Blogs

When you have to travel for conferences or research, the change of place and space can lead to some deeper questions about where we are.

There is a function in math called the “Greatest Integer Function,” which assigns a value to every number that is the largest integer less than or equal to that number. For example, the numbers 1, 1.2 and 1.9 would all have a value of 1 for this function. As you can imagine, this leads to a graph that looks a lot like a set of stairs, and is the typical example used when describing what a “discontinuous” function looks like. I found myself thinking of this over the past week, as I watched my daughter move up a grade in school.

What happened to me when I had a chance to meet one of my writing heroes.

I ventured onto campus today, something I rarely do. But I had research to conduct -- the sort of research that required a library with printed books, the sort of research I couldn't do online. (Shocking, I know.)

In response to yesterday’s post about what college should cost, several people answered by saying something like “just add up what you need to provide a good education and divide by the number of students.” Which sounds reasonable enough, until you reflect on the word “need.”

A crisis in public higher education: coming soon to a university near you – if not already there.

Dean Dad kicked off a great discussion in his column yesterday asking "What Should a Year of College Cost?". His post, and the dialogue that followed, got me thinking about this question from an academic technology perspective.

I guess the first thing I should do is disillusion any preconceptions that my Long Distance mom (Elizabeth Coffman) has built up in her probably much needed blog venting. Contrary to the popular belief of my parents, I actually ended up graduating with honors. Most people were surprised, in fact almost everyone except me.