#MOOC my day ~ the next chapter

…another round of #highered disaster (and/or hysteria) blogging…but that's the way it breaks today. For today's post, I added selected links and a few amusing images to an existing Storify about MOOCs ~ or, as recently renamed by David Wiley,“Massively Obfuscated Opportunities for Cash.” 

convergences: coming together

"spiral" from convergences series by tom cartmill

…this month has been a time of convergence for #adjuncts, precarious & #academiclabor issues. The adjunctiverse is buzzing; the flow, unrelenting.

The myriad issues and concerns related to and unforeseen consequences of the Affordable Care Act and preparing for the IRS contributed to the deluge (and still are) but are not its entirety. No doubt these have influenced, even initiated, other actions, and certainly contributed to increased coverage and thus public awareness.

movie break

…now showing…last of the profs aka the great train wreck…still on topic…#academiclabor featuring the #adjunct as Gunga Din, post inspired by The Last Professors: The Corporate University and the Fate of the Humanities by Frank Donoghue, Fordham UP, 2008, the  most recent entry in  the Academe blog series, Reviews of Recent Books Concerning Current Issues in Higher Education,

Donoghue thinks (2008) it's too late to turn back and that we've already passed the tipping point. Asked at the beginning of the interview above to describe last profs in ten words or less, he replies, "a train wreck with no survivors."

while #adjuncts were sleeping

A typical May 1 in NYC

…#MayDay started in the rest of the world. I leave the radio turned on and to NPR so awoke to news of Philippines (demonstrating for the right to organize), Bangladesh (working conditions), Turkey, Greece, Egypt. I had hoped to get this global notice out with coffee and well before the East Coast and Ohio actions got underway. With a few hours before scheduled late morning and midday start times,  I may make that last...if I type fast and don't get too distracted.

In DC and NY, SEIU and New Paltz  UUP are getting ready for their busy day. If the Steelworkers are on parade in Pittsburgh, their Adjunct Faculty chapter will be with them. OPTFA is already up and tweeting, telling every one to wear red and pin on / display their big red A's, set them as social media avatars and so on. Yesterday, I created A Gallery of A's for Adjuncts on the NFM Facebook page. Go pick one to print out or use as an avatar

Sources to start your personal #MayDay4adjuncts

Workers Memorial Day precedes #MayDay

…who do #adjuncts remember on International Worker Memorial Day? That day is today and takes place annually around the world on April 28, an international day of remembrance and action for workers killed, disabled, injured or made unwell by their work." Workers' Memorial Day events are held throughout the world.

That reminded me of the opening of Maria Maisto's recent Take Part Op Ed,  

Doug Wright was a highly respected and dearly loved adjunct professor who taught humanities courses for many years at several colleges in Utah. As a so-called part-time faculty member who had the same responsibilities to students as any full-time faculty member, he was given only temporary assignments, sub-professional pay, and was not eligible for health insurance. When he was diagnosed with cancer in May 2009, he spent his life savings on treatment.

Mother Jones' injunction to "pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living" is Worker Memorial Day's slogan. Indeed, an International Worker Memorial Day preceding May Day strikes me as most seemly.

Today, give a thought to those who have died for lack of access to healthcare, worn themselves out before their working through illness because they had responsibilities but neither choice nor care. I include those who have despaired fatally. Although less dramatic and in smaller numbers by incident that plant explosions, fires, building collapses, or mine cave-ins, these lost friends and colleagues are just as much 

Each of us remembers at least one. Who do you remember today while making May Day plans? I remember Mary Miner Austen, PhD, friend, mentor, adjunct, folklorist, inspire developmental writing instructor, UL Lafayette, breast cancer, 1996. You think dss writing is a challenge? Try it on chemo.