Monthly Archives: April 2016

Online ed for K-12, what?!

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Jessica Calefati over at the Bay Area Newsgroup (Contra Costa Times, San Jose Mercury News, et al.) has an expose on the failures of online charter schools in California that are run by K12, Inc.  The online charter schools are performing more poorly that the California schools as a whole on standard measures of student achievement.

As a veteran of 163 units of online education, and counting, through 3 masters degree programs and a graduate certificate.* I can honestly say that online education should only be used as a supplement to brick-and-mortar K-12 education.  It is appropriate for tutoring especially motivated advanced students, but it should not be used by the normal population of students, because online education is only for the self-directed with goals.

My daughter, in kindergarten and first grade, had some online learning homework to develop reading skills.  It was entirely supplementary and appropriate use of technology.

California needs to rein in the online ed establishment in K-12.

* I did an MA in Jewish Studies at Gratz College, in Philadelphia mostly distance ed.  I then took my business school prerequisites plus various additional courses in Mathematics at the local junior college, Diablo Valley College.  I got my MBA in Finance from University of Nebraska, which is one of the highest ranked online MBAs in the country.  I took some courses in archaeology with Oxford Continuing Education.  I did a Graduate Certificate in New Testament at Regent University.  I am currently working on an MS in International Relations at Troy University in Alabama.  I will likely be applying for a PhD via distance education.

ISIS Turns to Suicide Terrorism

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ISIS says it has ramped up suicide attacks due to its recent losses on the battle field.  This is entirely consistent with the instrumentalist view of terrorism, that is, terrorism is undertaken to achieve political objectives with a strategic logic and is not the result of mental illness, nor is it random. It is a tactic used in conflict typically from a position of weakness. Its key feature is that the targets are civilians, other non-combatants, or civilian installations, explicitly ignoring the just war principle of civilian immunity.

Suicide terrorism has its own strategic logic that is tied to the hardness of the target. As counter-terrorism operations improve security, the terrorist organization escalates to suicide terrorism in order to demonstrate (a) to its adversary the ability to still terrorize its victims, (b) to its supporters that it is still relevant to the cause. Religiously motivated terrorist groups are rational economic actors.  The resort to suicide tactics is a sign that other less expensive options have been foreclosed.

In the case of ISIS it must project the image of a successful Islamic insurgency that will result in the establishment of an Islamic state. To fail would risk the dissolution of the movement as various Sunni salafist jihadi and takfiri organizations would seek a stronger horse to back in the battle against the nearest enemies (Marxists and Shi’ites) and the far enemies (Europeans and Americans).