Warren Buffett's always interesting annual letter to shareholders for2007 is now available at ---
http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2007ltr.pdf
Denny

Humanities departments may take hope in the fact that Warren Buffet has a Bachelor of Arts undergraduate degree (Nebraska) and rose to become the most respected and wealthy (self-made) businessman in the world. He also has a M.S. degree in Economics (Columbia). I have serious reservations about the new thrust for corporations and large professional firms in accounting and law to "script" (read that alter the curriculum) in schools as described below in spite of their best intentions. Think of Warren Buffet majoring in liberal arts at Nebraska.

"High Schools Add Classes Scripted by Corporations Lockheed, Intel Fund Engineering Courses; Creating a Work Force," by Anne Marie Chaker, The Wall Street Journal, March 6, 2008; Page A1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120476410964115117.html?mod=todays_us_page_one

In a recent class at Abraham Clark High School in Roselle, N.J., business teacher Barbara Govahn distributed glossy classroom materials that invited students to think about what they want to be when they grow up. Eighteen career paths were profiled, including a writer, a magician, a town mayor -- and five employees from accounting giant Deloitte LLP.

"Consider a career you may never have imagined," the book suggests. "Working as a professional auditor."

The curriculum, provided free to the public school by a nonprofit arm of Deloitte, aims to persuade students to join the company's ranks. One 18-year-old senior in Ms. Govahn's class, Hipolito Rivera, says the company-sponsored lesson drove home how professionals in all fields need accountants. "They make it sound pretty good," he says.

Deloitte and other corporations are reaching out to classrooms -- drafting curricula while also conveying the benefits of working for the sponsor companies. Hoping to create a pipeline of workers far into the future, these corporations furnish free lesson plans and may also underwrite classroom materials, computers or training seminars for teachers.

The programs represent a new dimension of the business world's influence in public schools. Companies such as McDonald's Corp. and Yum Brands Inc.'s Pizza Hut have long attempted to use school promotions to turn students into customers. The latest initiatives would turn them into employees.

Companies that employ engineers, fearful of a coming labor shortage, are at the movement's forefront. Lockheed Martin Corp. began funding engineering courses two years ago at schools near its aircraft testing and development site in Palmdale, Calif., saying it hopes to replenish its local work force. Starting in 2004, British engine-maker Rolls-Royce PLC has helped fund high-school courses in topics such as engine propulsion. Intel Corp. supports curricula in school districts where engineering concepts are taught as early as the elementary level.

Schools, for their part, have embraced corporate support as state education funding has remained flat for a decade and declining housing values now threaten to eat into property-tax revenues. Teachers, meanwhile, often welcome the lesson plans, classroom equipment and the corporate-sponsored professional development sessions.

But however well-intentioned, such corporate input may blur the line between pure academics and a commercial agenda, critics say. "When you have a corporation or any special interest offering an incentive, you are distorting the educational purpose of the schools," says Alex Molnar, an education-policy professor at Arizona State University who directs the school's Commercialism in Education Research Unit.

Schools Should Decide

The hiring priorities of a company or industry, Mr. Molnar says, can change quickly. On the other hand, he says, schools should provide a broad and consistent foundation of knowledge and skills. Deciding what to teach is "first and foremost, a series of choices," he says. Historically, those choices have been made by school officials and professional educators, based on the interests of their community's children, not on the shifting needs of industry.

Nonetheless, many school officials are receptive. Tamika Bauknight, the Roselle district's director of curriculum and instruction, concedes that corporate self-interest is at work in the curriculum provided by Deloitte, whose career-choice materials include profiles of the company's chairman of the board and an audit manager. But she believes students benefit. "If through the curriculum they consider becoming an accountant and thinking about Deloitte," she says, "that isn't a bad thing."

Businesses have sought to shape public-school lessons before, but past initiatives focused more on teaching trades. In the early 20th century, companies fostered industrial education in high schools to feed their factory needs. More recently, Cisco Systems Inc. has offered information-technology certification to students who learn computer-networking skills. Now, by contrast, companies are seeking to start training students for professions that often require university degrees.

Robotics for Middle Schoolers

One of corporate-sponsored curricula's largest conduits into U.S. classrooms is Project Lead the Way, a nonprofit organization based in Clifton Park, N.Y., that develops engineering coursework used in more than 2,000 schools nationwide. For high schools, it offers eight full-year engineering courses, including digital electronics and civil engineering. It also provides five 10-week units for middle schools on topics such as robotics.

Project Lead the Way was formed 10 years ago with an initial $1.5 million grant from a foundation run by Richard Liebich, chief executive of a tool-manufacturing company based in Orchard Park, N.Y. Mr. Liebich said he could never find enough engineers to hire, and envisioned an entity that could help by creating engineering courses for pre-college students. The group's curriculum is technical, with no textbooks. Open-ended questions and problems encourage students to be creative, the organization says.

Project Lead the Way says its courses are offered as electives, and aren't meant to supplant core subjects typically taught in school.

"What these companies bring is contemporary expertise that can sometimes be insulated in a purely academic environment," says Niel Tebbano, Lead the Way's vice president of operations. With a traditional, theoretical approach to math or sciences, he says, "you get the young people asking, 'Why do I need to learn this?'" The lack of real-world application for this knowledge, he says, "has been the albatross around public education's neck."

The group concedes that companies may contribute to the nonprofit to ensure their own interests are reflected in lessons. The National Fluid Power Association, an industry trade group based in Milwaukee, Wis., paid the group $100,000 to hire fluid-power experts to ensure that concepts on hydraulics and pneumatics would be incorporated into the courses.

In another case, a senior engineer in the Indianapolis-based unit of engine maker Rolls-Royce, which had been funding Project Lead the Way courses in a handful of local schools, noticed what he considered a lack of material on propulsion. So he helped write a new lesson for the project's aerospace course. Now, the class has an optional six-day "Introduction to Propulsion" unit that includes a PowerPoint presentation on a gas turbine engine "by kind permission of Rolls Royce."

That same aerospace course is scheduled for revision again, and this time Lockheed Martin is contributing $146,000 to have a say in the new version. A presentation shown to company executives outlining Lockheed's educational efforts specifies that "increasing general interest in math and science for all students" is "not our goal." Nudging students toward Lockheed, the presentation says, is.

Lockheed is bracing for a worker shortage. The company estimates that about half of its science- and engineering-based work force will be retiring in the next decade or so. Meanwhile, interest in engineering as a career is declining among U.S. students. In a 2007 survey of more than 270,000 college freshmen conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, 7.5% said they intended to major in engineering -- the lowest level since the 1970s. National-security restrictions preclude the Bethesda, Md., company and other major defense contractors from outsourcing many jobs overseas.

"We're already within the window of criticality to get tomorrow's engineers in the classroom today," says Jim Knotts, director of corporate citizenship for Lockheed. "We want to address a national need to develop the next generation of engineers -- but with some affinity toward Lockheed Martin."

Lockheed is particularly eager to refresh the engineer pool at its giant facility in Palmdale, Calif. Here, at the southern edge of the Mojave Desert, the company works alongside aerospace giants Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp., designing aircraft and testing them near an Air Force facility known as Plant 42. Luring workers to this flat, parched area is a challenge, Lockheed and local officials concede. So the company, working with local schools, is hoping to develop its own talent.

Since the 2005-06 school year, Lockheed has provided $45,000 to fund Project Lead the Way's engineering courses at three high schools in the local Antelope Valley Union High School District. The company's contribution pays for materials and supplies for at least three yearlong courses at each school.

David Vierra, superintendent of the Antelope Valley Union district near Palmdale, welcomes the corporate presence to an area that relies on engineers to feed its economy. Young workers with family ties there may be more likely to put down roots. "We're trying to develop a home-grown engineer," he says.

Continued in article

Jensen Comments
I know there are pros and cons in all of this, and I definitely have some close humanities colleagues who will literally hit the ceiling when they read about corporate scripting of curricula. Actually the term "corporate” is that C-word in their vocabulary. I hope that backers of corporate scripting of curricula will find a more diplomatic way of bringing the entrenched “liberal arts” faculty in on this initiative.

Question
What are the longer-term advantages of a career-oriented major (e.g., a professional program) versus an academic-oriented major (e.g., a liberal arts major)?

"Employment and the Undergraduate Degree," by Elia Powers, Inside Higher Ed, March 5, 2008 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/03/05/jobs

During a period of economic uncertainty, it’s not much fun seeing data from generally more prosperous times. A new report from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics takes a look at employment trends over a 10-year span starting in 1993, and the outlook was positive for college graduates. It took time for some to find a job with “career potential,” the report notes, but most had done so by 2003.

The path differed somewhat, particularly in the early career years, for students depending on their focus. Those with “career oriented” majors appeared to become more established in the workforce earlier than did their counterparts with “academic” majors, according to the report.

. . .

“The image is if you major in an academic subject you’ll be flipping burgers all your life,” Humphreys said. “This report doesn’t show that. It does show that [students with career-oriented majors] get into their career track more quickly, but suggests that in a few years, there’s not a big difference in job satisfaction.”

Humphreys added that while the NCES data is important and relevant, it’s also somewhat dated. The business environment is “changing faster than ever,” Humphreys said, and business leaders are telling the group that it’s most important that students have a broad set of transferable skills.

AAC&U’s survey of 300 employers, conducted last year, showed that new hires had the skills needed for entry-level work but often lacked the background needed to take on advanced assignments. (That report didn’t differentiate among majors.)

Bob Jensen's threads on higher education controversies are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm

Update on Second Life Virtual Worlds in Accounting, Finance, and Business

March 8, 2008 message from Steven Hornik [shornik@BUS.UCF.EDU]

I just wanted to pass these along for those interested in using Virtual Worlds.  The first three articles are related to business school uses of Second Life that appeared in the Financial Times earlier this week.  Followed by a link to a story about Deloitte's involvement with a virtual world to help teens learn business.  Finally, I've provided links to my blog in which I briefly discuss the announcement and release yesterday by Second Life of a new viewer in which Web pages can be brought in-world and thus shared - its static right now but gives a glimpse of what is coming down the road. And one describing students using Second Life for completing financial accounting HW assignments.

Financial Times Articles:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/42855396-e8c3-11dc-913a-0000779fd2ac.html
--From first steps to flight - an avatar's journey

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5689e7bc-e8c3-11dc-913a-0000779fd2ac.html
-- A Second Life for classrooms with vision

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2f81e8e4-e8c4-11dc-913a-0000779fd2ac.html
--Students take a leap into the virtual world


Deloitte uses Virtual World to Teach Teens About Business
http://snipr.com/21a4z  [publications_mediapost_com]

Web on a Prim (almost there):
http://www.mydebitcredit.com/2008/03/07/second-lifes-web-on-a-prim-is-getting-closer/
SL HW assignments:
http://www.mydebitcredit.com/2008/02/29/91-avatars/

_____________________________
Dr. Steven Hornik
University of Central Florida
Dixon School of Accounting
407-823-5739
Second Life: Robins Hermano
http://mydebitcredit.com
yahoo ID: shornik
 

Bob Jensen's threads on Second Life are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#SecondLife

Question
When will the presidential candidates tackle the real economic crisis facing the United States?

It's the Dollar, Stupid

If the reality of a collapsing dollar and foreign exchange turmoil starts to bite consumers where they keep their pocketbooks -- for example, if the U.S. finds it necessary to raise interest rates to entice foreigners to buy the government bonds that finance our deficit -- the affects of currency misalignment could quickly move from the realm of dry treatises to the hyperactive world of live, televised political debate. Media consultants may grow apoplectic at the thought of having to reduce seemingly complex options into clever sound bites: Does the candidate advocate a new global monetary order linked to a universally-recognized reserve asset as a mechanism to guard against tinkering by self-serving governments? ("Gold: Money We Can Believe In.") Or is it possible to defend the existing, do-your-own-thing approach to currency relations, which undermines stable trade and capital flows at the expense of global prosperity? Meanwhile, foreign-exchange market specialists earn big profits by gambling -- some $3 trillion daily -- on where currencies might go next. It's time the candidates devote less time on the minutiae of configuring the next economic stimulus package, or renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement. They should be thinking about how they will confront the imminent global currency crisis.
Judy Shelton, "It's the Dollar, Stupid," The Wall Street Journal, March 5, 2008; Page A17 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120468065700512153.html?mod=djemEditorialPage

"The Mess of Mandated Markets:  New federal biofuel standards passed last year will distort the development of innovative technologies," by David Rotman, MIT's Technology Review, March/April 2008 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/Biztech/20226/?nlid=921

Few things prompt Washington policymakers to forget their professed belief in the efficiency of free markets faster than $100-a-barrel oil prices--or even the threat of them. In one of the most notable recent examples, as the price of crude oil edged toward the $100 mark late last year, the U.S. Congress passed, and President Bush quickly signed, the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. Among its various provisions, the energy bill prescribes a minimum amount of biofuel that gasoline suppliers must use in their products each year through 2022. The new mandates, which significantly expand the Renewable Fuels Standard of 2005, would more than double the 2007 market for corn-derived ethanol, to 15 billion gallons, by 2015. At the same time, the bill ensures the creation of a new market for cellulosic biofuels made from such sources as prairie grass, wood chips, and agricultural waste. The standards call for the production of 500 million gallons of cellulosic biofuel by 2012, one billion gallons by 2013, and 16 billion gallons by 2022. Not surprisingly, the ethanol industry is very happy. The Biotechnology Industry Organization, a Washington-based trade association whose members include both large manufacturers and startup companies developing new cellulosic technologies, suggests that "this moment in the history of transportation fuels development can be compared to the transition from whale oil to kerosene to light American homes in the 1850s." The new push for biofuels, the trade association continues, is "larger than the Apollo project or the Manhattan project" and will require the construction of 300 biofuel plants, each with a capacity of 100 million gallons, at a cost of up to $100 billion. In short, the federal government has legislated the growth of a sizable industry. The often stated aim of the biofuel standards is to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and dependence on foreign oil. And biofuels, particularly cellulosic ones, could arguably play a significant role in achieving both those goals (see "The Price of Biofuels," January/­February 2008). But quite apart from the value of ethanol and other biofuels, the creation of markets by federal law raises fundamental questions about the best way to implement a national energy policy. Can legislated markets survive economic conditions and policy priori­ties that change over the long term? And what role should the government play in promoting specific technologies? Mandated consumption levels break the "one-to-one link" between market demand and the adoption of a technology, says Harry de Gorter, an associate professor of applied economics and management at Cornell University: "As an economist, I don't like it. Economists like to let the markets determine what [technology] has the best chances." The new biofuel mandates are "betting on a particular technology," he says. "It is almost impossible to predict the best technology. It is almost inevitable that [mandates] will generate inefficiencies." While de Gorter acknowledges that some economists might justify mandated markets as a way to promote a desired social policy, he questions the strategy's effectiveness. "Historically, there are no good examples of it working in alternative energy," he says. One reason economists tend to be wary of mandated consumption levels is that they can have unintended consequences for related markets. Producing 15 billion gallons of conventional ethanol will require farmers to grow far more corn than they now do. And even with the increased harvest, biofuel production will consume around 45 percent of the U.S. corn crop, compared with 22 percent in 2007. The effects on the agricultural sector will be various and complex.

 

Livescribe, the pen that records audio while you take notes --- http://www.livescribe.com/smartpen/videos.html

Notes on the Smart Pen
The smart pen that Wired Campus flagged back in May was unveiled last week at a technology conference in Palm Springs, Calif. The company behind it, LiveScribe, has been aggressively marketing the device to college students with the slogan "Never miss a word." It's basically a combination recording machine and camera. Users take notes while a minirecorder, embedded in the pen, records whatever is being said. Later, to clarify the written notes, the user can touch the pen to a specific passage and listen to a recording of the instructor speaking those words. A tiny camera links what is being written to what is being recorded. In a takeoff on television commercials for pharmaceuticals, the smart-pen advertisement below features a student who suffers from "restless mind syndrome." The pen is offered as a panacea. Livescribe has set up a Facebook page to push the pen, and offers to pay college students to promote the device on their campuses. It's also advertised on the Web site ThePalestra, where Andy Van Schaack, a senior lecturer at Vanderbilt University, who is an adviser to LiveScribe, is seen praising the pen. Will the pen, which sells for about $200, take off with college students? Will it be used as a crutch for students who are too tired or distracted to listen to their professors?
Andrea L. Foster, "Notes on the Smart Pen," Chronicle of Higher Education, February 5, 2008 ---
http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=2719&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

See a video at http://assistivetek.blogspot.com/2008/01/livescribe-pulse-smartpen-to-ship-in.html

But during exams and case discussions in class be careful what scratch “paper” students are using with the Smart Pen--- http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/19892/?nlid=749&a=f

Bob Jensen's threads on gadgets are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob4.htm#Technology

March 8, 2008 reply from David Albrecht [albrecht@PROFALBRECHT.COM]

I’m repeating myself here, but if you allow students to have smart pens during examinations and case discussion, be careful what they’re using for scratch “paper” with those pens - Bob Jensen

Bob, if you can repeat yourself, then I'll take the liberty to repeat myself.

Professors in the classroom who hold themselves out as a repository of knowledge and who dedicate themselves to transferring this knowledge to their students have been beta-maxed by the Internet and various high-tech devices.

Decades of research into how humans learn has led to a revolution in the collegiate classroom, a revolution that has largely failed to reach accounting classrooms, I might add. Instead of fearing the use of smart pens on exams and communication devices during exams, I think we should embrace their use.

In my opinion, I think that modern college students have adapted to the knowledge-is-everywhere environment and have become quite skilled in locating knowledge and regurgitating it (more adept than we ever were). Where we as professors go wrong is that we force students to take tests in unrealistic environments. Not only is a pen and paper test unrealistic