Weblogs in Higher Education

Pirates and social media

Innovative collaborations? Movement of information across the world via new technology? Exchanges between groups previously unable to work together? New jobs created by access to new information? Disruptions of market values due to new forces and actors? Sure, but are we talking about pirates here? Yes. See the later paragraphs of Chana Joffe-Walt's 5/22/09 story, "After A Pirate Negotiation,...

Pages (academic) never meant to be read

The epigraph from a new book on Shakespeare by Clinton Heylin: The greatest advantage of Shakespearean studies seems to be that questions may be asked over and over again, and that almost nobody pays attention to the answers � unless he borrows them for his own use in an article or a book. � HYDER E. ROLLINS, 1944

Working with your hands (your mind)

"A good job requires a field of action where you can put your best capacities to work and see an effect in the world," says Matthew B.Crawford in his essay on "The Case for Working With Your Hands." Students and faculty might enjoy his essay for the strong writing as well as for the clues he gives about why academic work...

What students love

The book group had been meeting every other Tuesday for several weeks, and many good ideas about the campus came up for discussion along the way. But I sat up and took note when a colleague said this: Students love it when faculty 'own up' to not knowing something. (R. duC) I connected this sentence immediately to another thought I had been carrying around for a few weeks, something spoken by a teacher to a group of students: I don't know how you will...

Silencing the stakeholders
One way to make clear the power of social media is to identify the thing that is broken without it. Clay Shirky, I'm guessing, might speak about creating the opportunity to coordinate a group that can't easily act in concert, or to call to the microphone a group that usually can't speak on its own behalf. I noticed in a 5/11 letter to the NY Times from Celina Su a classic circumstance where a group...