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WVNET

9 March 2010

It’s hard for me to imagine anything in politics funnier than the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission’s repeated efforts to throw WVNET overboard one minute and then make a 180 degree turn the next. Amazingly, I was ostracized for the better part of a year for trying to keep all involved out of prison a few years back.

Before anyone does anything with WVNET, it would be a good idea if someone learned what it truly does. The statements I’ve been reading in print miss the mark rather dramatically. Equally important, someone needs to learn about the telecommunications infrastructure going into the WVNET site … and, while they’re at it, whose emails cross its servers. Finally, there’s one last thing people should know, but they’ll have to look to others for the answer. Technology is not all that complicated.

UPDATE: 10 March 2010 @ 11:47 AM. As requested, I edited the first link so that it takes you to the document to which I was referring. I must say that I am amazed by the number of views of this post. I passed the previous record for most views in an entire day before 9:00 AM this morning and am very close to the “double” mark now.

Antidotes to groupthink: Dr. Diane Ravitch

7 March 2010

Last week the New York Times published an interesting article, titled Scholar’s School Reform U-Turn Shakes Up Debate, about education historian Diane Ravitch’s about-face on a number of public education issues.

I have been reading Dr. Ravitch’s work for a while and want to call it to the attention of people interested in public education. Why?

A former Bush (both) administration(s) appointee who championed No Child Left Behind and other education reform initiatives, Dr. Ravitch has reconsidered her views on that legislation and other important public education issues. Some popular initiatives Dr. Ravitch is now questioning:

Charter Schools. She has concluded that they are no better than average and draining resources from the public education system.
Standards/Accountability. She has questioned whether No Child Left Behind standards and curricula have produced lower standards so that most children only appear not to be left behind.
21st Century Skills. In September 2009, she gave us a history lesson on why skill-centered education, like the 21st Century Skills initiative so popular here in West Virginia right now, has never worked.

Dr. Ravitch’s September 2009 op-ed commentary in the Boston Globe is a relatively brief document rich with insights about public education:

“For the past century, our schools of education have obsessed over critical-thinking skills, projects, cooperative learning, experiential learning, and so on. But they have paid precious little attention to the disciplinary knowledge that young people need to make sense of the world.”
“Thinking critically involves comparing and contrasting and sythesizing what one has learned. And a great deal of knowledge is necessary before one can begin to reflect on its meaning and look for alternative explanations.”
“The intelligent person, the one who truly is a practitioner of critical thinking, has the capacity to understand the lessons of history, to grasp the inner logic of science and mathematics, and to realize the meaning of philosophical debates by studying them.”

Dr. Ravitch’s views are significantly outside of the current educational mainstream, which happens to consist of a conventional wisdom shared by most Democrats and Republicans alike. You would think that when most Democrats and Republicans agree on something, they’re probably right. But Dr. Ravitch will make you “think” otherwise.

Think, West Virginia

4 March 2010

With all the organizations out there aimed at improving life as we know it in West Virginia – from Vision Shared to CreateWV to ImagineWV to the Democratic and Republican Parties, it is with great trepidation that I suggest the addition of another group to fill a desperately needed void – Thinking.

I grow frustrated by the two extreme forms discussions in West Virginia take. At one extreme, you have the Fox News/ MSNBC crowd that sees everything at one or the other end of the political continuum. If President Obama says it, it must be bad/good depending on which end of the political continuum you place yourself. At the other extreme, you have people who spout platitudes as if they’re somehow meaningful and love every new idea (term defined very broadly here), no matter how hare-brained, that someone proposes and the sychophants who follow these platitude-spouters around.

Having given up on all current organizations, I have decided to create a new group called “Think, West Virginia.” “Think, West Virginia” will focus on one thing – thinking through the serious issues of the day and coming up with nuanced solutions to our problems. Some proposed ideas for “Think, West Virginia’s” platform:

The plural of anecdote is not evidence.
If everybody agrees with you, you’re not saying anything.
If the solution to a difficult problem is simple, you haven’t yet found the solution.
If the idea can be crystallized completely into a sound bite, it’s really not an idea.
If your strategic plan can fit on one page, you don’t have a plan to address any problem larger than what to cook for dinner.
If your strategic plan includes every idea thrown out in a brainstorming session, you don’t have a strategic plan. You have toilet paper.
The number of pretty pictures in a publication is inversely proportional to the knowledge being imparted in that publication.

The first major initiative of Think, West Virginia: to require a debate class as a condition for graduation from every public and private high school in West Virginia. Given the level of public discourse I have observed recently, it’s clear that our schools are failing miserably at teaching critical thinking skills. And I know of no better activity than policy debate, which sadly is offered nowhere in the State of West Virginia anymore, to teach critical thinking. In policy debate, students wrestle with a single topic for an entire year. They learn to prepare cases defining the problem, demonstrating its significance, exploring barriers in the status quo that prevent obvious solutions from being implemented, proposing plans, and setting forth advantages to their plans. But, more importantly, they learn how to tear down every piece of the case they just built and then to rebuild it again using sound logic and reasoning.

Think, West Virginia. It’s truly the only way to improve things.

Wishin’ and a hopin’ and a thinkin’ and a prayin’

3 March 2010

I had promised to stop writing about the proposed takeover of the South Charleston Technology Park because it is a done deal, but it is hard for me to remain silent when specious comparisons are being made between the Tech Park and other technology parks across the United States.

Dave Hardy makes a comparison to Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. Eric Eyre says: “The University of Pittsburgh’s Applied Research Center, called U-PARC, appears to share the most similarities with the tech park in South Charleston.” Other suggested comparisons: the Oklahoma State University-affiliated national sensor-testing center, the Michigan State University-led “bioeconomy” research and development center, and the University of Michigan’s biomedical research campus. Please, everyone, stop drinking the Tech Park water and answer some common sense questions.

Is the combination of West Virginia University and Marshall University anywhere near the presence in research that the Duke University/University of North Carolina/North Carolina State University triumvirate are? The University of Pittsburgh? Michigan State University or the University of Michigan? Let’s review one set of rankings: Among public universities, University of Michigan – 5, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill – 6, University of Pittsburgh – 11, Michigan State University – 22, North Carolina State University – 27. Then, of course, you have Duke University and Carnegie-Mellon University near the top of the private institutions list. Now check out WVU’s and MU’s rankings. (This assignment requires persistence, folks. Don’t quit so soon.)
So we’re left with research mid-tier Oklahoma State University and the smallish ConocoPhillips-gifted national sensor testing center in Ponca City. But at least Stillwater and Ponca City are within commuting distance of one another. How about the South Charleston Technology Park? There’s a smallish Marshall University Graduate College that doesn’t focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education next door, Marshall University an hour west, and West Virginia University two-and-three-quarters hours northeast. Does the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission employ a single STEM researcher? No.
Next, I challenge remaining wishers and a hopers and a prayers who suggest that South Charleston can have a strong research park to take that two-and-three-quarter hour trip to Morgantown and visit their “research park” off Route 705 (aka “Where the Broomsedge Grows”). Then go to Kinetic Park in Huntington for another tour. If WVU, which has West Virginia’s strongest research presence, cannot make a go of a research park in its own back door, neither can South Charleston with none of Morgantown’s advantages besides a few more empty buildings.
Finally, please note that there’s another dog that isn’t barking. And that’s West Virginia University. If any organization is critical to the Tech Park’s success, it’s WVU. Where are they? Where is MU? Short of a MAJOR commitment by WVU, the longshot possibility becomes a virtual impossibility.

Having grown up in the Charleston area, I too would like to engage in a little wishin’ and a hopin’ and a prayin’, but my inferior Lincoln County education only taught me thinkin’, and it doesn’t take much thinkin’ to realize that a Research Triangle Park vision for the Tech Park is a pipe dream. It’s no accident that technology parks thrive only near major research universities. We need to have realistic expectations for the South Charleston Technology Park’s possibility.

“Mistakes were made”

26 February 2010

I’m thinking of Ronald Reagan tonight as I read the latest news. I plan to move on to other topics, but expect to revisit this topic in a few years.

WVNET

Antidotes to groupthink: Dr. Diane Ravitch

Think, West Virginia

Wishin’ and a hopin’ and a thinkin’ and a prayin’

“Mistakes were made”

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