OLDaily – What It Takes to Be an Effective Public Scholar

Yesterday I posted about Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings – K-12 Online and Blended Learning 2021 Edition [Forthcoming].  I thought that readers might be interested in this perspective.

OLDaily by Stephen Downes January 10, 2022

What It Takes to Be an Effective Public Scholar Frederick Hess, Education Next, Jan 10, 2022   I believe I am an effective public scholar, though I can’t imagine I’m on Frederick Hess’s list of those “who had the biggest influence on the nation’s education discourse last year,” mostly because I don’t really think that’s the mark of being an effective public scholar. So too with his criteria: “disciplinary scholarship, policy analysis and popular writing, convening and shepherding collaborations, providing incisive commentary, and speaking in the public square.” These are the marks of a successful lobbyist, not a public scholar. I fear he has confused the two professions. Image: the same article, on Hess’s own website, sort of. Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Note that I’m still going to try and do a K-12 distance, online, and blended learning version of the ranking (if I can get the necessary collaborators).

Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings – K-12 Online and Blended Learning 2021 Edition [Forthcoming]

A couple of weeks ago, this item scrolled through one of my Education Week newsletters.

POLICY & POLITICS,OPINION What It Takes to Be an Effective Public Scholar On Wednesday, Rick Hess will publish the 2022 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings. Today, he explains the purpose of those rankings.

Read More

As you may recall, I completed a modified 2020 K-12 distance, online, and/or blended learning edition version of these rankings.  It is interesting, as Hess – in a way that most Americans would relate – describes the individuals on his list with a baseball reference.

In baseball, there’s an ideal of the “five tool” ballplayer. This is a player who can run, field, throw, hit, and hit with power. A terrific ballplayer might excel at just a few of these, but there’s a special appreciation for the rare player who can do it all.

Scholars whose work is relevant to the world of policy and practice require a similar range of skills to excel. Yet university promotion, pay, and prestige tend to reward a very narrow range of activity and accomplishment. I’ve long thought that if we did more to recognize and encourage five-tool scholars, more academics might choose to spend more time performing those other roles.

As I see it, the extraordinary public scholar excels in five areas: disciplinary scholarship, policy analysis and popular writing, convening and shepherding collaborations, providing incisive commentary, and speaking in the public square. The scholars who are skilled in most or all these areas can cross boundaries, foster crucial collaborations, spark fresh thinking, and bring research into the world of policy and practice in smart and useful ways.

Today, academe offers many professional rewards for scholars who stay in their comfort zone and pursue narrow, hyper-sophisticated research but few rewards for five-tool scholars. One result is that the public square is filled with impassioned advocates (including academics with little in the way of scholarly accomplishment), while we hear far less than I’d like from those who may be best equipped to recognize complexities, offer essential context, and explain hard truths. One small way to encourage academics to step into the fray is, I think, by doing more to recognize and value those scholars who do so.

As has been the pattern, the following day he released the updated methodology.

POLICY & POLITICS,OPINION The 2022 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Scoring Rubric Tomorrow, Rick Hess will be unveiling the 2022 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings. Here is the methodology used to generate those rankings. Read More

The following day, the actual rankings were released:

POLICY & POLITICS,OPINION The 2022 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings View this annual ranking of university-based scholars in the U.S.

Read More

Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll try to re-do the rankings from a K-12 distance, online, and blended learning perspective for the 2021 year.

Call for Chapter Proposals – Research, Practice, and Innovations in Teacher Education During a Virtual Age

This opportunity may be of interest to some readers.

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education

Dear Michael Barbour,

Happy New Year! Please see the information below regarding a call for chapter proposals for an edited book, Research, Practice, and Innovations in Teacher Education During a Virtual Age.

Call for Chapters: https://www.igi-global.com/publish/call-for-papers/call-details/5727

Proposals Submission Deadline: February 12, 2022

Full Chapters Due: June 12, 2022

Introduction

This publication is focused on teacher education, specifically, contemporary teacher education as it is researched and practiced within the current virtual age. Decades of research have shown that early-career teachers face a number of challenges and hold an increasingly wide set of responsibilities. Teacher educators, therefore, must think carefully about how to prepare early-career teachers for the profession. Additionally, however, the work of teaching and teacher education has become increasingly complex within the context of the current virtual age, including the prominent reality of social media and the significant possibilities of (and sometimes necessities for) online teaching and learning. The possibilities of the virtual age can serve as valuable resources for teachers and teacher educators; however, in order to utilize these resources responsibly and productively, researchers and practitioners of teacher education must better understand the new potentials and pitfalls related to teaching and learning that are present within this virtual age. This publication, therefore, focuses on innovations related to the researching of teachers, teaching, and teacher education as well as innovations in the curriculum and pedagogy of teacher education. The aim of this edited book is to inform and deepen discussions related to how teacher education can address the educational possibilities within this virtual age.

This publication will make a significant contribution to scholarship on teacher education by presenting a variety of evidence-based methods that can be used to develop and improve aspects of teacher education within this virtual age, including the curriculum and pedagogy of online teacher education as well as effective ways to prepare preservice teachers for the realities of online teaching and online learning. This publication will address the specific challenges, resources, and possibilities that exist for teacher educators and early-career teachers as they relate to teaching and learning in virtual, online contexts.

This publication will be useful for all programs of teacher education as well as for scholars of teacher education. This publication will provide practical strategies for the design of the curriculum and pedagogy of teacher education and will also present a variety of research methodologies that can be utilized to research the challenges and productive possibilities related to teacher education within the context of online teaching and online learning. This publication will serve as an especially timely and valuable resource for practicing K-12 educators who are currently working within virtual contexts as well as for teacher education programs that are increasingly preparing aspiring teachers for teaching and learning within the context of virtual classrooms.

Recommended Topics

1. Preparing preservice teachers for online teaching and learning
2. Innovations in online teaching and online learning
3. Challenges related to online teaching and online learning
4. The use of social media in education
5. Teacher social networks
6. The curriculum and pedagogy of online teacher education
7. The observation, assessment, and evaluation of teaching in the context of online teaching
8. The assessment of student learning within the context of online teaching and online learning
9. The use of data in online teaching and online learning
10. Responsibilities of early-career teachers in contemporary society
11. Challenges faced by early-career teachers in contemporary society
12. Research methods that can be utilized to research the experiences of early-career teachers teaching in an online context
13. Theoretical frameworks and philosophical frameworks that can be applied to analyze the experience of teaching in contemporary society
14. Teacher-student relationships within the context of online teaching and online learning
15. The use of instructional technology for teacher education
16. The use of instructional technology in the teaching and learning of specific subject matter and content areas
17. The self-study of teacher education practices within the context of online teacher education
18. The organizational structure of teacher education programs
19. Current trends in educational policy and teacher education program accountability

Submission Procedure

Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before February 12, 2022, a chapter proposal of 1,000 to 2,000 words clearly explaining the mission and concerns of his or her proposed chapter. Authors will be notified by February 26, 2022 about the status of their proposals and sent chapter guidelines. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by June 12, 2022, and all interested authors must consult the guidelines for manuscript submissions at https://www.igi-global.com/publish/contributor-resources/before-you-write/ prior to submission. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis. Contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers for this project.

Inquiries

Aaron Zimmerman

Texas Tech University

aaron.zimmerman@ttu.edu

Sincerely,
K-12 Online Learning Chairs
Qijie Cai and Cecil R. Short

Article Notice – Digital divides: K-12 student profiles and online learning

A colleague sent a notice of this article along to me.

 

Digital divides: K-12 student profiles and online learning

Authors

• Bryan MannUniversity of Kansas
• Wei LiUniversity of Florida
• Kevin BesnoyUniversity of Alabama

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.29.6351

Keywords:

K-12 Online Learning, Online Courses, Special Education, Coronavirus, Geography

Abstract

Online learning for primary and secondary students has expanded significantly in the United States during the last two decades. In addition to the sustained growth of online learning, many schools and districts used online learning to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. As school leaders and policymakers move more students into online courses, they need information about which students succeed and struggle online. We examine the relationship between student traits and academic success in a statewide online learning program. We find that students identified with specific exceptionalities, students who identify as male, students from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, and students from cities or fringe rural areas were more likely to struggle in their online courses. This information comes at a vital time as school leaders seek to determine the effects of widespread online learning, make decisions about the support students will need after the pandemic ends, and develop the best online learning approaches when in-person schooling returns.

AERA 2021 – A Newcomer’s Lens: A Look at K-12 Online and Blended Learning in the Journal of Online Learning Research

Less than an hour ago, my colleagues and I finished our paper (and my final) presentation for the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association.  Here is the asynchronous version of that presentation.

Abstract: In this study, the authors analyzed 51 articles published between 2015 and 2018 inclusive in the Journal of Online Learning Research (JOLR). The purpose of this study was to examine the trends regarding article topics, geography, research methods and article types, authorship, and citation frequency. The results indicated JOLR gave additional attention to K-12 blended learning. Another common topic was professional development. Most studies were focused on the US. Future research is needed to examine if the trends from this study continue over a more extended period and if these results reflect the development of and change in the field of K-12 online and blended learning.

Authors:

• Hu Min, Brigham Young University
• Karen T Arnesen, Brigham Young University
• Michael K Barbour, Touro University California
• Heather Leary, Brigham Young University

Slides available at https://www2.slideshare.net/mkb/aera-2021-a-newcomers-lens-a-look-at-k12-online-and-blended-learning-in-the-journal-of-online-learning-research