By G. Rendell. When I go on about how we, as a nation, expend too much time, money and energy (not just human energy) on housing, transportation, unhealthy food and just stuff in general, one or more students often object that I'm attacking The American Dream. I don't think I am, because I don't think the "dream" they have in mind is the dream which served as the founding ethos of this country. Living in a McMansion with a three-car garage, commuting an hour or more each day, subsisting on food that doesn't require attentive preparation but contains multiple ingredients we can't pronounce, thinking that "family time" is when we're all on Facebook simultaneously, truly believing that buying the latest widget will somehow provide us with an abiding sense of fulfillment even though no other widget we've ever purchased has managed to do that for more than 10 hours... I don't remember reading about any of those practices in 8th grade American History. Read more...
Recommendations: The Patriotic Edition
By Barbara Fister. In honor of the holiday approaching, I thought I’d make some recommendations for listening, watching, and reading. I have plenty of beach read suggestions, but first - here are three for the fourth.
The Internet's Own Boy. Last night I watched the recently-released documentary about Aaron Swartz, the brilliant and prickly young man who played a role as a kid in developing Creative Commons, RSS, and Reddit. Read more...
5 Higher Ed Lessons from the World Cup
By Joshua Kim. Have you also been sucked into the World Cup vortex?
I vote that every college president declare match times as work times, gather the campus around giant screens, and watch the games together. The price in missed classes and postsecondary productivity would be well-balanced by the gains in campus unity. Read more...
Does the ITunes U Courses App Update Fall Short?
By Joshua Kim. The updates to Apple’s iTunes U Courses app look to be welcome improvements.
Instructors and course designers will now be able to create private iTunes U courses directly from the app. In the past the course build process went through the browser. Read more...
Celebrating the Colleague-Student
By Joshua Kim. Are you working full-time in higher ed while also pursuing a higher ed degree?
Are you one of those academic professionals that combines a demanding career with an intensive graduate program?
Are you mixing a full-days work with online and / or low-residency coursework. Read more...
Undergraduate Research, Part One
I’m at the Council for Undergraduate Research (CUR) conference in Washington, D.C. It’s devoted to faculty at colleges and universities across the country who find ways to include their undergraduate students in their own scholarly research. And it’s a fascinating bunch. Read more...
CUR, Day Two: Translation
I was glad to see it wasn’t just me. Read more...
CUR Wrapup: Ownership
Unwelcome Compliments
Reader, I know a challenge when I see one.
I told him that when I first meet her, I’d say “TB, you’re wrong. She doesn’t smell _that_ bad!”
It was not well received. Read more...
Summer in Rome
By Tracy Mitrano. This summer I am teaching “Digital Media Culture” at John Cabot University in Rome. Two of my favorite things in life: teaching and Italy! I am very grateful.
My students are mainly from the United States, some matriculated at John Cabot, some here for their summer sojourn abroad. Two students are Italians. One is from the Ukraine, another from Egypt. I take note that when I talk about U.S. history, it would appear that the students who are not from the United States know more about it than the ones who are. Read more...