http://www.theonion.com/video_embed/?id=17966
In The Know: Are Tests Biased Against Students Who Don’t Give A Shit?

A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words

So for the final project in this class, I’ve decided to attempt to draw a picture (I saw attempt, because I am def not an artists).  I think if I can pull it off, I am going to draw a picture of a French classroom with a tv that says something about the US budget cuts, and then have the teacher saying something along the lines of “Silly American’s paying for the college” while showing how not paying for college in France isn’t right either, cause the students will be not paying attention.  Going to be a bit detailed, but as long as I can get the basic drawing down, it should be good.

Mixtape for Project

I came up with the idea of listing a bunch of  songs that I feel relate to what my paper says. I’m also going to pick out versus from each song that I feel represent education, budget cuts and college students in general.

This is what I have so far:

Revolution, La Vi Boheme, Another Brick in the Wall, Stay True to Your School, All Falls Down, Fight for Your Right, School’s Out, and Schools are Prison.

If anyone has any suggestions, let me know!

surfing internet

Anybody watch this video?

What to do for the Presentation

Seeing as my conference paper was about problems with the pension and retirement systems, the only thing that comes to mind is doing a power point.  Question is, how would I go about doing a power point to fit my viewers.  I don’t know if I would take parts from my paper into the power point and talk about the issue or what.  Hopefully I will get more answers today, because that is all I can think would work well with my conference paper.

New Project

I was thinking about the new project and I believe that since I wrote a time line the most logical way to present my information is in an actual time line. So I bought some poster board and I plan on making a time line to show the budget cuts throughout the years.

Done with project

As my favorite author George R.R. Martin likes to say, I’ve got another monkey off my back. (He wrote Game of Thrones, which just premiered on HBO if anyone cares)

After doing this research on academic tenure reform, its hard to look at it or teachers unions in the same black and white way the media portrays them. Tenure is a good idea gone bad (courtesy of some rather bone-headed Supreme-court legislation in the 70′s) and teachers unions are a reluctant bad guy at best, defending an altered version of the policy they’d always upheld.

Hopefully, these statewide reforms for tenure will go off well. Other than that, very glad to have it done.

pamphlets

So for my “confrence” paper I’m making pamphlets for various countries, and instead having travel information, I’m having information about their higher education, but i give it a conversational feel to it.  My language is very relaxed, but I think the language and the style makes it really easy to read and fun to read.

Conference Paper

Hey guys,

Here is the link to the blog I created for the Conference Paper. Check it out. Thanks

http://collegefouryou.blogspot.com/

the Hell is over for now

The paper is done! I finished editing it yesterday and printed it out. Words can not express how happy I am to be tone with this paper!

Finishing Touches

Just finishing up on the formatting and the last details of the project. The Facebook page worked out much better than I had expected. I’m not forced to design a layout plan like if I were to use a pamphlet where the looks are just s important as the information. My project made it easier to focus on the information, everything I type or place in the page has a predetermined spot on the page. People are so accustomed to Facebook these days that navigation is easier for my readers. If they wanted to know where I got my info, they can go to links. If they want to discuss the topic at hand, the viewer can look at the discussion board and even comment on it. Accessibility to my site couldn’t be easier.

The info was quite easy to find. It was nice because I had a topic that I really enjoy this time around. Considering it was a sports topic, ESPN was very helpful as well as Ebscohost documents from places such as Sports Illustrated. The BCS has been ready for reform for some time and is always being discussed. I decided to keep my project quite informal. There are no in-text citations however all information from my text is linked to the page somehow. I’m thinking about doing hyperlinks so any information the reader finds interesting, they can click and be right there. Overall, I like the way my project turned out. I didn’t expect to like it cause I hadn’t seen the design for what had planned to do. Contrary to my initial expectations, the project end up being half descent.

The Power of Saving

I wanted to dedicate this entire weekend to this paper. I was working on it for four hours straight and then was away from my computer for too long and was logged out. I lost everything. I had to start completely over. It felt like a tragedy had occurred.

I’ve gotten about 1/3 of my paper done now. I divided it into the three sections: Applicants, Acceptance, Attendance. I’m finished the Applicants section and I have some of the Attendance section done but I’m not completely sure what I’m going to include on the Acceptance section. I do have one idea for how race and ethnicity may play a role in acceptance to schools. But that’s all I have right now.

I’ve also been adding some visuals to my paper. It makes it look better and easier to get the information.

Please remember to save your work as you go. Although I’ve been told by many of my professors, I never really got the message until this weekend.

KU Composition Conference Program

Here it is folks: the KU Comp Conference program!

2011 KU Composition Conference Program

Almost done

I have finished the main part of my paper! I realized that I have no information on 2010 so I will be looking that up today. The only item I have left to do is write the intro, conclusion, and work cited. Unfortunately my meeting with Dr. Mahoney was canceled so I will try to reschedule so I can get feed back on my paper. I have a few questions about the “amendments” he wanted me to try so I will keep working on that. I should be done my first draft completely by Wednesday. Then I will edit it and turn it in by the 18th.

Status Update

Every day that goes by I find new and useful information pertaining to my topic. The Hamburg Item, Reading Eagle, The Keystone and the Patriot are my primary sources of information, but I have found articles via google search. (FYI: In case you forgot, my topic is the things students are doing to protest the budget via tradition protests, odd protests, and social media protests.)

I am a bit behind, but I have a solid start and am set on writing it like a magazine article with InDesign

My focus is going to be protests of KU, but I am going to give honorable mentions to some other PASSHE universities.

Success stories

The Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) is successful after two teachers started in 1994 to redefine public education. Some teachers involved with MIND Trust, have successfully converted catholic schools to charter schools in Indianapolis. A common element is accountability and transparency. Also, the teacher’s union and local government cooperated with the administration of the schools to allow change. Some teachers know that if the schools close for lack of funding, students will not be taught and they will be unemployed so they are willing to compromise. Higher Education works it just needs some tweaking.

Project Idea

Why do we go to college? Or more importantly, what is the purpose of higher education? Since we are currently in debate about a 50% budget cut to institutions of Higher Education in the PASSHE System, in order to take a form stand on our needs for state money, we all need to know what we are standing for. A clear goal of Kutztown University’s purpose as an institution needs to be made. The best voices to dictate what Kutztown University should be accomplishing are those of students. It is our future that will be most affected by budget cuts for we are the ones who have the vote to pave the way for the next generation of collegiate students.

I want to survey college students to hear what they believe is the purpose of higher education. Answering the question may then elucidate where we stand and, in the end, if the protest is even worth it. In order to know the validity and devotion to my survey, I will survey my friends and my acquaintances, for I find them trustworthy in giving honest answers. I will tell them to profile their lives at Kutztown University to give a clearer picture of what type of student I am surveying. In addition, I will ask those being surveyed to provide their academic statuses (i.e. major, year, summary of grades, etc.). I will tell them to not write their names on the survey. When all surveys are completed, I will provide a summary of the data to show what everyone believes as the purpose of their education in the collegiate system, and from that, maybe I can provide to the administration a clearer understanding of what one constituency believes in.

Formatting

I’ve decided to make my “paper” a blog. I’m having a bit of an issue accepting this because I am not used to doing “informal” writing for classes. I am more comfortable writing informally, however, I can’t grasp writing for a class in a different form other than the standard 12pt font double spaced essay format. I am pretty content with the organization of my blog. I am including pictures and short video clips in my blog since that is what is found on a “real” blog. I have been able to find tons of information on my topic and I am sending out a survey for students at other colleges to respond to.

Form and Context

After discussing our form and context of our projects (which was the first time I had even seriously considered it), I now have a much better view on how I am going to present my project. I’m glad we did, because currently, before that class, I had a rough draft written that was very formal. There were in-text citations, a lot of pointless information, and far too many statistics. The problem I had wasn’t the writing or information, it was the form. What sports fan is going to read this kind of stuff? So, after realizing I wasn’t appealing to my audience, I crumbled my last draft up and started a new. Now, I’m starting to enjoy actually writing this cause I feel as though I have gotten the handle on things and no longer have to be so stuffy when I’m writing.

The Dilemma

So now I am pretty sure that I have finished all my research. I am now working on writing the paper. The paper is looking more like a list of facts and I’m not sure if I can do that. I have a list of states that I found information on and what their budget cut was for the year. However, there are some states that I found more information on. I am wondering if I should cut the states that I don’t have that much information on and only talk about the three or four states that I have a lot of information for. The notes alone are 11 pages long. If I cut some of the states that there isn’t as much data, I might be able to save paper.

Recent Findings

My recent research has been very helpful in my topic. I went onto ebscohost and found a few articles in reference to the NCAA bowl system. It seems as though my initial prediction was completely correct. The problem is all about money when trying to reform the system. No conference wants to lose their chunk of the money when it comes down to it. For instance, Boise State is apart of a much smaller conference in comparison to the Pac-10 or Big East. Therefore, regardless of how good they may be, they will not make nearly as much money as the bigger conferences because they attract far fewer fans. If the bowl system is done away with, this sum or pot will be split up more evenly because the bowl committee that currently divides up the profits will no longer exist. With that said, the smaller conferences will get a larger sum of money. My problem with all of this is that it seems like performance is not taken into account at all when dispersing money throughout the conferences. I feel as though this money should be given to the programs who have succeeded for the longest rather than those who have not succeeded, but face tough competition. Boise State was on the verge of being undefeated this year. just like they have for the past five or six years. They always give a great performance when it comes to bowl competition. Why shouldn’t they get as much money as the rest of them. Considering the NFL may not have a season next year, I expect to see quite a bit more coverage on the NCAA. Especially considering there will not be a super bowl next year, they may in fact change the way of the league. My next mode of research will be through none other than ESPN. Hopefully their insiders will give me a bit more information on the topic before I start writing about the situation.

Update on Conference Paper

As I’m doing research for this conference paper, I’m realizing that wording is everything.  I’m doing difference between higher education in the US compared to the rest of the world, and it’s a lot more difficult than I assumed it would be.  I’m starting with the difference in tuition, and along with that you have to think of funding.  I have been able to find the average tuition for colleges in the US and other counties,  but it is really hard to find how the universities are funded.  I have to make sure I word my searches correctly to find what I’m looking for.

~Shannon Magee

The plans in motion

As of right now I am very happy with how my paper is coming along. Over the weekend I was able to get my outline finished. It is a good thing that I did this because it turned out that there was an area of research that I missed. In my outline, it starts at the year 2002 and goes until 2011. However there is a huge gap between 2003 and 2008. This means that I need to go back and find more information in those years. I hope to have a rough draft done by this weekend. Other than that everything is going as planned for my paper.

Just a Quick Update

I’ve been finding a lot of information on saving money by just googling things. I’m curious to see how much information I will find when I turn to Kutztown’s databases. A lot of the stuff I’m finding are on websites or blogs that are focused more toward individual consumers, but they can be applied to a bigger, more commercial setting as well.