| VOLUME 28, NUMBER 26 | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 1998 | ISSN 1199-5246 |
Snowflakes
Cold
Wet
Dizzy
A draft in my throat
Each flake
tastes good. Like
Popcorn
Chocolate
Whipped cream.
Broccoli
that one was too small.
The bigger ones taste better.
They melt like butter
they disappear. I must
eat them before
the ground does.
by WIER participant Katie Schuele, ECS School, Westmount, Quebec
"It's not just about getting good marks. When a professional writer reads your story and says, 'Good job,' well, you don't forget that." Monica Vanderkooy, student writer
"Many of the writers who send their stories and poems to WIER already seem to know what it took me so long to learn: that it's okay to write a story about being bored outside the 7-Eleven on a Friday night in Owen Sound." Susan Musgrave, poet, author, WIER participant
"That's how the program works it recreates itself every time something is posted." Trevor Owen, WIER's originator and program director
Trevor Owen has every reason to be both pleased and proud. WIER, his innovative Writers in Electronic Residence project, has just celebrated its 10th anniversary in cyberspace and on the ground.
Based at York's Faculty of Education since 1993, WIER is an online, national education initiative that connects over students, from kindergarten through grade 12, with prominent Canadian poets, essayists, dramatists and fiction writers. The authors work online from computers in their homes to critique student writing and make suggestions for further reading to students and teachers in schools located in every part of Canada.
WIER also connects classes and students with one another through the act of writing. Additional links reach post-secondary students in teacher education programs and in colleges.
Through the Writers Development Trust and corporate and government sponsors, the writers are compensated financially for their efforts a good thing in a country where, with very few exceptions, writers are not well paid. For the writers, WIER "has always been paid work," Owen says. Unlike other writer in residence projects, this one has the distinct advantage that it does not require that the writer and her family make a physical move to another community.
The program consists each year of three terms of 12 weeks each. "Writers can coordinate their schedules to the program's schedules when they need a few bucks. Some writers participate year after year," says Owen.
An English teacher, Owen created WIER in 1988 at Toronto's Riverdale Collegiate, but the project had its antecedants at York, he says. In 1984, Frank Davie, then an English professor at York, and Fred Wah, based in Vancouver, obtained a Canada Council grant to start SwiftCurrent, Canada's first electronic literary magazine.
"I thought SwiftCurrent was brilliant," says Owen. "It very much followed the metaphor of magazines. Writers became contributing editors, others became subscribers. The writers were able to interact, but there was no interaction between writers and readers."
Captivated by the possibilities that SwiftCurrent's interactive format suggested, Owen "immediately felt it would be fabulous for kids," he says. If professional writers could be persuaded to correspond electronically with students about their essays, stories and poems, it was the ideal way to stimulate good student writing; and if a high school class in Cornerbrook, Nfld. could share ideas about writing with another in Williams Lake, B.C., it would have the effect of helping young Canadians come to know each other through the act of writing.
"The SwiftCurrent people thought it was beyond the scope of their project, but [the electronic magazine format] did permit some communication between kids and authors via email, if any writers were interested."
On the first day of a pilot program at Monarch Park school in Toronto, writer David McFadden wrote back directly to a student through SwiftCurrent. "The school was shaken to the core," Owen remembers. "It was a momentous day."
Over the course of 1986 and 1987, a number of students, most of them at Riverdale Collegiate, had informal, email exchanges with writers. Student-to-student dialogue, though, remained out of reach. Throughout this time, Owen persisted in trying to find a technical host that would make it possible for students and writers to exchange ideas about writing via modem. Finally, he posted a note on SwiftCurrent, and five writers, including poet Lionel Kearns, responded.
"Kearns was the most interested in technology and he lived in Vancouver, which added another dimension," Owen says. "It was like winning the lottery. His wife, Gerri Sinclair, known fondly as Madam Modem, is a respected researcher and the director of the Exemplary Centre for Interactive Technologies in Education at Simon Fraser University. She has been education counsel to many computer firms. She said, 'Why don't we do it here?'"
Thus was WIER born. From 1988 through 1992, Simon Fraser's Faculty of Education hosted WIER on its computer system. "Even today [Sinclair and Kearns] refer to themselves as the program's fairy godparents," Owen says. "It's metaphorically apt, given their role as mentors."
In 1993, York's Faculty of Education, under the direction of Dean Stan Shapson, began to host WIER on its computer systems. The faculty also undertook to develop and advance, through teacher education and research, the project's role in online learning. WIER works with national and provincial educational networks, including Canada's SchoolNet, to provide Internet-based access to the program and its resources.
In addition to York, the Writer's Development Trust and participating schools, the project is supported by Viacom Canada, the Canada Council, the Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council, the British Columbia Arts Council, Compucentre (Toronto) Inc., Maclean's, Frontier College, and the TeleLearning Network of Centres of Excellence.
At WIER's 10th anniversary celebrations, Feb. 11 at Toronto's Electric Bean Cyber Café, TransCanada PipeLines, a principal sponsor since 1993, announced that it would continue to contribute $50,000 annually for a further five years.
Unquestionably, WIER is a success story. Its impact on students and teachers and participating writers has been remarkable, and Canadian literature and the Canadian book publishing industry almost certainly have benefited from its activities, too. Writers who have participated include Marilyn Bowering, Di Brandt, Lorna Crozier, Sylvia Fraser, Patrick Lane, Kevin Major, Daniel David Moses, Linda Rogers, Leon Rooke, Rick Salutin and Carolyn Smart.
Together, Owen and the WIER project have earned several honours and awards in Canada and beyond. Canadian awards include the Marshall McLuhan Distinguished Teacher Award (1988) and a 1990 Teacher Research on Literacy Grant co-sponsored by the Hilroy Foundation and the Canadian Teachers Federation. In 1991, the National School Boards' Association in the United States gave special recognition to WIER and, in 1992, the International Society for Technology in Education, University of Oregon, presented WIER with its Exemplary Telecommunications Projects Award.
Many students have received awards for work they developed within WIER, and Owen was selected to Maclean's magazine's 1993 Honor Roll for his work as an educator with WIER.
The WIER 10th anniversary festivities will continue throughout 1998, Owen promises. In April, WIER's contribution to Canada Book Day will see students from each province and territory create a collaborative story by contributing individual paragraphs throughout the day. The final outcome will be kept online as a representation of Canada's youth in 1998. An online contest will also involve schools coast to coast to coast.
In September, Honour a Teacher Day will feature a set of local events in participating schools, organized nationally by WIER. Teachers who have been influential in the WIER project will be featured. The 10th anniversary edition of WIER's annual publication, The WIER Tap, will be a collection of student writings by past and present students, and new pieces written by WIER alumni recounting their WIER experiences.
Another innovation for 1998 is the WIER Maclean's Forum, launched in January at the Maclean's website (www.macleans.ca). West-coast poet Susan Musgrave was the first writer in residence on site. She engaged in lively discussions about literary topics with people across Canada. A range of writers, including Howard Engel, Austin Clarke, Ann Ireland and Bill Richardson will be featured, each in turn participating for a month.
A number of Canada's promising younger writers will be featured as well, including Richard Van Camp, Michael Lane, Esta Spalding, Eden Robinson and Andrew Pyper. This initiative is sponsored by the Canadian Council and Canada's Schoolnet.
As for WIER's dedicated and enthusiastic founder and administrator, Trevor Owen will continue to develop and nurture WIER while serving as editor of the Journal of Online Learning and as a member of the Instructional Technology Committee of the National Council of Teachers of English. He is also completing a doctoral program in education at the University of Calgary.
by Stephanie Robinson
For 26 years, Osgoode Hall Law School and the Schulich School of Business have offered a joint MBA/LLB program. The Osgoode/ Schulich program was the first of its kind in Canada, and it allows students to complete an MBA and an LLB in four years. Students spend their first year in Law or in the MBA, the second year in the MBA or Law, and the final two years doing a combination of both programs.
One of the first graduates of the program was John Bankes. Bankes decided to do a joint degree because he was torn between law and business, and the joint program offered a way to avoid committing to one field. Bankes is now an instructor of the joint program seminar. He describes the joint program as an "intellectual biathlon" in which students pursue two distinct but complementary fields of study.
The program creates many career opportunities in popular occupations such as corporate law, investment banking, management consulting and various entrepreneurial endeavours.
Professor Ian McDougall, one of the directors of the joint program, says that joint degree students are in demand among law firms that practice corporate and commercial law. These students have an understanding of basic business concepts, relate more readily to business clients, and have a greater interest in business transactions. For many firms, corporate and commercial law is a mainstay. The joint program gives students a comprehensive business background and provides them with credentials that distinguish them from other law graduates.
Folklore of the joint program has it that joint degree students do well in their articles; but many students seriously consider other options than law. It is common for students to do their articles, complete the Bar Admission course and receive their call to the Bar, only to reevaluate their career direction and transfer into the commercial sector. Students are drawn to the commercial sector by starting salaries and salary growth that is much higher than they could hope for at law firms.
The Osgoode/Schulich MBA/ LLB is the only program in North America to offer an integrated course between the two faculties of law and business. In the final term of the fourth year, students take the MBA/LLB Seminar, an advanced, corporate finance course. This class gives students an opportunity to ask career-related questions of their instructors, who are practising lawyers and business people. Prof. McDougall has said that these sessions convince many students that they don't want to practice law.
Admission to the joint program is competitive. Students who apply must satisfy the entrance criteria of both Osgoode Hall Law School and the Schulich School of Business, which means that they must write both the LSAT and the GMAT. After clearing both of these hurdles, aspirants submit their applications, which are reviewed by the joint program committee. For admission in September 1997, 36 applications were received. Twenty-nine offers of admission were sent out and 17 students enrolled.
Students and directors are frank about the weaknesses of the program. Doing the MBA/LLB means dealing with two faculties, neither of which has any knowledge of what the other is doing. Students are left to their own devices to resolve administrative issues, since, while a faculty member from each school serves as a program codirector, there is no single person employed full-time to handle the program administration. While the Osgoode/Schulich program is attempting to unify its administration, more work needs to be done.
The program directors are hoping to develop more integrated courses to take advantage of the common skills and complements of the two schools. Very little time is spent integrating the two sides of the program. C.J. Scott, a second year, joint program student, commented that, "Sometimes you wonder why they call it a joint program at all."
The programs are not integrated to maximize the benefits of both schools. Currently, only one integrated seminar is offered, but there is potential for more in the areas of tax, business and corporate finance. The fourth-year seminar course attempts to identify subjects that lend themselves to both legal and business study, and to draw on the expertise acquired in both schools. For example, finance and accounting are natural tie-ins to corporate law.
One future possibility is accepting the Business Administration law course as an elective option for the winter term of the MBA year. Offering more integrated courses would be a significant change that would make the Osgoode/Schulich program more specialized and unique among joint MBA/LLBs in North America.
Students give a variety of reasons when asked why they chose to enrol in the program. Cameron Goodnough, a third year student, said that his rationale was to delay making a decision between two careers. He said that the advantages of the program are that it provides aspiring corporate lawyers with an advanced understanding of business, while teaching business students about the legal implications of contracts, employment and environmental regulations.
The workflow in the business school is different than the workflow in the law school, he said. Assignments in Schulich courses are smaller and are due throughout the term, thus affording the opportunity for feedback and adjusting study and work habits where needed.
Overall, the joint MBA/LLB is a valuable program that offers students the opportunity to acquire a deeper understanding of two complementary fields. Legal study develops an ability to rigorously analyze a situation, business study focuses on resolving problems. The synthesis of the two methods in the MBA/LLB creates an exciting academic opportunity. Students and directors admit that the program needs some fine-tuning, but they are satisfied with the possibilities it offers.
This piece first appeared in the Insider, the student newspaper of the Schulich School of Business. It is reproduced with permission.
by John Dwyer
How can departments and faculties improve the culture and support for teaching? It's not an easy question to answer. Every university unit has its own unique professional culture within which teaching is fostered and rewarded. One general rule of thumb, however, is to avoid a top down or authoritative approach to nurturing a teaching culture. Any administrative support must be given sotto voce, so that the ownership of change remains a democratic process.
On the whole, models are more useful than prescriptions. Diane Labréche is director of the Teaching Project at Osgoode Hall Law School. Her approach to teaching development is intensely collegial and consultative. "Everything that I've done in the last year at Osgoode has been based upon a belief that faculty members need to appropriate the teaching issue for themselves," she says.
The essential role of a teaching developer is to listen closely to the views and to appreciate the perceptions of faculty members. Labréche consults regularly with Osgoode faculty. She leads graduate classes on teaching and learning, and conducts monthly workshops for faculty. "The workshops are well attended," says Labréche. "We have had an average of 30 participants at our sessions, and a high percentage of Osgoode faculty have attended at least one or more workshops."
Labréche hopes that the Osgoode experience will provide a model and touchstone for teaching development in York's other faculties. She has suggestions that are of particular relevance for administrators, deans and chairs, who seek to promote teaching within their respective units.
1. Designate a teaching advisor who is a good listener, a respected colleague and an individual who is committed to teaching.
2. Empower and support teaching advisors by giving them credit for efforts on behalf of their colleagues.
3. Provide some administrative support, so that teaching advisors can focus on reaching out to colleagues rather than booking rooms and advertising workshops.
4. Maintain an arm's length relationship with your teaching advisor, so that faculty members trust the independence and integrity of the position.
5. Respect the collegial role of a teaching advisor by never using her/him as teaching police.
6. Celebrate difference in teaching. Diversity is the catalyst for collaborative dialogue that enriches and deepens a teaching culture.
7. Make use of available resources and support within the wider institution, but don't lose the focus on the appropriation of teaching issues within the unit.
8. Above all else, be patient. A department, school or faculty thrives on the collegial model. Precipitous intervention invariably does more harm than good.
Labréche hopes to share some of her experiences in a future Speaking of Teaching column. I hope that you will encourage her to do so by dropping her an email note at labreche@yorku.ca
John Dwyer is consultant to the Centre for the Support of Teaching.
Speaking of Teaching is a regular column edited by the Centre for the Support of Teaching. If you have an idea that works, a concern about teaching or a view you would like to express, please send it to us in Room 111 Central Square or call us at 736-5754, and we'll try to include it in a future column. Longer items will be considered for publication in the Core Issues newsletter. Our Internet home page is: http:// www.yorku.ca/admin/cst/
An evening with Peter Gzowski
In celebration of its 35th anniversary, Atkinson College is hosting a very special evening with author and broadcaster Peter Gzowski. For 15 years, Gzowski hosted CBC Radio's Morningside, the program Maclean's magazine called "the best and most Canadian thing in Canadian broadcasting radio or television."
Newspaperman, magazine editor, author and broadcaster, Gzowski has won virtually every award available in the Canadian media: seven ACTRA Awards, a Governor General's Award for the performing arts, a lifetime achievement award from the Canadian Media Foundation, and a prestigious Peabody Award (he is the only Canadian ever so honored for his work in Canada). He has been made an Officer of the Order of Canada and a member of the Canadian News Hall of Fame. Twelve Canadian institutions of higher learning (including Atkinson College), have presented him with honorary degrees.
During his years at Morningside, Gzowski continued his life as a writer, publishing seven books, including Canadian Living, a collection of his columns in the magazine of the same name, which was short-listed for the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour.
He has published 12 books in total. The latest, The Morningside Years, includes interviews, letters, photos, cartoons, recipes, and a CD featuring the Morningside theme together with a number of the program's special moments. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing at the event being hosted by Atkinson.
"Peter Gzowski in Conversation" is slated for Thursday, March 26, 7:30 p.m., in the Moot Court Room at Osgoode Hall Law School. Admission is free and everyone is welcome.
Atkinson students win Doane Raymond Accounting Case Competition
Martine Caron and Sherali Naseer, students in the BAS honours accounting option at Atkinson, are the winners of the Doane Raymond Accounting Case Competition. The competition is for students enroled at universities in central Canada. It requires presenting an analysis of a case situation that involves financial accounting and related tax, economic and cost accounting issues.
The judges, both partners in the public accounting firm of Doane Raymond, made their decision based on "the quality of the Atkinson team's qualitative and quantitative analysis." The successful students praised the pre-competition coaching they received from Ira Walfish, who instructs Atkinson's advanced course in comprehensive accounting problems.
MEMBERSHIP AND MEDALS: (Left to right) Professor Robert Haynes, Department of Biology and president of the Royal Society, with Professors Norman Endler, Georgina Feldberg, David Regan and Hédi Bouraoui at the RSC awards banquet.
Four members of the University's faculty were honoured by the Royal Society of Canada at its Annual Awards Banquet in November 1997.
University Professor Hédi Bouraoui of French Studies was inducted into the society as a new Fellow, and Distinguished Research Professors Norman Endler and David Regan of Psychology, and Dr. Georgina Feldberg, director of the Centre for Health Studies, received medals for their outstanding contributions in research.
Bouraoui was inducted into the society "for his contribution to literary rebirth as a theoretician of repute and a writer of great talent."
Endler received the Innis-Gérin medal "for distinguished and sustained contributions to the social sciences."
Regan was presented with the Sir John William Dawson medal "for important and sustained contributions in at least two different domains."
Feldberg received the Jason A. Hannah medal "for an important Canadian publication in the history of medicine."
The honourees and their work were profiled in the Gazette this past autumn.
Theatre @ York welcomes spring with a mainstage production of William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale.
One of Shakespeare's late romance plays, The Winter's Tale moves from a bitter winter of estrangement and loss to the summer of reconciliation and renewal, in a story combining high drama, low comedy and romantic love.
The play jumps over time and space, from the court of Sicilia, which has been devastated by King Leontes' savage and irrational jealousy of his wife and oldest friend, to the sunny, pastoral world of Bohemia where the lost child, Perdita, has grown up as a simple shepherd's daughter. In this idyllic community, another eruption of patriarchal rage is averted and harmony magically restored.
The Winter's Tale continues its run at the Burton Auditorium with matinees at 1 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday, March 25 and 27, and evening performances at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday, March 25-28. Admission is $10, students and seniors $7, group rate $5.
To reach the Department of Theatre box office, telephone 736-5157 or email mnaccar@ yorku.ca.
by Miguel Martin
The following essay won the $200 grand prize in the national Young People's Press Writer's Corner contest. The writer is a second-year student at York.
My favorite episode of The Simpsons dealt with Lisa Simpson becoming a vegetarian. Wherever she saw meat or heard the topic of meat being discussed, she decided to take a stand.
This action elicited two "independent thought" alarms from staff members at Lisa's school. Principal Skinner decided to take swift action. Lisa's class was subjected to a propaganda film from the Meat Board. Students learned, among other things, that the food chain consists of all animals being consumed by human beings and that cows go to Bovine University where, upon graduation, they are certified ready to be eaten by vastly superior humans.
To ensure the point was drilled home, tripe was provided to the class by the Meat Board. Lisa tried to stop her classmates as they rushed to the free meat. One student responded to her efforts by saying, "Obviously, our crazy friend has never heard of the food chain." Another said, "When I grow up I want to go to Bovine University."
The first airing of this episode couldn't have been better timed. At the same time as I was laughing at the absurdity of The Simpsons' scenario, my high school was living it. The Milk Board, in an effort to boost awareness of milk (I guess), held a competition involving 700 schools across Ontario. The first hundred schools to reach a certain level of milk consumption would receive a free MuchMusic video dance.
To assist in the promotion of this "noble cause" (as it was described to me later), schools were provided with posters, plastic cows and cow suits (worn by students who visited each class, yelling "BUY MILK!"). In what can only be described as a scene from George Orwell's 1984, the contest coordinators even took to the morning announcements to promote this consumption binge. "BUY MILK!" became the first thing everyone heard in the morning. Sort of like, "Big Brother is watching."
A group of students, including myself, challenged this contest. We were told we had no school spirit (which is bizarre, considering I was the editor of the yearbook), and assured that, despite our protests, the contest would go on.
We asked the person running the contest whether the promotion might be compromising the integrity of the education we were receiving. She replied, "You stand for education and I commend you for that. I, however, stand for raising school spirit."
Obviously, those protesting the Milk Board had never heard of the food chain.
I circulated a petition against the campaign. This did not sit well with the principal, who threatened me with suspension if I did not withdraw it. She said contest leaders were "suffering academically" as a result of my actions. She also said that interfering with a student's ability to function academically was an offense for which I could be suspended.
It appeared someone had pressed the independent thought alarm. I was not the only one to harbour subversive thoughts. Hugh Barnett, a student in Collingwood, attempted to raise awareness of the problem of violence against women [last] year. Normally, this is considered a good thing. The campaign included a march during school time. The principal felt this was inappropriate. Barnett went ahead with the march and was suspended for five days.
Things are a little different at the university level. The Ubyssey, the student newspaper at the University of British Columbia, tried to obtain information about a deal struck between Coca-Cola Ltd. and UBC. The university refused. Apparently, the university's refusal to release details is because Coca-Cola's independence would be compromised. According to UBC spokesmen, members of the UBC community were allowed to scrutinize the deal. Apparently, students at The Ubyssey don't count as part of the community. The issue is now in the Court of Appeals.
The common theme here is the questioning of internal power. Through addressing social problems like violence against women or challenging the corporate infiltration of schools, students are demonstrating independent thought. That can't be tolerated.
Schools are supposed to produce as many workers as possible, as efficiently as possible. Students are drilled with repetitive procedures from singing the national anthem every morning to repetitive timetables. The reason for this is to get everyone accustomed to the hypnotic and repetitive nature of work. If, from an early age, everyone is taught that routine is the only way to go, there will be little questioning later. Hence, greater efficiency.
There has been much weeping and gnashing of teeth over proposed education funding cuts by [former] education minister John Snobolen. While this is a serious problem, I think we would be better off if people tried to get schools to teach students to become thinking human beings, rather than efficient workers right out of a George Orwell novel.
