Comments on: Learning, Freedom and the Web Book Sprint–You Can Help!

By: Josh Baron

Josh Baron — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 19:05:37 +0000

I too hear this often (faculty are the problem that is)…and I in general agree (stressing the “in general here) but also believe that this has, to some degree, become an easy out for high ed leadership. Why can’t they lead real change in high ed? Because the faculty won’t let them…so why even try? But in reality I think they are often as resistant to change as the faculty (hey, they were faculty once right!). Given them tools to introduce change within the shared governance model that most work in might be one way to move things forward.

I do really like the idea of providing suggestions on how to create their own Drumbeat-style festival…if this could be positioned as a way for them to start a grassroots “bottom up” change process that started with faculty that could be even more powerful. Meaning, if let’s say a Provost was able to seed and support a grassroots faculty-lead Drumbeat festival that engaged students as well that could really move things forward. Instead of forcing change on the faculty they would simply be supporting faculty who were pushing for it.

By: Ihab Ismail

Ihab Ismail — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 06:02:37 +0000

I came to your blog through a series of steps beginning with reading an article in Independent School magazine published by NAIS (Winter 2011).

I am interested in your views about educational reform and the impact of digital wave on youth’s educational capability and the development of their self-efficacy.

By: Anya Kamenetz

Anya Kamenetz — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 16:36:47 +0000

Josh, interesting point. You know, I talk to provosts/deans/presidents all the time, and they swear up and down that it’s actually the faculty who are resistant to change…I think within every group there are people who see what’s coming and others who don’t.
In terms of giving them strategies, one how-to we’re thinking of including is how-to have your own Drumbeat-style festival. Could you see institutions across the country gathering folks from within their orbit–students included–who have different skills for two days of brainstorming and hacking on solutions?

By: Josh Baron

Josh Baron — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 15:37:20 +0000

Building on Leigh’s comment, to be of real value over the longer-term it would be really great if the book had a “wiki-compliment” to it that allowed the “how to’s” to be expanded and added to over time. One of my frustrations some times is reading books of this nature 2-3 years after they come up and finding that some of the things are already out of date, references/links not valid or new resources have surfaced that might be better to use then what was there when the book came out.

Last, I like the idea of a “hallway waiver” but to really drive change I think it needs to be our provosts, deans, and presidents who are the ones doing the waiving, not just faculty/educators. I’d try and have “how to’s” that are not just about grassroots bottom-up “things” to do but also strategic game changing “how to’s” that senior leadership can follow to drive change.

By: Anya Kamenetz

Anya Kamenetz — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 02:08:27 +0000

Leigh, thanks! What a great suggestion! I’ll run it by the rest of the team…

By: Leigh Blackall

Leigh Blackall — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 00:33:51 +0000

Great idea Anya.. I wonder if you could tap into existing projects like WikiHow and others somehow. If you settle on a style guide, (I really like the SuperGlue example you show), then people could follow that guide or template and you could focus on encouraging a crowd to contribute. You might end up with How-tos you might never have imagined. I’d say you will end up with such. Critical is an easy to follow template. You might want to follow up on some with graphic design, to tie the best together.