WALDEN UNIVERSITY • PHI DELTA KAPPA
• CYBERSPACE CHAPTER Newsletter • October 2000
WALDEN UNIVERSITY • PHI DELTA KAPPA
• CYBERSPACE CHAPTER
OFFICERS
President: Charles J. Smith, Sr., Ph.D. (csmith2@waldenu.edu)
VP Membership: Dr. Sandi B. Gardner (SBGARDNER@aol.com)
VP Programs: Gay Wiseman (gwiseman@mindspring.com)
Treasurer: Dr. Arthur Ogden (aogden@ussa.edu)
Secretary: Dr. Dorothy L. Hicks (dlhicks@feist.com)
Foundation Rep. & Delegate: Joyce Griffith Butler (Griffbutler@concordnc.com)
VP Research & Listserv Manager: Philip J. Rossomando (rossomandop@acm.org)
News Letter Editor: Dr. Theran Mugleston (tmuglest@waldenu.edu)
Advisor: Dr. Marilyn Simon (msimon@waldenu.edu)
Advisor: Andre Elliott (aelliott@waldenu.edu)
Advisor: Marion Carpenter (flwrldy@ipa.net)
To reach officers email: offpdk@waldenu.edu
RECENT EVENTS
An Officers Meeting was held September 13-16, 2000.
A Business Meeting was held September 20-24, 2000
A Chapter Program commenced September 24, 2000-—Topic: Brain Based Learning,
Facilitated by: Dr. Doris Sweeny.
OTHER EVENTS/TOPICS
ABOUT YOUR CHAPTER OFFICERS
As a continuing feature of the news-letter, the following gives you some personal
insight to the officers of your chapter.
Phil Rossomomando, VP-Research and Listserv Manager
I currently work for Unisys a Systems Architect in the area of e-business. I have a masters degree from the University of Chicago in Information Science and a BS in Mathematics from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn N.Y. I have thought computer languages and Object Oriented software development for GE, IBM and Unisys. My love is education and Learning Theory particularly reflective practice in a distance learning context. I worked in the area of Artificial Intelligence at GE for ten years. My goal is to teach at a university and if I intend to find a job as a professor in some small university with students eager to learn.Marilyn Simons, Advisor
I am the current academic chair of the University of Phoenix online Graduate Business School. In addition I teach f2f at Webster University Graduate school, online at Baker College, Upper Iowa University, and Walden Institute. I also teach seminars for teachers at the University of California San Diego and Riverside as well as Cal State Fullerton, Dominguez Hills and Los Angeles.Andre Elliott, Past President and current Advisor
I am a proud life member of Phi Delta Kappa International. I became a life member just over ten years ago. In a rare opportune moment, I took advantage of a life membership offering during my first year of membership. A high school assistant principal in a Department of Defense School on Okinawa, Japan asked me to join. I would like our members in Walden PDK to do the same. In other words, seek educators who love what they do. Seek educators who live and breathe research, service, and leadership. I have served as research representative and treasurer in the Tokyo, Japan chapter. I accepted the challenge develop the first cyberspace PDK chapter because the timing was auspicious. Now the chapter is poised to be exemplary as a Phi Delta Kappa phenomenon. I have faith in the present officers, members and university leadership who together will ensure that Walden PDK will be a gift that we give our communities and ourselves. I am married with two little boys, Takao and Ryo. I have been teaching music at Yokota West elementary for the past two years. Please email me if you are ever in Tokyo.
FEATURED TOPIC
The following is part of the continuing discussion we
in the Walden Chapter News Letter have as related to educational issues:
Question/Issue:
I recently completed reading "Outline of History" by Wells. In his
concluding remarks, and the book was published in 1914 I believe, he talked
about the weaknesses of the educational system. He pointed out some things that
he felt needed to improve the educational system, which sound quite familiar
to our present day doomsdayers. My question to you is: Has the perception of
the educational system changed much through the years, premised on the increased
attention, content, and improvement that has taken place through the years (corollary,
has the educational system improved/become better thereby creating a better
perception)? Has my perception of education changed? It has from the time I
was in elementary school and thought the teachers knew everything, to the time
I was in High School and thought they knew nothing, to the time I was in College
and thought they knew everything, to the time I taught College and know I don't
know everything.
The system has changed as my daughter has moved through the system. In the first Catholic School her teachers were very dedicated and had been teaching for a long time and it was a vocation. In her second Catholic school, the teachers were all new and overwhelmed, it was something to keep them busy until they got a job with a real school, it was a pass time. With her new school, which is a public school, they are new and old and yet all very dedicated teachers.
Education is different depending on where your looking at it from. Administration
sees different problems and potentials from teachers who see differently than
the parents or the students. Sandi GardnerInteresting question, as always...and
especially timely since it appears to be a principal point of debate within
the presidential election (assuming, of course, that the debates take place!!!).
In any case, the answer, as in so many other areas, depends upon your point
of view. The problem with asking if education is getting any better is that
there is no consistent standard or set of requirements against which to measure
it. In 1914, for example, a one room school house with 12 grades being taught
by the same teacher, was for all intents and purposes an appropriate process.
Why? Because, America was an agrarian economy with a smidgen of industrialization
thrown in. The basics (3 Rs) were sufficient to do anything that a farm economy
required. From that perspective, armed with a great deal of hind sight, the
educational system was great: virtual total literacy at a basic level. Today
things are very complex. We are in a paradigm shift from an industrial to a
post industrial to an information based economy. The list of skills required
to deal with all of these mixed and blended paradigms is daunting. Combine that
with the desire of society to place educators in the role of social architects,
with the responsibility to teach ethics, responsible sexual conduct, drug avoidance,
etc., and you have a prescription for a great deal of frustration. So, within
the context of your question, it is easy to say that education today is worse
than in 1914, because education today is less likely to meet the expectations
that have been placed upon it. The real answer, though, is that society must
first decide what it wants from education in an absolute sense, before it can
judge how well the process is doing. I don't think that there is any question
that schools do a much worse job teaching basics than in 1914, but then does
society really value basics any more?
Anyone interested in submitting an article for publication in the News Letter should send it to: tmuglest@waldenu.edu.