Aug 18 (Sa), 2012 Reflection - one of my homeworks as a grad student at University of Minnesota at Twin Cities, 2008

                      Introduction
“Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are."  -- Ben Franklin

            This paper is a reflection on what I have learned from the various types of critical theory and applications studied and discussed in our class.  Such a reflective process enhances my pedagogical  consciousness and conscience in my daily practice as an instructor/educator. In addition to my reflection, I also  used this writing opportunity to inspect my own dilemmas addressed in one of early one-page writings regarding Kliebard’s “The Struggle for the American curriculum, 1893-1958”.  The question was “How have you seen the four major forces Kliebard identified playing out in your personal and professional lives?”  My answers were “Thus far, my 10 years’ teaching experience in the U.S. has been a mental struggle between a die-hard social meliorist and social efficientist… Honestly speaking, having been teaching in a 2-year “technical” college for 5 years, my tons of dilemmas between being a culprit of capitalist instructor and conscientious facilitator for the typical low-income students challenges my mental soundness on daily basis.”  Thus, this paper presented two levels of investigations: at the individual level, it harvested what stimulated and inspired me to move on, and the other one looked into a contextual level to examine the “unknowability” (Kumashiro, 2002) or uncertainties of what students learn as well as the pedagogy under specific type of educational settings.

                                                   
                                                         Two Tales of This Paper

At the individual level – my reflection of what I have learned thus far
           Alluding to critical pedagogy as an enhancer, I brought together approaches discussed in our classroom to help decode the  pedagogical enigma- the juggling between a repressive capitalist-culprit instructor and an anti-oppressive educator. 

           Scholars, researchers or activists who have inclination toward critical pedagogy tend to seek more basic change in society.  Radicals penetrate into the basic flaws in society that are responsible for various types of oppression and malfunctions of society.  For example, for the Marxists, the basic flaw is the capitalist economic system that creates social classes and various types of artificial social hierarchies and oppression as addressed in Freire’s (1993) Pedagogy of the Oppressed; for the radical feminists as discussed in Davies’ the Shards of Glass (1993) - the conventionally oppressing “spoken-to-existence” of gendered dichotomy and repressive social institutions such as family/marriage “can be speaking and  ‘be slaughtered’ out of existence, played with, disrupted, or used to manufacture new revolutionary potentials (p.198); and Kumashiro’s (2002) tangible knowledge that examines multiple ways of reading activism and its pedagogical role to engage in social change.   To me, radical/critical ideals and practices, in their symbolism like revolution, transformation, challenging status quo, anti-oppression, and social change…etc. are energizing, stimulating, and inspiring that fill me with optimism to wade through the educational battlefields.
Having sociology as one of my academic disciplines, it is hard not to declare that the transformative ends of education need to be attained by the forcible overthrow of all existing safe / repetitive normalcy and oppressive practices. However, the rational approach also comes into play because social change does not come easily. For the solutions to transform society entails radical changes of our society’s everlasting institutions.  Having said that does not mean it will discredit the desirability of the transformative dynamics. Some insist that it begins with economy, and others, education, but which one comes first, or simultaneously?  I will detail this point in the later section.

           In the educational realm, the conscientious one desperately decries- let the educational oppressive classes tremble at Freire’s Pedagogy of the oppressed and launch toward the dialogical revolution!  On the other hand, we might be pondering a critical issue: do we really have nothing to lose but the institutionally repressive chains??  Do educators or knowledge workers unite, and there is a world to win or one has to work it out like the educational Rambo- Erin Gruwell’s hard-earned heroic victory?
           Dan Lortie (1975) maintains that the easy entry of recruitment in addition to the individualistic socialization process supports the conservative sentiments permeating in the K-12  (and 13-14 too. Detailed later) educational settings. He argues “…to see recruitment into teaching as leading to reaffirmation than as leading to challenge to the past…in teaching it tips toward continuity rather than change to sustain stability” (p.54).  Though such investigations observed by Lortie more than three decades ago, they still portrait current practices vividly.   In my episodic observations from the small group discussions, I heard off both the revelations from the tough and the enlightened:  “I never know all these radical theories and practices all my life as a teacher until now, but that doesn’t mean that I am not a good teacher”; “ After this class, I started feeling upset and hating those oppressive people and their practices…”;   “Those curriculum approaches (refer to Freire, Kumashiro, McCarthy and Dimitriadis in particular) are very unconventional, how can you practice them in your class?”  “Why everything is binary? There are much more important things (inferring the taking care of the majority of students than spending time on focusing on minority issues)  teach and discuss than that…The author’s writing style is really cursive /incomprehensible!” (refer to Browyn Davies’); “ O.K…. I am from the dominant group, I also feel oppressed too; and I am trying very hard to understand Other’s experiences, but there always is a gap hanging there!” and so on so forth. Yes, there are much more questions and skepticism than answers and doability.  

              Though the doors lead to change is narrow, critical activists, researchers, and practitioners devote great deals to such a cause that inspires me to keep on going.  In practicality, Davies (1993) proposes a workable definition of agency with a combination of the ability to recognize the constitutive power of discourse; the ability to catch discourse/structure/practice in the pact of shaping desire, perception, knowledge; and engagement  in a  collective possess of re-naming, re-writing, re-positioning oneself in relation to coercive structures (p.199).  Freire (1993) suggested the dialogical actions of cooperation, unity of liberation, organization, and cultural synthesis to generate positive conditions for freedom to resuscitate the awareness of human creative possibilities and scaffold people’s freedom of expression, effective participation in power.  He also reminded us of the confronting ideology of domination and alienation with class struggle to fight against the false consciousness. Kumashiro (2002) maintains that education is critical of privileging and othering.  He suggests that educators and students need to examine not only how some groups and identities are Othered in society, but also how some groups are privileging, as well as how this dual processes legitimized and maintained by social structure and competing ideologies (p.44).  With the above individual’s venturing perspectives in mind and in actions, change can be done as the saying goes, “The thousand miles’ journey starts right from every individual’s first foot step”.   In addition to the individual level’s endeavors, the next section will examine the overarching forces permeating in the educational system from my personal observations.

The Contextual Level of Investigation

            In Freedom Writers, the viewers could identify the extraordinary individual endeavors to overcome obstacles beyond ordinary people’s control. During the group discussion, I raised a question “In Erin Grewell’s case, why does a system impose the toughest tasks to a young student teacher under one of most formidable conditions (contrast to the senior teachers who have the privilege to teach the “good /honor or “easy” students)? Is it a testimonial to prove Social Darwinism- the strongest the fittest- like Rambo, Erin, or it goes with the cliché “for those who can, do; those who cannot, teach?” 

          With the understanding of the contextual issues that play significant role in teaching and learning, now I am returning to my predicaments mentioned in the introduction. The conundrum confounding the individuals’ efforts, in my case (and many instructors/educators having the similar conditions to mine) is situated in the specific educational conditions, which have to call upon system approach as well to confront such a challenge.

            Having been serving as a social science instructor/educator in the non-liberal art type of educational settings, my daily struggle between a die-hard social meliorist and social efficientist schizophrenically challenges my mental state. It takes a deeper look into a larger picture to see through. To understand part of my pedagogical quandaries, a brief educational context is delineated as follows.
           Very different from my first teaching experience as a TA in the Art Department of a 4-year liberal art school (Wayne State College), the last two educational settings, a 4-year college, University of Wisconsin-Stout, and the current one, a 2-year technical college in Chippewa Valley, Eau Claire, Wisconsin, challenge me constantly as a social science instructor/educator.  One of the challenges comes from the nature of both schools’ historical developments, which lead to the utilitarian mission imperative.  UW-Stout, founded in 1891 as a Manual Training School, was based on the pragmatism of “social utility”. Such philosophy[1] and strategy echoed the industrialization, new immigrants, structural expansion due to G. I. Bills, changing constituencies, diversity needs that evolved into today’s professional career-oriented mission as a priori. Thus, from its inception, the utilitarianism laid out the foundation of its educational practices.  Liberal art education, such as Social Science which I belonged to, does not have its own degree program, but functioning as a supporting learning to the main protagonists – the vocational (or career) degree programs. A couple of proposals to establish Social Science degree program were killed in the college wide contesting. Focusing on social utility functions as mission statement, yes, one could euphemize it by tying to Dewey’s “learning by doing” educational philosophy, if it is genuinely progressive in practicing experiential pedagogy.

             As to Chippewa Valley Technical College, it is one of the 16 tech schools in the Wisconsin Technical College System. Wisconsin was the first state to establish a system of state support for vocational, technical and adult education (Chapter 616, Laws of 1911).  In the past 2 decades, the system has increased its focus on lifelong learning; education for economic development; and services for groups that formerly had less access to education, including people in rural areas, women and minorities. Special emphasis has been given to assisting the unemployed, displaced homemakers and those with literacy problems.
             Serving the regional needs, in particular, training the desirable job skills, working ethics, good citizens to feed the workforce demands is the major mission statement of the both schools that I served/have been teaching.  Inside the system, the visible as invisible discord between hands-on (vocational programs) vs. minds-on (liberal art or general education programs) is a constant undercurrent that school seeks to reconcile by advocating the integration of the two.  But once in a while, you hear off that liberal art/general education is parasitical on the vocational programs, or the degree program creating working robots without critical thinking skills…etc.

            The demographics of students attending the technical college are quite different from those of the typical liberal art university.  Generally speaking, they are low-income, high school dropouts, first generation attending a 2-year college, displaced workers due to the corporate downsizing and outsourcing, learners from malfunctioning families or communities and so on.  This is the student populations that I am working for and with on daily basis. The climate is very different from that of National Taiwan University, UW-Madison, University of Minnesota, the Ivy League Schools, and the like.

            Due to space limit, I used a couple of small episodes from my sociology classes to examine the critical thinking capacity. The consciousness raising tends to be more successful in responding to the awareness of, such as, the endangered species or the polluted environments in the U.S. But in terms of global stratification/inequality regarding race/ethnicity, gender, social class, sexuality and other socially constructed categories were less successful. (I remembered in discussing racial issues in the U.S. in one of my classes, a student argued that we did not have racial problems here - Wisconsin. And her ancestors were not slave owners, thus affirmative action was truly against the White and privileged the minority – this episode was from UW-Stout when I taught there).  One of the reasons as Davies’ points out (1993)  that we are always vulnerable to the discourses through which is spoken and speaks itself into existence (p.21). The unexamined baggage students carry into classrooms reflecting the “the normalcy of individuality”- a tendency to blame the poor and the victims/failure instead of social stratification and corporate hegemony due to the mass bought  the spoken-into existence of the dominant ideologies.  Same as in debating and discussing “Homestead Strike” and “Roger and Me”, one striking comment from half of the students was that workers should have looked for other jobs- because this is a land of “Freedom” to “choose”; no one tied you up at Homestead or Flint!  Students can see the needle in the haystack (blaming individuals), but ignore the elephant in the room (ideologically constructed social structures)!!

           Thus it might be easier to call for a green action to save endangered species and conservation than foster critical reflection on individuals’ participating in their own oppressive processes. Having said that one still have to encounter other disciplines or degree programs’ mission statements, which support or are sponsored by capitalistic ideology.  For example the refrain consumption would against, say, the Marketing, International Business, or Business Management programs’ advocacy.  In an occasion, I picked up a handout of a business class in which the contents was pro-“globalization processes” and applauded the logics of growth.  And for the over-consumption as students interpreted it: a way to express patriotism. Nevertheless, the above anecdotes might reflect my selective attention, thus are subject to my personal bias.
            I have a little bit envy of Kumashiro’s endeavors that he seems able to arouse students’ sense of  “crisis”  (it did happen in our class too, but I am curious of the demographic characteristics of his students!) when they are confronting the discomfort ideas or practice that are not part of their learning experiences. In my classes, such  precious “crisis” moments do not surface very often.  Like many other instructors/educators, the classroom managements would overshadow the managing of generating critical ideas (Schulman, 1987) in the technical college settings.  Hopefully you won’t consider the following common scenes are excuses for not being an Erin type of educator: Absenteeism, illness (in particular, single parent student’s children), family affairs (lots of family problems in low-income households spilling over into other spheres of students’ lives), transpiration problems, finance stress, jail time and all kinds of adult problems come into play in the daily classroom dramas.

            When economic stress, such as being unemployed, being laid off, dealing with nickel-and-dimed temp job, or living on welfare is haunting majority of students, the notions of liberation of gender, emancipation of race/ethnicity, and restructuring the  social class, tolerating/accepting the different sexual identities and so on are not easy to get into students’ mindsets.

            This semester, I expanded a mini-carnivalesque approach in my Psychology of Human Relations class - all male, blue collar, “emotionally reserved” students mainly major in heavy duty hands-on vocational programs.  Lots of music, exotic foods, snacks, multimedia presentations (you tube, movies, documentary, ppt), story telling, students’ role-playing as my teachers…etc. is the only pedagogy that I can think of to engage with this type of class genre that I have never taught before.  Kumashiro mentions the notion of unknowability referring to teachers who are not sure what students really learn, or act.  Hopefully, such activities could lead to Britzman’s argument that learning involves in unlearning of what they believed as norms in their gender/family and community relationship, their notion of patriotism, the religiosity, and the invisible oppressive capitalism that they  (and I too, when I showed my iron fist to command the authoritarianism on their punctuality, obedience, politeness, learning to be employable workers and marriageable men/fathers, and good law-abiding citizens…etc.  See how much I contribute to the capitalist education! ) participate in and contribute to.

                                                                       Conclusion

            I am wondering how many educators/practitioners expect or feel satisfied to teach so-called “no-problem, good, honor students” in the K-14 setting?  For me, I got the chances to teach two high schools and two colleges in Taipei a while ago.  Three of them were academic successful schools with “good, obedient, polite” students. But so far, my best memory and my most self-aggrandized pride came not from the good schools but the one that people recommended me not to go.  It was that very “dreadful” high school privileged me how to be a good educator!

         At my current workplace, in a typical face to face Sociology class, usually 10 to 15 percent of students in an average class size of 25 can/will engage in the critically reflective processes:  discomfort, crisis/paralysis, upsetting, and then work through the crisis before being able to act.  This small group of students having and enjoying the  “luxury” as well as “privilege” to decode the enigma of “Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are" tend to be from healthier family background or at a more mature mental state that make the critical pedagogy shine! School contexts matter, so as social class!  In a nut shell, my belief to work against both visible and invisible oppression takes dual levels of endeavors. One is focusing on system (such as Bronfonbrenner’s) approach to engage in organizational/institutional criticism on the structural and ideological hegemony.  The other one is relying on individuals’ endeavors to take on the role of change agents/activists as well as guard against one’s own contributions to the oppressive processes.

          Being a multiple-conscious instructor/educator, I realized that I am much more privileged than unprivileged.  So, this is my confession as a social science instructor (hopefully, someday, I can self-promote into an activist educator) who struggles between a die-hard social meliorist and social efficientist; a teacher and learner who is able to reflect the privileges she possesses in serving as a culprit of a capitalist educational system without losing the conscience of being an anti-oppressive “pedagogue” to engage with the less fortunate students one “class” at a time.

         Finally, and most importantly is that I truly appreciated the onsite pedagogical modeling, such as the design of the course readings, the energy, engagements, and the multiple dimensional encouragements, the diverse pedagogy (some examples such as, unknowabilities of pleasantly pressured surprises- e.g., tackling the impossible tasks, brainstorming the onsite spontaneous writing and sharing, debating, big/small discussing, mutual paper critiquing, and group project collaborating to name a few).  I experienced the pedagogy of humanist, social melorist (mostly), social efficiency, and some developmentalist approaches integrated well in such a short period of time!

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[1] Such philosophy contesting the traditional liberal art education could be traced back to the Yale report in the 19^th century. The disciplinary theory of liberal educations supported the following ideals:

(1)Keep away occupational studies from curriculum: occupations could best be learned through practice in the counting room, the workshop, and on the farm. To preserve room for literary and scientific studies as students might never have time or opportunity again to pursue in the course of a busy practical life; (2)The college might not offer training peculiar to specific occupations, it would provide the broad theoretical foundation logically prior for them all; (3) Liberal education emphasized to cultivate the whole man, the all-around man.-symmetrical and complete.

(4) Specialization would produce only a fraction of a man.  To avoid narrowness liberal was to attend to  round men out physically, morally and intellectually; (5) Finally, liberal arts cultivate imagination, length perspective, sober judgment, and refine taste at the  same time it gave life direction and purpose; while supporting the utilitarianism was much the themes of Stout’s development:

(1) The tradition of liberal education inherited from abroad was aristocratic; (2)  In the latter part of 19th century, undergraduates  reacted much more readily where they could see the  instrumental values of their studies; (3) Utilitarian studies could releases student energies more spontaneous; and 

(4) The Land Grant Morrill Act of 1862 played an important role in stimulate the growth of technological education (agricultural and mechanical  fields). E.g., Harvard, Yale, Cornell, and “Wisconsin idea” of being public- service institution 

(Notes from Dr. D. Lewis’ course readnigns).

A Cosmic Encountering

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwNtbJRw9FQ

A Tree's Whispering

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

                                  Four words were altered from the original poem.

Aug 15, 2012 Theatrical Performance

Aug 13, 2012 Le Premier Pas Qui Coute to the road less travelled

Wen Tianxiang (文天祥) - "人生自古誰無死，留取丹心照汗青"。
-- "All men are mortal, but my loyalty will illuminate the annals of history forever".

This famous poem was written in the most despicable and brutal prison before he was executed.

Wen Tianxiang (文天祥;  Wén Tiānxiáng; ; June 6, 1236 – January 9, 1283 AD ), Duke of Xinguo, was a scholar-general in the last years of the Southern Song Dynasty. For his resistance to Kublai Khan's invasion of the Song, and for his refusal to yield to the Yuan Dynasty despite being captured and brutally tortured, he is the most important symbol of uncompromising spirit, valiance, and righteousness in history. He is considered one of three heroes of the Song's last years. 

Though his culturally iconic influence was mainly on the conventional patriotism, here, referring to the  integrity in one’s character and endeavors in fighting for justice.

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

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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