MOOC's and SOOC's at Instructurecon
I will be joining Michael Goudzwaard of Dartmouth University (formerly of Keene State College) to present on our experience teaching the first MOOC (massive online open source course) out of New Hampshire. Our talk, "Insider/Outsider Dilemma: Mixing MOOC with Campus Online Course" will cover our experience using a collaborative team approach (Professor, Instructional Designer, Student Assistant) in producing an online class that mixed our own KSC students with others from around the world. In addition to presenting some data on interactions between our KSC students and those enrolling for free via t...
Source: Asperger's Conversations - June 17, 2014 Category: Autism Authors: Larry Welkowitz Source Type: blogs
Sensory Struggles: My Kid Makes Kombucha
Kombucha is a fermented drink that is all the rage in my corner of the world. You can buy several brands in several flavors in our local food coop (e.g., mango, chia, original). My kid has been making her own homemade Kombucha for the past year...making her own yeast producing "mother" and combining it with black tea and other ingredients. At first I was turned off by it's vinegeray after-taste but I'm becoming hooked on its strong and refreshing taste. It's kinda yummy.
Growing up in and around New York I was exposed to a range of foods and tastes. My mother had lea...
Source: Asperger's Conversations - March 29, 2014 Category: Autism Authors: Larry Welkowitz Source Type: blogs
Puzzling Internet Failure: People Still Lack a Say
I started blogging in the early days of blogging on Radio Userland and tapped in to the excitement many of us felt about our new found freedom of expression. I wrote often about how the net via blogging now afforded Profs at small colleges with traditionally fewer supports direct access to an interested audience. I was taken by the early writings of pioneers such as Jon Udell who showed us how the media could be pryed open to include reporting from everyday folks and aggregated in useful ways.
And, there is no doubt that all that did happen and that so many aspects of life, including business (we...
Source: Asperger's Conversations - March 23, 2014 Category: Autism Authors: Larry Welkowitz Source Type: blogs
College Choice and Social Capital
I had lunch not too long ago with a recently retired college president with whom I was discussing my own kid's plans on applying to college. After telling him about the various schools my kid was thinking of attending, he muttered, "Social Capital."
It took me a bit of time to fully process what he meant by the remark, even though it was obvious: Getting a degree is not just about, well, getting a degree, but also about the people you meet, the social network you create. And, obviously attending a first or second tier school is going to create more social capital than a third or fourth tier scho...
Source: Asperger's Conversations - March 21, 2014 Category: Autism Authors: Larry Welkowitz Source Type: blogs
Executive Functioning, Philosophy, what Professors waste time arguing about
I recently received an email sent to a group of profs using a particular room on campus reminding us (scolding?) to put chairs and tables back in rows and columns before leaving. The message was prompted by an angry prof fed up with having to "restore" the room to what he believes is the "standard" of rows and columns. Another prof quickly responded by saying that she "prefers semi-circles" for her more discussion based class.
The early exchanges would seem funny to an outsider, but the subtext was intense: "What is meant by the "standard?" Aren'...
Source: Asperger's Conversations - February 18, 2014 Category: Autism Authors: Larry Welkowitz Source Type: blogs
I'm pausing to think about Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger was an important person for the world and for me personally. His music and his life inspired so many to do good for the planet and for each other.
My personal connection is through my mother, Joan Welkowitz's side of the family. When Pete was young he was a frequent visitor to my Grandmother's home and to my Grandfather's store on the lower east side of Manhattan. My mother's brother, my Uncle Michael, played banjo and guitar and traveled with him before heading off to college and an academic life. He and other folk/activists from those days would visit my Uncle Lou and Aunt...
Source: Asperger's Conversations - January 28, 2014 Category: Autism Authors: Larry Welkowitz Source Type: blogs
Recording Sugarman at Andreas's Today: Fun!
(Source: Asperger's Conversations)
Source: Asperger's Conversations - December 8, 2013 Category: Autism Authors: Larry Welkowitz Source Type: blogs
Last Day of Class: Message to My Students
I've had the privilege of teaching small "seminar size" classes this semester which has allowed me to get to know all of my students pretty well. I've been teaching Psychology at Keene State since '96 and I always end the semester by providing a few parting words, always positive. I let them know how proud I am of them and their work and encourage them to move forward, pursue their dreams, do good work. Since I teach upper level courses most of my students are looking toward the end of their college careers.
Something drew me in to a darker zone this week. Instead of delive...
Source: Asperger's Conversations - December 6, 2013 Category: Autism Authors: Larry Welkowitz Source Type: blogs
Time to Give to NH Special Olympics Penguin Plunge!
var fgid = 2860052;document.write('\x3Cscript type="text/javascript" src="http://www.firstgiving.com/widgets/FRPWidget/frpa-widget.js">\x3C/script>'); (Source: Asperger's Conversations)
Source: Asperger's Conversations - November 11, 2013 Category: Autism Authors: Larry Welkowitz Source Type: blogs
My teenager kid's view of "a lot of people"
My daughter posted a guide on "how to make paper" on a site called snapguide the other day and showed it to me today. She remarked that only a five or six hundred people had looked at it. So I looked at it (just now) and thought it was pretty good (if you want to learn how to make homemade paper).
I was taken aback by her notion that a few hundred people was not very many. I asked her to imagine all those people sitting in an auditorium watching her demonstrate how to make paper. Still, no biggie.
"Kids these days" (I can't believe I just wrote that) have a whole differen...
Source: Asperger's Conversations - October 24, 2013 Category: Autism Authors: Larry Welkowitz Source Type: blogs
Trail Running, Decisions.
I'm "in recovery" from running the brutal Megatransect mountain marathon this past weekend in Lock Haven, PA and wondering about lessons learned. It was an all day affair for most of us who finished on average in about 9 hours....clamoring up and down steep grades, hand over hand on boulder fields that seemed to go on forever, passing fellow trail runners injured or just tired out along the way. I was lucky in that I didn't fall, twist an ankle, blow out a knee, like quite a number of my fellow trail nuts. A few scrapes and cuts, total exhaustion, dehyration....but some great local be...
Source: Asperger's Conversations - October 1, 2013 Category: Autism Authors: Larry Welkowitz Source Type: blogs
Old Man Take a Look...Whiffle Ball Season Never Dies
The end of summer means the end of another New Hampshire-Vermont clash on the whiffle ball field. We squeeked by this year, but Mick "the Quick" and Joe "the Toe" will surely be back next year:
Speaks Silences Stars In KBL Finale
Guilford,VT(AP) MVP Mitch "Big Daddy" Speaks carried the day with his bat and arm leading Mitch's Diads to a 4-2, 5-3 doubleheader sweep of the hometown Keets Brook All Stars on a breezy, rainswept late summer afternoon at Bowie Wragtail Field.
In the opener Speaks belted a two run homer and ...
Source: Asperger's Conversations - September 23, 2013 Category: Autism Authors: Larry Welkowitz Source Type: blogs
MOOC Land
Having taught the first MOOC (massive open source course) in
the state of New Hampshire (ok no big deal we are a small state but we do have
a state university system with multiple campuses and a number of private
colleges, including an Ivy) I have become a sort of point guy for talking about
this type of teaching (perhaps “target” might be a better term).
I’ve touched upon faculty fears in at least one previous
post and I continue to wonder about animosity toward this type of larger scale
approach to education. My colleagues
are understandably concerned about possible erosion of face-to-face education
which th...
Source: Asperger's Conversations - September 12, 2013 Category: Autism Authors: Larry Welkowitz Source Type: blogs
Permanent Vacation!
A lot of people in our little town of Keene, NH are talking about the problem of a growing group of young people who are hanging out in the Square just off Main Street. Local store keepers and restaurant owners complain that they are scaring off customers while others complain that they leave trash or bother pedestrians or shoppers passing by. And to be honest, it is a tough looking crowd...kinda down and out looking, smoking cigarettes, sitting around not doing much of anything for hours at a time. I overheard some passerbys calling them (rather loudly) "losers."
A friend of mine who I frequ...
Source: Asperger's Conversations - August 22, 2013 Category: Autism Authors: Larry Welkowitz Source Type: blogs
Just thinking...about "blended learning" vs. "online."
It's becoming very PC on campus to say that "blended learning" (a mix of online and face-t0-face teaching) might be ok, but that fully online teaching may not. So if you are someone like me who has dabbled in online teaching and MOOCs you are viewed with some suspicion by friends and colleagues on campus who fear that online learning will eat away at traditional teaching, much like McDonald's hamburger chains in foreign lands.
Of course so much of the problem lies in semantics: What does one mean by "online?" or "open source" or "MOOC" or "DROOL" and ...
Source: Asperger's Conversations - August 22, 2013 Category: Autism Authors: Larry Welkowitz Source Type: blogs
