CFP: Educational Intergrity (Sept 09, Wollongong)
Written by Agnes Bosanquet on July 22nd, 2009
Educational Integrity: Creating an Inclusive Approach
4th Asia Pacific Conference on Educational Integrity (4APCEI)
28 – 30 September 2009
University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia
Educational integrity includes topics such as plagiarism, ethics in research and writing, as well the broader cultural context of values in teaching and learning
This conference will be held at the University of Wollongong, Australia on [...]
Reinventing liberal arts education
Written by Agnes Bosanquet on July 14th, 2009
Bennington president Liz Coleman delivers a call-to-arms for radical reform in higher education:
And in a related TED video, Patrick Awuah makes the case that a liberal arts education is critical to forming true leaders:
Should public money only be used for public education?
Written by Agnes Bosanquet on July 9th, 2009
“Public Funding of Private Education is Unconscionable” was the topic of the most recent IQ Squared debate. Australian Policy Online reports:
Unusually for the series, the pre-debate poll had the audience evenly split on the issue, and speakers from both teams elicited laughter, cheers and boos. High profile speakers like Jane Caro (for) and Michael Duffy [...]
Celebrating willful ignorance
Written by Agnes Bosanquet on July 8th, 2009
Following Davin Heckman’s complaint that students consider reading for class “laughable” and publicly “celebrate” their “willful ignorance” (see the Post-Corporate Uni post), this Times Higher Education article suggests academics might be going the same way. John Corner writes:
As a professional activity, reading is beginning to look a bit suspect unless it is in preparation for [...]
The Post-Corporate University
Written by Agnes Bosanquet on July 2nd, 2009
Check out this interesting “online experiment”: The Post-Corporate University
The Post-Corporate University starts from an assumption that the University is in crisis and that this crisis has been caused by the social and economic characteristics of neoliberalism. Asking the question, Is Another University Possible?, it provides space for multiple answers and interventions.
If this sounds [...]
Universities, rites of passage and youth today
Written by Agnes Bosanquet on June 30th, 2009
Does this statement ring true for you?
The real purpose of universities is not to flatter the tastes of those who arrive there, but to present them with a rite of passage into something better.
How about when it is placed in its context - an article in The American Spectator [...]
Baby boomers, gen x and gen y
Written by Agnes Bosanquet on June 24th, 2009
This blog has previously expressed some scepticism about the claims for digital natives, millenials, gen y, the i-gen.
In this podcast and slideshow from the Engaging Students series, LTC’s Margot McNeill gives a run-down on the differences between baby boomers, gen x and gen y and their experiences of learning and teaching.
Note Margot’s words of caution [...]
Left-wing bias returns…
Written by Agnes Bosanquet on June 16th, 2009
Remember the Senate Inquiry into Academic Freedom?
The writer of this letter to the Sydney Morning Herald doesn’t! James Rowe, a first year Master of Nursing student at Sydney, writes:
The nursing faculty has opened itself to the charge of academic left-wing bias that is constantly made by conservative commentators.
In fact, this charge has already been made [...]
How kids teach themselves
Written by Agnes Bosanquet on May 29th, 2009
Sugata Mitra’s “Hole in the Wall” experiments have shown that, in the absence of supervision or formal teaching, young kids can figure out how to use a PC and then teach other kids. He asks: what else can children teach themselves?
He quotes Arthur C. Clarke: “A teacher who can be replaced by a machine, should [...]
Does education kill creativity?
Written by Agnes Bosanquet on May 12th, 2009
From TEDtalks comes this video: Ken Robinson asks whether education kills creativity, and makes a case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity. Here’s a teaser:
If you want real evidence of out-of-body experiences, get yourself along to a residential conference of senior academics and pop into the discotheque on the final [...]