Why Americans Are the Weirdest People in the World

Approximate Reading Time: 2 minutesWhy Americans Are the Weirdest People in the World. the ā€œweirdā€ Western mind is the most self-aggrandizing and egotistical on the planet: we are more likely to promote ourselves as individuals versus advancing as a group. Fascinating. Greedy and selfish. … Continue reading

Report: International tests severely misrank U.S. students | eSchool News

Approximate Reading Time: < 1 minute“In today’s news, a new report says that international tests like PISA are misleading, and the U.S. actually ranks much higher on the global scale–in some cases as high as Finland–once you re-weight data on social class.” Report: International tests … Continue reading

Are Undergraduates Actually Learning Anything? – Commentary – The Chronicle of Higher Education

Approximate Reading Time: 2 minutesCleaning out some of my backlog of drafts…. This is an older article that’s been sitting in my to do list. The comments are still relevant. If anything, the situation has grown worse in the mean time. This article is … Continue reading

Problems with Academia, #347: Grades are prized over learning.

Approximate Reading Time: < 1 minuteAn Academic Ghostwriter Comes Clean – Faculty – The Chronicle of Higher Education. Emphasis on grades and competition always increase the pressure on students to “win the prize” rather than learn. When most of the rest of the world rewards … Continue reading

How The American University was Killed, in Five Easy Steps | The Homeless Adjunct

Approximate Reading Time: < 1 minuteHow The American University was Killed, in Five Easy Steps | The Homeless Adjunct. Like the first commenter says, a must read. Here’s the spoiler: defund public higher education. deprofessionalize and impoverish the professorsĀ (and continue to create a surplus of … Continue reading

Who funded the Internet? I care that you donā€™t know what it is! Ā« Computing Education Blog

Approximate Reading Time: 2 minutesEven in modern times it is possible for accounts of history to go awry. In this case it doesn’t even have the excuse of being ancient history.   Come to think of it, in some ways we are more at … Continue reading

What it Means to be Truly Educated

Approximate Reading Time: 4 minutesThis is an older article posted on FB by Ian Bogost. He’s right. It is worth the read. It gives a very good account of what is happening to teachers in the US. Some of that inevitably spills over here … Continue reading

If you fly, you can’t use their dictionary….

Approximate Reading Time: 2 minutesAnyone know a a good dictionary/thesaurus app I can install on my PC? I used to use the offline version of Websters, which I loved, but it is old and won’t install on my 64bit machine. Lately I’ve been using … Continue reading