Building a Future Legacy in STEM 9/24

Building a Future Legacy in STEM 9/24 at 2 pm Pacific with STEM pioneers Dr. Guion S. Bluford Jr., American Aerospace Engineer, Cheryl McNair, founding director for Challenger Center, Ed Dwight, AA First Astronaut Candidate to be selected by JFK as the first African American Astronaut, and Major General Charles F. Bolden Jr. , 12th Administrator of NASA.-Hosted by UAGC's Women in STEM

To register please go to: https://lnkd.in/g3RpQg7a 

Faculty Video and Pictures of the UAGC MZeroA "The Drone Experience"

Bravo and Wonderful "The Drone Industry Experience" webinar, Everyone!!!  

To our MZeroA Partners and Drone Webinar Speakers... You are Simply Awesome!   Jason Schappert, Magda Riutort, Rodger Ozburn, Brennon Edward, John Wolcott, Matt Lyon, and Probe Thompson.

Thank you for sharing your Drone Aviation content, expertise, and industry excitement!   The content was amazing and an inspiration to our UAGC students!   

Well done, to our UAGC Team - Bob Paxton, Karen Ivy, Michael Hayden, Pete Limon, and Shari Schwartz!!

From our University of Arizona Global Campus - Forbes School of Business & Technology Leadership - We Thank You!

Karen

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Research

Higher education must focus more urgently on equity, bringing what is known about closing achievement gaps together with what is known about advancing high-quality student learning outcomes. While a great deal of research exists on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in higher education, few resources and tools exists for promoting an internal assessment and path forward for improving student achievement for all, particularly for students from groups traditionally underserved by higher education. A workgroup comprised of full-time and associate faculty across both colleges, as well as staff, reviewed existing literature and resources and created a rubric to develop a greater consciousness regarding DEI issues within its curriculum so that the University of Arizona Global Campus may celebrate its DEI achievements as well as understand areas of opportunity and need within the curriculum. Using this rubric, a faculty reviewer can explore all aspects of a UAGC course to evaluate DEI representation.

Tricia Lauer
Associate Vice President of Learning Assessment,
Office of Learning Assessment and Program Review

Pamela Reyes
Associate Director of Program Review, Office of Learning Assessment and Program Review

Yolanda Harper

Professor, College of Arts and Sciences

John Bathke 
Assistant Professor, Forbes School of Business & Technology 

Donald Frey 
Assistant Professor, Forbes School of Business & Technology 

Michelle Rosser-Majors 
Professor, College of Arts and Sciences 

Iris Lafferty 
Dean, College of Arts & Sciences 

Miriam Ruiz Janssen 
Associate Faculty, College of Arts & Sciences

Dr. Brant Pearson Discusses 'A Virtual Environment. A Generational Preference'

One decision, good or bad, can change the entire trajectory of an individual's life. The path we intend to head down and the decisions we make along the way ultimately defines us personally and professionally. When we are young, we are told, "you can be anything you want." In theory, it is a good-natured statement but poses some significant barriers and untold truths. Case in point, being six feet tall with an average build and not genetically athletic, I was never going to play basketball in the NBA. So, as we grow older, we realize that decisions need to be made that will direct or redirect our life's path. Our upbringings, ethical and moral stance, and overall perception of life plays a significant part in how we view the world around us (our lens). It is fascinating, at least to me, to learn how people got where they are in life and the decisions that lead to it.

We often get caught up in the daily minutiae of life and forget that the world around us does not stop moving. Regardless of what is happens in our personal lives, businesses, cultures, and technology are continually evolving. Comparing our current life to what it once was could positively or negatively impact our future decisions. Likewise, comparing the world to what it once was can have a similar impact on our decisions, especially in today's era.

In a current and ongoing research study, “A Virtual Environment. A Generational Preference,” I look to unearth the desire to work and/or learn in a virtual setting. In the technologically driven era we live in today, the need for a virtual setting in both educational and corporate institutions has skyrocketed. So, the question is not whether it is needed, but instead an understanding if individuals would rather learn and/or work in a remote environment. The research survey being conducted seeks to understand if a correlation exists between the desire to learn and/or work remotely based on an individual's generational age.

Participants in the current study include current or former college students from different generations in various fields. The single questionnaire is optional, voluntary, and anonymous. If you would be willing to make a short announcement in your current class(es) asking for student participation in the present study, please contact me for further information. Furthermore, if you would like to discuss possible research initiatives, speaking engagements, publications, general comments, or ideas of interest, please contact me anytime at bpearson@brantpearson.com

Research Interest: Organizational Leadership, Consumer Behaviors, Personal Motivators, Business Operations, Positive Psychology, Perceptions, and The Why (why we do or believe what we do)

Current Research: A Virtual Environment. A Generational Preference

Past Research: The Risks and Paradigm Shifts Associated with an Employees Right to Self Identify on Social Media

Contact:

 

Brant Pearson, Ph.D., MBA 

Email: bpearson@brantpearson.com

Website: https://www.brantpearson.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brantpearson

 

 

 

Free Webinar(January 26th): "The Drone Experience" - Hosted by Forbes Faculty (FSB&T) and MZeroA Experts

Drone piloting skills are in high demand. Drone piloting skills are in high demand. The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International estimates that drones could create more than 100,000 new jobs and an economic gain of $82.1 billion by 2025!  Drone piloting is a rapidly expanding vocation that’s playing a larger role in many industries including: forestry, realtors, security firms, cinematography, advertising agencies, inspections and mapping, architects, construction firms, law enforcement, marketing, homeland security, criminal justice, and emergency and public safety services, and software development integrating drone programming to name a few.  

On January 26, 2021, the Forbes School of Business & Technology (University of Arizona Global Campus) & MZeroA team together to present “The Drone Industry Experience!”  Thanks to the UAGC FSBT Technology Studies and CAS Behavioral Sciences faculty for moving forward this new UAGC curriculum direction!

What does it take to become a drone pilot? What drone piloting knowledge and skills can you gain to set yourself apart in your industry? What are the exciting curriculum directions offered by the University of Arizona Global Campus to prepare you to step into and excel in the Drone Industry Experience? 

You will hear from five professional industry drone pilots with expertise spanning industries: forestry, cinematography, inspections and mapping, drone mapping software, and law enforcement! Jason Schappert, founder of MZeroA.com, the world’s leading source in flight training, will be our emcee for the event!  You will receive details of the Forbes School of Business & Technology AVI200 Course and New Aviation Emphases offered at the University of Arizona Global Campus!

Plan to attend: 

 Forbes School of Business & Technology & MZeroA 

Present 

The Drone Industry Experience! 

 January 26, 2021 

5 PM - 7:00 PM (PT) 

Register in advance for this webinar: 

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ey4-u7YiS4CqOvvjCLxEBw 

If you have any questions, please get in contact with us:

    Forbes School of Business & Technology: Karen.Ivy@UAGC.edu; Michael.Hayden@UAGC.edu; Pete.Limon@UAGC.edu

   College of Arts and Sciences: Ted.Ellis@UAGC.edu; Shari.Schwartz@UAGC.edu; Martin.McAuliffe@UAGC.edu

Developing Professional Communities for Virtual Faculty

Sign Up for the Think Tank: August 27th, 2020. 12:00 PM EST. Register Via Zoom. REGISTRATION LINK.

Title: Developing a virtual professional learning community with online faculty

Abstract: Adjunct faculty are a critical component to student success in online learning. Working remotely can generate feelings of isolation, fatigue, and struggles with communication.  Research around professional learning communities (PLCs) indicates that there is an opportunity to bridge the challenges, enhance retention, and student learning.  PLCs provide an opportunity to build a collective capacity in instructors with the focus on teaching and learning.  The nuances of navigating the development of PLCs is complex with a fully online platform. Therefore, it is essential to utilize the literature to generate key tenets of PLCs that can be translated into an organized plan to generate energy, focus, and enthusiasm around a virtual adjunct community. Using internal research collected over several years, the researchers have found key considerations to enhance the professional development, support, and overall collaborative culture for adjunct faculty. These key ideas include communication and connection.  The researchers have developed specific strategies and ideas to enhance morale, generate authentic community experiences, and provide relevant and practical professional learning opportunities.  Intentional efforts to enhance communication and collaboration can make a difference in the overall retention of staff and students and generate vibrant PLCs.

Keywords: online, professional learning community.

You can learn more about the conference proceeding HERE.

Belcher, A., Robinson, J., Olson-Stewart, K., Rief, A. (June, 2020). Developing a virtual professional

learning community with online faculty. In EDULEARN20 - London (Ed.), EDULEARN20

Proceedings. IATED doi: doi.org/10.21125/edulearn.2020

Dr. Jennifer Robinson: Jen is a Core Faculty in the Bachelor’s of Education Studies, and also teaches in the MA and Ph.D. programs. Before stepping into full-time higher education, she was a K-12 English as a second language and regular education teacher. Her Ph.D. in Education (Literacy and English as a Second Language) is from Washington State University.

Dr. Alan Belcher: Alan is an experienced educator, administrator, and consultant, having worked with students and schools at all different levels and in many states and countries. He earned a BA in education, the MA in school administration, and the MS in computer systems from Marshall University. He also earned the PhD in education from Capella University.

Dr. Allison Rief: Allison is currently a Lead Faculty member for the AAECE, BAECE, and BAECEA programs within the Department of Education and Liberal Arts. Before working within higher education, she was a prekindergarten, second, and third grade teacher. She earned her BA in Literatures in English from UC San Diego, her MA in Education from UC Los Angeles, and her EdD from the University of Southern California.

Dr. Kelly Stewart: Kelly: is an Assistant Professor and Faculty Lead for the Ph.D. in Education program in the Department of Education and Liberal Arts within the College of Arts and Sciences at Ashford University. Dr. Stewart started her career in education as a middle school teacher in South Bend, Indiana. Upon moving to Arizona, Kelly was hired as a Curriculum and Technology Specialist and worked for another fifteen years as a staff developer, coach, adjunct professor, and district administrator.

Analyzing Social Movements Through Critical Thinking and Shareable Media

By Dr. Murad Abel, Dr. Jorge A. Cardenas, Dr. Avisha Sadeghinejad at Forbes School of Business and Technology at Ashford University

Social movements spread quickly via social media and play a crucial role in society that pushes democratic institutions to change and adjust through the influential mediums of online free speech. The boundaries of a social movement can be elusive as they become amebic, changing, adjusting, and incorporating new ideologies through the sharing and adjusting of information. Social media has made promoting ideas and concepts easier, and at lightning speed as ideas, images, videos, and other forms of emotionally laden content explode over the Internet!

Higher education teaches us about higher-order critical thinking to move beyond passively accepting ideas and into operating agreement and engagement. We are not passive participants in national consciousness but are becoming increasingly important actors that influence others through new world perceptions.

Development of Social Movements

Let us first discuss the difference between a social movement and a political entity. Political entities (e.g., political party, interest group) are relatively stable groups that provide a conduit to national institutions and leadership. We can rest on a semi accurate definition of social movements as, an organized yet informal social entity that engages in extra institutional conflict to achieve some important goal. Such goals can be anything from a specific governmental policy or towards a broader cultural change (Christiansen, 2009). How do such social movements form and create an audience for their message?

One of the original scholars of social movements was the American sociologist Dr. Herbert Blumer. He identified four stages of social movements’ life cycle: social ferment, popular excitement, formalization, and institutionalization (as in Della Porta & Diani, 2006, p.150). Movements pass through stages and then beyond their initial purposes into decline. Since Blumer's original work, other scholars have renamed the four stages and now more commonly refer to them as

• Emergence: Characterized by individualized, but widespread feelings of discontent. Movements in this stage lack a clearly defined strategy for achieving goals and little organization.
• Coalescence: The second stage of a social movement's life cycle characterized by assembling social movement constituents. This stage is marked by demonstrations and formulation of strategy.
• Bureaucratization: The phase in which policy is carried out by formal organizations and trained staff.
•  Decline: This stage usually marks the end of mass mobilization. The decline can occur in five ways: repression, co-optation, success, failure, and establishment within the mainstream (does not necessarily mean failure of the social movement).

The beauty of movements is that they wiggle their way into the consciousness of society and begin to grow and develop to a point where they formalize their ideas and implement change. If they serve their purpose, no longer have one, or no longer relevant, they decline. The ideas learned, never truly leave our national awareness but become incorporated into our culture and the way we view the world.

You may want to see a few examples, which by no means is exhaustive, of social movements that have captured people's attention and will leave some mark on our cultural viewpoints:

• Black Lives Matter (http://www.blacklivesmatter.com/): Founded in 2013 in response to the acquittal related to the killing of Treyvon Martin and catalyzed with the killing of George Floyd. The movement hopes to bring attention to violence inflicted on Black communities.
• Women’s March (http://www.womensmarch.com): The movement seeks to harness the power of diverse women and their communities to create transformative change in civil rights, disability rights, immigrant rights, and environmental justice.
• Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy (janaagraha.org): Founded in 2001 this nonprofit organizations’ mission is to transform the quality of life in India’s cities and towns by working with citizens to catalyze active citizenship in neighborhoods and with governments to institute reforms to city governance. One of the organization's major initiatives is I Paid a Bribe (www.ipaidabribe.com), which seeks to fight corruption through crowdsourcing and the collective reporting of information in India. This level of transparency can help reduce the scope for corruption in obtaining services from the government.
• South Indian National Congress, African National Congress, and Pan-African Congress: Apartheid was a South African legislative system and government policies put into place in 1948 that segregated its White and Black citizens. These three organizations and social movements were credited with the eventual demise of Apartheid. Their success culminated in the democratic election of Nelson Mandela, the first Black president of South Africa and a global advocate for human rights.

 Expanding Social Movements

Social structures have a nature of their own. Researchers found a few patterns that form a useful model that creates a better understanding. The Social Ecology Framework (SEF) provides social marketers with a structured method of analyzing social movements (Collins, et al., 2010). According to this framework, four underlining components include Micro-, Meso, Exo and Macro-systems that can be used to promote ideas or behavioral changes into the public arena (see Figure 1).  In this case, Micro-systems mean influence on individual thinking, Meso-systems on one’s close surroundings, Exo-systems on one’s immediate community, and Macro-systems on a wider national audience.

At the Micro-system level, most individuals have access to a variety of social media tools. Social marketing professionals can use various forms of media and social networking platforms to advance the message of social movements. Individuals that are the consumers of that media can then promulgate that message throughout their personal social networks.

At the Meso-system level, social marketers of social movements can design strategies to target formal community groups such as local schools, sports clubs, youth centers, etc. By creating targeted marketing materials that align with the goals of such community groups, social movements can more easily leverage those established networks.

Moving into the Exo-system level, which represents a wider social system, similar marketing strategies can be implemented through traditional and digital media. When successful, state and local legislature can codify the concerns of social movements through the passing of laws, regulations and ordinances.

The role of social marketing at the Macro-system level is to influence national consciousness and institutions, for example, challenging institutional racism, sexism, ethnocentrism, or any other “ism” of nationally embedded beliefs. Learning to think critically promoted by social marketing strategies at this level can be reinforced by federal acts, legislation, executive orders and laws.

Shareable media has changed the capacity to grow and develop social movements quickly through a click, snap, and share technology. Within a matter of hours, emotionally-laden content like videos can spread regionally, nationally, and even internationally, raising awareness of issues and sparking demands for change. People make judgments and then become active or passive promoters of concepts through media in a way that impacts how we think and live as an interconnected organism of people.

Active or Passive Promoter of Media?

Sharing social media is an activity of marketing that shows support or non-support for movements by creating a context in social media content. Those who think critically are active promoters, while those who blindly share information are passive promoters. Active promoters use critical thinking to reach a personal agreement and acceptance of ideas that lead to being “influencers” in their social networks. Sometimes these influencers gain national attention and can shift the direction of a movement into a leadership role to develop something practical for national policy.

As a member of the Micro-system, before clicking the share button, take a minute to engage cognitively and critically with the information. Move beyond gut-wrenching emotion to evaluate the content from multiple perspectives so that you have a greater awareness of the material you are sharing. Critical thinking often leads to better decisions and, ultimately, a better society as goal-directed behavior influences national outcomes. Consider a few steps to enhance your critical thinking abilities:

• Evaluate the Content: Understand the nature of the content and what the essential message is.
• Review Alternative Perspectives: Review alternative perspectives and what people outside of your network believe (i.e. bi-partisanship, devil’s advocate and role reversal)
• Think of Environmental Context: Environmental scanning will shed light on the importance of a movement in terms of its timing and need in society.
• Check-In With Yourself: Critically evaluating your beliefs will help create greater awareness of your personal stake in the outcome of the information.
• Own the Message: Once you have decided on the meaning of the message, alternative perspectives, environmental factors, and personal belief systems, you “own” the message and can share it with others from a personal perspective of empowerment.

The social structure and social influence models discussed help us understand the importance and responsibilities of critically thinking when sharing information online. Given the prevalence and popularity of social media across a wide swath of the nation, such as in low-income and rural areas, social marketers can more effectively tap into those segments and start to promote, engage, and encourage critical thinking with voice and resolution. Promoters that understand and act with thought and foresight can help their societies adjust and change through responsible messages that provide solutions to long lingering problems. Better grasping the types of social movements, how they formulate, and how the messages resonate to a widening group of people is important in creating meaningful change that improves all Americans' lives. Change and action must be followed with practical solutions to ensure the message has a long-lasting impact.

Author Profiles:

Dr. Murad Abel is a Lead Faculty and Associate Professor in Public Relations at the Forbes School of Business and Technology.

Dr. Jorge A. Cardenas is a Department Chair and Professor. He leads the Department of Professional Studies at the Forbes School of Business and Technology and is the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors at the International Accreditation Council for Business Education (IACBE).

Dr. Avisha Sadeghinejad is a Lead Faculty and Associate Professor in Marketing at the Forbes School of Business and Technology.

References:

Christiansen, J. (2009). Four stages of social movements. EBSCO Research Starters. https://www.ebscohost.com/uploads/imported/thisTopic-dbTopic-1248.pdf

Collins, K., Tapp, A., & Pressley, A. (2010). Social marketing and social influences: Using social ecology as a theoretical framework. Journal of Marketing Management, 25 (13-–14), 1181–-1200. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2010.522529

Della Porta, D., & Diani, M. (2006). Social movements: An introduction (2nd ed.). Blackwell Publishing.