Tidbits on June 15, 2016
Bob Jensen at Trinity University

Set 5 of My Favorite Early Springtime Photographs
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/SummertimeFavorites\EarlySpringtime\Set05\EarlySpringtimeSet05.htm  
 

 

Tidbits on June 15, 2016
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Bob Jensen's Tidbits ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm

For earlier editions of Fraud Updates go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
For earlier editions of New Bookmarks go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm 
Bookmarks for the World's Library --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm 

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/

More of Bob Jensen's Pictures and Stories
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm

Updates from WebMD --- Click Here




Online Video, Slide Shows, and Audio
 

Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Life & Literature Introduced in a Monty Python-Style Animation ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/05/fyodor-dostoyevskys-life-literature-introduced-in-a-monty-python-style-animation.html

Stream 23 Free Documentaries from PBS’ Award-Winning American Experience Series ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/06/stream-23-free-documentaries-from-pbs-award-winning-american-experience-series.html

Ayn Rand Issues 13 Commandments to Filmmakers for Making Good Capitalist Movies (1947) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/05/ayn-rands-13-commandments-for-making-good-capitalist-movies-1947.html

Fleggaard Supermarket Commericial (Denmark with 100 Skydiver Women) ---
http://player.vimeo.com/video/57468088?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&color=d30000&api=1&player_id=media-player

Videos for Psychology Teachers --- http://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/topss/videos-teachers.aspx

WGBH: Open Vault (media highlights modules) --- http://openvault.wgbh.org

Helen Mirren Holds Her Own (and Then Some) in a Cringe-Inducingly Sexist TV Interview, 1975 ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/06/helen-mirren-holds-her-own-and-then-some-in-a-cringe-inducingly-sexist-tv-interview-1975.html


Free music downloads --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm
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 

Wynton Marsalis Takes Louis Armstrong’s Trumpet Out of the Museum & Plays It Again ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/05/wynton-marsalis-takes-louis-armstrongs-trumpet-out-of-the-museum-plays-it-again.html

NYPL Digital Collections: Jerome Robbins Dance Division Audio and Moving Image Archive --- http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/dancevideo

Hear a 1930 Recording of Boléro, Conducted by Ravel Himself --- 
http://www.openculture.com/2016/06/hear-a-1930-recording-of-bolero-conducted-by-ravel-himself.html

The Instrument Benjamin Franklin Invented, the Glass Armonica, Plays Tchaikovsky’s “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/06/hear-the-instrument-benjamin-franklin-invented-the-glass-armonica-play-tchaikovskys-dance-of-the-sugar-plum-fairy.html

Moby Lets You Download 4 Hours of Ambient Music to Help You Sleep, Meditate, Do Yoga & Not Panic ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/06/moby-lets-you-download-4-hours-of-ambient-music-to-help-you-sleep.html

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

Pandora (my favorite online music station) --- www.pandora.com
TheRadio
(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's threads on nearly all types of free music selections online ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Music.htm


Photographs and Art

R. Crumb Shows Us How He Illustrated Genesis: A Faithful, Idiosyncratic Illustration of All 50 Chapters ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/05/r-crumb-shows-us-how-he-illustrated-genesis.html

Bob Jensen's threads on art history ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm#ArtHistory

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) ---
http://daily.jstor.org/sfmomas-the-brave-new-world-of-art-museums/

The 16 greatest masterpieces at the Met right now ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/what-to-see-at-the-met-museum-nyc-2016-5

1,300 Photos of Famous Modern American Homes Now Online, Courtesy of USC ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/06/1300-photos-of-famous-modern-american-homes-now-online-courtesy-of-usc.html

MIT:  Through a Camera Darkly
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/426982/through-a-camera-darkly/

Rare WWII Color Photographs Taken by Hitler’s Personal Photographer ---
http://www.vintag.es/2016/05/rare-wwii-color-photographs-taken-by.html

The Opening of King Tut’s Tomb, Shown in Stunning Colorized Photos (1923-5) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/06/the-opening-of-king-tuts-tomb-shown-in-stunning-colorized-photos-1923-5.html

32 stunning photos that take you inside the dangerous, deadly, and never-before-seen world of Nicaraguan lobster divers ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/inside-the-deadly-nicaraguan-lobster-trade-2016-6

Philosophy Prof Illustrates Nietzsche’s Zarathustra in the Style of Dr. Seuss ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/06/philosophy-prof-illustrates-nietzsches-zarathustra-in-the-style-of-dr-seuss.html

Digital Harlem --- http://digitalharlem.org

California's Old Series Trademarks --- http://www.sos.ca.gov/archives/trademarks

History in Pictures --- http://www.boredpanda.com/must-see-historic-moments/

Color Footage of America’s First Shopping Mall Opening in 1956: The Birth of a Beloved and Reviled Institution ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/06/color-footage-of-americas-first-shopping-mall-opening-in-1956.html

Mohammud Ali's Life in Pictures ---
http://time.com/3872023/muhammad-ali-dead-photos/?xid=newsletter-brief
Also see
http://www.openculture.com/2016/06/muhammad-ali-this-is-your-life-celebrate-alis-life-times-with-this-touching-1978-tv-show.html

Marilyn Monroe --- http://time.com/4349808/marilyn-monroe-quiz/?xid=newsletter-brief

Panoramic Views Forwarded by Paula

Pick out any interesting location around the world and click on it.

 

A page will come up with a photograph.

 

In the center is a circle with a triangle.

 

Click on the triangle.

 

Now you get a full picture.

 

If it's not a full screen, click on the four dots in the lower right corner.

 

Now with full screen, place your cursor anywhere on the screen and slowly drag the picture in any direction you want.

 

Left, right, up, down, slow or stop.

 

Try the Egyptian Pyramids in Egypt or Moscow, Kremlin to get started.

 

This is one e-mail you will want to save.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

Click on the below City Names.

 

My favorite is Iguassu Falls.  Also a great look at Chicago.

 

Victoria Falls, Zambia • Venezuela, Surroundings of Angel Falls, Venezuela •Angel falls, Venezuela • Kalyan Minaret, Bukhara, Uzbekistan • Miami, USA •Las Vegas, USA • Lake Powell, USA • Manhattan, New York, USA • Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, USA • Millennium UN Plaza Hotel, New York, USA • Oahu, Hawaii, USA • Las Vegas, Nevada, USA • Millennium UN Plaza Hotel, New York, USA • Golden Gate Bridge, USA • Statue of Liberty, New York, USA • Manhattan, New York, USA • Hollywood, California, USA • San Juan and Colorado rivers, USA • Goosenecks, Utah, USA • Mono Lake, California, USA • Millennium UN Plaza Hotel, New York, USA • Chicago, Illinois, USA • Los Angeles, California, USA • Kiev, Ukraine • Ay-Petri, Ukraine • Dubai, UAE • Dubai, Islands, UAE • Palm Jumeirah, Dubai, UAE • Bangkok, Thailand • Sankt-Moritz, Switzerland • Cape Good Hope, South Africa • Cape-Town, South Africa • Moscow, MSU, Russia • Moscow, Kremlin, Bolotnaya Square , Russia • Moscow, Russia • Moscow Kremlin, Russia •55.748765;37.540841, Russia • Moscow City, Russia • Kremlin, Moscow, Russia • Moscow City, Russia • Trinity Lavra of Sait Sergius, Russia • Saint-Petersburg, Russia • New Jerusalem Monastery, Russia • Saint Petersburg, Russia • Novodevichy Convent. Moscow, Russia • Ramenki,Moscow, Russia • MKAD, Moscow, Russia • Moscow, Russia • Moscow, Russia • Krokus Expo Center, Moscow, Russia • Moscow Region, Russia • Moeraki Boulders, New Zealand • Fiordland, New Zealand • Nepal, Nepal • Maldives, Maldives •Kuala-Lumpur, Malaysia • Grimsvotn, Iceland • Amsterdam, Holland •Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany • Egyptian Pyramids, Egypt • Hong Kong, China • The Iguassu Falls, Brazil • Twelve Apostles Marine National Park, Australia • Sydney, Australia • Buenos Aires, Argentina •

Egyptian Pyramids, Egypt

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

Bob Jensen's threads on libraries --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm#---Libraries

Free: Download 5.3 Million Images from Books Published Over Last 500 Years ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/05/free-download-5-3-million-images-from-books-published-over-last-500-years.html

The British Library Digitizes 300 Literary Treasures from 20th Century Authors: Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot, James Joyce & More ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/05/the-british-library-digitizes-300-literary-treasures-from-20th-century-authors.html

R. Crumb Shows Us How He Illustrated Genesis: A Faithful, Idiosyncratic Illustration of All 50 Chapters ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/05/r-crumb-shows-us-how-he-illustrated-genesis.html

‘Peer Gynt’ Review: An Ibsen in Outline: John Doyle’s take on Henrik Ibsen’s five-hour, five-act verse play about a vain adventurer brings a rarely seen gem to the stage—albeit in an extremely abridged version ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/peer-gynt-review-an-ibsen-in-outline-1464898505?mod=djemMER

Download All 239 Issues of Landmark UK Feminist Magazine Spare Rib Free Online ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/06/download-all-239-issues-of-landmark-uk-feminist-magazine-spare-rib-free-online.html

The English poet Stevie Smith has been dismissed as an amateur, an oddball, an ingénue. It’s time to take her seriously...
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/06/09/stevie-smith-poet-unlike-any-other/

The best nonfiction books add up to a biography of our culture ---
https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2016/jun/02/the-history-of-nonfiction-biography-of-our-culture-100-best-nonfiction-books

Emily Dickinson was known in her own time as a naturalist and botanist.
Her gardens provided her with tropes, narratives, and imagery
---
"The Lost Gardens of Emily Dickenson,"  Faris Jabr, The New York Times, May 18, 2016
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/17/science/emily-dickinson-lost-gardens.html

Helen Gurley Brown reviews a biography of Helen Gurley Brown: "My 90 years were just divine! And, oh, the sex! I averaged 10 lovers a year! How else do you learn?"...
http://www.bookforum.com/inprint/023_02/16074

From LISNews on June 3, 2016

--Best American Essays
Posted Monday May 30th at 11:44 PM
Best American Essays -
Overview https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Best_American_Essays
Best American Essays 1986 http://amzn.to/1XKFNfR
Best American Essays 1987 http://amzn.to/1sHTmRw
Best American Essays 1988 http://amzn.to/1sHTTCR
Best American Essays 1989 http://amzn.to/1sHU2pT
Best American Essays 1990 http://amzn.to/1Y0iLSp
Best American Essays 1991 http://amzn.to/1WuhEeu
Best American Essays 1992 http://amzn.to/1Y0jhjs
Best American Essays 1993 http://amzn.to/1TSTS8e
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Best American Essays 2014 http://amzn.to/1Uqb8BO
Best American Essays 2015
http://amzn.to/27ZLbQT

 

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 June 15, 2016
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2016/TidbitsQuotations061516.htm       

To Whom Does the USA Federal Government Owe Money (the booked obligation of $19+ trillion) ---
http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/politicalcalculations/2016/05/25/spring-2016-to-whom-does-the-us-government-owe-money-n2168161?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl
The US Debt Clock in Real Time --- http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 
Remember the Jane Fonda Movie called "Rollover" --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollover_(film)

To Whom Does the USA Federal Government Owe Money (the unbooked obligation of $100 trillion and unknown more in contracted entitlements) ---
http://money.cnn.com/2013/01/15/news/economy/entitlement-benefits/
The biggest worry of the entitlements obligations is enormous obligation for the future under the Medicare and Medicaid programs that are now deemed totally unsustainable ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Entitlements.htm

Entitlements are two-thirds of the federal budget. Entitlement spending has grown 100-fold over the past 50 years. Half of all American households now rely on government handouts. When we hear statistics like that, most of us shake our heads and mutter some sort of expletive. That’s because nobody thinks they’re the problem. Nobody ever wants to think they’re the problem. But that’s not the truth. The truth is, as long as we continue to think of the rising entitlement culture in America as someone else’s problem, someone else’s fault, we’ll never truly understand it and we’ll have absolutely zero chance...
Steve Tobak ---
http://www.foxbusiness.com/business-leaders/2013/02/07/truth-behind-our-entitlement-culture/?intcmp=sem_outloud

"These Slides Show Why We Have Such A Huge Budget Deficit And Why Taxes Need To Go Up," by Rob Wile, Business Insider, April 27, 2013 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/cbo-presentation-on-the-federal-budget-2013-4
This is a slide show based on a presentation by a Harvard Economics Professor.

Peter G. Peterson Website on Deficit/Debt Solutions ---
http://www.pgpf.org/

Bob Jensen's threads on entitlements --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Entitlements.htm

Bob Jensen's health care messaging updates --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm




Top Five Digital Trends for 2016 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-top-5-digital-trends-for-2016-2016-3


Teacher-training and education institutions need to be more rigorous (about teaching, including doctoral programs in virtually all disciplines)
"How to Make a Good Teacher," The Economist (Cover Story), June 11, 2016 ---
http://www.economist.com/printedition/covers/2016-06-09/ap-e-eu-la-me-na-uk-1 

FORGET smart uniforms and small classes. The secret to stellar grades and thriving students is teachers. One American study found that in a single year’s teaching the top 10% of teachers impart three times as much learning to their pupils as the worst 10% do. Another suggests that, if black pupils were taught by the best quarter of teachers, the gap between their achievement and that of white pupils would disappear.

But efforts to ensure that every teacher can teach are hobbled by the tenacious myth that good teachers are born, not made. Classroom heroes like Robin Williams in “Dead Poets Society” or Michelle Pfeiffer in “Dangerous Minds” are endowed with exceptional, innate inspirational powers. Government policies, which often start from the same assumption, seek to raise teaching standards by attracting high-flying graduates to join the profession and prodding bad teachers to leave. Teachers’ unions, meanwhile, insist that if only their members were set free from central diktat, excellence would follow.

The premise that teaching ability is something you either have or don’t is mistaken. A new breed of teacher-trainers is founding a rigorous science of pedagogy. The aim is to make ordinary teachers great, just as sports coaches help athletes of all abilities to improve their personal best (see article). Done right, this will revolutionise schools and change lives.

Quis docebit ipsos doctores?

Education has a history of lurching from one miracle solution to the next. The best of them even do some good. Teach for America, and the dozens of organisations it has inspired in other countries, have brought ambitious, energetic new graduates into the profession. And dismissing teachers for bad performance has boosted results in Washington, DC, and elsewhere. But each approach has its limits. Teaching is a mass profession: it cannot grab all the top graduates, year after year. When poor teachers are fired, new ones are needed—and they will have been trained in the very same system that failed to make fine teachers out of their predecessors.

By contrast, the idea of improving the average teacher could revolutionise the entire profession. Around the world, few teachers are well enough prepared before being let loose on children. In poor countries many get little training of any kind. A recent report found 31 countries in which more than a quarter of primary-school teachers had not reached (minimal) national standards. In rich countries the problem is more subtle. Teachers qualify following a long, specialised course. This will often involve airy discussions of theory—on ecopedagogy, possibly, or conscientisation (don’t ask). Some of these courses, including masters degrees in education, have no effect on how well their graduates’ pupils end up being taught.

What teachers fail to learn in universities and teacher-training colleges they rarely pick up on the job. They become better teachers in their first few years as they get to grips with real pupils in real classrooms, but after that improvements tail off. This is largely because schools neglect their most important pupils: teachers themselves. Across the OECD club of mostly rich countries, two-fifths of teachers say they have never had a chance to learn by sitting in on another teacher’s lessons; nor have they been asked to give feedback on their peers.

Those who can, learn

If this is to change, teachers need to learn how to impart knowledge and prepare young minds to receive and retain it. Good teachers set clear goals, enforce high standards of behaviour and manage their lesson time wisely. They use tried-and-tested instructional techniques to ensure that all the brains are working all of the time, for example asking questions in the classroom with “cold calling” rather than relying on the same eager pupils to put up their hands.

Instilling these techniques is easier said than done. With teaching as with other complex skills, the route to mastery is not abstruse theory but intense, guided practice grounded in subject-matter knowledge and pedagogical methods. Trainees should spend more time in the classroom. The places where pupils do best, for example Finland, Singapore and Shanghai, put novice teachers through a demanding apprenticeship. In America high-performing charter schools teach trainees in the classroom and bring them on with coaching and feedback.

Teacher-training institutions need to be more rigorous—rather as a century ago medical schools raised the calibre of doctors by introducing systematic curriculums and providing clinical experience. It is essential that teacher-training colleges start to collect and publish data on how their graduates perform in the classroom. Courses that produce teachers who go on to do little or nothing to improve their pupils’ learning should not receive subsidies or see their graduates become teachers. They would then have to improve to survive.

Continued in article

"A Lack Of Rigor Leaves Students 'Adrift' In College," , NPR, February 9, 2011 ---
http://www.npr.org/2011/02/09/133310978/in-college-a-lack-of-rigor-leaves-students-adrift

"What Keeps Us from Being Great," by Joe Hoyle, February 21, 2011 ---
http://joehoyle-teaching.blogspot.com/2011/02/what-keeps-us-from-being-great.html

"CONVERSATION WITH BOB JENSEN," by Joe Hoyle, Teaching Blog, October 8, 2013 ---
http://joehoyle-teaching.blogspot.com/2013/10/conversation-with-bob-jensen.html

"CONVERSATION WITH DENNIS BERESFORD," by Joe Hoyle, Teaching Blog, March 26, 2013 ---
http://joehoyle-teaching.blogspot.com/2014/03/conversation-with-dennis-beresford.html

More than half of the black and Latino students who take the state teacher licensing exam in Massachusetts fail, at rates that are high enough that many minority college students are starting to avoid teacher training programs, The Boston Globe reported. The failure rates are 54 percent (black), 52 percent (Latino) and 23 percent (white).
Inside Higher Ed, August 20, 2007 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/08/20/qt
Jensen Question
Is the primary cause the lack of admissions standards and rigor in programs that educate those students taking the licensing examinations?

"This new education law could lower the standards for teachers' qualifications," by Gail L. Boldt and Bernard J. Badiali, Business Insider, March 26, 2016 ---
http://article.wn.com/view/2016/03/26/This_new_education_law_could_lower_the_standards_for_teacher/

"How to Turn Around a Terrible School:  A Mississippi elementary school was transformed by a nonprofit run by Netscape’s former CEO," by Richard Grant, The Wall Street Journal, April 1, 2016 ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-turn-around-a-terrible-school-1459550615?mod=djemMER

"4-Part Plan Seeks to Fix Mathematics Education," by Dan Barrett, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 10, 2016 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/4-Part-Plan-Seeks-to-Fix/236037?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=8b3f5c18c713478da5dc6b307768fa12&elq=58285565e94b49cdbe1bac3d487692e6&elqaid=8680&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=2922

Bob Jensen's threads on higher education controversies ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm

Bob Jensen's threads on resources for teachers ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#EducationResearch


"What Makes a Good Teacher?" by Rob Jenkins, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 31, 2016 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/What-Makes-a-Good-Teacher-/236657?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=642e5021e0fb48bfac5910f5126c8200&elq=396f94e49710439d8bdcf3739003fd24&elqaid=9268&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=3243

Roughly a year ago, I wrote a column on "The 4 Properties of Powerful Teachers,"  and named "personality" as one of those qualities. While recognizing that everyone is different, and that personality isn’t necessarily something we can control, I was attempting to identify key characteristics that most of my best teachers, from kindergarten through graduate school, had in common.

When I say "best teachers," I’m not just talking about the ones I liked best. I mean the teachers who had the greatest influence on me — the ones whose names I still remember to this day, even though in some cases it’s been more than 40 years since I sat in their classrooms. They are people I’ve tried to emulate in my own teaching.

What made them good teachers? I can’t offer any empirical answers to that question, but I do know that personality was a key factor in all of them. Perhaps we can measure effectiveness in the classroom, to some extent, but how do we really determine quality? It seems to me that we’ve been trying for years, through various evaluation metrics, without a whole lot of success. I’ve known some bad teachers who were able to manipulate the metrics, and some good ones whose excellence wasn’t immediately apparent on paper.

In any case, the following observations are based entirely on my own experiences as a student, professor, and former midlevel administrator who has seen many good teachers (and a few bad ones) practice their craft. My hope is that, even if this list is somewhat subjective — not to mention incomplete — it won’t seem entirely unfamiliar.

They are good-natured.
 The best teachers tend to be approachable, as opposed to sour and forbidding. Grouchy, short-tempered, misanthropic curmudgeons can sometimes make effective teachers, too, if for no other reason than that they prepare us for grouchy, short-tempered, misanthropic bosses. I had some grouchy teachers myself, especially in graduate school, and learning to cope with them was a valuable experience I would not wish to deny anyone. But most of my very best teachers were pretty easy to get along with — as long as I paid attention in class and did my work.

They are professional without being aloof.
Most academics tend to keep students at arm’s length — the obvious message being, "I’m your teacher, not your friend." Clearly, professionalism requires a certain amount of boundary-setting, which can be difficult, especially when dealing with older students, where the age gap is often not all that wide and, under different circumstances, they might actually be your friends. My best teachers always seemed to effortlessly walk that very fine line between being an authority figure and being someone I felt I could talk to. I didn’t even understand what they were doing — or how difficult it was — until I had to do it myself years later.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
In looking back at my best teachers it is very difficult to draw conclusions about common personality traits or teaching styles. In advanced courses they were experts in their disciplines, but in introductory courses their expertise only needed to go so far since inspiration trumps expertise up to a point at introductory levels.

Good teachers are almost all well-prepared for class but in advanced courses expertise can even trump preparedness (unless the expertise is not sufficient to prevent goof ups in class). Students who already know much of the material want an expert who can give guidance on complicated questions.

Knowing and caring about every student personally is important but this is not possible when there are over 100 students in each class. Those top-rated professors on RateMyProfessor.com tend to have smaller classes ---
http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/blog/toplist/2014-2015-top-lists/
Sadly, the RMP top professors are often rated as easy graders. However, many of the easier graders did not make RMP's top-teacher lists.

One way to judge "best teachers" for large classes is to sample the approaches taken by teachers in the top-rated MOOCs ---
 

The 50 Most Popular MOOCs of All time ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/05/learning-how-to-learn-enroll-in-the-latest-edition-of-the-most-popular-mooc.html
These teachers tend to be explain complicated things with talent and style and preparedness. They also have outstanding learning aids such as video and memorable slides. However, the "50 Most Popular MOOCs" are confounded by widespread popularity of the subject matter. A top-rated MOOC professor of finance and investing is not likely to remain top-rated when teaching accounting and auditing MOOCs

 


Internet of Things --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_things

Here's how the Internet of Things will explode by 2020 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/iot-ecosystem-internet-of-things-forecasts-and-business-opportunities-2016-2


"What Makes a Good Teacher?" by Rob Jenkins, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 31, 2016 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/What-Makes-a-Good-Teacher-/236657?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=642e5021e0fb48bfac5910f5126c8200&elq=396f94e49710439d8bdcf3739003fd24&elqaid=9268&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=3243

Roughly a year ago, I wrote a column on "The 4 Properties of Powerful Teachers,"  and named "personality" as one of those qualities. While recognizing that everyone is different, and that personality isn’t necessarily something we can control, I was attempting to identify key characteristics that most of my best teachers, from kindergarten through graduate school, had in common.

When I say "best teachers," I’m not just talking about the ones I liked best. I mean the teachers who had the greatest influence on me — the ones whose names I still remember to this day, even though in some cases it’s been more than 40 years since I sat in their classrooms. They are people I’ve tried to emulate in my own teaching.

What made them good teachers? I can’t offer any empirical answers to that question, but I do know that personality was a key factor in all of them. Perhaps we can measure effectiveness in the classroom, to some extent, but how do we really determine quality? It seems to me that we’ve been trying for years, through various evaluation metrics, without a whole lot of success. I’ve known some bad teachers who were able to manipulate the metrics, and some good ones whose excellence wasn’t immediately apparent on paper.

In any case, the following observations are based entirely on my own experiences as a student, professor, and former midlevel administrator who has seen many good teachers (and a few bad ones) practice their craft. My hope is that, even if this list is somewhat subjective — not to mention incomplete — it won’t seem entirely unfamiliar.

They are good-natured.
 The best teachers tend to be approachable, as opposed to sour and forbidding. Grouchy, short-tempered, misanthropic curmudgeons can sometimes make effective teachers, too, if for no other reason than that they prepare us for grouchy, short-tempered, misanthropic bosses. I had some grouchy teachers myself, especially in graduate school, and learning to cope with them was a valuable experience I would not wish to deny anyone. But most of my very best teachers were pretty easy to get along with — as long as I paid attention in class and did my work.

They are professional without being aloof.
Most academics tend to keep students at arm’s length — the obvious message being, "I’m your teacher, not your friend." Clearly, professionalism requires a certain amount of boundary-setting, which can be difficult, especially when dealing with older students, where the age gap is often not all that wide and, under different circumstances, they might actually be your friends. My best teachers always seemed to effortlessly walk that very fine line between being an authority figure and being someone I felt I could talk to. I didn’t even understand what they were doing — or how difficult it was — until I had to do it myself years later.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
In looking back at my best teachers it is very difficult to draw conclusions about common personality traits or teaching styles. In advanced courses they were experts in their disciplines, but in introductory courses their expertise only needed to go so far since inspiration trumps expertise up to a point at introductory levels.

Good teachers are almost all well-prepared for class but in advanced courses expertise can even trump preparedness (unless the expertise is not sufficient to prevent goof ups in class). Students who already know much of the material want an expert who can give guidance on complicated questions.

Knowing and caring about every student personally is important but this is not possible when there are over 100 students in each class. Those top-rated professors on RateMyProfessor.com tend to have smaller classes ---
http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/blog/toplist/2014-2015-top-lists/
Sadly, the RMP top professors are often rated as easy graders. However, many of the easier graders did not make RMP's top-teacher lists.

One way to judge "best teachers" for large classes is to sample the approaches taken by teachers in the top-rated MOOCs ---
The 50 Most Popular MOOCs of All time ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/05/learning-how-to-learn-enroll-in-the-latest-edition-of-the-most-popular-mooc.html
These teachers tend to be explain complicated things with talent and style and preparedness. They also have outstanding learning aids such as video and memorable slides. However, the "50 Most Popular MOOCs" are confounded by widespread popularity of the subject matter. A top-rated MOOC professor of finance and investing is not likely to remain top-rated when teaching accounting and auditing MOOCs.


A Long Negative Article About MOOCs

"After the Gold Rush:  MOOCs, money, and the education of Richard McKenzie," by Steve Kolowich, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 5, 2016 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/MOOCs-Moneythe-Untold/236708?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=cbb5d0f8bec8402eab9e05e8b2135e38&elq=8b123b0d5e914701a909daba26e8d8b7&elqaid=9337&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=3278

Jensen Comment
By definition MOOCs are free video views of complete courses offered generally at very prestigious universities around the world. MOOCs more complicated and expensive for students who want transcript credit for taking a MOOC.

MOOC instructors should never expect the majority of "students" signing up for a course to stick it out day-to-day to the bitter end. MOOC "students" are often window shoppers who are curious about how some of the best professors in the world teach very technical topics in nearly all disciplines of higher education. These "students" do not generally have the time or the inclination to do more than window shop. Only a small percentage will actually buy into the course and dig in to take it like they would take the same course live while living on campus. MOOCs were never expected to be very useful in introductory courses where students typically need more teacher interactions and hand holding. MOOCs are aimed more for advanced courses where students typically have high motivations for learning when they are not merely window shopping out of curiosity.

What the above article overlooks are the success stories of MOOCs --- those MOOC professors who actually pull off success stories to offset the negativism of Richard McKenzie.

Here's an example of an offsetting  success story.

"This Mongolian Teenager Aced a MOOC. Now He Wants to Widen Their Impact," by Jeffrey R. Young, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 4, 2016 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/This-Mongolian-Teenager-Aced-a/236362?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=d2d2bb431560465bbc40d7fc9fdba41a&elq=515025d323e34845a1279920e3ae34cc&elqaid=8993&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=3088

"Who Takes MOOCs?" by Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed, June 5, 2012 ---
 http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/06/05/early-demographic-data-hints-what-type-student-takes-mooc

The 50 Most Popular MOOCs of All time ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/05/learning-how-to-learn-enroll-in-the-latest-edition-of-the-most-popular-mooc.html

Bob Jensen's threads on MOOCs ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI


Ohio State Accuses 85 Students of Cheating on Online Tests ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/ohio-state-u-accuses-85-students-of-cheating-on-online-tests/112000?elqTrackId=592e2bcfef3742f0a01015fb1aa9fc87&elq=657ef66861154a85908c76c54666a981&elqaid=9366&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=3288

Claims of Cheating in Online Courses at Iowa ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/05/23/claims-cheating-online-courses-iowa?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=3bae57df2e-DNU20160523&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-3bae57df2e-197565045

Bob Jensen's Threads on Cheating ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/plagiarism.htm


I'm a graduate prof, and used to give almost all my tests as "take home" exams. However, a cheating incident made most of us give up this practice. Papers, reffective essays, case analysis... are fine since they differ so much from person to person. But... no more take home tests...
Richard Niolon, Chicago School of Professional Psychology
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/1554b0d935e50425


10 Most Popular Free MOOCs Starting in June 2016 ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/05/10-most-popular-moocs-getting-started-in-june.html 

Personal Finance Planning
Purdue University via edX
Manage your money more effectively by learning practical solutions to key investment, credit, insurance and retirement questions.
Bookmark | Next Session : 15th Jun, 2016

Nutrition and Health: Food Safety
Wageningen University via edX
Learn about bacteria, pesticides and health hazards present in food.
Bookmark | Next Session : 1st Jun, 2016

Islam Through Its Scriptures
Harvard University via edX
Learn about the Quran, the central sacred text of Islam, through an exploration of the rich diversity of roles and interpretations in Muslim societies.
Bookmark | Next Session : 1st Jun, 2016

History of Graphic Design
California Institute of the Arts via Coursera
This condensed survey course focuses on four major areas of design and their history: Typography, Image-Making, Interactive Media, and Branding.
Bookmark | Next Session : 20th Jun, 2016

Big Data: Data Visualisation
Queensland University of Technology via FutureLearn
Data visualisation is vital in bridging the gap between data and decisions. Discover the methods, tools and processes involved.
Bookmark | Next Session : 27th Jun, 2016

Microeconomics: When Markets Fail
University of Pennsylvania via Coursera
Perfect markets achieve efficiency: maximizing total surplus generated. But real markets are imperfect. This course will explore a set of market imperfections to understand why they fail and to explore possible remedies, including antitrust policy, regulation, and government intervention.
Bookmark | Next Session : 6th Jun, 2016

Single Page Web Applications with AngularJS
Johns Hopkins University via Coursera
Do you want to write powerful, maintainable, and testable front end applications faster and with less code? Then consider joining this course to gain skills in one of the most popular Single Page Application (SPA) frameworks today, AngularJS
Bookmark | Next Session : 20th Jun, 2016

Machine Learning: Clustering & Retrieval
University of Washington via Coursera
A reader is interested in a specific news article and you want to find similar articles to recommend. What is the right notion of similarity? Moreover, what if there are millions of other documents?
Bookmark | Next Session : 15th Jun, 2016

Introduction to Engineering
University of Texas at Arlington via edX
The application of knowledge to design and build devices, systems, materials and processes in engineering.
Bookmark | Next Session : 8th, Jun, 2016

Social Norms, Social Change
University of Pennsylvania via Coursera
This is a course on social norms, the rules that glue societies together. It teaches how to diagnose social norms, and how to distinguish them from other social constructs, like customs or conventions.
Bookmark | Next Session : 20th Jun, 2016

For a complete list of courses starting in June, click here.

The 50 Most Popular MOOCs of All time ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/05/learning-how-to-learn-enroll-in-the-latest-edition-of-the-most-popular-mooc.html

Bob Jensen's threads on MOOCs ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI


Yale Students Tell English Profs to Stop Teaching English: Too Many White Male Poets ---
https://reason.com/blog/2016/06/01/yale-students-tell-english-profs-to-stop

Dear Yale English majors: You're right, the canon is sexist, racist, colonialist, ableist, and transphobic. You must read it anyway ---
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2016/05/24/yale_students_want_to_remake_the_english_major_requirements_but_there_s.html


"Are Your Students Learning From Their Mistakes?" by David Goobler, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 1, 2016 ---
https://chroniclevitae.com/news/1421-are-your-students-learning-from-their-mistakes?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=d5b397c2094347e1b0e824611a75a491&elq=1158b22a0ab54272a738491e2c6538ab&elqaid=9288&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=3251

Jensen Comment

If instructors are not giving mostly A grades in a course large-scale empirical studies show that students adapt to what counts most for grades. For example, most of them will dig in there heels and do whatever it takes at critical points in the grading process. This is widely known as the "no-significant-difference" phenomenon. http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#AssessmentIssues

When given second chances a common strategy is to wing it the first time and check the grade. If the grade is low students dig in like they should have the first time. One huge problem with second chances is that this policy contributes to the biggest scandal in education in recent years --- grade inflation where the median grade across the North America tends to be A-.
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#RateMyProfessor  

Of course the main cause of grade inflation is having teacher evaluations affect performance evaluations and tenure. Second chance teachers most likely get higher teacher evaluations.
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#RateMyProfessor 

If second-chance teachers are giving mostly A grades something is wrong with academic standards.

June 2, 2015 reply from Steve Markoff

Bob:

Topic near and dear to my heart.

Regarding your first comment paragraph --- the logical extension to this is ---- given the statement you make, if you want students to engage in deeper learning, that must be critical in the grading process.

The long and short of is something that most professors unfortunately have never quite come to grips with. It is this: students learn according to how they are tested --- period. If what you test is memorization and regurgitation, then do NOT expect critical thinking or deeper learning. I always say, "think about what kind of thinking you want your students to engage in .... THEN design your exam accordingly."

This is another reason I write all my own exams and NEVER use any test banks, etc. When you use a test bank, basically, you are allowing SOMEONE ELSE to determine what YOUR STUDENTS are going to prioritize and learn, often a grad student at some university somewhere. Hardly seems like a recipe for success to me.

I don't want memorizing. I allow them a sheet of paper with hand-written notes. After I draft an exam, I pretend that one of those "memory experts" is going to be taking the test. I assume that this memory expert has memorized every word mentioned in class, every word of every page assigned in the book and 100% of all the homework solutions.

Then, I ask myself a simple question: Can this memory expert, obtain an A on this test? If the answer is "yes", I change the exam. It's that simple.

Steve


3 of the world's 10 largest employers are now replacing a serious number of workers with robots ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/clsa-wef-and-citi-on-the-future-of-robots-and-ai-in-the-workforce-2016-6


Class of Underemployed: Nearly 50 percent of recent college graduates are working in jobs where no college degree is required ---
http://www.mybudget360.com/college-graduates-2016-and-underemployment-jobs-careers/

Jensen Comment
The data may be somewhat misleading for a number of reasons such as timing. Some of these graduates may have McJobs until opportunities arise down the road. However, we have a son who does much better as a mechanic (Caterpillar) where he probably is better off in a lifetime career than most anything he can find with an undergraduate general business degree from Chapman University.The sad thing is that he will be spending years paying off his student loan with his wages as a mechanic. His wife is also paying off her student loan from a McJob wages.


Jensen Comment
The paper below from BYU is important in the sense that BYU was one of the first, if not the first, prestigious university to teach the two basic accounting courses (across one academic year) via video DVD discs. Classes only met on rare occasion for inspirational sessions such as visiting experts on careers in accountancy.

It should be noted that the video modules replaced live lecturing. There was still a textbook for each video course such that students could learn via whether reading or video watching. The BUY introductory accounting videos were interesting in that they were "variable speed videos" where students could pace themselves according to how fast they individually learned the material.

You can read more about the BYU accounting video courses at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#BYUvideo
The above site contains links to other sites on possible interest on this topic
 

BYU:
Study Choices by Introductory Accounting Students: Those Who Choose to Study By Reading Text Outperform Those Who Choose to Study by Watching Video Lectures

SSRN, December 31, 2015
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2787478

Authors

Earl K. Stice Brigham Young University; Nazarbayev University

James D Stice Brigham Young University

Conan Albrecht Brigham Young University - School of Accountancy

Abstract

We use student-level online resource usage data for students in four different introductory accounting courses to explore students’ revealed preferences for reading text or watching video lectures. The online learning tool tracks student study choice (read text, watch video, or skip) on a paragraph-by-paragraph level. We match these usage data with student performance on course exams. Not surprisingly, we find that students who study more material earn higher exam scores than do students who study less material. We also find that students who self-select to do relatively more of their studying through reading text score higher on exams, on average, than do students who self-select to do relatively more of their studying through watching videos. Specifically, holding the overall amount of study constant, a student who chooses to spend the highest fraction of her or his study time watching video mini-lectures earns exam scores ten percentage points lower (six-tenths of a standard deviation) than a student who chooses to spend the lowest fraction of study time watching videos. Our evidence suggests that the highest-performing introductory accounting students choose to learn accounting proportionately more through reading than through watching. These results are a reminder that when we talk about using “technology” to help our students learn accounting, the written word is still an important technology.

Jensen Comment
It should be noted that BYU is one of the top schools of accountancy in the world. In particular accounting students have high admissions qualifications in terms of test scores, religious and cultural backgrounds, and motivation to learn. It's especially important to note that a typical BYU accounting student is so highly self-motivated that teaching becomes less important vis-a-vis lower motivated students who need more inspiration and technical help from a live teacher. The "learn on your own" pedagogy that provides video modules and textbook chapters with much less live interaction with a teacher probably works better at BYU than in most colleges and universities.

Of course this does not mean that BYU students do not need and get more live interactions with professors as they proceed up the learning ladder toward more advanced accounting courses. The video courses at the introductory level free up resources to devote more time and attention to advanced majors. I seriously doubt that this pedagogy will work as well in colleges where introductory students a much, much less inclined to learn on their own from video modules and textbook chapters.

The risk of replacing instructor interactions with accountancy videos and books is you may lose majors who might otherwise become more motivated to major in accountancy with more live interactions with professors. There seems to be so much demand to major in accounting at BYU this seems to be less of a problem than it would be at Cactus Gulch Community College.

"When a Flipped-Classroom Pioneer Hands Off His Video Lectures, This Is What Happens," by Jeffrey R. Young, Chronicle of Higher Education, January 7, 2015 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/When-a-Flipped-Classroom/151031/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

Jensen Comment
The above article by Stice, Stice, and Albrecht suggests that over an entire course learning from reading may have an edge over learning from video. However, my experience is that there are times when learning from video is better than reading text. Before I retired I prepared a lot of Camtasia video modules that students could learn from outside the classroom. My videos focused on extremely technical topics that are difficult to learn from reading text. They are also difficult to learn during a lecture because students learn very technical things are different paces. Sometimes in a lecture if you don't understand something early in the lecture you're lost for the rest of the class.

With a video module on an extremely technical issue students can study the video over and over and over as many times as necessary until they finally understand it. This is especially important for things that are difficult to learn from reading text such as spreadsheet text or text for learning software.

As an example of one of my Camtasia learning video modules consider my module on how to value an interest rate swap from yield curves downloaded from a Bloomberg terminal. This is something that auditors must do for many, many companies that now manage cash and hedge risks with interest rate swaps ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/acct5341/speakers/133swapvalue.htm
Scroll down to Example 5 and try to learning it from the text versus learning it from the my video module.


Measuring Diploma Production Costs: Does an Undergraduate Business Degree Cost More to Produce than a Non-Business Degree?
SSRN, December 25, 2016
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2788736

Authors

Michael M. Barth The Citadel

Iordanis Karagiannidis The Citadel

Abstract

Many colleges and universities have implemented tuition differentials for certain degree programs including business and engineering. The primary justification for the differential is that the cost of producing these degrees is higher than the cost of other degrees. Most college accounting systems are unsuited for measuring cost differentials by degree program and instead look at the cost of operating the academic unit itself. This research outlines a method that can be used to convert commonly available financial data to a more appropriate form for cost analysis using a value stream accounting approach. We apply Lean management thinking and value stream accounting to compute the per capita salary expense incurred individual students as they progress through their degree program, then aggregate those costs per student to arrive at the average direct teaching cost of earning the degree. Our results show that the average aggregate faculty salary expense differs between degree programs. However, while business salaries tend to be higher than other disciplines, we find that the cost of delivering the classroom instruction portion of a business degree falls within a range. It was higher than the humanities, but significantly lower than the teaching costs for engineering and for the sciences. Cross-subsidies between degree programs can be ameliorated through well-designed tuition differentials, but institutions must understand the underlying cost structure to better manage scarce resources. Although the results we obtained are specific to this institution, the process we used is generalizable to all institutions

Jensen Comment

I have little faith in such costing studies due to the confounding factors of joint and common costs further complicated by curricula, pedagogy, learning technologies, etc.

Bob Jensen's threads on Estimating a College's Cost of Degrees Awarded and "Worth" of Professors are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#CostAccounting

To my knowledge the most extensive study of costs of college majors was conducted at Texas A&M
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).

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.

Issues in Computing a College's Cost of Degrees Awarded and the "Worth" of Professors ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#CostAccounting2

 

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 


Studies like this are misleading due to many reasons, especially missing variables when analyzing financial returns.
There's also a huge tradeoff between financial security versus financial returns and risk

Which degrees give the best financial returns? ---
http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2015/03/daily-chart-2?fsrc=scn/tw/te/dc/revengeofthenerds


FIFA World Cup Soccer --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Cup

From the CFO Journal's Morning Ledger on June 13, 2016

KPMG leaves the pitch
Global accounting KPMG became the latest company to sever ties with soccer’s world governing body, when it informed FIFA on Friday that it was dropping its account. The auditor’s Swiss affiliate had signed off on FIFA’s financial statements for 16 consecutive years. The announcement came 10 days after the disclosure that a small group of FIFA’s top officials allegedly paid each other tens of millions of dollars in bonuses and other incentives, and followed the resignation of FIFA’s chief financial officer, Markus Kattner.

 

Bloomberg, June 3, 2016
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-03/fifa-top-three-bosses-netted-80-million-in-pay-and-severance?cmpid=BBD060316_BIZ&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=

FIFA’s Top Three Bosses Netted $80 Million in Pay and Severance

Disgraced ex-president Sepp Blatter, former Secretary-General Jerome Valcke and former CFO Markus Kattner shared more than $80 million over the past five years in bonuses, incentives and salary increases that they signed off on themselves, according to soccer’s global governing body. All three men had already been suspended or fired by FIFA. In a separate statement, the Swiss authorities said they raided FIFA’s offices a day ago.

Bob Jensen's Fraud Updates --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm


Ethics conviction removes Alabama House speaker from office ---
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/ethics-conviction-removes-alabama-house-speaker-from-office/ar-AAgSCTt?ocid=spartanntp

Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard's conviction on ethics charges automatically removes him from office and could mean years in prison for the powerful Republican.

Friday night, a jury found the one-time GOP star guilty of 12 counts of public corruption for using the influence and prestige of his political stature to benefit his companies and clients. He faces up to 20 years in prison for each count.

The jury, which arrived at the verdict after nearly seven hours of deliberation, acquitted Hubbard on 11 other counts.

The conviction comes amid a season of scandal that has engulfed Republicans at the helm of Alabama's legislative, judicial and executive branches of government. Chief Justice Roy Moore faces possible ouster from office over accusations that he violated canons of judicial ethics during the fight over same-sex marriage. And Gov. Robert Bentley has faced calls for his impeachment after a sex-tinged scandal involving a former top aide.

"We hope this verdict tonight restores some of the confidence in the people of the state of Alabama that public officials at all levels in the state of Alabama will be held accountable for their actions, especially those that would betray the public trust," said W. Van Davis, the acting attorney general in the case.

Hubbard, 54, spoke briefly with his attorneys before being escorted from the courtroom and to the Lee County jail, a detention center not far from Mike Hubbard Boulevard named for him. He was released on $160,000 bond and driven away by a bail bondsmen as he held his face in his hand.

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's Fraud Updates --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm


Cher Sues Financial Firm for Fraud After $1.3 Million in Investments ---
http://www.msn.com/en-us/music/celebrity/cher-sues-financial-firm-for-fraud-after-dollar13-million-in-investments/ar-AAgOK6v?ocid=spartanntp

. . .

"Defendants routinely leveraged their insider positions with the portfolio companies to placate limited partners with news of supposed 'exit strategies,' impending 'initial public offerings,' and the potential for 'enormous' profits," states the complaint. "Unbeknownst to Veritas, Defendants secured its capital and that of several other limited partners under duress at the eleventh hour ... These bizarre and improper management tactics were a harbinger of worse to come."

In reality, and unbeknownst to Cher, the investments were tanking. Of the 10 initial portfolio companies at least three have filed for bankruptcy and most of the others will never generate a return, states the complaint, yet "defendants continued to collect management fees and lull the limited partners withrosy representations in violation of the Partnership Agreements."

Bob Jensen's Fraud Updates --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm


How Intel Makes a Chip ---
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-09/how-intel-makes-a-chip


Siemens' USA apprenticeship plan is modeled after common apprenticeship plans in Germany
"College Isn’t Always the Answer:  Plenty of alternatives can prepare young people to enter the workforce," by Professor Jeffrey J. Selingo, The Wall Street Journal, May 26, 2016 ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/college-isnt-always-the-answer-1464300544?mod=djemMER

During this particularly rancorous election season, at least one bipartisan consensus persists: More Americans, we are told, need to earn undergraduate degrees. The political debate tends to focus on the best way to graduate more people with less debt. But it makes little sense to send more students to college when nearly half of new graduates are working jobs that don’t require a bachelor’s degree, according to a 2014 report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

It would be better to reconsider the entire issue. There’s a disconnect between supply (what the education system produces) and demand (what employers seek). Rather than trying to shuffle young people off to college three months after they graduate from high school, policy makers should support alternative routes to the education and training required for high-quality jobs. Plenty of successful examples have sprung up around the country.

Siemens and other manufacturers, for example, developed a high-school apprenticeship program in North Carolina when they couldn’t find enough workers with advanced skills. After completing a three-year apprenticeship, the students leave with an associate degree and a $55,000 starting salary.

John Deere runs a similar program at Walla Walla Community College in Washington state. Students are trained to fix million-dollar farm equipment, which allows them to use their hands and advanced math and mechanical skills. High-school guidance counselors, who are evaluated on the proportion of students they send to four-year universities, may discourage such choices.

It might also be helpful if more high-school graduates took a “gap year” before heading off to college. Too often they pick a field of study based on what’s familiar, with little exposure to many of the jobs that exist today. Having high-school graduates take time to explore careers before college—through internships or national service—gives them a sense of focus and purpose. It likely saves money in the long run too.

While not a traditional gap year, a program in Baltimore called BridgeEdU bills itself as a reinvention of the freshman experience. It offers college credits, internships and coaching for under $8,000.

The number of teenagers who have some sort of job while in school has dropped to 20% in 2013 from about 45% in 1998, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Once in college, students need to combine education with relevant work experience. Otherwise, they know little about the workplace before they land their first full-time job after graduation.

More colleges should embrace the idea of cooperative education. At universities such as Northeastern and Drexel, students alternate between the classroom and the job. Co-ops are part of the undergraduate experience at these institutions, and paid work makes up anywhere from one-third to almost half of the time a student spends in school. Co-op education helps students develop a tolerance for ambiguity in their work, which so many employers say today’s college graduates lack.

Many who earn a bachelor’s degree are not prepared to enter the workforce. A new learning ecosystem is emerging outside of traditional higher education to assist them. General Assembly offers courses on topics like Web design, and Koru teaches practical business skills. Students can also use free or inexpensive online courses from edX and Lynda.com to build skills that can help them get that first job.

Continued in article


Bob Jensen's helpers for finding online training programs (not all are free) ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm


529 College Prepaid and Savings Plans With Serious Tax Benefits --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/529_plan
These plans are often used by parents and grandparents for young children who will one day enter college
These plans vary with such things as state of residence and plan manager fees

From the CPA Newsletter in May 27, 2016

Assets in college savings plans up 4.3%, data show

Assets held in 529 college savings plans reached $227.3 billion at the end of 2015, a 4.3% increase from a year earlier, according to a report from Morningstar. Growth was fastest for direct-sold plans, which had a 53.3% market share last year, up from 51.7% a year earlier.

Pensions & Investments (free access for SmartBrief readers) (5/26) 


MIT:  Seven Must-Read Stories (Week Ending May 28, 2016) ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601574/seven-must-read-stories-week-ending-may-28-2016/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-weekly-business&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20160603


Critical Thinking --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_thinking

Cynicism --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynic

Critical Thinking versus Cynicism
"Against Self-Criticism: Adam Phillips on How Our Internal Critics Enslave Us, the Stockholm Syndrome of the Superego, and the Power of Multiple Interpretations," by Maria Popova, Brain Pickings, May 23, 2016
---
https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/05/23/against-self-criticism-adam-phillips-unforbidden-pleasures/?mc_cid=5e19106c81&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

I have thought and continued to think a great deal about the relationship between critical thinking and cynicism — what is the tipping point past which critical thinking, that centerpiece of reason so vital to human progress and intellectual life, stops mobilizing our constructive impulses and topples over into the destructiveness of impotent complaint and embittered resignation, begetting cynicism? In giving a commencement address on the subject, I found myself contemplating anew this fine but firm line between critical thinking and cynical complaint. To cross it is to exile ourselves from the land of active reason and enter a limbo of resigned inaction.

But cross it we do, perhaps nowhere more readily than in our capacity for merciless self-criticism. We tend to go far beyond the self-corrective lucidity necessary for improving our shortcomings, instead berating and belittling ourselves for our foibles with a special kind of masochism.

The undergirding psychology of that impulse is what the English psychoanalytical writer Adam Phillips explores in his magnificent essay “Against Self-Criticism”, found in his altogether terrific collection Unforbidden Pleasures (public library).

Continued in article

  • "Critical Thinking:  Why It's So Hard to Teach," by Daniel T. Willingham ---
    http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/issues/summer07/Crit_Thinking.pdf

    Also see Simorleon Sense --- http://www.simoleonsense.com/critical-thinking-why-is-it-so-hard-to-teach/
    This link is now broken

    “Critical thinking is not a set of skills that can be deployed at any time, in any context. It is a type of thought that even 3-year-olds can engage in—and even trained scientists can fail in.”

    “Knowing that one should think critically is not the same as being able to do so. That requires domain knowledge and practice.”

    So,  Why Is Thinking Critically So Hard?
    Educators have long noted that school attendance and even academic success are no guarantee that a student will graduate an effective thinker in all situations. There is an odd tendency for rigorous thinking to cling to particular examples or types of problems. Thus, a student may have learned to estimate the answer to a math problem before beginning calculations as a way of checking the accuracy of his answer, but in the chemistry lab, the same student calculates the components of a compound without noticing that his estimates sum to more than 100 percent. And a student who has learned to thoughtfully discuss the causes of the American Revolution from both the British and American perspectives doesn’t even think to question how the Germans viewed World War II. Why are students able to think critically in one situation, but not in another? The brief answer is: Thought processes are intertwined with what is being thought about. Let’s explore this in depth by looking at a particular kind of critical thinking that has been studied extensively: problem solving.

    Imagine a seventh-grade math class immersed in word problems. How is it that students will be able to answer one problem, but not the next, even though mathematically both word problems are the same, that is, they rely on the same mathematical knowledge? Typically, the students are focusing on the scenario that the word problem describes (its surface structure) instead of on the mathematics required to solve it (its deep structure). So even though students have been taught how to solve a particular type of word problem, when the teacher or textbook changes the scenario, students still struggle to apply the solution because they don’t recognize that the problems are mathematically the same.

    Thinking Tends to Focus on a Problem’s “Surface Structure”
    To understand why the surface structure of a problem is so distracting and, as a result, why it’s so hard to apply familiar solutions to problems that appear new, let’s first consider how you understand what’s being asked when you are given a problem. Anything you hear or read is automatically interpreted in light of what you already know about similar subjects. For example, suppose you read these two sentences: “After years of pressure from the film and television industry, the President has filed a formal complaint with China over what U.S. firms say is copyright infringement. These firms assert that the Chinese government sets stringent trade restrictions for U.S. entertainment products, even as it turns a blind eye to Chinese companies that copy American movies and television shows and sell them on the black market.”

    With Deep Knowledge, Thinking Can Penetrate Beyond Surface Structure
    If knowledge of how to solve a problem never transferred to problems with new surface structures, schooling would be inefficient or even futile—but of course, such transfer does occur. When and why is complex,5 but two factors are especially relevant for educators: familiarity with a problem’s deep structure and the knowledge that one should look for a deep structure. I’ll address each in turn. When one is very familiar with a problem’s deep-structure, knowledge about how to solve it transfers well. That familiarity can come from long-term, repeated experience with one problem, or with various manifestations of one type of problem (i.e., many problems that have different surface structures, but the same deep structure). After repeated exposure to either or both, the subject simply perceives the deep structure as part of the problem descript

    Bob Jensen's threads on critical thinking ---
    http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#CriticalThinking


    This is a Bizarre True Story About the Murder of a Law Professor at Florida State University
    He was shot as he pulled into his garage on July 18, 2016

    Dan Markel --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Markel

    Where it gets really bizarre is how Wendi Adelson told the story of her ex-husband's murder in a writing class radio podcast ---
    http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2016/06/wendi-adelson-discusses-her-ex-husband-dan-markels-murder-in-a-writing-class.html


    Debt Forgiveness (note the section on Tax Treatment) --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt_relief

    The Tax Consequences Of John Oliver's Forgiveness Of $15 Million Of Medical Debt ---
    http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2016/06/tax-consequences-of-john-olivers-forgiveness-of-15-million-of-medical-debt.html

     


    Wal-Mart Facts?

    Forwarded by Auntie Bev
    I did not do any fact checking

    1. Americans spend $36,000,000 at Wal-Mart Every hour of every day.

    2. This works out to $20,928 profit every minute!

    3. Wal-Mart will sell more from January 1 to St. Patrick's Day (March17th) than Target sells all year.

    5. Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people, is the world's largest private employer, and most speak English.

    6. Wal-Mart is the largest company in the history of the world.

    7. Wal-Mart now sells more food than Kroger and Safeway combined, and

    keep in mind they did this in only fifteen years.

    8. During this same period, 31 big supermarket chains sought

    bankruptcy.

    9. Wal-Mart now sells more food than any other grocery chain in the world.

    10. Wal-Mart has approx 3,900 stores in the USA of which 1,906 are

    Super Centers; this is 1,000 more than it had five years ago.

    11. This year 7.2 billion different purchasing experiences will occur

    at Wal-Mart stores. (Earth's population is approximately 6.5 Billion.)

     

    Added by Bob Jensen

    12. Puerto Rico legislated a Wal-Mart Tax intended to confiscate all Wal-Mart profits of its Puerto Rico stores. That tax was struck down by the Supreme Court.

     

    13. Some pro-union areas like Boston and Vermont do not allow new Wal-Mart stores. On many days the out-of-state cars in New Hampshire's Wal-Mart parking lots outnumber the New Hampshire cars. Of course the added incentive is not having to pay a sales tax in New Hampshire.

    14. Bob Jensen mostly shops at Amazon without having to leave the house. UPS, FedEx, and the US Postal Service (our mail carrier is named Mary) deliver packages inside our garage.


    A bloody mafia war in Montreal isn't ending anytime soon ---
    http://www.businessinsider.com/a-bloody-mafia-war-in-montreal-isnt-ending-anytime-soon-2016-6


    Negative Income Tax --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_income_tax

    "Will Switzerland give every adult $2,500 a month?" by Ivana Kottasova, CNN Money, May 24, 2016 ---
    http://money.cnn.com/2016/05/24/news/economy/switzerland-guaranteed-basic-income/

    Jensen Comment
    At last a nation gets serious about the negative income tax proposed by conservative Milton Freedman ---

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Friedman

    This could be a honey pot for immigrants. In February 2014 Switzerland passed very restrictive legislation on immigration ---
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_immigration_referendum,_February_2014

    Since 1965 legislation in the USA the ethnic and racial mix of immigrants changed dramatically making immigration much easier for people of color relative to whites. Legal immigration to the USA is the highest in the world with over 1+ million immigrants per year since Year 2000. Illegal immigration is estimated at an added 1.5 million per year and growing rapidly in the Obama years.

    A negative income tax has advantages and limitations to both low income people and the welfare system itself ---
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_income_tax

    Anecdotally, my wife's relatives in Germany tend to be hard working and contribute tax revenues to the German state. However, one nephew is a frustrating lazy man who for years refuses to work. He gets 400 euros per month plus a free apartment for doing nothing for the good of the economy. He has no dependents. In the USA he would not do as well without having to care for children. He would do even better under a negative income tax proposed for Switzerland.

    I'm not sure how Germany is taking care of the flood of new immigrants, most of whom hope to be trained and start working. Undoubtedly there are others who would be happy to be like Erika's nephew. Of course it's much more difficult to immigrate into Switzerland than Germany.

    Since WW II Germany has had a large proportion of Turkish immigrants who contributed to the rebuilding of Germany and continue to contribute greatly to the German economy. At the same time they continue to be socially isolated such as living in their own apartment complexes. It's impossible to draw conclusions for everybody, but my feeling is that the social isolation is largely out of choice to keep the Turkish communities proudly intact. I'm told that the immigrants from the Balkan states cause more troubles for Germany than the higher-proportion of Turkish immigrants. This of course is anecdotal evidence from friends and relatives in Germany.

    Update on June 5, 2016
    Who would've predicted free money would be voted down?

    Marxist Dream" Crushed - In Landslide Vote, Swiss Reject Proposal To Hand Out Free Money (over $2,500 monthly) To All Swiss Adults ---
    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-06-05/landslide-vote-swiss-reject-proposal-hand-out-free-money-everyone

    This weekend the Swiss population was called upon to make a historic decision, when Switzerland became the first country worldwide to put the idea of free money for everyone, technically known as Unconditional Basic Income (of CHF2,500 per month for every adult man and woman, and CHF625 for every child, for doing absolutely nothing) to a vote.

    As reported previously, the outcome of this referendum would set a strong precedent and establish a landmark in the evolution of the debate of handing out free money in a centrally-planned world. And as predicted, based on early vote projections it has been a landslide decision against the "free lunch."

    According to BBC, some 78% of voters opposed the plan, a GFS projection for Swiss TV suggested. AFP adds that most Swiss vote in advance by post, so a large majority of ballots had already been counted, and gfs.bern put the margin of error at just plus/minus three percent.

    Supporters said since work was increasingly automated, fewer jobs were available for workers. Switzerland is the first country to hold such a vote. No figure for the basic income had been set, but those behind the proposal suggested a monthly income of 2,500 Swiss francs (£1,755; $2,555) for adults and SFr625 for each child, reflecting the high cost of living in Switzerland. It is not clear how it would affect people on higher salaries.

    Continued in article


    These are the 18 most corrupt countries in the developed world ---
    http://www.businessinsider.com/the-most-corrupt-countries-in-the-oecd-2016-6

    1. Mexico
    2. Turkey
    3. Italy
    4. Greece
    5. Slovakia
    6. Hungary
    7. South Korea
    8. Czech Republic
    9. Spain
    10. Slovenia
    11. Israel
    12. Poland
    13. Portugal
    14. France
    15. Estonia
    16. Chile
    17. Japan
    18. Ireland

    Corruption Rankings of 167 Nations ---
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index


    For example, OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) has shown that the best performing countries do much better than the worst. Moreover, the same countries are perennial leaders: Canada, Finland, Japan, Singapore, South Korea. But there may be a flaw as serious as any Olympics scandal—a case of cheating!
    Chip Bruce
    Is Finland cheating on international tests? --
    -
    https://chipbruce.net/2008/08/22/is-finland-cheating-on-international-tests/

    Chinese Students Face Up to 7 Years in Prison for Cheating on College-Entrance Exams ---
    https://www.yahoo.com/news/chinese-students-face-7-years-091811842.html?nhp=1

    Cheating goes on everywhere in the world but the practice is legendary in India where the BBC World News has brought the world pictures in different editions this week beyond what anyone – at least those of us outside the subcontinent – could ever have imagined
    BBC World News ---
    India’s shame: Parents among those caught in massive secondary school exam cheating – BBC World News ---

    https://emotanafricana.com/2015/03/21/indias-shame-parents-among-those-caught-in-massive-secondary-school-exams-bbc-world-news/

    600 Indian students expelled for cheating on school exams ---
    http://globalnews.ca/news/1895400/600-indian-students-expelled-for-cheating-on-school-exams/

    "Colleges See More Cheating With Foreign Students," Inside Higher Ed, June 6, 2016 ---
    https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/06/06/colleges-see-more-cheating-foreign-students?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=1a507046c7-DNU20160606&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-1a507046c7-197565045


    Social Security Administration --- https://www.ssa.gov/
    This site has a reasonably good search engine

    "Here's when you should start claiming your Social Security benefits," by Ben Carlson, Business Insider, May 2016 ---
    http://www.businessinsider.com/when-to-claim-social-security-benefits-2016-5

    . . .

    What if you’re still working?

    What age gives you the highest benefits?

    What happens in a widow(er) situation?

    What’s the breakeven if you wait to claim?

    What about divorced spousal benefits?

    How does social security affect tax planning

    Continued in article

    Retirement Planner: Benefits For Your Divorced Spouse --- https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/yourdivspouse.html

    Here’s What You’ll Pay for Health Care In Retirement (Social Security benefits won't even cover your health care costs if you add supplemental Medicare insurance (that I recommend by the way)) ---
    http://time.com/money/4340299/what-youll-pay-healthcare-in-retirement/

    Forget about retiring on Social Security. Health care costs alone will devour the entire lifetime benefits—and then some—of a 45-year-old couple when they retire, according to projections released Wednesday by HealthView Services, a Danvers, Mass.- based company that provides retirement health care cost data and tools to financial advisers.

    Social Security payments will stretch farther for current retirees, but the numbers are still stark: In 2016, the average 66-year-old couple will require 57% of their lifetime, pre-tax Social Security benefits to pay for health care costs, according to HealthView Services. The average 45-year-old couple, by contrast, will need 116% of lifetime Social Security payments to cover health care costs.

    Total retirement health care expenses for that 45-year-old couple planning to retire at age 65 will come to $592,275 in today’s dollars and $1.6 million in future dollars, HealthView Services projects. The projection assumes the male member of the couple will live to 87 and the female to 89.

    The total tab includes premiums for Medicare Part B, which covers doctors’ visits, Part D, which covers drugs, and Part F, which is the most comprehensive supplemental insurance. It also includes expenses not covered by Medicare, such as dental work and hearing aids. Notably, it does not include long-term care costs. Medicare does not pay for long-term stays in nursing homes, or for assisted living facilities.

    Of course, these averages won’t reflect everyone’s experience. People’s individual health status will influence how much they pay. What’s more, not everyone will choose to buy a Part F Medigap policy. It’s a popular but expensive choice, with monthly premiums that vary widely by region but average around $200.

    While expensive, Part F plans eliminate a lot of the uncertainty of medical expenses. Premiums are predictable and cover most of beneficiaries’ out-of-pocket expenses. Without a supplemental plan, beneficiaries could be on the hook for even more if they have a big medical episode, such as a stroke, or a serious diagnosis like cancer.

    On Plan F, “if you never have a problem and drop dead at 110, you’ll have wasted a lot of money,” said Ron Mastrogiovanni, founder and CEO of HealthView Services. A more likely scenario, he said, is that, “We’re not going to stay healthy throughout retirement.”

    Continued in article

    Bob Jensen's personal finance helpers ---
    http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob1.htm#InvestmentHelpers

    Bob Jensen's universal health care messaging --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm 


    "Imagine an Economy Without Wall Street," by Nitin Nohria (Dean of the Harvard Business School, The Wall Street Journal, June 1, 2016 ---
    http://www.wsj.com/articles/imagine-an-economy-without-wall-street-1464821303?mod=djemMER

    . . .

    In the new book “Makers and Takers: The Rise of Finance and the Fall of American Business,” Time magazine columnist Rana Foroohar argues that the U.S. economy has become too focused on financial engineering, which has led to decreases in research and development, manufacturing and innovation. “Finance has become a headwind to economic growth, not a catalyst,” Ms. Foroohar writes. “As it has grown, business—as well as the American economy and society at large—has suffered.”

    I disagree. The global financial system has certainly shown excesses in the past decade, and without a doubt some players have behaved irresponsibly. Nonetheless, Wall Street remains a fundamentally value-creating enterprise. The finance industry is essential to the nation’s economic health and an integral part of what makes the U.S. economy the envy of the world. Many of the alleged consequences of “financialization”—such as the decline of manufacturing—are the result of dozens of forces, many having little to do with finance.

    Wall Street’s attackers should stop and imagine life in a world without a well-developed financial system. I’ve seen such a world firsthand. The India of my youth, lacking a modern financial infrastructure, was sclerotic and inefficient. Economic growth was severely constrained by lack of capital, and that had a direct impact on the lives of millions of people at all levels of the economic ladder.

    There is no question that we’ve lived through a period in which too many people were lent money unadvisedly, financial models proved fallible and incentives for risk-taking were flawed. Some of these excesses continue. It is also evident that the recovery from the Great Recession has been slow and uneven.

    As we seek to understand these issues, however, we should be careful about diagnoses that rely on a false divide between Wall Street and Main Street. There are “takers” on Wall Street, just as there are people who put self-interest above other considerations in law, medicine, politics, academics and every other profession. But without Wall Street, there would also be dramatically fewer “makers.”

    It is also shortsighted to criticize business schools, as Ms. Foroohar does, for producing too many graduates who aspire to work in finance. Business-school graduates have always flocked toward industries offering the most opportunities. In the 1910s and 1920s, it was the railroads; in the 1930s, consumer packaged-goods companies; in the 1950s and 1960s, manufacturing.

    As this year’s M.B.A. candidates graduate and begin new careers, they have chosen jobs after assessing not just compensation, but the opportunities for career growth, training, development, geographic considerations and, most important, the chance to do interesting and meaningful work.

    For the past 20 years, many of those opportunities have been in finance, particularly as innovative business-builders have created hundreds of new firms in private equity, venture capital and fintech startups. Despite populist criticisms, finance remains an honorable profession, and graduates who enter this field should be applauded, not derided.

    In election years in particular, there is often a desire to find scapegoats and boogeymen, and to reduce complicated economic phenomena into simplistic sound bites. But ultimately, solutions to problems like inequality and the lack of employment opportunities or wage growth aren’t going to come from government alone. They’re also going to require imaginative businesses that find new ways to employ people and create real value. These businesses won’t exist without financing.

    Mr. Nohria is the dean of Harvard Business School.

    Jensen Comment
    Although I tend to agree I think bankers, traders, and others who abuse the Wall Street financial system should face higher risk of jail time and less outrageous compensation ---
    http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm


    "Ole Miss Admits Former Assistant Football Coach Helped Falsify ACT Scores," by Fernanda Zamudio-Suaréz, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 27, 2016 ---
    http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/ole-miss-admits-former-assistant-football-coach-helped-falsify-act-scores/111698?elqTrackId=15986f4120584cf2b4827ff5a835bca4&elq=a764462c75b64a3da1748aa0cfb633d2&elqaid=9247&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=3231
    Leads to firing of four coaches plux other NCAA penalties

    Bob Jensen's threads on athletics scandals in higher education ---
    http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies2.htm#Athletics


    Clickers (Response Pads)  in the Classroom ---
     http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#ResponsePads

    Clicker Apps in the Classroom ---
    https://joetigani.wordpress.com/2010/10/01/clicker-apps-in-the-classroom/

    Question
    Should instructors stop using clickers in the classroom?

    "Teaching Tax: On Clickers and Laptops," by Sam Brunson, SurlySubgroup Blog, June 8, 2016 ---
    https://surlysubgroup.com/2016/06/09/teaching-tax-on-clickers-and-laptops/

    Classroom Clickers After 30 Years of Application ---
    http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#ResponsePads

    "Episode 90: Growing Pains for ‘Clickers’," Jeffrey R. Young, Chronicle of Higher Education, December 7, 2011 --- Click Here
    http://chronicle.com/blogs/techtherapy/2011/12/07/episode-90-growing-pains-for-%E2%80%98clickers%E2%80%99/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

    Classroom response systems, or “clickers,” have been around for years, but only a small percentage of classes use them. Competing and incompatible brands, faculty reluctance to try new technologies, and confusion about which campus group should provide support for the devices all contribute to a slow adoption, says Derek Bruff, director of Vanderbilt University’s Center for Teaching and author of Teaching With Classroom Response Systems. The Tech Therapy team looks at how those gadgets can be seen as an example of the difficulty in moving technology beyond the early-adopter stage.

    Download this recording as an MP3 file, or subscribe to Tech Therapy on iTunes.

    Each month, The Chronicle’s Tech Therapy podcast offers analysis of and advice on what the latest gadgets and buzzwords mean for professors, administrators, and students. Join hosts Jeff Young, a Chronicle reporter, and Warren Arbogast, a technology consultant who works with colleges, for a lively discussion—as well as interviews with leading thinkers in technology.

    Jensen Comment
    Response pads have a long history dating back over 30 years in the classroom. HyperGraphics was one of the first companies to shift from wired to wireless clickers using the old DOS HyperGraphics course (learning) management software. My first dog and pony technology shows featured my managerial accounting course in HyperGraphics. My first gig was at the University of Wisconsin.

    It was October 4-5, 1990 when I made my first away-from-home dog and pony show on featuring HyperGraphics technology --- at the University of Wisconsin. HyperGraphics software pretty much died after Windows replaced the DOS operating system in PCs. I then shifted my managerial accounting and accounting theory courses to ToolBooks for the PC. My out-of-town dog and pony shows really commenced to roll when my university hosts invested in those old three-barrel color projectors that predated LCD projectors. I eventually made hundreds of presentations of HyperGraphics and then ToolBooks on college campuses in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Holland, and the United Kingdom (where I lugged my full PC and LCD projector between five campuses as the European Accounting Association Visiting Professor). Many of my campus visits and topics are listed at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Resume.htm#Presentations

    Shortly thereafter Loyola's Barry Rice with his ToolBooks became a much heavier user of clickers than me in his large accounting lectures.

    I think Bill Ellis at Furman University is a current user of clickers in his accounting courses.


    Use Plickers for quick checks for understanding to know whether your students are understanding big concepts and mastering key skills ---
    https://www.plickers.com/
    Thank you Sharon Garvin for the heads up.


    Audience Response --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audience_response

    "App Tries to Increase Student Participation by Simplifying Clicker Technology." by Angela Chen, Chronicle of Higher Education, July 11, 2012 --- Click Here
    http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/app-tries-to-increase-student-participation-by-simplifying-clicker-technology/37855?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

    From clickers to programs like Learning Catalytics—which data-mines to match students with discussion partners—student-response systems are becoming more and more sophisticated. But Liam Kaufman, a graduate of the University of Toronto, thinks that the key to effective feedback is a tool with fewer bells and whistles.

    Mr. Kaufman is the developer of Understoodit, a browser-based app that lets students indicate their level of comprehension during class, and then see how much everyone else understands.

    The idea is that, during a lecture, everyone runs the Understoodit Web site, which is also accessible via mobile and tablet devices. Students press buttons to indicate that they either understand the material or are confused by it. The feedback is displayed in real time, in the form of a “confus-o-meter” and an “understand-o-meter,” which show the percentage of students who comprehend the material.

    The app was inspired by clickers, Mr. Kaufman says. But whereas clickers usually require students to answer questions so the professor can gauge their understanding, Understoodit lets them directly indicate confusion or comprehension, which is then available for everyone to see. That approach, he hopes, will encourage students to ask more questions when they realize that others are confused as well.

    Mr. Kaufman first tested the app on an entry-level computer-science class at the University of Toronto in February. The app is still in beta testing, and available by invitation only. More than 2,000 people have signed up so far, Mr. Kaufman says, including professors at institutions such as Harvard University, Stanford University, and the University of Pennsylvania.

    Continued in article

     

    Over 30 years ago, Barry Rice believed in the learning power of classroom electronic response pads (clickers).
    He was right if they are used correctly ---
    http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#ResponsePads

    "Does Using Clickers in the Classroom Matter to Student Performance and Satisfaction When Taking the Introductory Financial Accounting Course?" by Ronald F. Premuroso, Lei Tong, and Teresa K. Beed, Issues in Accounting Education, November 2011, pp. 701-724
    http://aaajournals.org/doi/abs/10.2308/iace-50066
    There is a fee for the full text version

    ABSTRACT:

    Teaching and student success in the classroom involve incorporating various sound pedagogy and technologies that improve and enhance student learning and understanding. Before entering their major field of study, business and accounting majors generally must take a rigorous introductory course in financial accounting. Technological innovations utilized in the classroom to teach this course include Audience Response Systems (ARS), whereby the instructor poses questions related to the course material to students who each respond by using a clicker and receiving immediate feedback. In a highly controlled experimental situation, we find significant improvements in the overall student examination performance when teaching this course using clickers as compared to traditional classroom teaching techniques. Finally, using a survey at the end of the introductory financial accounting course taught with the use of clickers, we add to the growing literature supporting student satisfaction with use of this type of technology in the classroom. As universities look for ways to restrain operating costs without compromising the pedagogy of core requirement classes such as the introductory financial accounting course, our results should be of interest to educators, administrators, and student retention offices, as well as to the developers and manufacturers of these classroom support technologies.

    "Some interesting findings and unanswered questions about clicker implementations," by Robert Talbert, Chronicle of Higher Education, January 4, 2012 ---
    Click Here
    http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/castingoutnines/2012/01/04/some-interesting-findings-and-unanswered-questions-about-clicker-implementations/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

    I have been using clickers in my classes for three years now, and for me, there’s no going back. The “agile teaching” model that clickers enable suits my teaching style very well and helps my students learn. But I have to say that until reading this Educause article on the flight out to Boston on Sunday, I hadn’t given much thought to how the clicker implementation model chosen by the institution might affect how my students learn.

    Different institutions implement clickers differently, of course. The article studies three different implementation models: the students-pay-without-incentive (SPWOI) approach, where students buy the clickers for class but the class has no graded component for clicker use; the the students-pay-with-incentive (SPWI) approach, where students purchase clickers and there’s some grade incentive in class for using them (usually participation credit, but this can vary too); and the institution-pays-clicker-kit (IPCK) approach, where the institution purchases a box of clickers (a “clicker kit”) for an instructor, and the instructor brings them to class.

    For me, the most interesting finding in the study was that there appears to be a threshhold for the perceived usefulness of clickers among students. The study found that in the SPWOI approach, 72% of student respondents said they would buy a clicker if it was used in at least three courses they were taking per semester. But drop that number to “at least two courses” and the percentage drops to 24%! So once the saturation level of clicker use reaches something like 50–75% of a student’s course load, they start seeing the devices as worth the money, even with no grade attached to its use. (Only a depressing 13% of students said they would pay $50 for a clicker based solely on its value as a learning tool. We have some P.R. to do, it seems.)

    In the SPWI approach, 65% of respondents said they would buy a clicker if the contribution of clicker use toward their course grades was between 3% and 5%. (This is sort of mystifying. What do the other 35% do? Steal one? Just forfeit that portion of their grade?) The study doesn’t say explicitly, but it implies that if the grade contribution is less than 3%, the percentage would drop — how precipitously, we don’t know.

    The study goes on to give a decision tree to help institutions figure out which implementation model to choose. Interestingly, if it gets down to choosing between the SPWI and SPWOI models, the deciding factor is whether the institution can manage cheating with the clickers. If so, then go with SPWI. Otherwise, go SPWOI — that is, if you can’t control cheating, don’t offer incentives.

    Here at GVSU, I use the SPWI approach. Students have to pay for the clickers, but they get 5% of their course grade for participation. I take attendance at each class using the Attendance app for the iPhone. Then, once or twice a week, I’ll cross-check the attendance records with the clicker records for the day. If a student is present but doesn’t respond to all the clicker questions, they lose participation credit for the day. This method also mitigates cheating; if a student is absent for the day but has records of clicker response, then I hold the student guilty of cheating, because someone else is entering data for them. (Putting the burden on the absent student makes it less likely they’ll give their clicker to someone else to cheat for them.).

    Continued in article

    January 10, 2012 reply from Steve Hornik

    Late reply to this thread, but my memory is pretty bad and I was trying to remember a "clicker" alternative. I finally did, its Pollanywhere and works the same way as clickers. I've used for presentations at AAA meetings a few years ago, here's a link if anyone is interested in finding out more:

    http://www.polleverywhere.com/ 

    _________________________
    Dr. Steven Hornik
    University of Central Florida
    Dixon School of Accounting
    407-823-5739

    http://about.me/shornik

     


    Will classroom clickers be obsolete if each student in class is online?

    October 22, 2009 message from Bill Ellis [bill.ellis@furman.edu]

    http://www.sapweb20.com/blog/powerpoint-twitter-tools/

    Here’s new software from a reliable source. I’ve not tried this yet, but it might have a use in classrooms.

    FREE PowerPoint Twitter Tools
    Ever wanted to make presentations a more interactive, Web 2.0 experience? A prototype version of the PowerPoint Twitter Tools is now available for testing. Created using SAP BusinessObjects Xcelsius
    <http://www.sap.com/solutions/sapbusinessobjects/sme/reporting-dashboarding/index.epx> (but requiring only PowerPoint for Windows and Adobe Flash to run), the twitter tools allow presenters to see and react to tweets in real-time, embedded directly within their presentations, either as a ticker or refreshable comment page. There are currently six tools:

    • PowerPoint Twitter feedback slide
    • PowerPoint Twitter ticker bar
    • PowerPoint Twitter update bar
    • PowerPoint Twitter voting — bar charts and pie chart
    • PowerPoint Mood meter
    • PowerPoint Crowd meter     

    Jensen Comment
    Thanks for this heads up Bill. For over a decade I taught in an electronic classroom where each student work station had software that made clickers unnecessary, although clickers would still be useful for students not having computers at their seats. The above software does more than most electronic classroom software to date.

    I summarize the history of classroom clickers (response pads) below.
    This includes a previous message from Bill Ellis and reference to an early adopter back in the 1980s --- our own AECM founder Barry Rice (who by the way was a very popular old-style ToolBook lecturer when using response pads).

    The main advantage of response pads, in my viewpoint, is that they help hold student attention in a lecture because of fear/anticipation of being called on. I used an Excel program that not only called on a student at random, it flashed his/her picture on the screen.

    My electronic classroom software could also instantly flash whatever was on any student’s workstation screen. This prevented students from doing email or playing computer games in class --- or so I discovered after embarrassing a few students early on in the course. If a student seemed to be furiously typing an email message in class, I flipped that student’s screen in front of the class. Some would begin “Dear Mom.”

    Students can write to their moms after class.

    Bob Jensen

    May 26, 2009 message from Bill Ellis [bill.ellis@furman.edu]

    I thought I’d pass along this email on clickers and recommend a new book by Derck Bruff.

    I’ve been using Clickers for almost two years now in Principles, Advanced and Governmental accounting courses at GTC and Furman. The comments by Derck Bruff, a Furman graduate, below are right on target.

    Accountability and engagement are the primary two features clickers have brought into my classrooms. There is no place for shy students to hide. A response is demanded and every student’s score is recorded. Every student is engaged not only by having to answer questions throughout the lecture, but in discussions using “think-pair-share” techniques that reinforce learning in a very active way.

    I don’t use clickers for grades but do let students know their “scores” and class averages. I’ve seen a high positive correlation between responses on the question “how many hours did you study this week?” to a student’s clicker score for the lecture. If students miss a question that gives me an early warning that I should go over that learning objective again.

    I’m convinced that clickers when used creatively help confidence, teaching and learning to improve.

    Bill Ellis, CPA, MPAcc
    Furman University
    Accounting UES

    May 26, 2009 message from Rick Reis <reis@stanford.edu>

    Date: Tue, 26 May 2009 08:30:20 -0700
    From: Rick Reis <reis@stanford.edu>
    Subject: TP Msg. #950 Clickers
    To: tomorrows-professor@lists.stanford.edu 

    "Instead of creating chaos, faculty find that when everyone gets a remote control (and you ask good questions), everyone ends up on the same channel."

    Folks:

    The posting below looks at the impact of an important new technology on faculty lecturing and student learning. It is by James Rhem, executive director of the National Teaching & Learning Forum and is #45 in a series of selected excerpts from the NT&LF newsletter reproduced here as part of our "Shared Mission Partnership." NT&LF has a wealth of information on all aspects of teaching and learning. If you are not already a subscriber, you can check it out at [http://www.ntlf.com/] The on-line edition of the Forum--like the printed version - offers subscribers insight from colleagues eager to share new ways of helping students reach the highest levels of learning. National Teaching and Learning Forum Newsletter, Volume 18, Number 3, March 2009.? Copyright 1996-2009. Published by James Rhem & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Reprinted with permission.

    Regards,

    Rick Reis reis@stanford.edu 

    Tomorrow's Teaching and Learning

    Clickers

    Clickers have been quietly marching over the horizon of attention for several years. Only early adopters, however, and schools with enough money and vision to try them have come to understand that, far from being simply the latest new gadget, they offer students a pedagogically powerful blend of intimacy and anonymity that can move them from passive to active learning with the click of a button (and a battery of well-crafted questions).

    Rapid improvements in the technology and especially the publication of Derek Bruff's Teaching with Classroom Response Systems: Creative Active Learning Environments (Jossey-Bass, 2009) seem poised to place clickers in faculty consciousness across the board. The attention the book has already received offers some index of the growing interest in clickers. Bruff has already been profiled by the on- line newsletter Inside Higher Education and the Chronicle of Higher Education.

    How They Work

    For those who don't know, clickers are hand-held devices similar to the remote controls for televisions and other media devices. They can send a specific electronic signal to a central receiving station connected to a computer equipped with software that tabulates the responses and can then display the distribution of answers on a bar graph.

    In operation-especially in quantitative fields with concrete correct and incorrect answers-a professor presents a multiple choice or true/false question. Students respond by pushing buttons for answers (a), (b), (c), and so on. Then, normally, the professor shows the bar graph of how the class answered. Quickly, students can see where they stand in terms of how well they understand the material, and (just as importantly) where their classmates stand, and where they stand in relation to these peers. And students get all of this very specific feedback on their learning without risking a moment of embarrassment. The anonymity of the system allows students to confront little important truths about their progress (or lack of it) without risking a thing.

    Faculty schooled a few generations back when shame and guilt were felt to have at least some pedagogical value-that is to say, in a time when students felt ashamed to make a poor grade or come to class unprepared-the ascendance of this new teaching environment may seem strange. However, as the emphasis in education has shifted over the centuries from building character to simply learning, it all makes sense. (And, of course, whether shame and guilt actually built character remains an open question.)

    Anonymity's Advantages

    The anonymity is "pretty important," says Derek Bruff, who teaches mathematics and serves as assistant director of the Vanderbilt Center for Teaching. "Students are often hesitant to speak up in front of their peers," he says. "A key element in that is the desire not to be wrong or foolish in front of their peers, especially in a class where there are right/ wrong answers. In other classes, they don't want to stand out or be the one with the strange opinion."

    Peer pressure, says Bruff, "dampens conversation." The anonymity that clickers provide is one way of dealing with that. "It's not the only way," Bruff concedes. "There are professors that are able to create a safe environment where that's not a problem."

    If escaping peer pressure and taking refuge in anonymity prove such positive elements in teaching and learning, a question that comes immediately to mind is, where do cooperative learning and other small group activities fit in? The answer? On the next click, so to speak.

    Offering an answer via the clicker establishes a "buy-in," says Bruff, a commitment not simply to an answer but to the learning process. With this threshold crossed, passivity has begun to be left behind. The anonymity allows cumbersome emotional baggage to be left behind as well, lending both a purity and a more animated sense of mission to the next step, the familiar "think-pair-share."

    The "Think Moment"

    "We use the think-pair-share method a lot here," says Bruff, "think, talk with one, talk in the larger group. There's more risk at each stage, but giving students a warm-up experience is important because many need that moment. If a hand in the first row goes up to answer a question, their thinking is stopped. The class is then moving on. Maybe they needed 30 more seconds. Giving the 'think moment' is helpful. Then, in the pair, they get to practice saying what they think, and they get to hear other thinking which then sharpens theirs."

    The silent, private "think moment" operates like moving from warm water to hotter and hotter baths in a hot spring, for example, and finally into strong currents where one may have to swim against the tide intellectually.

    Just as this technologically enhanced learning environment intensifies the focus on learning and recognizing where everyone stands in the process moment to moment, it also intensifies the burden on faculty to become "agile teachers." For example, when clickers first began to be used, showing the bar chart of student responses immediately was expected. As their use has grown and influenced faculty understanding of group behavior and learning patterns, whether to show or not to show the graph has become an important "thinking-on-your-feet" decision. Even if most students agree on a correct answer, how deeply do they understand the reasoning behind it? Sometimes, to make sure their learning goes more deeply, faculty withhold the results and ask students to turn to their neighbor and talk out the reasons for their answer, especially if their neighbor gave a different answer.

    "When I have that happen," says Bruff, "I tell my groups, 'Even if you agree, talk it out because you could both be wrong.' I want them to test themselves a little bit."

    It's the "thinking-on-your-feet" challenge that burdens faculty. "That's a roadblock for some faculty," says Bruff. "They want 'ballistic teaching,'" he says with a laugh. "Launch lecture, and once it's off, it's off on its way." Clickers offer lots of chances for mid-course corrections, but their use also demands something of a chess player's mentality of knowing not only how the pieces move, but which move to make next for maximum advantage. Sometimes, the best move does turn out to be "creating times for telling," says Bruff (using a phrase coined by Schwartz and Bransford), time for a little lecture students need and which skillful use of clicker questions can lead them to want. For example, anticipating a common misconception, faculty may ask a question experience has shown them most students will answer incorrectly.

    "The instructor then reveals the correct answer," says Bruff, "often through a demonstration. The students are surprised most of them got the answer wrong and it makes them want to hear why the right answer is right and the answer they gave is wrong."

    Making Good Questions

    Successful use of clickers turns on the skillful use of good questions. "Writing good questions I would have to say is the hardest part" of teaching with clickers, says Bruff. But it's also the most exciting part because it causes faculty to become intensely intentional about their teaching moment to moment, not just lecture to lecture. "That's why I like to talk about clickers with faculty," says Bruff, "because it generates this kind of conversation: 'What are my learning goals for my students?'"

    There are content questions asking for recall of information, conceptual questions seeking evidence of understanding, application questions, critical thinking questions, and free-response questions. When and how to ask the right kind of question in response to where the students actually sitting before the faculty member are becomes the proof of good teaching in that moment.

    One of the most interesting aspects to emerge from the use of clickers has to do with the flexibility of the multiple choice question to stimulate thinking and learning. "Many people think of the multiple choice question as being only about factual recall," says Bruff, but the one-best-answer variation probes much deeper. "A really good teacher can write really good wrong answers to a question," says Bruff, ones that key into common student difficulties with material. "When I really like 40-60% of my students to get it wrong. And I'd like them to be split between a right choice and several wrong choices, because then that means I have tapped into some misconceptions that are fairly common and need to be addressed and the question is hard enough to be worth talking about."

    Metacognition and Confidence

    Some of the problems that have emerged in using clickers have also turned out to reveal opportunities for increasing student learning or rather student learning about their own learning. Bruff, a mathematician, began to ponder how much confidence he could have in student learning reported via true/ false questions or even some multiple choice questions. In a true/ false situation, for example, students might guess and have a 50% chance of lodging a correct answer. Multiple choice questions might be constructed to include an "I don't know" option, but then the matter of discouraging student engagement becomes an issue. Students might retreat to the safety of an "I don't know" answer rather than commit to a response they felt uncertain about. Pondering this problem has led a number of pioneers in clicker use, like Dennis Jacobs at Notre Dame, to marry self-assessments of confidence levels with decisions about right or wrong answers. So, for example, in Jacobs' system (where clicker responses are graded) a correct answer in which a student indicated high confidence would receive five points. An incorrect answer that a student had expressed high confidence in would receive no points. On the other hand, an incorrect answer in which a student indicated low confidence would receive two points.

    "If a student gives a right answer," says Bruff, "but realizes they aren't confident in it, they have a little metacognitive moment thrust upon them: they have to ask themselves 'Why wasn't I more confident in my answer? What are the standards of evidence in this field that would allow me to be confident in my answer?'" By the same token, a student aware enough of his own learning to express low confidence in an incorrect answer receives partial credit for sensing that he didn't know, thus encouraging him as a learner rather than thumping him for getting something wrong. With this system, he gets both the positive and negative points to be made through the question.

    Creative Options Everywhere

    One of the strengths of Bruff's book on clicker use lies in the wide range of faculty examples he includes. That range evinces impressive imagination and commitment among faculty to improving student learning, itself a pleasure in reading the book. And, while the dominant use of clickers falls in scientific fields, the book includes rich examples of skillful use of clickers in humanities courses as well. Moreover, while clickers offer the most efficient means of collecting student responses, the overall emphasis falls on collecting those responses and on the dimensions of psychology, motivation, and cognition involved in their use. Hence, Bruff includes discussion of some low-tech means of collecting student responses as well.

    With clickers, as with so many other new technologies, the greatest benefit seems to lie in the way they uncover new means of improving one of the most ancient of transactions-teaching and learning. Socrates would be proud.

    Contact Derek Bruff at: Derek.bruff@vanderbilt.edu

    May 27, 2009 reply from Bob Jensen

    Hi Bill and Rick,

    One of the enthusiastic early adopters of response pads (clickers) in the hands of students during lectures was our AECM founder Barry Rice. Barry used the early technology called HyperGraphics for screen presentations and student responses on screen --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#ResponsePads 

    HyperGraphics was DOS-based before the Windows operating system came on the scene. HyperGraphics had a unique niche in the DOS world but never competed well in the Windows/Mac worlds when ToolBook and Authorware came on the scene --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/290wp/290wp.htm  This illustrates how technology can make and destroy software. ToolBook and Authorware, in turn, never competed well in academe after course technology became more Web-based. Now we have HTML, XML, Wikis, chat rooms, instant messaging, etc.

    But response pads (clickers) are still popular with many faculty in various academic disciplines. In a lecture, clickers offer limited response capabilities that online students get with full network capabilities from their PC stations.

    I’m certain Barry Rice will be pleased with your 2009 testimonial about successful clicker use that he used successfully as far back as 1989. Barry would probably still use clickers in lectures had he not switched to full-time administration many years ago.

    I had the luxury of teaching in an electronic classroom over the past two decades. Each student sat in front of a PC capable of easily interacting on screen and via ear phones with the instructor and each other. With a flick of a button I could flash any student’s screen in front of the class just as a clicker response can be flashed in front of the entire class.

    What I did not develop software for was response aggregation. One advantage of clicker software is the power to instantly aggregate joint responses of all students in the class such as the number of responses for each of the choices in a multiple choice question. I think the Trinity University electronic classrooms now have such aggregation software that can slice and dice multiple student responses.

    While many faculty users of clickers minimize clicker cheating by not providing student performance grades based on clicker usage, there are some that give credit in some form, including quiz points based upon clicker responses. This can create problems. One study on clicker cheating can be found at http://www.lychock.com/portfolio/Documents/final report.pdf

    Another problem in very large lectures might arise when clickers are used for taking attendance. These are not very reliable for taking role unless accompanied by some verification controls.

    Bob Jensen

     




    From the Scout Report on June 3, 2016

    Preceden --- https://www.preceden.com 

    When it comes to visually presenting and understanding key dates and events in one's personal life or in world history, timelines can be very useful. Online tools to facilitate their creation, however, are not always easy to come by or intuitive to use. With a free "Lite" version, Preceden allows readers to make timelines in minutes, using a number of adjustable templates. Signing up is easy and versions are available for educational, business, or personal use. Timelines are private by default, but may be freely shared on the web for those who would like to publicize their information. Whether used for a student project or as a teaching aid, one can imagine many innovative uses for this web-based timeline maker.  


    DropSend --- http://www.dropsend.com 

    For readers who reach the data limits of what they are able to send by email or other file sharing services, DropSend is one free, effective, and easy-to-use service that can resolve the problem. DropSend comes with much wider bandwidth for sharing files in its free service (and unlimited bandwidth for its "pro" upgrade), meaning that a user could share large video, image, audio, or other files without hitting the usual boundaries of internet sharing. Simply select "Send Your File" from the homepage, then enter an email address for the sender and the receiver, select a file, and send the file. There is no software to install and no other account registration necessary


    New Glimpses into Roman London
     

    Hello from Londinium: Oldest Handwritten Documents in British History
    Discovered
    http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/06/02/480407904/hello-from-londinium-oldest-handwritten-documents-in-british-history-discovered

    Oldest handwriting documents in UK unearthed in London dig
    http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jun/01/tablets-unearthed-city-glimpse-roman-london-bloomberg
     


    Museum of London Archeology (MOLA) Blog
    http://www.mola.org.uk/blog

     

    National Geographic Education Blog: Ancient Roman Tablets Reveal Voices of
    the Earliest Londoners
    https://blog.education.nationalgeographic.com/2016/06/02/ancient-roman-tablets-reveal-voices-of-the-earliest-londoners

     

    Artifacts from London's "Pompeii of the North"
    http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/artifacts-from-londons-pompeii-of-the-north
     


    DNA study finds London was ethnically diverse from start
    http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34809804


    From the Scout Report on June 10, 2016

    ClassDojo --- https://www.classdojo.com 

    ClassDojo's behavior management program is free, easy to implement, and many students and teachers report liking its game-like quality. Educators simply enter a list of their students names then add certain desired behaviors, such as sitting still, raising a hand in class, or completing homework, as well as undesired behaviors, such as bickering in class, interrupting, or getting off task. From there, teachers can monitor students' performance in real time. When a student performs desired behaviors they receive a point. When they perform an undesired behavior they lose a point. Some educators choose to project students' scores publicly throughout class, while others keep a private tally and share with students as needed. Set up requires nothing more than an email address. Educators may like to begin with the short introductory video that explains how to best utilize the tool. 


    Infogram --- https://infogr.am 

    Infographics have become increasingly popular over the past few years, often presenting complex or text-heavy information in an easy to understand and visually appealing way. Among the numerous online tools and services out there, Infogram is especially handy for users interested in creating data-centric infographics, maps, and charts. User data may be uploaded as a .xls, .xlsx, or .csv file, or may be imported from a number of sources, including Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive. From there, users may select from three basic design types: Infographic or Report, Chart or Graph, and Map. With a variety of themes and templates, customization is easy and completed graphics may be embedded and shared anywhere. As with many online services, users may opt for a free basic version or upgrade to a pro version at cost. Also of note is the Infogram blog, which is updated frequently and features user stories and tips and tricks to inspire or help with various data visualization topics.


    Rethinking "Dead as Dodo:" New Scientific Insights About the Dodo Bird
    and Animal Extinction
    The Smart, Agile, and Completely Underrated Dodo
    http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/06/the-dodos-redemption
    /486086


    How humanity first killed the dodo, then lost it as well
    http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160408-how-humanity-first-killed-the-dodo-then-lost-it-as-well


    Death by Dry Spell
    http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2012/03/death-dry-spell

    Memoirs of Hugh Edwin Strickland
    https://archive.org/details/memoirshughedwi00jardgoog

    There's No Such Thing as Pristine Nature
    http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/theres-no-such-thing-as-pristine-nature

    Will It Happen Again? Examining Mass Extinctions on Earth
    http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/06/will-it-happen-again-examining-mass-extinctions-on-earth

     




    Free Online Tutorials, Videos, Course Materials, and Learning Centers


    Education Tutorials

    Free Code Camp --- https://www.freecodecamp.com/ 

    Forum Network --- http://www.forum-network.org

    SciStarter --- https://scistarter.com

    The Inquiry Project (science for kids) ---  http://inquiryproject.terc.edu

    The Story Of Menstruation: Watch Walt Disney’s Sex Ed Film from 1946 ---
    http://www.openculture.com/2016/06/the-story-of-menstruation-watch-walt-disneys-sex-ed-film-from-1946.html

    Stinks, Bangs and Booms: The Rise and Fall of the American Chemistry Set ---
    http://chemistryset.chemheritage.org/#/

    USGS: Earthquake Topics for Education --- http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/topics/?topicID=56&topic=Lessons%2520online

    Earth Science Literacy Maps --- http://www.dlese.org/library/literacy_maps/

    WGBH: Open Vault (media highlights modules) --- http://openvault.wgbh.org

    SciencePoles --- http://www.sciencepoles.org

    The Encyclopedia Arctica --- http://www.dartmouth.edu/~library/digital/collections/ocn238796413/index.html

    Videos for Psychology Teachers --- http://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/topss/videos-teachers.aspx

    BBC NEWS: Americas: Country Profiles --- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/country_profiles

    MSU Library: Digital Initiatives and Digital Collections (Montana) --- https://www.lib.montana.edu/digital

    AskAboutIreland --- http://www.askaboutireland.ie

    NSF: Earth & Environment Classroom Resources --- https://www.nsf.gov/news/classroom/earth-environ.jsp

    Utah Education Network: Physical Education --- http://www.uen.org/Lessonplan/LPview.cgi?core=16

    Hip Hop, Popular Music and Education --- http://www.ithaca.edu/wise/hip_hop

    NBC Learn: Free Resources --- http://www.nbclearn.com/portal/site/learn/resources

    Hudson River Valley Heritage: Culinary Institute of America --- http://www.hrvh.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/cia

    99% Invisible (trivia history and much more) --- http://99percentinvisible.org

    Bob Jensen's threads on general education tutorials are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#EducationResearch

    Bob Jensen's bookmarks for multiple disciplines --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm

    Bob Jensen's links to free courses and tutorials --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI

     


    Engineering, Science, and Medicine Tutorials

    ScienceBlogs --- http://scienceblogs.com/

    SciStarter --- https://scistarter.com

    The Inquiry Project (science for kids) ---  http://inquiryproject.terc.edu

    Harvard scientists created a 'bionic leaf' that's better at converting the sun's energy than real plants ---
    http://www.businessinsider.com/harvard-scientists-created-a-bionic-leaf-2016-6

    PBS LearningMedia: Sound Vibrations ---
    http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/phy03.sci.phys.howmove.lp_sound/sound-vibrations

    Your Body is a Space That Sees: Artist Lia Halloran’s Stunning Cyanotype Tribute to Women in Astronomy ---
    https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/06/07/your-body-is-a-space-that-sees-lia-halloran/?mc_cid=b078c55a02&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

    Forum Network --- http://www.forum-network.org

    Stinks, Bangs and Booms: The Rise and Fall of the American Chemistry Set ---
    http://chemistryset.chemheritage.org/#/

    Birds-of-Paradise Project --- http://birdsofparadiseproject.org/

    USGS: Earthquake Topics for Education --- http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/topics/?topicID=56&topic=Lessons%2520online

    Earth Science Literacy Maps --- http://www.dlese.org/library/literacy_maps/

    BBC News: India's Dying Mother (the Ganges) --- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-aad46fca-734a-45f9-8721-61404cc12a39

    SciencePoles --- http://www.sciencepoles.org

    Jane Goodall's Roots & Shoots --- http://rootsandshoots.org

    The Encyclopedia Arctica --- http://www.dartmouth.edu/~library/digital/collections/ocn238796413/index.html

    NSF: Earth & Environment Classroom Resources --- https://www.nsf.gov/news/classroom/earth-environ.jsp

    Bob Jensen's threads on free online science, engineering, and medicine tutorials are at --http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm

    The Story Of Menstruation: Watch Walt Disney’s Sex Ed Film from 1946 ---
    http://www.openculture.com/2016/06/the-story-of-menstruation-watch-walt-disneys-sex-ed-film-from-1946.html

    Bob Jensen's links to free courses and tutorials --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI


    Social Science and Economics Tutorials

    The Refugee Project --- http://www.therefugeeproject.org/

    NBC Learn: Free Resources --- http://www.nbclearn.com/portal/site/learn/resources

    Videos for Psychology Teachers --- http://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/topss/videos-teachers.aspx

    WGBH: Open Vault (media highlights modules) --- http://openvault.wgbh.org

    Wall Street Journal: Law Blog --- http://blogs.wsj.com/law

    Politico --- http://www.politico.com

    Ayn Rand Issues 13 Commandments to Filmmakers for Making Good Capitalist Movies (1947) ---
    http://www.openculture.com/2016/05/ayn-rands-13-commandments-for-making-good-capitalist-movies-1947.html

    Jane Goodall's Roots & Shoots --- http://rootsandshoots.org

    DearTomorrow (climate change letters) --- http://www.deartomorrow.org

    Bob Jensen's threads on Economics, Anthropology, Social Sciences, and Philosophy tutorials are at
    http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm

    Bob Jensen's links to free courses and tutorials --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI


    Law and Legal Studies

    Wall Street Journal: Law Blog --- http://blogs.wsj.com/law

    Bob Jensen's threads on law and legal studies are at
    http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm


    Math Tutorials

    An Ivy League professor explains chaos theory, the prisoner's dilemma, and why math isn't really boring ---
    http://www.businessinsider.com/steven-strogatz-interview-on-math-education-2016-6

    Bob Jensen's threads on free online mathematics tutorials are at
    http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm

    Bob Jensen's links to free courses and tutorials --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI


    History Tutorials

    Histography: Timeline of History ---
    https://scout.wisc.edu/archives/g46326
    Jensen Comment:  At the moment this site will only open using my Chrome browser

    Crooked Timber (philosophy blogs) --- http://crookedtimber.org

    Free: Download 5.3 Million Images from Books Published Over Last 500 Years ---
    http://www.openculture.com/2016/05/free-download-5-3-million-images-from-books-published-over-last-500-years.html

    The best nonfiction books add up to a biography of our culture ---
    https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2016/jun/02/the-history-of-nonfiction-biography-of-our-culture-100-best-nonfiction-books

    WGBH: Open Vault (media highlights modules) --- http://openvault.wgbh.org

    Malcolm Gladwell is Launching a New Podcast, Revisionist History (Gladwell frequently writes for The New Yorker magazine)---
    http://www.openculture.com/2016/06/malcolm-gladwell-is-launching-a-new-podcast-revisionist-history.html

    Theodore Roosevelt Center --- http://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org

    California's Old Series Trademarks --- http://www.sos.ca.gov/archives/trademarks

    AskAboutIreland --- http://www.askaboutireland.ie

    A Brief History of Tobacco in America ---
    http://daily.jstor.org/a-brief-history-of-tobacco-in-america/

    Stream 23 Free Documentaries from PBS’ Award-Winning American Experience Series ---
    http://www.openculture.com/2016/06/stream-23-free-documentaries-from-pbs-award-winning-american-experience-series.html

    NYPL Digital Collections: Jerome Robbins Dance Division Audio and Moving Image Archive --- http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/dancevideo

    Digital Harlem --- http://digitalharlem.org

    The New York Preservation Archive Project --- http://www.nypap.org

    Color Footage of America’s First Shopping Mall Opening in 1956: The Birth of a Beloved and Reviled Institution ---
    http://www.openculture.com/2016/06/color-footage-of-americas-first-shopping-mall-opening-in-1956.html
    Actually they go back to at least 1950 ---
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shopping_mall

    "Mongol hordes gave up on conquering Europe due to wet weather," by Conor Gearin, New Scientist, May 26, 2016 ---
    https://www.newscientist.com/article/2090335-mongol-hordes-gave-up-on-conquering-europe-due-to-wet-weather/

    Philosophy Prof Illustrates Nietzsche’s Zarathustra in the Style of Dr. Seuss ---
    http://www.openculture.com/2016/06/philosophy-prof-illustrates-nietzsches-zarathustra-in-the-style-of-dr-seuss.html

    Tibet and China 65 Years Later ---
    http://daily.jstor.org/tibet-and-china-65-years-later/

    Rare WWII Color Photographs Taken by Hitler’s Personal Photographer ---
    http://www.vintag.es/2016/05/rare-wwii-color-photographs-taken-by.html

    Wall Street Journal: Law Blog --- http://blogs.wsj.com/law

    Home Movie Registry --- http://homemovieregistry.org/wp/

    99% Invisible (trivia history and much more) --- http://99percentinvisible.org

    Hip Hop, Popular Music and Education --- http://www.ithaca.edu/wise/hip_hop

    Busy Beaver Button Museum --- http://www.buttonmuseum.org

    Bob Jensen's threads on history tutorials are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
    Also see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm  

    From LISNews on June 3, 2016

    --Best American Essays
    Posted Monday May 30th at 11:44 PM
    Best American Essays -
     

    Overview https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Best_American_Essays
     

    Best American Essays 1986 http://amzn.to/1XKFNfR
    Best American Essays 1987 http://amzn.to/1sHTmRw
    Best American Essays 1988 http://amzn.to/1sHTTCR
    Best American Essays 1989 http://amzn.to/1sHU2pT
    Best American Essays 1990 http://amzn.to/1Y0iLSp
    Best American Essays 1991 http://amzn.to/1WuhEeu
    Best American Essays 1992 http://amzn.to/1Y0jhjs
    Best American Essays 1993 http://amzn.to/1TSTS8e
    Best American Essays 1994 http://amzn.to/1XKGLc1
    Best American Essays 1995 http://amzn.to/1Uq9hwT
    Best American Essays 1996 http://amzn.to/1Y0jqmV
    Best American Essays 1997 http://amzn.to/20QOMeB
    Best American Essays 1998 http://amzn.to/1WuidEY
    Best American Essays 1999 http://amzn.to/1XKHGcd
    Best American Essays 2000 http://amzn.to/1THGpy2
    Best American Essays 2001 http://amzn.to/27ZL3B2
    Best American Essays 2002 http://amzn.to/27ZKXJB
    Best American Essays 2003 http://amzn.to/1Y0jWRS
    Best American Essays 2004 http://amzn.to/1XKIv4U
    Best American Essays 2005 http://amzn.to/20QPKYs
    Best American Essays 2006 http://amzn.to/27ZLkny
    Best American Essays 2007 http://amzn.to/1UqaHr5
    Best American Essays 2008 http://amzn.to/20QPDfw
    Best American Essays 2009 http://amzn.to/1THGHop
    Best American Essays 2010 http://amzn.to/1qYT47F
    Best American Essays 2011 http://amzn.to/20QPpVz
    Best American Essays 2012 http://amzn.to/1Uqb05i
    Best American Essays 2013 http://amzn.to/1WuiKXo
    Best American Essays 2014 http://amzn.to/1Uqb8BO
    Best American Essays 2015
    http://amzn.to/27ZLbQT

     

    Bob Jensen's links to free courses and tutorials --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI


    Language Tutorials

    Bob Jensen's links to language tutorials are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2-Part2.htm#Languages


    Music Tutorials

    PBS LearningMedia: Sound Vibrations ---
    http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/phy03.sci.phys.howmove.lp_sound/sound-vibrations

    NYPL Digital Collections: Jerome Robbins Dance Division Audio and Moving Image Archive --- http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/dancevideo

    Digital Harlem --- http://digitalharlem.org

    Bob Jensen's threads on free music tutorials are at
    http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm

    Bob Jensen's threads on music performances ---
    http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm


    Writing Tutorials

    Atravist:  Make a story and design it your own way (design tools) --- https://atavist.com/

    Reading, Writing, and Researching for History: A Guide for College Students --- https://www.bowdoin.edu/writing-guides

    Bob Jensen's helpers for writers are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob3.htm#Dictionaries



    Bob Jensen's threads on medicine ---
    http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2-Part2.htm#Medicine

    CDC Blogs --- http://blogs.cdc.gov/

    Updates from WebMD --- http://www.webmd.com/

    May 26, 2016

    May 27, 2016

    May 28, 2016

    June 2, 2016

    June 3, 2016

    June 4, 2016

    June 6, 2016

    June 7, 2016

    June 8, 2016

    June 9, 2016

    June 10, 2016

    June 11, 2016

    June 13, 2016

    June 14, 2016

     


    Concern Grows on Mental Health of Med Students (and doctors) ---
    https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/06/13/concern-grows-mental-health-med-students?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=34781723b5-DNU20160613&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-34781723b5-197565045

    Jensen Comment
    Doctors are paid well, but many work under extreme stress and long hours. Burnout is common. There are also addictive drug temptations. Failed marriages are common.


    This Is Why Rich People Aren’t Always Happy ---
    http://time.com/money/4363201/wealth-rich-happiness-people/?xid=newsletter-brief

    Jensen Comment
    Several leaders of the United Fund campaigns on the campus of four universities where I spent my 40-year career revealed that when it came to giving on campus, faculty tented to be the least generous relative to much lower-paid staff working on campus.

    Having said this the article above is superficial and needs more references.
    The famous boxer Joe Lewis said:  "I been poor and I been rich; Rich is better." Having said this it could be that many wealthier people are let down by disappointments in what they though would be the better things in life. The road to wealth is not always a happiness trip.


    The Aging Brain
    What I learned trying to keep up with my 4-year-old daughter at the royal game (Chess) ---
    http://nautil.us/issue/36/aging/learning-chess-at-40


    Rats!
    MIT:  A Connection between Cell Phones and Cancer Has Been Found. Should We Be Worried? ---
    https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601591/a-connection-between-cell-phones-and-cancer-has-been-found-should-we-be-worried/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20160530#/set/id/601592/


    A Problem With a Vegan Diet ---
    http://time.com/4346551/vegan-diet-vegetarian/?xid=newsletter-brief


    A Brief History of Tobacco in America ---
    http://daily.jstor.org/a-brief-history-of-tobacco-in-america/

     




    Humor June 1-15, 2015

    Dana Carvey does amazing impressions of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders ---
    http://www.businessinsider.com/dana-carvey-impressions-of-donald-trump-and-bernie-sanders-2016-6

    Forwarded by Maria Popova
    Daytime Visions: A Tender and Unusual Illustrated Alphabet Celebrating the Whimsy of Words ---

    https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/05/25/daytime-visions-isol/?mc_cid=5e19106c81&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

    Forwarded by Steve Markoff
    Teaching from Stock Photos

    https://www.facebook.com/WeAreTeachers/videos/10154259001003708/


    Triciaisms ---
    http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2016/06/02/triciaisms/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=d294d8e7278f43d293da69f427004309&elq=b5e7d3b5b66b48458524db95e068cd3d&elqaid=9298&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=3260


    The day after Sven replaced Ole's outhouse with a new septic tank Lena screamed at Ole when she saw him squatting in the yard.

    "No, no, no Ole," she yelled! "The poop is supposed to go in the tank not above it."


    Forwarded by Paula

    Nine Important Facts To Remember As We Grow Older


    #9 Death is the number 1 killer in the world.


    #8 Life is sexually transmitted.


    #7 Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at
    which one can die.


    #6 Men have 2 motivations: hunger and hanky
    panky, and they can't tell them apart. If you see a gleam in his eyes,
    make him a sandwich.


    #5 Give a person a fish and you feed them for a
    day. Teach a person to use the Internet and they won't bother you for
    weeks, months, maybe years.


    #4 Health nuts are going to feel stupid
    someday, lying in the hospital, dying of nothing.


    #3 All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays
    no attention to criticism.


    #2 In the 60's, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the
    world is weird, and people take Prozac to make it normal.


    #1 Life is like a jar of jalapeno peppers. What you do today may be a burning
    issue
    tomorrow.

     




    Humor May  2016 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book16q2.htm#Humor053116.htm

    Humor April 2016 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book16q2.htm#Humor043016.htm

    Humor March 2016 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book16q1.htm#Humor033116.htm

    Humor February 2016 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book16q1.htm#Humor022916.htm

    Humor January 2016 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book16q1.htm#Humor013116.htm

    Humor December 1-31,  2015 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book15q4.htm#Humor123115.htm.htm

    Humor November 1-30,  2015 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book15q4.htm#Humor113015.htm

    Humor October 1-31,  2015 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book15q4.htm#Humor103115

    Humor September 1-30,  2015 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book15q3.htm#Humor093015

    Humor August 1-31,  2015 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book15q3.htm#Humor081115

    Humor July 1-31,  2015 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book15q3.htm#Humor073115

    Humor June 1-30,  2015 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book15q2.htm#Humor043015

    Humor May 1-31,  2015 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book15q2.htm#Humor043015

    Humor April 1-30, 2015 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book15q2.htm#Humor043015

    Humor March 1-31, 2015 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book15q1.htm#Humor033115

    Humor February 1-28, 2015 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book15q1.htm#Humor022815

    Humor January 1-31, 2015 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book15q1.htm#Humor013115




    Tidbits Archives --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm

    More of Bob Jensen's Pictures and Stories
    http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.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

    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.

     

    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.
    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
     

     

     

     

    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