Blogs

With online courses and new data systems on the rise, higher ed institutions are generating more data than ever before. While there are aspects of this movement that are truly promising, one reality is that we are making many assumptions about student behavior when interpreting some of this data.

I’ve followed with interest the gradually-unfolding story from New Jersey about Peter Burnham’s fall from grace as former president of Brookdale Community College.

Call me crazy, but I am not on Facebook. That’s strange for somebody my age and stranger still for somebody who belongs to a group of writers here at UVenus who are masters at using social media.

The Canadian government had cut funding to Library and Archives Canada. So I quote Derrida.

For many years, beginning when I was in college, I went to a dentist whose office was within two blocks of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). Whenever the opportunity presented itself, I would also stop at Chock full o’Nuts next door for a brownie. (For those of you who have never heard of this chain, consider it a more vanilla Starbucks.) And if I had extra time, I would spend some time at the MOMA. I won’t say that this made visiting a dentist pleasurable but I always enjoyed the time spent at the MOMA.

Social media have been a frequent topic on this blog. With ample angles to cover, social media provide an endless supply of questions, ideas, and conversations. Recently, while consulting with a school about their Student Affairs social media strategy, I wrote down a list of words that popped up during our conversations.

Since he first learned to walk, Ben has been passionate about any any activity that involves a ball and running around. He loves playing, watching, and talking about baseball, basketball, football (both kinds, but especially the one we used to call soccer), and, more recently, cricket and rugby. Bill shares many of these interests, and for the most part, I am happy to leave them to it.

Danny Boyle's Olympic Opening Ceremony was unexpectedly enjoyable. From the opening ring (courtesy of Bradley Wiggins) of a 27 ton bell, to the closing festivities, it conveyed a multilayered and multivalent sense of many aspects of what Britain is and isn't (a point deftly made by the New Yorker late last night). As Boyle himself put it, "The Ceremony is an attempt to capture a picture of ourselves as a nation, where we have come from and where we want to be."