Full Disclosure for Student Borrowers – NYTimes.com

Full Disclosure for Student Borrowers – NYTimes.com.

One ear in, one ear out: doesn’t cut it!

Samantha Power
National Security Council
Occidental College

You’ve got to be all in. This means leaving your technology behind occasionally and listening to a friend without half of your brain being preoccupied by its inner longing for the red light on the BlackBerry.

In many college classes, laptops depict split screens — notes from a class, and then a range of parallel stimulants: NBA playoff statistics on ESPN.com, a flight home on Expedia, a new flirtation on Facebook. I know how good you all are at multitasking. And I know of what I speak, because I, too, am a culprit. You have never seen a U.S. government official and new mother so dexterous in her ability simultaneously to BlackBerry and breastfeed.

But I promise you that over time this doesn’t cut it. Something or someone loses out. No more than a surgeon can operate while tweeting can you reach your potential with one ear in, one ear out. You actually have to reacquaint yourself with concentration. We all do. We should all become, as Henry James prescribed, a person “on whom nothing is lost.”

– Quote from last year’s commencement addresses: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/us/12commencement.html?pagewanted=all&ref=us

 

The Campus Tsunami – NYTimes.com

The Campus Tsunami – NYTimes.com.

So, why can’t you respond orally to my question? The Flight From Conversation – NYTimes.com

The Flight From Conversation – NYTimes.com.

Where Your Money Goes – NYTimes.com

Where Your Money Goes – NYTimes.com.

A Tech-Happy Professor Reboots After Hearing His Teaching Advice Isn’t Working – Technology – The Chronicle of Higher Education

A Tech-Happy Professor Reboots After Hearing His Teaching Advice Isn’t Working – Technology – The Chronicle of Higher Education.

American University adjunct faculty vote to unionize – College, Inc. – The Washington Post

American University adjunct faculty vote to unionize – College, Inc. – The Washington Post.

A good move by adjuncts — needs to go nation wide.

The ‘Undue Weight’ of Truth on Wikipedia – The Chronicle Review – The Chronicle of Higher Education

The ‘Undue Weight’ of Truth on Wikipedia – The Chronicle Review – The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Here is another article on why Wikipedia is not used in serious research.  Please notice the application of the definitions of undue weight, truth, majority opinion and minority opinion.

“Wikipedia is not ‘truth,’ Wikipedia is ‘verifiability’ of reliable sources. Hence, if most secondary sources which are taken as reliable happen to repeat a flawed account or description of something, Wikipedia will echo that.”

From the editors of Wikipedia (2012).

Hence, serious application of Wikipedia is farcical.  Go to Wikipedia for whether the earth is round?  I think not.

When it Comes to Education Technology, Trust but Verify — In These Times

When it Comes to Education Technology, Trust but Verify — In These Times.

In lieu of empirical data, why are schools rushing into this brave new world of technology?

For one thing, there’s the allure of a quick fix, as gadgets seem to hold out the possibility that school districts can sustain huge budget cuts without sacrificing quality tutelage. The idea is that teachers can be replaced by cheaper computers, at once saving schools money, preventing tax increases for school resources, and preserving educational services. Even if data prove that’s a pipe dream, the desire for a cure-all has convinced many desperate schools to chase the fantasy.

There’s also political pressure from high-tech companies that, according to Education Week, “are thriving in the K-12 market.” As the Investigative Fund’s Lee Fang recently documented, these firms use some of the loot they are generating to finance state-based political front groups, hire lobbyists and employ has-beens like Gov. Jeb Bush as their public representatives. The result is a powerful political infrastructure that pushes state legislatures and local school boards to divert money away from proven education tools (teaching staff, textbooks, etc.) and into risky technology procurement.

The Convert: Colonial History, Through The Eyes Of The Colonized : NPR

The Convert: Colonial History, Through The Eyes Of The Colonized : NPR.

“There were many, many women who ran to the church — some of them became nuns, some of them became teachers — basically so that they could be free,” Mann says. “Women were often fleeing being sold off … or being given away, without their own permission, to be … as in this play, the 10th wife of an old man.”

In World Civilization II (world history since Westphalia), this week we covered African history from the 1400s to c. 1900, learning how forced servitude exists to the present day.  This play by Danai Gurira outlines ways that women today avoid forced betrothals and other prisons of servitude.