150th Anniversary of Phi
Beta Kappa At Gamma of Massachusetts (Williams College)
On Wednesday, March 18th 2015 we celebrated the 150th
anniversary of Phi Beta Kappa at Williams College with a day of talks and
discussions related to the role of liberal arts in learning and the directions
education is moving. Below is the schedule of events and links to the talks and
slides; for additional details
email the Faculty Chapter President, Steven Miller
(sjm1@williams.edu). Outside visitors
included the national PBK president (Kate Soule) and secretary (John Churchill), the president of the PBK
Association of New York (Jacques Ohayon), our visiting scholar
(William Arms of Cornell), Ellen Hurwitz (former president of multiple
institutions and a senior consultant at Stevens Strategy), and (fittingly
remotely) Kathy Pugh, Vice President of Education Services at EdX. We gratefully
acknowledge support from the national office and Williams College (especially
the Sterling Fund and Dining Services).
Click here for a report on the day.
- 8:30am - 9:30am: Williams Inn: Breakfast with our distinguished
visitors.
- 10am - 10:50am: Lawrence 231: Joint lecture for Steven
Miller's Math/Stat 341 Probability class and Brent Yorgey's CS 136 Data
Structures & Advanced Programming class.
- William Arms:
The Early Years of Academic Computing:
http://youtu.be/JoGFR4cDRu0
- Abstract: The past fifty years have seen computing move from a fringe
activity in universities to a central part of academic life. Today's
university students never knew a world without personal computers, networks,
email, and the web. Nowadays, the computers and software that we use in
universities are commercial products, but this was not always the case.
When the computer industry failed to meet our needs, we took the
initiative. For thirty years academic computing diverged from the
mainstream. We built our own state-of-the-art systems and ran them
successfully. Universities led the development of timesharing and local
area (campus) networks. The distributed computing, email, national
networks, and the web that everybody uses today are direct descendants of
systems that universities and scientific
researchers built for themselves. As
a student, faculty member, and administrator, I lived through many of these
developments and for seventeen years I was in charge of computing at two of
the leading universities, Dartmouth College and Carnegie Mellon. This talk
tells the story.
- 12:00pm - 1:30pm: Faculty
House Lounge: Lunch Discussion (\open to all). Professor Arms gave a short talk, which
led to an open
discussion.
- Title: Experiments in Higher
Education (William Arms)
- Abstract:
At its best, American higher education is
superb, but the price is high and full time residential education does not
suit everybody. Does modern technology enable us to do better? This
question is not new. Forty years ago, the first attempts at distance
education used television. Twenty years ago, universities hoped that
personal computers would inspire educational breakthroughs. During the
dot.com boom, universities created web start-up companies. Today, every
university has an initiative to support innovation and the National Science
Foundation is one of several organizations with well-funded research
programs in educational technology. Despite these investments, the overall
impact on universities has been disappointing. There have been isolated
successes, but hyperbole and enthusiasm have repeatedly run ahead of actual
achievements. Recently, we have seen signs that times are changing. One
sign is financial. Our universities are becoming unaffordable and people
are increasingly looking for alternatives. Another sign is that web-based
courses are being offered by a variety of organizations. Some are of
dubious academic merit, but some are excellent. We are slowly learning what
works in our culture. Recently we have seen the introduction of massive
open online courses (MOOCs), with some impressive features. Nowadays, the
technical barriers are few. Students and faculty have good computers and
networks, and are skilled in their use.
Some time in the
future these threads are going to come together and we will see high-quality
degree programs based on educational technology, but first we have to
overcome the social and organizational barriers to change.
- 4:00pm - 7:30pm: Griffin
4: Main Talks, Reception and Dinner: Open to the Entire Community.
- 4pm - 4:15pm: Snacks and
socializing
- 4:15pm: Introductory remarks by
Kate Soule, PBK President
- 4:20pm - 5:05pm: talk and
moderated discussion by John Churchill, PBK Secretary, on
Phi Beta Kappa's
National Arts & Sciences Initiative
- 5:10pm - 5:30pm: Skype talk by
Kathy Pugh, Vice President of Education Services,
edX.
- 5:40pm - 5:50pm: Learning after
college: programs at the NY PBK Association (Jacques Ohayon, President)
- 5:50pm - 6:00pm: YouTube
University: The Benefits of Recording Lectures (Steven Miller, Williams PBK
Chapter President)
- 6:00pm - 6:30pm: Pizza dinner
and free discussion in Griffin 4
- 6:30pm - 7:30pm: Academic
Libraries in the Digital Age (William Arms, PBK Visiting Scholar)
- Video:
http://youtu.be/DACDEtGYzkc Slides:
- Abstract: The role of
a university library used to be well understood. A library was a
collection of physical items that were organized to support academic
life. Great universities needed great libraries. Technology was used to
manage the collections and provide access to them, but it was a servant to
the traditional ways of doing things. Twenty five years ago, tentatively
at first and then at an ever-increasing rate, digital materials became
substitutes for physical collections. Open access materials became
alternatives to conventional publications. Computer science introduced
techniques such as automated indexing, natural language processing, and
machine learning. These innovations have challenged the traditional view
of libraries and librarianship.
Currently we
are in a transitional period in which the traditional and modern
approaches have an uncomfortable coexistence. Long term trends are masked
by problems of academic prestige, copyright, plagiarism, and financial
greed. This talk describes the present situation and discusses some of
the trends. I have my own opinion about where these trends are leading,
but the aim is to analyze the issues without introducing too much personal
bias.
- 7:30pm - 8:00pm: Dessert and
free discussion in Griffin 4
Useful links:
Click here for the Phi Beta
Kappa national homepage,
click here for a book on PBK at Williams, or
click here for a report on the day.