Blogs

Mayan predictions for the end of the world aside, the years ahead are likely to be quite different for higher education than the past 100 years. As our holiday gift to you, we have put together this anthem for the end of higher education as we know it.

If you can read this, the world didn’t end. So there’s that.

On our last day of holiday gift guide posts we are suggesting some good personal buys to help your grad student survive. Grad school isn't just about work; it's still life. So here are some suggestions to make life easier!

2012 was a great year for concise nonfiction books due to the growth of platforms such as Kindle Singles, TED Books, and Atavist books. I suspect that we will be seeing many more concise nonfiction e-books come out in 2013.

When I teach Calculus, I often begin by comparing the difference between Calculus and Discrete Math to the difference between the individual frames of an old-fashioned movie tape and the movie when shown on a projector. I tell them that, while algebra and all of discrete math looks at individual situations, or “frames”, Calculus can study a world of continuous motion. This analogy has been on my mind lately as I find myself recalling scenes from past holidays with my daughter. Individually interesting, they run together into a “movie” of emotions that grabs me at this time of the year.

More thoughts on past student evaluations.

Part 7 of my ed-tech year-in-review series: educational data and learning analytics.

Most folks don't pay much attention to administrative law. It is not an area of law taught at any level of school except law; it is hardly mentioned in 7th grade civics, for example, too busy with the tripartite form of republican democracy. If you take American history as an undergraduate it shows up most prominently in a discussion of the New Deal and the alphabet soup of federal agencies that emerged with Roosevelt's social policy from the first 100 days through to the establishment of the Social Security Administration and National Labor Relations Board in the second administration. Its history began much earlier, however, with the Interstate Commerce Commission of 1887 formed to regulate railroads. In 1914, Congress passed the Federal Trade Commission Act, which was the statutory basis of the Federal Trade Commission.