At the 2017 ceremony to open the new NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, French President Macron demonstrated how to communicate with a bully. I added the Belgian national anthem, performed by the US Navy band, for atmosphere. And a fake news ending.
If the video player isn’t working for you, you can watch President Macron handle Trump on YouTube.
Above – Stay on the Path
A mashup I made from a google map image of Berkeley City College, a picture of the Campanile at UC Berkeley and an inviting meadow leading into a thicket of distractions.
One year ago (April 2017), having struggled with the culture of incompetence across the Peralta Community College District (PCCD) during my years of service as a student representative, I emailed my counselor and asked what was needed to complete my two Associate’s degrees. She replied; “I am on spring break and will check when I return on Monday.” The following week she checked with the Admission and Records Office (A&R) and reminded me of the classes I needed to complete my education plan. Life intervened again (but in a good way this time) and I didn’t finish my final class until Fall semester. As soon as grades are posted I emailed my counselor my completed education plan and pointed out my sociology degree was completed with “highest honors.” A month later she replied; “Sorry for the late response as I was out of the country. Please complete the petition for AA degree…” and added a link to the forms. Being able to access the forms online. Just a few years ago, I would have had to go to the counseling office and stand in line to pick up the forms and then stand in line again to turn them in. I filled out the forms and emailed them back to her.
After not hearing anything for 6 weeks, at the end of February I emailed my counselor to ask if there was anything left to be done. She replied; “I have submitted your petition to the Admission and Records Office. I think we are waiting for the substitution approval for Psych 1A from Rio Hondo. You will receive a status of your petition in April and invitation for the graduation ceremony in May.” This referred to a class I took a 1973, on a transcript they had received more than five years ago. Last week (April 9th) I received three letters fromPCCD, one stating I still need “Substitution/waiver for Psych 1A to meet the requirement” for my Sociology degree. I emailed my counselor and asked “how long can this possibly take?” She replied; “I am in a meeting and will check if substitution for psych 1A is approved when I return to the campus this afternoon. Will get back to you then. By the way, I will be on vacation for the next 2 weeks. If there is any question, please see a counselor or go to admission office.” Groan That afternoon she checked with A&R and my substitution was approved, I’m going to receive my degrees. Also, according to the letters I received, my diplomas will be available sometime in August. I also received a follow-up email:
Dear 2018 Berkeley City College Graduates!!!
On Behalf of the Berkeley City College Graduation Committee, Congratulations on your recent accomplishment!
…
A black gown & cap with a tassel is required for all graduates. The cap and gown will be available for purchase at our campus bookstore located on the 5th floor after May 1, 2018. The regalia purchase price is $35 + tax, which includes the cap, gown, tassel and courtesy 5-pack of announcements. At the commencement ceremony graduates will also receive a BCC diploma cover and BCC zipper pull. The regalia set that you purchase is yours to keep. It is not a rental. (my emphasis) Since there are no dressing rooms at Zellerbach, you are encouraged to arrive in your cap and gown. Note: The bookstore only accepts cash, credit and debit cards for payment.
Honor Students: If you are an academic honor student, your honor cord will be included in your cap & gown set. Please refer to the section of this letter regarding “honors at graduation” to see if you are eligible to receive the honor cord (Honors pertains only to Associate Degree candidates). Your name will be on an honors list at the bookstore.
After my experiences in the PCCD (Berkeley City College is one of the four Community Colleges that make up the PCCD), I have no interest in participating in the graduation ceremony. I would like my “honor card” and tassle but doubt I’ll go to the “GradFest” (is everything branded?) and pay another $35 + tax. From the posting of my final grades to receiving an official document of my accomplishment – eight months. Good thing I don’t need my diploma to get a job; and this is the new and improved Peralta Community College District! The email thread with my counselor showed it was exactly one year to the day from my inquiry about graduating to receiving notice that my forty-five year old transcript was accepted. Happy Friday the 13th to me!
Last month, based on my experiences in the Peralta Community College District, I called my Distance Education (DE) advisor at my new school Metropolitan State University (Metro State), inquiring about registering for summer classes. I was concerned about an Incomplete grade I have and wondered if I had to clear it before registering. She told me she didn’t think the incomplete would affect my ability to register and I should wait until my registration date and try to register. I followed her advice and the day my registration window opened, I tried to register. I was blocked by a hold for a math assessment placed last fall until my transcripts could be articulated (classes checked to conform to Metro States class descriptions). Soon afterwards I received a “Math Assessment Exemption Granted” based on my C in Trigonometry from 1982. After failing to register I went to my eServices account to check my Degree Audit Report (DAR). I had already pointed out to my advisors how hard it is for a DE student to find their DAR, it was a constant topic on the discussion boards in our orientation class. Five clicks through three menus, but that’s another story. My “Math Assessment Exemption Granted” with a green check mark was still there. I went to the Contact Us page and submitted a request through Student Services; “Can someone review my DARS and remove the assessment hold…?” I got a quick response; “Upon reviewing your account, I do see that you have an assessment hold on your account. It states that the Math Assessment is needed. …If you need someone to review your DARS, please contact your academic advisor…” I replied I do not need a math assessment and sent a screenshot of my DARS, with the green check mark. They replied I needed to contact the Assessment office. I emailed my academic advisor informing him of my predicament. To make a long story short(er), it took ten days of daily emails between my academic advisor and the Assessment office with me trying to register each day to see if the hold was removed. This reminded me of when I had recently gone online and updated my address for my bank account. My checking account and debit card were frozen for ten days, with daily calls to my “Private Banker” until the IT department figured out why. Imagine what regular customers have to endure.
Finally I was able to register at Metro State, but when I went to the payment page I was shocked to see $138 in fees for services I will never use as a DE student. Then I remembered I was sitting on a deck at Stanford University waiting for a meeting when I was cleared to register last fall. I was surprised and happy to find out I could register using my phone. I don’t recall seeing a list of fees. For students in a hurry to complete a degree, that’s $414 a year (with summer session) for services we will never use, including a $48 parking pass! I emailed a screenshot of the fees to my DE and academic advisors, the director of student life and the student ombudsperson and asked why students are charged for services they can never access. The silence was deafening. After 10 days I called my DE advisor and asked if she had seen my email. She replied that she had been at a conference the past week and was just catching up on email. I mentioned that no one else had replied and asked what could be done. “Nothing” she replied, the state trustees had approved the fees and it would take a statewide campaign to get them to remove them. I couldn’t find the number of DE students statewide in Minnesota, but Metro State has $1,500 DE students. That’s over $400,000 for two semesters and over $600,000 for three semesters, each year. Nevermind academic fraud, isn’t this consumer fraud?
I’m the first student at Metro State approved to document their learning for college credit on a personal e-portfolio, on my own domain, through prior learning assessment (PLA). I’ve been working with e-portfolios for a few years and have been a member of the Association for Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-Based Learning (AAEEBL) since attending their conference in Boston three years ago. Last year, for the first time, the conference was in a different city, Portland, Oregon, so I attended. I had seen a presentation on e-portfolios for adults in Canadian native cultures at an Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) conference in San Francisco. I saw the author at the AAEEBL conference and after introducing myself and telling him about my project, he introduced me to the DE advisor for Metro State. That’s how I became a Metro State student, but I digress.
After my first AAEEBL conference I started a dialog with the President, Dr. Trent Batson, about creating an ontology (or controlled vocabulary) for eportfolios. This would help students, faculty and adult learners connect and share resources on the internets (Semantic Web 2.0). He approved of my idea but cautioned AAEEBL was focused on a research project that would lead to e-portfolios being added to Dr. George D. Kuh’s list of “High-Impact Educational Practices” and thus promoted by the AAC&U. Last year the research was published as “High-Impact ePortfolio Practice: A Catalyst for Student, Faculty, and Institutional Learning” by Drs. Bret Eynon and Laura M. Gambino, with a foreword by Dr. George D. Kuh. I’m proud to have read their book as soon as it was published as I participated in Open Learning 2017, an open online collaboratory hub where Dr. Eynon and “High-Impact ePortfolio Practice” were featured. Now that this project was finished, I took the opportunity of being at the AAEEBL conference to present my ontology idea to the Practices & Pedagogies Special Interest Group (P&P SIG). It was favorably received, with several AAEEBL officers voicing their approval. As fall became winter, not much was happening in the P&P SIG. I continued to ask the SIG leaders about moving forward and finally created a model ontology for the groups consideration. I received zero constructive feedback. Then the call for conference proposals went out. I contacted the P&P SIG leaders inquiring if they had plans for a proposal. They suggested I submit one. I submitted three: one for my ontology idea, one to promote a student self-assessment rubric developed by two Professors at California State University, Sacramento, who can’t attend the conference, and one about my portfolio for Metro State. As an opportunity to learn about conference presentations, I made each a proposal for a different presentation format. When I got my responses, each was an almost identical form letter stating there were too many submissions in my preferred format, and then suggesting I resubmit my proposals for another presentation format. None of the letters referred to a specific proposal. I think I could decipher which is which, and modify them accordingly, but I wanted to be certain. I emailed my contact at AAEEBL but she said the President had sent the letters and would have to be the one to respond. I reminded my contact that the deadline was approaching but she responded that she was leaving her role at AAEEBL. The due date for the revised proposals has come and gone and I have yet to hear anything more. I have other influential AAEEBL members to reach out to, but my enthusiasm for doing all the work alone by myself has waned.
I won’t even start to include the ICT (information and communication technologies) issues I’ve experienced during this time. Why aren’t ISPs (internet service providers) regulated as public monopolies? Distance education still holds tremendous promise, especially for adult learners, but it sure can be alienating for students.
What does it digital spring break look like anyway?
I made a digital postcard to commemorate the students from Granada Hills High School in Southern California (and in cities in all fifty states) who walked out of their classes, staged demonstrations and observed a moment of silence in honor of the fourteen students and three adult staff killed a month ago at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. I’m proud the students are politically savvy and followed what Granada Hills alum John Elway does, not what he says, regarding politics.
I’m completing a Bachelor’s degree online at Metropolitan State University’s College of Individualized Studies in St. Paul, Minnesota. I chose Metro State because they were originally a University Without Walls when created in 1971. I’m also a student and worker at the Western Institute for Social Research in Berkeley, California, which grew out of Berkeley’s University Without Walls after it imploded.
I had to have all my transcripts sent to Metro State, just from the accredited schools, eight in all. To have a complete education record, I also ordered my SAT scores from the College Board – from 1981.
That’s where it began. I selected the appropriate period for the search (1980-1985), paid the $31 research fee for archived scores and waited. A week later I received a snail mail letter that said ”Although we have thoroughly searched our files for the years 1970 through 1975, we have not been able to locate archived SAT Program test scores in your name.” I had to go online to find a phone number to call. I’m old enough to remember when companies included contact information below their signature.
After waiting on hold for twenty minutes, I talked with Victoria Wolk and explained the error. She said she would correct the time period of the search and send my scores.
A week later I received a snail mail letter that said ”Although we have thoroughly searched our files for the years 1970 through 1975, we have not been able to locate archived SAT Program test scores in your name.” This time I had Ms. Wolk’s phone number. I called and got her voicemail and left a message. When she called back I told her I had received the same letter and wondered if graduating from high school in 1972 was causing them to search the wrong time period. She sent me an email (!) with an Inquiry case number and said my case was resolved.
A week later I received a snail mail letter that said ”Although we have thoroughly searched our files for the years 1980 through 1985, we have not been able to locate archived SAT Program test scores in your name.”
OK, it was worth a try.
A week later I received a bill from the College Board for $55 – $31 for the search and two $12 charges for SAT scores sent. The invoice included a phone number, so I called to find out what was going on. According to the billing department, my scores had been found and sent to Metro State and me. (I’ve learned to order a copy to see if things are really sent) I explained what I had been told before and that I hadn’t received any scores. They said they would look into my situation.
After several more calls, often waiting on hold, I learned they had found my scores but were waiting for my payment. I offered to pay immediately online but the representative explained I couldn’t pay online (the same way I paid the initial $31), but would have to wait for an invoice and mail them a check. Really.
I went online and found the New York State Department of State – Division of Consumer Protection and registered a complaint against the College Board, just to create a record.
Then I got a snail mail invoice:
DELINQUENT – IMMEDIATE ATTENTION REQUIRED
Score holds may not be released until the account balance is paid in full.
At least they had removed the $31 already paid.
More phone calls to billing, waiting on hold, and my scores had still not been sent. Then I got this email:
More phone calls and then back to Ms. Wolk who assured me the scores had been sent. I called Metro State to check and no, they had not received my scores. I called Ms. Wolk and reported that neither Metro State nor I had received my scores. I also asked that any charges be waived because I was spending so much time trying to get my SAT scores. She agreed and requested they be sent again. She also said I should ignore any further delinquent notices because it would take billing some time to process the fee waiver. Sigh.
This week my scores arrived! Five months, twenty (?) phone calls, a consumer complaint and two delinquent notices later, my college and I had my SAT scores.
If my SAT scores had been required before I could enroll, I would have missed two semesters – an entire academic year!
Bronze bust of DeWissant by Auguste Rodin
I caught a ride to Stanford yesterday to discuss eportfolios with Dr. Helen Chen. We didn’t get a chance to talk at the recent Association for Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-Based Learning (AAEEBL) conference in Portland. My friend had an appointment at Stanford Hospital and being early for my meeting, I walked over to the Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University. I wandered around the Rodin sculpture garden and then sat on the cafe patio to wait for the museum to open.
Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University
I signed into the free wifi and checked my phone to see if the orientation hold had been lifted on my account at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, Minnesota. One morning at the AAEEBL conference Paul Wasko had introduced me to Marcia Anderson, the director of Academic Advising in the College of Individualized Studies at Metro State. She encouraged me to apply that day in order to be enrolled for the fall semester. Metro State was founded in 1971 as a ‘University without Walls’ “serving adult students by recognizing demonstrated learning gained outside the classroom” while working toward their higher educational goals. I applied and during the one day I was home from Portland before leaving for a weekend training in LA, I went online and had my transcripts sent. From all of the eleven colleges I have attended!
Ocean Park No. 94 by Richard Diebenkorn
The email had arrived, inviting me to register for “Educational Philosophy & Planning” the foundation class all Individualized Studies students take to create their personal learning plan. I had been working with Jane Kreuger, my admissions advisor, and Marcia had contacted Dr. Tedder, the Chair of Individualized, Interdisciplinary and Life Long Learning in the College of Individualized Studies, and convinced him to enroll me in his already full class. I went to the website, selected the class (the override worked!), finished enrolling, went to the payment site and paid my fees. I still had five minutes before the museum opened so I called Jane and told her I was sitting on the Cantor Arts Center patio at Stanford and had successfully enrolled using my phone! It was Friday afternoon in Minnesota and classes begin the following Monday.
Glassblowers hand torch
I toured the main exhibit, Creativity on the Line: Design for the Corporate World, 1950–1975, and had lunch on the patio; a Cobb salad and iced tea. (only $20!) I was reminded by the planes overhead, that on Friday afternoons the private jets leave San Jose International Airport every ten or fifteen minutes. I then saw the Modern & Contemporary exhibit and some of the main collection, Object Lessons: Art & Its Histories, before meeting with Helen in her office in Wallenburg Hall.
Hoover Tower and Wallenberg Hall at Stanford University
We discussed my ‘controlled vocabulary (ontology) for eportfolios and the semantic web’ project (the reason I joined AAEEBL and went to the conference in Boston two years ago) and I shared that the AAEEBL Technology Special Interest Group had decided to take on this project. I also shared my newest project: creating a Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) stack for any learner to have the tools to create a lifewide eportfolio, on their own domain, to collect their lifetimes of learning. It all come together after I learned about semantic triples in Beyond TEI: Metadata for Digital Humanities at the University of Victoria, BC, during this years’ Digital Humanities Summer Institute. But that’s another story. Helen asked if this had anything to do with “Linked Data”, so I took out my phone and showed her the picture I had taken earlier that morning.
Recent additions to book pile on my desk
As far as I can tell (I’ll never have a degree in Library and Information Science nor Computer and Information Systems), having an ontology and using semantic triples are the basis for the latest graph databases, being able to discover fellow researchers on the internet and structuring one’s eportfolio to take advantage of ‘faceted’ (semantic) searches. It’s my theory that creating a properly structured database for an eportfolio of one’s lifetime of learning projects and products can lead to perspectives only made possible by computing. These unique clusters of data should help generate the deep reflections that are central to eportfolios function of supporting lifewide learning.
High-intensity short arc mercury vapor lamps used in the production of computer chips
Aint digital technology amazing? I’m glad I spent most of my glassblowing career supporting California’s computer industry. I regret that the term ‘Silicon Valley’ is now being used in place of ‘predatory venture capital.’ What we workers created in Silicon Valley has linked together the entire world (with some areas and peoples yet to be connected). Workers are not responsible for how their products are used, nor who buys the companies we work for. Capitalist predation is a centuries old problem. I look forward to using these new technologies and sharing FOSS platforms with everyone, especially under served adult learners. It was a good day in the (former) Valley of Hearts’ Delight.
Seaweed by Georgia O’Keefe
I was invited to post something on their site by the Young Writers Project through their collaboration with the Networked Narratives open access learning project based at Kean University. I then realized I hadn’t posted this on my site. Now I have!
Where I Am From by Mark Corbett Wilson
I am from fire,
from Pyro Engineering Inc. and Advanced Radiation Corporation
I am from glittering quartz, a desert washed by Pacific tides.
(Hot and dry, cool and moist,
it smelled of passion and petroleum.)
I am from cactus,
the thorns, flowers and fruit whose
visions and pain I remember
as if they were my own.
I am from Pictland and perseverance,
from Corbett and Duncan and Fraser.
I am from Hollywoodland lesbians
and disgraced Republican Nixonian Quakers,
from ‘early to rise’ and don’t call it Fascism.
I am from the middle way of Mr. Gotama’s Eight Tasks
before dialectic atheism emerged.
Soy un Californiano. Mis comidas
son chiles, frijoles y maíz.
The indentured Highland lad o’ pairts
and America’s First Peoples,
the prettiest girl at Schwabs’ soda counter;
the Slaughter cowboy’s homestead graveyard.
I am from kitchen jam sessions and garage workshops,
table saws and lapidary equipment,
art cars and personal computers
conceived during new moons.
I am from lifetimes disappeared –
the Jurupa Oak contemplating ancient valleys
obscured by smoke.
Feeling overwhelmed by using more than a dozen different software programs before finishing my morning coffee, I looked for a list of software to make a word cloud.
The best I could find is a list of lists of software on Wikipedia.
I looked at ones that interest me and ended up at a list of Open Source software for Windows. Not all Open Source software, not Free Open Source software (FOSS), just Open Source software for Windows.
I copied the text and went to Wordle to make a word cloud. That didn’t work because Opera doesn’t support Java. Tried it in Chrome, same result. Firefox too. The Wordle troubleshooting guide said to try Explorer, so in desperation I tried Microsoft Edge. Same result.
I searched for word cloud generators that don’t use Java and found a blog by a teacher that recommended Tagul for older students. I’m sure she didn’t have 62 year olds in mind. A little fiddling and I found you can choose the fonts and shapes and colors! This is fun! I’ve almost forgotten how upset I was at the overwhelming amount of software I need to use every day. Now lets see if I can get the Tagul to work in my blog post.
| There’s a place that I travel When I want to roam, And nobody knows it but me |
The roads don’t go there And the signs stay home And nobody knows it but me |
It’s far far away And way way afar It’s over the moon and the sea |
And wherever you’re going That’s wherever you are And nobody knows it but me
-Patrick O’Leary |
