[Air-L] Air-L Digest, Vol 104, Issue 24

Mel Stanfill mstanfill at gmail.com
Mon Apr 1 07:58:30 PDT 2013


Dear Dr. Forno,

I am preparing a blog post on the common assumptions behind the Coburn
amendment and MOOC madness, and I found  your comments below very useful in
conceptualizing my argument. I would like to directly quote and cite you in
the post. Would that be alright with you? And, if so, should I link to your
infowarrior.org site so my readers can find you? If this is not something
you are interested in, I will instead paraphrase you anonymously, but I
would much rather give you credit!

Thanks for your consideration,

Mel Stanfill
PhD Candidate
Illinois Distinguished Fellow
Institute of Communications Research
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
http://www.melstanfill.com


On Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 5:00 PM, <air-l-request at listserv.aoir.org> wrote:

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> Today's Topics:
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>    3. Re: Coburn Amendment (Richard Forno)
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> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2013 15:17:21 -0400
> From: Richard Forno <rforno at infowarrior.org>
> To: katja.mayer at univie.ac.at
> Cc: aoir list <air-l at aoir.org>
> Subject: Re: [Air-L] Coburn Amendment
> Message-ID: <1BCB9D4A-8574-4315-BE3C-C8EE77420037 at infowarrior.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
>
> Yep, I'm sure many folks are involved/seeing discussions about this thing.
>  *headdesk*
>
> I think it comes down to a belief by DC and many state governments that
> unless education or educational initiatives/research can be tied *directly*
> toward job creation in today's "hot new fields" it's a waste of time and
> funding. How much of that is a direct consequence of the national
> unemployment situation, I don't know.....or how much of it is shaped by
> political ideologies, for that matter. The cynic in me has all sorts of
> reasons why things like critical thinking, history, political science (ie,
> "how your nation is supposed to work") are being marginalised, but that's
> not an appropriate discussion for a lovely Friday afternoon.   /ducks
>
> In my field (cybersecurity) I see a disturbing trend towards mixing
> 'technical training' with 'education' at the 4-year and graduate level with
> the goal of helping "develop the workforce" --- which often means getting
> people with technical SKILLS into places of vital employment.  Even
> government groups known for setting academic guidelines in this area are
> heading in that direction, too.  As a result, there is an ongoing
> discussion/debate over what constituties 'technical training' via
> professional certifications and the development of skills as a practitioner
> (generally offered in the non-credit realm) and more formal education (ie,
> for-credit, degree-seeking programs) that seek to produce well-rounded
> professionals who can advance in their careers over time.
>
> It's one thing to know how to build and configure a firewall, deploy a
> Windows network, or run various security tools to test your online
> security.  But IMHO that's technical training to produce specialists ---
> one friend even suggested those kind of hands-on-keyboard activities are
> the modern equivalent of blue-collar "jobs" of years past:  IE,  you've got
> Master Electricians and Certified Information Security Professionals;
>  you've got Journeymen Plumbers, you've got Certified Ethical Hackers, etc,
> etc.  I don't think he's that far off.  And we definitely need these
> people!!
>
> But it's another thing to know how that low-level stuff fits into the
> bigger picture, understand context, think critically and independently,
> develop and communicate meaning, and be able to conceptualise more than
> your narrow slice of things -- THAT is where a broad and diverse education
> comes in, which most likely includes stuff drawn from the allegedly-useless
> humanities!!    These are necessary qualities on needs if they want to have
> a defined "career" instead of a series of "jobs" ---- and they come not
> from STEM-y disciplines but the humanities.  Through an appropriate
> educational framework, these folks can be exposed both to specialist
> knowledge as well as those 'soft skills' that allow them to take a
> generalist approach when needed.   Among other things, they can ask "why?"
> and not just focus on "how?"
>
> That said, in my program, we've decided to split the difference to try and
> get the best of both worlds:  We recently built a 3-credit elective course
> around a popular technical training certification in the cybersecurity
> field.  However, rather than just lecturing and "teaching to the
> certification exam" (as many places do)  there are group projects, papers,
> presentations exams, and other assignments appropriate for graduate
> students, are academicly rigourous, and reflect what my program seeks to
> produce in its graduates.  We tell students that doing well in this course
> will prepare them for that industry certification (if they want to go that
> route) but that we are not teaching exclusively to that exam or restricting
> course content to just material related to the certification. (By contrast,
> other places offer 3 credits for what essentially is a "certification exam
> test prep" course.that could be taken at any commercial testing center or
> community college.)
>
> My apologies.....this turned into a long-winded screed saying that like
> many others I disagree with Coburn's Amendment and the overall trend of
> marginalising the humantiies to focus on STEM and worker skills
> development.  In my view, being an effective professional is both an Art
> and a Science.
>
> -- rick
>
> ---
> Just because i'm near the punchbowl doesn't mean I'm also drinking from it.
>
>
> On Mar 21, 2013, at 4:37 PM, Katja Mayer <katja.mayer at univie.ac.at> wrote:
>
> >
> http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/senate-delivers-a-devastating-blow-to-the-integrity-of-the-scientific-process-at-the-national-science-foundation-199221111.html
> >
> > ???
> >
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> End of Air-L Digest, Vol 104, Issue 24
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