Innovation & chaos ... in search of optimality

The The Digital Promise: The new program taking classrooms into the 21st

I suspect the failure to deploy technology for learning in education that the following analysis identifies for the US is equally pertinent to New Zealand. Although some initiatives are ‘on the right track’, we run the risk of being run over by a faster, bigger ‘train’ of technology driven by new technology-sophisticated competitors, such as Korea and Singapore.

In September of this year, the White House launched the ‘Digital Promise’ initiative, a national center dedicated to improving the implementation of technology in schools all across the US. Though technology has advanced tremendously in the last 20 years, education has not kept pace with these innovations. The Digital Promise seeks to remedy this discrepancy, transforming the way we teach and learn in the process.

See also the following posting, that introduces detailed New Zealand research (Boven et al, 2011) demonstrating how learning technologies should be employed to overcome the serious lack of engagement and achievement by school pupils in education:

Mellalieu, P. J. (2011, July 19). More ladders, fewer snakes: Two proposals to reduce youth disadvantage. Innovation & chaos … in search of optimality. Retrieved November 7, 2011, from http://pogus.tumblr.com/post/7794555863/more-ladders-fewer-snakes-two-proposals-to

Prediction is NOT predestination: A decision tree for early identification of the likelihood of students’ course success or risk of failure

Based on data mining of the results and demographics of a class of 33 students enrolled in a second-year course in a Bachelor of Business at Unitec Institute of Technology.

The predictions and ultimate outcomes are most likely to differ for other courses. However, our experience from three other courses suggests that the ‘secrets to course success’, detailed below, are likely to apply elsewhere (Fernando & Mellalieu, 2011, 2012; Mellalieu, 2011ab).

An Excellent grade is B+ or greater.

Formal writing quality is measured by a rubric used for assessing writing quality informed by St Vincent High School Six Traits of Writing Cross-Curricular Rubric (n.d.).

Prediction is NOT predestination.

When we provide students with evidence-based predictions of their grades, like this decision tree, our experience suggests that:

50 per cent of students will achieve the grade predicted
35 per cent will achieve BETTER than predicted
15 per cent will perform WORSE than predicted.

We observe that the students for whom we predict lower grades are more likely than other students ‘do something extra’ to improve their results.

For a student, the ‘secrets to course success’ include:

Attending all the first five weeks of class;
Improving formal writing to better than 24/30 as measured by the six-trait writing rubric;
Obtaining a high grade on the first assessment item.
High overall class attendance.
Responding with URGENCY to early warnings of the risk of course failure.

Technical note
This graphic developed from a J48 tree derived using the WEKA Data Mining Software (Hall, Frank, Holmes, et al, 2009). The J48 tree correctly classifies 27 (82 per cent) of the 33 instances provided to the data mining tool for the class : BSNS 6350 Business Process Improvement, 2012, Semester 2. For each instance, about 40 variables relating to a student’s course attendance, assessment performance, and demographics (age, gender, ethnicity, residency, educational programme, etc) were used to identify the parsimonious set of factors presented in the graphic.

References
Fernando, D. A. K., & Mellalieu, P. J. (2011). An evidence-based predictive model for motivating engagement, completion, and success in freshmen engineering students [Paper #151]. In Developing Engineers for Social Justice: Community Involvement, Ethics & Sustainability (pp. 312–318). Presented at the 22nd Annual Australasian Association for Engineering Education Conference (AAEE 2011), Perth: Australasian Association for Engineering Education. Retrieved from http://www.aaee.com.au/conferences/2011/papers/index.html#F

Fernando, D. A. K., & Mellalieu, P. J. (2012). Effectiveness of an evidence-based predictive model for motivating success in freshmen engineering students [Paper 95]. In The Profession of Engineering Education: Advancing Teaching, Research and Careers. Presented at the 23rd Annual Australasian Association for Engineering Education Conference (AAEE 2012), Melbourne, Australia: Australasian Association for Engineering Education. Retrieved from http://www.aaee.com.au/conferences/2012/documents/abstracts/aaee2012-submission-95.pdf

Mellalieu, P. J. (2009). Writing to learn argument and persuasion: A “Trojan Horse” for promoting the adoption of “Writing Across the Curriculum” (WAC) principles. Presented at the Unitec Teaching and Learning Symposium, Auckland, NZ: Unitec Institute of Technology. Retrieved from http://unitec.academia.edu/PeterMellalieu/Papers/1518834/

Mellalieu, P. J. (2011a). Predicting success, excellence, and retention from students’ early course performance: progress results from a data-mining-based decision support system in a first year tertiary education programme. In XXIX International Conference of the International Council for Higher Education (Vol. 24). Presented at the Innovation and Development in Higher Education, Miami/Ft Lauderdale: International Council for Higher Education. Retrieved from http://unitec.academia.edu/PeterMellalieu/Papers/1572513/

Mellalieu, P. J. (2011b, April 27). Predicting success, excellence, and retention from students’ early course performance (video). Vimeo presented at the Research seminar, Department of Management & Marketing, Unitec Institute of Technology, Auckland. Retrieved from http://vimeo.com/22877834

St Vincent High School Six Traits of Writing Cross-Curricular Rubric. (n.d.). Retrieved April 12, 2011, from http://www.svdepaul.org/HighSchool/Academics/Six%20Writing%20Traits.aspx

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Creating the A Plus Assignment: A Project Management Approach (Audio)

[CLICK on the play arrow to play on the image. A delay of up to 30 seconds may occur before playback.]

This audio tutorial helps you plan out the time you need to produce an A+ assignment for an undergraduate university assignment. The approach is informed by a project management framework. Some adaptations and extensions need to be made for more advanced work, such as a research report, or a postgraduate assignment.

For the documents and figures that accompany this audio track, see: Mellalieu, P. J. (2001, October 11). Creating the A+ assignment: A project management approach (Revised). Retrieved October 1, 2009, from http://unitec.academia.edu/PeterMellalieu/Papers/1518836/Creating_the_A_assignment_A_project_management_approach

Enterprise Creativity, Design and Innovation course launches at Unitec February 2013

Have you an idea for a new product, service, process, or business?

Do you want to learn how to lead (or contribute towards) a team with a quest to create and launch a successful innovation?

If your answer is YES then Unitec Institute of Technology’s Faculty of Creative Industries and Business can assist in several ways:

Offer your idea as a feasibility study to be undertaken by a postgraduate student in the Department of Management and Marketing, and/or
Enroll in Unitec’s course APMG 8118 Enterprise Creativity, Design and Innovation and undertake a feasibility analysis supported by a network of staff, students, Dragons, and Angels.

Previous APMG 8118 have students conducted feasibility studies or created prototypes for new ventures including:

Furniture designed for ‘space-constrained’ circumstances, such as inner city flats. The student created a prototype and business plan for a multi-use, space saving item of furniture.
A new venture start-up plan for a business based on retro-fitting battery-electric drive into ‘previously loved’ motor vehicles. The ongoing, steep reductions in the cost of large-charge batteries will make this a feasible business within the next 3-5 years.
A market feasibility investigation for establishing a pickup-drop off bicycle scheme for the Unitec campus as an exemplar for extending through Auckland city.
A development plan for transforming the ‘talk-and-chalk’ teaching processes of a specialist training academy towards using the new digital education platforms.

On-line flyer- Official!
Entrepreneurship [Masters/postgraduate elective]. (n.d.).Unitec Institute of Technology, Auckland. http://www.unitec.ac.nz/creative-industries-business/management-marketing/short-courses/entrepreneurship.cfm

Timetable

Enterprise Creativity, Design & Innovation - APMG 8118 - Course and Timetable Details for 2013. (2013). Unitec Institute of Technology, Auckland.

Textbook

Stamm, B. von. (2008). Managing Innovation, Design and Creativity (2nd Edition.). John Wiley & Sons. Retrieved from http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0470510668

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How can you turn an English department into a revenue center? How do you grade students if they are “customers” you must please? How do you keep industry from dictating a university’s research agenda? What happens when the life of the mind meets the bottom line? Wry and insightful, Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line takes us on a cross-country tour of the most powerful trend in academic life today—the rise of business values and the belief that efficiency, immediate practical usefulness, and marketplace triumph are the best measures of a university’s success.

With a shrewd eye for the telling example, David Kirp relates stories of marketing incursions into places as diverse as New York University’s philosophy department and the University of Virginia’s business school, the high-minded University of Chicago and for-profit DeVry University. He describes how universities “brand” themselves for greater appeal in the competition for top students; how academic super-stars are wooed at outsized salaries to boost an institution’s visibility and prestige; how taxpayer-supported academic research gets turned into profitable patents and ideas get sold to the highest bidder; and how the liberal arts shrink under the pressure to be self-supporting.

Far from doctrinaire, Kirp believes there’s a place for the market—but the market must be kept in its place. While skewering Philistinism, he admires the entrepreneurial energy that has invigorated academe’s dreary precincts. And finally, he issues a challenge to those who decry the ascent of market values: given the plight of higher education, what is the alternative?

Cover of William Shakespeare

Kirp, D. L. (2003). Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line: The Marketing of Higher Education. Harvard University Press.

Great Books for Higher Education Leaders (Part 1) (kentmacdonald.com)
A huge student loan scam - Salon.com (tribuneofthepeople.com)
On the Occasion of Mr Shakespeare’s Birthday - or - Me and Will (actorsgreenroom.net)
Harvard Library to faculty: we’re going broke unless you go open access (boingboing.net)
Affirming Academic Values in Internationalization of Higher Education: A Call for Action (globalhighered.wordpress.com)
Andy’s Answers: How DeVry University created a community led by their inspiring students and alumni (smartblogs.com)

books.google.co.nz

I’ve had 31 profile views and 71 document views in the last 30 days via Academia.edu

… and the little lift towards the end of the timeline is because I just uploaded a further 60 articles.

My life’s publications all in one location

I have spent two days scanning and uploading almost thirty-five years of writing to one place: Academia.edu. This site is like a ‘Facebook’ for academics. Over the brief period I uploaded my publications some 60 people have viewed articles that I have written. It’s most satisfying to see notification of who is reading what. And I have made two academic friends as we connect and share inquiries.

I have now uploaded over 80 articles. These mostly exclude the ravings and pontifications posted here on my pogus.tumblr. The accompanying graph (here) shows how traffic to view my writing gained a significant lift as I began uploading sixty articles that had not been automatically identified by the Academia system.

Another nice feature of Academia is that all the documents are immediately available to the viewer through Scribd. No need to download the documents! Furthermore, you can link to the document view in a URL from another site.

The visitor can view:

The profile of an academic: their institution, academic interest, recent publications and activities: http://unitec.academia.edu/PeterMellalieu

A list of all publications with abstracts, keywords, view and download capability: http://unitec.academia.edu/PeterMellalieu/Papers

My top ten visitors

These are the ‘top ten’ items that visitors have viewed so far. The figures show 30 day views, All time views

Weaving the threads of innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurial learning through a… 14, 19
An interactive planning model for the New Zealand dairy industry 13, 24
Creating the A+ assignment: A project management approach 9, 9
Writing to learn argument and persuasion: A ‘Trojan Horse’ for promoting the adoption of’ Writing… 5, 5
Model answer: A ‘Five Paragraph’ essay in management 5, 5
The Rise and Fall of Education for Sustainability in New Zealand’s Tertiary Education Strategies:… 4, 4
Educating future managers: A survey of recent publications 3, 5
New Zealand perspectives of international entrepreneurship 3, 3
Some new directions in systems modelling practice. 3, 3
Opening the black box: Beyond adventure-based management education programmes 3, 5
Preparing to engage in education for sustainability: A critique of the New Zealand tertiary… 2, 2
Recent Advances in Network Optimization Methods and Applications 2, 2
Auditing the strategic plan 2, 2
Think revolution, not evolution: Creating entrepreneurial capability through rewarding learning… 1, 1
Investing in education for eco-sustainability: A ʻfast followerʼ strategic posture for Unitec… 1, 1
Expert systems for agricultural production [crop damage in agricultural crops] 1, 1

Education and Me (voakl.net)
Making Sure You’re on the Right Track in Your PhD Program (annmic.wordpress.com)

Innovation & chaos ... in search of optimality

Posts tagged higher education

The The Digital Promise: The new program taking classrooms into the 21st

My life’s publications all in one location