Online International ASL Tutoring

Boles University and HardcoreASL.com are pleased to announce two new programs.

The first is our ability to now offer online and in person international American Sign Language fluency evaluations for job seekers, businesses and private individuals. Now you can get a job based on your ASL skills, or you can "opt out" of a foreign language requirement for your schooling.

Next, we now offer online private ASL tutoring via iChat and Skype. Now you can learn ASL from the comfort of your home or office wherever in the world you live.

Head on over to HardcoreASL.com and click around to see all the programs we're offering on that portal.

The Flattening of Learning

Professor Tara Brabazon makes a fantastic argument that students today have no way to discern truth from validity because they have no training when it comes to judging multiple truths.

On the Internet, and in scholarly searches, all returns are provided back to the searcher in a "flat mode" where every return appears as valid as the next.

Instead of challenging that fact, students merely cut-and-paste those flat search returns into their papers without doing any actual reading or critical analyses of the texts:

“Google offers easy answers to difficult questions. But students do not know how to tell if they come from serious, refereed work or are merely composed of shallow ideas, superficial surfing and fleeting commitments.

“Google is filling, but it does not necessarily offer nutritional content,” she said.

Professor Brabazon, who has been teaching in universities for 18 years, said that the heavy reliance on the internet in universities had the effect of “flattening expertise” because every piece of information was given the same credibility by users.

Professor Brabazon’s concerns echo the author Andrew Keen’s criticisms of online amateurism. In his book The Cult of the Amateur, Keen says: “To-day’s media is shattering the world into a billion personalised truths, each seemingly equally valid and worthwhile.”

We are thrilled to see Professor Brabazon's push for more credibility in the classroom.

Providing students with sharper tools for critical analysis that can then be used against what they read is a paramount concern if we ever hope to continue our ingenuity and creativity beyond the flatness of the Internet.

Yale University Goes e-Book Crazy

In a delightful turn of events, Yale University decided to make large bits of its library holdings available as e-books and e-journals so students may more easily search for relevancy based on the actual text of books and journals instead of only by their abstracts or a publisher's promotional blurp.

That sort of self-sustained effort by Yale is a fine example of self-initiated institutional intellectual prosperity that doesn't mandate the inclusion of an outside, for-profit, enterprise that skews the good intentions of a model program.

If more universities offered e-books and e-journals for use by their students and faculty -- and even the outside world -- we would then begin to even out the inequity in library holdings across the United States and the fount of knowledge that yearns to be free in the world will begin to trickle down into all open minds to be shared with the universe at large.

Open Yale Courses Opens the Floodgates

Well, it happened: Yale University now offers free online courses for anyone interested in learning online.

You can get text notes, listen to audio, or watch the lectures on streaming video:

Open Yale Courses provides free and open access to seven introductory courses taught by distinguished teachers and scholars at Yale University. The aim of the project is to expand access to educational materials for all who wish to learn.

Open Yale Courses reflects the values of a liberal arts education. Yale's philosophy of teaching and learning begins with the aim of training a broadly based, highly disciplined intellect without specifying in advance how that intellect will be used.

This approach goes beyond the acquisition of facts and concepts to cultivate skills and habits of rigorous, independent thought: the ability to analyze, to ask the next question, and to begin the search for an answer.

This is welcome, incredible, news -- and it begins the assault on lesser-know colleges and universities across the world -- as Yale becomes the first of the big Ivy League schools to move so fully and so dramatically into interactive online teaching.

This step for Yale tests their toe in the online learning water.

When Yale are satisfied, they will begin to offer distance courses for credit.

Then, the slow death begins for local colleges and universities as brick and mortal buildings give way to Yale University Online.

If you could get a Yale education without having to leave the comfort of your bedroom, you'd do it, we'd do it, the world will do it.

We admire Yale for getting this right so fast and for setting a dangerous -- yet brilliant -- stage for the future of advanced education.

Respecting Adjunct Faculty

We have lived lives of being unappreciated part-time faculty members and we support the American Association of University Professors and their want to bring adjunct faculty up to a higher level of respect and standing in universities:

Today, 48 percent of American faculty serve in part-time appointments, and non-tenure-track positions of all types account for 68 percent of faculty appointments. Year after year, the problem gets worse as more and more faculty jobs are part time or non-tenure track. Faculty holding these appointments are often poorly compensated—receiving low wages and few, if any, fringe benefits. Without job security and academic freedom protections, they are subject to administrative whim. Students suffer when the majority of faculty are inadequately supported by their institutions.

At some major universities -- like New York University -- adjunct faculty members teach 70% of the undergraduate courses. That sort of hard working part-timer needs the equal financial support of their university as well as the respect of their full-time and tenured teaching colleagues.

We believe if you know your work you will win your wants -- and that is why we have great confidence that adjunct faculty members will one day reap the full benefits of their dedication and hard work.

Is Virtual Learning as Effective as In Person Teaching?

Is it possible to learn online as effectively as you can in the classroom?

The answer is: Yes!

A bad teacher is a bad teacher -- but a great "real classroom teacher" can be a terrible online teacher because one must adhere to a different set of demands and expectations as an online instructor.

We all need to open more pathways of thinking. We must be creative. We must not think in days and weeks and hours. We must believe in the "everlasting now" as we are always thinking and learning at all times.

We must also always think in "virtual eternity" and that will begin to light up new ways of pondering that will lead us to know how to make our online classes sing -- and we work on those totems of entertainment and learning every day here at Boles University!

Removing Campus Computer Labs

We're fortunate here at Boles University that our students and faculty are not required to attend campus sessions in order to enjoy teaching and learning.

The "Big Box" schools and universities are seeing exponential growth in the want for computer labs on campus even though 80% of students own their own laptop.

The reason students prefer labs is one of convenience over immediacy. The computer lab has become the new bar scene and the new pick-up lounge. Students can also use lab printers and get access to expensive computer software they cannot afford alone.

You can also create and foster online communities and we believe the future will hold not only marriages to robots, but the mandate to open virtual computer labs where we all will live together in cybernetically getting the job done.

Deaf Awareness Week Celebration

It is Deaf Awareness week in America and we are thrilled to participate in the celebration by reminding you of our commitment to Deaf Culture and American Sign Language.

We teach ASL online and we write books on Signing.

Janna M. Sweenie is our ASL Ace and we are thrilled to have her as a significant member of our faculty.

Building an Online University

We were pleased with the news today that Colorado State University is going online with its learning:

Colorado State University is launching a $12 million online university that will help students who don’t have the time or money to get a traditional on-campus four-year education.

Called CSU-Colorado, and approved by the CSU Board of Governors on Friday, the online university will serve Coloradans and out-of-state students.

CSU is facing the inevitable fact: University Learning no longer requires a campus. Your students do not need dorms. Your faculty must not live in Colorado to teach.

In a decade more students will be earning degrees online than in traditional classrooms because distance learning is convenient, cheap to create and propagate, and gets easier as technology gets better.

Research with Google Custom Search Business Edition

Searching for information on a blog can be confusing and confounding.

To provide better meaning in our world -- we have purchased a Business Edition Google Custom Search Engine for Boles University so you can quickly do a search for topics that interest you.

You can start using the search engine here or by using the new Search Box in our sidebar:

http://bolesuniversity.com

You can also search Boles Books Writing and Publishing and Urban Semiotic via that same search box.

If you're looking to search Boles Dot Com and Hardcore ASL and Go Inside Magazine instead -- Google Custom Search Business Editions cost $100.00 USD each but they only work by indexing three domains at a time! -- then try out this additional Google Custom Search Engine Business Edition we purchased just for that purpose!

http://boles.com

Let us know if you have any joys or troubles searching your wants with us!

Is the Internet Intellectual?

A fascinating online debate was recently had on the Wall Street Journal website where the issue at hand was the role of the Internet in Intellectualism. Our favorite quote came from David Weinberger:

But, why should we trust the way "monkeys" (as you refer to Web users in your book) connect the pieces? We shouldn't trust them blindly. Open up The Britannica at random and you're far more likely to find reliable knowledge than if you were to open up the Web at random. That's why we don't open up the Web at random. Instead, we rely upon a wide range of trust mechanisms, appropriate to their domain, to guide us. Amazon gives you ways of checking to see if a particular reviewer is trustworthy , but the mechanisms are not particularly rigorous because not all that much is at stake when considering the 6,001st review of a Harry Potter book. At eBay, where your money is at risk, the trust mechanisms are more reliable. On a blog, the persistence of previous posts means you can read further to see if you trust the blogger. More important, the recommendation of other bloggers you already trust is a good indicator. At Wikipedia, the rather sophisticated governance processes help establish trust, as does the complete transparency of the discussions behind the articles. On mailing lists, we learn over time who's a blowhard and who's a source of knowledge even if we don't know what her real name is. These examples are not exceptions. They are the rule and they have been from the beginning, because from the beginning the Web has been about inventing ways to make its own massness -- its miscellaneousness -- useful.

We are against Wikipedia as scholarly resource and CBS News recognized our hard stand against Wikipedia as a reliable fountain of honesty and information.

Facts need more than community collaboration to be made truthful in the long view of the human world.

Social Networking

What does Social Networking mean to you?

Is it a blog?

A chat?

An online community?

We believe Boles University is a social meme for human internetworking -- but we want to know your take on the matter.

Google Apps in the .EDU Domain

"The Wired Campus" is reporting Google Apps for Your Domain is finding a strong foothold in education:

Trinity College Dublin has switched to Google's e-mail application, Gmail. And universities in Egypt, Kenya, and Rwanda have also made the switch, the BBC reported yesterday. In Dublin, the news service says, "the addresses and domain name still remain the same -- but underneath the bonnet, it's a service provided by Google." Trinity College officials say they made the decision to outsource because it let them maintain a robust e-mail system at no additional cost; Google does all the work. Arizona State University made the same decision late last year to switch to Gmail, which also comes with a calendar and instant messaging, two items that are very attractive to students.

We use Google Apps for Your Domain here at Boles University to manage our email, calendar, documents, blog and our virtual lives!

We like Google Apps so much, we're writing a book about it -- Google Apps for Your Domain Administrator Guide -- for Thomson publishing.

Virtual Chats Using Famous Avatars

The University of Illinois at Chicago have come up with a method of providing interactive video chat online using realistic avatars:

UIC also has developed technology that provides viewers with 3-D images that do not require wearing special glasses.

One important factor in the project is to impart appropriate body language to the avatar as it responds to comments and questions, said Steve Jones, a UIC professor of communication.

"In real life, it's just assumed that you can read a person's responses without saying anything," said Jones. A subtle hesitation before speaking can have meaning, but such nuances have been mostly lacking in software programs created so far.

The project will use video cameras to record a person's mannerisms, and that information will be fed into the programs that activate the avatar, Jones said.

This technology means you could become your favorite actor or politician or family member and "chat" online as that person or even with that person.

Professors could hold online virtual meetings with students -- and neither student or instructor would have to dress up or even look special for the occasion.

We are quickly moving into the Age of Masks and with that virtualization of our real selves, we must remember to always preserve our humanity in the negotiation.

iTunes U Compresses Technology

We are delighted with the idea of Apple's new iTunes University where students can "download and learn" using their iPods:

Today’s students use their computers to interface with the world. They go online to email, chat, and surf. They get photos, music, movies — and most of their information and ideas — on the web. Now you can tap into that digital lifestyle to keep students every bit as engaged with your courses. iTunes U lets you easily expand your curriculum, delivering audio and video you curate or create yourself to deepen the learning experience.

The promise of being able to meet our students on a new mechanical level of excellence is just the way technology should compress minds and provide deeper meaning to life.

Electronic Books

We love the idea of using electronic books for online teaching.

We know textbooks, and the ideas that create the text, can change and be updated to The Now in an ongoing basis while paper is always embedded -- stuck even -- in history.

If you want to hold paper with print in your hand -- you can always print your eBook for the traditional reading experience!

Email Courses

Do you know we offer courses via email at Boles University?

You can interact and learn with our faculty without having to go online and participate in an live web forum.

Email courses are quick and tasty and perfect for that "Blast Class" experience!

The Online Teaching Dyad

The dyad between teacher and student online is one that is precious and never duplicitous.

As long as there is something to be learned and something to be taught, that dyad will remain strong and true long after the official course has ended.

That kind of strong bond between teacher student is what we value here at Boles University and it is our ultimate goal to make each of our students lifelong learners beyond the classroom and beyond the dyad of the web.

Boles Prep Joins Boles University

We are thrilled to announce Boles Prep is now a part of Boles University!

All preparatory programs will continue unabated here at Boles University and we are joyous to have you all with us here.

Boles Tech Joins Boles Univeristy

We are pleased to announce Boles Tech is now a part of Boles University!

All programs will continue here and if you have any questions, please ask!