Disneyland Closes At 35

To Elizabeth (the teacher)

Yes, it is true that students in brick and mortar institutions take tests, submit papers, etc., and it is also true that they are graded on these tests and papers. The grade they ultimately receive results from how well they do on these test, papers and other assignments. Your contention is that on-line institutions do the same thing and therefore there is no qualitative difference between a degree from Princeton and and a degree from some relatively unknown online university.

I cannot agree with that assessment. I think it is generally the case, perhaps not always, that 95% of professors teaching in brick and mortar universities hold doctoral degrees in the subjects which they teach. That is not the case in online colleges.

Professors in brick and mortar universities are much more likely to be conducting research and writing books which might indicate that they are more skilled and competent in the disciplines which they teach than online professors may be.

I also believe that a good deal of room exists to cheat in online courses while not much room at all exists in a classroom. How do I even know that the person signed up for one of my online courses is in fact the person taking the course. It would not, I imagine, for someone who has trouble with mathematics, for instance, to hire a surrogate to take the course for them. How would I as the online professor ever know?

I have not come to a final conclusion about the efficacy of online college work, but I have a number of reservations.

More later.

What Now?

I have not, as is apparent, posted anything new in this blog for some time. I've been getting ready for a new semester, three lecture courses, and one online course. I have been challenged by the online course both technically and intellectually. I find it difficult to understand how exactly I am going to teach philosophy to students that I do not see, or hear. I am accustomed to looking out at the faces of 25 to 65 students, seeing them in flesh and blood and drawing on their energy to help me guide and teach the course. I am now staring into a cyberspace void, but we shall see.

I want to comment upon this course throughout the semester, for I will decide whether or not I believe in the efficacy of online courses during this semester. I have been, and continue to be, skeptical of the plethora or online universities offering degrees, accredited degrees, in everything from management to culinary studies. These cyberspace universities are cropping up everywhere, and every university or college of any size offers online classes.

Disneyland in Paperback

Disneyland will be available from Amazon.com by the end of this month in paperback. Some of my philosophy students, as well as friends and relatives, have asked what purpose I had in writing and publishing the book. These questions led me to question myself and my motives in writing the novel. It is not the first novel I have written.

Long ago, perhaps as many as 30 years ago, I wrote a book entitled Reel to Reel. I really never attempted publication as the novel was autobiographical for the most part. I wrote it for me, to assist me in sorting out the experiences of high school, a brief stint in college, and 8 years in the Army. I believe Reel to Reel has found its final resting place in a trunk, a trunk in storage halfway across town.

The second novel was entitled After the Eclipse. I never attempted publication of that novel either, and I don't remember why I wrote it at all. I don't even know where the manuscript might now be found. Both of the aforementioned novels were written on an old portable typewriter.

Later, when I returned to graduate school, I had several short stories published in literary journals. I would someday like to compile those stories into a book of stories and attempt publication.

One of my professors in graduate school was Robert Nelsen, a very fine writer and teacher out of the University of Chicago. He is the author of many wonderful short stories and other works. He worked for years on his own novel and had, I believe, come very close to publication on several occasions. He was then the Director of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Texas at Dallas. His classes were always full and he was revered by his students. I asked him once what purpose he had in writing his novel and attempting to publish. He told me that a novelist with a purpose is not really a novelist, but a business man. The authors of how to books have a purpose. A true novelist has no purpose, he said. She simply writes because she must.

I had a purpose in writing Disneyland, so perhaps I am not a true novelist. My purpose was really to tell a story that I wanted to share. I did not have to write the book. I wanted to write the book. I can't wait to complete Disneyland's sequel.

I am new to blogging. I'm not quite sure how anyone manages to stumble across my blog, but they do. My statistical page indicates that more than 400 persons have read parts of my blog. I wish some of them, or all of them, would post a comment. At the moment I feel as if I am broadcasting into space hoping that some day a reply will come back out of the void.

I hope people with read my book. I want to know what they think of my story,

I hope people will read this blog. I want to know what they think of my posts. I want to know what I think of their posts. In short, I would like some dialogue. Tell me how to improve the blog. Engage me in conversation or controversy.

Do you have a blog? Tell me how to get to yours.