By Jonathan Rothwell and Fred Dews. Jonathan Rothwell, fellow in the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings, tells us what’s missing in conventional college ranking systems like that of U.S. News & World Report. And using President Obama’s new college score card, Rothwell talks about his new value added approach to rankings. More...
Writing in a New Language, Writing Anew
By Lucy Ferriss. My admiration for the writer Jhumpa Lahiri went up a thousandfold after reading an excerpt from her new book, titled “Teach Yourself Italian,” in this week’s New Yorker. Having been trying to teach myself Italian for the past 18 months, I thought I would find a fellow voyager in Lahiri’s essay. As it turns out, Lahiri became so obsessed with the language that she moved to Italy with her family, something I’ve never contemplated doing. More...
‘Micro’ Meditation
By Lucy Ferriss. For the record, I believe we have a problem on campuses with a persistent, low level, broadly shared, largely unconscious set of prejudices that places an unfair burden on minorities (and, often, women). More...
Don’t Cuff Me
By Lucy Ferriss. Happy start to cuffing season. Yes, folks, it officially begins today.
I just learned the term cuffing season four days ago, and already I know I cannot talk about it without showing my age. More...
Approaching Partial Zero
By Lucy Ferriss. When I first heard of a partial zero-emissions vehicle (or PZEV, a fun acronym to say), I wondered if it was a line from a joke. But no. It is a line from a vehicle category designed to circumvent requirements like California’s demand that zero-emissions vehicles be produced by a certain date. More...
ProfHacker 2015 Holiday Gift Guide
By Brian Croxall. Hopefully you’ve noticed the subtle change in the air: the giving way of the aroma of pumpkin spice latte to the onset of the peppermint mocha. With that blessed change from decorative gourd season, mothers everywhere want to know what you’ll be getting them for the slew of holidays that close out the year. Read more...The Now Page Movement
By Natalie Houston. Setting clear priorities for how you’re going to use your time and energy can often be a challenge. For academics, figuring out how to arrange the competing demands of research, teaching, and service is but one part of the larger challenge of creating a work-life balance that serves you well. Read more...Tune In to Focus at Will
By Natalie Houston. Our brains are designed to pay attention to novelty in our environment: at the most basic level, early in our evolution, novelty often meant danger — a predator approaching in the forest, say, or a severe storm approaching. Read more...Open Review for Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities
By Jason B. Jones. One of the interesting aspects of Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities is that the keywords are available for open peer review and public comment. This is being staged in batches, both as a sanity-preserving mechanism and to make sure each essay gets the attention it merits. Read more...Simple Visualizations with D3plus
By Anastasia Salter. I’ve been using D3, a JavaScript library for data visualizations (the three ‘D’s stand for Data-Driven Documents), for my own projects and with my students for some time. Read more...