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 used a 1979 archive photograph of Devil’s Slide on the former California Hwy 1 as a background for a gif made with text from Nick Montfort’s dynamic poem generator to complete today’s Daily Create for Digital Alchemy in the Open Education course Networked Narratives at Kean University in New Jersey.
#dda165 Visualize Taroko Gorge
This Daily DA published February 21st, 2018 is organized under For the Eyes (visual), Incantations
Open Nick Montfort’s dynamic, generative poem….
Let it flow by…
Relax your mind.
Now try to isolate a stanza or two. Try to copy it or save it in a screenshot. Next, connect to a photo (preferably your own). What imagery comes to mind? What gorge do you see?
What comes to mind when you let Taroko Gorge flow by? It need not be so literal as this small Arizona Gorge…
Tweet your response to @netnarr and be sure to include the hashtag #dda165
I declare February 18th as International Heutagogy Day! Heutagogy (based on the Greek for “self”) was defined by Hase and Kenyon in 2000 as the study of self-determined learning. I’ve amended their definition to include Self-Directed Theory, thus Self-Directed Adult Learners.
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!
Join me at the Western Institute for Social Research (WISR) in Berkeley, California, next Monday, January 15th at 6 pm
Bring your laptop and we will all sign into the online course and discuss the eventual creation of a WISR Wikipedia page.
Click on the flyer to enroll or download the flyer below.
Download pdf: Wikipedia_course_flyer pdf
image from pxhere CC by
I got up early (1 am in Oakland, California!) to participate in this year’s Association for Learning Technology Winter Online Conference. I could only access one of the day’s Blackboard webinars, confirming what I’ve heard about Blackboard, but got to participate in a tweet chat. I hope tomorrow the technology is up to the task. Otherwise, the irony may become toxic.
Network Map of Nugan Hand Ltd private bank and connections by Mark Lombardi.
I was recently in Sacramento, California, at the annual meeting of the California Sociological Association. Two years ago I attended the meeting in Oakland, where I live. I again saw none of my sociology teachers or classmates from any of the four Peralta Community Colleges. I did run onto William Ochoa, a former colleague and Senator in the Associated Students of Laney (Community) College, now working on his Master’s degree in Sociology at Mills College in Oakland, California.
I attended all seven sessions of the two day conference including; the Popular Culture & New Technology panel, the Community College Roundtable, Critical Perspectives in Education, The 2016 Presidential Election Revisited panel, Making Sociology Matter, Social Movements and Sociology: the Big Picture. The panels included many interesting presentations and many I attended were student driven. The highlight for me was an unusual and memorable presentation by Frank Roberts from Mt. San Antonio Community College on his project to unify the major theories of sociology. The last session of the conference, there were only five attendees which allowed a lively and prolonged discussion.
PP slide by Frank Roberts
First Roberts mapped Donald Brown’s Anthropological catalog of 369 “Human Universals” traits to Robert Nisbet’s “Unit Ideas of Sociology” using an Excel spreadsheet. Balancing Nisbet’s conservative, community oriented approach, Roberts added sociological Agency to Community, Sacred, Authority, Status, Alienation units. This accounted for many personal and creative traits. Then Roberts mapped these six unit ideas to the three major sociological theories: Structural-Functionalism, Comfit Theory and Symbolic Internationalism. I imagine the resulting integration of sociological theories can be used to describe and possibly clarify many intersectional positions. This is an idea I will continue to reflect on and try to use in my future sociological studies.
The official theme of the California Sociological Association annual meeting was “A Legacy of Sociology”: the keynote presentation was “Who rules America?” by William Domhoff, Distinguished Professor Emeritus and Research Professor in the Sociology Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His latest work is as co-author of Studying the Power Elite: Fifty Years of Who Rules America? (Routledge 2018). Dr. Domhoff summarized his long career in researching America’s elite and focused on the rise of think tanks (and policy discussion groups) in influencing policy and politics. This corresponded with the waning of Marxist theorists’ influence in academia and resulted in a lessening of criticism of corporate influence. Dr. Domhoff didn’t mention Louis Powell’s 1971 memorandum for the American Chamber of Commerce, “Attack on the American Free Enterprise System” but I couldn’t help wondering how Dr. Domhoff would characterize its influence. He’s inspired me to read the book that started this line of inquiry, C. Wright Mill’s 1956 book The Power Elite. Researching the interlocking nature of corporate directors, first with excel spreadsheets and now with powerful computers running social network analysis software, Dr. Domhoff has tracked how corporate power has fragmented from being centered in banks to a more distributed system of endowed academic chairs, corporate funded policy groups and think tanks, foundations and emerging industries. Dr. Domhoff concluded optimistically; there’s a new wave of power structure researchers using larger databases and the final chapter of the story of “America’s Power Elite” has not been written.
Network Map of World Finance by Mark Lombardi
