Do it over–Fix Graduate Educationion

I like many of the suggestions in this article (tho can only clip 1000 characters, so it’s worth reading the whole thing) and am proud that my program, Community, Agriculture, Recreation, and Resource Studies (CARRS) at Michigan State University, is already doing interdisciplinary, problem/theme-focused research and teaching.

clipped from www.nytimes.com End the University as We Know It By MARK C. TAYLOR GRADUATE education is the Detroit of higher learning. Most graduate programs in American universities produce a product for which there is no market (candidates for teaching positions that do not exist) and develop skills for which there is diminishing demand (research in subfields within subfields and publication in journals read by no one other than a few like-minded colleagues), all at a rapidly rising cost (sometimes well over $100,000 in student loans). The dirty secret of higher education is that without underpaid graduate students to help in laboratories and with teaching, universities couldn’t conduct research or even instruct their growing undergraduate populations. That’s one of the main reasons we still encourage people to enroll in doctoral programs. It is simply cheaper to provide graduate students with modest stipends and adjuncts with as little as $5,000 a course — with no benefits — than it is to hire full-time professors

Cool Conference

I would love to go to this conference, it’s NAME alone is inspiring!

clipped from ubi-learn.com The Ubiquitous Learning Conference investigates the uses of technologies in learning, including devices with sophisticated computing and networking capacities which are now pervasively part of our everyday lives’ from laptops to mobile phones, games, digital music players, personal digital assistants and cameras. The Conference explores the possibilities of new forms of learning using these devices not only in the classroom, but in a wider range of places and times than was conventionally the case for education. Ubiquitous Learning is made possible in part by the affordances of the new, digital media. What’s new about it? What’s not-so-new? What are the main challenges of access to these new learning opportunities? These are the key themes and scope and concerns of the Conference and its companion Journal.

The Last Drop

A very good friend of mine here in Jordan organized this incredible video about water in Jordan by 10th grade girls.

THE LAST DROP

It was an amazing project to watch, and it is incredible to think about all the talented and well-meaning people there are out there making a difference!

Makes me feel like there’s hope for real change.