Opinion

As a result of some cosmic hiccup, I have to register my baby boy for high school this weekend. Then, one of his friends asked me to explain International Baccalaureate programs as I drove him home yesterday evening. Already in a state of middle-aged-maternal angst, I embarked upon a frenzy of IB research last night and this morning. The following paragraphs attempt to disambiguate my parental self-flagellation and pedagogical frustration from a fledgling proposal.

Orbitz and Expedia may have killed the travel agency business, but my family desperately needs a skilled trip advisor to plan our next vacation. (The number of travel agents has dropped from over 110,000 in 2001 to about 77,000 today).

Some of what I am thankful for this year.

“Meet me at the site.” “Ok I’ll log on.” “Oops, gotta go. My mom’s home and she’ll kill me if she finds me online.”

My initial response to an invitation to review the new Livescribe Sky wifi smartpen began with a polite rejection: "Thanks for the email. I have to be honest, I'm just not that interested in this technology." The reason for my pushback was that I am already fairly entrenched in my note-taking habits. A classic Moleskine with a Uni-Ball Signo is my preferred method for jotting down ideas, notes, etc. When I'm sans paper and pen, I tend to use my iPad with a Bamboo stylus and either Paper (by FiftyThree) or the Bamboo Paper app. I outlined this to a very nice public relations rep. Undeterred, she informed me that the new smartpen allows notes to be automatically synced (via wifi) to Evernote which makes them readily available on tablets and smartphones.

Guest contributor Steve Davenport, Associate Director of the Creative Writing Program at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, counts the ways he and his dissertation got to know each other.

What might a water well used traditionally in rural Spain teach us about how to make the most of MOOCs?

I will not be using this tool because I don’t care if my students read the materials assigned in class.