Blogs

I know I’ve said in the past that I like April, despite all the things that go on during that month. And I still do. But what I like least about April is filling out the college financial aid forms that are always due some time this month. (Well, except for the first time, when they were due on the 1st of February, before I’d even finished doing the taxes.)

Last week, I happened to pick up an old issue of National Geographic Magazine. The cover story was on Ireland which, at the time of publication, was ramping itself up into "Celtic Tiger" mode. The writer was focusing on how the increase in industrial, commercial and financial activity was affecting more traditional social values. The phrase that caught my attention was him wondering "what more efficient nations do will all the time they're so busy saving."

How do you know if a student needs remediation? It isn’t as straightforward as it sounds.

In a good NYT analysis today, Quentin Hardy makes noteworthy points about Internet companies and their place in the world. Internet "builders of the technology barely understand the effect they are having, the regulators of the status quo can seem clueless" is the most succinct statement of how technology, the market, law and user experience interact at this time in history.

During the ritual of Strategic Planning that my University holds every time a new President is put in place, a new “goal” was announced: we were going to become a research University. Accordingly, a flurry of new programs were created to support publication-driven research projects, particularly targeting ISI-listed journals and reputable publication houses abroad.

Just back from a 10 day trip to South Korea. Came back convinced that there is an incredible opportunity to form a Korean based edtech startup.

I’m was not at all surprised when Santa Monica College abandoned their proposed two-tier fee schedule. Charging more for more popular courses alienates both students as well as faculty. And if one three credit course earns as much credit toward graduation as another three credit course, how can there be a differential pricing mechanism?

The university community in Russia has widely discussed a recent proposal of the Ministry of Education and Science to introduce obligatory professional qualification exams for all university graduates. While such systems exist in a number of countries, for Russia this idea is new and for some universities, scary. It is every teacher’s nightmare that he or she will be accountable for their students’ results as the exam seems certain to be implemented. Why does the Russian Minister of Education and Science, Andrei Fursenko, believe that this measure to be a promising one and why is now best time to introduce it?