Are We Amusing Ourselves to Death?

With a tip of the cap to Neil Postman

Adult Student Recruitment and Retention Conference – March 2011

Barry Dahl dot com

Clicker Time

• Grab your clicker

• First, some demographics.

Your Job at a College/University

Facu

lty

Staff or A

dmin...

Not a

t a co

lle...

6% 1%

93%1.Faculty2.Staff or

Administrator3.Not at a college

Gender & Life Experience

Female, <

40 y...

Female, 4

0 + y...

Male, <

40 yrs..

.

Male, 4

0 + yrs..

.

33%

12%

3%

52%1. Female, < 40 yrs.2. Female, 40 + yrs.3. Male, < 40 yrs.4. Male, 40 + yrs.

Self-evaluation: Tech Savviness

Technophobe/ N

...

Perfectl

y norm...

Propelle

r-head...

11% 15%

74%1. Technophobe/Newbie

2. Perfectly normal3. Propeller-head/

Gadget-geek

Faculty Perspective• For the next two clicker statements –• Put on your faculty hat, regardless of

whether you actually have one

Entertaining Students is NOT my Job

56%

44% 1. Fact2. Whack

Engaging Students is NOT my Job

92%

8% 1. Fact2. Whack

Not this kind of entertainment

More like a Bridge Party

Who said this?“Anyone who tries to make a

distinction between education & entertainment doesn't know the first thing about either.”

and now this …….

1%

12%

9%

48%

74%

62%

Which of the following do you do?

1. File income taxes online (e-file)2. Use online banking services3. Check email on 3 or more diff. accts4. Have an avatar in Second Life5. Were born in 1980 or AFTER6. None of the above

6%

24%

6%

63%

48%

45%

Choose each true statement

1. You own an iPhone, Droid, Blackberry2. Prefer online news over newspapers3. You consider yourself to be creative

4. You have more than 5 cloud documents5. You can define the term “Web 2.0”6. None of the above are true

What is Web 2.0?

Select each site where you have an account.

15%

25%

16%

62%

26%

82% 1. Facebook2. Twitter3. LinkedIn4. MySpace5. YouTube6. None of the above

Team Scores

185.71 Propeller-head/ Gadget-geek148 Faculty133.31 Female, < 40 yrs.116.36 Male, 40 + yrs.

116.3 Staff or Administrator110 Male, < 40 yrs.109.93 Perfectly normal

106.95 Female, 40 + yrs.

78.44 Technophobe/Newbie

60 Not at a college

The most wired are

There has been a large increase in the use of Web 2.0 tools in higher ed.

35%

65% 1. True2. False

Web 2.0 Users

Frankly my dear, most people just don’t give a damn

Millions of users

Billions of non-users

1 million on Facebook

1 million Haters on Facebook

< 1 million on Facebook

Who said this?

“I don't necessarily agree with everything I say.”

and now this …….

Speaking of Twitter …….

Twitter is Stupid!!!

37%

63% 1. Twue2. False

Team Scores100 Not at a college100 Technophobe/

Newbie67.44 Female, 40 + yrs.63.64 Male, 40 + yrs.61.9 Perfectly normal61.04 Staff or Administrator59.26 Female, < 40 yrs.40 Faculty33.33 Male, < 40 yrs.30.77 Propeller-head/ Gadget-geek

Twue Enough

Twitter makes me like people I’ve never met and Facebookmakes me hate people I know in real life. @shaylamaddox

Adult Students Enroll in Distance Education (Online) Courses

Primarily Due to …

93%

4%

1%

2% 1. cost savings2. learning style preferences3. distance from campus4. time flexibility

Why do Adult Students Not Persist?

• From the Maricopa CC System:– 10% due to academic reasons such as course

too hard or too heavy a load.– 65% due to life interruptions (includes the

normal things of family or job issues, illness, etc. etc.)

Source: Ron Bleed, CIO of Maricopa CC (retired)

4 weeks 8 weeks

Psychology

Humanities

Biology

History

12 weeks

Example of Life Interruption

Psychology

Humanities

Biology

History

4 weeks

12 WeeksInvested,12 CreditsPaid For,

No CreditsEarned,

With LittleIncentiveTo Return

4 weeks

Psychology

Humanities

Biology

History

8 weeks

Alternate Outcome

Psychology

4 weeks

Humanities

8 weeks

Biology

12 weeks

12 WeeksInvested,12 CreditsPaid For,9 CreditsEarned,

With MoreIncentiveTo Return

History - No

Flexible Learning Options

Adult Learners Tend To …

• Focus more on convenience and price• Pay more often with personal money• Place greater importance on technical help• Find tutoring services to be more critical• Be more satisfied with their online college

experiences• Be more willing to accept “alternative

educational opportunities” … such as

StraighterLine

StraighterLine

StraighterLine Data

• 1) About 60% of courses started are successfully completed.

• 2) Students spend about 45 days per course.• 3) About 90% of students say they would

recommend the courses to their friends.• 4) The cost per success and the cost per failure are

much lower than traditional offerings.• 5) 20 colleges award credit for StraighterLine courses

directly. Hundreds more through the ACE Credit Recommendation process.

and now this …….

Neil Postman

• Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business• Published 1985

Prezi

Amusing Ourselves to Death

• Many of the remarks he made about television can be made today about computers and social networking

My Take on Postman

• Web 1.0 was just another one-way distraction device, very TV-like.• However, Web 2.0 goes beyond

amusement by bringing people together and encouraging creativity.

Legit Questions• Is online learning a serious

endeavor, or just a dumbing down of education?• Is the use of emerging technologies

just an attempt to be more cool?• Where’s the beef?

Hard Questions• Shortly after Postman’s

death, Web 2.0 started to develop and began feeding what Huxley called “man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.”

Hard Questions• What is happening to

deep reading?• Do hypertext sidetracks

add or subtract from our learning?

• How do we develop the proper discipline on the net to not be so easily distracted?

and now this …….

Is this Innovation or Insanity?Culture, Gender, and Identity – taught with World of Warcraft

CC Flickr photo by glenn.batuyong

Take Your Pick

28%

72% 1. Innovation2. Insanity

Team Scores55.56 Technophobe/Neo-Luddite55 Male, 40 years or more54.29 Propeller-head/Gadget-geek51.61 Administrator45 Staff44.44 Not at a college44.19 Faculty44.19 Female, 40 years or more42.86 Female, less than 40 years40.63 Male, less than 40 years

Who said insanity?

Is this Innovation or Insanity?History of Rock-n-Roll Music course – taught with Guitar Hero

CC Flickr photoBy 5th Ape

Who said this? “All media exist to invest our lives with artificial perceptions and arbitrary values.”

and now this …….

Some people are great multi-taskers

No! Multi-tasking is a Myth• Great Book• Brain Rules,

by Dr. John Medina

Who said this?“We shape our tools and afterwards our tools shape us.”

and now this …….

DIY U• Anya Kamenetz• Edupunks,

Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education

DIY U – Ch. 1 - History• Single biggest recipient benefactor

of federal financial aid is ______________• University of Phoenix• Does it seem odd that a private, for-

profit university gets the most public funds?

and now this …….

Who said this?“We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We march backwards into the future.”

Who said this?

“The medium is the message”

Marshall McLuhan

Higher Ed Moves Slowly