Perhaps, “Digital Learning Day” Came and Went without Your Noticing, Too

As far as I can determine, Digital Learning Day is an invention of Arne Duncan’s Department of Education. Whether appropriately or ironically, or both, it occurred on Friday, March 13. If you go to the section of the Department of Education website devoted to this special day [http://www.digitallearningday.org/site/default.aspx?PageID=11], you will find links to Online Resources,…

2014 Report of the Ohio Student Association

In an earlier post this week, I provided the legislative testimony that was presented by Gavin DeVore Leonard, the Director of One Ohio Now, on the proposed biennial budget for Ohio. One Ohio Now is just one of the groups with which the Ohio Conference of AAUP has become allied. Another is the Ohio Student…

Epistocracy– the Alternative to Democracy Being Promoted by Those in Koch-Funded Academic Positions

Here are the opening paragraphs of an article written by Natalie Schulhof for the Fourth Estate, the student newspaper at George Mason University: “Garett Jones, associate economics professor at George Mason University, says that there should be less democracy in the United States, according to a talk he gave on Feb. 24. “Jones says that…

The Case for the Public Intellectual as Gadfly

Andrew Bacevich, political-science professor at Boston University, has posted a new essay, “Rationalizing Lunacy: The Intellectual as Servant of the State.” It’s a look back at the role of the public intellectual within the U.S. federal government since the time of the New Deal, focusing particularly on their impact on foreign policy, the Vietnam War in specific…

The High Cost of MOOCs: Calculating How High Is Too High and the Extra-financial Implications of That Cost

I subscribe to a number of newsletters related to online education. They very seldom include articles that question increased institutional investments in digital technology. So this one caught my attention. Writing for eCampus, Meris Stansbury surveys studies that have addressed the question of “How to Calculate the Real Cost of MOOCs.” It turns out that…