Syracuse Sends Personalized Video Messages to Admitted Students to Stop ‘Summer Melt’

Duke can’t settle these suits for money — they tried this a number of times, including a few weeks ago. The plaintiffs insist on discovery, and jury trial, to bring matters into the open. They have the resources, from earlier settlements, to hold on forever. The last thing Duke, and the Durham Police Department, and Durham City government want is open discovery. If money had been the issue, this would have been settled long ago. I commend these young men, and their families, for seeking justice + court costs and attorney’s fees, not a payoff.

These players went through years of h_ll because of false accusations by a woman with no credibility. The newspapers declared them guilty before a trial, and civil rights “leaders” rallied against them. The process was wrong, and they need to expose it. Whatever reputation the lacrosse team had, they did not rape this woman. The evidence from the beginning showed that, but they were tried unfairly in the media. Good for them to show up these university administrators, who sanctioned them with no evidence. Hopefully this will prevent something like this ever happening again, this double standard that destroyed their lives for several years, and the credibility of Duke, the press, and the civil rights “leaders.”

wish we could watch the video…disappointed for Newhouse re: student name snafu – regardless of “mass produced” method, this def takes personalization up a notch and does resonate with admits

I am trying to see this initiative as keeping up with the times but unfortunately my sense that the schools are desperately trying to come up with retention measures that aren’t working (on my campus, at least) is not overtaken. Of course, incoming students need some time before becoming cynical and Contessa Brewer, Newsreader might work, at least for the first year. At least this effort doesn’t mean more work for most faculty. I receive more advising literature than publishing catalogs these days. Okay, I am exaggerating, but it’s getting close.

I video makes the connection between student and teacher or organization more meaningful, especially if the student is working primarily online. Customizing it with a name seems time consuming and costly. On the other hand, seeing and hearing a person’s greeting makes a difference in a student’s initial attachment and dedication to the online coursework. The message doesn’t need to be customized.

Good article which came to the correct conclusion, being not
much will change. The Colleges of Education are caught in between three non
perfect choices.

Option number one is giving into the political pressures and
letting local, state and federal politicians decide what should be done with
every upcoming election. This will mean nothing changes but who gets blamed for
the problems.

The second option is holding onto the current practices and
making small changes around the edges. This will not solve the problem either
but allows unions to maintain control . The end result will be this taking
place.

A third option is fully accepting alternative certification
or redefining alternative education. This opens the door for unions to not be
in total control.

It makes no common sense for students to learn biology in
college from someone with a masters or PhD in biology and in high school from a
teacher with certification to teach it. Either subject matter expertise in an area
qualifies you to teach a subject or it does not. Yes, like everyone else, I had
a few bad instructors in college. That being said most of them were able to
teach with having a K-12 teacher certification.

There are actually two general models for teacher education.
 
In one, all programs for endorsements are managed under the School of Educaiton and my position as a biology teacher educator would be under an Education Dean. In such cases, and this mostly fits the larger research universities, as each educationist fad comes along, it results in another methods course that pushes out a content course (biology) and these programs turn out teachers woefully undertrained in their subjects. The theory of educationism is that you really do not need to know your subject; just learn along with the student using the latest educational philosophy.
 
In the second type of school, often what was previously a “normal school” devoted to teacher training that now became comprehensive, my position is with the subject matter field (which it is).  I can defend against content erosion and uphold the dictum that “you can’t teach what you don’t know.” While we coordinate with the ed folks, the emphasis is dramatically different and the requirements are often twice the coursework in the content field (and fewer methods courses).  Indeed, we like to recruit our best biology students to become teachers because that underpins the future of our field.  Our teachers do better and last longer in the classroom. We are likewise unhappy with broad-brush criticism that should be directed to the educationists. Superficial one-size-fits-all political reforms unjustly damage our programs while targetting the genuine shortcomings of the big Ed Schools. 
 
The politicos appear to think they are education experts because they were at one time students, a fallacy similar to their being experts in medicine because they were at one time patients.  
 
John Richard Schrock