Today the Washington Post published an important op-ed piece, “If colleges keep killing academic freedom, civilization will die, too,” by José A. Cabranes, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.  Cabranes, a Bill Clinton appointee and highly respected jurist, previously served as General Counsel for Yale University (1975-80) and on […] … learn more→

As I wrapped up a research sabbatical in Canada in March 2015, I started searching for conferences to present my research at. A quick Google search highlighted a shocking number of events and organisations that I had never even heard of – and an even more shocking list of conference fees. But perhaps I shouldn’t […] … learn more→

“Speak your mind” and “post your mind” are not the same thing. A study that investigated how messages containing different emotions spread across social networks found that “anger is more influential than other emotions like joy, which indicates that angry tweets can spread quickly and broadly in the network”. The consequences of such angry posts […] … learn more→

There has been much misinformation about Islam. Reports in Western media tend to perpetuate stereotypes that Islam is a violent religion and Muslim women are oppressed. Popular films like “American Sniper” reduce places like Iraq to dusty war zones, devoid of any culture or history. Fears and anxiety manifest themselves in Islamophobic actions such as […] … learn more→

For many years, schools and universities have had to change the way they work and teach in order to fit in with technology. Software like PowerPoint, for example, which has long been used as an education tool, wasn’t designed for education. Nonetheless, it has been a staple tool in education settings, used as a way […] … learn more→

Twitter has been central to a number of controversial cases that have tested the definitions and the limits of academic freedom. The brevity and compression of tweets means that they exist outside of any fixed context and they are therefore very frequently totally ambiguous. What seems very provocative or even outrageous to one reader may […] … learn more→

Towards the end of the last election, the fake news machine unleashed a torrent of allegations of sexual misconduct against Trump; at least 10 women came forward to say they were attacked by Trump. Now, because we do have independent as well as mainstream media, a bit of investigation quickly revealed most of the claims […] … learn more→

After President-elect Donald Trump tapped Betsy DeVos to become the head of the United States Department of Education, her name has spurred a great deal of conversation within the K-12 education community. Much of this conversation has centered around Devos’ controversial past as a supporter, lobbyist and financial donor to causes that directly support school […] … learn more→

  I do love a good jigsaw. The more complicated the better. Tiny pieces. Ambiguous shapes that could be one of any number of things. Large slabs of mono colour. What’s not to like? And over Christmas I got hooked on the digital jigsaw puzzle. No more analogue piles occupying the dining room table for weeks. […] … learn more→

  The administrative takeover of higher education has done no good for many reasons. Most of those reasons involve the sheer greed of so many administrators, plundering school after school in an endless quest for wealth and power. This sort of activity bankrupts schools, an obvious problem. A more subtle problem is the takeover of […] … learn more→