Monthly Archives: June 2012

Why the global environmental movement is failing

The recent news out of the RIO+20 summit is dire. No collective pre-agreement, no institutional change, no investment. The difference between RIO+20 and Kyoto was that at least Kyoto created an agreement that no one really abided by (and probably never planned to abide by). In the case of RIO+20 even that charade appears to […] … learn more→

Develop and implement a course blog

At THATCamp CHNM this year, Mark Sample proposed a session on \”Building a Better Blogging Assignment\”. Those present shared their experiences from assigning blogs in past courses and also exchanged models and ideas for assignments that best fit their course objectives. Some use blogs in seven week online courses, while others have incorporated blogs into […] … learn more→

A Tsunami?

What is the future for universities, given the shift to thinking more seriously about the potential for online learning? The creation of EdX and all this talk about flipped classrooms are just the beginning. Everyone is talking and speculating… what will happen? Here at the Bok Center we are readying for what David Brooks is […] … learn more→

Time for a midyear checkup of your social media presence

If you’re one of those mid-level managers secure in your position who hasn’t wanted to take the time to learn about social media, you’re not just missing out — you could be damaging your career in the long run. Recently I was training a group of mid-level finance executives on how to use LinkedIn in […] … learn more→

The sporting life

It always feels awkward to find that a publisher has sent me a new book on sports. As someone who escaped the sort of small Texas town where high school football is a sacrament, I’m averse to following athletics of any kind, unless watching professional bowling on TV every so often counts, which it probably […] … learn more→

When University presses fail

American literature is slowly going out of business. The publisher of The Collected Works of Langston Hughes and The Complete Sermons of Ralph Waldo Emerson is closing up shop. Starting this July, the University of Missouri Press will begin to phase out operations. The press, which was founded in 1958 by a University of Missouri […] … learn more→

Breaking sex education taboos in Africa to tackle AIDS

In the absence of a cure or vaccine for HIV/AIDS, educating children about safe sex is regarded by many as the primary means for prevention – the United Nations and others have described it as “the social vaccine” – but the question of how best to do this has long been debated. The need for […] … learn more→

Geoengineering trial cancelled: more regulation needed

Inventors have long been protecting their ideas by filing patent applications on new technologies. But is it appropriate for researchers or companies to own the intellectual property rights to climate-altering technologies? This is a significant issue for the scientists and engineers involved in the UK-based Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering (SPICE) project. SPICE test […] … learn more→