3 ways to get on the solidarity bus & darker October thoughts

…about the bus part…I've been following, Facebooking and tweeting +Ana Maria Fores Tamayo's campaign supporting immigrant issues and calling the marginalized—social and geographical outliers—to stand together. Her campaign is both online at Adjunct Justice and @AnaMFores and on the ground at protests and all the way to border detention centers. Of the many powerful and moving pictures she has taken documenting protests (sometimes carrying a sign bigger than she is) and trips to the border, I am particularly take the solidarity bus. Maybe because it's public art on wheels or I'm having a 60's flashback, but the solidarity bus sure looks good for my next Precarious Faculty cover image. Besides, Vanessa is butterfly in Greek.

That's one way to get on the solidarity bus. The other two are National Adjunct Walkout Day and Meg Feeley's Adjunct Student Loan Debt / PSLF Fairness Campaign

The Year in Ed-Tech

…via @AudreyWatters, Hack Education Weekly Newsletter, No. 30: The Year in Ed-Tech. This is just the opening salvo for "the year in education" posts, and, like it or not, most will be about ed tech, elearning, platforms, innovations (disruptive and otherwise). Do try to get up to speed, at least minimally. 

Don't be like the jock in your class who does not do the reading because he hates lit. Picking  up 2nd hand opinions from higher ed media or a single recommended blog doesn't count either. That's doing it Cliff Notes style. Yes, read them but read more too. The alternative reminds me of those conservative "better dead than red" high school debaters in the 50s who argued so zealously against recognizing Red China. They either grew up or became neocons. Which are are you?

Following the Hack Education blog, newsletter or twitter stream is a  good start. Audrey writes, 

’Tis the season for the flurries of blog posts listing “The Best,” “The Top,” "The Most Important," and “Our Favorite” stories (and apps and photos and movies and songs and so on) of 2012. '

I’ve done my part (for which I do apologize, as I really hate list posts), finally wrapping up this week my annual review of the year's major trends in education technology.

My Top 10: (business, MOOCs, platforms, politics, flipping, learning to code, learning analytics, open education resources, and more)

Read it at Hack Education Weekly Newsletter, No. 30

The Future of Work

this bit of research on the Gartner site; while it dates back to August has some interesting speculation about the Future of Work.
“People will swarm more often and work solo less. They’ll work with others with whom they have few links, and teams will include people outside the control of the organization,”
“In addition, simulation, visualization and unification technologies, working across yottabytes of data per second, will demand an emphasis on new perceptual skills.”
-       Tom Austin, Vice President and Gartner Fellow
Gartner points out that the world of work will probably witness ten major changes in the next ten years. Interesting in that it will change how learning happens in the workplace as well. The eLearning industry will need to account for the coming change and have a strategy in place to deal with the changes.

via upsidelearning.com

So much of this applies as much to teaching and learning possibilities.
"De-routinization" of work (or teaching) could return to autonomy to teachers, already implied in Downes. Work swarms and teaming fit in at PLENK 2010 but seem less likely candidates for the entrenched academic mind.
And on down the list. Just because it could happen doesn't mean it will though.

Posted via email from Meanderings

Taking it Digital: Nice Introduction to Social Media (Ferlazzo)

The current News from New Faculty Majority newsletter includes an overview of the social media NFM uses to connect with members and site visitors. It may or may not continue as a newsletter regular feature. In any case, I'll continue it here under the same name.

Digital covers a lot of territory, even more than "social media," itself rather a baggy monster category. Obviously, the focus will be oriented to academia and advocacy, with a decided emphasis on what might of interest or use to adjunct/contingent faculty. I've got my own ideas but would also appreciate reader input. Tentative topics include social media, online social networks, e-advocacy, web 2.0 applications for organizing, blogging (including academic blogs), platforms, plug-ins, webpage annotation, email, netiquette, tech-speak, Digital Humanities, ed tech, Webheads, online and hybrid teaching, personal computing, new applications, and even silly stuff for fun. I have a weakness for applications and text generators (i.e. surrealist insults, poetry, mock academic essays) that make me smile... 

Take what you need, think you can or would just like to try out and don't worry about the rest. Remember that standby, the handbook titled "The Least You Should Know about English"?  Let me know what's the least you need to know. Come to think of it, that would make a series.