Readings for U100: Faculty Favorites

"This Was Supposed to Be My Column for New Year’s Day"

csunreading — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 16:07:13 -0800

"This Was Supposed to Be My Column for New Year’s Day":

John Tierney, New York Times, 15 January 2013. Findings is his column; this piece is about the up side of procrastination. Fairly dense with historical references but also funny, engaging, and potentially useful as a time management tool: you can actually use procrastination to your advantage. Includes a link to a procrastination survey that is apparently part of a larger research project that (according to the survey website at http://procrastinus.com/the-procrastinus-survey/ has IRB approval from the U of Calgary.

COLLEGES OPEN THEIR EYES: ZZZS ARE KEY TO GPA

csunreading — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 12:12:56 -0800

This article by Justin Pope (published widely in August 2012) reports on the connection between getting enough sleep and doing well in college. Here’s an excerpt:

“College health officials are finally realizing that healthy sleep habits are a potential miracle drug for much of what ails the famously frazzled modern American college student: anxiety, depression, physical health problems and — more than most students realize — academic troubles. Some studies have found students getting adequate sleep average a full letter grade higher than those who don’t.”

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/colleges-open-their-eyes-zs-are-key-gpa

—Submitted by Terry Hatkoff

Schools Attempting to Control Athletes’ Use of Social Media

csunreading — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 16:54:05 -0800

Some big-name college athletics departments are requiring their students to submit their tweets and posts to monitoring. Should they? What control should universities exercise over students’ social media accounts?

Here’s a link to the article:

http://www.athleticbusiness.com/articles/article.aspx?articleid=3927&zoneid=8

Source:

Steinbach, Paul. “Schools Attempting to Control Athletes’ Use of Social Media.” Athletics Business.
November 2012. Web. Accessed 6 Nov 2012.

To Post or Not to Post? Infographic.

csunreading — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 21:04:00 -0700

Attribution: OnlineClasses.org

—Submitted by Cheryl Spector with thanks to B2BMemes: http://www.b2bmemes.com/2012/09/18/infographics-not-dead-yet/

Phone Home: Tech Draws Parents, College Kids Closer

csunreading — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 19:35:35 -0700

This NPR report (http://www.npr.org/2012/09/25/161716306/phone-home-tech-draws-parents-college-kids-closer) discusses how much more parents are connected to their college children today, in part because of current technology but also because parents have “friendlier” relationships with their children today.

Relates to the Taking Care of Yourself and Technology units as well as others.

Questions to consider: how “close” is too close? How close is close enough? Which parents and which kids have access to the required time and technology? Etc.

[Full disclosure: the questions above come from Cheryl, whose twins—now 21 and juniors in colleges near Boston—have been astonishingly resourceful in finding reasons why they CANNOT talk, text, hangout via Google+, etc. Or maybe (sniff, sniff) our kids don’t like us as much as we like them……]

—Submitted by Wendy Snyder

Cutting Back on Sleep for School Work is Counterproductive

csunreading — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 09:54:15 -0700

This LA Times article (August 22, 2012) discusses a study done on high students but it is relevant to university students as well.

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-sleep-study-sacrifice-20120822,0,6937722.story

Bottom line: “Cutting back on sleep for school work is counterproductive. Students who stay up late to cram for a test or finish a project have lower comprehension and worse performance in the classroom as a result, research shows.”

—Submitted by Wendy Snyder

"Education's Cheating Epidemic" (L.A. Times Op-Ed)

csunreading — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 12:47:00 -0700

"Education's Cheating Epidemic" (L.A. Times Op-Ed):

“Cheating needs to be addressed as part of a cultural problem. It is up to us to make it unacceptable not only in schools but also throughout society. Every time we accept it as unavoidable or tolerable, we help ensure that the culture of cheating is passed on to the next generation.”

The author is “Victor Dorff, a former attorney and journalist, [who] teaches math at Palisades Charter High School.”

Published July 17, 2012.

Helping Students Understand the Role of GE Courses

csunreading — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 08:36:00 -0800

Submitted by Wayne Smith.

Citation:

Cohen, J., and White, E. (2004), “Creating shared student responsibility for general education”, Peer Review. 7.1 Fall, p8.

(Disclaimer: I am on the CSUN GE Council, but the views expressed here are mine alone and are not endorsed by any other person or organizational body including GE Council.)

To be fully honest, I believe that some student conversations regarding General Education (GE), especially specific GE course selection, are probably best managed on a one-on-one basis with a faculty member or academic advisor. However, it is also possible that faculty who teach freshmen can help those same freshmen approach GE with the right attitude and perhaps more important, a keen sense of intellectual serendipity.

The reading above is certainly not the only reading on GE that is interesting and relevent to undergraduates, but it’s short and readable. It gets the students thinking about the subject. As to the course calendar, I time my discussion of GE to be just before the student enrolls in Spring courses via SOLAR. I also use a short Powerpoint presentation to spur engagement and discussion in class. Specifically, I go into more detail about 1), our GE “subject exploration” model, and 2), my own views regarding the principal role of “interdisciplinary thinking”. See:

http://ocw.smithw.org/general/success-ge-courses.ppt

While no two U100 faculty will likely agree on all issues regarding our GE curriculum and structure, my hunch is that U100 faculty can positively influence the students’ perspectives and ability to flourish in GE courses that will begin in earnest their following semester.

Faux Friendship

csunreading — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 16:21:00 -0700

Corrected citation:

Deresiewicz, William. “Faux Friendship.” Chronicle of Higher Education 56.16 (2009): B6-B10. Academic Search Elite. EBSCO. Web. 29 Oct. 2011.

I believe that freshmen benefit from both short-length (articles), medium-length (essays, monographs), and book-length treatments. My own view is such a variety is an essential component of critical thinking. To wit, I’ve added a few medium-length readings to my three freshmen courses this semester. I’ve used the same author because this author is perspicacious and writes clearly.

William Deresiewicz writes on a number of topics suitable and helpful to students, especially freshmen. I use this essay (and others) in a seminar style format. The extemporaneous discussion prompts that I give to various break-out groups are contained in a short Powerpoint at:

http://ocw.smithw.org/mkt100/exercise-faux-friendship.ppt

Other essays by this author that are useful are “Solitude and Leadership” and “The Disadvantages of an Elite Education” (citations for both of these can be readily found using Google and then the full text can be located via the CSUN Library online holdings).

(Submission from Wayne Smith)

"Once Again: Is College Worth It?"

csunreading — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 13:29:21 -0700

In “Once Again: Is College Worth It?” (20 May 2011), New York Times “Economix” blogger Catherine Rampell asks and answers the question posed in her title.

This short piece includes a graph and a bar chart (in case you want to take a crack at numeracy) as well as links to a lot of additional material (including this 2010 post from the same blog: http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/17/the-value-of-college-2/).

Excerpts from “Once Again: Is College Worth It?”:

“It’s true that the job market for new college graduates stinks right now. But you know what? The job market for non-graduates is worse.”

“College provides plenty of intellectual and psychic benefits alongside the potential economic ones.”

Ethics and Ethical Decision-Making: Better Site

csunreading — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 12:30:00 -0700

I’m just floating this new and updated website for ethics and ethical decision-making because I think it is much better than the Huffington Post “Top 10 Ethical Questions” article.

As I noted in my update of that older post, the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University has clearly moved their “class project site” up a notch (or several). The page on Ethical Decision Making and its opening discussion, What is ethics? are both wonderful.

Like other ethics resources we have used, the Markkula Center offers a short list of principles (perspectives) for ethical decision-making. Their list:

The Utilitarian Approach
The Rights Approach
The Fairness or Justice Approach
The Common Good Approach
The Virtue Approach

See “Five Sources of Ethical Standards” for a discussion of each one.

Don’t miss “How to Compare Conclusions from the Different Tests.”

I also recommend “How to Identify an Ethical Issue.”

Steve Jobs: 2005 Stanford U. Commencement Speech

csunreading — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 16:18:45 -0700

This website presents a “prepared text” with video and print (and a few typos, alas). The link:

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/11/video-steve-jobs-2005-stanford-commencement-speech/

Kim H. has made it the basis of her first essay assignment for F 2011 in U100. Stay tuned in case she can be persuaded to share her prompt for the essay.

Keeping Helicopter Parents Grounded During College

csunreading — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 17:03:45 -0700

Keeping Helicopter Parents Grounded During College:

From Amber, who says:

“I used these two articles for discussions about Loneliness/Depression and Helicopter Parents (not attached enough and too attached are the main discussion points). But the class discussion we’ve been having based on these have been going really well. I asked them to read both with and against the grain…find five things in each article that they agreed with and five things that they didn’t. I was just going over their written responses to a freewrite on them and overwhelmingly, they said that they connected to at least one of them, and usually both.”

The other article is of course the one about Loneliness/Depression.

First-year college students often fail as 'life intervenes'

csunreading — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 17:01:42 -0700

First-year college students often fail as 'life intervenes' :

From Amber, who says:

The other article is of course the one about helicopter parents.

Opinion: "Don't link a cap on CSU presidents' salaries to graduation rates"

csunreading — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 17:03:13 -0700

Excerpt from this Los Angeles Times op-ed piece, published Aug. 18, 2011 and written by CSUN history professor Dr. James E. Sefton:

“A class day at a university is an intellectual experience, just as a visit to a gym is a physical experience. Both require effort and determination because the result has to be built by the individual. It is not simply given because money changes hands. Students do not buy their degrees, and they do not pay for classes. The only thing they pay for is the opportunity to prove that, at graduation, they have earned the right to be called a ‘university-educated’ man or woman.”

See http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-sefton-csu-pay-20110818,0,2518081.story

There’s quite a bit to think about here.

Ditch Your Laptop, Dump Your Boyfriend

csunreading — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 16:20:00 -0700

Ditch Your Laptop, Dump Your Boyfriend:

By TIM NOVIKOFF, WILLIE X. LIN, AMAN SINGH GILL, CHRISTINE SMALLWOOD, EVAN LALONDE and REBECCA ELLIOTT

Published: September 25, 2010, New York Times

“Advice for freshmen from the people who actually grade their papers and lead their class discussions.” Which is your first clue that the advice targets students at R1 type universities where grad students do all the (grubby) teaching. Still, quite interesting. Certain to spark discussion. (Thanks to Ellyn Gersh Lerner for making me take a second look at this one, and to Amber Norwood for agreeing with Ellyn!)

You can find a U100 Lesson Plan for this reading on our faculty wiki and in Moodle. 8/1/2011.

"If I were king, I’d insist that every high school graduate take a “gap year” like..."

csunreading — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 11:02:50 -0700

“If I were king, I’d insist that every high school graduate take a “gap year” like the British do. I’d send the kids off with backpacks to find something they love. As it is, we’re in too much of a rush to make a buck, yet we don’t know all the ways to make a buck. “Find a major!” colleges tell an 18-year-old who’s lucky just to find his toothbrush.”

- http://www.latimes.com/features/home/la-hm-erskine-july23-20110723,0,4174780.column

Chris Erskine, Los Angeles Times, July 23, 2011.

Room for Debate: New York Times series

csunreading — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 21:30:48 -0700

Room for Debate: New York Times series:

“In Room for Debate, The Times invites knowledgeable outside contributors to discuss news events and other timely issues. “

Discussion Topics:

AFGHANISTAN
AIRLINES AND AIRPLANES
ASIA
BANKING SYSTEM
BANKS
BUSINESS
CHINA
CONGRESS
CULTURE
ECONOMY
EDUCATION
ENVIRONMENT
EUROPE
FOOD
HEALTH
HOUSING
IMMIGRATION
INTERNET
JAPAN
LAW
MIDEAST
NEW JERSEY
PAKISTAN
POLITICS
RELIGION
REPUBLICAN PARTY
SCIENCE
SPORTS
SUPREME COURT
TAXES
TEA PARTY MOVEMENT
TECHNOLOGY
TERRORISM
TRANSPORTATION
WALL STREET
WORLD

If the dog ate your homework, read this

csunreading — Sun, 22 May 2011 12:33:00 -0700

Op-ed essay from L.A. Times on May 22, 2011 about students making the most of their college opportunities: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-oneill-students-20110522,0,2780276.story

Submitted by Wendy Snyder

"Top 10 Ethical Questions for Incoming Students"

csunreading — Wed, 04 May 2011 10:22:00 -0700

This Huffington Post story offers a picture for each of the top ten ethical questions listed. The questions cover cheating, whether to call for emergency help if a friend/roommate appears to need it, whether to take drugs, what to do with your parents, how to deal with a truly weird roommate, and so on. The story (like the site it describes) invites readers to blog their responses.

Link to the story: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/02/10-ethical-questions-for-_n_856734.html#s262251&title=Do_My_Parents

Behind the story, and in fact its source, is this undergraduate class project at Santa Clara University.

The class project site might be a useful source of ethics questions and cases if you are not seeing enough of them crop up in the Sundial and/or in your U100 class.

Oct. 2011 update from Cheryl:

The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University has clearly moved the “class project site” up a notch (or several). The page on Ethical Decision Making and its opening discussion, “What is ethics?” are both wonderful. I’m adding a new post to our blog to point to the Markkula Center instead of this piece in the Huffington Post.

(Thanks to U100 faculty member Heidi Schumacher for finding this story.)