Opinion

In economics, we talk about purchasing machinery that is used in producing a product as “investment” in capital, and in acquiring skills and experience that will help an employee perform a job more efficiently as “human capital investment.” It is this later type of investment that seems to be on the forefront of the minds of many of my fellow parents who I run into lately.

Many times, I've chuckled at Congressman Earl Blumenauer's 2009 invocation: "Let's have a moment of silence for all those Americans who are stuck in traffic on their way to the gym to ride the stationary bicycle."

One of the most pleasurable parts of my new administrative position is ordering new books on teaching and faculty development for our center’s library. I’ve given up my earlier naïve attempt to read each one before shelving it. However, Rachel Connelly and Kristen Ghodsee’s Professor Mommy was a book I couldn’t put down: a smart, readable description of the hurdles facing women who have children while in graduate school or on the tenure track.

Adam Kotsko writes that intensive, small-group discussion of great works of literature still offers uniquely valuable paths to teaching and learning.

Virgil W. Brower writes that courses based on intense discussions of great works of literature need not be limited to elite institutions.

Since it started last fall, I’ve heard the 36-week experimental #change11 course referred to – half tongue-in-cheek – as “the Mother of All MOOCs.” Back when the course started in September, it seemed like a reasonable description. #change11 was designed and run by Massive Open Online Course pioneers George Siemens, Stephen Downes, and Dave Cormier, and had 36 separate facilitators lined up to cover everything from soup to nuts in the grand scheme of instructional technologies and 21st century learning.

The first thing we should all do is encourage discussion about edX. This is big, important,and exciting news. Faculty get excited about ideas, and the edX announcement contained some great ones.

This is one of those “thinking out loud” posts, as opposed to some sort of fully thought out proposal. Constructive feedback is very, very welcome.