accomplish.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
This case is one of the most difficult cases that managerial and cost
accountants will ever face. It deals with ugly problems where joint and indirect
costs are mind-boggling. For example, when producing mathematics graduates in
undergraduate and graduate programs, the mathematics department plays an even
bigger role in providing mathematics courses for other majors and minors on
campus. Furthermore, the mathematics faculty provides resources for internal
service to administration, external service to the mathematics profession and
the community, applied research, basic research, and on and on and on. Faculty
resources thus become joint product resources.
Furthermore costing faculty time is not exactly the same as costing the time
of a worker that adds a bumper to each car in an assembly line. While at home in
bed going to sleep or awakening in bed a mathematics professor might hit upon a
Eureka moment where time spent is more valuable than the whole previous lifetime
of that professor spent in working on campus. How do you factor in hours
spent in bed in CVP analysis and Cost-Benefit analysis? Work sampling and
time-motion studies used in factory systems just will not work well in academic
systems.
In Cost-Profit-Volume analysis the multi-product CPV model is
incomprehensible without making a totally unrealistic assumption that "sales
mix" parameters are constant for changing levels of volume. Without this
assumption for many "products" the solution to the CPV model blows our minds.
Another really complicating factor in CVP and C-B analysis are semi-fixed
costs that are constant over a certain time frame (such as a semester or a year
for adjunct employees) but variable over a longer horizon. Of course over
a very long horizon all fixed costs become variable, but this generally destroys
the benefit of a CVP analysis in the first place. One problem is that faculty
come in non-tenured adjunct, non-tenured tenure-track, and tenured varieties.
To complicate matters the sources of revenues in a university are complicated
and interactive. Revenues come from tuition, state support (if any), gifts and
endowment earnings, research grants, services such as surgeries in the medical
school, etc. Allocation of these revenues among divisions and departments is
generally quite arbitrary.
I could go on and on about why I would never attempt to do CVP or C-B
research for one of the largest universities of the world. But somebody at
Texas A&M has rushed in where angels fear to tread.
Bob Jensen's threads on managerial and cost accounting are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory02.htm#ManagementAccounting
Human Resource Accounting for Financial Statements
The value of human resource employees in a business is currently not booked
and usually not even disclosed as an estimated amount in footnotes. In general a
"value" is booked into the ledger only when cash or explicit contractual
liabilities are transacted such as a bonus paid for a professional athlete or
other employee. James Martin provides an excellent bibliography on the academic
literature concerning human resource accounting ---
http://maaw.info/HumanResourceAccMain.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on human resource accounting are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory02.htm#TripleBottom
Bob Jensen's threads on higher education controversies ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm
Multivariate Data Visualization
May 18, 2012 message from Alfred Inselberg
Hello Bob,
I saw and enjoyed your very interesting site and believe that you will be
interested in
http://www.amazon.com/Parallel-Coordinates-Multidimensional-Geometry-Applications/dp/0387215077
which contains the recent breakthroughs in the field.
It has a self-contained chapter in Data Mining with examples on real
multivariate datasets (some with undreds of variables). Also there are other
applications to Air Traffic, Process Control, Decision Support and
elsewhere.
Among others the book was praised by Stephen Hawking. I hope that you will
also enjoy it.
Best regards
Alfred
Bob Jensen's threads on
Visualization of Multivariate Data (including faces) ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/352wpvisual/000datavisualization.htm
"B-School Research Briefs," by: Francesca Di Meglio, Business Week,
May 11, 2012 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-11/b-school-research-briefs
B-School Culture: A Plea for Change," by Philip Delves, Business
Week, May 14, 2012 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-14/b-school-culture-a-plea-for-change
A guest post from Philip Delves
Broughton, a former Paris bureau chief for Britain’s Daily Telegraph.
Broughton graduated from Harvard Business School in 2006 and is the author
of The Art of the Sale: Learning From the Masters About the Business of
Life (Penguin Press, 2012).
In 2007, Rakesh Khurana, a professor at Harvard
Business School, published a sharp critique of American B-schools called
From Higher Aims to Hired Hands: The Social Transformation of American
Business Schools and the Unfulfilled Promise of Management as a Profession.
He argued that MBA programs were flogging a product
to students which did nothing to help them improve the business world once
they graduated. They were given tools and equipped with skills but left with
a gaping hole in the middle of their education where their morality was
supposed to be.
The ruling class of American business, with its
obsession with shareholder returns over any broader social good, was a
direct reflection of the intellectual and spiritual poverty of business
schools. Much of Khurana’s work at HBS is devoted to trying to fix this.
And now we have one of the intellectual lions of
Harvard, Clay Christensen, publishing How Will You Measure Your Life?,
a gripping personal story with lessons from business mixed in. Christensen’s
decision to venture from innovation, the subject that made him famous, into
the personal advice genre was provoked in part by seeing what happened to
his peer group from Oxford University and
Harvard Business School. (He was recently profiled
in Bloomberg
Businessweek and the New
Yorker.)
“Something had gone wrong for some of them along
the way: Their personal relationships had begun to deteriorate, even as
their professional prospects blossomed,” he writes in the prologue of his
new book. When his friends stopped even attending reunions, he sensed that
they “felt embarrassed to explain to their friends the contrast in the
trajectories of their personal and professional lives.”
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on higher education controversies ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm
UNESCO Working Paper Series on Mobile Learning ---
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/themes/icts/m4ed/mobile-learning-resources/unescomobilelearningseries/
Virginia Tech: Study Skills Self Help Information ---
http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/stdyhlp.html
A Fully Online Philosophy Degree from the University of North Carolina at
Greensboro
"Virtual Philosophy," by Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed, May 17,
2012 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/05/17/unc-greensboro-may-offer-its-first-fully-online-degree-philosophy
Some assume that online education is not a suitable
medium for courses that rely on the Socratic Method. But the philosophy
professors at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro are skeptical.
The Greensboro philosophy department, which already
offers online versions of eight of its courses, has adapted two additional
ones, including a “capstone” seminar, for the Web. Pending the approval of
the university system’s general administration, the new courses would make
it possible to earn an undergraduate philosophy degree from Greensboro
without setting foot on its campus.
That would make philosophy the first department at
Greensboro’s undergraduate college to offer a fully online degree.
That might strike some observers as odd, given
philosophy’s reputation as a discipline that relies on classroom exchanges
and whose pedagogical model has hardly changed since ancient Greece. But
philosophy and technology are more closely linked than some might assume,
says Gary Rosenkrantz, the chair of the department.
“It’s not as ironic as it seems if you reflect on
the fact that computers -- both hardware and software -- derive from
logicians in the late 19th and early 20th centuries,” says Rosenkrantz.
Threads of inquiry that use the “if-then” protocol of formal logic are the
“foundation of both the computer chip and basic computer software
functions,” he says.
In fact, the structured reasoning of philosophy
makes it perhaps more amenable to adaptation than some other humanities
disciplines. To help teach the online versions, Wade Maki, a lecturer at
Greensboro, developed a computer program based on the
choose-your-own-adventure books of his youth. Called
“Virtual Philosopher,”
the program poses ethical dilemmas and presents multiple-choice questions.
Once a student answers, the program -- which features text as well as video
of Maki -- interrogates her answer before offering her the opportunity to
either change or reaffirm it.
By asking leading questions and restricting student
answers, Virtual Philosopher seeks to give students some autonomy without
letting them wander off-topic, says Maki. For a preformatted program, the
similarity to a typical classroom exchange is remarkable, he says.
“It’s this classic tennis back and forth,
intellectually,” says Maki, who has co-authored
a paper on using
Virtual Philosopher to replicate the Socratic Method online. “And if you’ve
been teaching for a while … it becomes quite natural to find that they can
be easily structured to give a student a good replica of what happens in the
classroom.”
The online philosophy courses at Greensboro do not
rely entirely on Maki’s Virtual Philosopher. The instructors also hold live
video chats via Blackboard, where students can inquire about various ideas
without having to color inside the lines, says Rosenkrantz.
But with the proposed fully online philosophy track
comes a new challenge: holding an upper-level seminar online. Whereas the
lower- and mid-level courses had only to match the level of interaction that
students could reasonably expect from a traditional class of 40 or 50
students, Rosenkrantz will now have to try to replicate a much smaller,
discussion-intensive course when it puts one of the department’s capstone
courses, “Philosophy 494: Substance and Attribute,” on to the Web. “That
needs to have a significant element of synchronous interaction between a
professor and students,” he says.
Rosenkrantz, who is slated to teach the course if
the online major gets approved, says he is planning to use Google+ Hangouts
to hold live discussions. Instructors have for years resisted holding
seminar discussions online because multiperson video chat platforms were
viewed as unreliable. But, like some other institutions that are moving
discussion-intensive pieces of their curriculums to the Web, the Greensboro
oracles are seeing technological capabilities gaining on ambition in online
education. “Certainly the technology is there to attempt it now,” says
Rosenkrantz.
Continued in article
From Amherst College
Ask a Philosopher (a live philosopher will answer your questions) ---
http://www.askphilosophers.org/
Sample Question on April 19, 2012
Is it ethical to kill someone in self-defense? My
instinct was yes at first, but upon further reflection, in a situation where
it's "you or them", I can't seem to think of a reason to kill someone in
self-defense, other than the fact that you simply want to live. After all,
you're still taking a human life. (Also if you could explain why it is or
isn't ethical would help me out a lot thanks!)
View the replies of several "philosophers" (who apparently never were
faced with a life or death decision in real life)
I think one of the answers is either tongue-in-cheek or just plain dumb!
Gateway to Philosophy ---
http://www.bu.edu/paideia/index.html
Philosophy Now: A Magazine of Ideas
http://www.philosophynow.org/
Video course covers Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau,
and Tocqueville.
Introduction to Political Philosophy: A Free Yale Course"---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2011/07/introduction_to_political_philosophy.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Also see the BBC's "Big Thinker" Lecture Series ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2011/07/bertrand_russell_bbc_lecture_series_.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Teach Philosopy 101 ---
http://www.teachphilosophy101.org/
This site presents strategies and resources for
faculty members and
graduate assistants who are teaching Introduction
to Philosophy courses; it also includes material of interest to college faculty
generally. The
mission of TΦ101 is to provide free, user-friendly
resources to the academic community. All of the materials are provided on an
open
source license. You may also
print as many copies as you wish (please print in
landscape). TΦ101 carries no advertising. I am deeply indebted to
Villanova
University for all of the support that has made this
project possible.
John Immerwahr, Professor of Philosophy, Villanova University
Methodologies of Comparative Philosophy: The Pragmatist and Process
Traditions by Robert W. Smid (State University of New York Press; 2009,
288 pages; $80). Evaluates the methodologies of William Ernest Hocking, F.S.C.
Northrop, Robert Cummings Neville, and David L. Hall in collaboration with Roger
T. Ames.
Philosophy Now: A Magazine of Ideas
http://www.philosophynow.org/
Video course covers Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau,
and Tocqueville.
Introduction to Political Philosophy: A Free Yale Course"---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2011/07/introduction_to_political_philosophy.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Also see the BBC's "Big Thinker" Lecture Series ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2011/07/bertrand_russell_bbc_lecture_series_.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Rhapsody of Philosophy: Dialogues With Plato in Contemporary Thought
by Max Statkiewicz (Penn State University Press; 2009. 216 pages; $60).
Describes a "rhapsodic mode" in Plato's dialogues that is echoed by such
thinkers as Nietzsche, Heidegger, Irigaray, Derrida, and Nancy.
Who Was Jacques Derrida? An Intellectual Biography by David
Mikics (Yale University Press; 2009, 273 pages; $30). Topics include the French
thinker's vision of philosophy as a realm that resists psychology.
Ask Philosophers ---
http://www.amherst.edu/askphilosophers/
This site puts the talents and knowledge of
philosophers at the service of the general public. Send in a question that
you think might be related to philosophy and we will do our best to respond
to it. To date, there have been 1375 questions posted and 1834 responses.
Philosophy Talk (Audio) ---
http://www.philosophytalk.org/
Philosophy Now: A Magazine of Ideas
http://www.philosophynow.org/
The Secret Lives Of Philosophers
"Are Philosophers Really Lovers Of Wisdom?" Simoleon Sense,
February 2, 2009 ---
http://www.simoleonsense.com/are-philosophers-really-lovers-of-wisdom/
I’ve
always been interested in becoming an academic
philosopher. My interest is so profound that I even
majored as one during undergrad, only to quickly switch
to Psychology & Neuroscience. Here’s an article brought
to my attention by a friend and philosopher.
Click
Here To Read About The Secret Lives Of Philosphers
Article Introduction (Via Philosopher’s Net)
Although
academics will hardly raise an eyebrow about this “open
secret”, it comes as a surprise to many others to learn
that many philosophers, in fact an increasing number by
my lights, are little devoted to the love of wisdom. In
only a merely “academic” way do they aspire to
intellectual virtue. Even less often do they exhibit
qualities of moral excellence. On the contrary, many
philosophers, or what pass as philosophers, are, sadly,
better described as petty social climbers, meretricious
snobs, and acquisitive consumerists.
I blush
a bit now to confess that part of what drove me into
philosophy in the first place was the naive conviction
that among those who call themselves lovers of wisdom I
would find something different in kind from the
repugnant and shallow brutalism of the worlds of
finance, business, and the law to which I had suffered
some exposure in Ronald Reagan’s America.
Article Excerpts (Via Philsopher’s Net)
“Instead, I’ve found that the secret lives of
philosophers are more often than not pre-occupied with
status and acquisition.”
“Like
debutantes at the ball, philosophers now often spend
much of their time dropping names, gossiping, promoting
their connections, hawking their publications, passing
out business cards and polishing their self-promotional
web sites.”
“Attitudes toward material consumption are not, I’m
afraid much better. Philosophers seem to pepper their
conversations more and more with remarks about the perks
or bonuses they receive – how much money they have
available for travel, what sort of computer allowances,
how big their research grants are.”
“All of
this suggests a philosophical culture that imitates the
business world not only in its emphasis on product
(publication) but also in its adopting the criteria and
trappings of professional success characteristic of
commercial life.
Conclusions (Via Philosopher’s Net)
“One
implication of this little secret is that professional
philosophers have become less and less egalitarian in
their view of education.”
“Finding
philosophers devoted principally to the love of wisdom
and to sharing it broadly has become, as Spinoza said of
all excellent things, as difficult as it is rare.”
Bob Jensen's threads on online training and education alternatives around
the world ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
"Italian university switches to English," by Sean Coughlan, BBC
News, May 16, 2012 ---
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17958520
Thank you Bob Overn for the heads up.
From opera at La Scala to football at the San Siro
stadium, from the catwalks of fashion week to the soaring architecture of
the cathedral, Milan is crowded with Italian icons.
Which makes it even more of a cultural earthquake
that one of Italy's leading universities - the Politecnico di Milano - is
going to switch to the English language.
The university has announced that from 2014 most of
its degree courses - including all its graduate courses - will be taught and
assessed entirely in English rather than Italian.
The waters of globalisation are rising around
higher education - and the university believes that if it remains
Italian-speaking it risks isolation and will be unable to compete as an
international institution.
"We strongly believe our classes should be
international classes - and the only way to have international classes is to
use the English language," says the university's rector, Giovanni Azzone.
Italy might have been the cradle of the last great
global language - Latin - but now this university is planning to adopt
English as the new common language. 'Window of change'
"Universities are in a more competitive world, if
you want to stay with the other global universities - you have no other
choice," says Professor Azzone.
He says that his university's experiment will "open
up a window of change for other universities", predicting that in five to 10
years other Italian universities with global ambitions will also switch to
English.
This is one of the oldest universities in Milan and
a flagship institution for science, engineering and architecture, which lays
claim to a Nobel prize winner. Almost one in three of all Italy's architects
are claimed as graduates. So this is a significant step.
But what is driving this cultural change? Is it the
intellectual equivalent of pop bands like Abba singing in English to reach a
wider market?
Professor Azzone says a university wants to reach
the widest market in ideas - and English has become the language of higher
education, particularly in science and engineering.
"I would have preferred if Italian was the common
language, it would have been easier for me - but we have to accept real
life," he says.
When English is the language of international
business, he also believes that learning in English will make his students
more employable.
These are the days of the curriculum vitae rather
than the dolce vita.
"It's very important for our students not only to
have very good technical skills, but also to work in an international
environment."
Modern-age Latin
The need to attract overseas students and
researchers, including from the UK and non-English speaking countries, is
another important reason for switching to English as the primary language.
Continued in article
Global Perspectives on Accounting, Vol. 9, 2012 ---
http://gpae.bryant.edu/~gpae/content.htm
"Northern Arizona U. Overhauls Curriculum to Focus on 'Global Competence',"
by Ian Wilhelm, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 20, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Northern-Arizona-U-Overhauls/131925/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
"Purdue Kicks Off Global Online-Education Project," by Nick DeSantis,
Chronicle of Higher Education, May 11, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/purdue-kicks-off-global-online-education-project/36339
Purdue University today joined the group of
universities that have recently announced plans to experiment with online
courses aimed at a global audience.
The new effort, called PurdueHUB-U, will serve up
modular online courses with video lectures, interactive visualizations, and
tools for students to interact with their peers and the professor. The
project’s leaders hope it will improve face-to-face classes and bring in
revenue by attracting students around the world.
PurdueHUB-U grew out of a course taught this year
on Purdue’s nanoHUB, a collaborative platform for nanotechnology research.
The course, on the fundamentals of nanoelectronics, was broken into two
parts that lasted a few weeks each. It attracted 900 students from 27
countries, most of whom paid $30 for the class and a certificate of
completion. Students also had the option to turn their certificates into
continuing-education credits for an additional $195.
Timothy D. Sands, Purdue’s provost, called that
pricing model a “low outer paywall” that was much cheaper than traditional
credit-hour charges, but not quite free. He added that the project will
first focus on developing online course materials to transform the
university’s face-to-face classes. Mr. Sands said the course modules could
also be offered to Purdue alumni, allowing them to continue their education
after they graduate.
Continued in article
"‘Free-Range Learners’: Study Opens Window
Into How Students Hunt for Educational Content Online," by Marc Parry,
Chronicle of Higher Education, April 25, 2012 ---
Click Here
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/free-range-learners-study-opens-window-into-how-students-hunt-for-educational-content-online/36137?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Bob Jensen's threads on Tools and Tricks of the Trade are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm
Concept Knowledge, Competency Testing, and Assessment of Deep
Understanding ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#ConceptKnowledge
Bob Jensen's threads on the explosion of distance education and training
---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#DistanceEducation
The MOOC Model Revisited
"Massive Open Online Courses: How: 'The Social” Alters the Relationship
Between Learners and Facilitators'," by Bonnie Stewart, Inside Higher Ed,
April 30, 2012 ---
Click Here
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/university-venus/massive-open-online-courses-how-%E2%80%9C-social%E2%80%9D-alters-relationship-between
Bob Jensen's threads on MITx and other free courses, lectures, videos and
course materials from prestigious universities ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Students learn just as much in a course that’s
taught partly online as they would in a traditional classroom, but . . .
"Study Shows Promise and Challenges of ‘Hybrid’ Courses," by Katie Mangan,
Chronicle of Higher Education, May 22, 2012 ---
Click Here
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/study-shows-promise-and-challenges-of-hybrid-courses/36350?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Students learn just as much in a course that’s
taught partly online as they would in a traditional classroom, but such
courses won’t reach their potential until they are both easier for faculty
members to customize and more fun for students, according to
a report released
today.
The report, “Interactive Learning Online at Public
Universities: Evidence From Randomized Trials,” is based on a study
conducted by Ithaka S+R, a consultancy on the use of technology in teaching.
The finding that hybrid courses are no better or
worse than traditional ones isn’t, as it might appear, “a bland result,”
said one of the co-authors, William G. Bowen, president emeritus of the
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
“One of the responses most frequently raised in
efforts to experiment with this kind of teaching is that it will expose
students to risk,” he said in an interview. “The results of this study show
that such worries are overblown.”
The results do indicate that such courses, as they
exist today, “do no harm,” said Mr. Bowen, who serves as a senior adviser to
the Ithaka group. “But surely these courses are going to improve
dramatically as they become
more customizable and more fun.”
Some experts advocate online classes as a way to
deliver courses more economically and effectively, particularly for members
of minority groups and others who might be subject to stereotypes in a
classroom setting. Meanwhile, skeptics suspect that online approaches
depersonalize education and shortchange students.
“We felt it was important to do a rigorous,
randomized study so we could see if the extreme claims on either side of the
divide are justified,” Mr. Bowen said.
The study compared how much students at six public
universities learned after taking a prototype introductory statistics course
in the fall of 2011 in either a hybrid or a traditional format. The
researchers randomly assigned a diverse group of 605 students to either a
hybrid group, in which they learned with computer-guided instruction and one
hour of face-to-face instruction each week, or a traditional format, usually
with three or four hours of face-to-face instruction per week.
The result? “We find that learning outcomes are
essentially the same—that students in the hybrid format pay no ‘price’ for
this mode of instruction in terms of pass rates, final exam scores, and
performance on a standardized assessment of statistical literacy,” the
report concluded.
The authors also found that using the hybrid
approach in large introductory courses “has the potential to significantly
reduce instructor compensation costs in the long run.”
The report emphasizes that its conclusions don’t
apply to all online instruction, just a specific type of interactive online
course in which computer-guided instruction substitutes for some
face-to-face instruction.
The findings were consistent among all groups and
campuses, the authors said. Half of the students tested were from families
earning less than $50,000, and half were first-generation college students.
Large public universities that face growing
pressures to cut costs and improve graduation rates stand the most to gain
from refining the hybrid approach, particularly for large introductory
courses, the authors note.
Continued in article
Advantages and Disadvantages of Asychronous Learning ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on Tools and Tricks of the Trade are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm
Concept Knowledge, Competency Testing, and Assessment of Deep
Understanding ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#ConceptKnowledge
Bob Jensen's threads on the explosion of distance education and training
---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#DistanceEducation
The MOOC Model Revisited
"Massive Open Online Courses: How: 'The Social” Alters the Relationship
Between Learners and Facilitators'," by Bonnie Stewart, Inside Higher Ed,
April 30, 2012 ---
Click Here
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/university-venus/massive-open-online-courses-how-%E2%80%9C-social%E2%80%9D-alters-relationship-between
Bob Jensen's threads on MITx and other free courses, lectures, videos and
course materials from prestigious universities ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
"Stanford’s Credential Problem," by Kevin Carey, Chronicle of
Higher Education, May 14, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/brainstorm/stanfords-credential-problem/46851?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
A couple of weeks ago, while discussing the
announcement of the Harvard / MIT edX initiative, I included a brief recap
of what’s been happening over the last six months in the land of Massively
Open Online Courses (MOOC’s), which began as follows:
Throughout the fall 2011 semester, a group of
well-known Stanford professors had been running an unorthodox experiment
by letting over 100,000 students around the world take their courses,
online, for free. Those who did well got a certificate from the
professor saying so.
Later than day, I received an email titled “error
in your blog” from a person who works in communications for Stanford, which
I’m reprinting with permission. The person said:
Students who did well did not receive a
certificate. Neither Stanford nor the professors issued a certificate.
All students who completed the courses received a letter from the
professor saying that they had completed the course. And that’s it.
This is telling. I used the word “certificate”
deliberately, because “letter” seemed inadequate. A letter is a vehicle for
interpersonal correspondence, e.g. “Dear Mom, I am having fun at camp this
summer, please send cookies,” or “Dear Sir, we regret to inform you that
your manuscript does not meet our standards for publication.” A certificate
is a document describing some kind of important characteristic of the
bearer, as attested by the issuer. A college diploma is a kind of
certificate, as is a teaching certificate issued by a state licensing board,
as were the old-fashioned “letters of introduction” people once used to
facilitate business and social interactions. As is, I would argue, the
document that students received upon completing the Stanford MOOC in
question. Here it is:
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on MITx, EDX, and other credential programs from
prestigious universities ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
May 20, 2012 reply from Bob Jensen
Hi Robert and Zane,
I think MOOQ classes of 10,000+ students may have a similar fate as
correspondence schools as far as the professions are concerned for licensing
since professional schools of law, medicine, architecture, accounting, etc.
offer so much more than can be put on licensing examinations.
MOOQ certificates, however, will fill certain niche markets where students
can get AP credit for what they learned in MOOQ courses. As example I use
repeatedly is that a licensed engineer might get an added online set of
courses in Bessel Functions. It's then up to the employer to verify that
this licensed engineer really did master the Bessel Function courses.
Similarly, a tax accountant CPA might take some distance education courses
in insurance company taxation. Or a student might become a very competent
C++ programer in MOOQ courses. Once again, the employer or graduate school
must test for competency in added specialties.
There will also be a role for MOOQ mass education in terms of general
education courses where competencies can be examined on tests such as math
tests, basic biology, basic state government, basic accounting, etc. But as
we move up the ladder to advanced courses much more learning takes place
than can be effectively and efficiently tested such as a case course at
Harvard on business policy.
Note there are also major differences in distance education itself. Small
and intense advanced accounting and tax courses may actually be better than
onsite courses in terms of student interaction, interaction with a
professor, etc. See Amy Dunbar's account of this ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/002cpe/Dunbar2002.htm
But I don't see MOOQ for the masses replacing advanced courses where so much
learning takes place via onsite or online education that cannot be
effectively and efficiently put into competency AP texts.
Respectfully,
Bob Jensen
"How Compatible Are Rival E-Readers?" by David Pogue, The New York
Times, May 10, 2012 ---
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/10/how-compatible-are-rival-e-readers/
The mail is still
coming in about my review of Barnes & Noble’s latest e-book reader, the
Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight.
Very little of the
mail is actually about the reader, though. Most of it challenges the
statements I made when I characterized the state of the e-book world right
now.
Here’s a summary —
and a few clarifications.
• What I wrote:
“When you buy an e-reader, you’re committing to that one company’s catalog
of books forever, because their book formats are mutually incompatible.”
Sample reader
pushback: “Why do you write about things you don’t know anything about?
Apparently, you haven’t heard of the free app called Calibre. It converts
any e-book format into any other format. If I want to switch from a Kindle
to a Nook, I just let Calibre convert my current Kindle library. It’s that
simple.”
My reply: It’s
actually not, for one towering reason: Calibre can’t convert copy-protected
books. It doesn’t even try. And that rules out most of the books people want
to read these days: best sellers. Current, commercial fiction and
nonfiction. Books by people who are still alive.
I mean, if all you
want to read is old, expired-copyright books like “Moby Dick” and “Little
Women,” then — great! You don’t need Calibre at all, because these books are
available free online in any format you like (or in formats that any reader
can display, like text files or PDF files).
But when it comes to
more recent books, my statement still stands. If you buy a bunch of modern
books for the Nook and then one day switch to the Kindle, you’ll have to
kiss your entire investment goodbye.
• What I wrote:
“You can’t read a Kindle book on a Nook, or a Nook book on a Sony Reader, or
a Sony book on an iPad.”
Sample reader
pushback: “Your remark about not being able to read various book types on
rival readers is disingenuous at best. I can read all of my Kindle books and
all of my Nook books on my laptop or my iPad, thanks to reader apps made by
those companies.”
My reply: Yes,
that’s true. There are Kindle and Nook reading apps for tablets, phones and
computers, so that you can read your purchased books without actually owning
an e-book reader at all!
To be technically
complete, therefore, I could have written this: “You can’t read a Kindle
book on a Nook or Sony Reader, or a Nook book on a Sony Reader or Kindle, or
a Sony book on an iPad, Kindle or Nook, or an iBooks book on a Nook, Kindle
or Sony Reader. With a special app, you can read a Kindle book or Nook book
on an iPad, laptop, iPhone, iPod Touch or Android phone.”
But my point was
not to create a Wikipedia entry on e-book compatibility. I was just trying
to make the point that if you are thinking of buying a dedicated e-book
reader — and since this was a review of an e-book reader, I think that’s a
reasonable assumption — then you’ll be locked into books from its
manufacturer.
• What I wrote:
“Once you buy the gadget, you’ve just married its company forever. If you
ever want to change brands, you have to give up all the books you’ve ever
bought.”
Sample reader
pushback: “Your article contains an error. If you buy a Nook, you are not
tied to Barnes & Noble’s bookstore. They use the ePub format, and accept the
Adobe Digital Editions DRM [copy-protection] scheme, so you can buy books
from a number of vendors. I have purchased books from B&N as well as Kobo,
the Sony bookstore, and a couple other sites.”
My reply: I’ve
always known that the Sony, Nook and Kobo readers all read standard ePub
files. But it was my impression that, here again, the only books you can
exchange freely among readers are the old, public-domain ones — not the
copy-protected modern best sellers that most people are interested in.
It appears that I’m
wrong. With some effort, you can, in fact, move copy-protected books among
those three e-book readers. When I asked that reader how he does it, he sent
along the instructions:
Say I bought
“My Man Jeeves” from Kobo. I copy it to my Kobo e-reader. Now, to copy
it to my Sony reader, I must manually download the acsm file that
controls my license for this book. Kobo allows this, but not through
their desktop application — only on their Web site. I simply use my Kobo
account credentials to log on to the site. I go to “My library.” Beside
each of my purchases is a Download button (it may be called “Adobe DRM
ePub/PDF”). I click this button, and the acsm file is downloaded.
Now I “open”
the acsm file using the Sony Reader desktop application. (On Windows, I
do that by right-clicking the file, then selecting “Open with Sony
eReader.”) My book is now copied-downloaded into my Sony Reader desktop
app. I can then connect my Sony reader by its cable to my PC to copy
that book as usual.
Wow. I’m not entirely
convinced that average consumers would be willing, or even able, to wade
through all of that for every book in their libraries.
But technically, I
was wrong, and you’re right. If you’re technically adept, you can transfer
your purchased books among Nook, Sony and Kobo readers — and any others that
offer ePub compatibility.
The only big-name
reader that doesn’t is the Kindle. Once you buy a Kindle book, you really
are stuck with Kindles and Kindle reading apps forever.
Continued in article
"Amazon Lights the Fire With Free BooksL Today, Amazon unveiled
something radical: the Kindle Lending Library," by David Pogue, The New
York Times, November 2, 2011 ---
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/amazon-lights-the-fire-with-free-books/
Bob Jensen's threads on electronic books are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Ebooks.htm
"Where the Fortune 500 CEOs Went to School: These schools awarded at
least 10 college and graduate degrees to America’s leading executives," by
Menachem Wecker, US News, May 14, 2012 ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/top-business-schools/articles/2012/05/14/where-the-fortune-500-ceos-went-to-school
Jensen Comment
For years I've preached that students seek prestigious universities for much
more than book learning. The top universities provide networking opportunities
and alumni relations that probably exceed most anything students learn from the
books. Of course, networking experiences are highly variable.
But there also is a well-known problem of correlation versus causation going
on here. There may be underlying causal factors such as the attributes of
students who gain admission to prestigious schools that a subset of those
students may rise to the top irrespective of where they graduate.
If you annually track the backgrounds of CPAs admitted into the Big Four
partnerships in the United States you will be surprised the proportion that
graduated as accounting majors for Podunk College. Cream rising to the top is a
fundamental attribute of molecular chemistry.
But we cannot deny the fact that a degree from a prestigious university is a
key that unlocks doors. This is especially the case when it comes to PhD
graduates seeking tenure track positions. A Podunk College PhD generally does
not stack up well with a doctorate from Harvard, Stanford, and Penn. There are
exceptions of course, but these are rare in the Academy.
"Empathy: The Most Valuable Thing They Teach at HBS," by James
Allworth, Harvard Business School Blog, May 15, 2012 ---
Click Here
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/05/empathy_the_most_valuable_thing_they_t.html?referral=00563&cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-daily_alert-_-alert_date&utm_source=newsletter_daily_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=alert_date
These probably aren't words that you were expecting
to see in the same sentence — Harvard Business School and empathy. But as I
reflect back on my time as a student there, I've begun to realize that more
than anything else, this is one of the the most valuable things that the
school teaches.
It starts on day one. You're put into a "section"
with 90 incredibly smart folks, people with whom you quickly become good
friends. Then the moment arrives when you step into class, prepared for a
case discussion with what you're sure is the right answer — but just before
you're able to stick your hand up and get in on the discussion, a good
friend — someone who you deeply respect and admire — jumps in to the
conversation with an opinion that's exactly the opposite of yours. And it
begins to dawn on you...that what they've expressed is right.
It's a humbling moment. It's valuable not just in
reminding you that you're not always right (though that's always valuable),
but also in teaching you to step out of your own shoes, and to put yourself
into those of someone else.
It's a trait that is sorely lacking at the moment.
There's a case to be made that the American political system is suffering at
present because empathy has been almost entirely exorcised from within its
walls. Politicians are being elected on the back of their ability to vilify
those with whom they don't agree. These are not people who come to office
with questions, or who seek to understand; instead, many are dogmatists,
able to see the world through their own eyes. Their interest in conversation
runs only one way — many seem capable of only talking at, not with, those
with a different point of view on the world. The jettisoning of compromise
is a direct result of this state of affairs; why would you give an inch of
your position to someone whose perspective you can't even bring yourself to
entertain?
The place for me, however, where an appreciation of
empathy is most undervalued, is in business. The potential upside for those
in business who are able to be empathetic is huge, and is eloquently
described in Professor
Clay
Christensen's jobs-to-be-done theory.
Understanding that people don't buy things because of their demographics —
nobody buys something because they're a 25-30 year old white male with a
college degree — but rather, because they go about living their life and
some situation arises in which they need to solve a problem... and so they
"hire" a product to do the job. This is a big "ah ha" to many folks when
they first hear it; but when you really boil it down, the true power of this
is in giving people in business a frame with which to exercise empathy. In
fact, both Akio Morita of Sony and Steve Jobs were famous for never
commissioning market research — instead, they'd just walk around the world
watching what people did. They'd put themselves in the shoes of their
customers.
And for those businesses whose executives are
incapable of it? Well, they are subject to the ultimate stick — disruption.
No better example of this exists than the story of Blockbuster and its
competitive
tangle with Netflix.
Blockbuster saw the rise of Netflix in the very
early 2000s, and chose not to do anything about it. Why? Well, its
management couldn't see the world from any perspective other than from the
vantage point from which they sat: atop a $6 billion business with 60%
margins, tens of thousands of employees and stores all across the country.
Blockbuster's management couldn't bring itself to see Netflix's perspective:
that while Netflix was only achieving 30% margins, Netflix wasn't comparing
its 30% to Blockbuster's 60%. Netflix was comparing it to no profit at all.
And Blockbuster's management certainly couldn't see the world from their
customers' perspective: that late fees were driving folks up the wall, and
that their range of movies eschewed anything that wasn't a new release.
While Blockbuster knew it could invest to create a Netflix competitor, that
would be an expensive proposition, it might not work, and even if it did, it
would probably cannibalize its existing business. With that being their
perspective, they saw two choices:
creating a disruptive entrant with all the
pitfalls of cost, and risk; or just continuing with the existing business.
Thinking those were their options, continuing with the existing business
looked like a pretty obvious choice.
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on higher education controversies are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm
In landmark ruling, federal judge rejects most
arguments made by publishers in suit against Georgia State over e-reserves. But
she also imposes some rules that could complicate life for librarians and
professors.
"Some Leeway, Some Limits," by Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed,
May 14, 2012 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/05/14/court-rejects-many-publishers-arguments-e-reserves
A
federal judge on Friday outlined many ways
colleges can continue to cite the doctrine of "fair use" to permit their
making electronic copies of books and other materials for use in teaching
and scholarship. In a landmark ruling over many issues not previously
litigated to this degree in the digital era, the judge rejected many of the
claims in a suit by three prominent publishers against Georgia State
University. In 94 of the 99 instances cited by the publishers as copyright
violations, the judge ruled that Georgia State and its professors were
covered by fair use. And the judge also rejected the publishers' ideas about
how to regulate e-reserves -- ideas that many academic librarians said would
be unworkable.
At the same time, however, the judge imposed a
strict limit of 10 percent on the volume of a book that may be covered by
fair use (a proportion that would cover much, but by no means all, of what
was in e-reserves at Georgia State, and probably at many other colleges).
And the judge ruled that publishers may have more claims against college and
university e-reserves if the publishers offer convenient, reasonably priced
systems for getting permission (at a price) to use book excerpts online. The
lack of such systems today favored Georgia State, but librarians who were
anxiously going through the decision were speculating that some publishers
might be prompted now to create such systems, and to charge as much as the
courts would permit.
The 340-page decision by Judge Orinda D. Evans is a
pivotal point in years of litigation brought by Cambridge University Press,
Oxford University Press and Sage Publications -- with backing from the
publishing industry. Many experts expect this case to assume a role that
cases against Kinko's (decided in 1991) and Michigan Document Services
(decided in 1996) played in defining copyright issues for printed
coursepacks. But the Georgia State decision doesn't end the legal hearings
(even if there isn't an appeal). Evans ordered the publishers to propose
remedies for the violations she found, and new hearings will be held on
those proposals.
While some university librarians were so anxious
about this case that they stayed up late Friday
to tweet
their reactions, some of the official reactions
aren't coming until later today. The Association of American Publishers
would say this weekend only that it was studying the decision. A Georgia
State spokeswoman said that its officials were also reviewing the decision
and couldn't say much more than "we're reviewing the judge's order but are
pleased with our initial assessment." (As the decision notes, the
publishers' group recruited the three plaintiffs in the case, and with the
Copyright Clearinghouse Center split the legal costs of the three publishers
who sued.)
While the legal analysis may take time, both
publishers and academic librarians have reacted strongly throughout the
case. Publishers argued hat their system of promoting scholarship can't lose
copyright benefits. Judge Evans in her decision noted that most book (and
permission) sales for student use are by large for-profit companies, not by
nonprofit university presses. But the
Association of American University Presses has backed the suit
by Cambridge and Oxford, saying that university
presses "depend upon the income due them to continue to publish the
specialized scholarly books required to educate students and to advance
university research."
Many librarians, meanwhile, have expressed shock
that university presses would sue a university for using their works for
teaching purposes. Barbara Fister, a librarian at Gustavus Adolphus College
and an Inside Higher Ed blogger, tweeted Friday night: "It still
boggles my mind that scholarly presses are suing scholars teaching works
that were written to further knowledge."
The reserve readings at the crux of the dispute are
chapters, essays or portions of books that are assigned by Georgia State
professors to their undergraduate and graduate students. (While the readers
are frequently referred to as "supplemental," they are generally required;
"supplemental" refers to readings supplementing texts that the professors
tell students to buy.) E-reserves are similar to the way an earlier
generation of students might have gone to the library for print materials on
reserve. The decision in this case notes a number of steps taken by Georgia
State (such as password protection) to prevent students from simply
distributing the electronic passages to others.
Sorting Out the Law
Judge Evans spends much of the decision focused on
whether Georgia State's use of e-reserves was consistent with the principles
of fair use. She notes that the fair use exemption in federal law requires
consideration of four factors (although the law is vague on exactly how the
four factors should be weighed). The four factors are:
1. "The purpose and character of the use,"
including whether the use is "for nonprofit educational purposes."
2. "The nature of the copyrighted book."
3. "The amount and substantiality of the portion
used."
4. The impact of the use on "the market" for sale
of the book or other material.
Evans found that the first two factors strongly
favored Georgia State. The university is a nonprofit educational institution
using the e-reserves for education, she notes. Further, she found for
Georgia State on the second factor, noting that the works in question were
nonfiction and "informational," categories she said were appropriately
covered by fair use.
The analysis of the third and fourth factors was
less straightforward to Judge Evans. She starts by rejecting a claim of the
publishers that a 1976 agreement between publishers and some education
groups should govern fair use for e-reserves. That agreement was "very
restrictive," she writes. For example, only work that did not exceed 2,500
words was covered. Still other limits were set on how many times an
instructor could invoke fair use in a single course.
While rejecting the 1976 agreement, Judge Evans
writes that there are legitimate questions about how much material may be
used. In a sign of just how complicated the issues are, she notes that the
publishers asked her to base any percentages on only the text portion of a
book (excluding introductory pages, footnotes and concluding tables) while
Georgia State wanted everything counted. Evans based her percentages on
Georgia State's view that the book is the entire book.
Her challenge, she writes, is to determine what
size excerpts are "small enough" to justify fair use. Here, after reviewing
a range of decisions, Evans settles on 10 percent of a book (or one chapter
of a book) as an appropriate measure, allowing professors enough substance
to offer students, while not effectively making a large portion of the book
available.
On the fourth factor (market impact), Evans writes
that there is a clear impact if and only if the publisher has a system for
selling access to excerpts that are "reasonably available, at a reasonable
price." The reason this prong did not help the publishers more in the case
is evidence cited by the judge that much of the material in question was not
available through an online licensing program. So Georgia State did not have
the "reasonably available option."
At various points in the decision, Evans also
weighs the intent of both copyright protection and fair use in the context
of this case, generally with an analysis that is sympathetic to Georgia
State. "Because the unpaid use of small excerpts will not discourage
academic authors from creating new works, will have no appreciable effect on
plaintiffs' ability to publish scholarly works, and will promote the spread
of knowledge," she writes.
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on the DMCA and Fair Use ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm#Copyright
"Tuck Brings Online Learning Into the MBA Classroom," by Alison Damast,
Business Week, May 4, 2012 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-04/tuck-brings-online-learning-into-the-mba-classroom
Dartmouth College’s
Tuck School of Business is transforming the way it
teaches many of its MBA core classes, delivering portions of them online via
video lectures, and using online quizzes and discussion boards. About a
dozen Tuck professors are participating in the effort, using videos to teach
introductory material in classes such as Managerial Economics, Statistics
for Managers, Corporate Finance, and Operations Management, the school said.
Beyond the core classes, the school has experimented with using videos for
two of its elective courses: Retail Pricing and Service Operations.
Tuck Dean Paul Danos, who spearheaded the pilot
program this school year, says he got the idea after doing an online
tutorial with his granddaughter on
Khan Academy,
the nonprofit education website that offers thousands of free YouTube-based
lessons.
“I was doing the lesson with her and I thought, Why
can’t we do something similar to the Khan Academy?” says Danos. “I told
professors anything you can put up on a whiteboard should be put up in
advance so you can have more time in the classroom for conversation and
face-to-face interaction.”
Praveen Kopalle, a Tuck marketing professor who
teaches the Statistics for Managers course, a required class for first-year
students, was the first professor who participated in the project. Kopalle
liked the idea of exposing students to some of the concepts in class before
they step into the lecture hall, he said. He also thought it would be
especially helpful for the school’s international students and those who
have not studied statistics before, as they could review the material at
their own pace.
For his introductory statistics course this fall,
Kopalle produced nine videos using a tablet and Camtasia screen recording
software, and he distributed them to students before the term started.
Students don’t see his face during the video but hear his voice while he
explains the concepts on the tablet, which functions as an online
whiteboard. He asks students to study the video pertaining to the lesson
he’s teaching before coming to class. He also asks them to take an online
quiz where they can see instantly if they’d mastered the concepts; the quiz
counts toward their class participation grade, he said. If students have
questions about the material, they can post a comment on an online
discussion board and receive an answer from either Kopalle or a fellow
student.
The videos have proved to be a success so far; in a
survey of 134 first-year MBA students who took Kopalle’s class this fall,
about 80 percent of students said they found the videos to be a useful part
of their overall class experience and liked the technology, while 72 percent
said it improved the way they learned the material. It also has proved to be
a useful tool for Kopalle, who can monitor which of his 270 students took
the quizzes, what scores they received, and how much time they spent
watching the videos.
“It gives me lots of diagnostic information that I
can then link to class preparation,” he said. “The classroom experience is
much richer because of the experience, because we can dig deeper into the
material.”
Professors from other schools are beginning to
experiment with online courses, with some making them available to the
public. Back in February, we wrote about how several professors from top
MBA programs were participating in
The Faculty Project, a website that allows
professors to upload free courses and supplementary course materials, as
well as interact with students.
For now, Tuck’s videos are only available to
students, but the school is “discussing whether to make the course material
public,” said Christopher Huston, Tuck’s digital specialist, in an e-mail.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
At Dartmouth's Tuck School and nearly all top MBA programs, most classes are not
lectures. Instead they are case discussions where the true test of a top case
teacher is to resist lecturing or even giving out his/her opinions as to the
"best answers." Indeed many of the excellent cases used in these schools have no
known "best answers."
My question then is how to video a case class before it
actually meets?
Bob Jensen's threads on open sharing courses, lectures, videos, and other
case materials from prestigious universities ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
"A Real-Estate App When You're Buying or Just Nosy," by Walter S.
Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal, May 9, 2012 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304451104577392112842506378.html
Jensen Comment
Walt is very upbeat about HomeSnap for the iPhone ---
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/homesnap/id506563991?mt=8
More traditional sites like Zillow are still popular ---
http://www.zillow.com/
Yahoo's helpers for buying real estate ---
http://realestate.yahoo.com/
However, if you want to see more listings and more photographs a leading
local real estate company may have a more useful Website. For example, in my
neck of the woods a leading real estate site is Peabody and Smith ---
http://www.peabodysmith.com/?BCRMobile=0
"Beware Fake or Unauthorized CPA Review Sellers," by Adrienne Gonzalez,
Going Concern, May 14, 2012 ---
http://goingconcern.com/post/beware-fake-or-unauthorized-cpa-review-sellers
Jensen Comment
I generally prefer used copies to new copies of books and hope that the previous
owners were both really smart and made valuable marginal comments that add value
to subsequent readers. I've never had ethics worries about reselling books of my
own that I paid full price for as a new copy or a used copy from resellers that
I feel confident legitimately purchased the books. I don't think I've ever
purchased stolen copies or copies that were downloaded or photocopied illegally.
Adrienne is obviously correct that purchasing illegal pirated copies should
be discouraged in every way possible.
But I think she's on shaky grounds when advising against resale of
legally-owned copies.
Copyrights ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright
The first-sale doctrine and exhaustion of rights
Copyright law does not restrict the owner of
a copy from reselling legitimately obtained copies of copyrighted works,
provided that those copies were originally produced by or with the
permission of the copyright holder. It is therefore legal, for example, to
resell a copyrighted book or
CD. In the
United States this is known as the
first-sale doctrine, and was established by the
courts
to clarify the legality of reselling books in
second-hand
bookstores. Some countries may have
parallel importation restrictions that allow the copyright holder to
control the
aftermarket. This may mean for example that a copy of a book that does
not infringe copyright in the country where it was printed does
infringe copyright in a country into which it is imported for retailing. The
first-sale doctrine is known as
exhaustion of rights in other countries and is a principle which also
applies, though somewhat differently, to
patent
and
trademark
rights. It is important to note that the first-sale
doctrine permits the transfer of the particular legitimate copy involved. It
does not permit making or distributing additional copies.
In addition, copyright, in most cases, does not
prohibit one from acts such as modifying, defacing, or destroying his or her
own legitimately obtained copy of a copyrighted work, so long as duplication
is not involved. However, in countries that implement
moral rights, a
copyright holder can in some cases successfully prevent the mutilation or
destruction of a work that is publicly visible.
Added Jensen Comment
I noticed that Amazon resells used copies of many types of CPA review courses.
For example, the Wiley four-volume set sells for about half the new price.
Becker used copies sell for more than 50% off.
I see nothing illegal or unethical in buying and selling used copies that are
legally purchased.
I think it's highly unethical for professors to sell review copies that
they receive free from publishers. I also think it's unethical to give those
copes away free to poor students of accounting who are intending to take the CPA
examination. I even think it's unethical to give those books and DVDs away to
poor people in general who might in turn sell those things in a resale market.
And I think it's unethical to put these review copies on library reserve for
students.
Of course the above restrictions can be reversed by written permissions from
the publishers themselves.
I went to college in the wrong generation. Can you imagine sitting on campus
in 2025 and willing that any coed of your choosing will walk over and ask you
for a date? Of course she might also, in her phantom mind, wish you would drop
dead.
"The Real Power of the Phantom Mind," by Josh Fischman, Chronicle
of Higher Education, May 16, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/percolator/the-real-power-of-the-phantom-mind/29247?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Jensen Question
Will Joe Hoyle still be teaching when he can more effectively wish students
prepare for class
How to get students to prepare for class?
"Now, That Is a Very Good Question," by Joe Hoyle, Teaching Blog, May 14,
2012 ---
http://joehoyle-teaching.blogspot.com/2012/05/now-that-is-very-good-question.html
Jensen Comment
As with most things in life, there are positive incentives and negative
incentives. Sometimes it's hard to classify incentives on this binary scale. Is
a pop quiz a positive or negative incentive? It's positive if it adds
significant points toward a top grade in the course. It's negative if failure to
earn pop quiz points can lower the final grade.
Barry Rice used to pose questions in a lecture hall and then randomly flash a
student's name and picture on a screen in front of the class. Presumably, a
student who fumbles the answer is likely to spend more time preparing for the
next class. A student who gives a great answer has, at a minimum, earns brownie
points.
Joe Hoyle has some other ideas about this chronic problem.
"The Radical New Humanities Ph.D.," by Kaustuv Basu, Inside Higher
Ed, May 16, 2012 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/05/16/rethinking-humanities-phd
The
warning
last year from Russell Berman, who at the time was
president of the Modern Language Association, was apocalyptic: If doctoral
programs in the humanities do not reduce the time taken to graduate, they
will become unaffordable and face extinction.
Now, Berman has taken his ideas home. At Stanford
University, where he is a professor of comparative literature and directs
the German studies program, he and five other professors at the university
have produced
a paper that calls for a major rethinking at
Stanford -- a reduction in the time taken to graduate by Ph.D. candidates in
the humanities, and preparing them for careers within and beyond the
academy. The professors at Stanford aren't just talking about shaving a year
or so off doctoral education, but cutting it down to four or five years --
roughly half the current time for many humanities students.
The Stanford professors aren’t alone in pushing
this kind of thinking. The Department of Comparative Literature at Harvard
University, for example, is already testing some ideas, and so is the
University of Minnesota. The initiatives at all three places, whether
proposed or in its infancy, involve changing academic culture and university
policies to refashion the humanities Ph.D. The University of Colorado at
Boulder recently announced
a four-year Ph.D. in German studies, consistent
with the principles being discussed at Stanford, although the Colorado
effort applies to one small program while the Stanford and Minnesota
initiatives are much broader.
The Stanford document proposes a scenario where
students decide on a career plan -- academic or nonacademic -- they want to
embark on by the end of their second-year of graduate study, file the plan
with their department, and then prepare projects and dissertation work that
would support that career. Similarly, departments have to help students make
realistic career choices at the end of the second year of graduate study,
and advise students regularly. “…[T]hey should aim to balance academic
training in a particular discipline and field with the provision of broader
professional perspectives that may extend beyond the traditional academic
setting,” the document said.
This would represent a dramatic shift from the
current norm, whereby many humanities grad students say that their entire
program is designed for an academic career, and that they only start to
consider other options when they are going on the job market -- a bit late
to shape their preparation for nonacademic options.
According to the document, one way to speed up time
to degree would be to include “four-quarter” support for students instead of
unfunded summers, currently the standard for many humanities Ph.D. programs.
Gabriella Safran, a professor of Slavic languages and literature at
Stanford, who also worked with Berman to create the proposal, said the key
might be to anticipate when Ph.D. candidates are getting bogged down and
respond to the issue earlier. “A better use of time might be to use the
summers more effectively. Right now, I think there are too many unfunded
summers when students don’t make progress,” she said.
Berman, who said that the recent document was
mostly an effort directed at administrators to “reform degree trajectories,"
believes that time to degree can be reduced to four or five years. “The
study of the humanities need to be accessible and cheap. And we have to
become more transparent about our placement records,” he said.
The document said that departments should have
suitable plans in terms of curriculum, examination schedule, and
dissertation that will help speed up time to degree. “Scholarly fields have
widened, and added a lot of expectations,” Berman said.
He emphasized the need to amplify success stories
of students who have ventured beyond the academic world. “We should be
telling all their stories,” said Berman, who is also chairing a MLA
task-force on the future of the doctorate in the languages and literature.
David Damrosch, a professor of comparative
literature at Harvard University, said that Ph.D. students and professors in
his department have been thinking more carefully about coursework. “Very
often, students drift for extended periods,” he said. Frequent meetings with
dissertation committee members are helpful, he said. “All this result in
fewer incompletes in coursework … and more consistent progress in the
dissertations,” said Damrosch.
“In anthropological terms, academia is more of a
shame culture than a guilt culture: you may feel some private guilt at
letting a chapter go unread for two or three months, but a much stronger
force would be the public shame you'd feel at coming unprepared to a meeting
with two of your colleagues,” he said. “It’s also ultimately a labor-saving
device for the faculty as well as the student, as the dissertation can
proceed sooner to completion and with less wasted effort for all
concerned….” With frequent meetings, the students doesn’t lose time on
“unproductive lines of inquiry” or “tangential suggestions tossed out by a
single adviser,” Damrosch said.
A two-hour oral exam, meetings each semester with
“dissertation-stage” students and their committee members, and clearer
feedback for students are part of the graduate program in the comparative
literature department now. “We also introduced a monthly forum for students
to share and discuss their own work; and an ambitious series of professional
development talks, on everything from article submission to dissertation
planning to alternative careers,” Damrosch said.
The University of Minnesota is also taking a fresh
look at its Ph.D. programs. Henning Schroeder, vice provost and dean of the
graduate school at the university, said that professors and administrators
have been discussing how to give the Ph.D. a narrower focus. “How much
coursework do students need before they engage in scholarly research?” he
asked.
Getting students into a “research mode” earlier
helps save time, Schroeder said. “The question is also, what can we do at
the administrative level?” he said. The university has promoted discussion
on best practices on advising, and also how the “prelim-oral” -- a test
students take before writing their dissertations – can delay research. The
university now lets students get credit for research work before the oral
examination, in an effort to allow for more flexibility in curriculums and
to reduce time to degree.
Debra Satz, senior associate dean for the
humanities at Stanford and a professor of philosophy, said that too many
students end up spending six to eight years in the Ph.D. program. “There is
no correlation between taking a longer time to degree and getting a job in
an academic humanities department,” she said. And ultimately, she said, how
can the length of time taken by a Ph.D. be justified if the person has to
reinvent or retool at the end to be employed?
The discussions should not only be about new career
paths and the time taken to graduate, but about how to implement change
without affecting the quality of the programs, Satz said. “Many ideas have
been floated: creating paths for our humanities Ph.D.s to high school
teaching, creating paths to the high technology industry, thinking about
careers in public history, and so on,” she said.
And while it is too early to see definite results
from these institutions, many believe that the timing is right.
Anaïs Saint-Jude, director of the
BiblioTech
program – which seeks to bridge the gulf between doctoral humanities
candidates at Stanford and jobs outside academe, including those in the tech
world -- believes that all this is happening because this is a pivotal
moment in higher education. “It was kindling that was ready to be ignited….
We started talking about it, and it created such momentum that we were able
to create a veritable program,” Saint-Jude said, referring to the BiblioTech
program that began in 2011. Part of the program’s vision includes trying to
change the mindset of academics and non-academics alike. “It is about
garnering the trust of industry leaders, and trying to break apart and think
differently,” she said. The program’s annual conference last week included
venture capitalists as well as executives from Google and Overstock.com.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
Suppose Karen Smith enters into a customized PhD program at XXXXX State
University with a goal of getting into a history tenure track position in the
Academy. Wishing it so just is not going to make it so. When she graduates with
her PhD diploma in hand, there will probably be over 100 qualified applicants
wherever she applies in North America. The competition is keen.
Some Things to Ponder When Choosing Between an Accounting Versus History
PhD ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#HistoryVsAccountancy
"Projects Aims to Build Online Hub for Archival Materials," by
Jennifer Howard, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 13, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Building-a-Digital-Map-of/131846/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
In death, as in life, people don't always leave
their papers in order. Letters, manuscripts, and other pieces of evidence
wind up scattered among different archives, leading researchers on a paper
chase as they try to hunt down what they need for their work.
"It can be hugely frustrating—especially when you
make a journey cross-country to an archive, and then discover the piece you
really wanted must be somewhere else (or, God forbid, rotting away in a
landfill)," says Robert Townsend, deputy director of the American Historical
Association, in an e-mail interview. Chasing after distributed historical
records is so common that "any historian who has not suffered from that
problem can't be working very hard," he wrote.
The Internet has made the hunt easier, as more
archives post finding aids for their collections online. "Scholars have at
least gotten to the point where they can search over the Internet for these
materials," says Daniel V. Pitti, the associate director of the Institute
for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, or IATH, at the University of
Virginia. But what he calls "hunting and gathering" persists for
document-seekers, who "a priori have to have some idea, some hunch, of where
to go, because the access systems are distinct and not integrated any way."
Now imagine a central clearinghouse for those
records, an online hub researchers could consult to find archival materials.
That vision drives a project of Mr. Pitti's called
the Social Networks and Archival Context Project, or SNAC. It's a
collaboration between researchers and developers at IATH, the University of
California at Berkeley's School of Information, and the California Digital
Library. The project recently finished its pilot stage with the help of a
grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Another grant, from
the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, will support the project through another
two years as it adds millions more records and begins beta testing with
researchers.
Some people have already found the prototype, which
is up and running although not yet widely promoted. The site allows visitors
to search for the names of individuals, corporate entities, or families to
find "archival context records" for them.
"So if I'm interested in a particular person," Mr.
Pitti says, "I can find where all the records are that would be required to
understand them." For instance, a search for Robert Oppenheimer turns up a
link to a collection of the physicist's papers housed at the Library of
Congress, plus links to other collections in which he is referenced, a
biographical timeline, and a list of occupations and subjects related to his
life and work.
A researcher can explore a person's social and
cultural environment with SNAC's radial-graph feature. It creates a web,
which can be manipulated, of a subject's connections as revealed in archival
records. The radial graph of Oppenheimer's network, for instance, includes
George Kennan, Linus Pauling, Bertrand Russell, and Albert Schweitzer, among
many other names represented as nodes on the graph.
Not yet fully developed, the radial-graph feature
supports one of the project's main goals: to visualize the social networks
within which archival records were created. "What you're trying to do is put
together the puzzle, the fabric of someone's life, the people that
influenced them and the people they influenced," Mr. Pitti says. "One could
certainly, in an analog context, piece this together, but it would take
years and years of work. What we're demonstrating is that we can go out
there and gather all that information and present it to you, which would
liberate scholars." Connecting archival data can reveal patterns of
association hidden in disparate collections.
Data Quality Important
To work well, SNAC requires good data. Its first
phase drew on thousands of finding aids—encoded with a standard known as
Encoded Archival Description, or EAD—from the Library of Congress, the
Northwest Digital Archives, the Online Archive of California, and Virginia
Heritage. A newer standard for encoding archival information, referred to as
EAC-CPF, for Encoded Archival Context-Corporate Bodies, Persons, and
Families, was then applied to those records, making them easier to find and
connect.
Archives are idiosyncratic, and it's not always
easy to tell whether a name refers to a particular individual or to
different people with identical or similar names. One of Mr. Pitti's main
collaborators is Ray R. Larson, a professor in the School of Information at
the University of California at Berkeley. He concentrates on what Mr. Pitti
calls the "matching and merging" required to winnow out duplicate names,
find variants of the same name, and so on. To do that Mr. Larson has tested
several approaches, including machine learning, in which a computer is
programmed to recognize, for example, common variations in spelling.
The job is about to get much tougher, though,
because SNAC is about to get much bigger. As part of the second phase of the
project, supported by the Mellon grant, 13 state and regional archival
consortia and more than 35 university and national repositories in the
United States, Britain, and France will contribute records. The British
Library "is giving me 300,000 names associated with their manuscript
collections," going back to before the Christian era, says Mr. Pitti.
The project will also ingest as many as 2 million
standardized bibliographic records, in the widely used MARC format, from the
online OCLC collaboration in which libraries exchange research and
cataloging information. OCLC has its own centralized archival search
function, called ArchiveGrid; Mr. Pitti describes it as complementary to
SNAC. Unlike SNAC, though, "ArchiveGrid does not foreground the
biographical-historical data, nor does it reveal the social networks that
interrelate the archival resources," he says.
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on archived databases ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on electronic literature ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
The Religious Battle of Vanderbilt: Booting Christian groups from
campus—all in the name of 'nondiscrimination ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/VanderbiltReligion.htm
From the Scout Report on May 4, 2012
Labguru ---
http://www.labguru.com/
Are you having problems keeping materials in your
lab organized? LabGuru may be able to help. After signing up for a free
personal account, users can take advantage of LabGuru's many features to
store digital copies of papers and protocols, manage research timelines, and
track samples and other materials. This version of LabGuru is compatible
with all operating systems, and the website also offers a version for use
with the iPad.
Mocku.ps ---
http://mocku.ps
Mocku.ps is a tool created to help designers share
their mockups quickly via the Internet. Visitors don't have to sign up to
create an account, and they can get started by just uploading their images
to the desktop. After this, they can annotate their mockup, and share the
URL with other interested parties. First-time users can look at the example
offered here and also look over the FAQ area. This version is compatible
with all operating systems.
From the Scout Report on May 18, 2012
Select and Speak ---
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/gfjopfpjmkcfgjpogepmdjmcnihfpokn
What if you could have a website read to you? That
would be handy in a
number of situations, and with Select and Speak, this can be accomplished
with relative ease. This extension for the Chrome browser uses iSpeech's
human quality text-to-speech to make this possible. Visitors can configure
the voice and speed option by changing the settings on the options page.
It's free, fairly easily to use, and compatible with all operating systems.
Stat My Web ---
http://www.statmyweb.com/
The helpful Stat My Web site gives visitors the
ability to learn about the
statistics and metrics associated with any specific site. Visitors can learn
when a site was created, where it is hosted, and how much it is worth. The
site has two dozen features, including IP Location, Server Status, and
Reciprocal Link Checker. This particular version is compatible with all
operating systems.
As the city balances security concerns with the requests of protestors,
Chicago prepares for the NATO summit
Police, Protestors Prepare for NATO Summit
http://www.voanews.com/content/nato_chicago_summit_protests_voa/666389.html
NATO, Protests Getting Attention in Chicago-Area Classrooms
http://www.teachhub.com/nato-protests-getting-attention-chicago-area-
classrooms
Preparing for Battle in a War of Ideas at Protest Central
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-05-11/news/ct-ae-0513-kogan-
sidewalks-protest-art-20120511_1_political-protest-colorful-poster-history
Chicago NATO Summit 2012
http://www.chicagonato.org/
NATO History
http://www.nato.int/history/index.html
Parades, Protests and Politics
http://www.chicagohs.org/history/politics.html
Free online textbooks, cases, and tutorials in accounting, finance,
economics, and statistics ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks
Education Tutorials
Bowling Green State University: Resources from the Center for Teaching and
Learning ---
http://www.bgsu.edu/ctl/page10679.html
UCLA Film & Television Archive ---
http://www.cinema.ucla.edu/
Cultural & Academic Films ---
http://www.archive.org/details/culturalandacademicfilms
Boston University Libraries: Research Guide ---
http://www.bu.edu/library/guides/index.html
Ethics Education Library (and tutorials) ---
http://ethics.iit.edu/eelibrary/
TES: Resources: Art and design resources ---
http://www.tes.co.uk/art-and-design-secondary-teaching-resources/
Art Education 2.0 ---
http://arted20.ning.com/
UNESCO Working Paper Series on Mobile Learning
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/themes/icts/m4ed/mobile-learning-resources/unescomobilelearningseries/
Virginia Tech: Study Skills Self Help Information ---
http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/stdyhlp.html
Reclaiming the American Dream: Community Colleges and the Nation's Future ---
http://www.aacc.nche.edu/AboutCC/21stcenturyreport/index.html
Columbia Library Columns ---
http://library.columbia.edu/content/libraryweb/indiv/rbml/digitalcollections/columns.html
Bob Jensen's threads on general education tutorials are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#EducationResearch
Engineering, Science, and Medicine Tutorials
NIST: Weights and Measures (standards) ---
http://www.nist.gov/pml/wmd/
NIST: A Walk Through Time (watches, clocks, timepieces) ---
http://www.nist.gov/pml/general/time
The National Global Change Research Plan: 2012-2021
http://library.globalchange.gov/u-s-global-change-research-program-strategic-plan-2012-2021
Space Time Travel: Relativity Visualized ---
http://www.spacetimetravel.org/
The Science of Speed ---
http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/sos/
North Carolina State Physics Demonstrations ---
http://www.physics.ncsu.edu/demoroom/
From Carleton College
Teaching Petrology Using the Primary Scientific Literature
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/petrology/literature.html
Oregon Institute of Marine Biology Slides & Photographs ---
http://oregondigital.org/digcol/oimb/
Learning Radiology ---
http://www.learningradiology.com/
Radiology Education ---
http://www.radiologyeducation.com/
Earth Sciences Lesson Plans ---
http://www.onlineschools.org/resources/earth-science-lesson-plans/
Earth Science Teaching Plans and Classroom Activities ---
http://geology.com/teacher/
Marine Geology and Geophysics Educational Resources Page ---
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/education.html
Nature Outlook: Malaria
http://www.nature.com/nature/outlook/malaria_2012/
NOAA Education Resources: Carbon Cycle Collection ---
http://www.education.noaa.gov/Climate/Carbon_Cycle.html
From the Scout Report on May 4, 2012
New research indicates that asteroids barraged the Earth's surface for
an additional two billion years
Earth Was Longtime Asteroid Punching Bag
http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=earth-was-longtime-asteroid-punchin-12-05-01
Ancient asteroids kept on coming
http://www.nature.com/news/ancient-asteroids-kept-on-coming-1.10504
Dinosaurs were declining before asteroid struck, say scientists
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2012/0501/Dinosaurs-were-declining-before-asteroid-struck-say-scientists-video
Triceratops was already on road to extinction before asteroid wiped out
dinosaurs
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/dinosaurs/9238658/Triceratops-was-already-on-road-to-exctinction-before-asteroid-wiped-out-dinosaurs.html
BBC Nature: Prehistoric Life: Dinosaurs
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Dinosaur
Dinobase
http://dinobase.gly.bris.ac.uk/
Bob Jensen's threads on free online science,
engineering, and medicine tutorials are at ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Science
Social Science and Economics Tutorials
Ethics Education Library (and tutorials) ---
http://ethics.iit.edu/eelibrary/
The London School of Economics and Political Science: Video and Audio
(Invited Speaker Collection) ---
http://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/Home.aspx
Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center ---
http://policy.rutgers.edu/vtc/
The Seattle Open Housing Campaign ---
http://www.cityofseattle.net/CityArchives/Exhibits/Housing/
The National Global Change Research Plan: 2012-2021
http://library.globalchange.gov/u-s-global-change-research-program-strategic-plan-2012-2021
The Mind: Teaching Modules (psychology) ---
http://www.learner.org/resources/series150.html
Fashion Institute of Technology: Teaching & Learning Resources ---
http://www.fitnyc.edu/5966.asp
City of Ideas: Reinventing Boston's Innovation Economy ---
http://www.tbf.org/UtilityNavigation/MultimediaLibrary/ReportsDetail.aspx?id=19412
Salem's Polish Community ---
http://www.nps.gov/sama/historyculture/polish.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on Economics, Anthropology, Social Sciences, and
Philosophy tutorials are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Social
Law and Legal Studies
Bob Jensen's threads on law and legal studies are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Law
Math Tutorials
Bates College Online Resources for Calculus and Linear Algebra ---
http://abacus.bates.edu/~etowne/mathresources.html
Get the Math (real world uses of math) ---
http://www.thirteen.org/get-the-math/
Virginia Tech: Study Skills Self Help Information ---
http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/stdyhlp.html
Transition Mathematics Project (remedial) ---
http://transitionmathproject.org
Bob Jensen's threads on free online mathematics tutorials are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#050421Mathematics
History Tutorials
Peabody Essex Museum: Videos ---
http://www.pem.org/collections/video
UCLA Film & Television Archive ---
http://www.cinema.ucla.edu/
NYC Photos from 100 Years Ago ---
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2134408/Never-seen-photos-100-years-ago-tell-vivid-story-gritty-New-York-City.html
Five Historical Misconceptions Debunked ---
Clicked Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/05/five_historical_misconceptions_debunked.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
The Jack Rabin Collection of Alabama Civil Rights and Southern Activists ---
http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/digital/rabin.html
UCLA Film & Television Archive ---
http://www.cinema.ucla.edu/
Cultural & Academic Films ---
http://www.archive.org/details/culturalandacademicfilms
Columbia Library Columns ---
http://library.columbia.edu/content/libraryweb/indiv/rbml/digitalcollections/columns.html
National Water Trails System (rivers & canals) ---
http://www.nps.gov/watertrails/
The History of Rome in 179 Podcasts ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/05/the_history_of_rome_in_179_podcasts.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
The Warhol: Time Capsule 21 ---
http://www.warhol.org/tc21/main.html
Brooklyn Museum: Andy Warhol: The Last Decade ---
http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/andy_warhol/index.php
The Warhol: Heroes & Villains: The Comic Book Art of Alex Ross ---
http://www.warhol.org/exhibitions/2011/heroesandvillains/
University of Florida Digital Collections: Florida Photograph
Collections ---
http://ufdc.ufl.edu/foto
City of Ideas: Reinventing Boston's Innovation Economy ---
http://www.tbf.org/UtilityNavigation/MultimediaLibrary/ReportsDetail.aspx?id=19412
Boston Private Industry Council ---
http://www.bost
Jack Sheaffer Collection (Arizona) ---
http://www.library.arizona.edu/contentdm/jsheaffer/
Bicentennial of the War of 1812 ---
http://1812.gc.ca
Bates College Digital Library (Maine History) ---
http://digilib.bates.edu/cgi-bin/library.cgi
The Magic of America (buildings) ---
http://www.artic.edu/magicofamerica/
Fashion Institute of Technology: Teaching & Learning Resources ---
http://www.fitnyc.edu/5966.asp
Lalla Essaydi Revisions: Introduction (African Art) ---
http://africa.si.edu/exhibits/revisions/index.h
Early Washington Maps ---
http://content.wsulibs.wsu.edu/cdm-maps/
British Council Film: British Council Film Collection ---
http://film.britishcouncil.org/british-council-film-collection?film_query=&search=&year=Any&series=Any&genre_old=
Utah State University Digital Library: (Animal Bells) ---
http://digital.lib.usu.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/Bells
Bob Jensen's threads on history tutorials are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#History
Also see
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
Language Tutorials
Bob Jensen's links to language tutorials are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Languages
Music Tutorials
Flash Mob Fun Part II: Copenhagen Philharmonic Plays Grieg’s Peer Gynt in the
Subway ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/05/peer_gynt_in_the_subway.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Duke Ellington Plays for Joan Miró in the South of France, 1966: Bassist John
Lamb Looks Back on the Day ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/05/duke_ellington_plays_for_joan_miro_in_the_south_of_france_1966_bassist_john_lamb_looks_back_on_the_day.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Bob Jensen's threads on free music tutorials are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#050421Music
Bob Jensen's threads on music performances ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm
Writing Tutorials
Bob Jensen's helpers for writers are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob3.htm#Dictionaries
Updates from WebMD ---
http://www.webmd.com/
May 10, 2012
May 12, 2012
May 14, 2012
May 15, 2012
May 16, 2012
May 17, 2012
May 18, 2012
May 19, 2012
May 21, 2012
May 22, 2012
May 23, 2012
Authorities say a northern New York man had his friend shoot him in the leg
with a rifle because he wanted to know what it feels like to be shot ---
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ODD_SHOT_BY_REQUEST?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-05-15-07-18-38
Jensen Comment
Where I grew up among Norwegian immigrants it would come as no surprise that the
dummy who asked to be shot in the leg lived in a a town called Stockholm
An even dumber idea is believing that the best way to get out of debt is to
spend more to get yourself out of debt ---
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/4938
Forwarded by Paula
A 1st grade (well maybe 8th grade) school teacher had twenty-six students in her class. She presented each child in her classroom the 1st half of a well-known proverb and asked them to come up with the remainder of the proverb. It's hard to believe these were actually done by first graders. Their insight may surprise you. While reading, keep in mind that these are first-graders, 6-year-olds, because the last one is a classic!
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until they stop running.
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bug is close.
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It's always darkest before
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Daylight Saving Time.
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Never underestimate the power of
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termites.
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You can lead a horse to water but
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how?
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looks dirty.
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impossible.
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Mr.
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You can't teach an old dog new
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math.
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If you lie down with dogs, you'll
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stink in the morning.
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me.
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The pen is mightier than the
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pigs.
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the best way to relax.
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Where there's smoke there's
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pollution.
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gets all the presents.
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not much.
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the Musketeers.
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Don't put off till tomorrow what
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you put on to go to bed.
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Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, cry and
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you have to blow your nose.
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There are none so blind as
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Stevie Wonder.
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Children should be seen and not
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spanked or grounded.
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If at first you don't succeed
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get new batteries.
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You get out of something only what you
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see in the picture on the box.
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When the blind lead the blind
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get out of the way.
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And the WINNER (and last one!)
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pregnant.
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Warren Buffett on How to Reform Congress and End the Deficit in Less Than One
Year ---
http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/buffett.asp
Forwarded by Maureen
Just wanted to let you know - today I received my 2012 Social Security Stimulus
Package. It contained two tomato seeds, cornbread mix, a prayer rug, a machine
to blow smoke up my ass, 2 discount coupons to KFC, an "Obama Hope & Change"
bumper sticker, and a "Blame it on Bush" poster for the front yard. The
directions were in Spanish.
The Jovers (Video) ---
http://biggeekdad.com/2012/05/the-jovers/
On the Other Side of 50 (video) ---
http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/6dbBfXCMbH4?rel=0
Being on the Green Side of the Grass
Tidbits Archives ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
Click here to search Bob Jensen's web site if you have key words to enter ---
Search Site.
For example if you want to know what Jensen documents have the term "Enron"
enter the phrase Jensen AND Enron. Another search engine that covers Trinity and
other universities is at
http://www.searchedu.com/
Online Distance Education Training and Education ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
For-Profit Universities Operating in the Gray
Zone of Fraud (College, Inc.) ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#ForProfitFraud
Shielding Against Validity Challenges in Plato's Cave ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm
-
With a Rejoinder from the 2010 Senior Editor of The Accounting Review
(TAR), Steven J. Kachelmeier
- With Replies in Appendix 4 to Professor Kachemeier by Professors
Jagdish Gangolly and Paul Williams
- With Added Conjectures in Appendix 1 as to Why the Profession of
Accountancy Ignores TAR
- With Suggestions in Appendix 2 for Incorporating Accounting Research
into Undergraduate Accounting Courses
The Cult of Statistical Significance:
How Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/DeirdreMcCloskey/StatisticalSignificance01.htm
How Accountics Scientists Should Change:
"Frankly, Scarlett, after I get a hit for my resume in The Accounting Review
I just don't give a damn"
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm
One more mission in what's left of my life will be to try to change this
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm
What went wrong in accounting/accountics research?
---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#WhatWentWrong
The Sad State of Accountancy Doctoral
Programs That Do Not Appeal to Most Accountants ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms
AN ANALYSIS OF THE EVOLUTION OF RESEARCH
CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE ACCOUNTING REVIEW: 1926-2005 ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/395wpTAR/Web/TAR395wp.htm#_msocom_1
Bob Jensen's threads on accounting theory
---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm
Tom Lehrer on Mathematical Models and
Statistics ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfZWyUXn3So
Systemic problems of accountancy (especially the
vegetable nutrition paradox) that probably will never be solved ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudConclusion.htm#BadNews
World Clock ---
http://www.peterussell.com/Odds/WorldClock.php
Facts about the earth in real time --- http://www.worldometers.info/
Interesting Online Clock
and Calendar
---
http://home.tiscali.nl/annejan/swf/timeline.swf
Time by Time Zones ---
http://timeticker.com/
Projected Population Growth (it's out of control) ---
http://geography.about.com/od/obtainpopulationdata/a/worldpopulation.htm
Also see
http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/P/Populations.html
Facts about population growth (video) ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U
Projected U.S. Population Growth ---
http://www.carryingcapacity.org/projections75.html
Real time meter of the U.S. cost of the war in Iraq ---
http://www.costofwar.com/
Enter you zip code to get Census Bureau comparisons ---
http://zipskinny.com/
Sure wish there'd be a little good news today.
Free (updated) Basic Accounting Textbook --- search for Hoyle at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks
CPA Examination ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cpa_examination
Free CPA Examination Review Course Courtesy of Joe Hoyle ---
http://cpareviewforfree.com/
Rick Lillie's education, learning, and technology blog is at
http://iaed.wordpress.com/
Accounting News, Blogs, Listservs, and Social
Networking ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/AccountingNews.htm
Bob Jensen's Threads ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called New
Bookmarks ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called
Tidbits ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called Fraud
Updates ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
Online Books, Poems, References,
and Other Literature
In the past I've provided links to various types electronic literature available
free on the Web.
I created a page that summarizes those various links ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
Some of Bob Jensen's Tutorials
Accounting program news items for colleges are posted at
http://www.accountingweb.com/news/college_news.html
Sometimes the news items provide links to teaching resources for accounting
educators.
Any college may post a news item.
Accounting and Taxation News Sites ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/AccountingNews.htm
For an elaboration on the reasons you should join a ListServ (usually for
free) go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListServRoles.htm
AECM
(Educators)
http://listserv.aaahq.org/cgi-bin/wa.exe?HOME
AECM is an email Listserv list which
provides a forum for discussions of all hardware and software
which can be useful in any way for accounting education at the
college/university level. Hardware includes all platforms and
peripherals. Software includes spreadsheets, practice sets,
multimedia authoring and presentation packages, data base
programs, tax packages, World Wide Web applications, etc.
Over the years the AECM has become the worldwide forum for
accounting educators on all issues of accountancy and accounting
education, including debates on accounting standards, managerial
accounting, careers, fraud, forensic accounting, auditing,
doctoral programs, and critical debates on academic (accountics)
research, publication, replication, and validity testing.
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CPAS-L
(Practitioners)
http://pacioli.loyola.edu/cpas-l/ (Closed
Down)
CPAS-L provides a forum for discussions of
all aspects of the practice of accounting. It provides an
unmoderated environment where issues, questions, comments,
ideas, etc. related to accounting can be freely discussed.
Members are welcome to take an active role by posting to CPAS-L
or an inactive role by just monitoring the list. You qualify for
a free subscription if you are either a CPA or a professional
accountant in public accounting, private industry, government or
education. Others will be denied access. |
Yahoo (Practitioners)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/xyztalk
This forum is for CPAs to discuss the activities of the AICPA.
This can be anything from the CPA2BIZ portal to the XYZ
initiative or anything else that relates to the AICPA. |
AccountantsWorld
http://accountantsworld.com/forums/default.asp?scope=1
This site hosts various discussion groups on such topics as
accounting software, consulting, financial planning, fixed
assets, payroll, human resources, profit on the Internet, and
taxation. |
Business Valuation Group
BusValGroup-subscribe@topica.com
This discussion group is headed by Randy Schostag
[RSchostag@BUSVALGROUP.COM] |
FEI's Financial Reporting Blog
Smart Stops on the Web, Journal of Accountancy, March 2008 ---
http://www.aicpa.org/pubs/jofa/mar2008/smart_stops.htm
FINANCIAL REPORTING PORTAL
www.financialexecutives.org/blog
Find news highlights from the SEC, FASB
and the International Accounting
Standards Board on this financial
reporting blog from Financial Executives
International. The site, updated daily,
compiles regulatory news, rulings and
statements, comment letters on
standards, and hot topics from the Web’s
largest business and accounting
publications and organizations. Look for
continuing coverage of SOX requirements,
fair value reporting and the Alternative
Minimum Tax, plus emerging issues such
as the subprime mortgage crisis,
international convergence, and rules for
tax return preparers. |
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The CAlCPA Tax Listserv September 4, 2008 message from Scott Bonacker
[lister@bonackers.com]
Scott has been a long-time contributor to the AECM listserv (he's a techie as
well as a practicing CPA)
I found another listserve
that is exceptional -
CalCPA maintains
http://groups.yahoo.com/taxtalk/
and they let almost anyone join it.
Jim Counts, CPA is moderator.
There are several highly
capable people that make frequent answers to tax questions posted there, and
the answers are often in depth.
Scott
Scott forwarded the following message from Jim
Counts
Yes you may mention info on
your listserve about TaxTalk. As part of what you say please say [... any
CPA or attorney or a member of the Calif Society of CPAs may join. It is
possible to join without having a free Yahoo account but then they will not
have access to the files and other items posted.
Once signed in on their Yahoo account go to
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/TaxTalk/ and I believe in
top right corner is Join Group. Click on it and answer the few questions and
in the comment box say you are a CPA or attorney, whichever you are and I
will get the request to join.
Be aware that we run on the average 30 or move emails per day. I encourage
people to set up a folder for just the emails from this listserve and then
via a rule or filter send them to that folder instead of having them be in
your inbox. Thus you can read them when you want and it will not fill up the
inbox when you are looking for client emails etc.
We currently have about 830 CPAs and attorneys nationwide but mainly in
California.... ]
Please encourage your members
to join our listserve.
If any questions let me know.
Jim Counts CPA.CITP CTFA
Hemet, CA
Moderator TaxTalk
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Many useful accounting sites (scroll down) ---
http://www.iasplus.com/links/links.htm
Bob Jensen's Sort-of Blogs ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/JensenBlogs.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called New
Bookmarks ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called
Tidbits ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called Fraud
Updates ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
Some
Accounting History Sites
Bob Jensen's
Accounting History in a Nutshell and Links ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#AccountingHistory
Accounting
History Libraries at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) ---
http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/accountancy/libraries.html
The above libraries include international accounting history.
The above libraries include film and video historical collections.
MAAW Knowledge Portal for Management and Accounting ---
http://maaw.info/
Academy of Accounting Historians and the Accounting Historians Journal ---
http://www.accounting.rutgers.edu/raw/aah/
Sage Accounting History ---
http://ach.sagepub.com/cgi/pdf_extract/11/3/269
A nice timeline on the development of U.S. standards and the evolution of
thinking about the income statement versus the balance sheet is provided at:
"The Evolution of U.S. GAAP: The Political Forces Behind Professional
Standards (1930-1973)," by Stephen A. Zeff, CPA Journal, January 2005
---
http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/2005/105/infocus/p18.htm
Part II covering years 1974-2003 published in February 2005 ---
http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/2005/205/index.htm
A nice
timeline of accounting history ---
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/2187711/A-HISTORY-OF-ACCOUNTING
From Texas
A&M University
Accounting History Outline ---
http://acct.tamu.edu/giroux/history.html
Bob
Jensen's timeline of derivative financial instruments and hedge accounting ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm#DerivativesFrauds
History of
Fraud in America ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/415wp/AmericanHistoryOfFraud.htm
Also see
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud.htm
Bob Jensen's
Threads ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
More of Bob Jensen's Pictures and
Stories
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
All
my online pictures ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/PictureHistory/
Professor Robert E. Jensen (Bob)
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen
190 Sunset Hill Road
Sugar Hill, NH 03586
Phone: 603-823-8482
Email:
rjensen@trinity.edu