As more companies start providing computing services, look for ways to sell their products and services to consumers, the delivery of computing and storage capacity is expanding like a storm on the horizon. It\’s no longer a service reserved for the government, big businesses and smartphone elites. In fact, colleges and even elementary and secondary […] … learn more→

Neo-racism toward international students, such as the recent incidents at Michigan State and Ohio State Universities, highlights the challenges higher education leaders face in creating a positive campus climate for international students. Many international students live in a parallel social world, shut off from friendships with American peers. When a neo-racist act occurs, international students […] … learn more→

What does it mean when a highly successful neuroscientist, like Dario Maestripieri, states that he is disappointed there aren’t more “super model types” at a major conference? Here’s what he wrote: My impression of the Conference of the Society for Neuroscience in New Orleans. There are thousands of people at the conference and an unusually […] … learn more→

I had the opportunity to attend a session last week, hosted by Pearson, on how higher ed faculty use social media. Much of the content was quite interesting. You can download the full research report here. Quite a bit of survey data was presented on the survey with 3,875 respondents, including that 34% of faculty […] … learn more→

The great energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy is under way. As fossil fuel prices rise, as oil insecurity deepens, and as concerns about pollution and climate instability cast a shadow over the future of coal, a new world energy economy is emerging. The old energy economy, fueled by oil, coal, […] … learn more→

You’ll know by now that six scientists and a government official have been found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to six years in prison for how they assessed and communicated risk prior to the L’Aquila earthquake that killed 309 people in 2009. So what can we, in earthquake science, take from these convictions? If we […] … learn more→

The killer apps for education, argued Stanford University professor John Willinsky at last week’s Open Education Conference, will be built when we apply our lessons to our communities “so that the learning I do in school contributes to the public library and to the public knowledge of my community” — so that open education remains […] … learn more→

The label \”online lecturer\” used to bother me. You didn\’t see teachers in a traditional classroom calling themselves \”in-the-flesh lecturers\” or \”face-to-face lecturers.\” I feared that if I became an online lecturer, my colleagues might start to question the quality of my teaching or my reputation—as though the \”online\” bit would make what I did […] … learn more→

I spent last week getting to, attending, and then getting back from this year\’s AASHE conference in Los Angeles. As I headed west, I had planned to post pretty much every day, giving my reactions to things I\’d experienced at the conference. But as reality overcame expectation, I found I didn\’t really have anything to […] … learn more→

Last time we met my friend, PhD student and working academic ‘Dave’ he was walking through the Valley of Shit. Dave emerged from the deathly valley soon after I published that post, but he has now hit the last phase of PhD study, which I call “PhD detachment”. Dave, somewhat more colourfully, calls this phase […] … learn more→