There are significant changes on the horizon in higher education.  While it may take years from them to fully take effect I think we are well into the beginning of a new era.  

Straighterline: This platform allows students to take course for a reduced rate that will automatically transfer to participating colleges and universities.  The courses are self-directed and allow students to work at their own pace.  The website is clear that it is not a college and therefore not accredited but their coursework will transfer to colleges that are and will count the same as college credit.

The Disruption:  A major reason for students enrolling in community colleges is to avoid the high cost of tuition for introductory courses.  This website provides an alternative to community colleges for the same demographic of students that community colleges often appeal to.  Students who are self-motivated, have little time to waste figuring out enrollment and financial aid, already are working with families who want to streamline their college career can now do so with more ease and less expense.

Udemy: Recently, a Stanford professor made news by offering a course in artificial intelligence and allowing anyone to enroll in the course online for free.  Students who did so did not receive college credit from Stanford but they did receive a certificate of completion.  The course enrolled over 100,000 students.  Now, that same Stanford professor has created Udemy where other instructors can offer their courses to students in the hopes of reaching an even wider audience.  While these college courses will not count for credit they do seem to be in demand perhaps because they shorten the distance between desire to learn and the actual learning.

The Disruption: As with Straighterline an important advantage of Udemy is that it allows easy access to organized knowledge.  This is an important, and often overlooked, benefit to students.  Whatever advantages there are to enrolling in regular college courses one thing is clear, it is not an easy process.  There are enrollment forms to fill out, financial aid forms to fill out, lines to wait in, advisors to see, signatures to obtain for permission to enroll in courses, prerequisite to fulfill to enroll in courses.  The time lag between wanting to enroll and starting is quite lengthy.  This was no big deal when it was the only way to get organized knowledge.  But now, the process of gaining access to great scholars presenting organized knowledge is mere minutes.  With websites like Udemy you can sign up with your Facebook account or if you don’t have one you can sign up with e-mail, browse the courses, and enroll.   

Pearson:  But, what about accreditation?  What about getting a formal college degree?  Well, it won’t be long before colleges aren’t the only game in town for this either.  Recent developments in the UK will certainly set the precedent for change.  The textbook publisher Pearson is now able to offer degrees of its own in the UK.  If their venture is a success it will certainly inspire others to petition to do this and it will certainly spread to other countries.

The Disruption:  As many critics have been pointing out, free access to free knowledge means little if students can’t get a degree from a fully accredited institution of higher learning.  So, college still remains the gateway.  But, this may not last.  As this article in the Atlantic Monthly asks, “Can control of credentialing last for long without control of knowledge?”  With free access to free knowledge, colleges are now essentially selling a credential.  But, what happens when colleges no longer have a monopoly on offering credentials, certificates, and degrees?  When employers begin to recognize the value of other alternatives, where does this leave colleges and universities?

Mozilla’s Open Badges Project:  Still in its infancy, this project hopes to facilitate a system of badges to allow individuals who are learning new skills (be it from a college, university, or one of the other platforms mentioned above) to earn badges they can display to show prospective employers and clients what their qualifications and credentials are.  

The Disruption:  Once developed this platform will essentially render formal college degrees largely irrelevant for many, many fields of study.  With the buy-in of employers and others in a position to hire, this will allow personalized education to flourish because it will formalize credit without the complications and expense usually associated with earning a degree.  Additionally, once a system of badges is in place it will allow platforms which provide free learning resources such as iTunesU, Zero Tuition College, and DIY U, to gain traction because the courses they offer can count towards badges.

Conclusion: Certainly for the foreseeable future many academic degrees will remain necessary and therefore safe from major disruption.  Medical degrees may be the most immune from disruption but many other formalized professions could transition with little difficulty to a system of personalized education and the use of independent credentials and badges to document skill and mastery requirements.  After all, even now you can become a CPA by silly passing the exam.  Granted a college degree in accounting is a good preparation for this exam but it is not required.  Imagine when it becomes a matter of earning the required number of badges to sit for the CPA exam.  Earning these badges can be done through a combination of resources including but not limited to taking courses through Straighterline, Udemy, iTunesU, and other resources I have not mentioned here.  How will these changes affect higher education?  What will be the reaction of those in higher education now to these disruptions?  I’ll consider some of these in my next post.    

Failure is a part of everyone’s life but your attitude towards it can mean the difference between achieving your goals or not.  As Thomas Edison once said  I have not failed.  I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”  With that in mind, here are a few of my own failures and what I learned from them.

Telecommunications:  I majored in telecommunications in college thinking I would go into audio or video production.  Nearing the end of my course work I realized that the program I had chosen was ill preparing me for that area in telecommunications, the degree being much more theory based than practical.  The ultimate realization of this came when I interviewed with the C.I.A. and was asked what I knew about satellites.  I had to reply, in all honesty, that I knew next to nothing about satellites.  So much for a career in intelligence!

Lesson Learned:  Nothing you learn is truly wasted.  today I teach primarily online and use telecommunications technology everyday. I record podcasts, videos, musical compositions, and use web 2.0 extensively.  It’s a good thing I maintained an interest in the field!

PhD in Philosophy:  Having failed to land a job in intelligence, I resolved to use my own intelligence and my minor in philosophy to pursue graduate work.  I was accepted into the PhD program in philosophy at the University of Kentucky and was set to become an academic.  Several PhD qualifying exams later (one of which I failed twice) and my career as a college professor looked to be in jeopardy.  Failing these exams meant an end to funding and without that there was no way to continue in the program.

Lesson Learned:  Sometime you can learn something and still fail the exam.  My method for studying for the qualifying exams was to read philosophy books.  This was, in fact, a great way to learn philosophy but a poor way to prepare for exams.  I believe my knowledge of philosophy is now more extensive as a result of all that reading but at the time it cost me a degree and it seemed a career.

Picway:  In need of a job and out of options for funding an academic career I availed myself of the career services at the university, went on several interviews, and finally landed a management position at a retail chain called Picway.  I was to go into training in a store (selling shoes) for a year and then move on to upper management.  My time there was well spent only because I had a lot of free time to read books.  I did not take to selling, selling shoes, or managing a retail store.  

Lesson Learned:  Go with your passion.  I needed to be in academia.  It took a year in exile to fully realize that.  My time was spent in retail but my mind was occupied with philosophy.  This was what I was passionate about and I needed to pursue it no matter what.  I moved back home, enrolled in a Master of Arts program in philosophy at the University of Louisville and earned my MA in Philosophy.  Sometimes you do get a second chance.  I was back in academia!

Waiting for the Slipstream:  Having secured part time teaching positions at several local colleges I turned to my other passion which was (and still is) making music.  I recorded my first CD titled Waiting for the Slipstream, released it, and waited for it to take off.  It did not.  In fact, it barely sold 300 copies.  A subsequent release of a CD of Christmas carols fared a little better but I wouldn’t be quitting my day job on the royalties.  

Lesson Learned:  Persistence is an necessary key to success but is not sufficient to guarantee success “If you build it, they will come” does not always work.  It is very difficult to get people excited enough about your music to become evangelists and help spread the word.  I still don’t know what the secret is to writing and recording music people will love and share but I’ll keep at it nonetheless.

The 11-11-11 Project:  My most recent failure was an idea I had for a music project which would connect music with the cause of world peace.  The 11-11-11 Project was intended to emphasize the connection between the 11-11 date (Veteran’s and the end of World War I) and pursuing world peace.  It seemed that using music would be a good way to engage people in this cause.  It seemed that providing a unique point in time would be a good way to mobilize interest.  It seemed that asking musicians to contribute recordings to a compilation CD would be a good way to encourage participation and spread the word.  All of these turned out to be wrong.

Lesson Learned:  To be honest I’m not sure what lessons I’ve learned from this latest failure and that seems like a problem since it virtually guarantees more failures of a similar kind.  I do know that good ideas alone mean very little and it is extremely difficult to get people’s attention.  Part of this is dues to there being so many demands on that attention.  But, limited attention and competition aside it is more than a little difficult to mobilize people.  I don’t know if this is a function of the quality of the ideas or the quality of the marketing behind them.

There are other projects I am working on which may be subject to the same epic failure as these due in part to the difficulty I seem to have in learning from prior failures.  I do know I will continue to work on ideas that interest me and I will continue to share them and propagate them as best I can on the web.  The optimist in me still believes this will yield results in the long run.  

Any thoughts you’d like to share?  I welcome your comments and insights! 

The process of winning elections involves making arguments and being persuasive.  Ideally, these activities would be conducted using the principles of good reason and available evidence.  But, since these are not always persuasive, politicians often resort to fallacies of reasoning.  While these are not sound ways of arguing from a logical perspective they are often very effective from a psychological perspective.  Here are a few of the more common fallacies.  Can you find examples where politicians have used them?

Straw man:  This fallacy occurs when someone distorts another person’s argument, refutes the distorted version, and then claims that the original argument has been refuted.  The success of the fallacy hinges on the similarity in the two arguments; the original one and the distorted version.  Skilled politicians can blur these two arguments so effectively that people will be persuaded. 

Here’s a good example from a logic textbook: Senator Barrow advocates increased Social Security benefits for the poor. It is regrettable that the senator finds it necessary to advocate socialism. Socialism defeats initiative, takes away promised rewards, and leads directly to inefficiency and big government. It was tried for years in Eastern Europe and it failed miserably. Clearly Socialism is no good. 

Red herring: A closely related fallacy is the fallacy of red herring.  Here the arguer subtly changes the subject without distorting the original argument.  The hope is that by changing the subject you will forget the original argument and agree to whatever conclusion is drawn even though it has little to do with the subject at hand. 

Here’s an example: Some civil libertarians argue that the right of free speech guaranteed by our Constitution is more important than the possible desecration of the American flag. But just think of the history of Old Glory in battlefields all over the world! it is such a beautiful symbol of American freedom. Why would anyone ever want to burn it?

Equivocation:  In this fallacy, the arguer subtly changes the meaning of a critical word thus allow a conclusion to be drawn which is not in fact warranted by the original meaning of the word in question.  This is an especially effective technique if an argument rests on an abstract word or a word which already has a disputed meaning. 

Here is a simple example from a logic text: A crust of bread is better than nothing. Nothing is better than true love. Therefore, a crust of bread is better than true love.

Begging the question:  This is another especially effective fallacy for skilled politicians.  It is committed when an arguer leaves out a questionable premise hoping that by leaving it out the audience will not detect it and be persuaded of the argument in spite of the absence of this important but questionable premise. 

Here’s an example: God exists because it says so in the Bible. Furthermore, we know the Bible is true because it is the revealed word of God.

Slippery Slope:  This is a favorite among politicians who wish to attack their opponents’ ideas or plans for the future.  The fallacy occurs when it is claimed that an innocent first step or action will lead to increasingly catastrophic results in a chain reaction.  While the chain reaction is, in fact, unlikely, the fallacy is effective because it raises the possibility of disaster and this is often enough to put people off a new idea. 

Here’s a textbook example: It’s not a good idea to put your child in a day care center. Separation from parents causes isolation and alienation. Soon the child becomes incapable of relating to other children, and this inability to relate causes depression. As the child gets older, the depression leads to psychosis. The final result is either suicide or a life wasted in an institution.

Knowing these fallacious techniques can be very helpful in evaluating the claims of politicians who are seeking the highest office in the land.  How many can you identify?  I invite you to leave examples in the comment box of this blog post.

As we begin the process of primaries and caucuses leading up to the November election it might be a good time to seek out some advice for evaluating presidential candidates.  What, if anything, of practical value can we learn from the great philosophers of the past that might shed light on this?  Let’s examine a few of them and see.

Socrates:  Ask the right question.  Socrates was fond of asking such questions as “What is piety?” What is beauty?” “What is truth?’  While the questions seem esoteric and abstract Socrates always asked them with an eye towards arriving at clarity and this clarity has practical value.  But, what can we do with the socratic method if we are not asking these kinds of questions?  Well, for one, we can be mindful of the lack of clarity in our own lives and workplaces and begin asking the same kinds of questions.  Whenever you hear the latest buzzword or technical bit of jargon ask the “What is” question and see what happens.  As likely as not some confusion will be revealed even by those using the word.  At the the very least, this indicates a lack of clarity and a need for further questioning.

Rene Descartes:  Doubt and ask for evidence.  Most famous for stating “I think, therefore, I am,” Rene Descartes’ philosophy forms the basis of much of our unexamined world view today.  But, like Socrates, it is his method of doing philosophy that yields the most practical benefit to us.  In particular, Descartes method of doubt and deduction.  First, if something seems unsubstantiated, doubt it!  Ask for the evidence which validates the claim.  And keep asking for evidence until you find some or find that none exists.  At that point, you have a decision to make.  Is the claim worth believing even in the absence of evidence or should it be given up in favor of a more substantiated claim?  

David Hume:  Proportion your belief to the evidence.  The British empiricist famous for awakening philosophers like Immanuel Kant from their “dogmatic slumber” can do the same for us today with his admonition to proportion our belief to the available evidence.  In this respect, he picks up right where Descartes leaves off and reinforces the same valuable lesson.  Don’t let people simply make claims without also demanding that they validate these claims.  Think about how often a policy is put in place without first examining the evidence for and against it.  This happens quite often in the workplace, the state house, and the school house.  

Immanuel Kant: Pay attention to how you see things not simply what you see. Having awoke from his “dogmatic slumber,” Immanuel Kant went on to produce a critical philosophy that has had a major influence on psychology and our understanding of how perception works.  What Kant realized was that we don’t immediately perceive the world around us as it really is, but rather as our mind organizes it.  What practical applications can we make of this insight?  We can remember to be on guard against the biases that we bring to any situation by remembering that we see things not as they really are but as we believe they are. 

Conclusion:  Philosophers can provide good guidance for picking a presidential candidate because they focus on asking the right questions and demanding evidence to validate claims.  Philosophy also provides a useful method for evaluating the claims made by those seeking public office and that method is logic.  In my next post I will outline some specific insights from logic that can help clarify the process of evaluating claims.   

One of the most challenging parts of attending college for any students is to learn good time management skills.  This is especially true for those who are not only taking a full load of courses but also working and have family responsibilities as well.  Most professors do not structure their courses with these other competing responsibilities in mind.  Their responsibility is to struct6ure the course so that it represents the required content for that course.  Thus, it is your responsibility to learn how to manage your time well.  What follows are a few tips for doing so.

1. Do a little bit all of the time.  This is the most effective method for managing your limited time.  Most students feel this is counterintuitive and usually resort to cramming for exams and writing papers at the last minute figuring that this is the only way to manage their time with other responsibilities that require more time.  School tends to get condensed into the smallest amount of time possible to pass the course.  However, this can be a mistake.

Instead, try doing a little bit of coursework all of the time.  What I mean by this is try to plan each day with a small amount of study and reading time.  This way, you can review your course material soon after attending class and will have a better chance of retaining more of it so that you will not have to cram for your exams. 

2. Apply the material.  A way of sneaking some study time in while doing other things is to think about how the material you’re learning applies to your everyday life.  This will make the material more meaningful and easier to learn and you will be studying while you’re engaged in other activities.     

Most of the subjects you study have everyday applications and I have written short essays on each to illustrate this.  The effort you make to see these applications is a more effective study technique than rote learning, often takes less time, and as such is a good but often overlooked time management technique.

3. Connect the material.  Closely related to this technique is the suggestion to connect the material you’re studying in one course to material you’re studying in other courses.  This is another sneaky study technique whereby you can essentially study two or more subjects at once.  Most of the material you study is not only connected to your everyday life but to other subjects you’re studying as well so take the opportunity to find these connections. 

4. Recognize your limits.  Finally, you need to recognize that it may not be possible to do everything you are trying to do perfectly.  Many students have the expectation that they should get A’s in all of their courses regardless of how little time they are able to devote to the course.  But, earning A’s takes time and the reality is that it may take more time than you have.  But, remember B’s and C’s are not necessarily bad grades.  That’s not to say that you have to give up and not try your best but you may have to strategically allocate your time in such a way that you will have to sacrifice your goal of straight A’s to achieve other more important long-term goals.

There are only 24 hours in your day and the reality is that devoting a certain amount of time to one thing necessarily means taking it away from another.  You will need to decide where your main priorities lie and allocate your time accordingly.  In addition to the material you learn in the classroom this is one of the more important skills you can take away from your college experience.                    

With the coming of the new year here are some philosophically inspired resolutions for you to adopt:

1. Become a sage. Chuang Tzu once said, “The sage looks at the inevitable and decides that it is not inevitable. The common man looks at what is not inevitable and decides that it is inevitable.” Recognize that what appears to be inevitable is not and take one step to becoming a sage.

2. Improve the quality of your thoughts. Marcus Aurelius recognized that “The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.” So, resolve to take this step towards becoming happier in your life.

3. Find time to sit still. Blaise Pascal once said, “Most of the evils of life arise from man’s being unable to sit still in a room.” Take some time to be still, meditate, or just relax with no distractions. It’s good for the soul.

4. Take some risks. Paul Tillich once said, “He who risks and fails can be forgiven. He who never risks and never fails is a failure in his whole being.” Don’t be a failure, try something new!

5. Examine your beliefs. David Hume pointed out that “A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.” Take some time to examine your beliefs and the evidence for them.

6. Spend some time with good friends. Epicurus recognized that “Of all the means which are procured by wisdom to ensure happiness throughout the whole of life, by far the most important is the acquisition of friends.” Re-connect with friends.

7. Be mindful. The poet Tagore observed, “The greed for fruit misses the flower.” Remember to stop and smell the flowers on your journey.

8. Be satisfied with what you have. Epicurus once remarked that “Nothing satisfies a man who is not satisfied with a little.” Focus on and appreciate what you have.

9. Identify your purpose. As Nietzsche once said “He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how.” be sure you are clear about the meaning and purpose of your life and strive to live accordingly.

10. Be a prepared observer. Louis Pasteur once remarked that “chance favors the prepared observer. Be ready to take advantage of new opportunities that arise this year.

 Most of all, have a happy new year!

A woman once visited Henri Matisse in his studio and, after examining a painting he had just finished, declared to him, “The arm of this woman is much too long.” His reply was quick. “But, madame, you are mistaken. This is not a woman, this is a painting.”
  Ellen langer

 A tourist in New York’s Greenwich Village decided to have his portrait sketched by a sidewalk artist. He received a very fine sketch, for which he was charged $100. “That’s expensive,” he said to the artist, “but I’ll pay it, because it is a great sketch. But, really, it took you only five minutes.” “Twenty years and five minutes,” the artist said.
  Thomas Sowell

 ”I didn’t see the need to do things that didn’t need to be done. Sometimes matters just resolve themselves if you leave them alone long enough… Public administrators would get along better if they would restrain the impulse to butt in, or to be dragged into trouble. They should remain silent until an issue is reduced to its lowest terms, until it boils down into something like a moral issue. When you see ten troubles rolling down the road, if you don’t do anything, nine of them will roll into a ditch before they get to you. Four-fifths of all our troubles in this life would disappear if we would just sit down and keep still. When things are going all right, it is a good plan to let them alone.”
  Calvin Coolidge

 ”I was at the Gate of Paradise with a crowd of people who wanted to enter. And St. Peter asked each of them which religion he belonged to. One answered ‘I am a Roman Catholic.” ‘Very well,’ said St. Peter; ‘come in, and take your place over there among the Catholics.’ Another said he belonged to the Anglican Church. ‘Very well,’ said St. Peter; ‘come in and take your place over there among the Anglicans.’ Another said he was a Quaker. ‘Very well, said St. Peter; ‘come in and take your place among the Quakers.’ Finally, he asked me what my religion was. ‘Alas!’ I replied, ‘unfortunately, I belong to none at all.’ ‘That’s a pity,’ said the Saint. ‘But enter anyway and take any place you wish.’”
  Benjamin Franklin

 ”A crab said to her son, “Why do you walk so one-sided, my child? It is far more becoming to go straight forward.” The young Crab replied: “Quite true, dear Mother; and if you will show me the straight way, I will promise to walk in it.” The Mother tried in vain, and submitted without remonstrance to the reproof of her child.

Example is more powerful than precept.”
  Aesop

“A man will be imprisoned in a room with a door that’s unlocked and opens inwards; as long as it does not occur to him to pull rather than push.”
  Ludwig Wittgenstein