Column: Put aside your agendas — the College Football Playoff committee made the right call

December 3, 2018 By Leave a Comment

Welcome to Spin Cycle Sunday. It’s the day we craft our College Football Playoff arguments to fit our personal agendas and preconceived notions

Here’s a link to the column at the Chicago Tribune.

Filed Under: Sports

Packers fire Mike McCarthy after stunning home loss to the Cardinals

December 3, 2018 By Leave a Comment

The Packers fired coach Mike McCarthy on Sunday and made offensive coordinator Joe Philbin the interim head coach.

Here’s a link to the story at the Chicago Tribune.

Filed Under: Sports

Bears force overtime with wild comeback but see winning streak snapped in 30-27 loss to Giants

December 3, 2018 By Leave a Comment

The Bears and quarterback Chase Daniel sent the game against the Giants to overtime Sunday afternoon at MetLife Stadium, but they couldn’t complete the comeback.

Here’s a link to the story at the Chicago Tribune.

Filed Under: Sports

Illinois 200: Illinois boasts a hair-raising history of beasts and legends

December 3, 2018 By Leave a Comment

Illinois boasts a hair-raising history rife with spine-tingling stories — and that’s just with politics.

Here’s a link to the story at the Southern Illinoisan.

Filed Under: Breaking News

Walter V. Wendler: Reflections on Higher Education

December 3, 2018 By Leave a Comment

Clicks or Bricks

With the growing pervasiveness of online and distance education opportunities (Clicks), future students will have transcripts peppered with courses from different modes of instructional delivery at different institutions. At West Texas A&M University, rarely will a student’s academic record come completely from courses taken on campus (Bricks). This “academic diversity” will become the norm in public higher education.

Walter V. Wendler

Demands for convenience create growth in online delivery. As the number of working adults engaged in study increases, the benefits of online learning opportunities likewise increase. Currently at West Texas A&M University, one in five students is engaged in some form of the online study. Competition between various online/on-campus providers, both for-profit and non-profit, also grows.

The challenges of online education are not limited to the United States, but are equaled by the United Kingdom, Turkey, South Korea, South Africa, Brazil, China, India and Russia where digital delivery is increasing. These nations are home to over 50% of the world’s population. Recent studies report growth in online enrollment everywhere. Online education is increasingly perceived as a legitimate means of study.

Traditional strengths of intentional on-campus delivery have value, but well-conceived online offerings also provide effective learning potential. At WT, the Paul and Virginia Engler College of Business provides guidance to proactively ensure quality in delivery of online instruction. Hiring a faculty member to teach from a bedroom in New Hampshire is not the same thing as having an online faculty member who also teaches on campus and lives in the region of the home institution, as is the case in our most subscribed online programs in business, education and nursing. Enlightened leadership recognizes the importance of addressing these challenges.

Private companies—not typically educational providers—are “getting into the game” of providing directed educational opportunities to their employees. Kettering University was originally established as The School of Automotive Trades in 1919 in Flint, Michigan.  When acquired by GM the name became General Motors Institute of Technology (GMIT). GMIT provided a means for advancement and learning potential that fit the GM mission. This specificity, desirable for corporate effectiveness, is rational in a for-profit enterprise. Today, US News ranks Kettering University, the name that it has held since 1998, as number 13 nationally among non-PhD degree granting engineering schools, first in Michigan for salary potential and 10th nationally for return on educational investment. A trade school has adapted to a changing educational environment. Agile online providers married to adaptive on-campus educational providers create “fields white for harvest” in purposeful partnerships.

Changes in the educational ecosystem create consternation for institutions that covet a 17th-century mindset of university education. I have little sympathy for that hide-bound perspective, but I also recognize the power of a traditional on-campus experience. Over the last two decades, expectations accompanying a bachelor’s degree, such as increased lifetime earnings, a changed view of the world and other outcomes of a college experience, have diminished. Value and debt forcefully affect these perceptions. A good pipefitter can earn as much as a good teacher. In addition, that same pipefitter, as well as the teacher, can study 17th-century German art in the evenings, online, at no cost.

The ubiquitous nature of knowledge and insight, and accessing both, has changed everything. Bi Sheng’s invention of moveable type in 1040 enabled Gutenberg to develop his lead, tin and antimony type systems. Without the Gutenberg Bible, Martin Luther might as well have been speechless.

The prosaic challenges of online learning are manifold. Cheating is more common in online courses. The number of students who start and complete online courses is less than on-campus instruction, yet lenders and grant providers make little distinction between those who study online and those who study on campus. Passive students with inferior study habits and little peer interaction find online settings tough. Even with well tested online technology, there are still obstacles to overcome when a technical issue at the home institution causes communication to cease.

Online study and learning is mildly disruptive to universities and colleges that seek to maintain a traditional approach to college. However, online instruction does not diminish the value of on-campus education, but sharpens, focuses and augments that experience while opening it up to an ever-widening range of people.

This is likely: the on-campus experience in the next decade will decreasingly be a four-year experience and increasingly become something different with less time spent on campus. The residential four-year baccalaureate degree as the only effective framework for learning is already a historical artifact.

Thoughtful universities will not argue the variety or veracity of online education but rather find ways to integrate that learning experience with the more traditional on-campus experience.

Clicks plus Bricks. Never, any longer, Clicks or Bricks.

Filed Under: Columns

A Prayer to Kill the Sin of Gossip in Your Life – Your Daily Prayer

December 3, 2018 By Leave a Comment

A Prayer to Kill the Sin of Gossip in Your Life – Your Daily Prayer

Your Daily Prayer Devotional Banner

A Prayer to Kill the Sin of Gossip in Your Life
By Michelle Lazurek

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” Ephesians 4:29

Can you pray for Jan? I heard she’s having some issues in her marriage. I think they are on the brink of divorce. In my sixteen years in ministry, I’ve had many women come to me and start off a conversation just like this one. Yet a conversation like this is nothing more than gossip, thinly veiled as a prayer request used as a way to share information about another member of church.

If I’m honest, it’s easier speaking about someone else’s life rather than my own. I even get a little joy out of hearing someone else’s problems. For a moment, it seems like my life is better than someone else’s. I can temporarily indulge in the spiritual high of knocking someone else off her pedestal in a pathetic attempt to keep me on my pedestal.

Perhaps, you, like me, have experienced the spiritual high of hearing about someone else’s problems. Have you thrived even a little bit on the idea that someone who on the exterior is thinner, prettier, or better than you is crumbling on the interior?

Our words have power. God used words when He spoke the world into being. Jesus used them to calm storms, heal the sick and rebuke the Pharisees. They can have a positive or negative effect on people, depending on which we choose to use.

Let’s pray together now for the power we need to kill the sin of gossip.

Lord, thank you for your mercy and grace, even when we sin and gossip. Help me see this sin for what it is—hateful, hurtful, and ultimately sin that separates me from you. Lord, give me a greater affection for you. Help me love you so much that it spills over into everyone I meet. Help me love you so much that the temptation to gossip melts away in the midst of my thankfulness and joy. Help me long to build others up, not tear them down. In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen.

Filed Under: Columns

Pastor Rick Warren: Every Decision Has a Price Tag

December 3, 2018 By Leave a Comment

By Rick Warren

“It is a trap to dedicate something rashly and only later to consider one’s vows” (Proverbs 20:25 NIV).

You only have a certain number of days. Every time you give a minute of your life to anything, you’re giving a piece of your life away. You’ll never get that minute back. When you give your time to something, you’re giving a piece of your life for it.That’s why every decision has a price tag. Every decision will cost you time, money, energy, reputation, talents, or resources. There’s always an investment to be made.

Proverbs 20:25 says, “It is a trap to dedicate something rashly and only later to consider one’s vows” (NIV). It is a trap to decide without deliberating, to make a promise without pondering, to make a commitment without first considering the cost.

We even say this when people come to Saddleback Church and consider giving their lives to Christ. We tell people to take time to make the right decision. I’m convinced that if they sincerely consider the claims of Christ and the benefits that he offers if they place their faith in him, they will make the right decision.

One of the rules of life is that it’s always easier to get in than to get out. It’s easier to get into a relationship than get out. It’s easier to get into debt than to get out. It’s easier to fill your schedule than fulfill your schedule.

There is a price tag with every decision. Count the cost.

Talk It Over

  • Every decision has a price tag. How have you seen this to be true in your life?
  • Why is it sometimes difficult to answer someone with “I’ll get back to you”?
  • How has counting the cost kept you from making what you believe would have been a bad decision?

Give hope, prayer, and encouragement below. Post a comment & talk about it.

Filed Under: Columns

Dr. Marc Siegel on the Presidents Bush: There is only one now, but the legacy of the father lives on

December 3, 2018 By Leave a Comment

Back in 2012, when I first told people I was going to Texas to ride mountain bikes with the wounded war fighters and President Bush, I frequently encountered the reply “Which President Bush?” This was when the elder Bush was already close to 90, which gives you an idea how robust and vital he was, even with Parkinson’s Disease already significantly impairing him. The former president inspired us all in later years with his will to live and never giving up.

Here’s a link to the editorial at Fox News.

Filed Under: Columns

SIUC’s Simon Institute tackles ‘ugly’ politics with Statesmanship Initiative

December 3, 2018 By Leave a Comment

CARBONDALE — John Shaw wants to talk about statesmanship.

Here’s a link to the story at the Southern Illinoisan.

Filed Under: Featured

Illinois high schools to vote on ending conference system for football

December 3, 2018 By Leave a Comment

Schools are considering a new proposal that could change the high school football schedule in Illinois.

Here’s a link to the story at Illinois News Network.

Filed Under: Sports
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