Electronic textbooks: set to take over?

What do students think about electronic textbooks?  Will they be the newest format for general use on the college campus now or later?  University Affairs, a Canadian-based website, offers one perspective:

http://www.universityaffairs.ca/electronic-textbooks-set-to-take-over.aspx

Information Literacy in New Jersey Community Colleges

A taskforce of librarians from two and four year institutions have recently developed a set of Information Literacy Progression Standards for use in New Jersey Colleges and Universities.  The skills described relate to finding, evaluating, using and citing information.  The primary focus is on critical thinking working alongside technological proficency.

http://njla.pbworks.com/Progression-Standards-for-Information-Literacy

Recent Research from the Community College Research Center

ESMP committee members will find a number of important issues addressed in current and recently completed research projects of the Community College Research Center hosted at Columbia University.  These include:

• Developmental Education
• Dual Enrollment / Transition to College
• Workforce Development
• Data-Driven Reform / Improving Student Outcomes / Institutional Change / State PolicyChange

The executive summaries and full reports can be accessed throught the following link:

http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/Research.asp

Middle College National Consortium

The MCNC has become a national leader in school reform, bridging the high school to college experience for underserved youth.  Their website contains data resources and a blog.

http://www.mcnc.us/

Community College Enrollment Numbers High Across the Country

The American Association of Community Colleges has released its report about growing enrollment patterns.  See the story from Inside Higher Ed:

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/12/18/enroll

Crossing the Finish Line: Completing College at America's Public Universities

In this sobering new study from Princeton University Press, William G. Bowen, Matthew M. Chingos, Michael S. McPherson examine why less than 60% of the students entering four-year colleges in America today are graduating.

Chapter 7 deals with Transfer Students and the Path from Two-Year to Four-Year Colleges.  The authors note the significant cost savings associated with attending a community college near a student's home, but also say:  "However, starting at a two-year college with hope of later transferring to a four-year college and earning a bachelor's degree can be risky."  They go on to cite research that estimates, "...beginning at a two-year college decreased bachelor's degree attainment rates by approximately 30 percentage points." (page 134)

Chapter 12, Looking Ahead, stresses five principal challenges:

• Overall educational attainment in the U.S. today is too low and stagnant
• U.S. educational system harbors huge disparities in outcomes-especially graduation rates-related to race/ethnicity, gender and socio-economic status
• Need to improve graduation rates, especially for males, from under-represented minorities and lower socio-economic groups
• Time-to-degree matters as well as graduation rates
• Public universities have to be the principal engines of progress to address these challenges (pages 223-225)

To read the full discussion, borrow a copy of Crossing the Finish Line: Completing College at America's Public Universities from the Bankier Library circulating collection with your ID/library card.

http://library.brookdalecc.edu/record=b1121407~S0

A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age

In 2005, Daniel Pink wrote about a paradigm shift for the future.  He predicts that the era of "left-brain" dominance which created the Information Age will give way to a new world of "right-brain" abilities which will determine who will succeed.  He details six essential aptitudes: Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play and Meaning.

For example, in the chapter on Play, Pink speaks to the role of video games as learning tools.  He notes that researchers like John Paul Gee of University of Wisconsin have said, "The fact is when kids play video games they can experience a much more powerful form of learning than when they're in the classroom.  Learning isn't about memorizing isolated facts.  It's about connecting and manipulating them." (page 185)

To read the full discussion, borrow Daniel Pink's book, A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age,  from the Bankier Library circulating collection with your employee ID/library card.

http://library.brookdalecc.edu/record=b1102284~S0

College Dropouts Cite Low Money and High Stress

An article in the New York Times reports on a report just released by the Public Agenda, a nonpartisan research group.  Their research indicates that most people leave college because they have trouble going to school while working to support themselves. (Note: The link provided requires Brookdale Community College affiliated authentication for access from off-campus.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/10/education/10graduate.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=college%20students%20low%20money%20high%20stress&st=cse

To read the full report from Public Agenda:

http://www.publicagenda.org/theirwholelivesaheadofthem

Helping Students Navigate the Path to College: What High Schools Can Do

Published in September 2009, this guide was prepared for the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences by the What Works Clearinghouse, a project of Mathematica Policy Research. It is intended to help schools and districts develop practices to increase access to higher education. It can be useful for individuals who work in schools and districts in planning and executing strategies to improve preparation for, and access to, higher education. A panel of experts in college access programs and strategies and in research methods developed the recommendations in this guide. It contains specific steps on how to implement the recommendations that are targeted at school and district-level administrators, teachers, counselors, and related education staff.

http://ies.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=WWC20094066

Are Community Colleges Underprepared for Underprepared Students?

The Winter 2008 issue of New Directions for Community Colleges is about the provision of education and services for underprepared students.  The ten articles include dicussion abut basic skills, disadvantaged students, student engagement, peer mentoring and more.  The Bankier Library has a copy of this volume in the circulating collection.

http://library.brookdalecc.edu/record=b1119923~S0

The Dawn of the Postliterate Age

An article from the November-December 2009 issue of The Futurist predicts that information technology, cybernetics and artificial intelligence may render written language "functionally obsolete" by 2050.
(Note: The link provided requires Brookdale Community College affiliated authentication for access from off-campus.)

http://0-search.ebscohost.com.library.brookdalecc.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=44523427&site=ehost-live

2020 Forecast: Creating the Future of Learning

Over the next decade, the most vibrant innovations in education will take place outside traditional institutions. The 2020 Forecast: Creating the Future of Learning, created by the KnowledgeWorks Foundation, presents a critical dilemma facing these institutions: how to reconcile bottom-up developments in education with the traditional top-down hierarchy that is currently in place. Such peripheral innovation will redefine how learning is organized, who comprises the broad “school community,” and what the actual experiences of learners will be like in the future. The validity and role of formal institutions of education will be challenged by key forces of change and will be reconsidered by an expanding group of stakeholders. Together, the pressures of change and new stakeholder demands will create a new future for learning.

http://www.futureofed.org/

Community Colleges Under Stress

"Publically funded two-year colleges are facing daunting challenges...with surging enrollments of disadvantaged and unprepared students." is the subtitle & substance of this article of interest:

http://www.issues.org/24.4/zeidenberg.html

Bernadette

Immigration & Instate Tuition

There's a good report on Corzine's "Blue Ribbon Panel on Immigration: the appendix on instate tuition." There's also a chart on p.11 (Table 2) showing comparisons of In and Out-of-State Tuition in NJ's Community College, 07-08. Follow the links below to get the whole report:
http://www.lwvnj.org/.
Click on “Especially for LWV Members” and then to “In-state tuition study.”
Bernadette