MEDIA

Clickers in class: York students try hand-held learning
Every student in Patrick Monahan's first-year public law class has a remote shot at a good grade. That's because the dean of York ’s Osgoode Hall Law School is among a growing number of professors experimenting with a new teaching tool designed to click with their technology-savvy students, reported the Toronto Star Sept. 28. The story was also featured in Metro’s Workology column. Teachers can pose questions, give tests and conduct impromptu polls by giving students a personal response system, commonly known as a "clicker", a hand-held keypad similar to a TV remote.

Only a handful of professors at York, U of T and Ryerson are experimenting with clickers as a way of making lectures more engaging and encouraging class attendance and preparatory reading, but other academics are watching with interest. Monahan is convinced clickers are more than a gimmick. "If I ask a question in a class of 70 students, only one person at a time can answer. The thing about these clickers is that it allows everyone simultaneously to participate and one of the things we are promoting is that active learning is more beneficial than passive learning. It encourages students to assimilate the information better," he said, although he doesn't discount the fun clickers can add to a class.

Last year, Monahan's students used clickers anonymously. This year, the clickers have been programmed with students' identification numbers so they can earn up to five per cent of their grade by correctly answering questions. Most of the time you've got to do your reading before class to get the answers right, said law student Jon Aiello. Teachers like Monahan say clickers give them an instant read on how well their students are absorbing the material and, when necessary, they can go back and review the information.

Technology means students increasingly access academia from outside the walls of the ivory tower using Web casts and online summaries, so it's only natural that professors would harness similar tools to lure them back to lecture halls, said Mario Therrien, director of information technology services at Osgoode. "Some faculty see this is as a way of taking back a classroom. They can use it to take attendance. They can structure the class where it's highly interactive. The students are really getting engaged," he said.

Clickers that work on infrared or radio frequency technology are relatively cheap. For the price of two computers, about $5,000, you can buy 100 clickers, related software and three receivers, said Therrien. Most universities rent the individual keypads to students through the campus bookstore. With the majority of students carrying laptops to class, surfing and chatting online are irresistible temptations if the lecture gets dull, said law student Ian Hu, who participated in Monahan's clicker pilot last year. "If you just listen to the professor's lecture you lose concentration after 10 or 15 minutes, but the clicker is a fun interlude. When it comes to drifting it's good to have the clicker to wake you up," he said.

Student federation praises York 's freeze on graduate school tuition
In a surprise move Tuesday, York University announced it will voluntarily continue to freeze tuition until 2008 in many of its 43 graduate programs, serving more than 5,000 students. The move does not include Osgoode Hall law fees or most business school tuition, reported the Toronto Star Sept. 28. Vice-President Academic Sheila Embleton said in a statement that the University is "concerned about accessibility to graduate programs and wants to continue to recruit and retain excellent graduate students." Jesse Greener of the Canadian Federation of Students, Ontario , hailed York 's move and said he hopes Queen's Park will realize that higher fees really do affect which students enrol in university programs. "It's important to have financial aid but there isn't enough to help the broad swath of middle-class students."

Which is faster to York from Richmond Hill – bike, car or high-tech VIVA?
With the advent of York Region’s new high-tech VIVA bus service to York University, David Menzies, a writer for the National Post’s Driver’s Edge section, decided to test three ways of getting to York – by VIVA, car and bicycle. Excerpts from his Sept. 23 report:

First things first: The buses, inside and out, are indeed beautiful. The seats are well-upholstered and spaced far apart. A low floor and spacious entrances make getting in and out easy; flush-fitted doors and minimal engine noise allow one to read or work in relative peace. Tables at the rear of the bus allow you to work on a laptop, while GPS technology gives the buses traffic signal priority. A female computerized voice – eerily similar to the one on Star Trek: The Next Generation – announces upcoming stops. In the near future, onboard video screens will broadcast news updates and VIVA buses will also offer free wireless Internet. Certainly, the price is right: A VIVA fare is $2.25, and congestion-reducing buses are more environmentally friendly than cars.

The details: Armed with a stopwatch, I took a different form of transit – car, VIVA (two buses) and bicycle – from my ichmond Hill, Ont., home near Yonge Street and Elgin Mills to York University in northwest Toronto (a distance of 21 km). I left my house each weekday morning at the same time ( 8:20am ); each day was identical (sunny and warm).

The winner, somewhat surprisingly, was the bicycle. Trust me, this is more of an indictment of how bad traffic is these days as opposed to your humble scribe resembling Lance Armstrong.

That's not to say the low-tech two-wheeler is the be-all and end-all answer for commuters. Given that the climate of the greater Toronto area can resemble either Anaheim or Anchorage depending on the season, a bicycle – for many people – simply doesn't function as a suitable year-round alternative.

When comparing the car and bus head on, the car won – albeit by a paltry two minutes.  

Bottom line:  
BICYCLE
Travel time: 52 minutes, 31 seconds (riding into a moderate wind).
CAR
Travel time: One hour, two minutes, 44 seconds.
BUS
Travel time: One hour, four minutes, 42 seconds (including a nine-minute, six-second walk to the VIVA bus stop located 0.7 km from my house).

Say cheese, car thief
An act of late-night automotive sabotage sparked a team of York University student engineers to create the paranoid car owner's best friend, reported The Globe and Mail Sept. 24. Their alarm system, as yet unnamed, e-mails you a picture of the criminal who scratches or steals your car. It was designed by Mina Gendi, Tristan Carvelho, Eugene Oulman and Quingyang Kong as a class project after Gendi's car was vandalized in a York University parking lot. The team's alarm uses a pair of tiny cameras that are triggered by sensors that detect motion around a vehicle. Images from the cameras are stored on a hard drive inside the car and sent to the owner's cellphone. The prototype was built using scrounged parts, including an impact sensor the team found on a toy inside a cereal box. Kong says there are no plans to patent or market the system, because of financial limitations imposed by their student status and the fact that today's cars lack the onboard computer system required to make the alarm function. "We think that in the future, all cars will have computers," he said. "But the future isn't here yet."

Allyson Mitchell: wild and woolly
As any red-blooded seventies-style feminist will tell you, women's body hair is a political issue, and willed hairlessness a signal of female sexual self-doubt, wrote Sarah Milroy in The Globe and Mail Sept. 23. A visit to Allyson Mitchell's new exhibition, Lady Sasquatch, at Paul Petro Contemporary Art in Toronto, is, thus, the perfect consciousness-raising-du-jour for the woman about town, a show that celebrates the she-beast in all of us with a suite of hand-stitched, fun-fur wall pieces and freestanding sculptures. Her subject is womankind, observed through Mitchell's own lesbian-activist lens in works that draw from classic Playboy cartoons and centrefolds, reheated in the oven of feminist theory and served up fuzzy.

Right: "Shebaca, 2005"

Mitchell, noted Milroy, has made a career of investigating female power, and the thwarting of it, first completing a BA in English and women's studies ('95) at York University, followed by an MA in women's studies ('98) and, now, a PhD, which she is partway through. She has co-edited a book of what she calls "third-wave feminist writings" titled Turbo Chicks. But her main focus is working with images and giving body to her ideas, exploring what happens when you move between media, and between high and low culture.(Mitchell was also one of the founders of the collective Pretty, Porky and Pissed Off, "a group of fed-up fat chicks ready to take on fat phobia, bad body image, negative fat representations and to reclaim snacking.")

East Accolade design prevents sound from migrating
Acting is a demanding and unique talent and for students learning the craft, it helps to have a unique building, reported Daily Commercial News and Construction Record Sept. 22. As the East Accolade building at York University nears completion, it appears from the outside to be a fairly standard design and construction. However, appearances are sometimes deceiving. "In essence, it’s two buildings. One inside the other, for sound insulation," said Phillip Silver, dean of York ’s Faculty of Fine Arts. "The idea is any sound generated in the outer building shouldn’t get transferred to the inner building, where the performance spaces are." Unique to the East Accolade building, which opens for classes this January, is a two-inch gap extending from the basement slab right up to the steel roof deck and roof membrane. This gap divides the whole into two sections: the inner building is all structural steel while the outer building has a concrete and steel structural system.

Schulich’s MBA a global calling card
Canada 's multicultural welcome mat is paying off for the country's business schools in an era in which global adaptability is the successful executive's most persuasive calling card, reported the National Post Sept. 27. The growing international cachet of the Canadian MBA brand is clearly visible in the student body at York ’s Schulich School of Business. "Seventy per cent of our full-time [International MBA] students hold a passport other than Canadian. Of those, 10 per cent hold dual citizenship," said Dezsö Horváth, dean of the globally ranked Schulich, which boasts about 18,000 alumni working in more than 80 countries, including Canada .

A global orientation now is one of the most sought-after attributes of an MBA, agree deans at other business schools. "We have done that better than anyone else," insisted Horváth, noting that Schulich's International MBA Program requires students to study a second language and supports students of various nationalities in eight languages, including Mandarin, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, German, French and English.

Business schools, such as Schulich, are increasingly partnering with international universities to offer an unprecedented choice of global-degree, executive-non-degree and exchange programs. Schulich is currently negotiating several dual-degree programs with European and Asian schools, Horváth said. Schulich has recently opened offices in Beijing , Mumbai and  Seoul .

Specialization is the future for MBAs, business school academics say. "While we focus on three main areas – the private sector, the public sector and not-for-profit – we offer 30 different specializations," said Charmaine Courtis, executive director of student services and international relations at York's Schulich School of Business. "What we are finding today is that personal fulfillment is often more of a motivator for MBA students than money."

Renting may be better than buying for young people
Moshe Milevsky , professor of finance at York 's Schulich School of Business, says renting is the better way to go for twenty- and thirty-somethings, reported the Calgary Herald Sept. 24 in a story about the hot Calgary real estate market. He likes to compare buying a house to investing in stocks and says a home is a poorly diversified investment. "Sure, if I could buy a bathroom in Calgary and a bedroom in Vancouver and maybe a kitchen in Halifax , I'd be diversified but I can't do that," said Milevsky. He dismisses the idea that you have to get in now before the price goes up. "(If you) look at someone who buys a house with zero per cent down and pays off the mortgage after 20 years, they've paid for three times the value of the house," said Milevsky. If you're planning to sell in a couple of years, commissions on buying and selling a house aren't small and all of these things don't make sense for a 25 or 30 year old, he said. "Unless you're absolutely convinced that you want to live on that street for the next 15 years of your life in that house, you're taking a risk," Milevsky added.

Canada not ready for disasters
While Canadian cities may not face the same hurricane and flood dangers, there is no shortage of catastrophic threats here, reported The Globe and Mail Sept. 24. And Canada isn't ready. "I don't think we're really prepared for the big one. And in many ways our society is becoming more vulnerable over time, not less vulnerable," said David Etkin, who, as coordinator of the emergency management program at York University, has spent lots of time thinking about how things can go terribly wrong in nice, safe Canadian cities. Etkin says relatively little has been done to harden infrastructure and most defences that are in place – dikes, floodways, zoning restrictions and building code standards – are inadequate to guard against extreme events. "It's just a question of when, not if," Etkin said. "We don't have the particular vulnerability that New Orleans had, but I don't think we're better prepared. If we got hit by one of our worst-case scenarios, we'd be totally overwhelmed."

Student starts spice business
Preena Chauhan named her baby after her mom. There's nothing unusual about that, except Preena's baby is a new line of Indian spice mixtures that hit retail shelves recently, reported the Hamilton Spectator Sept. 29. Although still in its infancy, the Arvinda's brand has made its way into local stores known for selling top-of-the-line gourmet foods. Arvinda's are freshly made authentic Indian spice mixtures comprised of fresh, whole-roasted spices that Preena grinds in a second kitchen located in her family's Oakville home.

What brought the product line from concept to store shelf was a government-sponsored program offering grants to students wanting to start and run their own company for the summer. "I'm working on my master's in environmental studies at York University, and last spring I saw a posting at the career centre there," explained Chauhan. "Although they were only offering $3,000 in total, I knew it was enough to get started."

Average teen has $40 a week to spend
Just how attractive are 13-year-olds to marketers? Enough so to spend big money to find out what they like and what they'll buy, reported the Hamilton Spectator Sept. 28. "What's happened in the last decade is marketers recognize that tweens, as early as seven or eight, or in California even four, have money and spend it without their parents," said Alan Middleton, a marketing professor at York’s Schulich School of Business who once led the J. Walter Thompson ad agency in Japan. The average Canadian teen has about $40 a week in disposable income. This is also an age that is often too young to understand the influence advertising is having on them. Middleton says 13-year-olds are less able than adults to delay gratification. They have more instant, visceral reactions to brands.

Theatre trio caters to children
Three York University theatre program graduates – Charlene Carroll (BA in theatre, '03), Betony Main (BFA in theatre, '02) and Ann McDougall (BA in theatre, '03) —created Tinderbox Theatre last year after realizing that their everyday jobs — Carroll a waitress, Main a museum employee and McDougall a theatre office administrator — didn't satisfy their creative callings, reported Metro Sept. 27. "In 2004 after working on a very emotionally draining dark theatre piece for the Toronto Fringe Festival, I spoke with Ann about beginning to focus on more joyous children's pieces that would truly connect with the audience," Carroll said. Tinderbox is dedicated to producing children's theatre shows using a range of styles and techniques from puppetry mask to music mime and dance to create audience interactive shows. While geared to children, Tinderbox productions are also relevant to adults as they tackle social issues like diversity, tolerance and community sharing.

Akron’s archive of psychology
Alexandra Rutherford, coordinator at York of one of only two graduate-level programs dealing with the history of psychology, said she and many of her students had often visited the Archives of the History of American Psychology, reported The New York Times Sept. 27 in a story about psychology’s little known "attic" in Akron, Ohio. "AHAP is a world-class resource for any historian of psychology or the social sciences," Rutherford said, adding that many articles published by psychology journals were based on research there.

Alumni launch tabloid in Toronto
Documenting a hunt for albino squirrels in Trinity Bellwoods one Sunday this summer was the Toronto Special, a free, bi-monthly Toronto tabloid, reported the National Post Sept. 24. The Toronto Special was born at York's Glendon College, where J.J. O'Rourke and classmate Robert Shaw were editors onPro Tem, the school's student newspaper. Having spent months studying the archives of mid-20th-century Toronto tabloids such asHush, Midnight and TAB, O'Rourke (BA '03 in philosophy) and Shaw (BA '02 in creative writing) decided to try and transpose the esthetic and philosophy of faded yellow journalism into the 21st century. "One of the things we're really trying to bring back to the Toronto community is that sense of ownership between the reader and the story," said O'Rourke, the lanky, tattooed, 28-year-old executive editor.

‘Elvis Priestley’ to bring his message to town
It's time to put on your blue-suede shoes and get all shook up as Elvis Priestley, also known as ordained clergyman Dorian Baxter,will visit St. Mark's Anglican Church on Sept. 30, reported theMidland Penetang Mirror Sept. 23. With signature sideburns, he sings Elvis his way, adding a Christian twist to attracting people to worship. Baxter was born in Kenya and came to Canada in 1968, attending teacher's college, York University (BA '78 in humanities) and the University of Toronto. Baxter became an ordained clergyman in 1983 and currently heads Christ the King, Graceland, Independent Anglican Church of Canada in Newmarket. Baxter has been seen on NBC, CNN, CTV, CBC and ABC. Closer to home, Elvis Priestley has proved popular at the Collingwood Elvis Festival where he took home awards two years in a row.