Blogs

Around this time of year, we’re inundated with lists of the most significant happenings of the current year (e.g., best books, celebrities we’ve lost) and predictions for the future, and the world of higher education is no exception.

Dan Goldstein, attorney for National Federation of the Blind, has recently published the clearest articulation to date of the relationship between disability law and web accessibility. In short, while the Americans Disability Act, promulgated in 1990, did not explicitly speak to cyberspace, it nonetheless is the legal foundation upon which accommodations to it are required of those entities that fall under its scope, including higher education. This point is an important one to make. For some years, institutional attorneys and disability advocates have gotten tangled in discussions about whether section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, which outlines a baseline of technical standards for web accessibility and is required for all federal agencies, is required of colleges and universities.

A few weeks ago, I graduated with my MA, and I’m now confronted with the question of “what next?”

This blog doesn’t address car repair, the Twilight series, Hungarian food, or speculation about the next Secretary of State. Its set of topics is relatively defined, as regular readers know. That’s not because I adjudge those other topics unworthy or uninteresting; if any of them strike your fancy, there’s no shortage of other places to read about them. It’s just that there’s a limit to the number of things I can address thoughtfully, and I don’t see much point in covering topics just to cover them. I’ve found a niche, and that’s where I work.

One of the most frequent comments I receive on student evaluations is that my enthusiasm for the subjects I teach is infectious. Students tell me that I help to enliven topics they would be otherwise uninterested in, and that my obvious joy for what I teach motivates them to enjoy the topics as well. This enthusiasm often translates into electrified classroom meetings that are full of lively discussion and collaboration between students. Regardless of the topic, there are very seldom days when I am met with silence from my students.

Is the Google Drive app an iTunes U app killer? Can the Google Drive ecosystem (web and apps) replace the Apple course content delivery ecosystem (Course Manager and the iTunes U app)?

The Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) proposal for harmonization misses the mark.

In the early nineties, when aerobics classes with canned music and fancy spandex fashion were all the rage, there was no way I’d ever be caught dead participating in such a group sweat fest. From what I’d heard about aerobics classes, there was lots of whooping and shouting, and the people I knew who were enthusiastic participants were 20-somethings with perfect figures. A group class like this was hardly the place for a shy, self-conscious person like me.