Blogs

While driving to Newport, Rhode Island for the first ever #NASPATech: Student Affairs Technology Conference, one thought kept running through my mind: no matter what, this was going to be a big deal.

An introduction to Audrey Watters and to her new Inside Higher Ed blog, Hack (Higher) Education.

With only one child at home — and him a teenager — Halloween crept up on me unawares this year. Over the weekend, Mark was away visiting our daughter over the weekend for Parents’ Weekend, and I was home with Nick waiting out his bronchitis and the rain — so we didn’t buy any candy, didn’t carve a pumpkin, didn’t decorate the house. Nick is too old (his decision) for a costume, so the whole thing almost passed us by.

One of the great things about our ed tech world is how our people sometimes move back-and-forth between academic and company gigs. If you want to sell, serve, or code for a higher ed customer then the best prep is have come from that world. If you want to evaluate vendors, negotiate contracts, and engage in meaningful partnerships with companies then having worked in the corporate sector will be your best education.

One of the common comments of the mainstream media, characterizations of TV talking heads, and complaints of elected officials is that the "Occupy" movement is inchoate. What do they want? What are their demands? What is their agenda?

What was the most outrageous student term paper you've ever marked and why?

At our annual Board of Education retreat, this year’s session began with a TED Talk segment on leadership. Ted Talk is a well known non-profit organization whose goal is to highlight “Ideas Worth Spreading,” and this particular segment featured a discussion on leadership led by Simon Sinek, an author and speaker who focuses on leadership.

I have a bold proposal: to make standard in all vendor contracts regarding the transmission and storage of institutional information that the vendor will comply with applicable privacy and technical security regulations in existing federal privacy laws.