Aug 12, 2012 Dream and Pain

This morning, Mr. Hong in Taipei posted issues regarding the ambiguity of de facto + de jure status of Taiwan in the International Community. As expected, the humiliation, frustration, and unduly repressive treatments of the major NGOs/IGOs (in this case, 2012 Olympics) imposing on the hardworking, excellent, and in some sense, innocent people in Taiwan has been the most unbearable pain that I have been enduring for so long.

Here is my echo to his post on Aug. 12, 2012

"This geo-econo-politically fabricated unbearable pain has been unduly imposing on the excellent, hard-working and in some sense -innocent, Taiwanese people long enough..... To alleviate the pain, not the home-remedy nor traumatic surgery can really work at the present time. I endure the same pain all my life. Pain does stimulate sensations, and keep perceptions sharp, though."

Just read a post, share-
Weijing Lee (分享了櫻桃小丸子驚點語錄的相片。)
**"絕望自有絕望的力量，就像希望也有希望的無能！"
---給我的夥伴,你們知道我在說什麼** Never Give in, give up.... .  Aug 12 8:04 am

An fb friend - James Nakason Huang posted it. Share!
Nothing is hopeless, unless you lose hope.
Nothing is truly lost, unless you stop looking.
Nothing is over, unless you give up.
Anything is possible, if you dare to believe. B. Riley

Aug 11, 2012 Bitter-Sweet Quandary

ECHO

Aug 7, 2012 It Matters!

An ultimate, beautiful occupy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhYs4Ojlt_0

Ideological Gaming, Now - 080512

Super mini-novel: M

Who

Aug 4, 2012 Serendipity of Music and Dance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hQAO8QTnG8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82zt5Fk5YTc

Aug 4, 2012 Silence Speaks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyj2qL-bQ4E

28th DT&L Conference

(This short paper was accepted by 28th Annual Conference of Distance Teaching and Learning
Aug. 8-10, 2012, Madison)

Facilitating An E-Book Project in A Social Science Course

-An Integration of Teaching and Research at A Technical College Setting

Li-chin (Crystal) Huang

Social Science Instructor

Chippewa Valley Technical College

Background

This paper describes a semi-constructivist-based pedagogical model to integrate an E-book project into a social science web-enhanced course (Race, Ethnicity and Diversity-RED) in a two-year technical college environment. The teaching-learning process confronted several challenging stages which were solved via a differentiated learning model with an emphasis on situated, contextualized, and authentic learning activities to ensure learning to be useful in real-life/career setting.

The purpose of this study is threefold. First of all, it aims at sharing a better understanding for stakeholders to continue the dialogue regarding the idea of teacher-researcher practice in a social science field. Secondly, this paper intends to gain the insight via the process of the negotiating, adjusting, and revising process among the instructor, learners, and contents to adopt different technological affordances and pedagogical approaches, in particular, the differentiated model to accommodate the diverse student population’s needs. Finally, it intends to share the lesson learned in integrating behaviorist, cognitive, and constructive strategies to obtain the "what" (facts), the "how" (processes and principles), and the "why" (higher level thinking that promotes personal meaning and situated and contextual learning) presented in students' final online projects.

A Unique Teaching and Learning Environment
Technical colleges play a key role to bridge PK-12 and 15 to 20 for many higher educational institutions. Since the first Juliet junior college was established in 1901, currently there are 1,173 two-year colleges educating more than 50% of undergraduate students in 2012 (AACC, 2012). The converging socio-economic forces of urbanization, industrialization, and economic development reshape the two-year educational landscape. The trajectory of this development has not been without controversies. Debates between advocates and critics on issues regarding two-year colleges whether they continue a culture of privilege through training business workers at public expense, or protect selective admissions at four year institutions for the nation's elite are still dominating the discourse in the higher education arena (Dougherty, 1994). In short, the century-long history of two-year college development has evolved into a unique aspect of post-secondary education in the higher educational system.

Among the characteristics of the two-year college, emphasizing the strength of teaching has been the most distinctive one, particularly in the technical college setting. Parilla (1986) pointed out that the community college developed, in part, as a response to the preoccupation of elite universities with research. Such emphasis has frequently caused classroom teaching to be separated from scholarship. Using my current work-setting as an example, a full time instructor typically teaches seven classes of a twenty one-credit contract per semester, which are forty two credits of fourteen classes per academic year. Though the formal scholarly endeavors, such as academic research and publications are not required as part of job performance, teaching-learning engagement has been the center of this teaching enterprise. According to a recent National Survey of Student Engagement (2010) reported, students who engage in varieties of educational activities exhibit better learning outcomes. Interconnectivity and engagement are the keys to student success in the two-year technical college setting.

One of the most challenging tasks in pedagogical practices at a two-year technical college is the learner- diversity in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, age, class, disability, learning styles, time-management skills, readiness, and motivations in addition to availability of system support. The low-income individuals, displaced workers, high percentage of single parent, minority, veterans, elder/returning learners, remedial/prepare learning students, traditional students for university transfer track, the special need students and so on may meet up in a classroom. Facilitating diverse students' learning needs with sound and effective pedagogies, andragogies, and heutagogy via the technological affordances could be one of most significant and challenging tasks of the instructor, especially in the field of social science disciplines.

Though theory and practice are two sides of a coin which is not a novel idea in the four-year educational system, it is still an aspiration to most of the two-year colleges. The heart of teaching is the quality of pedagogical effectiveness rooted in the theoretical groundwork. Thus, how to engage the diverse disadvantaged student population becomes the driving force for the author to constantly seeking the solution. One of the approaches is to engage in variety of formal and informal scholarly developments in the social science field. Nevertheless, under the heavy emphasis on teaching, searching for formal academic engagement can be an overwhelming task. The full-fledged research project might not be feasible. One practical activity could be the action research or reflective practice as Furlong and Oancea suggest. They point out that these models, though not contributing to general theoretical knowledge production, provide opportunities to achieve anticipated outcomes (Furlong, & Oancea, 2005).

An additional note to this project is about the author, though teaching social science has a disciplinary background in Learning Technologies and Computer Science minor that make the integration of content, pedagogy, technologies, and theories less daunting. Having said so, to effectively engage students via a “hybrid constructivism” takes a thorough course design, timing feedback, and available supporting systems to be successful. The author applied a "semi-constructivist" pedagogical model, emphasizing on learning that was situated, contextualized, collaborated, and differentiated via an E-book project as the final product to her two RED classes during the spring semester of 2012.

Design Research in Action
Whitehead (1989) refers to his action research as “living educational theory” that gives meaning to teaching and purpose to professional lives. He suggests that by asking questions about how teaching practices can be improved, practitioners can embody their own educational values. This study focused on pedagogical improvement via a case study to examine how instructor and students co-constructed learning experience by problem-solving and utilizing available resources. The author asked herself “how can I teach this course in more meaningful, interesting and engaging way to enhance the pedagogical effectiveness and personal professional development”?

Wiggins pointed out that it was not teaching that causes learning but the attempts by the learner to perform that caused learning. Furthermore, it was also dependent upon the quality of feedback and opportunities to use what one learned that make learning happen (Chickering & Gamson, 1987). “Visualize yourself as an author. You will publish an E-book about what you learn to make a difference in enhancing human understanding” were two attention-getting sentences throughout the semester to motivate students to attempt and perform. To ensure various feedback pathways open throughout the semester, two formal semi-structured with open-ended questionnaires were given to two web-enhanced RED classes with informal discussion via online forum and daily in-class discussion in spring 2012. One survey was given at the beginning of the semester to get basic information regarding students’ technological concerns and competency for selecting appropriate e-book software and formulating project guidelines. The other survey was conducted at the end of the semester to obtain students’ feedback to improve the project for the coming semester. In addition to the two major surveys, throughout the semester, student inputs and suggestions were encouraged and collected with proper incentives.

Though this is a face to face class, it was similar to a hybrid via the web-enhanced facilitation. The seat time was divided into lectures/discussion, peer-reviews, presentation, and lab time. Online discussion board and wiki sharing were via school LMS system. The original project guideline was reasonably adjusted to accommodate students’ different levels of technological competency and individual academic engagement.

In the early project survey, 95% of students expressed a major concern regarding time and technological availability outside classroom to complete the seven step big project in addition to seat-time attendance, face to face/online sharing and discussions as well as daily/weekly reading and writing assignments. The resistance and the progress delay of majority students expressed in the Q&A sessions during the first quarter of the semester. As mentioned before, the diverse background of our students and different capacity of time management issues impose tremendous challenges in the learning processes. To solve the problems, the instructor adopted the “inverted classroom” (Lage, Platt, & Treglia, 2000) solution to re-allocate time for online, classroom, and lab activities. By moving major contents online reduced lecture time for various face to face interactions, such as instructor-peers-lab, peers-contents-peers, and learning applications in the computer lab. In this project, the co-constructing knowledge was achieved via the design-research approach through negotiation, adaptation, revision of the work-in-progress guidelines to build-up trust and confidence among learners-instructor, learners-content, learners-learners, and learners-instructor-technology interactions (Moore & Kearsley, 1995).

Results

In the end of semester project survey, majority of students were amazed that what a seemingly scary and impossible task could be done with joy. Four themes emerged in students’ end of project survey.

Differentiated Learning and Semi-Constructivism
Though constructivism has been touted for decades, the authentic learning in this case, required specific aid of instructivism due to the diverse background of learners who were encouraged to involve with learning technology which is one of the college core abilities. That’s one of reasons why this project was more an e-portfolio than a pure e-book writing. More than 90% of students needed the step by step instructions as scaffolds at the beginning of the project which included three diversity interviews, four movie critiques, a community involvement project, a reflection of what one learned, book design, and the rest of optional elements to differentiate and accommodate individual’s learning conditions.

The instructor also learned with students’ frustration and triumph. She targeted on things worked or did not work for adjustment and redesign. For example, several unsurprising conditions frequently happened among students, such as no access to computer at home, working multiple odd jobs, family obligations, illness, and other personal issues impeding the completion of the project. The instructor had to spend time on each individual to provide assistance. Research points out that if students feel comfortable and know their ideas will be supported they are much more likely to contribute (Jacobson, 2011). As semester progressed, more and more students became confident and creative in expressing their desire to perform.

Convincing Students the Benefits of Applying Learning Technologies in Learning
Selecting proper software to enhance teaching, learning, and sharing can be a tough job for a social science instructor. It took several lab times to convince students that emerging technologies could scaffold or enhanced the learning processes. Making condition less promising was that in several occasions, there were no computer labs available for a social science class! In the project survey, for example one student wrote on her reflection, “I thought this class was supposed to be fun. I prefer to listen and take notes and then prepare for exams, not the hands-on things” while the other one reflected, “When you introduced this project, I did not understand the software you were talking about. I wished I did not have to do this project. Later you explained more in details, and then, I tried it. Boy, just unbelievable! It is easy. I love it”.

Students and Instructor Collaborating A Mutual Supporting System
During the semester, the instructor kept her schedule flexible for extra lab time and encouraged peer-paired learning to reduce technological anxiety of some students. For example, one student said, ” I have to admit, I was a little leery of this project when it was first mentioned in class. I like to scrapbook and the idea of designing a book on a computer program did not inspire me- until I started using the e-book editing software. I actually enjoyed playing around with the program and creating a book… Of course, it’s hardly good enough to publish, but I am pleased with the end result. Plus, I had a ton of fun”. One of the students critiqued on one of the components in the project, “I don’t like interviews at all! Why should I do that? I asked several questions in class. After understanding the interview steps, I reluctantly recruited several potential interviewees. Now I have to say, in fact, this is the most rewarding part of the project. Now I have a better understanding what the stigmatized status means and how privileged I am”.

Reflecting the Learning Processes and Identifying Problems
Most of students re-assessed their own learning journey via this project. They expressed their frustration, triumph, satisfaction, and joy in the project reflection. Through their writing the author identified problems to help herself redesign the future project. 80% students showed appreciation of the hands-on opportunity. For instance, one student critically reflected on her learning in the e-book, “…This class has really opened my eyes to see the big picture, which is the really of what we are living today. I did not realize this world was so diverse. Coming from a small town, you don’t get to see much of the ‘real world’ and this class has really opened my eyes and I have learned more in 16 weeks of class than I have ever learned in my lifetime. Going toward with my career goals, I feel that this class will help me to analyze each problem from the view of similarity, difference and diversity”, while the other student critiqued, “From my opinion, this project is more a homework compiling task than a real book writing..., but I still appreciate the opportunity to reflect what I learned”.

Conclusion

Oromaner (1986) points out that the teaching role is not a necessary condition for successful scholarship, but some form of scholarship appears to be a necessary condition for successful teaching over an extended period of time. This cannot be truer in the social science teaching. This student-centered instructor-guided “quasi-constructivism” project released the educator’s role of sage on the stage to the guide on the side as the knowledge facilitator instead of transmitter. In integrating behaviorist, cognitive and constructive strategies to obtain the "what" (facts), the "how" (processes and principles), and the "why" (higher level thinking that promotes personal meaning and situated and contextual learning), 93% of students completed the tasks and presented in the big classroom. Students' final presentation shared online and face to face peer reviews. The end of project survey provided invaluable information for the instructor to reflect and improve. Based on the lesson learned, to redesign and differentiate an authentic e-book project from e-portfolio one will be a new direction for the coming semesters.

References

Ambrose, S. et al. (2010). How learning works: Seven research-based principles for smart teaching.
          San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Clark, B. R. (1960). The “cooling-out” function in higher education, American Journal of
          Sociology. 65(3), 569–575
Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate
         education. AAHE Bulletin, 3-7.
Dougherty, K. J. (1994). The contradictory college: The conflicting origins, impacts, and futures of the
          community college. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Furlong, J., & A. Oancea. (2005). Assessing quality in applied and practice-based educational  
          research: A framework for discussion. Oxford: Oxford University Department of Educational Studies.
          Retrieved from http://www.bera.ac.uk/pdfs/Qualitycriteria.pdf.
          Archived at http://www.webcitation.org/5YfRbYfZd.
Harrison, J. D. (1979). Ph.D. Faculty in Community Colleges. Community College Review.
          6(1979), 24-28.
Kent, P., & Patton, M., (2000). National Profile of Community Colleges: Trends & Statistics.
          American Association of Community Colleges. Washington D.C.
Lage, M.J., Platt, G.J., &Treglia, M. (2000). Inverting the classroom: a gateway to creating an inclusive
          learning environment. The Journal of Economic Education, 31(1).
Miller, R., & Morgaine, W. (2009). The benefits of e-portfolios for students and faculty n their own
         words. Peer Review, 11(1). Retrieved from http://www.aacu.org/peerreview/pr-
  wi09/documents/PR-WI09_Benefits.pdf
Moore, M., & Kearsley, G. (1995).Distance education: A systems view. New York: Wadsworth
         Publishing Co.
National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). (2010). Major differences: Examining student
         engagement by field of study. Retrieved from
         http://nsse.iub.edu/NSSE_2010_Results/pdf/NSSE_2010_AnnualResults.pdf#page-10
NEA. Higher Education. Advocate. (2012). 29(3), 6-7.Washington D. C.: National Education Assoc.
Oromaner, M. (1981). The quality of scientific scholarship and the ‘graying’ of the Academic
         Profession: A Skeptical View. Research in Higher Education. 15(1981), 231-239.
Parilla, R. E. (1986). Gladly would they learn and gladly teach. Occasional Paper. 4 (1), 1.
         Southern Association of Community and Junior Colleges.
Palmer, J., Vaughan, G., (1992). Foster a climate for faculty scholarship at community College. AACJC.
Pellino, G. R., Blackburn, R.T. & Boberg, A. L. (1984). The dimensions of academic scholarship:
         faculty and administrator views. Research in Higher Education. 20 (1984), 103-115.
Siemens, G. (2004). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. Elearnspace everything
         elearning. Retrieved from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm
Whitehead, J. (1989). Creating a living educational theory from questions of the kind, "How do I improve
         my practice?" British Educational Research Journal. 15:3-17.
Zubizaretta, J. (2009). The Learning Portfolio: Reflective Practice for Improving Student Learning
         San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

About the Author

Li-chin (Crystal) Huang is a Social Science faculty in the Department of Behavioral Science and Civic Effectiveness at Chippewa Valley Technical College. She teaches online, hybrid, ITV, Web-conference, face to face, and Accelerated Learning courses in Sociology, Psychology, Social Problems and Race, Ethnicity and Diversity Study. Her teaching and research interests include innovation in online education, TPACK integration of emerging technologies, equity & quality of diverse learning in the digital age, learning technologies in the 2-year technical college, and interdisciplinary and collaborative (Art, Technology and Sociology) learning.

Address: Chippewa Valley Technical College 620 W. Clairemont Avenue
Eau Claire, WI 54701
Email: lhuang@cvtc.edu
URL: http://ci8395.blogspot.com
Phone: 715-833-6283

Fax:          715-833-6470

Fishbowl

                   
                      Posted on facebook, on August 3, 2012

Prometheus' Fire

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qRJIBtbc2c

July 31, 2012 Identical in Variation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jEaIDqHl74

Relax- Hybridization

Posted on facebook July 28,2012

The Searchers - Love Potion No. 9

July 28, 2012 11 Dimensions

Posted on Facebook, July 28, 2012
This morning, listening to a re-run of this million-dollar-detrimental-radio-talkshow super big mouth-piece R.L.'s wisdom (regarding free will, institutional justice...etc. "philosophical" mumbling), I impulsively jumped out of my bed, ranting these words at him (indirectly at my radio :P!). Without this stimulation , these 14 lines wouldn't exist. Thanks for the silver lining from this Muddy cloud :D!

The Generational Karma - 君子恥言義, 而揚利??

Dr. Michael Parenti's websites:
http://michaelparenti.org/ ☮
http://michaelparentiblog.blogspot.com/ ☮
No War But Class War Part one  and Part two

An Introduction to an Anarcathist's Catideology

Socio-political Felineology #11      July 26, 2012

An Introduction to an Anarcathist's Catideology

His Majesty the Elder- Wow, joined this household when he was a speculative feline supreme being. No one knew where he was from when he was a wanderer on Nebraskan streets as a starving naturalist 18 years ago. He seemed keen to select a pool of caregivers. At least, he also chose a music professor’s family as a back-up caregiver for a period of time, and later he gave up that family.

Wow, is a noble loner believing in an individualistic type of non-violent anarcathist philosophy. He is associated more with the early Taoist philosophers, such as Lao-zi and Zhuang-zi than that of Bakumin or Most’s. 

Surely, he seems prefer “negative liberty”, opposing to any house rules and any other feline control over him due to his born-free spirit. Thus, he does not buy in any other feline social wing’s positive liberty - "recognizing equality of entitlement" to achieve his potential. Why does he need to believe in those "artificial equality” notion, if his bio-genetically endowed strong fangs, claws and agile physique make him a fittest survivor in the wilderness? Confusing, isn't it - thinking and behaving like a progressive Libertariancat???

But joining in a human family, he needs different strategies to cope with the stress of how to trade off between his precious feline freedom and the plenty of deliciously secured foodfood. He did make a hard decision, hopefully, not to lose both!

Obviously, you can tell he is skeptical of "Feline folks, unify, you lose nothing relating to your fangs and claws, but the windows and doors"- in the contemporary catpitalistic society.

Having said so, he does believe in Goodwin’s idea. It says that all the feline beings need to be educated with felineology via the Stimer’s personalist catedagogy to enlighten the feline anarcathist. Alas, even our human friends are unable to access the proper amount of education, why his feline folks? 

Instead, as Illich mentions that “deschooling” seems more popular in many feline households – they are taught the instant catgratification and feline mass/conspicuous consumption manipulated by the maga-feline-food business-industrial complex.

Wow in quest - "Can you imagine ½ of my feline folks are overweight and obese with all sorts of modern feline diseases plaguing in our feline communities? The myth of us folks having 9 lives has lost 8 in this tightly encapsulated world. Even though I don't believe in the Feline universal health care, I foresee that my other feline members and I in this household can bankrupt my caregivers sooner than later!"

Just for relax - Crystal's Cross-Species Observations#1

      Post on Facebook July 26, 2012
When taking a short break from grading, then inspired by an excellent student project, this feline teasing remix appeared :3!

Socio-political Felineology #10 " A 'Self-Made' Feline Majesty's Cognitive Fascination "

New Curriculum on the way!!   Photo taken 2:00 am. July 21, 2012
Socio-political Felineology Course ID: 809- meoooow-☮ _(♥)_♥(☼◠‿◠)☮( =';'=)Course ancillary #10
Note - Nothing to do with the "Dark Night Rises"...

" A 'Self-Made' Feline Majesty's Cognitive Fascination "

This is Her Majesty 恰查某 (Spicy Meow or a.k.a. Young-Young to pair with Ying-Ying,-Mummy). See above photo.
Young was adopted from the local Humane Society 10 years ago. According to the available info, she seemed either severely bitten by dogs (under her chin, there was a long and deep scar when adopted), or been abandoned in the wilderness and someone rescued her to the Humane Society.

All I can say is that she is a very adorable, self-reliant, and headstrong "Republicat" - what an oxymoron :3!

She believes that all felines should pull up their paws with their own pawstraps, no matter the straps are available or not. She worships Social Darwinism of survival of the fittest and enjoys monopolizing the catnips, foodfood, treattreats, toytoys, and nice bedbeds...and so on goodie stuff, and then preaches on other feline folks that this is a feline free market world, go ahead!!

Surely, she claims all her hard earned goodies and entitles even more.. These attractive thinking and behaving deeds amaze me constantly. Was she "born" that way, or learned from "me" or someone-someplace else??? :P!
She also convinces herself that she could get out of the humane society was because she worked very very hard by sitting, sleeping, and waiting for her hard "earned" opportunities to happen :P.
Anyway, she does have good values regarding her independence without being helped or using other public resources to be flourishing!
Her motto is " See, I can make everything out of nothing; You can too!" - and encourages other feline folks in the humane society - " Stop whining! Get to 'work'!"
Be honest, I love Republicats more than the Democats or any other Politicats, because their Cute and Catego-centic reasoning is far more fascinating than anything else :P
Young is my favorite feline supreme being, just like my favoritism toward this million-dollar-detrimental-radio-talkshow super big mouth-piece (He was a luckily adopted child into a rich family a while ago :D!)

One more thing, Young watches her diet in an extremely finicky fashion. She only eats super fresh Raw chicken breasts, pork sirloin, fresh fish on weekends, (but no Cohiba Cigars). On weekdays, when her royal/loyal caregivers are busy in bringing in paychecks, she can tolerate fancy feast, i am (hard or soft) with a little bit treats... because, she is very cautious of not being perceived as a "Fat Cat"!


     

Crystal's hind-sight Bias: How and why did the Dark Knight rise?

Socio-political Felineology #3 A confession of a free-riding Upward Social Mobility

Post-Modern Socio-political Felineology. Photo taken on July 19, 2012

A confession of a free-riding Upward Social Mobility:

I (Ying-Ying 英媖, a.k.a. Mummy or the Heroine Hero :3!) was adopted without being aware of my hidden pregnancy. If not this given life-chance via a miraculous adoption (like that million-dollar-detrimental-super-radio-talkshow-mouth-piece's) my innocent children and I might have been living in Inferno? (See I lost half of the right side of my ear in the northern frozen tundra, and struggled to survive from starvation before being adopted...)

I have never been an intentional welfare queen, nor want to be one, due to an opportunity being available to me for managing survival :3!

Who says that America is not a land of Feline opportunities; who says that American is not a land of the Feline brave, the Feline tough, and the Feline courageous?

From the C-at to the shining C-at: Long live the brave, Long live the tough, and Long live the courageous!!!! :3!

I am a great American Catizen (...though, un-shamelessly speaking, I don't pay feline-Income Taxes DIRECTLY). I transfers my private cost to the public fiscal domain, including the fresh water, clean air, feline SUV highway systems, feline National park visitation, utility/medication, my children's feline education, and feline homeland security fees...etc. 

I am quite sure that now my children are much more ahead than other less luckier or unfortunate feline folks...

One more conspiracy - sometimes, my kids run into troubles (you can tell from the above rambunctiously sculpturing video, as well as the marauding of butterflies and grasshoppers), but don't worry, they always get bail-outs :3!

Crystal's Cross-Cultural Perspective, July 19, 2012 on Facebook
Seemingly, it is necessary for socio-economic accumulations via generational efforts to refine cultural constructions, such as Pyramids, the British Museum, the Modern Hanging Garden (e.g., Dubai), the Sistine Chapel... and the most important one - the LHC - shamelessly speaking, not my name initials, but Large Hadron Collider!

Behold! I (Boson) say to Thou....

        If not imaginary, the Photon Particle, seems no mass.

absolute Amusements corrupt absolutely

Unfortunately, I am an amateur sociological football fan : (! I told my class how much I adored Donald Driver, regarding his social mobility not exactly via his wide receiving, but via beating the odds. And outside of the football field was more dramatic than the inside's- you know more than I do... :P!   Yes, dancing… as well :P!

July, 12, 2012 Socially constructed reality - altering the biological facts

Socially Constructed (intriguing) Reality

                     

Trans-generational upward and downward ideological mobility

Crystal's Cross-Cultural Perspective #40 - posted on Facebook, July 8th, 2012

Socio-political Felineology #2 Philosopher Catking - Sir GaGa

                             Posted on my Facebook on July 7th, 2012

                        Philosopher Catking - Sir GaGa in Meditation

His Majesty Sir GaGa counts his own UN-earned privileges during a Meditation

1. I don't earn my handsomeness (can do catwalk effortlessly as well);

2. I don't have to earn my American Catizenship (am not even required to
    pass the feline naturalization test, but the "neuter"ization);

3. I don't choose/earn to be a popular Maine Coon
   (Born That Way, though, not white);

4. I was an abandoned kitten and adopted into a feline worshiping family
    (a big intra-generational upward social mobility);

5. My loyal care givers enrolled me via a Legacy Admissions Policy to the Feline
    Ivy Leagues for a Felineology Ph.D. degree program
   (without being accused of a "reversed" affirmative action);

6. I use all sort of public facilities without paying taxes (such as visiting the local
    Phelan Park via our 0-carbon-footprint feline SUV);

7. In fact, I don't have to do much, just being beautifully handsome and
    earn all sorts of admiration as many Polico-Econo-Hollowood celebrities do...
    (- Modern Meritocracy);

8. I have never had to worry about when/where/how I get sick/ticks, due to my
    health care plan (am probably a  top 1 or 2%);

9. As an imaginative feline, though not really a "Fat Cat", if I want, I can  
    parasitically live off the expected Wall Street Windfall and still being worshiped;

10. Probably, if not by imagination, I might inherit a good fortune in the future to  
     be ahead of other less lucky feline folks.

and will keep on counting in the coming posts : P!

Who says that I am not a philosopher Catking?? :3!

June 30, 2012 A Quest to a Civilized Society in the Social Darwinist Jungle

A response to an Animal right advocate
who might not be interested in basic human rights
Posted on my Facebook. 

June 30, 2012 The evolution o fElection

Old blood, new blood, good blood and "bad" blood?

Crystal's Cross-Cultural Perspective regarding Supreme Court's 5-4 vote Upholding Universal Health Care Law

May 14, 2012 An annual 200-Billion-Dollar-Weight-Lost and Medical-Treatment Business Modern 朱門酒肉臭, 路有餓死骨

In responding to an early morning radio talk show regarding overweight and obesity issues-posted on my facebook (051412, M)

May, 13, 2012 Blessing vs. Daily Routine

Crystal's Weekly Trivial Observation on fb #32

May 13, 2012 #32

Crystal's Trivial Observations on Facebook 11-13

Diversity and Learning Technologies 

-  by Li-chin (Crystal) Huang 042912 

          William Sloane Coffin, Jr. once said that diversity might be the hardest thing for a society to live with, and perhaps the most dangerous thing for a society to be without. It cannot be more true than in the digital age.  From past history up to recent events, such as Slavery, Nazi Holocaust, Rwanda genocide, the Triangle Factory fire, the Arab Spring, Anders Behring Breivik’s mass murdering, up to current campus/cyber bullying tragedies tell us that the narrow and distorted view toward human diversity is against the best interests of humankind.

         Naisbitt's MegaTrends (1982) provided a perspective that alludes to such an understanding.  He wrote, “Whenever new technology is introduced into society, there must be a counterbalancing human response, that is, high touch, or the technology is rejected”. In short, the more high-tech development, the more high-touch is needed. I would maintain that this high touch has to be reified through healthy human interactions and proper socialization processes via the increasingly sophisticated technological affordance.  From there, understanding, tolerance, acceptance, embrace, and then to celebrate the value of uniqueness and differences would be possible. The individual’s needs for survival, love, respect, and self-actualization cannot not be achieved without human beings’ mutual relying on one another to create common good. The following sections are my points of view regarding the importance of enhancing diversity via awareness, understanding, and actions.

          First of all, from a broader perspective of diverse technological affordance, the dramatic change of information technology since 1960s with the PLATO system up to today’s Web 3.0/cloud computing capacities, and M-learning, provides myriad teaching and learning possibilities for more diverse facilitators and learners than ever before to access knowledge. With this constant advance in computer and communications technologies, research in educational technologies has undergone a paradigmatic shift toward a new horizon: enhancing the fluid mobility between theories and actions. This new horizon focuses on merging the study of learning in complete, complex, and interactive learning environments with the use of emerging technology to advance the integration of contents, pedagogy, and technology to meet the increasingly diverse students’ needs.

         Secondly, relating to my first point, the demographic trends illustrate that the non-conventional education consumers and “prosumers” (the hybrid of consuming and producing)- be it the digital native or luddite , digital immigrants or aliens, digital savvies or connoisseurs, the different digital generations of learners have been occupying the main educational landscape. Alluding to human diversity, in a differentiated teaching methods seminar, I found an inspirational message - “When we identify a student who doesn’t understand, louder and slower won’t do it. We need to be more creative than ever; when we identify students who already understand, doing it again isn’t acceptable. We need to be more creative than ever”. Students learn in different ways just like educators who facilitate with different teaching styles and pedagogies. In addition to the teaching-learning diversity, other significant social forces and circumstances, such as race, ethnicity, social class, gender, sexual orientation, disability, languages, creeds, as well as the rest of human different conditions, according to the available research, provide evidence of the significant correlation to the teaching effectiveness and learning outcomes. This is what I consider to be the most challenging issue in the digital age- what to understand and how to be part of the solution. The key method is that we need to be more creative than ever to enhance the connectivity and to bridge the differences.  I am convinced that innovation and responsibility go hand in hand to usher to this transformative direction. From the local communities to the global markets, in order to successfully adapt to the fast changing societies with various cultures and sub-cultures, it is imperative that people develop an empathic insight and a comprehensive cognitive capacity toward diversity issues.

          Then, we heavily rely on those who can, teach – creatively and responsibly to be the catalysts to the systematic and systemic change of human societies. Learning technologies will be the hardest science that requires robust digital engagers to take on studies that are dynamic and contingent. In such a profession, only those stakeholders who tackle the diversity challenge as a way of conscious living to promote human understanding and collaboration will reshape the future. Thus, I envision an omnipresent and mobile environment for all learners to create the -world-is-flat phenomenon. The terms of Blog 2.0, semantic Web 3.0  encapsulate the idea of the proliferation of interconnectivity and interactivity of the e-effects. They open up sky-is-the-limit possibilities to transform learning to defy various digital divides as well as human divides in the domestic and global domains.

          “Be the change you want to see”. The optimism and challenge are co-existent in this unprecedented epoch. Learning Technology is a gift as well as a social responsibility to the educators and relevant stakeholders. It is a golden opportunity to reach diverse learners to optimize human capitals and shorten the digital and human gaps. It is time to redirect such powerful capacity of learning technologies into the humanitarian engagement.

         Finally, at a personal level, during my past 14 years' teaching,  in several semesters, I was the only “minority” in the classroom ( in particular, at 2 universities in the Midwest that I taught),  in terms of my race, gender, social class, faith, language, and socio-political understanding. I fully comprehend the urgency to expand the understanding of diversity issues confronting the contemporary society.  We identify the resistance of change, but we also see people paving the way for a better society.  As mentioned in the letter, I have been passionately educating and promoting race/ethnicity, gender, class, sexuality, disability, and other relevant diversity understanding in the local, state and global levels in seminars, conferences and via social media.   

        It is a goal, an action, a commitment, and most importantly, a responsibility. We make the road of understanding and empathy by walking together!

Revision of A Talk: Empowering Women through Education-3 Women's Stories from Taiwan at the International Panel of AAUW, Rapid City, South Dakota followed by the "被割割" episode

BBC news reported yesterday (Jan. 26, 2012) that a Pakistani woman was brutally cut off her nose and ears by two men due to being late to bring back water from the well site. This unbearable event reminds me of a talk that I gave about nine years ago. I revised a little bit (when I first wrote it, I used the "present tense" relating to my mother, which needs to be changed into a past tense, for my mother passed away in 2005) and re-posted here to share with you.

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Dear Friends of AAUW,

First of all, I would like to thank you for the fantastic job you have done to open my eyes as a brand new member. Then, I want to thank Kathleen who introduced and encouraged me to join this big family, so I have this opportunity to learn from you. Peg picked us from the airport along the way to the conference that made me feel so welcomed. Cheryl and Rusty, thanks for the email connection and the sincere help to make this trip possible. Finally, I want to show my appreciation to your Mayor who sang a wonderful song for us. I won’t forget his wonderful voice. Please promise to say our thanks to him.

I was amazed to know that AAUW was 121 years young. 121 years is equivalent to my grandma, my mother, me, plus my nieces’ generation together. During that century, when AAUW had accomplished so many great jobs to encourage /help girls and women to reach their potential, what did my grandma, and mother do? And what about my generation and nieces’ are doing? So, I decided to tell three women’s stories from Taiwan. Don’t be surprised or disappointed, I will be one of them.

Once upon a time, a little girl was born in Taipei, Taiwan, 19xx. Her name is LC Huang. When she was about 6 or 7 years old, she told her mom that she would like to be an artist, ballerina, poet, and diplomat. This is the first story of the three. So, you can see, most of her interests seemed relating to feminine fields. But think about it, a 7 years old girl was hardly qualified to be enlightened as a young "feminist" during the 1960s in Taiwan. The possibility of being a female computer scientist or engineer was equivalent to the cats in “A Room of One’s Own” wanting to go to heaven.

Since talking about cats, which the bishop commented on in Virginia Woolf’s article, I needed to confess that I had not read it when I was young. If I had known I needed a room of my own with a lot of CASH to be myself, I dared not to tell my mom about my wannabe. Furthermore, if I had learned earlier about John Adams’ famous remarks, I dare not to have made such an “enormous” wish. He once said “ Because of my father’s hard-working, so I can study military and politics, so my sons can learn law and engineering, thus my grandsons can be artists or poets,” something like that…. You see, what an interesting statement that made me think!

First of all, it is all about men- the father, himself, the sons, and the grandsons. Where were the great-grandma, grandma and the mother, the daughters and daughters-in-law, and the “Shakespeare’s sisters”? Secondly, it lets me think how wonderful or how lucky it could be to have a father from Adams’ family!

Finally, darn it, I am not a son, but another Shakespeare’s-sister-could-be!

Since I have mentioned "father", let me just quickly and briefly introduce my father (though we are talking about women, without men, women's stories would have been much more different??). I need to be objective and neutral toward my father who passed away several years ago. My father was born in 1910 during the Japanese occupation. Putting in this way, let us recall a movie, maybe you have seen it- “The Last Emperor.” It was the last Sino-Japanese war of the last dynasty, the Qing was defeated and gave away Taiwan to Japan. From 1985 to 1945, Taiwanese people like orphans suddenly tossed away to a foreign regime that strategically ruled her (both repressive and assuaging tactics) for half of a century. Some relevant information can be find in a grad paper of mine: https://ci8395.blogspot.com/2012/08/pedagogy-of-oppressed-vs-oppressors-and.html  After having depicted the historical background, let me go to some details about him. He was forced to have 4 years’ Japanese elementary (to uproot the cultural heritage) education which was all he could attend. Such a "privilege" given to him perhaps, he was born with a desirable gender.

To save time for the key stories, I would skip my father's, and go into the second one. It is about my mother. Born during Japanese colonization, like most of the poor women, she was encouraged to have as many children as possible. The "reproductive machines” were highly demanded to produce more workers, and soldiers for Japan’s military expansion needs. My mother did have 10 children. According to the comparative advantage, and since some education would damage the womb (Edward Clarke, 1873), my mother, and women of her generations were deprived of the opportunities of education. So, she could not read, nor write. Although she was so-called “illiterate”, she insisted that children should have an education.” “Children should have education” is equivalent to “people need to breathe, to eat, and to drink” in today’s society. So what’s new about it?

Now, again the story needs to be situated in the historical context (for detailed conditions, refer to my thesis: A Multi-Level Analysis of 228 Social Movement (A Massacre) of 1947 in Taiwan, deposited in the General Library of UW-Madison). Among her peers, education to women is like a camel wanting to go through the needle’s eye. Just taking a look at her contemporaries dealing with their daughters, you can imagine how noble an idea my mother had! Among Taiwanese women of her age group, approximately 95% were poor and illiterate. One of the major anxieties of them was not able to pay daughters’ future dowries, thus giving away or exchange daughters for the future-baby brides-in-law (童養媳-who were usually brutally mistreated by the future mothers-in-law) was a popular practice in the low social class. Many young girls were even sold to rich families as child laborers or chateau slaves, and some of them ended up in the highly demanded business - brothels.

My mother loved us, children, very much. Those young girls’ horrifying nightmares had never happened to us female siblings. However, my eldest sister had to sacrifice herself to help out the family. Right after graduating from elementary school, at that young age, she worked at a textile factory as a weaver- a very popular and booming industry at that time during the first wave of globalization marching through Taiwan. As to me, I realized how important money was to my family. I always had a strong desire to please my mom to soothe her constant anxiety of family financial stress. I worked many tiny jobs starting from my elementary school days. Two of them were multinational corporate company’s branches in Taipei. One was the Max Factor Cosmetic Inc., the other one was an International Traveling Bags Manufacturing Company. I remembered I took my younger sister Li-chun working in those difficult working conditions to earn 3-8 cents per hour. No such word -"child laborers” existed at that time, not to mention the Child Labor Laws ever been heard off, because children were assets, not liabilities when time did not favor children's innocence! Kathleen just now mentioned the positive and negative sides of Globalization (not Internationalization), I think my female siblings are good witnesses of those days of sweet bitterness!

Definitely, us female siblings did contribute efforts to the first stage of globalization in Taiwan and were also part of the legend in establishing the famous MIT (Made In Taiwan) kingdom with unimaginable joy (tiny yet significant money) and sacrifice (terrible working conditions). Male siblings even born in a humble background still could get enough attention and protection from my mother and nurturing from sisters. For example, I had to do all the family laundry by hand and cleaned my brothers’ rooms when I was a very little girl. Us sisters took turns to do cooking and cleaning. Recall when I was in high school which was a very competitive one (the Taipei Municipal First Girls’ Senior High School), I anxiously saw most of my classmates staying at cramming schools after class for another 2-3 hours' extra home assignment drills and preparation, so they could do well on next day’s quizzes/exams and kept very competitive in class, while I had to go to families hiring me to tutor their children so I could bring some money home. You can imagine, after family chores, tutoring jobs, school works, there was not so much time for me to prepare myself for the next day’s challenges in school. But fortunately, through those events, I learned to keep the head above the water, and survived well. Who says that “What cannot break you, make you stronger,” indeed!

Now I had better quickly jump to the third woman’s story. I am running out of time. She was a wet nanny. A wet-nanny, mainly, a woman living in poverty, saved her milk to nurture other families’ babies for whose mother could not or did not want to raise them. Thus the nanny was called in to serve and earned the service fees. The third story was also relating to my mother. My biological grandma died right after giving birth to my mom. You know at that time, a woman’s partition was similar to put one of her legs into the casket ( just recall the horrifying and ordeal that Mary Wollstonecraft had been through for such a tragedy!) It was a 50-50 % chance to survive for most of the babies and the mothers. The grandpa had to marry a widow with 4 children of her own. He witnessed the abusive behaviors of the stepmom toward the little baby – my mom, thus he decided to save the baby’s life by sending her to the wet-nanny’s house and paid her some meager fees. In the long run, my mother decided not to go back to the stepmother's and stayed with the nanny's family.

The nanny (we called grandma) had 7 children, three boys, and four girls. Each time she gave birth a baby, if boy, she kept him, if not, she would arrange to sell or give away the female infants (named with gender derogation, such as 罔腰, 招弟, 一招, 再招 - frequently seen at that time. For more details, refer to my thesis: Social Ideology and Gender roles- Contemporary Women's Issues in Taiwan (社會意識型態與性別角色-論臺灣社會變遷中婦女問題 ) deposited in the Grad Library of National Taiwan University). Thus, the milk could be saved to nurture other families’ babies. She only kept one girl for family chores and took care of other family members. Two of her daughters were sold, and one of them almost ended up in a brothel, whom my mother (she became the oldest one in the nanny's family whom the nanny dare not to touch) used all the possible methods to rescue her out of the misery. As to the money the nanny earned, she used to support the whole family. Remember, during the Japanese occupation, Taiwanese men were oppressed in a different fashion!

Now, I hope you won’t be misled by my anecdotal stories about the true face of women in Taiwan during the early 20th century. I wish I would have presented more accurate data about the social condition during those days. But, now, the misery of women has been replaced with a new vitality through a tremendous socio-economic transformation: just comparing my current academic and career conditions to my mother’s.

So, regarding the generation next to mine, are you curious about it?

Yes, let me tell you, each time I go back to Taiwan, I just could not tell whether my nieces are American girls or Japanese young ladies! They enjoyed the tremendous economic affluence in Taiwan. They dyed/highlighted their hair, changed their contact lens by colors, and dressed up like Japanese girls or westerners with all sorts of fancy stuff which make their auntie Crystal look like a modern pumpkin. They just want everything that the modern American and Japanese girls enjoy! They are experiencing the fourth stage of Rostow’s economic development model- the “high consumption era.”

The trajectory of women’s development in many societies has striking similarities reflecting her specific socio-economic conditions and the cultural ideology. That's why it is important for women from different cultures, nations, races, and classes to get together to share our female experiences.

Taiwan presents a wonderful case study for women’s striving for justice among developing countries in the 20th and 21st centuries. The history of the development of women in Taiwan was young but impressive. The female grassroots movements have generated more than 50 NGOs (non-government organizations) to fight for women's rights. Via 30 years’ empowerment of education, women’s movements led by the well educated middle-class women and their relevant associations have accomplished the following major successes legislatively, economically, and politically a decade ago:

1. Taiwan had the first female Vice President in Far Eastern Asia, elected in 2000, and the first female
Presidential candidate running against two males with a narrow margin of loss in January 2012;
2. passed the Equal Rights, Equal Pays Law;
3. amended several family laws to protect single parent and divorced women; and
4. passed the Civil Liberty Union Law that same-sex can legally marry and is protect by the law.


Due to time constraints, the statistical data relating to the changing socio-economic statuses of women in Taiwan will be shown through the slides/PowerPoint presentation! Thanks for all of your attention and patience.

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The following short article might not directly relate to the above story and was not a new story either. But I would like to put them together as a response to a Mainlander-official who worked in the Taiwanese Foreign Affairs Dept in Canada as a public serviceman, paid by Taiwanese taxpayers. (Note -There are Taiwanese Chinese, Chinese Taiwanese, Taiwanese, and the natives as well as other different ethnic groups in Taiwan). This gentleman derogated Taiwanese people's multiple-century suffering into insignificance that caused a socio-political scandal a couple of years ago.

他的名子叫 被割割 March 2009 Crystal L C Huang

他的名子叫 被割割。這個名子犯不著對 "范蘭欽" 有任何自由聯想或對他有畫蛇添足之 "閒"。(這仁兄宣稱臺灣人是"賤"民. 是可忍孰不不不不不不可忍?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) (This short article was done by the turtle-crawling style in typing each character when the voice to texts software was not available).

被割割很認命與守舊。深信書中自有外交屋，書中自有謙忠恕。中學作文得數獎，大學聯考歷史考了個一百分。算是個左腦 (右腦是在媒國啓蒙的) 有開發的人。被割割一心一意想拼個謙忠恕外交官以報家國養育之恩 (真是顽固迂腐到極點!)。首度赴特考戰戰兢兢, 然而慘遭敗北 - 這科國際公法雖非本行, 也不該考個如此無能的分數。捲土重來信心十足。不料晴天闢靂高分落選。

回想多年前時的被割割並非輸不起那一分，而是被割割 那不識字的母親滿懷疑問 "那ㄝ安內生? 歷哪目賙放ㄎㄨㄟ ㄎㄨㄟ去考，歷史也不會考二十五分!!!" 一輩子沒機會上一天學的老母卻苦苦巴望她十個苦命兒 中能有一兩個有出脫當個 像包清天那 樣 的 ”官”，一如歌仔戲 (忠孝節義封建承控機制) 中那十年寒窗一舉揚眉顯親的莘莘學子鬆口氣 地說， ”此後不再受虐於猛逾虎的苛政”。 然而複查成績的結果是白紙四大黑字- "查無錯誤"。

被割割只好安慰老母: “媽，您的每日清晨夜晚虔誠欽天敬祖，燒好香做好待， 祖宗神明會原諒我的失誤。” 然後被割割嬉皮笑臉地對媽說 “可能是真的， 想當官要燒三代的好香做好事呢! 媽， 一定是前兩代阿公阿祖香沒燒夠!” 私底下，被割割卻無奈地想著那報考的履歷表上, 的確是要你提及祖宗三代。不過不是有關燒好香做好事，而是祖宗們的學經歷背景。被割割的兄妹們倒是黃家頭一代出產的識字人。在台灣，這是一件很值得誇耀的事。

言歸正傳，這 “ 二十五分的歷史教訓 ” 從此深深烙印在這個社會學没讀透的狂狷青年心頭。

話說山不轉路轉、當不了駐外人，被割割 倒也扛轎周旋於幾個小型官場，看了幾齣現形記 (時當解嚴天蠶劇變之際，於國府殿堂)。厚黑與薄白戲碼趁機上演，看得眼花撩亂，做得澎湃洶湧 。 說得遲那時快，一個有份量的獎學金使被割割覺悟一切有為法，如夢幻泡影 - 痛心地空遁到海外, 專心投入百年樹 (媒國)人的工作 (不夠格樹本國人，只好退而求其次)。 所以, 從一個當了七年親愛精誠的丘八官與抬轎人如今成了個 “住” 外的樹人。

如此一來，被割割時而仰天長嘯壯懷激烈一番, 時而自我調侃自我阿Q，自封個背 "彩虹旗" 的人 (有綠， 有藍， 有紅，有黑，更有白)。如果你要為被割割駐個名 (不論是加罪或加封)- 這嗎 騎牆騎得太離譜??

不過看官要是知曉這荒唐辛酸個中味， 說真的，這種旗也真重得難扛。 試想被割割對著大鼻混眼的媒國學生唱著 望你早歸，梅花，雨夜花，易水寒, 與 高山青以解說社會階層和族群理論時，卻無法用那美麗的母語的精神分裂折騰?! 被割 割的自我流放, 值得反省, 值得三思..