John Palfrey: Thoughts About the Future of Libraries and Learning
John Palfrey talks about digital scholarship, digital students, and the challenges and opportunities both provide. From the closing plenary of the SSP Annual Meeting.
Concerns Over the Higher Education Bubble Continue to Grow and Evolve
The “education as financial bubble” meme is spreading, and new facts and comparisons are emerging.
Is Higher Education the Next Bubble to Burst?
With escalating costs and questions about results, higher education is attracting skepticism from an Internet mogul who knows a bubble when he sees one.
Gladwell Tackles College Rankings: The Perils of Comprehensive Heterogeneous Systems
Why do smart people continue to seek simple rank-order listings of inherently complex phenomena?
Britain Has Sneezed: Will the U.S. Catch a Cold?
Britain’s response to economic hard times might infect the US higher education system, and lead to major cuts in the humanities and social sciences.
Feeding the Sharks — C2C Wins Venture Capital
SSP IN conference ends with presentations of five new “dream e-Tools.” Will the panel of venture capitalists take the bait?
Personas, Process, and Venture Capitalists
Successfully developing a new product often means understanding the interests of other stakeholders.
The “Burden” of Peer Review
Do the benefits of peer review outweigh the work involved? How does post-publication review stack up in comparison?
Rectifying Asymmetries — Experts Are Battered From All Sides, But Are We Any Smarter?
Is the Web making experts more susceptible to challenge? Is this a good thing for society as a whole? Or is it creating a confusion demagogues can exploit?
Teaching the End of Print — Using Books Poised on the Edge of Oblivion
A teacher publishes a syllabus contemplating a print era bounded by two inventions — the printing press and the networked screen. It’s part of a sweep of interesting observations.
The Power of Time Perspectives: How Cultures, Countries, Cities, and Citizens Are Shaped By Them
Do you have time to learn about time perspectives? I hope so.
The First Four Years of College: Why Are Students Spending Less Time Studying?
A new economic analysis of the time spent realizing a four-year degree shows decreases across the board since 1961. What does it mean? Why is it happening?
Friday Fun: Bill Murray Reads Poetry to Construction Workers
While building a new poetry center, construction stops so Bill Murray can share a few poems (and jokes) with the workers. A lovely moment, captured in video.
Science Blogging as a Public Outreach Tool — Unfulfilled Potential or Unrealistic Expectation?
A recent study points out that science blogs are failing to provide much in the way of community outreach and education to the non-scientist public. Is this really a failure, or is it an unrealistic expectation?
The Video College Application: Tufts Embraces the YouTube Generation
A large university embraces video applications, and more than 1,000 students submit, mostly via YouTube. Here are some clever videos spotlighting some of today’s college applicants.