Two articles I read this morning, one from InsideHigherEd and the other from The New York Times, remind me how critical it is that we keep focused on the student and the basis of learning. The first article, “A Plea for ‘Close Learning’” by Scott Newstok, among other things reminds us that, for all of…
Cultural Representations of Higher Ed, No. 6 I am working backwards through this list. Here are films 101 to 150. The rankings are my own and in most cases somewhat arbitrary. The descriptions of the films are paraphrases of summaries found in a half-dozen print and online film guides. I compiled the list about a…
by: Ioana Literat, George Carstocea, Ash Kramer A reflection on the MOOC debate in higher education, this post was written in the context of Prof. Virginia Kuhn’s graduate seminar, IML 555: Digital Pedagogies, at the Institute for Multimedia Literacy, University of Southern California. As students in this class, a key element of our research project was enrolling in…
“The truth is that I could have had gotten more money or more prestigious places.” So says David Patraeus, who has diffused a controversy about his pay for teaching a couple of courses (with numerous teaching assistants) at a City University of New York campus by refusing compensation of possibly $200,000 in favor of a…
Having some awareness of the concept and history of tragedy in the theater may be somewhat helpful, I think, in responding to an out-sized current event such as the George Zimmerman murder trial. Most people would assume that if the word “tragedy” were to be applied at all to this murder case, it would have…
There are excellent philosophical arguments about why universities are expressions of the public good. They are accurate, time-honored and true. But the best demonstration – and the most closely watched – is how a university responds to its environment. Before local budgets tightened in the 1990s, there was something sacrosanct about town/gown relations. Colleges were…
Cultural Representations of Higher Ed, No. 5 I am working backwards through this list. Here are films 151 to 200. The rankings are my own and in most cases somewhat arbitrary. The descriptions of the films are paraphrases of summaries found in a half-dozen print and online film guides. I compiled the list about a…
The situation at CCSF continues to be unsettled. The college will appeal the decision of ACCJC. The deadline for submitting such an appeal is July 31. In the meantime, Brice Harris, Chancellor of the California Community Colleges, has announced that he will seek — and surely will receive — authorization from his Board of Governors…
Here are two items that you may have missed but that are clearly further indicators of the devaluation of workers. First, some owners of McDonald’s franchises have started issuing pre-paid debit cards, instead of paychecks, to their employees. Clearly this practice is in some way saving the owners of the franchises some money, though I…
Cultural Representations of Higher Ed, No. 4 I am working backwards through this list. Here are films 201 to 250, which are still generally ridiculous, but perhaps somewhat less ridiculous than those numbered 251-400. The rankings are my own and in most cases somewhat arbitrary. The descriptions of the films are paraphrases of summaries found…