51–60 of 66 posts
Disengaging from yesteryear's institutions is not going to help them. Best way is to force them to adapt. MOOCs seem to be the thing that will make education assess its business practices. I wish I didn't have to refer to education as a business, but alas, the idea that you can fine-tune any organization through business cases has been perpetuated.
I'm 27 years old, I have a high income and I really enjoy higher education. At this point I don't care about getting my MA. I just really enjoy education for educations sake. But I don't feel like there are many places for me to go- auditing courses is the best I've come up with. I'm sure I'm not the only person who has this "demand" ... I just wish there was a way to connect the supply and demand in a better way :)
Did you tried coursera classes? Some of them are bad, but if you choose carefully you can have great learning experience. The way teachers work, difficulty and quality are very different, so there is high chance there is one that would satisfy you.
Universities have precisely the opposite problem: professors love to teach high-level classes in their fields of interest but they don't particularly care for the intro-level classes.
Good education is politically discouraged. That is my impression, too. It is very very disappointing, as I am at the beginning of the trajectory John C. Beck just ended. His decision and words do not surprise me a bit... I didn't find out why, yet. The gist of my current theory is, that this crumbles down from old minds in politics getting more and more detached from what is actually happening in and around the {acad…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMqJvhmD5Yg
Of course Carlin is a comedian and there is no evidence (that I am aware of) of a conspiracy to dumb down education. I think it's probably more of a case of a noxious wilting blight disease called bureaucracy. Education certainly isn't the only institution stunted and crippled by this infection either.
The bottom line is... if you want a good rounded education, you are going to have to do it yourself. An institution might help with this but isn't going to be the whole answer...and, they are becoming less helpful it seems. Although there are no doubt some corners of the academic world that have so far proved resistant to bureaucratic blight... these are becoming less and less frequent.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This played a big role in my decision to leave a tenured position several years ago to go work in web dev. The university's increasingly biz-dev-oriented emphasis on student evaluations and quantity of diplomas pushed through turned the whole thing into a consumer-oriented relationship where you're expected to just give 'em that paper they're paying for. Shouldn't be the purpose of higher education IMO.
Just looked at the impressive list of institutes you attended. What did you teach?
I'm 27 years old, I have a high income and I really enjoy higher education. At this point I don't care about getting my MA. I just really enjoy education for educations sake. But I don't feel like there are many places for me to go- auditing courses is the best I've come up with. I'm sure I'm not the only person who has this "demand" ... I just wish there was a way to connect the supply and demand in a better way :)
I do, too. I don't care about their stupid pieces of paper - I just want to learn more things. There's been a lot of ink spilled lately about ending the expectation that everyone should go to college. I'd like to see more about how everybody is expected to stop learning after that, unless they're looking for more degrees (or the ubiquitous MBA in marketing/finance), and especially if they have a good job. I think tha…
And I think that new point of view is manifest in your observation. When one views an educated populace as a benefit to society, the kind of continuing education that you mention makes sense. When you take that more individualistic perspective, education that does not produce a monetary return on investment isn't valued and will be harder to come by. The actual education is of secondary concern to the degree that will increase your compensation going forward.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You might be surprised. The teachers that taught you relevant things that you end up using over and over tend to be remembered in my experience. Of course some courses lend themselves to imparting this information better than others, and if you end up in fields other than your major there may be less chances to find your learning useful.
But then you are evaluating class he was assigned to teach and its relevance to your career, not his teaching. I did not used whatever I learned about networking or cryptography much, but that does not mean those teachers were bad. Nor does it mean CS major should not contain those classes.
"When I joined another institution that emphasized course evaluations, I saw that as an excellent sign of a more student-focused organization. Promotion and pay were based on achieving the highest student satisfaction ratings. But, I soon learned that statistically insignificant differences in evaluation scores determined wildly divergent financial remuneration. Savvy colleagues whispered that the quickest path to mo…
Teachers should be judged based on student evaluations - but those evaluations should be deferred until, oh, 10 years later when students can honestly and dispassionately answer the question: "did that teacher enrich my life, prepare me for the livelihood I'm actually earning today?" Of course, administrations can't wait 10 years for feedback, more's the pity.
Or perhaps restructuring their courses so that there's more practical work - perhaps working closely with companies in the area with internship schemes - to allow for more accurate in course feedback.
Or getting feedback from other teachers in the domain - that would be imperfect but I suspect might still be better than asking the students, assuming that the teachers were generally trustworthy folks.
Or doing, optional, follow up quizzes on the material taught... six months down the line and paying the students £20 each to do so - that would at least help to assess retained material (though not the worth of that material itself I suppose.)
I'm 27 years old, I have a high income and I really enjoy higher education. At this point I don't care about getting my MA. I just really enjoy education for educations sake. But I don't feel like there are many places for me to go- auditing courses is the best I've come up with. I'm sure I'm not the only person who has this "demand" ... I just wish there was a way to connect the supply and demand in a better way :)
I do, too. I don't care about their stupid pieces of paper - I just want to learn more things. There's been a lot of ink spilled lately about ending the expectation that everyone should go to college. I'd like to see more about how everybody is expected to stop learning after that, unless they're looking for more degrees (or the ubiquitous MBA in marketing/finance), and especially if they have a good job. I think tha…
Who has this expectation? To me your perspective is weird because it suggests that if you're not taking classes you're not learning. And I would say that I often see arguments for college along the lines of it helping you "learn how to learn" on your own.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
yes right so you get to work a MC Job instead of a good one - not exactly a endorsement for MOOCs is it. You go to Oxbridge/ivy league universities for the contacts not just the piece of paper
Exactly. You should be learning things in college, not kissing ass. That's the very definition of the downward spiral education is in. Those contacts you make in big-name schools are mostly wishful thinking. Those places don't train you to be a friend. They train you to be ruthless, efficient "winners". Make your FU money and bail. Nietzsche explained why; > He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himse…
Going to eaton then oxford and the bullingdon club opens far more doors look at the UK Cabinet.
Do you think Pres Obahma would he be where he is today without going to Harvard and had just a community organizer with just a local Chicago high school education.
I saw a news article about suicides among 50-something men in the US going up by 50%. I'm curious, is this statistically significant? I'm having trouble finding information about the variance of suicide rates.
This information comes from a report by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. I can't find the report itself, but it is referenced here: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health-jan-june13-suicide_05-... Edit - I found the report moments after posting that link. Here it is: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6217a1.htm?mobile...