Filter & Sort
A More Perfect Union?
A new book by the eminent philosopher Jürgen Habermas shows signs of political frustration. Scott McLemee shares his pain.
Working On The Go
Starbucks is one of my favorite places to work. Coffee, company, and a relaxing atmosphere help me concentrate and keep focused on my task. As it can be a pain to lug my laptop everywhere, I have a tablet and a mobile phone that I use when working away from my desk.
The Grant Program I’d Love to See
I spend a fairly alarming amount of my time these days on grant-related projects. Each is worthy in its own way, of course, but they have certain limitations in common.
How an Open Office, the Cloud, an iPhone, and a MacBook Air Changed How I Work
Each year I find myself increasingly mobile and virtual, working all the time but seldom in a single workplace.
'Strapping our students
Over the weekend, my watch strap broke. So on Monday, on the way home from campus, I went to the store to get a replacement. More precisely, I went to the stores.
Mountain women
It hit me this year that someday I’ll be one of the elders in my family. My parents are ageing gracefully, and both are still in fairly good health. However, I realized that in the not too distant future my sister and I will be responsible for passing on our family lore. We’ve heard many stories and cherished bits of wisdom from both my parents, but to be honest, the details tend to blur.
The Mechanical MOOC
MIT OpenCourseWare, Peer to Peer University, OpenStudy, and Codecademy are teaming up to launch the "Mechanical MOOC," weaving together existing educational resources (content, Web-based study groups, quizzes and so on) to offer an introductory course in Python. It's hoping to be a different sort of MOOC than the centralized ones we've seen lately from the likes of Stanford (Coursera and Udacity) or MIT (MITx, now edX). Rather than force learners onto a learning management system, this one recognizes that learning can happen in communities and on sites across the open Web.
When Bad Hires Happen to Good People
The conversations and presentations at this year's Boise Confab were cerebrally exhilarating. One particular session really piqued my interest. Jeremiah Shinn, Director for the Student Involvement & Leadership Center at Boise State University, gave an extremely honest presentation about how we conduct hirings in student affairs. Whether you agree with Shinn, disagree, and/or take umbrage, I bet you have an opinion. Here's a quick Q and A where he discusses his thoughts about "bad hires" and "good people":