The innovation!

Original Article

Before we are carried away by the idea of innovation, let's work on building the basics.

It's a day at the work place. We were dealing with analyzing data. The feeling I had, at the time, is that most people seems to feel that statistics is such a mystery theory that common sense does not apply.

I am a slow thinker but I do think and it's been part of my training to to create something if it haven't been invented. If we apply our common sense to the statistics, we know that it is simply a way of looking into data. There are all kinds of formula in the fields of statistics. But to derive anyone of them, the first thing you have to have is a mathematics model of the data. To be precise, you should always verify your data against the mathematics model you are going to use. After you have verified the model, the general idea of statistics/probability can be derived to explain and check the data.

I would not go into the detail of what we were doing at the time. But this instance made me to think about the ability to innovation that a lot of educators tout about. My favorites is what Edison said about genius. The way I think about this is that if you have learned/stored enough things in your brain, these knowledge will interfered or be checked while you are searching for solution to problems. The better you understand things, the better you can avoid the unlikely solutions and more focused on the good possible solutions. The point I try to make is that before we are carried away by the idea of innovation, let's work on building the basics.

The Power of Race

Original Article

My opinion is that this issue should be addressed at K12 and the approach should be to provide access to study material for all kids.

Another article about race.


=== My post at InsideHigherEd.com ===

Personally, I know the discrimination exist because I am a victim of it.

Does my experience prevent me to success? Yes. But not to the point that I can't find any White that is gracious and understanding.

Look at the fact that Obama received a great portion of White vote, I have to say this is a great county and that White is, in general, quite open minded.

For Black, Hispanic and Native American to make the case, I think the Asian should be included in the theory.

In an ideal world where all K12 kids are given equal opportunities to access the study material, the Higher Education debate can be simplified.

For family with Internet access, the disadvantage claim can hardly stand.

Probe of Extra Help for Men

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Q: Is this what we really like to do? Adjust our standard and help any groups that seems to fall behind regardless of the causes even at the cost of sending the wrong message about the responsibility?

Do Professors Matter?

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Professors should engage in high productive activities that others is not capable of and qualify for it and it is administrators' job to provide quality instructors that matches students need at a reasonable price.

Well. I believe the comments to this article said a lot.

Personally, I am very sure that professors matter. However, we should also consider the students or the consumer side of the story. I understand that this article is more about the community colleges, but the general idea is the same for four year schools.

Of cause the professors or even the research professors know a lot than, say, most of the high school teachers. But can they really be a better teacher, defined as raising students knowledge level in average? As described in the comments, the answer may not be a firm 'yes'. Is this the problem with the professor? Probably not. It simply the mis-match of professors and students. But. Does it make sense to have professors teach high school courses? In general, no! Why? Think about it!

I have no doubt that professors know a lot and that they are great resources if students is ready for it. But if students are not, it is simply a waste of professors and students' time and resources. What this implies is that professors should engage in high productive activities that others is not capable of and qualify for it and it is administrators' job to provide quality instructors that matches students need at a reasonable price.

The New Untouchables

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We need get back to the basics. Build our future from the ground up.

I agreed that our K12 education need improvement. But I have to say that the way I look at education is quite different from the author.

The basic difference lay in the principle. Personally, I came to realize the the main point of education is to teach everyone to be responsible. The knowledge will come with it. The pure emphasis on knowledge is not going to achieve the revolution we need.

The indication of the fall of American is there for a long time. Let's just go back in time to when the immigration debate started. How many times you heard the arguments that immigrants steal the job from American? But do we ever questioning ourselves that for what reason, should we be paid more to do the same tasks? Back then, did anyone listen to the voice that we need to improve our education system so that we are producing workforces that can do others can't? Do you see what we are missing in our soul? Our arguments is all about them but not about us. Not about what the heavy lifting we need to do?

Even now, in the middle of a economic down turn, we are cried for more and more resources so we can improve our education. Aren't we follow the same path? Take a look at the world, which countries that spend more on education than we do. How much the best educated country spent on their education? Can you argue that we did not spend enough? Or maybe the real reason is that we do not know what the culprits are? We simply think that we have done nothing wrong. The reason we are not good is that Government did not provide us enough money.

Don't get me wrong, resource is helpful and it very likely will produce result. But does this guide us to the right direction? Sure! We can spend enough money so that there is a guardian for every student and most likely the test results will be better. But is this the right way to do it? Will our students ready to take the responsibility when guardians are gone? Are we sure this is the right way to do it if other countries can do it cheaper? Is this sustainable economically?

There are times I think we are looking at the wrong things. These days, politics are tauting more graduates and more higher education. But did anyone think about that maybe, just maybe, if we can improve our K12, we may not need send all the kids to higher education since they already posses the ability to meet the workforce requirement. It's the quality that counts. Not that piece of paper!

The other thing I like to point out is that from time to time, we, the American, are not very realistic. For example, in the higher ed, people are talking about critical thinking without being able to define it or measure it. Let along on how to teach it. There are also people that simply reject the standardized test without bothering to propose objective alternatives. There are also people that taut entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity while forgetting what Edison's idea of a genius.

Let me say this. We need get back to the basics. Build our future from the ground up.

Recovery.Gov website is up

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Main body here

Cracks in the Future

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Summary goes here!

I agree that if the UC Berkeley is let down, it is a cracks in the future. But this is the result of a lot of our past activities.

We as a nation had slipped on our K12 education which lowered the education level of the whole nation. This results in the lower appreciation of education by the general public. We shouldn't consider this event a political event. Suppose all our citizen do appreciated the the contribution of our higher education, the government will have a hard time to lower its contribution to the higher education.

Personally, I don't think there is a quick fix to this problem. It is true that someone or the congress can weight in and backing the very best institution of the nation. But eventually, it's citizen's call where the money goes.

We need to improve the education of the general public first before things can turn around.

The root of our problem, to my opinion, is not the resource but the attitude or the atmosphere of our nation. To me, the most important thing in education is the responsibility.

College for $99 a Month

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I am so delight to read this article. It finally see the lights - the challenge to the accreditation system.

'If you don't do it, it will be done regardless of you.' After seeing the un-willingness of change of the traditional (regional accredited) institution.

For profits have fought this war via various means. University of Phoenix follows the regional accreditation requirement. Others join the National accreditation and fight through legislature to have their credit hours accepted by regional accredited institutions.

I would like to see how regional accreditation agencies reacted to this.

Aggressive Plan for State Data Systems

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I think people are crazy.

1. Do we really need track everything?
2. Do we really need these to do the accountability thing?
3. Do we track each employee in a company in order to shape up the industry?

You can measure everything. But do we have to? What is the reasonable use of resources to achieve what we want to achieve? - Do we really know what we want to achieve? The highest higher education population (percentage wise) ? Well. I am sorry, I don't think that's the most import measure! The QUALITY is not in this measure!

More school: Obama would curtail summer vacation

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Well. There are lots of differences between school systems. But, let's face it, these aren't necessary the most important thing in education. One thing I think we need to start with is asking ourselves what is the real purpose of the education. Once you can answer that, you can then have better directions to determine what is the best way to educate our kids.