By Steven Mintz. What might higher education look like a decade from now? Will it be pretty much as it is today? Or will cost pressures, debt burdens, shifting student demographics, and demands for accountability, affordability, and access produce fundamental transformations in how higher education is structured and delivered?
I am a historian, and my hindsight is far sharper than my foresight. But as a thought experiment, let me speculate. Read more...
By Joshua Kim. Invisibles is an important and timely book. It is also great fun to read, as Zweig builds his case not through abstract reasoning but through telling stories (very detailed and interesting stories) about a set of amazing professionals whose work is largely invisible. Read more...By Joshua Kim. What Microsoft products do you touch in your daily work in higher ed?
By Matt Reed. In one version of my fantasy world, for-profit entrepreneurs who want to remake public higher education would first have to get a basic understanding of the finances of public higher ed. Once you have a basic sense of how things work, you’ll have context for the suggestions. (I have a book I could recommend to get started…)
For example, see if you can spot the flaws in this excerpt from Randy Best’s essay in IHE last week, arguing for deep discounts for online courses. Read more...
By Jane den Hollander. Market-driven policies will result in a loss of talent and damage Australia's ability to compete globally. I recall working at the University of Western Australia in the 1990s and being delighted at the bravery and sheer elegance of A Fair Chance for All, the national plan to ensure better access, participation and success for all Australians into higher education. More...
By Léo Charbonneau. I’m back in the office after a recent three-month leave of absence. We’re often told that reflection facilitates deep learning, so in that spirit I wanted to use this space to reflect a bit on my experiences of the past three months. I generally feel that this blog is about higher ed and not the appropriate space to talk about personal matters, but I’m making an exception this time around. I was also inspired by fellow University Affairs blogger Melonie Fullick, who recently reflected on priorities and “productivity” in the wake of her father passing away. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Conditional Release of Course Materials: Assessing Best Practice Recommendations
Lawanna S. Fisher, Justin G. Gardner, Thomas M. Brinthaupt, Deana M. Raffo, MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching (JOLT), Jul 03, 2014
This is a pretty interesting paper up to the end of page four. It discusses the phenomenon of 'conditional release of material' - that is, showing students course content only after they have reached a certain threshold, such as passing a quiz. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Why Did inBloom Die? A Hard Lesson About Education Privacy
Daniel Solove, SafeGov, Jul 01, 2014
This article from a couple of months ago is making the rounds, and is well worth a look. As background, "Funded by $100 million from the Gates Foundation, inBloom was a non-profit organization aiming to store student data so that school officials and teachers could use it to learn about their students and how to more effectively teach them." More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The City and The City: Reflections on the Cetis 2014 Conference
Brian Kelly, UK Web Focus, Jun 30, 2014
Summary and reflections on the 2014 CETIS conference that took place in Bolton a couple of weeks ago. Of note, from a talk by Phil Richards, "In the moves towards reducing the range of activities which Jisc works on Phil highlighted a move away from working with standards, and highlighted the NHS as an example of a sector in which large sums of money had been invested in the development of interoperable systems based on open standards which had failed to deliver." More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Subversive Proposal at 20
Richard Poynder, Open, Shut?, Jun 30, 2014
It is realluy an idea for its tgime, I think. "Twenty years ago yesterday, cognitive scientist Stevan Harnad posted a message on a mailing list, a message he headed “A Subversive Proposal”.... Today the Subversive Proposal is viewed as one of the seminal texts of the open access movement." More...
/https%3A%2F%2Fprofilepics.canalblog.com%2Fprofilepics%2F1%2F0%2F1076071.jpg)
