More on Shift Happens

Thanks (and actually thanks to all who emailed privately both agreeing and disagreeing with me). The fact that we can have this debate openly is one of the great things about this country. I do not diagree with any of the things that Julian says here in this email, and though it may seem like the opinions are counter to each other - in reality the true outcome is not (in disagreement). So lest we get sidetracked by opinion and debate - let's hit the real issues and responses (note I preface everything with "My response" - I want to note that I am giving my opinion and that it is OK to disagree with me);

1. The world has flattened alllowing other countries to directly compete against the US in key technical areas where they have not been competitive in the past.

My response: Nothing spurs performance like competition, and all this innovation improves technology, in turn improving the ability for others to join in the competition. Even if the US does not develop many of these innovations we will benefit from them. We can and will be competitive in this environment - but we will probably not be the center of all the new developments in the future.

2. The global standard of living will increase.

My response: Julian is correct in stating that there is no reason the US standard of living must decrease for the global standard of living to increase. This is a choice we as a nation will actually make (and are making). Basic infrastructure (roads, plumbing, schools, hospitals, etc..) are what really make the SOL in the US high. (if you don't believe me just visit a 3rd world country, you will appreciate indoor plumbing and sanitary sewer systems after that). We can choose to invest in improvement of these items (or not) and they will have an effect on SOL. As far as the global SOL increasing - we can see countries building this infrastructure before our eye. BUT - the material required to create this infrastructure is finite (at any point in time - no need to go into the economics of this, I do understand it) , so when China purchases more of the worldwide concrete supply, we do see higher prices in the US.

3. The US has been a good world leader.

My response: I agree with this. Despite our mistakes and ills caused by the US, as far as world leadership goes I would have to give it good grades especially compared to the other options. This is probably because we have a very diverse and free population. And we will continue to be a world leader, I simply think that we will be more in a position of sharing the role with other countries. There are other opinions about this I could state (I am bothered that we could concentrate on injustive in Iraq - but completely ignore places like Zimbabwe and Sudan - but I also understand why).

4. We can prepare our next generation for the problems they will face.

My response: Between global warming, flattened world economy, and all the other issues we will leave the next generations plenty of challenges. And I think they will be up to those challenges (we better hope so). By teaching the next generation to think critically, to view problems as opportunities for solutions, to think independently and creatively, to work hard and use their minds, to keep an open mind, and many other things - we are leading them in a good direction. I am very hopeful for the future.

Lastly: We must avoid what many have come to phrase as "engineering arrogance". Engineers do play a key role in what will transpire with our economy - but so do people of other disciplines. It is this arrogance that has made it difficult to recruit students into STEM disciplines as students view them as the hard path. We must work to understand the benefit and the role of all the disciplines to our students and to ourselves.

Response from Julian Schmoke

This is an excellent reply to the issues brought up in the "shift happens" and my response to the shift happens video. As this is a forum for sharing ideas - I am by no means under the delusion that my opinions are correct, and as academicians we all agree that open debate is important to allow us to completely understand the issues. This comes from Julian Schmoke a faculty at Devry;

Ron,

My concern with the lack of US dominance has less to do with our standard of living and more to do with where we stand militarily because there is a connection between the two. A lot of people like to "hate" America, and we have not always been correct in the way we have involved ourselves in world affairs, but people want to forget the good things that America has done and hopefully will continue to do. I don't have to give everyone a history lesson on US involvement in WW1 and WW2, and our role in the collapse of the Soviet Union. Having been to Taiwan and reading the weekly rhetoric being exchanged between that small island and China I have no doubt that they would have been swallowed up by China by now were it not for the US. Israel might not exist as a nation anymore without US support. We are not perfect, but the US is still the place of choice to live for many people in the world. We should not have to apologize for that or feel guilty about that. Instead, as a nation we try to promote capitalism and democracy a a way of life to other nations over such alternatives as communism, socialism, dictatorships, etc.

I also reject the notion that the US standard of living has to drop in order for the world's standard of living to increase. There are also some pretty low standards of living in isolated pockets of the US and very some high standards of living is some less developed countries. What the US has is a way of government that allows people who are willing to work for it a chance to pursue prosperity that simply does not exist in some nations. Forgive me for flag waving, but having the most powerful country in the history of mankind that promotes "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" has some advantages to the entire world that we should not be so willing to surrender. Even our right to disagree with each other without fear of retaliation is something we should not take for granted.

The example of gasoline has the added factor that OPEC can control prices simply by choosing to cut back on production. There is no real oil shortage, only of shortage of people with control of the oil. We do have a lousy energy policy to begin with, so I agree that oil price increases may be a good thing in the long run to get our dependency removed from it. But lets not lose sight of the fact that as powerful as the US is, we could simply take the oil we wanted. The world knows that will never happen. Why? Because this nation is populated by a people with a moral compass founded on principles expressed in our constitution, and have enough say in the way the government runs to prevent it. Anyone who does not think this to be important should look at our involvement in Iraq. Whether you agree or disagree with the US, the american people have begun to assert themselves in a way that will eventually lead to our withdrawal, for better or worse.

If you think that it does not matter who the major economic power in the world is, I would have to disagree with you. With regards to the solutions, there is a greatr paradigm shift that has to occur in America before the necessary changes get made, and unfortunately that change probably begins at Wall Street. Promoting engineering as a profession only works if engineering is indeed, a better profession to be in than the ones that our prospective students are running to, and US business and government has not helped our cause in that matter with its short term focus on profit over longevity.

Julian Schmoke.

Globalization

In response to what actions can we take to prepare our students for the next century as shown in Shift happens

http://www.glumbert.com/media/shift/


I do not often chime in, but this is a good occasion for me to throw in my two cents, some may agree with me, others may not - but hopefully I'll offer some good ideas with real actions that we, as a community, can do now.

- The question is not if America will lose its economic leadership, but more of a question of when. Most of us in the US view this as some potential terrible event - but in reality many nations that do not dominate offer a solid quality of life and standard of living. In the US there will still always be an educated and affluent portion of the population. Loss of our economic dominance will not affect these people as much as it will affect those at the lower ends of the economic ladder as the overall population will no longer be able to afford to sustain programs that help support them.

- In the talk of globalization, this presentation is very US centered. The very presentation carries an attitude that permeates the narrow minded view that most in the US has. What is really changing is the global standard of living. If the US standard of living must drop (for us 300 million) for the standard of living of the remaining billions to increase - is this a good or bad thing? We do see the effects of this daily - competition for gasoline has driven the price of gas up in our country (likely to $4 / gallon by summer's end). It may even force a percentage of American's to (gasp) purchase more gas efficient vehicles to maintain their travel habits or worse (gasp) change those habits. But again - is this a bad thing, and engineer could easily argue that higher gas prices now are a good thing, as they will force us to consider conservation measures, push us to national policy of better energy independence, and force technology to meet the need. And all this will happen!
over a period of time that will allow us to react - rather than push the inevitable crisis back in time - giving us less time to prepare.

- So what can we do ?

1. Bring these topics up in class in front of our students. They are the ones that will be the most affected, we owe it to them to know what they are facing.

2. Create competitions, sponsor workshops and conferences, and do what we can to address these issues. There are answers to many of these questions.

3. Make friends with these new global partners. Have abroad programs, student exchanges, faculty exchanges, etc...

4. Change our curriculum and keep it current (I'm only going to pop this bag of worms open a little)

5. Globalize our curriculum and introduce current affairs. (try polling your students by a show of hands on any current affair - you will be surprised)

6. Introduce Information Fluency and ability to process and use information as a foundation of the curriculum (yes this can be done).

7. As engineers and technologists get involved in the other classes from other disciplines, the skills from these classes will actually be the students edge.

8. Incorporate business and specifically international business into our students curriculum.
I'm sure there are many other things we do - and we are not the first folks to recognize that we must react to make our students competitive in this new world.

Somewhat Puzzled

I enjoy doing puzzles and solving problems. This is somewhat the heart of being an engineer - you seek problems and you look to find a solution. Having been in education for over 20 years I can also say with some authoirty that we do a pretty good job of teaching students to also solve problems. There is something however, that we do not teach. To answer the question to what this is - I must first give some background.

In the engineering disicipline most problems are solved by an engineering method, basically you follow a prescribed series of steps that will eventually lead you to a solution. A true understanding of the basic scientific principles behind these steps is not necessary to successfully solve the problem. Sure, it helps - but the majority of engineering students solve problems by first finding a similar problem and emulating the logic that leads to the solution.

So what happens when these students are confronted with problems that fall outside of their frame of reference, problems that they do not have an example to follow. The best way to find out of course is to simply give a group of problems that require the students to move outside of their current thought processes, and I often do just this to groups of my students.

Reactions to this type of experience vary greatly. Some students quickly lose interest and cannot wait for the session to end, others embrace the chance to solve something new and work tirelessly to come up with a solution. What the students do not see is what I am looking for. I am looking to see who will think outside the limits of what has been taught( or should I say schooled) into them in over 16 years of relentless education, creativity and risk.

Great discoveries are often made by mistake, but why? In the case of a discovery - was not the information needed for the discovery always there? A well-educated and prepared mind will immediately see the potential in something that is stumbled upon. Add that element called creativity to the mind and you will find that the discovery was not an accident after all.

So where is the point, in all this education we still are missing a few things. We want to teach love of learning, and proper problem solving methods, but we also end up cutting off the students greatest mental capabilities. For those readers who see the puzzle here, congratulations. I make no pretense for having the solution, but sometimes being puzzled is the answer.

Music and Inspiration

For those who know me - they also know that I like music and have very eclectic tastes in music. For the most part my tastes go towards the music that I am exposed to - and I am not a radio listener (at least not much). Most of my favorite songs; ranging from Pete Townshend (Slit Skirts), Rush (Manhattan Project, Red Barchetta), Supertramp (C'est Le Bon), The Alan Parson Project (Don't Let it Show, One More River, Siren Song), Elvis Costello (Veronica) are not going to show up in any top ten countdown. These are the songs I find both inspiration and enjoyment in - and they have not been overplayed by any radio station.

One of the reasons for why music inspires me is I play music (primarily guitar - but I can play most C based instruments). But it goes beyond that - in music your mind makes the translation and finishes the story. Most of my favorite songs tell part of a story - but leave just enough to allow your mind to fill in the blanks. Those blanks are the source of inspiration - I am free to fill them in any way we wish depending upon my current mood. Good music tellls a story, pleases the ear, creates an emotion, and leaves with your mind just a bit more stimulated than before you started listening. A story that is concluded may be satisfying - but the story left unfinished is much more stimulating - because you become part of the story in order to bring about the conclusion.

Honors Seminar - Post 1

I am really enjoying teaching the UCF Engineering Honors Seminar. I've diverged some from the original class - which had a more rigid structure of teaching and lecturing on research methods. Each day the class actively engages in discussion - and I was surpirsed to learn how few classes at UCF had previously placed the students into an active discussion format where they were allowed to control the flow and direction of the discussion. The students are doing a great job of running the class - and I am bringing in the guests that allow them to start taking different perspectives of their degree and education - while at the same time learning the basic material.

During the course of the semester I hope to be able to see some of the truer personalities of the students in course. For them - the light at the end of the tunnel (graduation) is getting pretty close. The decisions that go with that, (small business, corporate America, grad school, ...) are also getting pretty close. For many these decision are shaped only by the opportunities that present themsleves "the loudest". When these students finish - they should have the skills necessary to pick out, what for them is the best opportunity.

Where are we going - publishing?

Publishing Revolution – the next change?

The basic print and picture media (aka books) have traditionally dominated education. Even the internet with its ability to provide rich multi-media content has not shaken the hold that the traditional print form of media has had in education. This is because the ability to produce the rich content has been relatively difficult and inaccessible. This is changing slowly and rapidly at the same time. Software that allows the creation of video and interactive content has become easier to use and less expensive. Even though this has started a slow revolution in the delivery of education – the true major change is yet to come.

First, let’s look at the much maligned e-book. No company has hit the magic formula of form, cost, and content to make the e-book a popular and common piece of equipment. All while the ipod and other devices have become common. At some point the magic formula will be reached and the e-book or some form of it will become a common appliance. The purpose of this article is not to guess on what form this will be – but really look at the impact of a technology that is inevitable.

With the combination of the ability to create rich content, and also the ability to deliver this content conveniently – we have all the makings of a content delivery “revolution”. I am not predicting the demise of the written word and the traditional book – quite the contrary, I love books and have collected many. What I am really talking about here is a change in the ability to deliver education.

Looking at this from the viewpoint of a parent and an experienced user of the internet, here is a story. My 9 year old child needed to learn about China – she was studying it in school. Of course to learn about China the best thing to do is visit the country – but unfortunately time and budget make that difficult. So we sat down with my laptop computer and her Social Studies books and did some research. We looked at panoramic pictures of the Great Wall, and listened to Chinese speech. We saw pictures about Chinese history – and learned a lot about China – a lot more than we could learn from her Social Studies text. So what kind of text would really do the job of teaching a 3rd grade kid about China? What if that picture of the Great Wall allowed you to touch it and get a video and real information about it? What if the picture of Confucius was accompanied by audio and a video presentation about the period in which he lived? Why do I think these things will happen? – because they can and parents will want their children to have these types of resources.

So where are we going? Well its not always easy to see the full road ahead, but it is always a safe bet to put your money on convenience. Never underestimate the resources that parents will bring to bear to give their children an advantage. And mostly never underestimate the ability of engineers to invent those things that will make all these things possible.

Teaching Statement of Philosphy

Teaching Statement of Philosophy

With over 20 years of classroom experience, and even more as a student I have had the opportunity to learn what does and does not work in effectively enhancing the learning achieved by students. I classify the learning experience into three distinct categories;

Learning Category and Examples
Passive Learning- Reading, Lecture, Video
Interactive Learning - Discussion, Group Meeting, E-mail, Bulletin Board, Chat, IM
Experiential Learning - Laboratory, open-ended assignments, group projects

Each of these categories has unique characteristics and students are unique in the combination of each category used to effectively learn and retain material. The best way to teach so as to optimize learning is to use the most effective combination of these categories and the specific elements contained within each category. A good teacher is more than just someone who can lecture well and organize a class – some of the classes that I retained the most information from were taught by what would be considered poor teachers by just these standards. It must involve a deeper understanding of how students learn and an ability to apply the correct combination of these elements to create a learning experience for the student.

Assessment

No discussion of teaching would be complete without also a discussion of assessment. As teachers and professors we fulfill two roles; to teach and to assess the students ability in the subject taught. The traditional method of assessment is the exam, and this is likely to remain so. However, the exam is a poor indicator of how well any person will perform in a real workplace setting, and if the ultimate goal of a college education is to prepare the student for this environment – we must do a better job of preparing them and assessing them. Exams and homework grading should not be the only means of assessment used to determine student grades. Other measures such as project performance, participation, and teamwork, among others do have a role in student assessment.

Initial Post

The purpose of this Blog is to capture the day to day ins and outs of what goes on as a researcher and a professor at a major University. I will post ideas, proposals, occurrences, and other items to this posting as they occur.