Blogs

Committee work may be time intensive. And committee work might not be as relevant as we'd like for promotion. But committee work is not hard work.

Carol Twigg raises doubts about the ultimate viability of the Khan Academy. Khan raises the question of completion rates verses quality of education. These questions are red herrings. The Khan Academy is trying something in an era when education is challenged by stagnation, technology, global competition and gross domestic inequalities. I thought of two people when I read the article in IHE about it today. The first is Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The second is my Aunt Toni.

Last week, I found myself fascinated by Tim Sherrat’s observation that interfaces are sites of power. Similarly, the architecture of a library says a lot to its users about the position they hold in the realm of knowledge, as visitors, consumers, or as members of a discipline or a tradition.

Reading the academic blogosphere, you’d think there were only two kinds of faculty: tenure-track (or tenured) and adjunct. But that’s not true.

Why the decline of tenure and tenure-track faculty has lead to other problems and conflicts in higher education.

This past weekend I went bowling, and I lost. 3 games to nil. My opponent - a 13 year old middle-schooler.

Grad school is a unique experience, especially in an increasingly digital world. Often the study skills that helped us excel in undergrad no longer suffice at this higher level. The relationships with professors also changes drastically as we find ourselves in limbo between student and colleague. Grad school is an extended period of transition moving from student to teacher, from taking classes to doing independent research, and from being the novice to the expert. Given how unique this experience is, and the fact that the majority of people don’t go to grad school, making the transition can be difficult.

Data from Google show what types of degrees and programs people are searching for.