Comments for thelearningprofessor

Comment on Including illustrations in your article or book by catrionao

catrionao — Thu, 30 May 2013 21:23:06 +0000

Hi John – a great post (they always are!) which brings into focus issues of licensing; rights & ethics,and visual property in the digital world we live in.There are very few easy answers to this one, – quite likely none! This is probably not going to help you very much, but I have a colleague who has devised a fabulous tool for educators seeking to use creative commons images with attributes. In my understanding of how it works he has created a filter + search on Flickr which throws up only images for the term you use to search, which have already been granted creative commons licence by their owner. The link is: http://johnjohnston.info/flickrCC/
I don’t think it will provide you with what you need for this book but it’s a very useful tool to know about anyway. best of luck
Catriona

Comment on Including illustrations in your article or book by tom schuller

tom schuller — Thu, 30 May 2013 10:54:31 +0000

Interesting issue. i’m about to encounter the same, as I want to include images to illustrates different metaphors relating to women’s careers – glass ceiling, leaky pipes etc. Visuals can be so much more than illustrations.

Comment on Including illustrations in your article or book by dmichaelstrain

dmichaelstrain — Thu, 30 May 2013 10:54:26 +0000

Dear John,

That is a shocking illustration of how far we have to go, and how very little we have been helped by Google. Following their refusal to cooperate with the US Government in their efforts to create a a free virtual library for the world, the US has gone ahead, as you probably know. The new site includes access to the photographic archives of NY City Library, which provides free access to dozens of pictures of work camps, though I doubt they are of any use to you for your current purpose.

The URL is dp.la/

Good luck!

Michael

Comment on Neo-liberalism: an over-worked concept? by James Heartfield

James Heartfield — Wed, 29 May 2013 21:27:26 +0000

Good argument! when you hear the word ‘neo-liberalism’ come out of the mouth of a left of centre academic, it is usually the point where the argument stops, running up against a brick wall. It is the explanans explanandum that needs no further iteration, the black hole in the argument to which all is drawn, but no light escapes. Indeed, the term ‘neo-liberalism’ occupies much the same space in the left-liberal academic’s argument, that the word ‘market’ or ‘laws of the market’ occupy in the neo-classical economist’s argument. Just as ‘the market’ explains every possible permutation of events, proving that whatever is, is exactly as it must be, so ‘neo-liberalism’ is in the left liberal’s argument. If a socio-biologist happened to walk into the room, he would say exactly the same things except that where the neo-classical economist said ‘market’ and the left liberal said ‘neo-liberalism’, the socio-biologist would say ‘DNA’.

Comment on Social media and social capital by Gavin Moodie

Gavin Moodie — Wed, 22 May 2013 22:53:13 +0000

Yes, an interesting blog and study.

This might be useful somewhere. Skorton and Altschuler (2013) quote Susan Holmes, a professor of statistics at Stanford, as saying: ‘I don’t think you can get a Stanford education online, just as I don’t think that Facebook gives you a social life’.

Kennedy and colleagues (2009) interviewed 2,600 Australian university students and 108 academics in 2006 on their use and preferences for social media and other web 2.0 tools in learning-teaching. They concluded:

‘there is little empirical support for the rhetoric that university students are digital natives and university staff are digital immigrants;
there is great diversity in students’ and staff experiences with technology, and their preferences for the use of technology in higher education; and
the data paint a complex picture of the technological experiences first-year university students bring to higher education’ (page 3).

Kennedy, Gregor, Dalgarno, Barney, Bennett, Sue, Gray, Kathleen, Judd, Terry, Waycott, Jenny, Chang, Rosemary, Bishop, Andrea, Maton, Karl and Krause, Kerri-Lee (2009) Educating the Net Generation: implications for learning and teaching in Australian universities, Australian Learning and Teaching Council, Strawberry Hills, retrieved 5 May 2013 from
http://www.olt.gov.au/project-educating-net-generation-melbourne-2006

Skorton, David and Altschuler, Glenn (2013) MOOCs: A College Education Online? Forbes, 28 January, retrieved 9 February 2013 from
http://www.forbes.com/sites/collegeprose/2013/01/28/moocs-a-college-education-online/

Comment on Using offensive language – a user’s guide by Teresa Cairns

Teresa Cairns — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:42:30 +0000

hi john, delayed response to this one. My thoughts as an oral/life historianis that language is an essential part of cultural history. Not to use the language of the time, in context, is to sanitise both the language & the history, lose an important element of it – it is, itself, historical evidence. As researchers we should be clear about this, appreciate that analysis needs to value cultural/historical embeddedness, find ways to reflect on that, understand how to work with it.
The very fact that the language of politics, the labels assigned popularly to the unemployed, the working classes, etc, has shifted, reflects, for me that language use & development is deeply entwined with cultural/social change.
I would see this challenge as an opportunity to explore & discuss this issue in a wider research context – in problems rest solutions, perhaps!

Comment on Social media and social capital by Teresa Cairns

Teresa Cairns — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:20:53 +0000

Hi John, think the links between social capital & social media are a whole lot more complicated than our assumptions might suggest. could they not reinforce existing social & cultural capital limitations for some, but extend others’ social reach? I occasionally work with a local reminiscence group, filming & recording their memories. We share contact details & diaries via email & smartphone, arrange collective viewing of Youtube videos in the local library. I refuse to have a Facebook account, but have developed virtual networks of people I share information with via RebelMouse & Twitter. Some of these virtual aquaintances I’ve met via physical Tweet-ups, others i probalby never will. One of my sons however, has no time for Twitter but organises his itinerant work & social life via Facebook & messaging. Perhaps our use of social media will turn out to mirror our use of ‘traditional’ media, reflect how we interact with our personal life worlds?

Comment on Social media and social capital by Kate Thomas

Kate Thomas — Tue, 21 May 2013 19:44:50 +0000

Thanks for this thought-provoking blog, John. As a relative newcomer to theories of social capital (through doctoral studies as a mature student) I have already wondered how Bourdieu and Coleman would have dealt with Facebook (and the rest) and whether Putnam knows how to upload photos onto his Facebook page? I think it’s a mistake to think that Facebook is a young person’s place. I count myself as middle-aged and use facebook to keep in touch with individuals (also largely middle-aged) I may in fact never see again – ex-colleagues, ex-neighbours, friends and family in different cities, counties, continents. The interaction somehow allows the essence of those relationships to continue through the trivialities and the tragedies of life – perhaps that is a definition of friendship anyway? I also use Facebook to broadcast support for a range of campaigns eg: those run by 38 degrees.

Comment on A flattering invitation by Vander

Vander — Mon, 13 May 2013 19:59:43 +0000

John, that reminds me of an ordinary e-mail I received last week whose subject line was “(international conference) which will be held in (country), Sunny Beach resort (full date).” The conference had no relation or whatsoever with my research area, but I was surprised to see that the organizers decided to highlight (so openly) the summer paradise aspect of the event…

Comment on Getting involved in policy making – a researcher’s guide by Gavin Moodie

Gavin Moodie — Wed, 08 May 2013 22:29:06 +0000

A most useful and interesting contribution, to which I offer 4 more points.

1 Start with policy makers’ interests, which is often a problem to be solved. Work from their problem to the proposed solution in a few well signposted steps.

2 Sometimes one’s proposal is adopted quickly, in which case be prepared to respond very quickly to requests for advice on implementation. But mostly influencing policy is a slow burn, so be prepared to wait for years before your ideas are taken up.

3 Assume that your proposal will be adopted only partly, implemented differently to the way you envisage, and that some will distort it. Design your proposal to have a beneficial effect despite these compromises. If that doesn’t seem possible reflect carefully on whether the possible benefits of a good implementation outweigh the risk of a bad distortion.

4 Policy advice and implementation is time consuming. Be prepared to invest effort as well as time in keeping on top of and contributing to relevant policy discussions.