Blogs

Given how under-preprared our many of our students are, how can we be expected to overcome those deficiencies in one 15-week course?

Given the level of stupidity regularly emanating from Arizona, I’m almost reluctant even to raise the topic. But stupidity has a way of metastasizing if left unchecked.

The content industry has come out barreling after the failure of their pet bills, SOPA and Protect IP. Carey Sherman writes with real feeling in his NYT Op-Ed Column last week, and the movie industry, with its representative Alfred P. Perry, has reached out in a softer mode to legal scholars, many of whom have criticized either, or both, these industries and current U.S. Copyright law.

I often wish there was a BOOK IT program for adults. I’m thinking of something different from the “grown-up” reading groups sponsored by talk show hosts where everyone, regardless of their interests, gathers to read the same chick-lit fare. And I’m definitely thinking of something different from traditional academic reading groups where copious notes and discussion questions are the norm. Both kinds of groups are well-meaning and there’s a place for them, to be sure. But really, I’m thinking of something with no guilt, no pressure, and no real agenda other than sharing and having fun.

Thank you Barbara Fister for your excellent review of David Weinberger's Too Big To Know, and to William Badke, Matthew Loving, Steven Paschold, Carl Hess, and Theron Snell for continuing the conversation about this terrific book.

On Friday, February 3rd, I was waiting for the economic update. The jobs picture is a key indicator (even though it is considered a lagging indicator) of economic recovery, and I was looking to see if there were tangible signs that a real and perhaps more robust recovery was underway. But even though I was tuned into the economy, my greatest attention was focused on the decision by the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation decision to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood.

Ann Hassenpflug has an interesting article on the difficulty of teaching a graduate-level education class when parents whose childcare arrangements have fallen through bring their children to class. A lively and sometimes heated discussion follows in the comments.

What’s New at UVenus: ● A couple of shout-outs for University of Venus in this month’s Teaching Carnival at ProfHacker...