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
Scroll Down This Page
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
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
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
- Mexico
- Turkey
- Italy
- Greece
- Slovakia
- Hungary
- South Korea
- Czech Republic
- Spain
- Slovenia
- Israel
- Poland
- Portugal
- France
- Estonia
- Chile
- Japan
- 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
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
-
With a Rejoinder from the 2010 Senior Editor of The Accounting Review
(TAR), Steven J. Kachelmeier
- With Replies in Appendix 4 to Professor Kachemeier by Professors
Jagdish Gangolly and Paul Williams
- With Added Conjectures in Appendix 1 as to Why the Profession of
Accountancy Ignores TAR
- With Suggestions in Appendix 2 for Incorporating Accounting Research
into Undergraduate Accounting Courses
The Cult of Statistical Significance:
How Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/DeirdreMcCloskey/StatisticalSignificance01.htm
How Accountics Scientists Should Change:
"Frankly, Scarlett, after I get a hit for my resume in The Accounting Review
I just don't give a damn"
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm
One more mission in what's left of my life will be to try to change this
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm
What went wrong in accounting/accountics research?
---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#WhatWentWrong
The Sad State of Accountancy Doctoral
Programs That Do Not Appeal to Most Accountants ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms
AN ANALYSIS OF THE EVOLUTION OF RESEARCH
CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE ACCOUNTING REVIEW: 1926-2005 ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/395wpTAR/Web/TAR395wp.htm#_msocom_1
Bob Jensen's threads on accounting theory
---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm
Tom Lehrer on Mathematical Models and
Statistics ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfZWyUXn3So
Systemic problems of accountancy (especially the
vegetable nutrition paradox) that probably will never be solved ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudConclusion.htm#BadNews
World Clock ---
http://www.peterussell.com/Odds/WorldClock.php
Facts about the earth in real time --- http://www.worldometers.info/
Interesting Online Clock
and Calendar
---
http://home.tiscali.nl/annejan/swf/timeline.swf
Time by Time Zones ---
http://timeticker.com/
Projected Population Growth (it's out of control) ---
http://geography.about.com/od/obtainpopulationdata/a/worldpopulation.htm
Also see
http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/P/Populations.html
Facts about population growth (video) ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U
Projected U.S. Population Growth ---
http://www.carryingcapacity.org/projections75.html
Real time meter of the U.S. cost of the war in Iraq ---
http://www.costofwar.com/
Enter you zip code to get Census Bureau comparisons ---
http://zipskinny.com/
Sure wish there'd be a little good news today.
Free (updated) Basic Accounting Textbook --- search for Hoyle at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks
CPA Examination ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cpa_examination
Free CPA Examination Review Course Courtesy of Joe Hoyle ---
http://cpareviewforfree.com/
Rick Lillie's education, learning, and technology blog is at
http://iaed.wordpress.com/
Accounting News, Blogs, Listservs, and Social
Networking ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/AccountingNews.htm
Bob Jensen's Threads ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called New
Bookmarks ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called
Tidbits ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called Fraud
Updates ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
Online Books, Poems, References,
and Other Literature
In the past I've provided links to various types electronic literature available
free on the Web.
I created a page that summarizes those various links ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
Some of Bob Jensen's Tutorials
Accounting program news items for colleges are posted at
http://www.accountingweb.com/news/college_news.html
Sometimes the news items provide links to teaching resources for accounting
educators.
Any college may post a news item.
Accounting and Taxation News Sites ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/AccountingNews.htm
For an elaboration on the reasons you should join a ListServ (usually for
free) go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListServRoles.htm
AECM
(Educators)
http://listserv.aaahq.org/cgi-bin/wa.exe?HOME
AECM is an email Listserv list which
provides a forum for discussions of all hardware and software
which can be useful in any way for accounting education at the
college/university level. Hardware includes all platforms and
peripherals. Software includes spreadsheets, practice sets,
multimedia authoring and presentation packages, data base
programs, tax packages, World Wide Web applications, etc.
Over the years the AECM has become the worldwide forum for
accounting educators on all issues of accountancy and accounting
education, including debates on accounting standards, managerial
accounting, careers, fraud, forensic accounting, auditing,
doctoral programs, and critical debates on academic (accountics)
research, publication, replication, and validity testing.
|
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