#FutureOfWork in the #Adjunct/iverse—discontinuity…opportunity

…or both in the #JanusList 2014 column. How would you apply ideas from Stowe Boyd's recent GigaoM article, "Beneath the chatter about the Future Of Work lies a discontinuity," to the future of precarious academic labor? Try substituting higher education terms for the corporate ones even if doing so raises your hackles

Instead of conceptualizing the company [university] as broken into managed units [departments], with managers [chairs] leading each unit and subordinates doing their piecework, we need to conceive of the company [university] as a world — an ecology — built-up from each individual connecting to other individuals. And stringing these together into an interconnected whole involves associations like sets, and discernible elements like scenes, but increasingly, nothing like brigades and squads 

I’ve already called out some major trends in a piece last week (see The future of work: 4 trends for 2014) which forms part of a longer report, Tech trends for 2014.

The result could look like interconnected, cooperative networks with autonomy replacing subordination. Read the rest at Beneath the chatter about the Future Of Work lies a discontinuity — Gigaom Research

#AcademeToday—2013 in Review

…how do these compare to an #adjunct's precarity driven Janus List?

Academe Today Monday December 30, 2013 Subscribe to this newsletter Highlights From 2013

a new collaboration on #education

…from Works & Days—Cultural Logic…HT #JoeBerry's #COCAL Updates.  No telling when or even if we will get back to updating archived updates but you can always subscribe to your own by email. Just email joeberry@igc.org

"Education for Revolution," a special issue collaboration of the journals Works & Days  and Cultural Logic has just been launched.

Works & Days, published by the English Department at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, explores problems of cultural studies, pedagogy, and institutional critique, especially as they are impacted by the global economic crisis

Cultural Logic has been online since 1997 and is a non-profit, peer-reviewed, open access, interdisciplinary journal publishing essays, interviews, poetry, and reviews by writers working within the Marxist tradition

This is the second collaboration between the two journals.

2013 ending/2014 beginnings…

Share your picks for top 2013 #adjunct /contingent faculty news items, articles, victories, trends, best new blogs, media features or services. Some are obvious; others less so. Let's look at as many contenders as possible. What are your contenders for the Big Ideas that could change the adjunctiverse in 2014? Who knows? We might just retrieve, bring to light and share that important story or big idea otherwise missed. Throw in a handful of predictions and sprinkle with wishes for 2014.

PS... don't overlook early 2013 or smaller, less publicized but still significant events and accomplishments either...

I ask because it's that Janus time of the year again: beginnings and transitions, a time to look back and review the high points of the year ending; make predictions about the one coming on. Although not usually on the media menu, 'emergent' is an appropriate category too for projects and actions with a foot in each year. The best, most promising 2013 items are also emergent -- the worst and most threatening too.

Ending #AcademicApartheid

…Thanks to WA #adjunct #JackLongmate for comments & a reminder to re-post this Psychology Today article, which also appeared on Dr Fuller's blog, Omaha Free Press, Utne Reader, Firedog Lake, Daily Kos and other publication -- one of which we posted to Facebook from. Please note page tab to Program for Change just below the blog header. The tab links directly to the VCCFA page. PF hopes to feature more on both Program and Keith Hoeller's "Equality for Contingent Faculty." 

There's a Psychology Today on-line article entitled "Ending Academic Apartheid, Equity and Dignity for Adjunct Professors," worth reading. The article calls a spade a spade, saying

5-minute Film Festival: Best Education Parodies of 2013

 …#adjuncts, looking for a holiday treat? @Edutopia to the rescue for…BYOP! 

I can't believe it's already the end of the year again and time for all the wrap-ups and best-ofs you can stomach. Among my favorites each year are Google's get-the-Kleenex Zeitgeist and YouTube's Rewind -- which is like the most meta-parody-mashup video you can imagine. I had a blast putting together the Best Education Parodies of 2012, so I thought I'd do it again for 2013. I hope this list gives you a few belly laughs, not too many obnoxious ear-worms, and a sprinkling of good ideas for fun student projects in the new year....Watch the player below to see the whole playlist, or view it on YouTube.

Five-Minute Film Festival: Best Education Parodies of 2013 | Edutopia

Sign #precarious ally @DomesticWorkers' petition

… for  #TemporaryProtectedStatus for Filipinos…we'll be posting more petitions from all over #TempLand because #wereallinthistogether

Take action so that hundreds of thousands of Filipinos can help their families recover from Typhoon Haiyan Imagine fearing that your two teenage sisters had drowned in Typhoon Haiyan. Imagine knowing that you can't to return to the island to help your aging mother recover their bodies and rebuild her home. That's the reality for Robert, and hundreds of thousands of Filipino immigrants in the United States. But relief is possible — the US Department of Homeland Security can give Filipinos working in the United States Temporary Protective Status (TPS). TPS would allow Filipino immigrants like Robert to return to the Philippines temporarily to help their families recover from this tragedy. A month after the devastation of Typhoon Haiyan, the impact is still being felt around the world. The death toll has exceeded 5,800 people. Millions of Filipinos have been displaced, families torn apart, children orphaned, and people made refugees within their own country. Hundreds of thousands of Filipinos in the US, many of them domestic workers, have family members in hard hit regions and right now, they can't return to help their loved ones recover. On Monday, the Philippine government made an official request for the designation of Temporary Protected Status to the US Government. It's time for the US Department of Homeland Security to take swift action and grant Temporary Protective Status designation to the Philippines as it did in the wake of the earthquake in Haiti and in Honduras after Hurricane Mitch Click here to sign the petition and help us get to 2,000 signatures by Friday! We'll hand deliver your signature to the White House and the Department of Homeland Security on Monday. Thank you for taking action for Robert and hundreds of thousands of other families today.   Join Us | Support Our Work | Follow us: National Domestic Workers Alliance. To contact the NDWA, click here.

On #ClassWarfare in Academe

…@InsideHigherEd commentary by #PeterDGBrown—SUNY New Paltz UUP Bullhorn editor, Mayday Declaration author.  Veteran academic activist Peter announces, "a commentary I wrote, 'Class Warfare in Academe,' was published today in Inside Higher Ed." Briefly excerpted—read the rest here and Peter's Bullhorn editorials/articles here.

Class warfare in the academy is unlikely to end any time soon. Meanwhile, we urgently need to connect the dots, to stop underfunding and privatizing public higher education. At the same time, we need to put an end to wasteful spending and overly generous perks that top administrators dole out to themselves. Saddling our students with backbreaking tuition loan debt is simply unsustainable. They, their parents, taxpayers and legislators deserve to know where their hard-earned tuition and tax dollars are going. The quality of their education and thus the future of our country depend on providing a living wage, job security and benefits to those actually teaching in our classrooms.

blog updates—new pages & other confusion mitigation

…#PFR, short for Precarious Faculty Rising, is taking shape as a network. Yesterday, I changed the look and name (again) ►. Today, I added About, PFR Network, Canada and Global pages, and consolidated NFM to a single tab by adding, not just the main website link, but also the whole kit and kaboodle—Facebook, Twitter, Foundation, LinkedIn, G+ Community—to the newsletter archives on this site.

End of year report from #adjunct BFF @USAS

…by Martin Macias, USAS. In case you thought United Students against Sweatshops was just tees and sweats, take note of and learn more about these important allies, whose mission includes organizing for student and worker power. Students in Boston, LA and DC are standing with adjuncts in their fight for a union voice. Now on with Martin Macias' years end report on old and new campaigns:

Support worker rights by making a $50 donation to USAS today, and we'll send you a union-made USAS t-shirt!

Our tiny and scrappy staff ensures that your contribution goes directly towards giving more student organizers the skills and tools they need to take on the biggest corporations in the business of exploiting workers.

Donate Now

It feels like only yesterday students were gathering at the USAS Summer Retreat to make plans for the coming academic year. Now, at the end of fall semester, we've put those plans into action and accomplished so much! We've made tons of progress on old campaigns, and launched exciting new efforts to rein in abusive corporations like T-Mobile.

We've also got some exciting new projects in the works, which we'd love to tell you all about soon. But we really need your support to keep doing our important work, while laying plans for future, even more ambitious campaigns.

Let's also take a moment to reflect on our successes this year — check out the report below for the highlights!

on recent #socialmedia changes

…from @VanessaVaile—I’ve made changes in my network–most visible on Twitter, Facebook, and Blogger—that may have you wondering what’s going on. Short version: New FacultyMajority ~ The National Coalition for Adjunct & Contingent Equity is going big time. You’ve seen the all the press – they are on their way to going truly national and reaching the public the way we’ve always dreamed of.  That means a professional Social Media Director is what they and the movement need now.   

I’m going indie, my choice and preferred mode. Of course, I’ll still be covering New Faculty Majority with all I’ve got, just like I always have, but now I’ll spend more time on other stories.  It’s been a great ride, and I’ll miss taking that final lap with them – just not enough to give up following my own path before it’s too late and I run out of time. We’ve had a good run, from the beginning until now. I expect and sincerely hope that we will still cooperate, share resources and continue working toward the same goals, just on different tracks, perhaps listening to different voices.   

Remember: all the content on my distributed network is open for them and you to use, share and share alike, just like it has always been.

Habits of the Effectively Connected

…on #socialmedia & other online distributed networks, whether for learning, distributing information, making connections, organizing, communicating or just social sharing. 

Published on YouTube, Dec 14, 2013: Habits of Effective Connected Learners with Stephen Downes

Working and learning in an online environment is fundamentally different from working and learning in a physical environment. It becomes much more important to make connections and leverage the store of knowledge at your disposal. Relations between people depend more on cooperation and less on collaboration. Information that was valuable only when withheld is now valuable only when shared. Marketing gives way to meaning. In this presentation, Stephen Downes reviews the habits he has cultivated to thrive as a learner and researcher online, providing practical advice from network theory and a lifetime of experience.

Education International - Staying united

…@eduint updates…stories on #CFHE & global counterparts #united4ed

The University of Alabama has a choice to make

…a message from our caroling friends @usuas…'tis the season…

Right now our USAS group is caroling outside of our President's office in hopes of catching her attention with our rendition of "Jingle Bell Rock."

PISA results headlined in Education International's CONNECT

…@eduint is the voice of educators worldwide. A global federation of about 400 unions in more than 170 countries and territories, E-I represents 30 million teachers and education employees. In case you are still asking why 'blogging a new faculty majority' is posting it, then, briefly, the answer is because we are all in this together. US and even COCAL area (US, Canada, Mexico) higher ed problem and working conditions are more than national or regional. They are global. We want to be too: "think globally, act locally," used in so many contexts, works here too.