Proposal

GE004: Water: Floods and Droughts; Landslides and Wildfires(Extremes of Water Excess and Deficiency).

A Request for Funds to Implement the CourseSubmitted by Jack Hermance

Synopsis of Course: Water, the ultimate source of life, is often mankind's greatest killer during the cataclysms of tsunamis, mudslides, killer storms, droughts and wildfires. This course provides a common forum for science and humanities students to collaboratively analyze the physical processes and consequences of the distribution and movement of water throughout the environment. No prerequisites. No exams. 

Overview of General Educational Objectives

Science in a Liberal Education. The course content is being developed with the broad objectives of a liberal education as defined at a modern university/college such as Brown – namely, to present students with a structured opportunity to assimilate concepts from topical areas of current and historical significance, while nurturing self-actualization, critical analysis and the ability to communicate ideas based on rational concepts. In addition, we recognize the need to address national concerns with bridging communication among the sciences and the humanities; politics and technology. Spontaneous class participation and peer group discussions, facilitated by state-of-the-art electronic mediated instruction, are key components in facilitating learning, peer group interactions and assessment.

Water as an Agent in Global Affairs. This course provides a common forum for students in the sciences and humanities to collaboratively analyze the local, regional, and global impacts of water surplus and deficiency; the yin and yang of floods and droughts. Water, comprised of the two most common elements in nature, has some of the most anomalous properties of any chemical compound, man-made or natural, causing water to be a principal agent in a broad spectrum of natural processes, from wildfires to landslides, even earthquakes. Our educational strategy will be to first understand the physical processes associated with water in the environment, and how the fundamental properties of water mitigate against some natural disasters, while “fueling” others. What is the global scale tele-connection between El Niños in the central Pacific to drought and wildfires in Arizona and Texas, and floods in California? How can the Mississippi have two 100 year flood events within a decade of each other? In short, we want to assess the causes of water-related catastrophes and their impact on peoples from a variety of cultures, and to debate, from the points of view of the technologist and the humanist, the prospects for the national and international community to predict and mitigate water-driven disasters. To do so, students will engage in a semester-long, interactive dialogue on issues, solutions and consequences, while drawing on an evolving understanding of how water, due to its unique character and interaction with solar radiation and the earth’s gravity, transports energy and mass throughout the environment – oftentimes the benefactor, occasionally the adversary, of mankind.

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Specific Pedagogical Objectives:

1) To better understand fundamental physical processes which drive the major natural systems affecting the distribution of water on our planet. How do these processes affect humanity, and how can humanity better adjust itself to accommodate our environment? To discriminate between those events where nature has gone awry and the public is suddenly an unexpected victim of a catastrophic drama on a far greater stage, and those events where the public has knowingly (or unknowingly) placed itself in harm's way and is the victim of a process which was totally predictable.

2) To bring together science and humanities students in a common forum to exchange ideas, attitudes and perceptions. This is not a science course for non-scientists! Rather it is a course for scientists and humanists. It is a course in which students in the physical, biological and social sciences can explore together with humanists – students of philosophy, language, fine arts and history – the uniqueness, as well as the commonality, of their respective patterns of inquiry, abstract reasoning and critical analysis.

3) To foster a deeper appreciation of global geography in understanding the interaction of cultures with large-scale natural phenomena. To develop a sense of similarities and contrasts in how various cultures react to their natural environment, and how the natural environment and geography modify local and regional cultures.

4) To develop an understanding of the ways in which numerical data are handled and quantitative analyses evolve. An important component of these studies is the concept of model-building in which highly complex situations are reduced to one or several fundamental attributes which largely determine the character of the entire system to the level of accuracy required in a specific application, or to prompt a specific decision.

5) To promote literacy in science and in the English language through critical reading, analysis, speaking and writing. A notable element of our pedagogy in this regard is cultivating frequent oral and written exchanges among students in lectures and in small peer group discussions. A number of the written exchanges will undergo peer review and, following their critique, will be revised for further analysis and discussion.

Intended largely for freshman and sophomores in the humanities and sciences. One’s grade is based on individual initiative, participation in class and peer group discussions, problem sets, essays, oral reports, and research papers. No formal exams. Individual initiative is profusely awarded. No prerequisites.

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Details on Requested Resources

At present, only limited resources are available, and the course, if offered, would need to be limited to 20 students. There is every reason to believe that a much broader interest will emerge, and the course could potentially be offered as open enrollment, providing available resources to do so would be available on a sliding scale. A budget is included below, to allow for this exigency.

The proposed course falls under the rubric of an extra-departmental offering, since it is not required, nor considered a prerequisite for any course in the instructor’s department. It is specifically designed to be included in the group of Liberal Learning Courses under Brown’s framework for general education courses. As such, if funded, it will emphasize the synthesis rather than survey; and focus on the methods, concepts, and values used in understanding a particular topic, theme, or issue. As a Liberal Learning Course it will entail extensive student participation through discussion groups and oral reports, along with (ideally) a number of focussed written essays, theme papers and project reports. Due to the disproportionate impact of water-related phenomena whether floods, droughts, wildfires or landslides on other cultures of the world, this course will necessarily have a significant multi-cultural and diversity-related intellectual component.

The Proposed Project

The following describes preliminary details on synchronously and asynchronously honing students’ communication skills with electronic mediated instruction, such as the use of personal response systems in-class, and maintaining personal web pages out-of-class.

Preface: The key elements of the following proposal are described in the next three pages of this document, with the Budget on page 5. Two Appendices are attached for those who would like more background. For those desiring even more detail, you are directed to the general web site for the Instructor: http://www.geo.brown.edu/research/Hydrology/

and the temporary web site containing the Syllabus and other developmental materials:

http://www.geo.brown.edu/research/Hydrology/ge04_Floods_and_Droughts/ge04_Syllabus_Draft_2005c.htm

Overview: This project deals with the evolving design and implementation of the following course, along with enhancing the material through the development of interactive media. For the latter, we employ many of the concepts of Universal Instructional Design (UID) a pedagogical strategy which recognizes that people learn and process material in a variety of ways, of which the standard lecture format is only one. Electronic media is one alternative; peer group discussions involving small numbers of students (20 or less) is another; particularly when the discussions are allowed to range over a variety of themes in the humanities, social sciences, economics and sciences. The venue implementing this approach will be a new course, recently (2005) approved by the Department and the University CCC, and described in the indicated link to the syllabus. For details, see the temporary development web site at the address in the

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Preface, above. For examples of some types of media that will be expanded upon, see the links for the Instructor's GE0158 and GE0160 at

http://www.geo.brown.edu/research/Hydrology/

Instructors are increasingly aware that some students learn best in synchrony with the class, others learn best asynchronously by going back over material at their own rate. Some students are visual, others aural. Electronic-mediated instruction provides a natural mechanism for meeting these needs. This project involves developing cutting-edge instructional material for classroom interactions (through personal response systems (PRS’s)) and web applications to be used on widely accessible, and what should be expected to be relatively low tech computing platforms. Content will derive from environmental physics, hydrology and related environmental areas such as processes of streamflow, floods, droughts, landslides, wildfires, groundwater, contaminant migration, etc. If resources are available – namely TA’s – topical areas can be expanded to include the literature and/or history impacted by water themes.

The challenge in lecture is to present often obtuse concepts seamlessly in an intuitive way using a number of simultaneous or sequential modes. The products involve a variety of animations, as well as “stills”; use of Director, Flash, Fireworks and Dreamweaver environments; voice-overs; video and sound bytes (creation and integration into on-line and off-line web pages), etc. The instructional environment will be synchronous through class discussions and class-wide use of personal response systems; and asynchronous through the use of chat pages, student-developed web pages, various interactive media, and off-line archives whereby selective high-density (100 MBytes and more) information-content applications may be distributed on CD-ROMs.

In addition to the specific interactive products to be developed through this proposal, I am also soliciting resources to enhance and enrich the particular pedagogy that I previously implemented more than a decade ago through funds from University Hall and the Department of Geological Sciences when I introduced GE0061 a course specifically proposed to develop critical analysis and communication skills among Brown students through nurturing effective writing and speaking in peer group discussions and mentoring. In keeping with these same objectives, a new component of the instructional paradigm for the proposed GE004 is to use PRS’s, web pages and other electronic media developed by students as fundamental vehicles of communication among class members. Students with absolutely no background in computing can do this in a primitive fashion (using only Microsoft Word) after only a few minutes orientation, providing someone can upload the material as a linked page. After several hours of hands-on exposure, students can be creating graphical web pages in Dreamweaver. Thus, rather than having oral and written reports and critiques dutifully graded, corrected and filed away and lost, all this material can be readily placed on the web, and peer-reviewed in real-time, by the entire class.

Resources permitting, the focus of developing the electronic media will be a public accessible web site with the provisional title: Citizens’ Water Information Web Site, that will be maintained by class members from all disciplines, and have links to a multitude of other sites world-wide. In many cases, students will be encouraged to communicate with web-masters at not only state and federal web sites in this country, but at sites from Great Britain to the South

1 See Appendix 2: Historical Perspective on a Precursor (GE006) to the Presently Proposed Course.

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Pacific. However, the idea is not just to link to the sites of others (that is, in a sense, to provide a hyper-text version of a “library bibliography” that would be openly available to the entire Brown Community). In addition, the students will actively contribute to the world-wide information base by providing material ranging from research reports to critical reviews of the literature dealing with water. These “articles” will be jointly authored by humanists, economists, social scientists, engineers, and physical, chemical and biological scientists, supplementing the bibliographic library concept by providing an interactive virtual research center. A number of alumni, who have taken my upper level environmental geophysics and hydrology courses, have agreed to serve as mentors to current Brown students.

Implementation Plan

Accessing University Services: This project will require that the instructor becomes technically proficient in several areas of electronic media design with which he is currently unfamiliar. My most productive experience in this regard is working one-on-one with ultra-high-tech mentors from CIS in one and two hour blocks for cumulative times of 6 to 8 hours over the course of a week or so. (The reviewer might discuss with Stephanie Birdsall of CIS as to how well this has worked with “expert” advisors like Bill Dennen, among others, for example.) Dealing with specific technical matters (such as designing interactive Flash movies) in a one-on-one format is one in which I am most comfortable, and make great progress. The Scholarly Technology Group has offered to fill in some of my needs regarding video development. While the student electronic media technician will manage the production of web-based and off-line electronic media (scanning slides, Power-Points, CD-ROM archives, videos, etc.), I do not plan on delegating any of the high-end development to people other than myself – I do not want to lose the capability to manage and update the content when my assistant “moves-on”. I've had too many technical people work for me over the years who take the knowledge with them when they go on to other things. I don't expect to do everything, but I do expect to understand how everything is done – although in some cases, after it's done by someone else. In collaboration with the University and my Private Sector activities, in 2004-2005 we purchased up to $6,000 in new computer hardware, upgrades and software. I've spent the last few semesters learning the basics of Brown-supported web-authoring tools, and collaborated with several outstanding undergraduates. By way of this proposal, I am requesting the services of one (1) talented undergraduate student to assist with the task(s) described below. I would anticipate that the student, if an experienced designer of electronic media, would expect a salary of $12 to $15/hour. A full-time, 35 hr/week, student would cost $4,200 for 8 weeks at $15/hr. In a previous mini-grant along these same lines, Dean Robert Shaw suggested that I needed to pay a candidate at this rate to get someone who could do the job. I am requesting the high end of this range with the understanding if I engage a student at the lower end, the balance of any remaining funds will be used for supplies and software for the course.

Requirements of the Candidate for Student IT Assistant: The successful candidate will have some, but perhaps not all, of the following skills. A thorough working knowledge of Flash, Fireworks and Dreamweaver, with a basic working knowledge of HTML. Experience in acquiring, editing and integrating video and audio content. Demonstrable skills in computer graphics (e.g. CorelDraw, Canvas, Freehand or others) and image processing (e.g. PhotoShop or Corel Photo-Paint, etc.). Exposure to mathematics through Math 10 or equivalent, and

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introductory physics or engineering. Advanced placement in these latter areas (e.g., AP courses in high school) might qualify. A background in numerical modeling or implementing computational algorithms would be advantageous, but not essential for the candidate qualified in other areas. Excellent "people-skills", with a demonstrable sensitivity to the variety in which various people learn and process material, with an ability to creatively address these learning areas. The candidate for this position should be aware that some of the activities may be tedious to develop, but are essential to the instructional paradigm.

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Planning Budget: 2006-07(Estimated Costs to enable course to be offered

as open enrollment)

Comments

Assumptions: The proposed costs are predicated on and driven by the pedagogy and over-arching theme of the course described elsewhere. While I developed and routinely taught a course having a similar pedagogy to this in the past to more than 100 students, A course (GE06 "Natural Catastrophes") with pedagogical underpinnings similar to the current proposal was developed and offered under foundation grants to the University in the late 1980's early 1990's. It expanded from 80 students initially to over 125 students from all disciplines. Thus, this course is being proposed in a format that can be expanded or contracted depending on student enrollment and on available resources that impact permitted enrollment.

Personnel Cost($)

Instructor’s Stipend: 2 calendar months (?? appropriate ??) TBD2

Graduate TA(s). 1 grad TA per 40 students. TBD

Undergraduate Electronic Media/Web Designer3

($15/hour full-time 8 weeks during summer, 2005; 35 hr/week) $4,200(Academic year: Approximately 55 hrs total) $800

Summer Prep Undergraduate RA/TA(s): Two (2) requested for summer to research and prepare new material. (2 @ 35 hr/week @ $10/hr; 8 weeks) $5,600

Undergraduate RA/TA(s) Peer Mentors. For peer mentoring and leading weekly small group discussions. 1 per 20 students during academic term.(10 hr/week @ $10/hr; 15 weeks) $1,500

Rose Writing/Rhetoric Fellow(s): One Writing Fellow per 20 students; One Rhetoric Fellow per 40 students. TBD

Student Technology Assistant(s): To assist with routine maintenance of course website, digitizing materials, PowerPoint, animations, etc. The STA program is run by the Instructional Technology Group at CIS (see Giovi Roz, CIS Instructional Projects Specialist). Ideally, one (1) STA for each study group of 20 students. These would meet by appointment with individual students on a weekly project basis. Expected time commitment: 10 hours/week/STA. TBD

2 TBD: To Be Determined (or negotiated among University and Department administrators.)3

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Materials and Supplies

Personal Response Systems ($50/student. (Range: $30-50, paid for by student?) TBDCentral receiving system (infrared or radio?)

Texts, graphics, CD's, DVD's, tapes (such as from the Weather Channel, etc.) $250Expendables for class demonstrations and student projects.

(Examples: Glassware, aquariums, tubing, hoses, scales, sieves, etc.) $500

Computer software for editing videos and audio selections. $1200

Some examples: Upgrading Macromedia HTML design applications. Other examples, include Pinnacle 9 PC-based editing software & Studio MovieBox Deluxe using USB 2.0 ports to connect a PC directly to a variety of digital or analog video sources: camcorder, VCR, web cam, or conventional or cable TV. ($188.00 + shipping)

Awave Audio (dedicated 32 bit audio file format batch converter) v9.2 ($49:95 + shipping))

Corel DRAW 12 Graphics Suite ($190 + shipping)

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References on Electronic Mediated Instruction, Personal Response Systems and Wireless Feedback Devices :

http://www.academicsenate.cc.ca.us/Publications/Papers/tech_mediated_instruction.html

http://www.utoronto.ca/atrc/rd/library/papers/elecampus.html

http://ifets.ieee.org/periodical/vol_2_2001/discuss_summary_jan2001.html

http://www.curriculum.cc.ca.us/Curriculum/GoodPract/tech_mediated_instruction.htm

http://www2.nau.edu/~d-elearn/events/index.php (conferences on electronic "clickers" etc..)

http://www.umw.edu/facultyacademy/schedule/default.php

http://www.oid.ucla.edu/units/tec/tectutorials/prstutorials/prsreview

http://www.carroll.edu/~kcline/Classroom-Voting-in-Calculus.htm (good links w/ references)

http://www.gtcocalcomp.com/news101805.htm

Personal Response Systems (PRSs), better known as electronic "clickers".

http://www.ablongman.com/prs/resources.html (Pearson Publishing partner.)

http://www.peterli.com/archive/cpm/1008.shtm

http://www.campus-technology.com/article.asp?id=11756 (wireless feedback devices )

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Appendix 1. The Underpinning Rationale for the Course:Why offer the course, and how to teach it4.

A principal commitment by academia should be to enabling the broadest segment of our society to make well-informed, carefully thought-out decisions. This begins, of course, with the education of Brown students, but also carries over in my case to working with the private sector and in advising the general public on environmental issues, such as a citizens’ group in a local community attempting to protect a pristine water supply from encroaching pollution by a major energy company.

As described in the Syllabus, this course provides a common forum for students in the sciences, humanities, social sciences and economics, to collaboratively analyze the physical processes associated with both the beneficial and the catastrophic aspects of water in the environment, and then to use this knowledge – the how, why and what if – of water’s behavior, as an integral factor in developing, critically assessing and communicating operational plans of action.

After being involved in basic research for a decade and a half in the 1970’s and 80’s with natural hazard assessment and mitigation, and for the last decade and a half as a private sector consultant on various environmental issues, including water resources, I have become increasingly aware of the fact that political decisions often involve significantly more than the resolution of conflicting social or cultural values. Many issues involve fundamental technical underpinnings – considerations that are often not appreciated by the very people responsible for the ultimate decision.

Consider, for example, the case where the Selectmen of a local town are eager for a new industry – the Company – to come on-board, construct a new plant, and shoulder a significant portion of the tax burden from new schools for a growing suburban population.

Case closed?

Almost, … at least until a consultant engaged by a local citizens’ group confirms what many townsfolk already felt in their bellies: that this very industry, along with its polluting by-products, is to be located on the undeveloped land underlain by one of the state’s most pristine and productive groundwater aquifers; and a major source of drinking water for the town. Lower taxes for the community? Maybe. But not after the town accounts for the inestimable cost of remediating the potential pollution of their principal water supply and the concomitant deflation of the tax base from devalued homes.

Approval of the Company’s plan is sought before a standing-room only town meeting chaired by the State’s Facilities Siting Board. A straight-forward, factual presentation is made by the people’s consultant. The Company’s proposal is defeated; and the consultant is applauded and patted on the back as the six “men-in-dark-suits”, the lawyers and developers from the Company,

4 Considerable more detail on the present design of the course (still in flux, depending on funding and student numbers) is contained on the web site: www:

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close their briefcases and skulk back to the home office. But, I submit that it is not the consultant who is the hero; he/she simply confirmed what many in the town already knew, but lacked the confidence to raise the question, let alone to brace the “experts” from the home office. The people are the heroes; those who took the time to listen and learn the facts; then to press home the key technical questions. And therein lies the raison d’etre for this course. Let us empower the public – in this case the “public” is the microcosm of the Brown student body – with the confidence to step forward, to draw on their “gut feelings”, and to ask “the question”. The venue I propose involves a discussion on water issues; but having seen how this works in this venue, each student will more fully appreciate how these lessons translate to be applied across life’s challenges.

The key pedagogical element in this course is the discussion group as implemented in the following scenario. The format of the course will be a triad of three (MWF) meetings. Each week will begin (Monday) with a lecture presenting an overview of the technical physical, chemical and hydrological foundations of a water-related topic – for example, the global interactions of atmospheric circulation, El Nino, droughts and flooding. At the end of the lecture, students are assigned a brief, not-too-burdensome set of technical questions to answer before the next meeting. On Wednesday, a second lecture will present selected scenarios from the current media5, historical sources, or relevant fiction or motion picture on the particular “topic-of-the-week” (such as Percival Everett’s novel “Watershed”, Jack Nicolson in “Chinatown”, or James Woods and Nick Nolte in “North Fork”). During this period, several students (who have so arranged, prepared and demonstrated beforehand) might present brief 5 minute (or longer if pre-arranged) topic-related snippets – brief visual or sound bytes. The principal objectives of this session are two-fold. First to motivate the overall class with ideas to run down on their own; and, second, to set the standard as to what a good presentation entails.

The meeting on Day Three (Friday) of the week will consist of a round table discussion. building on the quantitative and qualitative material developed on Days One and Two, but adding what new material the students have developed from the media and their reading. If the total class enrollment is 20 members or less, this final meeting will take place during regular lecture hour. If the class is larger than 20, the members will be partitioned into two or more discussion groups that, depending on available resources, will meet during the regular lecture time, but in different rooms. In my view, the best learning will transpire in the discussion groups. This is where the critical assessment skills of each student will be honed by the individual through interacting with their peers and Instructor. It will also be the time when the most skillful interaction between students and the discussion leader is called for. The timid will need gentle coaxing, and the verbose will need gentle subduing.

5 The “media” throughout this text will refer to such resources as periodicals, press releases, the web, CNN, the Weather Channel, videos from Nova and the Discovery Channel, etc.

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Appendix 2: Historical Perspective on a Precursor (GE006) to thePresently Proposed Course.

The Early Evolution of GE006, "Earthquakes, Volcanoes andOther Natural Catastrophes":

In the mid to late-1980’s, there was a confluence of activities at Brown University leading to a quantum jump in the quality of undergraduate education. One of the leading promulgators of this was Dean Harriet Sheridan, with her interest in fomenting a spirit of critical analysis, multi-culturalism, collaborative research and learning (through peer group discussions and mentoring) and communication skills (through effective writing and speaking) among Brown undergraduatesthrough funding from the Mellon, Exxon and Ford Foundations.

On February 10, 1987, I submitted a proposal to Dean Harriet Sheridan for a Curricular Development Grant for a new course: "Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Other Natural Catastrophes". The pedagogy for the course is very closely paralleled by that of the presently proposed course (GE004). I received notice on April 27, 1987, that I was to receive a graduate teaching fellow (w/ tuition), an undergraduate TA/RA, and a summer stipend for myself. At the discretion of Dean Sheridan, the course was designated under the rubric Modes of Analysis. The anticipated class size was 40 students, with the Dean approving that I could limit the class size if it went above 50 students.

However, as of the beginning of October, 1987, the course had not been approved by the Department of Geological Sciences, although it had been discussed with three generations of screening committees in the Department. There was a strong hesitation among the faculty as to “whether the students would have sufficient geological or science background to deal with these topics”. There was also, understandably, a question of whether Department resources should be parsed out to such a non-geological theme. Eventually, however, the course was “provisionally approved” pending a later review of the course’s success.

The first class was offered in the spring of 1988, with a University Graduate Teaching Fellow, 4 undergraduate peer-group mentors, and 4 Rose Writing Fellows. The enrollment jumped from a pre-enrollment of 45 to an active enrollment of 138 in 1991-92. To accommodate such a rapid ramp-up in class size, and in light of the dearth of possible teaching assistants among my own Department of Geological Sciences, I advertised across the University and called upon graduate TA’s from economics and English, each of whom was surprised, yet impressed, that they could teach “geology”, which they did with great aplomb.

But, throughout the 4 year lifetime of the course, availability of financial resources was a persistent issue, with the commitment of TA support, supplies, and projection equipment, even lecture and meeting rooms, usually put off until after each semester actually began; in most cases, at least a week into the semester. Apparently this was due to the fact that the course was never considered to be “main-stream” geology by Department faculty; and always held off on a “wait-and-see-how-many-show-up” basis by University Hall. In 1989, as graduate teaching assistants were assigned, the Department did not initially commit to even one graduate TA until explicitly prevailed upon. But enrollments were significant each year.

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In particular, in 1992, with over 100 students showing up, moving the class room and still finding 15 or so students standing up or sitting on the floor, Sheila Blumstein and Bryan Shepp stepped to the plate after I had 136 names on the class list. With significant last minute reassignment of resources, the class went forward with one graduate TA from the Department, one graduate TA from the Dean of the College (Sheila), and one graduate TA from the Dean of the Faculty (Bryan); including a number of undergraduate peer-group mentors.

Grant monies then, as now, were available from foundation grants to the University, but parceled out in small amounts. On February 16, 1988, Karen Romer, then acting as Project Director for the Ford Foundation Grant on Collaboration in Teaching and Learning, informed me of a $1,000 grant to support 4 undergraduate students as peer-mentors and discussion group leaders in GE006. On April 5, 1988, I was notified by Sheila Blumstein, then Dean of the College, that I had received a Curricular Grant for my proposed Modes of Analysis Course entitled: "Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Other Natural Catastrophes". In addition to several thousand dollars for TA support, or a summer stipend, she urged me to request UTRA support and Writing Fellows support.

In September, 1988, Karen Romer, then Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, announced to the Faulty that the newly released Report to the Corporation of the Visiting Committee on Minority Life and Education recommended that “special support be given to faculty to rework existing courses and to create new courses with third world and ethnic-related material.” At the same time, she announced the Ford Grant on Collaboration in Teaching and Learning. In response to my proposal to this solicitation, I received funds for a “Bibliographic Search Technician” from the Library to assist with developing an informational resource base on Natural Hazards in Third World Countries.

Throughout this period of 1987 - 1992, however, one needs to remember that the Dean’s Office was not particularly responsive to computer literacy, and only later came to appreciate the essential role that personal computers might play in facilitating a student’s writing skills. In spite of skepticism in the Dean’s office, throughout the late 1980’s, I spent many hours sitting side-by-side in front of a computer with individual students in GE006, sharing a keyboard and trading revisions of content and style in real-time. Now (in March, 2006), as instructors in all disciplines become increasingly aware of electronic media of all types, including web pages and personal response systems, becoming the common specie for communication, we all need to assume the responsibility for handling information content in new ways, where brevity with clarity replace expansive, ponderous prose, and where many descriptive texts are replaced by carefully laid out graphics.

I will vigorously assert that this is a difficult barrier for humanities students to adjust to. Many students who can develop a thesis in 10 or 15 pages of text, become frustrated with having to develop a thesis in less than a page, let alone in two or three sentences. The challenge to the Instructor and peer-group mentors is to develop this facility in the first few weeks of class – and that can only be done through direct one-on-one contacts.

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