23 juin 2013
Humanities and Social Sciences Are Central to National Goals, Report Argues
By Dan Berrett. A new report commissioned by a bipartisan quartet of lawmakers seeks to bolster the sagging fortunes of the humanities and social sciences, arguing that those disciplines are central to the nation's civic, cultural, economic, and diplomatic future. The report, "The Heart of the Matter," was produced by the Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences, a blue-ribbon panel that was formed by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences at the lawmakers' request. The commission's task was to identify what federal and state governments, universities, teachers, foundations, and individual donors can do to "maintain national excellence in humanities and social-scientific scholarship and education" to help achieve national goals.Sen. Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, and Sen. Mark R. Warner, Democrat of Virginia, requested the report with Rep. Thomas E. Petri, Republican of Wisconsin, and Rep. David E. Price, Democrat of North Carolina. The commission's 54 members include scholars in the humanities and social sciences, as well as scientists, engineers, business executives, philanthropists, and artists. The commission's recommendations contain little in the way of grand plans requiring major public support; the report often calls for consortia of government, foundations, and businesses to foot the bill for such programs as graduate fellowships in the humanities and social sciences, the teaching of languages and culture, and increasing study-abroad opportunities. Recommendations include providing more support for the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Science Foundation, and passing a "National Competitiveness Act" to support international affairs and transnational studies. Read more...
Unintentional Knowledge - What we find when we're not looking
By Julio Alves. I started teaching writing in graduate school 20-plus years ago, and it did not take me long to start looking forward to the pile of research papers at the end of the semester. Unlike much of the writing earlier in the semester, done from assigned readings and carefully crafted prompts, the research papers tackled broad, open-ended questions. Students developed their own ideas and went to the library to research topics of their choice. It was exciting to see how they made sense of what they read. But that was in the old days, before the ease and precision produced by the Internet. Now students hardly ever use books in their research, and their papers have become as predictable as those they write from assigned readings. Read more...Virtual Universities Abroad Say They Already Deliver ‘Massive’ Courses
By Jeffrey R. Young. Since long before anyone uttered the word “MOOC,” virtual universities in many countries have been using technology to teach thousands of students at a time. Even so, leaders of those online institutions, who gathered here this week at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said they were watching massive open online courses closely. Read more...Professors Envision Using Google Glass in the Classroom
By Sara Grossman. New digital eyewear from Google, which features a built-in Webcam and the ability to display e-mail messages and other information, has sparked a mix of curiosity and skepticism in the popular press, but several professors are rushing to try it out in their teaching and research—and early reviews are mixed. Read more...Inside a MOOC in Progress
By Karen Head. After months of preparation, we finally started our MOOC, “First-Year Composition 2.0,” at Georgia Tech. We are now through the first few weeks of the eight-week course, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Veteran MOOC instructors warned me that the early weeks would be bumpy. The actual experience has often left me panicked—and worried that the course would not be successful. This is not like a traditional course, in which you have a day or two to deal with issues that come up in class. MOOC students expect immediate responses, and that means nearly 24/7 monitoring of the course. Read more...The Smell of Support: Notre Dame Unveils Fragrance Line
By . The University of Notre Dame has long been known for its enthusiastic sports fans. Now, the South Bend Tribune reports, all of those rabid supporters will be able to show their commitment in a new way—with perfume and cologne. But don’t worry: They won’t get the chance to smell like Manti Te’o on game day. Read more...Demographic Change Doesn’t Mean the Sky’s Falling
By Eric Hoover.The evolution of enrollment management has long entwined with the story of changing demographics. Here at the Harvard Summer Institute on College Admissions on Tuesday, William R. Fitzsimmons described how many of today’s recruitment strategies grew from dire predictions back in the late 1970s, when colleges were bracing for a sharp decline in the number of high-school graduates. Read more...In a Rare Collaboration, Researchers Will Study Student-Loan Counseling at DeVry U.
By Goldie Blumenstyk.Many academics say they have a hard time conducting unfettered research on students at for-profit colleges. And just about everyone says that all students, but particularly those who are first-generation college students from from lower-income families, need better counseling about the loans they are assuming to go to college. Read more...
When College Becomes a Risky Investment
By Robert E. Martin. Economists mislead families by framing college attendance as an issue of capital investment rather than one of affordability. Telling parents and students that they should choose the college with the highest net present value, or predicted return on their tuition investment, encourages them to choose the most expensive college they can. Since colleges work to convince the public that quality and cost are directly correlated, the investment framework is a good complement to marketing strategies. In fact, no objective data support the hypothesis that higher cost means higher quality in education. The data are lacking because colleges and universities provide few objective measures of quality, even though the market has called for that evidence for decades. Read more...Ph.D. Placement Project
By Erin E. Templeton. Regular readers of the Chronicle are surely familiar with the ongoing discussion about the merits of graduate education both generally and in the humanities more specifically. Whatever your position on the “Go!/Don’t Go!” debate (note: two different links), one thing is clear: more information about where Ph.D.s end up would be very helpful both to potential candidates, employers, and the professoriate more generally. In his most recent column, William Pannapacker threw down the gauntlet, so to speak. Read more...
