Lots of ed-tech higher ed articles today in The New York Times including their Education Lifespecial section with the tagline:The Disruptors. Worth Noting:
The is-this-what-we’ve-come-to? entry: Looking for Intimacy in the Age of Facebook is a higher education course (yes, you heard right). Interestingly, social media may inhibit creativity and innovation:
That’s because the parts of their lives that truly matter to many of them during college — high marks and solid “A” social lives — are undermined by a widespread, constricting social anxiety that comes, paradoxically, from two of their greatest pleasures: texting and social media. A small but growing body of evidence suggests that excessive social media use can lead to an unhealthy fixation on how one is perceived and an obsessive competitiveness.
. . .Frustrated and looking for answers, I took the direct approach and asked students to journal about their risk-taking reticence. A few brave souls confessed to fearing classmates’ judgment for saying or writing something “stupid” or, worse, something that “set them apart.”
In the Fashion & Style section: Mindfulness: Capturing its Share of Attention:
The “Disconnect to Connect” meet-up was typical. The audience was mostly young, mostly from the Silicon Valley tech scene and entirely fed up with taking orders from Siri. “There was a time when phones didn’t tell you to do everything,” said Mr. Gordhamer, 45, as the conversation got rolling. “What’s work, what’s not work, it’s all become blurred.”
The Repurposed Ph.D. — Finding Life After Academia — and Not Feeling Bad About It
Though graduates have faced similar conditions for decades, the past few years have seen a surge in efforts to connect Ph.D.’s with gratifying employment outside academia and even to rethink the purpose of doctoral education.
Are You Competent? Prove It.
Degrees Based on What You Can Do, Not How Long You Went by Anya Kamenetz
An important discussion about assessment that has ramifications for both traditional and online higher education. Credentialing on-line is one thing but does that mean traditional colleges will be required to give exit exams?
Also, a surprisingly non-noteworthy article penned by Clayton Christiansen and Michael Horn about MOOCs, disruption and higher education. We’ve seen this movie before but worth the mention: Innovation Imperative: Change Everything: Online Education as an Agent of Transformation
