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8 décembre 2013

Noam Chomsky: Modern universities designed to ‘deprive you of your freedom’

The Raw StoryBy Scott Kaufman. The World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) released an interview with Noam Chomsky recently in which the noted linguist discussed, among other things, how high student tuition indoctrinates students into corporate culture. 
“There’s no economic basis for high tuitions,” Chomsky said. “One of the very negative aspects of this sharp tuition rise is that it entraps students. It deprives them of their freedom.” 
Chomsky explained that “if you’re going to come out of college with $50,000 of debt, you’re stuck. You couldn’t do the things you wanted to do, like maybe you wanted to become a public interest lawyer, helping poor people. You can’t do it — you have to go to a corporate law firm, pay off your debt. Then you get trapped in that.” More...

1 décembre 2013

J’ose dire pourtant que je n’ai mérité ni cet excès d’honneur, ni cette indignité

Le blog de Jean-Luc Vayssière. Depuis quelques jours, articles de presse et déclarations publiques se multiplient à propos de notre université. L’annonce d’un exercice déficitaire pour la seconde année consécutive et, surtout, d’un épuisement du fonds de roulement ont provoqué un déferlement de critiques à notre égard. Alors qu’il était difficile jusque-là d’animer le débat public à propos des difficultés des universités françaises, de l’illisibilité de leur positionnement dans le paysage de l’enseignement supérieur et des conséquences prévisibles de leur sous-financement chronique, je constate que le sujet est devenu vendeur, dès lors qu’il peut être mis en scène et dramatisé par la désignation publique de coupables livrés à la vindicte collective.
Je ne cherche pas à nier la position financière difficile dans laquelle se trouve l’UVSQ, qui accuse un déficit de fonctionnement de 7,2 millions d’euros (soit environ 4% de son budget). Je ne cherche pas non plus à minimiser ma part de responsabilité dans cette situation : j’ai plus d’une fois tiré une grande fierté des succès de notre université, ce n’est pas aujourd’hui, alors que le vent est contraire, que je renoncerai à assumer mes engagements...
On gagne toujours à relire les classiques ; cela m’a donné tout loisir de méditer sur les vers du Britannicus de Racine :
    « J’ose dire pourtant que je n’ai mérité
    Ni cet excès d’honneur, ni cette indignité ». Voir l'article entier...

1 décembre 2013

Online Learning and Credential Completion

HomeBy Doug Lederman. The discipline of research on online learning is nascent enough, and the body of long-term studies thin enough at this point, that keeping tabs on the state of thinking is a bit like watching a table tennis match. Every study that provides evidence of the effectiveness of online teaching seems to elicit a critical one. And vice versa. Last week's meeting of the Sloan Consortium's International Conference on Online Learning brought the latest such volley. Read more...
26 novembre 2013

Poor Choices

By Melonie Fullick. Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the job market, poverty, and the assumptions we make when we talk about people’s choices, partly because recently I’ve seen two excellent and provocative posts about this. The first is from Tressie McMillan Cottom on “The logic of stupid poor people”, a post that discusses how expensive status symbols (like a $2,500 handbag) act as powerful signifiers, and how in general there is a complex performance that must be mastered in order for class “mobility” to happen. The second post, “Why I Make Terrible Decisions, or, poverty thoughts” is by Linda Walther Tirado who writes about the (non-) choices faced by poor people, and how they are criticized for what they choose. Read more...
26 novembre 2013

Breaking bad habits, building better ones

http://www.universityaffairs.ca/images/Blog-phd-to-life.jpgBy Jennifer Polk. I want to write about how great I’m doing, how awesome my clients are, and how good I feel about being a post-academic businesswoman. All those things are true, but there’s more to my story. It’s time to fess up, recommit, and move on. (Can you tell I’ve been mired in Rob Ford news for days?)
First up, social media and the Internet in general. I love these tools, and they add value to my life ... but there comes a point at which scrolling and clicking is just procrastination. I need to be more mindful of the time I spend online. More...

26 novembre 2013

Speed of Communication

http://www.insidehighered.com/sites/default/server_files/styles/blog_landing/public/mama_phd_blog_header.jpg?itok=C5xGPD1aBy Susan O'Doherty. I have been having a wonderful time performing in this piece as a member of an eight-person "time consortium." We are given snippets of scientific, philosophical and literary writing on the nature mad meaning of time, and each night we hold extemporaneous discussions about what we read. We are all actors, but we were chosen in part because of our interest or expertise in a variety of fields (other members include a physics teacher, a playwright and a minister), so discussions tend to be wide ranging. Read more...

16 novembre 2013

Why Now?

http://www.insidehighered.com/sites/default/server_files/styles/large/public/CRW.jpgBy Lee Skallerup Bessette. In my last post where I announced the new direction for this space (and my career), Adam asks
Lee, I'm interested in a post about how your earlier attempts may have foundered (i.e. writing consulting), and how you are making this foray different. 
I addressed some of these issues here and here, but I think it’s worth diving in a little deeper: what makes this time different? Read more...
16 novembre 2013

3 Reasons Every Academic Should Read "Double Down"

http://www.insidehighered.com/sites/default/server_files/styles/blog_landing/public/technology_and_learning_blog_header.jpg?itok=aQthgJ91By Joshua Kim. Double Down: Game Change 2012 by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann 
Do you think it is weird that I am saying that higher ed people should put down their higher ed related books and pick up this political tale? 
Maybe Kissinger’s words are ringing in your ears, "University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small." 
3 reasons why you should be reading Double Down. Read more...

16 novembre 2013

Briefly Noted

http://www.insidehighered.com/sites/default/server_files/styles/large/public/globalhighered.jpgBy Kris Olds. Who is troubled by this week's Sebastian Thrun hagiography ('Udacity's Sebastian Thrun, Godfather Of Free Online Education, Changes Course') in Fast Company, as well as this announcement ('Launching our Data Science & Big Data Track built with Leading Industry Partners') via the Udacity blog (both posted on 14 November 2013)? A lot of committed open education thinkers and practitioners, so it seems, and not merely because of the hype machine Thrun so evidently cultivates (I'll leave aside the possible negative reaction to Thrun getting photographed in Lycra tights through a filter borrowed from a 1970s Swedish cinematographer, or the journalist's attempt to throw in a clichéd Matrix reference). Read more...
16 novembre 2013

Capturing Institutional Knowledge

http://www.insidehighered.com/sites/all/themes/ihecustom/logo.jpgBy Andrew M. Pena. What happens to an organization when its best, brightest, most experienced and knowledgeable employees are walking out the door? What do they take with them, and what do we lose? Part of it is the organization’s institutional knowledge or history. Obviously not all employee turnover is “bad” turnover; there are some employees that we’d like to leave sooner rather than later. Read more...

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