In my little corner of the world where I study credentialism, labor markets, technology and inequality today’s announcement from Coursera is pretty huge: The First Lady, Michelle Obama took to the stage as a keynote speaker at the Women’s Veterans’ Employability Summit today to announce Coursera’s new partnership with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA). The jointRead More “Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You but What Coursera Can Do For Your Country, Part 1”
The Rebirth of Cool: Trust, Tech, and Dystopias
I did a cool thing today. I MOOC’d. That is, I joined Justin Reich’s massive open online course “Massive: The Future of Learning at Scale“. Justin is a guru at Harvard’s EdX and the class was being hosted on MIT’s “unHangout” platform. I don’t know exactly where the course is housed. I visited a classRead More “The Rebirth of Cool: Trust, Tech, and Dystopias”
New Gainful Regs: For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?
For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? — Matthew 16:26, something called The Bye-bul? Not to get all Old Testament on that thing, but this verse came to mind as I woke up to news of the new gainful employment regulations released today. It’s the kind of verse IRead More “New Gainful Regs: For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?”
Top ?: Race, Gender, Credentialism
I believe Diverse Issues of Higher Education has produced it’s annual “Top 100 Degree Producers of [insert ethnic/racial minority]” since the 1990s. The publication used to be called Black Issues in Higher Education and the earliest citation I can find in ERIC is 1994. It may predate archiving. If anyone knows that history exactly I’dRead More “Top ?: Race, Gender, Credentialism”
Thoughts on a Theory: New Media and Representation
This post has two antecedents, one more ignoble than the other. On one side, I half-joked on Twitter that I make my friends listen to my half-formed theories on new/legacy/social media organizations, race, class, gender, and tweefing (i.e. twitter + beefing or the more formal “conflicts that originate on or encompass a social media platform”).Read More “Thoughts on a Theory: New Media and Representation”
What Rhimes With Bad Cultural Analysis?
By now all of the smart people have written the smart takes on the New York Times’ television review crediting Shonda Rhimes’ with creatively manipulating the “angry black woman” stereotype. They’ve rightfully pointed out that critic Alessandra Stanley misattributes the creator of the forthcoming show How To Get Away with Murder. Rhimes herself pointed outRead More “What Rhimes With Bad Cultural Analysis?”
Debbie Downerism: John Oliver and For-Profit Colleges
One of the better things about social media is that if you manage to curate social feeds with just the right balance of entertaining spirits and brilliant intellects, it delivers unto you amazing content you would have otherwise missed. I woke up one of these days — Sunday? Monday? I’m dissertating — to find dozensRead More “Debbie Downerism: John Oliver and For-Profit Colleges”
The Twitter Facts of Life
“You take the good/You take the bad/You take them both/And there you have/The Facts of Life” Usual disclaimer: this may meander. I was born short and never really grew out of it. I also spent all my years as an only child in a relatively stable, quiet little household. We didn’t always have a televisionRead More “The Twitter Facts of Life”
Make it Plain: Research, Dissertations, and Blogging in Plain Talk
I have never viewed my public writing and engagement as a distraction from research. I have never even seen them as separate endeavors. Like my position on teaching as part of the research process, I don’t know how to think without thinking across all contexts. A lot of those connections are invisible to other people.Read More “Make it Plain: Research, Dissertations, and Blogging in Plain Talk”
What Is Left to Say?
In his 1934 essay, “A Negro Nation Within a Nation”, WEB DuBois wrote: The colored people of America are coming to face the fact quite calmly that most white Americans do not like them, and are planning neither for their survival, nor for their definite future if it involves free, self-assertive modern manhood. This doesRead More “What Is Left to Say?”