Dr Flavius Akerele III's The E Team Education blog

I have worked for “for-profit’ institutions, I have also benefitted from the for-profit education (non-traditional education), so it is safe to say I am not against for-profit education (but I am not a cheerleader). Yes, there are bad apples in the industry, but that is the same in any industry, and yes, there needs to be some improvements made; but we are never supposed to rest on our laurels anyway in education or we start to stagnate. It continues to sadden me whenever I see national politics and politicians injecting themselves negatively into this particular conversation, because I am a firm advocate that all sectors of the education industry should be truly working together to serve students. By the way, many schools out there operate on a ‘for-profit’ model, but just happen to be non-profit. I think we should really be looking at the ‘non-traditional’ education market rather than just for-profit, especially since they serve the same population. The amount of ener...

I thought this would be a good article to share at the beginning of the week: “Take the Shot” “When it comes to selfies, most institutions agree: promote -- don't prohibit.” “Bryant University may have started a mini-trend when it banned selfies at graduation two weeks ago. Several more universities last week introduced similar bans on phone use as students approach the stage, arguing that stopping to snap means dragging out an already hours-long ceremony -- or sullying its significance.” “But unless institutions confiscate all camera-equipped devices, chances are many students will spend at least part of their commencement ceremonies with their arms extended, squeezing as many fellow grads as possible into the frame as they immortalize the day. For many universities, not only is that perfectly acceptable behavior, but it also supports their efforts to engage students with selfies.” “Frostburg State University will for a third year in a row include...

“Military Veterans Bring Value to the Classroom” “Veterans who return and want an education should be helped in any way possible, and that makes sense: It’s good for them, and it offers them greater opportunities in the future, better jobs at better pay with a more sophisticated skill set. But lately I’ve been thinking about how much I appreciate the vets not for what they did in Iraq or Afghanistan or Fort Benning in the past, but for how they enliven my classes right now, day to day. They inject a clarity and immediacy to discussions and debates, and we all profit from their presence. Read the whole thing here: http://chronicle.com/article/Military-Veterans-Bring-Value/146113/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en For those of us who to teach adults, get to know who is in your classroom because it can definitely add value to the course. Dr Flavius A B Akerele III The ETeam 

You must always learn to see the humor in everything, and with today’s climate of “grade grubbing”, I thought this article was worth sharing. “Professor Beaten Over a Bad Grade?” “Police are exploring the possibility that a student angry about a grade could have ordered a "hit" on a Miami Dade College professor, The Miami Herald reported. Marc Magellan, a professor of music and humanities, was beaten in a parking lot on the college's Kendall campus last week by an unknown attacker. Mallegan says the assailant yelled "Professor Marc" before punching him in the face and smashing his head against the ground, leaving him with a broken nose and hand.” “The professor says his assailant's words, along with the fact that none of his personal belongings were taken in the attack, means he was targeted, possibly by a student. "There is nobody I can think of who would have wanted to attack me so brutally unless there was some sort of grudge or...

I am not going to present any data because this is not a research article, and I am not going to take on the various police departments because it is not necessary. What I would like to do is just point out some obvious facts and ask: why? How many of you smile and think ‘owe it’s only the cops” when you see a police car behind you, even if you are doing nothing wrong? I would wager that is an impossibly short list. How many of you welcome the police into your home when they knock on your door? Again, I would say a very short list. How many of you feel safe when the police around? Short list. There seems to be a huge increase in videos depicting police brutality, and a large number of websites dedicated on what to do if you “encounter” the police. Incarceration is up, jobs are down, and it seems the police are increasingly adopting military tactics. How did we come to the point where the people who we appoint to “protect and serve us” instead instill fear...

 “Default by Death” “WASHINGTON -- Some student loan borrowers have reported to federal consumer protection officials that their private lenders automatically placed them in default when their cosigner died or filed for bankruptcy, even when the borrowers were otherwise paying the loan on time.” “The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau highlighted that issue on Wednesday in a report analyzing the more than 2,300 complaints it had received about private student loan companies from the beginning of last October through the end of March. (The volume of complaints was up by more than one-third compared to the same period last year).”   “The issue is that some private student loans contain terms allowing lenders to demand the full outstanding amount of a loan when a borrower’s cosigner -- often a parent or grandparent -- dies or files for bankruptcy protection, according to Rohit Chopra, the CFPB’s student loan ombudsman who authored the report.” “In some cases, Chopr...