Arguing Against Arena Learning

In a recent article I wrote -- Arguing Against Corridor Teaching -- I made the case that students must be required to think universally and not in narrow niches of comfort.

Today, I challenge universities to honor that teaching code by requiring intimate learning opportunities in all circumstances they control.  You create that kind of careful environment using small class sizes and not giant auditoriums.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is setting about to raise funds for "Arena Learning Buildings" where students become cattle for processing through a system of barns without pausing for intimate intellectual conversation:

And about two years ago, a consultant found UNL was in serious need of more classroom space, particularly large lecture halls often are used for freshman- and sophomore-level classes.

According to the consultant, UNL would benefit from a facility with the following classrooms: one 400-person hall, two 300-person halls and four 100-person halls, said Bill Nunez, director of Institutional Research and Planning.

UNL now has only one hall that seats more than 250 students, and only a handful more seat more than 200.

That often forces faculty to teach the same class two or three times in a row, Perlman said.

A 300- to 400-person hall would allow the faculty member to teach the class just once, freeing up time for a wider variety of course offerings or more one-on-one time with students, he said.

“We could do a more efficient job of teaching undergraduates — without reducing the quality of instruction — by having larger rooms,” he said. “That would allow us to do more teaching and better teaching.”

Students must never be punished for the enrollment successes of their universities. 

The university is required to "teach small, using big ideas" and that can never happen in a giant auditorium where boredom and non-interaction with the instructor are the purposes and methods of the modern day.

Self-Directed Learning in Non-Structured Environments

We believe the social networking wave of the present will push students into a 24-hour cycle of learning from each other and not from instructors or traditional textbooks.

If a student needs to learn something they do not know, they will simply expand their network to ferret out a new person and invite them into their feral circle of knowledge.

The danger in this circular and closed method of learning is there is no way to quantify or intellectually judge the depth or even the veracity of what is being taken in as truth and fact.

Students need to be taught how to be cynical and suspicious and how to crosscheck facts and how to use the scientific process to test what they think they know against what they can never understand.

Students need pillars in which to lean against, push upon and even, in the end... topple over -- and the current method we have of using instructors and pillars of knowledge must find a way to be socialized into the cycle of learning the students currently enjoy.

We can continue to insert instructors into the higher learning process only via specific methods where context and contemplation matter. Questions must be asked of the students and demands made upon students in order to rigorously prepare them for a tempting world that will not abide mere social friendships as indices of intelligence.

Minds need to be tempered and tested by directed instructor interaction and symbiotic peer evaluation online or in the classroom and we must not allow students to set the mandate for what they need to know because the rest of us know they have no idea what they don't know.

Picture Yourself Learning American Sign Language

Our newest book on teaching ASL -- Picture Yourself Learning American Sign Language, Level 1 -- is now available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble!

This is our second ASL book that uses on our Hardcore ASL teaching method and Picture Yourself Learning American Sign Language, Level 1 even has a DVD included so you can sign and learn with us in real time video teaching!

The unique part of the book is our "Pick and Say Rubric" that helps you make quick -- "three idea" -- sentences constructed in ASL simply by picking one or more words/ideas from a RED column, a GREEN column and a BLUE column and then signing them in that sequence.

You will then be able to create at least 27,000 American Sign Language sentences by only learning 90 words -- and understanding the sentence building concept takes less than 10 seconds.

We know you will appreciate the book and you could even use it as your online ASL learning effort with us here at Boles University. If you have any questions, you can find us here!

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 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.

Safety and Online Learning

In light of the terrible Virginia Tech tragedy, we cannot help but realize one massive strength -- that some think is a weakness of Online Learning -- in that our classrooms are virtual and intensively interactive.

Distance Learning has no doors or rooms or dorms -- we are in the ether of the world -- and we educate through flying bits and bytes from afar while being right next to the eye.

Others claim Online Learning is too impersonal and impractical in a human sensation -- we argue Distance Learning is safer, cheaper and more modernly precise on so many more human levels than traditional classroom learning.

Is Virtual Learning as Effective as In Person Teaching?

We are often asked if learning online in a virtual environment is just as good as taking a class in person.

We believe "Going Virtual" is the way of future teaching because you don't need buildings. You don't need travel time. You don't need to worry about parking or finding a chair or a particular room on a certain day.

Your computer is your classroom and you can "attend class" from the park, your bedroom or a fast food joint.

The key to finding success online is the quality of your professor. It can be easy to ignore student needs and to recreate an in-person class with a virtual one. Students are gifted and important.

Teaching virtually takes special needs and conditions to create a warm and inviting intellectual learning experience that will stay with your forever. We provide that sort of setting right here at Boles University.

Boles University Teaching and Learning

We are pleased to announce Boles University is open for business! Help us break ground and build an institution of greater learning!

We are seeking faculty members and students who wish to teach and take classes with us via our online learning portal. Please go look around the revamped Boles University website to see what's new and let us know what interests you as a teacher or a taker of courses.

Make sure you read all the links that deal with Faculty, Courses, Registration, University and Study to get a handle on what we're trying to do.

All of our courses and teaching styles are unconventional, innovative, unique and nothing like you've ever experienced before!

FACULTY
If you are interested in becoming a member of our Faculty -- you don't need a degree to teach with us, you simply need passion and incredible knowledge of your course topic(s) -- please use this email address to get in touch:

Tell us who you are and what sort of course(s) you would like to teach. Include a resume or C.V. if you like so we can get to know you better.

If we think your philosophy of teaching matches our intention, we will send you an invitation to create a Boles University Account.

Then, using that Boles University Account -- all Faculty and Students are required to have a Boles University Account in order to guarantee a proper communication pipeline -- you will login to our private Faculty Teaching Portal where you can ask questions and get details on how to set up your course(s) and to learn how you will be paid for teaching.

We think this is an exciting time to build an online university while blazing bright paths to victories of the mind. We will help you learn how to best teach online and how to create the best experience for your students.

STUDENTS
We are here to serve you! Please read the links we mentioned above to see if our place fits your style of learning. Our list of online course offerings grows every day, so check back often for updates while we build the courses. If there's a topic or a subject matter that interests you, please drop us a line to let us know your wants and desires for learning. We want to hear from you!

We are everything with you and nothing without you; so please join us in making something out of the ether of nothing.