Learning Innovation

Does it seem to you that every edtech vendor and educational software provider is pitching some new social tool? Yes, learning is social. We get it. But does your educational platform really need to be social as well?

One of the best aspects of working an academic technology gig is the opportunity to work with edtech companies. Even if you are a hardcore roll-your-own / build it local / open source / edupunk true believer, eventually you'll find yourself scouting around for an edtech vendor partner to meet your campus IT needs.

I hope that you will be able to join us on Monday, 9/24 for a discussion of the IHE and Babson Survey Research Group's excellent report Digital Faculty: Professors and Technology, 2012.

We learn in Kevin Kiley's 9/14/12 article "Bigger Picture, Smaller Numbers" that Saint Benedict’s president, MaryAnn Baenninger, has pursued a diminished enrollment / higher tuition / lower discount strategy rate to bring expenses in line with income.

Is it possible that I've become too enamored with Jim O'Neill's BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) concept? This summer I gave O'Neil's book, The Growth Map: Economic Opportunity in the BRICs and Beyond, a glowing review. Sharma's Breakout Nations has caused me to re-think, or at least question, some of my BRIC enthusiasm.

Did you read Andrew Rice's terrific article in the NYT's this Tuesday, Anatomy of a Campus Coup, about the failed attempt to ouster president Sullivan from the University of Virginia? This well-reported article places the nasty fight between UVa's board and what ended up being UVA's academic community (in which Sullivan is well respected) within the context of the larger economic pressures facing higher ed.

Did you take 117 minutes out of your day to watch the latest Apple product announcement event?

Instructure has responded to the unplanned downtime of its cloud based Canvas LMS on 8/20/12 with a client/public facing communications plan.