I was happy to see my old school Temple (I did a post-doc there) has followed the University of Massachusetts to create digital online (and free) textbooks. It’s a little baby step but I think that these sorts of projects are going to eventually– against the gravitation pull of textbook publishers–end the reign of the textbook gougers.  We need to start being more ambitious about making textbooks free for students.

What we need, if I can dream a little, is a chain of websites/textbooks in all sorts of subjects, starting with general education, open to the public, and maintained by professors as well as students. The technology isn’t complicated– they could be based in wiki software– and students could, if they wanted,…

“There will always be some leaders who choose to manage for the short term … particularly when they hold the highly liquid equity stakes that the leadership of private-sector institutions sometimes receive as part of their compensation. This isn’t a theoretical issue; it has happened.”

Andrew Rossen, quoted in ‘Change.edu’ and the Problem With For-Profits by Robert M. Shireman

I work in the proprietary sector, and I think that Rossen is correct. You cannot offer huge salaries and bonuses for short=term profitability and expect executives and managers to think long-term. In such a situation, as Shireman rightly points out, “The temptations to do ill are unrelenting.” Interestingly, Shireman calls Rosen’s ideas both “refreshingly honest” and “empty.” It’s hard to disagree.

What I don’t…

I often fell like a curmudgeon, trolling around and finding stories about things like the crazy Hench-woman, Lisa Troyer, who resigned after it was suspect– and then more or less demonstrated– that she had sent anonymous email in an attempt to manipulate the faculty governing process.  A recent UI Faculty Senate resolution called Troyer’s actions part of  ’”a broad pattern of surveillance and intrusion into legitimate faculty governance deliberations” (“UI senate unanimous in criticism of Hogan“).

That’s bourgeois professor speak for “systemic corruption.”  As an anecdote for cynicism, then, I try to do some reading about positive things, trends that seem to be moving education in a good direction.  I liked “The Time is Now: Report from the New Faculty Majority Summit” for…

Elite colleges all allege to be global institutions, and many are known around the world. But it is simply untenable to claim global leadership in educating a planet of seven billion people when you hoard your educational offerings for a few thousand fortunates living together on a small patch of land.

“MIT Mints a Valuable New Form of Academic Currency”  Kevin Carey

It’s one more step in the evolution of the new decentralized education system: inexpensive credentials for MIT’s open courses. This is going to spread from school to school, in a kind of vanguard fashion, I imagine, until at some point someone will call for some sort of systemic standards. Once those standards are in place,  people  will…