Why Educators and Students Don't Need the Apple iPhone 6 and Plus or XYZ
The launch of the new Apple iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus is big in every way if you count numbers. Orders in the first 24 hours are said to have been more than 4 million strong, and according to the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, “Apple’s main manufacturing supplier, Hon…
More “Innovation” from Mitch Daniels
Over the last several weeks, Purdue University has announced that its School of Communications and its College of Technology have received $500,000 grants from President Mitch Daniels for creating, respectively, a three-year baccalaureate program and a competency-based program. In the media coverage, there has been a great deal of positive spin on the possibilities opened…
UA President Requests That Regents Reconsider Bonus
In an e-mail sent today by UA Outreach, President Pat Gamble announced his request that the University of Alaska Board of Regents revisit the $320,000 bonus decision. The Board of Regents is planning to meet in executive session on September 8 to consider Gamble’s request, according to the news release. Thanks to all of you…
More Self-Sponsored and Self-Serving Far-Right Scholarly Research
Richard Vedder, an emeritus economist at Ohio University, has recently released another study showing the benefits of “right to work” legislation. In a newspaper interview, he has predicted that Ohio will adopt “right to work” legislation in 2015. Vedder has, of course, long been on the payroll of the American Enterprise Institute; so, despite his…
One Might Ask Steven Salaita Why There Are No MOOCs on Gaza
In late July, Kris Olds wrote a piece for Inside Higher Ed’s Blog U: Global Higher Ed titled “Why No MOOCs on Gaza?” [The complete article is available at: https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/globalhighered/why-no-moocs-gaza] Rightly recognizing that the MOOC format would be perfectly suited to providing succinct overviews of the conflicts in the world’s hotspots, Olds searched sites of…
Discussing the Steven Salaita Case in Our Classrooms
If you want to engage your students in a thoughtful debate about public discourse in the age of Facebook and Twitter, you can of course use the ten or twelve excellent posts that John K. Wilson, Hank Reichman, Michael Berube, and others have made to this blog on the Steven Salaita case. If you would like…
Poorer by Degrees
Here is a link to Poorer by Degrees, a new short documentary by Jennifer Shuberth, a former faculty member at Portland State University: http://vimeo.com/95828754. The documentary questions the premise that our economic growth requires a dramatic increase in the number of college graduates. Indeed, it suggests that the increased emphasis on completing degrees may actually…
An Open Letter to Allan Bense, Florida State University Board of Trustees Chair, and Florida Governor Rick Scott
Dear Chairman Bense and Governor Scott: The battle over FSU’s next President seems to have slowed, except that the FSU Board of Trustees (BOT) has silently “postponed” its Aug. 26th meeting. This meeting was the last chance for Chair Allan Bense to answer the overwhelming call to restructure the Presidential Search Advisory Committee (PSAC) before…
PBS NewsHour Series on “Rethinking College”
Lil Taiz, President of the California Faculty Association, has shared the following information which should be of broad interest. The PBS NewsHour contacted the CFHE leadership about CFHE’s take on MOOCs and online higher education. The producers had seen CFHE’s video on the topic on the CFHE website and wanted to have “another perspective” about…