Recent Bookmarks 24-Aug-2009

Vertigo Years
William G. Durden and Neil B. Weissman. Inside Higher Ed. 17-August-2009.
“It may be that we can no longer afford the four-year standard for an undergraduate education. … But before we fast forward college in the name of affordability, let’s at least be honest about what is being lost.”
gml: The authors believe that a global perspective, interdisciplinarity, complexity, choice, creativity, democracy, meaning and technology are threatened by a three-year curriculum. What they avoid discussing is that none of these is inconsistent with lower-priced higher education.

Your Baby is Smarter Than You Think
Alison Gopnik. The New York Times. 15-August-2009.
“Babies and young children are designed to explore, and they should be encouraged to do so.”
gml: Gopnik implies that schooling rewards adult skills like focus and planning to the detriment of childhood skills like exploration and play. No surprise I suppose. But sad. Surely there is a middle path.

Education at the crossroads
Seth Godin. http://sethgodin.typepad.com. 17-August-2009.
“If I were going to wager, I’d say that the free, abundant learning combination is the one that’s going to change the world.”
gml: I’d like to know what the following means: “My recent MBA program, for example, was scarce (only 9 people got to do it) and it was free and focused on learning.” Does Seth Godin offer his own MBA program? If true, the devolution of higher education is farther advanced than I realized.