Mark, my wife works in instructional design and some faculty development and she’d love the idea of a neutral place to practice her trade. Her hiring came immediately after a new president took over and he’s a guy with zero “person skills” and his first act was to cook up a reason to fire the faculty union rep and spread rumors about faculty be let go if they didn’t cooperate with the college’s plan to put everything online. Needless to say my wife and her department tasked with building online courses were labeled as enemies right away. As I worked there too it got spread to me.

For some instructors in the Native orientated departments it was perfectly legitimate to question “conversion” to online. The kids they teach come from impoverished, isolated reserves immersed in oral culture and strong family affiliations. Essentially these students need translators to interpret white western educational “values” along with culturally appropriate content at first. In 2007 there weren’t any instructional designers and my wife did her best to consult and take steps to appropriately design courses. Trouble is, no one wants Native people, with their land base taken away they don’t “belong” anywhere any more. So beyond art courses, First Nations orientated education is gone.

Second group, particularly Business instructors have been actively hostile and I have no sympathy for them. They are bad instructors, behind in their fields and content be stuck where they stopped 25 years ago. They attempt authority but invest nothing in deserving respect and somehow get away with it. Sometimes a new one comes through but they leave pretty fast before they too become zombies.

What’s sad is especially in backwards places like this good teaching is so important and it just isn’t here. Guess this how colonial behaviors are passed on:-(