East Coast College Tour 2014 - draft

A LONG-PLANNED MEANINGFUL TRIP

Brought the JJ and DD to a long awaited college tour of the east coast.

We started in the current US capital, DC, trekked back the country's political and educational journey. Going north and back in Time, we visited DC, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston.

The university we've toured, Georgetown, Princeton, Yale, MIT an Harvard.

During the last day, we walk the freedom trail, It was a glorious sunny day, the 300 years of history was passing through under our feet in merely 5 hours.

It is not only a trip for the them to know the universities of the east coast and, to inspired them to work hard, to have a passion to be different, and to be a leader.  It is also for me to enjoy the time with the fast growing DD and JJ.

JJ has matured to be an intelligent, hard-working, focused and beautiful young woman.  With her intelligence and passion, she will  go far.  She needs to development a sense of service, not everything is about her own benefits.  It would  be difficult concept for her to learn.

DD is growing up to be more caring.  He is for sure smart, but spending most of his open time on games reduces his exposure to common senses, which worries me tremendous. His lack of interest in almost anything other than video game troubles me tremendous.   Hopefully trips like this will open his mind and inspire him to do more. 

HUNG’S PLACE AND DC

We met Hung Hung's place on Sunday morning, whom I love to see more.   Her lovely family is also growing up, mirroring the age of JJ and DD, we also face the same challenges. 

With a surprisingly nice rental Toyota sienna as our transportation for next 7 days, we started a red eye flight from SFO to BWI.

We tour the Georgetown University and Capital with Hung's family.  All of us were in awe with the grander of the capital.  The country had a big and noble dream, and from the early stage, it worked hard to achieve those dreams. “Out of Many - One” That should the motto of any group.  Even the school of computing and design which I lead.

The Georgetown was no ton the main menu but since it is close to Hung’s place, Hung booked it for us. We were pleasantly surprised how well organized the info session and the tour is.  Georgetown put together a good show, the information session is in it best, well appointed auditorium, with more than 2 hundred participants, it was well organized and presented.  The tour guides, a pair of boy and girl, were passionate and well rehearsed. 

Other than the history and building, the tour guide is the only channel for presenting the university.  Very important, I should make sure our tour guide is well trained.

The status of Sun Yat-Sen in the international building startled me, he is the one that I admire and try to model from and went to the Sun Yat-Sen University to learn how to serve the people and the country of China.  It is still just a dream, fading but not dead yet.

Georgetown is also where Song Chu-Yu, prominent politician in Taiwan and a distance family friend receive his doctorate.  The location is wonderful, across the Potomac river from DC, where many US president gave speech regulars.  Bill Clinton was a undergrads before going to Yale Law.

A strong service and Jesuit tradition is both the strength and weakness of the campus.  Every students are required to take several religious class, even thought the guides downplay it, it is still a requirement.  JJ is very interested in Georgetown, it is a great school, but not sure it worth the efforts and money, compared to the bests of UCs.

SHORT MEAL, WALK AND HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA

Philly played an important yet short role in the country’s history and our trip.  And B Franklin has been a name often mentioned in our book reading so it provide additional meanings. We stay downtown, tried to be close to independent square.  The night we arrive we search for the best Philly cheese steak sandwich.  It is a working men’s town., we drove thru some dark and “sketchy”, accruing to DD and JJ.  The lady run the street side shop was clearly tired and had no desire to serve.  The sandwich is mediocre, a bit over priced.  Not a meal or a trip that we will treasure.

We took the early morning walk to the in dependent square, let DD, Captain “Too Sharp”, lead the way, help us thru the two hours of navigating the downtown Philly street. The museum is fine but not remarkable, maybe we had too little time for a proper tour.  Visiting the east coast and Philly again in a snowy winter might be interesting

ISOLATED STUDIOUS PRINCETON

Princeton is in a picturistic little town where DD enjoyed a lot, Maybe because the tour guide is an Engineering major.  He did a OK job showing us around campus, but compared to the well trained Georgetown, he is clearly not prepared for the tour guide and for a public speaker.  But the campus and outstanding curriculum make the tour enjoyable. and memorable.  

We met JJ's outstanding English teacher Grumman at the gate of the campus, who brought her daughter to the campus, what a nice surprise!

EXPENSIVE HIGHWAY

While I remember and expect there are often tolls on the east coast, we are still surprised how often we have to pay for highways and bridges, $13 for entering NYC, ouch!  The GPS was a wonderful invention, without it, it would be almost impossible to navigate the narrow streets of east coast cities.  But it often can't be trusted, so I turn the GPS and my phone's GPS on at the same time, they behave like a pair of arguing spouse and I had to be the judge every other turn.  It worked but was dizzying.

NYC Experience

Finding the vacation home at Hamilton Heights of Manhattan was a challenge, but we managed it well with the GPS.  Finding parking for two days near was a nightmare.  I drove the big van around the block for over an hour, finally had to double park on a long street and wait for another people to leave.  I was about to give up and drove 3 miles to a garage, pay $50 a day and take a taxi back, someone on the end of 142 street just stroll slowly and drove his SUV away.  Perfect!

I found the vacation home on AirBnB, very useful site.  Compared to the $400 price tag of a typical business hotel in downtown, this vacation home is spacious, with free internet, kitchen and half price.  Even the parking was an issue, I was rather satisfied.

We walked for miles on the

- Les Miserables
- 911 memorial
- Kefi restaurant
- Meeting Mike at "Good to Eat"
- Taxi and subway
- Downtown and uptown 

YALE

- JJ's friend
- Pizza and beer
- building
- student housing

BOSTON Experience

- Plain hotel
- Looking for beer
- Freedom trail

MIT

- Music minor/concentration
- Hacker

Harvard

- Extra curricula activities

Reflection on elite colleges

- Financial package and quarter million price-tag
- True value
- Best of the mediocre vs Mediocre of the Best?
- East and West
- Enlightened poor vs uninspired affluent
- The productive nigh at airport

College Unbound

Finishing a book that Sathya lended me on the future of higher ed.  Most of the chapters discussed the three subject, higher cost, lack of accountabilty, and innovation.   There are some very informative reportings in the book.  The problem, challenge and value of higher-ed is well documented, including this book.  But what a university should about it?

Solutions I propose are simple:  Connected Learning - the learner should be connected to learning material, big data, learning plan, classmates, mentors and professors in a comprehensive yet efficient way to enhance their learning..  Assessment and exercise should be just in time, low risk and plenty. 

The most valuable part of higher-ed might be hardest to enhance with technology: inspiration and serendipity.  That might still have to done in a class-room based experince.  

Novel, script and movie

I always lamented that so many great stories happened during the 20th century China yet few great literature was written, let alone the level of Le Miserable.

Maybe that is one of the task is for me to write the novels and scripts that tell all the worthy stories.

Learning Objective and True Education

Learning Objective vs. Education

Goal setting is crucial for any endeavor.  Students and faculty need to know clearly what and why they are spending time in the course instead of, for example, spending time playing golf.  During the middle of the learning period, the overall course level objectives might be too general, hence the module level objectives are required to direct the faculty and student on the day-to-day learning activities.

Many online course falls into the trap of "punch list" - make sure all measurable tasks are completed.  But as an educator, we should not lose sight of the essential, but often elusive, goals of education: to inspire students, to free them from their bias, to make them part of intellectual community.  

If measurable learning outcomes are the only scope the faculty put our efforts, we might conclude the students achievements from the best elite universities are the same as an average community college, but the public consensus tell us they are not, why?  If learning objects is the only focus, students achieved those from two different faculty should value the classes exactly the same, they don't.  The persona of the faculty matters.

While all education institutions are required to be more accountable these days, we should not let the measurements of learning objective become the only driving direction of our classroom, in-person or online.

I am hesitant to use the list of learning objectives as “check list”, it might convey the minimum expectation of the module is the only goal of the instruction.  But in a world of “no-college-kids-left-behind” mindset, classes are often reduced to a set of outcomes, and nothing more.  To avoid that trap, I usually start my module with a video describe the loftier vision of the module, before introduce the measurable learning objectives.

Summer drive

An eventful day. Tennis in the morning. Csu class at noon. Get home gym installed in the after noon. At 5, decided to take my cruising bike to Carmel barnyard via Hatton canyon. It is a perfect weather for biking. Touring around the mostly empty shopping center and do window shopping in several interning stores that have not been to for years. It is very pleasant. Just have to learn to enjoy these alone.

Summer started on campus

Campus emptied out within a weekend. Library is eerily quiet. I walked to the lib and pick up a book by tony Wagner titled  creating innovators. The book try to use qr code to enhance the printed page. 15 century technolog-The author lamented.  Bit the first qr code I try to access did not work!  So the printed technology works because it is cheap and reliable. The new tech has to be better on both to replace the old one. This is an example of creativity interfere with usability. Ironic.

Unrelenting Email

Getting thru 100+ email a day troubles me still. Might have to have strict routine to deal with it.  Let's try
At least three times a day, early morning, mid-day and around mid-night , 15-30 min each time.  Goal is to quickly review all emails, answer urgent and import once, move others to "later" bin and clean up the mail box.

When a democracy is in trouble

I have been watching taiwan's student political movement.  They argue that the legislative branch of the government is no longer function well and no long represent the will of the people - a sentiment no doubt shared by many youth in the last 10 years.

There are many possible solution to this, but boil it down, a simple key that leave a strong impression on me - to solve a democracy problem, is to have more democracy.  How true.  Taiwan might lead the world into a new era, an era of cyber-democracy, that via intelligent and ubiquitous available connected devise, people can vote, easily, after verification of their identify and they have watch the necessary debates, on every issue.

Those vote should be one of three choice - yes, no, postpone.  If there is less than a high number, say 50% of the registered voters vote, if will be back to the legistors.  This way, a controversial issue can be resolved clearly and often quickly.

Design Thinking and online education

Colleague Denise came my office and discussed using portfolio to enhance student learning experience.  We talked for almost an hour and got very excited. So this is our ideas

The CSIT online program, being 12 courses and 2 years.  The learner's experience can be told as a 100 weeks story, each one with a title of learning outcomes, some of hard and some are soft.  But each one is a capability.  Each entry is determined by the teacher and student blog their learning and reflection and shared among their friends.

Week 0 (yes, in computer we start with 0) - orientation

Week 1.1  CST 300, beginning, knowing the curriculum structure, classmate,
Week 1.2...
Week 2 Design their learning plan
Week 3 Know the industry
Week 4 Thinking about their capstone project
.
.
.
Week 8 Final and reflect upon their learning, complete the portfolio

Week 9 CST 205
Week 10 Know the syllabus
Week 11 Know the python language
Week 12 The media type and format


Week 99 Presenting capstone

Felt af home

Visit Santa Barbara area to review a program. Pleasant people, friendly town.  Nothing special. But the feeling at home surprised random saddened me. 

I talked in English, cursed in English, flirted in English.. when I see the people, I no longer see foreigners.  I am at home. I felt at ease.  But not happy.

CA SCA5 bill - a racist bill that will hurt everyone in the Golden State

"The Way to Stop Racial Discrimination Is to Stop Racial Discriminating" sounds so self-evident that I believe no one will dispute.  However, the lately passed CA SCA5 bill is trying to discriminated students based on their race.

People come to and admire the U.S. because here an INDIVIDUAL can be successful not matter what race, gender, birth place, all the items beyond individual's choices, are.  CA SCA5 is trying to limit the number of students not because their achievement and aspiration, but because their surname.

Should I change my last name to hispanic sounding one, or dye my skin to black or brown, to avoid being discriminated against when I apply to a university?

Should the professors in public universities are required to give 40% "A" grades to the underserved minority? You will think that is absurd, but SCA 5 is trying to do that.  Should a public bus limit the number of white passengers to 30%? That is preposterous, but SCA 5 is trying to do that.

I am proud to be a resident of California, because its meritocracy, its opportunity for individual.  SCA will be a terrible blow to me, and to each citizen in the state.  Even the students took advantage of the preferential treatment to get into a college, their self-esteem will suffer because many, including themselves, might question their qualification.