An%20Innovative,%20Integrative,%20Invigorating%20Strategy:%20The%20Confluence%20Model%20Learning%20Community%20and%20

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An Innovative, Integrative, Invigorating
Strategy The Confluence Model Learning Community
and The Tragedy of the Commons _at_ CSMOr, How
I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb.
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• Ive gone to find myself.
• If I come home before I return,
• keep me here.
• Seen on the T-shirt of a kid standing on The
  Charles Bridge in Prague
• July 14, 2006

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Our Original Plan for the Integrative Learning
Project

• Project Goal To construct an overriding vision
  of integrative learning at the college through
  institutionalizing the learning communities
  program

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The Successes

• Asset Development
• MATH 111 CRER 122 MATH 880
• Contemporary American Topics
• ESL 828 ESL 848
• Keys to the Kingdom
• ENGL 828 CRER 120
• Philosophy and Psychology in Contemporary films
• PHIL 100 OR PSYC 100
• Social Justice? Understanding Problems and
  Solutions in the New Millennium
• ENGL 100 SOCI 100
• This is My United States of Whatever
• PHIL 224 ENGL100
• Tools for Thought Using Math and English to
  Explore Contemporary Issues
• MATH 120 ENGL 100
• Writing in the End Zone I
• ENGL 828 PE 684
• Writing in the End Zone II
• ENGL 838 FITN 220

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The Problems

• Faculty Time Commitment
• Counseling Advocacy
• The Check-the-box-for-transfer Paradigm
• (the biggie) The Online Schedule
  Registration

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What a Learning Community Course Looks Like,
Online

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• 82630  MATH  120  AH  5.00  Intermediate
  Algebra  College of San Mateo 
•   Aug 16, 2006  Dec 08, 2006  MTWRF  1010 am -
  1100 am  18  0205 
•  

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• What It Takes To Register, Online

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A Different Tactic The Confluence Model
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• The Tragedy of the Commons Learning Community
• Students participate during regular class hours
  in The Tragedy of the Commons Learning
  Community, an exciting opportunity to meet with
  other classes, hear a variety of speakers,
  discuss different viewpoints, and gain
  interdisciplinary perspectives on important
  questions of our times.
• It is not necessary to enroll separately for The
  Tragedy of the Commons.
• Students who enroll in one of the sections will
  automatically be
• enrolled in The Tragedy of the Commons Learning
  Community.

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• The Disciplines Involved
• in Various Ways
• English-- 4 sections at two levels
• Sociology
• Mathematics
• Philosophy
• Reading
• Library Science
• Counseling

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The Central Text Garrett Hardins Essay
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(No Transcript)
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The Friday Forums
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The First Forum
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How Tragedy of the Commons works as a metaphor
Start with a commons Any resource we can all use
Then Everyone uses the commons as much as
possible
Finally Tragedy! The commons is destroyed, or
at least made less useful
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The Second Forum
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Shakespearean Tragedy
www.humanities.uci.edu/ users/vfolkenflik/VRF...
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(No Transcript)
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Share of population, resource consumption, and
waste production
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The Third Forum
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(No Transcript)
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The Fourth Forum
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The Fifth (and last) Forum
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(No Transcript)
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A Sample Assignment
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A Sample of Student Work
Samantha Fitzgibbon April 19, 2006 Professor
Mach English 165 Tragedy of the Forum Garrett
Hardin wrote his article entitled The Tragedy of
the Commons in 1968. The language makes it
almost impossible to get through and even harder
to understand and yet it is still very well
known, highly regarded, and still used in many
different disciplines. The main reason why it is
still read is not because of its literal message
but because of the metaphor. This metaphor is
applied to overpopulation in Hardins article.
The metaphor itself happens when the commons, be
it a finite resource or anything else that is
free to all, is consumed by the people using it
until it loses its usefulness that is the
tragedy. Hardin goes into great detail and
discusses that when people start to exploit the
resources laid out to them, soon the resource
will no longer exist. He asserts that the
population problem cannot be solved in a
technical way(1243) and what he means by that is
there is no easy way out science will not come
up with a solution. Hardin repeats this message
over and over again to solve his tragedy of the
commons and every other tragedy to come, the
world must change its views. This metaphor is so
universal that it can be applied to just about
everything from conventional as overpopulation to
something as recent as the internet. The tragedy
can also vary from people taking up the rain
forests for farm land to people using up
bandwidth on the internet, commonly known as
spamming. Hardin often testifies that there is
no technical solution to most of the tragedies of
the world however, nothing short of a monumental
shift of the worlds paradigm could fix the issue
that is facing the users of forums, leaving only
a technical solution for this problem. The
internet is a virtual commons just like the water
and the spam is a pollution just like the
waste being dumped in that water the spam
that finds its way onto the forums is just like
the waste being dumped into the East
Bay waters.
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What the Students Said
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Other Plans for the Confluence Model
Creating a Monograph A Visual Communication
Learning Community This Confluence Model
Learning Community explores the recent phenomenon
of on-demand printing, and will result in a
professional-quality book, a monograph of the
work produced by the students, and a web version
of the book. What the Fork? A Confluence
Model designed for developmental level students
and focused on the many aspects of food in our
society
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How the Confluence Model Has Become a Bridge
to a Broader Implementation of Integrative
Learning Diversity across the curriculum
Reading across the disciplines A way to address
Institutional Student Learning Outcomes
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Its Your Turn