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Dec 1

Faculty value does not come from the information stored in their heads

our system of faculty creating their own lectures is a bit like having every instructor write his or her own textbook. If faculty wrote all of their own textbooks, most textbooks would be terrible. Why not just use the best lectures that have been posted on iTunesU, TED, etc. for content?

I tell faculty that their real value is not the information stored in their head. After all, nearly all of that information is publicly available in books or journals. A faculty member’s real value is in their interaction with students. The back and forth with students in discussion, or commentary on their assignments to improve their writing, for example, is what gives them value. Faculty should focus on this aspect of their teaching and automate as much as possible the simple content delivery part. Yet most faculty have it backwards—clinging to their lectures as their most important function.

via http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/instructional-design/lecture-capture-a-new-way-to-think-about-hybrid-courses

Hat tip to John Nash: http://twitter.com/jnash/statuses/9772624779419648

Filed under  //  academia   highered   higheredtech   teaching  

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Sep 9

Diminishing returns from higher education's research?

America’s commitment to research is one of the glories of its higher-education system. But for how long? The supply of papers that apply gender theory to literary criticism remains ample. But there is evidence of diminishing returns in an area perhaps more vital to the country’s economic dynamism: science and technology.
via http://www.economist.com/node/16941775?story_id=16941775

Filed under  //  academia   highered   research  

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Aug 23

If you were starting a top university today, it would be TED

if you were starting a top university today, what would it look like? You would start by gathering the very best minds from around the world, from every discipline. Since we're living in an age of abundant, not scarce, information, you'd curate the lectures carefully, with a focus on the new and original, rather than offer a course on every possible topic. You'd create a sustainable economic model by focusing on technological rather than physical infrastructure, and by getting people of means to pay for a specialized experience. You'd also construct a robust network so people could access resources whenever and from wherever they like, and you'd give them the tools to collaborate beyond the lecture hall. Why not fulfill the university's millennium-old mission by sharing ideas as freely and as widely as possible?

If you did all that, well, you'd have TED.

via http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/148/how-ted-became-the-new-harvard.html

Filed under  //  academia   higher ed   higheredtech   learning   technology  

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Aug 19

Stop Admitting Ph.D. Students

I wonder if they truly know what they are getting into, that even if they work hard and amass an impressive vita, it still might not be enough to enable them to earn that coveted tenure-track job.

via http://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2010/08/18/harris

Filed under  //  academia   higher ed  

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Aug 15

It's official: I'm now "an enemy of the United States"

It is time for Americans to recognize that the enemies of the United States are not only foreign, but also those like scottmcleod, that will lie and attempt to distort reality to destroy this country.
via http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/guest-bloggers/dogs-an-unusual-guide-to-schoo.html

Finally! This will give me the street cred I need with other liberal, ivory tower profs for my promotion to full professor!

Filed under  //  academia   higher ed  

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Apr 19

Colleges of ed are behind when it comes to teacher prep

Many, if not most, of the nation’s 1,450 schools, colleges and departments of education are doing a mediocre job of preparing teachers for the realities of the 21st-century classroom.
Arne Duncan via http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/19/education/19regents.html

Filed under  //  academia   education  

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Dec 10

The cloud opens the floodgates for faculty innovation

We are so lost in the midst of this flowering that we cannot see the opportunities before us, nor understand that learners and researchers and teachers have been freed of the physical limitations that, for always, have defined all our processes and values. We have been bound by those limitations for so long that we believe they are right and proper. We are as prisoners who have spent our lives in prison and cannot bear not having four walls around us, or those bars on the windows of our curiosity.

...

This moment is for the professoriate. This is the time to look around and notice that we stand now in a field, not the prison cell (classroom) we have come to know so well. No one else on campus is stepping forward to assume innovation leadership: The cables have been pulled, the computers spread around the campus, policies in place, security systems running, and, out there, in the cloud, humanity begins to learn about virtual space. We are at the dawn of the social learning age. None of our prison routines are appropriate any longer. We don’t need to pretend we are free any longer; we are free.
via http://campustechnology.com/Articles/2009/12/02/The-Cloud-Opens-the-Floodgates-for-Faculty-Innovation.aspx

Filed under  //  academia   higher ed   technology  

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