• The student becomes the teacher

    25Jan
    Author: Katherine Pisana Categories: Education, Technology Comments Off on The student becomes the teacher

    So it’s been a while. I have to admit that ulterior motives have propelled me back into the blogosphere. I’m returning to VS not because I’ve been particularly moved by an ed tech article or because I’ve come across a funky new technology I wanted to show you.  To be quite honest, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my short stint away from anything and everything related to online learning. You see…

    I finished my Masters in Online and Distance Education in December ’09, and from the moment I submitted my final piece of work, there was a part of me that knew I needed to take some time to recover. Perhaps that’s a common response felt by many a grad student, but the way in which I’ve been repelled from all things technology (even my shiny new iPhone at a certain point, or the untouched iPod shuffle that’s been sitting on my desk in its original box for over a month now) was quite surprising to me. After all, one thing I’ve learned about myself throughout this process has been that I have a natural tendency to seek out new technologies, determine in what ways they work within an educational context, experiment with new applications, and join emerging groups excited to share their common interests in the field.

    Maybe it was a case of me just overdosing on technology, but funnily enough, I didn’t suffer from the often paired imbalance of information overload. In fact, I’ve been deliriously delighted diving into books – the real PAPER kind! – ever since I officially parted ways with my student self and reentered into the adult world. I’ve even succumbed to redecorating my workspace in an effort to reflect my internal desire to reconnect with the less virtual literary world with which I think I might remember briefly engaging back in high school for a day or two.

    I’ve unapologetically started piling books onto my revamped workspace – not elearning books, not research books, not even learning and teaching books – but the kind of books that you want to fall asleep reading at night and reopen in the morning as you take your first sip of steaming caffeinated goodness. My home office is now adorned with candles propped up on rounded glass plates, next to a crystal hourglass that’s been sitting in its original gift box somewhere in the back of my closet for long enough that I can’t remember when I got it in the first place. The coffee mugs are still there (for what an empty cerebral world it would be without them!) but no more do I have to burrow myself in piles of file folders stuffed with printouts of assessment criteria for upcoming assignments.

    So back to those ulterior motives. They relate to this adult world I speak of, so often associated with mountainous career paths to climb and saturated weekly calendars to survive. It’s time to enter into the working world again, and for many of us instructional designers, our blogs are our calling cards – even more important in many ways then our CVs. So, I welcome this New Year, albeit slightly late, with this first post of twenty ten. Getting back in the game as it were… But now that I think of it, perhaps I did read something recently that’s sparked this train of thought…

    I received a mailing a few days ago from my Alma Mater inviting me to join its graduate association. The group’s slogan is “In my end is my beginning” – a sentiment that so brilliantly encompasses my current state. I suppose you could say that I feel accomplished, but coupled with a presumably organic sense of achievement is this bittersweet taste of being back at square one again, and no matter how many coffees I gulp down, the bitter taste doesn’t seem to be going away. Maybe it’s got something to do with the unemployment rate or with the economy, or with the general uncertainty of the times.

    In any case, regardless of my recent momentary shun of all things technology or of my desire to temporarily disengage from the virtuality of so many of the worlds we live in these days, I have continued to do one very important thing through this whole process. I’ve been determined to remember that many of my experiences as a student in the world of educational technology are most probably also experiences that other online students have shared. And now I find myself holding these thick tomes of lessons learned and knowledge gained close to me as I begin to look around for a new place to put them down so that I can share them with others.

    I think that in the end, the most cherished lesson I take away with me from graduate school is of how important it is to be as observant, tolerant and open minded as we can be when we are students because that is the best way to ensure that we are heard when it is our time to teach.

  • Higher Education: A stable sector in the midst of the downturn

    10Jun
    Author: Katherine Pisana Categories: Education Comments Off on Higher Education: A stable sector in the midst of the downturn

    10june-postHigherEd Careers published a feature this month on employment indicators in the higher education sector. For a general overview of what’s been happening in the US job market and the mechanisms affecting employment, have a read through the discussion between Andy Brantley, President and CEO, College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR); Bruce Steinberg, Employment Researcher; and John Ikenberry, President, HigherEdJobs.com. In the piece, Steinberg notes that employers are not cutting as many jobs in recent months as they were in the beginning of the year, but I have to wonder if that’s because there just aren’t as many jobs to cut. I also don’t agree with his assessment that the housing sector was what got us into this mess in the first place but rather that it was the first to show signs of what was coming, but that’s neither here nor there.

    To his credit, Steinberg does suggest an interesting approach for academics to adopt in order to gauge the health of their specialist sectors and, in turn, the marketability of their positions:

    Higher Ed Employment Indicators: What Matters?

    To be able to know what the employment and financial health is of the areas outside academia that they are educating students about would be most helpful to make strategic plans about staffing and the allocation of resources. In this manner, they are providing the educational grounding for the next generation of workers and professionals in sectors/industries that will lead the next economic cycle.

    However, what most interested me was what Ikenberry had to say in this interview about the ‘fresh off the virtual press’ Higher Education Employment Report – Q1 2009. Its four key findings suggest that the total number of jobs in higher education has remained relatively stable over the last 18 months BUT the number of advertised job openings in the sector has decreased significantly. It also found that in the first quarter of 2009, colleges and universities shifted their hiring towards faculty and part-time positions and away from administrative hires and full-time employees. Does that mean there’s a growing market for freelance work in HE?

    The message Ikenberry sends out to job seekers looking to snatch up the few opportunities out there at the moment: competition is high, but rest assured that the challenges you face are likely not because of something you’ve done (or failed to do). We’re all facing tough times. Just as you and everyone else on the bus is counting pennies to make it through the rest of the month, so are universities and colleges. Investments are being scrutinized from every direction. Persistence is key. It looks like ’employers are looking for reasons to exclude, not include, candidates from consideration’. Having said that, from my own job hunting experience, I’ve seen job openings pop up on a number of occasions for directors and associate deans of educational technology. The significance there: learning technologists were few and far between when I entered this industry. Now formal divisions of being established within institutions to support these efforts. That’s a good sign.

    It might take some time, but those divisions will start to grow and become more and more a part of the strategic vision of many universities. Growth means new opportunities, and I think that just like with so many other areas of our global economy, we have to see some significant changes in the makeup of industries before we start seeing real upward trends.

    So to end off on what I think is an inspiring note that actually ties into supporting the growth of our industry, here’s Brantley‘s advice to higher education professionals looking to further our careers:

    Higher Ed Employment Indicators: What Matters?

    Those looking to further their higher ed career should be committed to constant learning. If you would prefer to seek a new position, but prefer to stay put for the short-term, invest time and effort into learning new skills and abilities–on the job and outside of the job. The things we do every day to enhance our skills and abilities definitely impacts our marketability now and in the future. There are some great opportunities available, so now could actually be a great time to find that next career opportunity. Job seekers should be focused on their true career aspirations and apply for positions that really match their short and long-term career goals.

  • The economy and me

    05May
    Author: Katherine Pisana Categories: Education, Educational Technology Comments: 5

    RSS Job SearchI’ve started looking for a job this week, so I can tell you that the economy is much more of interest to me now than ever, particularly how it’s affecting higher education. I subscribe to a number of job search engines and associations that also syndicate new openings, so I’ve been observing the job market in California for a couple of months now. I’ve noticed very few instructional designer roles opening up, and even those that are published directly on university websites come with a disclaimer that although you can apply, they are currently under a hiring freeze so you might never hear back from them.

    I’ve also noticed some phenomenal roles – policy makers, strategists and managers of institution-wide educational technology initiatives. These are generally posted by higher education institutions that have newly established ‘elearning units’ – hubs or centers of excellence with remits to expand hybrid and fully online course offerings for their universities. These jobs sound great, not only because of the stimulating challenges that lie waiting for the people who land the roles, but also because they show signs of greater understanding and openness on the side of the institutions who are ready, willing and eager to invest in educational technology initiatives.

    So, now back to some thoughts on the economy…

    Alan Tait wrote an interesting post on the EDEN President’s Blog about Scotland’s economy and how, through direct engagement with employers, higher education in the UK is able to design custom training for the workforce to ensure that the teaching is relevant, and that the industries feel the benefits. I wanted to include below a snippet of his impressions of the ways in which the oil and gas sectors view the relevance of education:

    I was surprised by the almost total focus on the recruitment of the brightest and best of new graduates, and on coping with the difficulty in persuading new graduates that the Oil and Gas industries are attractive places to build a career. There was almost no focus from the industry representatives on the development of people in their existing workforce. My only contribution was to point out that if the competition for the brightest and best new graduates was already fierce this would only get worse because of the demographic down turn, in many developed countries at least, of this age cohort. This would mean development of the current workforce would become even more important than it was already, and that the emphasis on non-campus based forms of study that supported learning in and around the workplace rather just the campus would become all the more important.

    Some industry giants must have heard Tait’s call because they’re already starting to do their part. Microsoft announced the launch of a new program in February designed to ‘provide up to 2 million people over the next three years with the technology training needed to succeed in the 21st-century economy’. A very important step considering that our focus can’t just be on current college students struggling to get heard in the blogosphere, and kids in K-12 who we’re trying to teach about technology at as early an age as we can. How about the current workforce – those still in it that is? Companies are not likely in the position to invest in on-the-job training, and employees are probably juggling with the new responsibilities faced by so many families who have had to transition from 2- to 1-income households. These types of new training initiatives only require time and determination from the life-long student…and the payoffs of self-empowerment would be priceless.

    So, as the sun spills onto my carpet as I sit on my sofa (a change of pace from being proverbially chained to my desk – the magic of laptops!) and I can still take advantage of the quiet while the commuters are still on the roads returning home, I’ll post this message and get back to work. First point on the agenda: finish watching a webinar entitled ‘The Economy’s Impact on Higher Education’ – part of Educause’s monthly series discussing how the economic climate is impacting upon the education sector. Let’s hope they have some good news…

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