Pamela -
Thanks for clueing me in!
And it shows how out of touch with academia I am that I didn't trust my
BS detectors even more... I really accepted it!
Nevertheless, my conclusion still holds that we are *optimizing* for one
(or a few) thing(s) and likely running the baby down the drain with the
bathwater.
We *do* live in interesting times!
- Steve
Uhm, Steve, it is a spoof for just those reasons you cite. That I made
a serious response to it was only to say how it is with college
administrations these days.
On Jun 23, 2013, at 10:36 PM, Steve Smith wrote:
If this had been circulated on April 1, I would have suspected it of
being a spoof, challenging the college administrators with the same
kind of job-performance/security threat that professors have been
given by MOOCs.
While I think this might be as inevitable as MOOCs, I think we will
find we enjoy the fruits of MOOCs and MOOAs in the same way we enjoy
the fruits of WalMart, Home Depot, Best Buy and other BigBoxia. We
will badmouth them in public but sneak into them in private to get
the economies of scale, all the while whining about the loss of a
rich and diverse ecosystem provided by the thing these behemoths
replace.
- Steve
Your children's and grandchildren's college tuition is going up much
faster than inflation. One reason--not the only one, but one big
one--is the burgeoning class of administrators. The vice-presidents
proliferate like those of banks, and if you add in compliance
officers of one kind and another, the growth is phenomenal. Joe
tells me of sitting through a mandatory sexual harassment tutorial,
whose content could have been covered in ten minutes, but which took
two "harassment officers" an hour to state the obvious. What
particularly offended him was their clear contempt for the
professoriate. WE run the university dudes, was their attitude, and
you're just the pesky people we have to endure.
This is an Ivy League university, Columbia. God only knows what it's
like in the state schools.
FWIW, I sent this on to a couple of other members of the
professoriate, who laughed like hell.
On Jun 23, 2013, at 9:40 PM, Tom Johnson wrote:
Well, for me at least, we had a near maximum amount of independence
without a lot of interference from administrators. I'm sure that
varies widely, but I enjoyed it. You can have the time or the
money, and I've always taken the time.
-tj
On Sun, Jun 23, 2013 at 9:03 PM, Owen Densmore <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
It was always supposed MOOA would be a huge part of MOOC
success, if indeed it did succeed. Thanks for the pointer, very
interesting indeed.
For example, Udacity and Coursera (and MITx) all agree that
administration cost reduction is a huge step towards the
solution of cost of education.
I wish I *did* have a better understand the ins/outs of
Education .. whenever I hear Ed and others talk about
the arcane aspects of University Life .. I realize that I just
don't Get It. And don't want to!
-- Owen
On Sun, Jun 23, 2013 at 7:41 PM, Tom Johnson <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
For those of us who have hung around universities for a
while..... (Tkx to Joe Traub)
http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2013/06/forget_moocslets_use_mooa.html
--tj
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J. T. Johnson
Institute for Analytic Journalism -- Santa Fe, NM USA
505.577.6482(c) 505.473.9646(h)
Twitter: jtjohnson
http://www.jtjohnson.com <http://www.jtjohnson.com/>
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
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"Bounded Rationality," by Pamela McCorduck, the second novel in the
series, Santa Fe Stories, Sunstone Press, is now available both as
ink-on-paper and as an e-book.
"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good
novel, must be intolerably stupid."
-- Jane Austen
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Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
"Bounded Rationality," by Pamela McCorduck, the second novel in the
series, Santa Fe Stories, Sunstone Press, is now available both as
ink-on-paper and as an e-book.
"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good
novel, must be intolerably stupid."
-- Jane Austen
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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