It does not need to be perfect! Two teacher educators’ quest to enhance online instruction with videos

Two early career literacy and language teacher educators who have digital literacies at the core of their professional and scholarly pursuits share their quest to enhance their online instruction. The authors wanted to identify one new improvement for their online courses in an effort to engage the students and support a more connected learning community. The improvement was instructor-made videos. Once the first video was shared and posted, weekly peer support, the premises of “keeping it simple” and “it does not need to be perfect” seemed to be critical in the implementation of videos for the online instruction. The authors continue to use instructor-created videos in their courses as part of their routine online teaching

Do donors implicitly ignore fixed assets when assessing nonprofit organizational wealth?

ABSTRACT One nonprofit "watchdog" agency publishes not-for-profit organizational (NFP) wealth defined as net assets / (all expenses -fundraising expenses). Developed theory holds that donations to an NFP are negatively related to NFP wealth because high levels of wealth signal that an NFP takes a long time to spend a donation. Some empirical evidence supports this theory. However, NFPs with capital intensive operations could spend donations immediately on needed fixed assets, but still have high levels of wealth because spending on fixed assets does not immediately reduce net assets. Donors might recognize this flaw in the measure of wealth and adjust wealth to exclude fixed assets. On the other hand, there also is empirical evidence of a direct relation between wealth and donations. This could be because donors might view high NFP wealth as providing a financial "cushion". However, fixed assets provide less financial "cushion" than other more liquid assets. Donors may recognize this and adjust wealth to exclude fixed assets. This paper examines whether donors implicitly adjust NFP wealth to eliminate the effect of fixed assets, by testing wealth and then testing modified wealth (by subtracting fixed assets from the numerator of wealth) in a comprehensive model of donations at the organizational level. Five types of NFPs are tested. Results suggest that donors to health, arts, philanthropic and human services NFPs do not adjust NFP wealth to eliminate the effect of fixed assets. A perverse result for education NFPs is found wherein donors seem to reward education NFPs with higher levels of fixed assets. However, this may be due to endogeneity between donations to education NFPs and wealth of such NFPs

The impact of fundraising inefficiency on donations to nonprofit organizations

Only one study, Greenlee and Brown (1999), tests the effect that the fundraising inefficiency ratio (fundraising expenses / total expenses) has on donations to nonprofit organizations (NPOs). However, the model in their study omits factors known to affect donations, such as fundraising, and organizational age and wealth, thereby substantially misspecifying the model. We improve on their model by testing a better-specified autoregressive model that includes important factors known to affect donations. We find a significant negative relation between donations and fundraising inefficiency, while Greenlee and Brown (1999) find a perverse significant positive relation. Our results should be of interest to NPO managers, "watchdog agencies", and regulators of NPOs.Godkänd; 2007; 20071203 (keni

Do Donors Implicitly Ignore Fixed Assets when Assessing Nonprofit Organizational Wealth?

Abstract One of the nonprofit "watchdog" agencies publishes a measure of nonprofit organization (NPO) wealth specified as: net assets / (total expenses -fundraising expenses). Developed theory holds that donations to an NPO are negatively related to NPO wealth because high levels of wealth signal that an NPO takes a long time to spend a donation. Some empirical evidence supports this theory. However, NPOs with capital intensive operations could spend donations immediately on needed fixed assets, but still have high levels of wealth. Donors might recognize this flaw in the measure of wealth and adjust wealth to exclude fixed assets. On the other hand, there also is empirical evidence of a positive relation between wealth and donations. This could be because donors might view high NPO wealth as providing a greater financial "cushion". However, fixed assets provide less financial "cushion" than other more liquid assets. Donors may recognize this and adjust wealth to exclude fixed assets. This paper examines whether donors implicitly adjust NPO wealth to eliminate the effect of fixed assets, by testing wealth and then testing modified wealth (by subtracting fixed assets from the numerator of wealth) in a comprehensive model of donations at the organizational level. Five types of NPOs are tested. Results suggest that for one of the types, education, donors do adjust the measure of NPO wealth to eliminate the effect of fixed assets, but not for the other four types -arts, health, human services, and philanthropy

Truth, Interrupted: Leveraging Digital Media for Culturally Sustaining Education.

Abstract This inquiry into the digital discussion forums tied to two English classes in an urban public high school examines the potential of new media to honor the multicultural composition of classrooms and support teachers to design culturally sustaining pedagogies. Given the increasing significance of digital media as well as the growing diversity of our classrooms, it is critical that educational researchers, practitioners, and policymakers think about the ways in which new media could support multicultural teaching and learning. This work draws on socio-cultural constructions of literacy, resource pedagogies, and critical literacy frameworks. The author uses case study methodologies to understand how digital media, specifically networked technologies, support secondary level students as they wrestle with complex issues related to race, language, and culture. This article offers three central ideas that emerged from an analysis of student participants’ interactions across the networked spaces that were linked to the intellectual work of their English classes. This work has implications for educators at all levels who are committed to addressing issues related to race, language, class, and other identities that are salient in all classrooms. The author puts forth a pedagogical approach for sustaining multiculturalism in the context of rigorous academic work. This approach intentionally draws on digital media to cultivate culturally responsive education.</jats:p

The Cleveland Teaching Collaborative: Building Spaces for Collective Care and Collaboration

Panel Discussion on Frida