N.L. spills the beans on the Georgetown Pirate - By N.L. Belardes

Matildakay talks to the Georgetown Pirate...

The Georgetown Pirate is also the Publications Advisor at Georgetown University. I might as well spill the beans and give her name: Carole Sargent. Why? Because I’m going to be writing about her from time to time as Noveltown charges through grassroots Indie publishing in the Central Valley. Carole fits right in because her job is to reign in the academic world of literary and non-fiction publishing. There’s a symbiosis between people like Carole who are so supportive and whose credibility brings Noveltown up a notch.

That means, not only is Noveltown now affiliated with great local Bakersfield entities and all the fabulous people of the Yosemite Writers, but with a major university out of Washington, D.C. who has an exceptional mover and shaker in Carole Sargent.

Carole represents all that is good and noble and rebellious in the literary world. She helps people get published. She gives long rambling rants called the “Bookstore Ramble”. She gets on television like CNN, 60 Minutes, and radio like NPR to share her opinions. In order to move and shake academics, Carole has just started a blog through the ‘Office of Scholarly and Literary Publications at Georgetown University’.

Just yesterday Carole sent me an email, “Hey, if your NPR station carries Talk of the Nation, I'll be on today at 3, live.” (Click for audio of the show)

And she was on NPR. I tuned in while at work via streaming sound on npr.org to listen to the end of secret CIA prison talk to hear Carole discuss distance learning versus classroom learning. Sure, I have my own viewpoints, but I agreed with a lot of what Carole had to say. For those students who have a choice, who aren’t just involved in higher education for vocational training, there’s nothing better than attending a university and submersing yourself in the culture of education in real-time...

I even shared a coffee table discussion that mentioned Carole on NPR at Dagny’s Coffee on 20th and Eye St. in Bakersfield with Buckaroo D.W. and philosopher/musician J.R. I had a strawberry smoothie, as did D.W. and we talked academics…

Here are excerpts from Carole’s interview about distance learning (she’s a proponent of the classroom vs online studies). Her views basically state that people may be tricked into distance learning as an avenue that gets jobs. But which jobs? Are they the best jobs out there? Here’s my very watered-down paraphrasing:

NPR: Online education’s convenient, but has skeptics. What role does personal interaction have with professors? Online quality of virtual education vs. real classroom time?

Carole: Becoming one of them… Ask, where do the people who are making the decisions about education sending their children? Are they sending them somewhere else?

Employers will pay for online education…

I started getting scholarships… eventually school started paying for itself.

Had to overcome quite a bit… created relationships with professors… you start believing in yourself as a scholar. Much more ready than when at 18-22.

NPR: You had an “aha!” moment?

Carole: I had an “aha” moment…

“You? On probation?” My professor said… See, adults are ready, ready for campuses; adults are disciplined. I want them in my classes…

Joe from Jacksonville: I’m retired from the navy and distance learning seems the only way…

Carole: I really love to teach military students. People in the military value the classroom experience. They understand, frankly, how lucky we are. A military person could make the best of it online, or by mail.

Joe from Jacksonville: I don’t like sitting in a classroom. Drives me nuts.

Carole: You’d like my classroom.

Amy: Sounds like it’s subjective…

Carole: …distance learning is isolating and boring, and that includes online chatrooms where students are chained to a computer…it’s a very tough gig, an expensive gig…

Campuses are efficient.

Talk to recruiters before you make up your mind. 62% of employers might think distance learning is a great idea. Which employers? Who is hiring? Do your research…

This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on Friday, September 08, 2006. You can leave your response.