Associate Editor's Note

Immediately following the Contents page of every issue of the Journal of General Education is an informative, one-page "blurb" about the journal that begins with this question: How can today's college students be better prepared for tomorrow's world? What a timeless question! Educators and institutions across the world offer continual response to this question on a daily basis. Likewise, the JGE exists to shed some light on this question as well. More specifically, the three articles included in this issue offer insight into general education practices. The first article relates to the development and implementation of competency standards for students' technology knowledge and skills. The second article reveals practices that contribute to students' critical thinking skills by utilizing a diversity course requirement; and the third article reveals practices that encourage innovative pedagogical approaches in a required media studies course.

"Standard Setting," by Demars, Sundre, and Wise, represents a proverbial "how to" manual for creating and utilizing proficiency standards in general education courses. Although students' technology knowledge/skills was the particular context in which the authors developed course standards, the model that they discuss seems readily applicable to other contexts as well. In addition to the article's immediate benefit to those interested in how to set educational standards (the authors argue for the relatively new Bookmark procedure) and the nature of technological proficiency, the article has additional relevance to those who are debating the relative importance of educational standards in general, and the feasibility and significance of faculty involvement in framing general education practices.

A common sentiment in contemporary society is that today's college students will be better prepared for tomorrow's world to the extent that they understand and value difference. Chang makes the point that the historic purpose of general education to stimulate students' critical thinking skills makes it a highly appropriate venue for exploring human diversity. His case becomes more compelling as he unveils the results of his research regarding "the impact of undergraduate diversity course requirements on students' racial views and attitudes." Chang's approach is also important because of its attention to both cognitive and affective aspects of students' educational development, and his bibliography offers a rich resource for institutions that are interested in pursuing diversity requirements as part of their undergraduate general education curricula.

Blackmore's "Play Your Cards Right" recounts an innovative pedagogical approach that the author utilizes in large, general education courses in media studies at a Canadian institution. Building on Poirer's "writing as performance" idea and Fish's "reader response theory," Blackmore discusses his use of weekly feedback cards (on course readings, his lectures, and the course in general) as an effort to "perform class in the students' language." According to Blackmore, the "cards" reveal many students' growth in understanding over the duration of the course, create their own, new context for student learning, and provide him invaluable cues regarding how to improve pedagogy.

This issue also includes Anna Ortiz's thorough and insightful review of The Shape of the River by Bowen and Bok. Many will no doubt agree with Ortiz's conclusion that, with respect to admissions history, strategies, analysis, and policies, "the book has few peers."