Dear Commons Community,

Yesterday I attended several sessions, all of which were quite good.  I especially enjoyed a session entitled, When AI Meets Education:  Strategies for Realizing the Potential, presented by Larry Ragan and Brad Znedek of Penn State.  Their presentation described a new initiative to develop the Penn State Center for Online Innovation in Learning that opened this past year.  The Center wil be focusing on the role of artificial intelligence in education.

In the afternoon, the keynote address was given by Matthew Luhn of Pixar.  Entitled, The Power of Storytelling to Inspire and Engage.  A lot of interesting comments about the role of storytelling in producing award-winnng animated films as well as in everyday life.

In the evening, Mary Niemiec and I had the honor of making presentations to the three new OLC Fellows:  Laurie Dringus (Nova Southeastern University), Vicki Cook (University of Illinois at Springfield), and Jill Buban (Online Learning Consortium).

At dinner, a group of eight of us had dinner at the Bluezoo seafood restaurant.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The New York Times has an article entitled, First Digital Pill Approved to Worries About Biomedical ‘Big Brother’, this morning.  Here is an excerpt:

“For the first time, the Food and Drug Administration has approved a digital pill — a medication embedded with a sensor that can tell doctors whether, and when, patients take their medicine.

The approval, announced late yesterday, marks a significant advance in the growing field of digital devices designed to monitor medicine-taking and to address the expensive, longstanding problem that millions of patients do not take drugs as prescribed.

Experts estimate that so-called nonadherence or noncompliance to medication costs about $100 billion a year, much of it because patients get sicker and need additional treatment or hospitalization.

“When patients don’t adhere to lifestyle or medications that are prescribed for them, there are really substantive consequences that are bad for the patient and very costly,” said Dr. William Shrank, chief medical officer of the health plan division at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Ameet Sarpatwari, an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School, said the digital pill “has the potential to improve public health,” especially for patients who want to take their medication but forget.

But, he added, “if used improperly, it could foster more mistrust instead of trust.”

Patients who agree to take the digital medication, a version of the antipsychotic Abilify, can sign consent forms allowing their doctors and up to four other people, including family members, to receive electronic data showing the date and time pills are ingested.

A smartphone app will let them block recipients anytime they change their mind. Although voluntary, the technology is still likely to prompt questions about privacy and whether patients might feel pressure to take medication in a form their doctors can monitor.

Dr. Peter Kramer, a psychiatrist and the author of “Listening to Prozac,” raised concerns about “packaging a medication with a tattletale.”

While ethical for “a fully competent patient who wants to lash him or herself to the mast,” he said, “‘digital drug’ sounds like a potentially coercive tool.”

Other companies are developing digital medication technologies, including another ingestible sensor and visual recognition technology capable of confirming whether a patient has placed a pill on the tongue and has swallowed it.

Not all will need regulatory clearance, and some are already being used or tested in patients with heart problems, stroke, H.I.V., diabetes and other conditions.”

This is just the beginning.  Over the next decade, we will see many bio-sensing digital technology breakthroughs for all manner of medical treatments.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

I spent the morning at the Online Learning Consortium’s meeting of the Board of Directors.  The Consortium has had a good year under the leadership of Executive Director Kathleen Ives.  We said goodbye to Joel Hartman from the University of Central Florida whose term on the Board expires next month.  Joel was a first-rate Board member who provided the Consortium with sage advice during his years with us.  Marie Cini from the University of Maryland University College, ended her term as President and will be replaced by Eric Fredericksen from the University of Rochester.  Marie has led the Consortium well and I am sure that Eric will do likewise.  

In the afternoon, I attended the Leadership Network Session, an annual event which brings together college leaders who discuss important issues related to online education.  This session was kicked-off by Doug Lederman, the Editor of Inside Higher Ed, with whom I had pleasant conversation last night about the state of our colleges and universities.  In the evening, eight of us had dinner at Shula’s, one of the hotel’s restaurants. 

Today the regular sessions start and will conclude with a keynote by Matthew Luhn of Pixar.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

24/7 Wall Street has compiled a report of the most segregated cities in America.  Topping the list is Detroit, Michigan.  Here is an excerpt:

“Next year will mark the 50-year anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, also known as the Fair Housing Act. The landmark bill prohibited by law long-standing practices of housing segregation based on race by landlords and local governments. Despite the law, housing discrimination never fully disappeared, and the effects of decades of discrimination are evident in U.S. cities — many of which still highly segregated.

The forced segregation of black Americans in neighborhoods with suboptimal schooling, poor public transportation, and fewer job opportunities has led to worse social and economic outcomes for residents in those neighborhoods.

To identify America’s 16 most segregated cities, 24/7 Wall St. calculated the percentage of metropolitan area black residents who live in predominantly black census tracts. While certain racially homogeneous neighborhoods exist in every large metropolitan area, some cities are far more starkly divided. In several U.S. metropolitan areas, more than one-fourth of the African American population lives in neighborhoods that are at least 80% black. In two metro areas, more than half of black residents live in a predominately African American neighborhoods.”

Stark reality of  what we are not doing in our country!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

I am here in Orlando at the Online Consortium’s ACCELERATE Conference.  Met yesterday with several collegues including Liz Ciabocchi and Ken Hartman.

I have a full agenda of meetings scheduled today with members of the OLC Board of Directors.  Later I will stop by to visit The Institute for Emerging Leadership in Online Learning (IELOL) Master Class, a leadership development program sponsored by Penn State and the Online Learning Consortium. Now in its 9^th year, IELOL serves the development needs of emerging leaders and institutional teams responsible for a variety of online learning initiatives. Participants work with colleagues from around the world and join a growing network of leaders in higher education

The conference program looks interesting and  has a fine mix of presentations, all of which relate to online learning and instructional technology.  CUNY colleague, George Otte, is on the program. 

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

I leave today for Orlando to attend the Annual Online Learning Consortium (formerly Sloan-C) ACCELERATE Conference.  This is the premiere event for online learning. This year’s program will highlight initiatives that reflect and showcase communities of practice through presentations, panel discussions, express workshops, research highlights, discovery sessions, and pre-conference workshops.  There are six strands as follows:

• Research
• Professional Development and Support
• Institutional Strategies and Globalization
• Learner Services and Support
• Learning Effectiveness
• Innovations, Tools and Technologies

All of the details about the program are available at the Conference website.

I have a session on Thursday afternoon with colleagues Chuck Dziuban, Patsy Moskal, Mary Niemiec, and Karen Swan on Higher Education’s Digital Future Is Closer Than We Think!  Below is the abstract.

If you are attending, please feel free to stop by.  We would love to see you!

Tony

Higher Education’s Digital Future Is Closer Than We Think!

Date: Thursday, November 16th
Time: 1:30 PM to 2:15 PM
Conference Session: Concurrent Session 8
Lead Presenter: Anthony Picciano (CUNY – Graduate Center) (Moderator)
Co-presenters: Chuck Dziuban (University of Central Florida), Patsy Moskal (University of Central Florida), Mary Niemiec (University of Nebraska ), Karen Swan (University of Illinois Springfield)
Strand: N/A
Location: Asia 2
Session Duration: 45min
Brief Abstract:

A panel of leading educators will speculate on higher education’s digital future.  Critical issues examined will include the changing role of college faculty, the ascendency of instructional design and off-the-shelf courses, the role of online education in promoting changes in institutional missions, strategies, and student social class separation, The discussants will consider both the near future (2020s) and more distant future (2030s and beyond) and will explore the roles of adaptive technology, brain-machine interfaces, and artificial intelligence on teaching and learning.  The panel will specifically examine predictions posited in the book Online Education Policy and Practice: The Past, Present, and Future of the Digital University (Taylor & Francis/Routledge, 2017) by Anthony G. Picciano.

Dear Commons Community,

New York Times columnist, Frank Bruni, analyzed in today’s edition, Jim Zeigler’s comparison of Roy Moore to Jesus’ parents Mary and Joseph.  Earlier this week, Ziegler, the state auditor of Alabama and ardent Moore supporter, drew from the story of Mary and Joseph to justify Moore’s having sexual contact with teenage girls.  Here is an excerpt from his Bruni’s column:

“When Zeigler was asked by The Washington Examiner about an allegation that the Senate candidate Roy Moore initiated sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl when he was 32, Zeigler cited the biblical couple to say, essentially: No biggie! This is as old as Christianity.

“Take Joseph and Mary,” he explained. “Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus. There’s just nothing immoral or illegal here. Maybe just a little bit unusual.” He made it sound as if Moore were some religiously inclined analogue to those military-history enthusiasts who dress in the uniforms of yesteryear to travel back to the Revolutionary War. Moore was merely re-enacting the New Testament in the name of lust.

It’s worth pointing out that there is something illegal here: A 14-year-old girl is below the age of consent in Alabama, and that was true as well four decades ago, when the incident is alleged to have occurred. It’s also worth pointing out that Jesus supposedly arrived via virgin birth, so Joseph’s interactions with Mary up until that point may have been considerably more G-rated and gallant than in Zeigler’s version.

It’s further worth pointing out that millenniums ago, girls were treated as chattel and sold off as child brides, a practice that no one in his or her right mind would regard as inspirational and cite as an exonerating precedent.

But such fine points tend to elude people insisting on the most convenient, self-serving narrative available, and Zeigler was rationalizing his sustained support for Moore.

Besides, logic and moral consistency aren’t prevalent among Bible-thumping scolds.

Moore has vehemently denied the allegation, which was detailed in a Washington Post article on Thursday that was reported and written meticulously. Part of what made it so persuasive was that the girl — now woman — spoke on the record and has repeatedly voted for Republicans, including Donald Trump. She’s putting her name to her accusation and risking the harassment that could come with that, and she’s not easily cast as a pawn of Democrats trying to buoy Moore’s opponent, Doug Jones.”

Bruni concluded:

“On Thursday, Moore tweeted that “the forces of evil will lie, cheat, steal — even inflict physical harm — if they believe it will silence and shut up Christian conservatives like you and me.” So this is a war waged on him and his kind? What about the war that his breed of conservatives has been waging on the rest of us? It is arrogant and without empathy, and some of its generals use their cause as camouflage.

They also read the Bible selectively.”

These holier than thou hypocrites such as Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker, and Pat Robertson have a special place reserved for them in the afterlife where it is hotter than…………

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

As a follow-up to my previous post, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner reportedly asked Time Warner executive Gary Ginsberg to dump 20% of CNN’s staff, due to its supposed faulty analysis in the 2016 US Presidential election, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.

“Citing people familiar with the matter, the report said that the meeting, held earlier this year, took place after Kushner was displeased with the network’s coverage during the election cycle. 

Ginsberg reportedly replied to Kushner that Time Warner, CNN’s parent company, would not be able to do that, sources told The Journal.

The Journal continued that, according to a White House official, Kushner was merely making a point, and did not mean to be taken seriously.

Kushner reportedly filed complaints to CNN executives on a regular basis during the campaign, and was particularly displeased with its fact-checking, which, according to The Journal, prompted Kushner to call CNN president Jeff Zucker to say that members of the Trump campaign would not appear on the network.

The icy relationship between the network and campaign became apparent on the campaign trail, as Trump began criticizing the mainstream media and accused CNN of peddling “fake news.” Behind the scenes, CNN executives appeared to meet with Kushner in order to develop ties with the campaign and provide news coverage, the Journal reported.

News of Kushner’s remarks come amid AT&T’s plans for a $84.5 billion merger with Time Warner.

According to reports, the Justice Department has required AT&T and Time Warner to relinquish either Turner Broadcasting — which includes CNN — or DirecTV, for the merger to be approved. This requirement sparked speculation amongst people in the companies that the Justice Department may have been influenced by the Trump administration, according to The Journal.

But AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said that the Justice Department never asked his company to divest from CNN in order to acquire Time Warner.

“I have never been told that the price of getting the deal done was selling CNN, period,” Stephenson said at a conference Thursday. “And likewise I have never offered to sell CNN. There is absolutely no intention that we would ever sell CNN.”

Great intrigue in the world of cable news!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Reuters is reporting that Rupert Murdoch contacted AT&T Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson twice in the last six months to ask about a sale of CNN.  As reported:

“It’s not clear if the executive chairman of 21st Century Fox was interested in purchasing CNN or if Murdoch was simply gathering information. One source said he offered to purchase the network in both phone calls, while another said Fox has no interest in acquiring CNN, according to Reuters, which first reported the calls.

CNN has come under the microscope of the Justice Department’s new antitrust chief, Makan Delrahim, who warned that either CNN’s parent, Turner Broadcasting, or DirecTV would have to be sold before the federal government would allow a planned $85.4 billion merger between Time Warner and AT&T. Stephenson has said he has no interest in selling CNN.

A Murdoch purchase of the network could threaten to quiet a voice that has been critical of the Trump administration. The president has consistently accused CNN of being “fake news.” Meanwhile, the Murdoch-owned Fox News network has steadfastly offered sympathetic coverage of the Trump White House. 

Earlier this year, Trump adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner met with Time Warner executive Gary Ginsberg and said that 20 percent of the CNN staff should be fired because they were so “wrong” about the Trump campaign, sources told The Wall Street Journal. A White House official said the comments were not intended to be taken seriously, but they rattled Time Warner, the Journal reported yesterday.

The merger would consolidate tremendous power in two united behemoth communication companies. But critics fear that the federal government may be using its power not to battle a monopoly but to hurt CNN.”

In his business operations, Murdoch is driven by a need a control especially when it comes to media and  news sources.  And a Murdoch/Trump White House connection would not be out of the realm of the possible.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Roy Moore, the Republican Nominee for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions, has been accused by several women as having made sexual advances to them.  As reported by The Washington Post:

“Leigh Corfman says she was 14 years old when an older man approached her outside a courtroom in Etowah County, Ala. She was sitting on a wooden bench with her mother, they both recall, when the man introduced himself as Roy Moore.

It was early 1979 and Moore — now the Republican nominee in Alabama for a U.S. Senate seat — was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney. He struck up a conversation, Corfman and her mother say, and offered to watch the girl while her mother went inside for a child custody hearing.

“He said, ‘Oh, you don’t want her to go in there and hear all that. I’ll stay out here with her,’ ” says Corfman’s mother, Nancy Wells, 71. “I thought, how nice for him to want to take care of my little girl.”

Alone with Corfman, Moore chatted with her and asked for her phone number, she says. Days later, she says, he picked her up around the corner from her house in Gadsden, drove her about 30 minutes to his home in the woods, told her how pretty she was and kissed her. On a second visit, she says, he took off her shirt and pants and removed his clothes. He touched her over her bra and underpants, she says, and guided her hand to touch him over his underwear.

“I wanted it over with — I wanted out,” she remembers thinking. “Please just get this over with. Whatever this is, just get it over.” Corfman says she asked Moore to take her home, and he did.

Two of Corfman’s childhood friends say she told them at the time that she was seeing an older man, and one says Corfman identified the man as Moore. Wells says her daughter told her about the encounter more than a decade later, as Moore was becoming more prominent as a local judge.

Aside from Corfman, three other women interviewed by The Washington Post in recent weeks say Moore pursued them when they were between the ages of 16 and 18 and he was in his early 30s, episodes they say they found flattering at the time, but troubling as they got older. None of the three women say that Moore forced them into any sort of relationship or sexual contact.”

While some Republicans have called on Moore to step aside if these allegations are true, the fallout was uncertain for a candidate who is considered a hero in some Alabama circles for his conservative cultural stances. Mr. Moore, the former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, was twice removed from that office for his positions on gay marriage and a Ten Commandments display. Yesterday he strenuously denied the allegations the women made about him in on-the-record interviews included in the report, published by The Washington Post.  And it was clear that many in his conservative base were in no mood to desert him in a race for a Senate seat Republicans consider crucial to maintaining their majority in the upper chamber.

John Skipper, 66, a former chair of the Mobile County Republican Party, declared the allegations “total contrived media garbage.” Mr. Skipper said that he would still support the candidate and that he figured most of the Alabama Republicans he knew would probably do the same.

“Most of them will not be shocked,” he said, “and will rather be expecting these shenanigans being pulled by the Democrats as standard operating procedure.”

Whether Mr. Skipper’s prediction proves true remains to be seen. But the report unquestionably introduced new waves of uncertainty and turmoil into a race for the Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions, the attorney general.  The Democrats would love to win this seat to give them one more vote in the Senate.

Tony