The Future of Higher Ed #1: Accrediting Individuals, Not Institutions

I’ve been thinking a lot about Higher Education lately, specifically future scenarios mapping probable and preferable trajectories for universities. One thing that continues to be a real point of concern is the issue of accreditation – the process by which universities and colleges are certified by outside institutions to provide degrees. The current system is [...]

The Realities of Being a Writer in the Age of New Media

As always, Tony Pierce is the man. Here’s what he had to say to a group of young aspiring Journalists the other day (straight from the legendary BusBlog):
i said you might come into the office and they look at you and say, can you make it to LAX to interview the CEO of Virgin and [...]

Thinking the Future: Kardashev Scales and the possibility of sub-scales

Open Left put up this video today by Michio Kaku on the Kardashev Scale:

Currently, the Earth as a whole  is ranked at roughly a 0.7 on the Kardashev scale. We are not even a Type I civilization yet.
I was very intrigued by Kaku’s discussion of the evolution of structures such as [...]

Cat Herding and Taking PS 545 Students on a Second Life Field Trip

My PS 545 American Political Thought class is doing a major Digital Ethnography project in Second Life this semester. To get everyone on the same page, we went on a “digital field trip” in the lab the other week,

and had some fun deconstructing the meth lab simulation on UK Island. That’s me in the all-black [...]

Thoughts on Nostalgia in the Face of Peak Oil/Global Climate Change

Over at the Oil Drum, Stuart Staniford has an excellent, data-driven argument for “Why Peak Oil Actually Helps Industrial Agriculture.” I really appreciate the research that Staniford has put into this piece, as it provides a nice tonic against the alarmism and doomist approach of people like James Howard Kunstler. Yes, Peak Oil is a [...]

“Hi, I’m a Mac. I’m a PC. And I’m Linux.”

I love this video (found on a thread at the Whitechapel board). It’s so true.
I also like the video because it simply, and humorously illustrates what the Open Source community is all about. Nice. Simple. and Short. We need more Burst Culture like this in the Open Source movement. Information and [...]

Pedagogy 2.0 and Second Life

Boy, Slideshare is just chock full of goodness today! Wanted to put down these two presentations for my own future reference, on on “Pedagogy 2.0″, or using Web 2.0 technologies in the classroom and another on Second Life in education, of interest to me as I’m currently on U.K.’s Second Life Policy committee.

Social Networks Best Practices (Research Note)

Wanted to put this up as part of my research into social networking and politics 2.0. This is a  powerpoint of a research report by FaberNovel, a French research firm, and it’s quite good. Slide 14 on Virtual Identity and various social networking platforms is very intriguing. I wanted to save this for my own [...]

Do you really need Microsoft when you have a Mac?

Okay. People who know me know I am a complete, dyed-in-the-wool, come-back-for-a-second-cup-of-the-Kool-Aid Machead. I’ll admit it. I am also a Microsoft-hater. Writing a dissertation on a Dell box running Windows Me will do that to you. However, I’ve used Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac since I bought my PowerBook back in ‘04.
I’ve never been happy [...]

Robert Scoble interviews Dr. Elliot Soloway on technology and education

I’d never heard of Elliot Soloway before, but I find his ideas on incorporating technology into the learning process to be important. Note that I said “into the learning process” and not “into the classroom.” I believe as time goes on we are going to have to get away from education being a classroom-centered activity, [...]