Opinion

A confluence of events have got me thinking about where I am right now in my life, both inside and outside of academia. At the conference this weekend, I was repeatedly asked how I "liked it" where I am right now. I embody the trifecta of complaints in higher education: off the tenure-track, teaching outside my specialty, and in a rural, relatively isolated area. Add to that that I am a Canadian (and Canadianist) relocated to the United States, my current level of professional satisfaction was a topic I was asked to address repeatedly.

We were lucky. We were only without power and heat for five days.

The next ed tech challenge is enable the creation of new campus revenues. How can campus information technology leaders get in front of strategic efforts to simultaneously raise revenues, lower costs, and increase quality? How does ed tech become a driver of growth?

In economics, we sometimes talk about "reservation wages." These are the lowest wages that one would accept to participate in the formal labor market.

What if Professors Smith and Jones swapped papers for a semester? I’d be intrigued to hear from anyone who has actually tried this.

I read with great interest Pamela Haag’s thoughtful assessment of her time at Swarthmore (and later Yale) in which she asks, “Are elite colleges worth it?”

Too many campus efforts are on the margins of the classroom and do not change what actually happens within, writes Vincent Tinto: Let's focus on expectations, support, feedback and involvement.

I just attended THATCamp Publishing, a lively day of making and doing in classic THATcamp unconference mode. If you’re unfamiliar with THATCamp, it’s a terrific series of humanities and technology unconferences.