It is good to be important, if fiscally insolvent.

Ten most troubled states in the U.S. – Yahoo! Finance.

The same economic pressures that pushed California to the brink of insolvency are wreaking havoc on other states, a new report has found.

And how state officials deal with their fiscal problems could reverberate across the United States, according to the Pew Center on the States’ analysis released Wednesday.

The 10 most troubled states are: Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.

Other states — including Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, New York and Hawaii — were not far behind.

The list is based on several factors, including the loss of state revenue, size of budget gaps, unemployment and foreclosure rates, poor money management practices, and state laws governing the passage of budgets.

These troubles have forced these states — as well as many others — to raise taxes, lay off or furlough state workers and slash services. These actions can slow down the nation’s recovery, especially since these 10 states account for one-third of the country’s population and economic output.

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I am going to begin to explore using various technology in instruction for the adjunct, specifically technology that is available, free and helps in instruction.

I will begin with a nice article about the notion of “Cloud computing” or, computing at a distance.  Give it a read, and then come back.

A trip into the secret, online ‘cloud’ – CNN.com.

I liked the writer’s ability to track down the abstract into a concrete, in this case server farm, thing that allows the reader to understand an often nebulous concept.  Kudos.

I have posted about how plagiarism should be encountered as if college students have their own digital discourse community.  That is, instead of brow-beating them into the “educated class,” an instructor should enable them to navigate various social strata.

It is with this idea in mind that I post the Salon.com’s review of The Lexicographer’s Dilemma (Recommended Books – Salon.com).

I make this link, in part, because the book’s premise is, surprise, much the same as my own–that Grammar Police should be shunned, that language and grammar are fluid and ever-changing, and that neologisms are a sign of a vibrant discourse, not an illegitimate one.

English teachers, tragically, threaten the very thing they hold dear when they surpress, deny or castigate irregularity in favor of conformity.  Instead, they should be encouraging boundless expression, coaching on navigating those situations where it is to the individual’s advantage to conform (no belching in church), and when to know the difference.

[I leave my soapbox now...]

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I stumbled on this show on Hulu, and have just tonight finished the second, and regrettably the last, season.

I highly recommend.

Start with the first episode, stay through the first five (just to meet “Daisy, Daisy Adair”).  Also, watch the last five in sequence.

It will be worth the effort.

InsideHigherEd has, as a paid blogger, John Griswald who writes under the pen name Oronte Churm.  It you want to know more about him, go here.

John Griswald

Yea, I was a bit surprised, but then again the general topic of adjuncting brings with it pretty volatile reactions.  Just check out my post today:

I see this posting as a ink-blot test, which I pretty much glided the path of the comments–indignant, wondering of tone, looking up the author in the link, not remembering the Henry James character (but not really liking Henry James, so not worrying too much about it), then doing some literary interpretation of my own, and finally realizing that while movement from realization (adjuncts in my department) to lots of people work in outsourced jobs as opposed to the “careers” they may want to have (copy center people especially, but not so much Wal-mart employees…they seem to be, at least around here, of a more drop-out, can’t find much else, type). I was good so far. Then the Whitmanesque finish turned me back to indignant.

• America, I saw at a glance, was full of people on the fringes of self-determination; the world tilted heavily toward winter with its load of adjunct people only making do; but the rankings looked good, the rankings looked very good.

  I don’t really think that adjuncts, which is where the piece started, are on the fringes of self-determination. They seem more of barred from self-determination (if tenure-track equals self-empowerment, which I have issues with as well). Sure, lots of people are working jobs to make do, but how is that thwarting self-determination. Is it through some lack of will, effort, or gumption that keeps me from the halls of academia, exiled to the hinterlands? Not really. It is the economic models of the instituations, my own decisions to pursue a degree I thought would result in different choices for myself, and a host of other factors that have nothing to do with my self-determination.

  So, in the end, I chalk this post, and the reactions from it (and I know of the reactions to posting at IHE) to the importance of word choice.

  I would write the piece, if asked, thusly::

America, I saw at a glance, was full of people on the fringes; the world tilted heavily toward winter with its load of adjunct people only making do, of which, alas, I was one; but the rankings looked good. The rankings looked very good.

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Even with rising adjunct rates, I think that the current job market is tougher than it has been in a long, long time.

I have been trying to pick up a course or two online to supplement, and I have struck out the last 6 months.

Is it me or has the market, even with Obama stimulus money, shrunk so?

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I have had three articles published by InsideHigherEd.  Thank you.  Yes.  I am still dealing with that fall-out (sell out?).

My first two got relatively benign responses–pointing out a typo here, wondering about an idea there, but neither got the flames that today’s post has received.  It seems, in describing how to off-load some of the admin work, that I have sounded the faults of a few of our fellow faculty.  To wit, I was called unethical (for what I have no idea—since when is paying one’s mortgage unethical), unprofessional (again, how?) and a plagiarist (that person has been to this site before…but didn’t actually understand what one means by the use of the term).

So, if you want to see a flame war (which I unfortunately may have slipped up and helped out with my own water-balloon of gasoline), go here.

What do you think?

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I posted the following as a comment to David Moltz’s InsideHigherEd article “Aligning Jobs and Training”:

If a lifetime of adjuncting positions wasn’t bad enough, the job forecast for the next 8 years seems to be worse.  Instead of just teaching the low-end courses that tenured faculty no longer want, the English adjunct can also help out the struggling nursing student  (how is not made clear–etymology?) get a two-year degree.

At the risk of being cast out of acceptable society, I have to say that Obama, on this, is shortsighted and wrong.  By middling, pandering to the job sector, he is asking higher education to limit its mission.  When has the limitation of the exploration of ideas into what is marketable ever benefited anyone?

Put away the Shakespeare and Romantic Poets, our kids need to learn advanced PowerPoint and how to sort their Excel spreadsheets.  Or, they need to know how to properly take the dictation of the really educated Doctor class.

By the sound of this article, the administration wants more workers, less thinkers, and expects a lot less of its citizens.

I would also add that Training and Education are two completely different animals, and should not be confused.  Businesses train, universities educate.

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One of my readers asked the following:

Can I ask your advice?  I am a full-time working mom, but all I really want to do is stay at home with my baby (and future children).  I am working on my MBA now and have 7 years corporate experience in Business, Finance and Accounting, but no real teaching experience.

I am thinking of taking a year off to go to school full-time (online) and finish my MBA.  After that, do you think: (1)anyone will hire me with just an MBA and no teaching experience and (2) that I’ll be able to make $1000-$1500 (net) a month?

Obviously I don’t expect to replace my corporate salary by teaching online, but I just need to make enough to cover some of our household expenses and have a little extra spending money.

In my head, this sounds like the perfect plan for me, but after reading some of your posts I’m beginning to think teaching online is not all that wonderful as I think it is.

I will state up front that my experience with Business Colleges has stayed mainly in Business and Technical Writing courses.  I have not taught/taken business courses myself, so my advice will stay more generic than you may like.

First, what specific (make a list of 5) courses will you want to teach?  Are those courses actually taught online?

I would love to teach American Literature.  I have not, though, been able to nearly enough in my career.  Why?  Because English Departments get the bulk of their traffic not in Am Lit, but in Composition (which is usually a Core Requirement).  So, I have taught a lot of Composition courses over the years.

Find out your version of a Comp. course.    You may also begin researching colleges that teach these courses.  I would, without knowing a lot about your desires/goals, recommend the University of Phoenix or a similar school that focuses on the evening/weekend full-time worker who is taking courses part-time.  The U of P especially  prides itself on employing “working practitioners” who bring in business experience.  Your history, with them, may serve you well.

In any case, emphasize your experience, willing to be flexible with time (logging in requirements, etc.), and eagerness.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes.

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About three weeks ago Scott Jaschik contacted me about writing a piece for InsideHigher Ed.  I wondered if he had read any of my more recent postings.

The linked article is my first submission to be published in quite a while.  It feels good.  I think I said some accurate (if not a little depressing) things.

What do you think?

I will be working my way through the comments over the next little bit.