Category — Higher Education

Global Desktop:

Through the Global Desktop Project, partners will benefit not only from the development of a user-friendly open source desktop, but also from: 

1. . Significant local expertise in Linux, open source and distributed development methodologies, which will position participating regions as a desirable location for companies moving software development efforts to Asia;
2. . Integration of distributed development, Linux and related software into the local educational curricula and improved training for students in IT, computer science, engineering and other technical programs;
3. . A support and information network of IT users in government; enterprise IT, small and medium-sized enterprises, that channels local needs into software that such organizations use on a daily basis; 
4. . Positioning Institutes of Higher Learnings as valued and influential members of the worldwide open source community; 
5. . Empowering individuals, government agencies, local businesses and other organizations towards technological self-determination.

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sounds like this could be a good project. but it does ring of ’strategic’ move more than ‘universally beneficial’ move.

MIT Media Lab Guru Says No Computers in Schools:

Michael Schrage of the MIT Media Lab wrote a piece for The Financial Times saying that there should be no computers in schools. He argues that billions could be saved by keeping useless technologies out of schools. As an educational technologist, I felt that I needed to address his critique.

 
I think his main argument is with educational software companies, but he fails to differentiate between them and between teachers using technology in the classroom. His article cites nothing other than his own opinions, but it is an interesting read nonetheless.

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No to computers in schools… but…. having the underfunded developing world pay for laptops from their national budget to the tune of ten’s of millions of dollars… that’s a great idea… Isn’t it? I’m not sure computers should be ubiquitous in education at all. I think that students need to experience diverse informational experiences, not just computer based, not just book based, but also oral traditons, etc.

Media Lab Madrid, together with David Cuartielles (Arduino), Casey Reas
(Processing), Zach Liebermann (Code Artist), and Hans C. Steiner
(PureData) are proud to present a two weeks project development workshop
to happen in Madrid – Spain between April 17 – 30, 2006.

Main goal to this workshop is to create projects including open source
technologies in an open source way. All the pieces will be then exhibited
for -at least- another three weeks, and then will be toured through
different venues. So far already two festivals to happen before the summer
2006 have manifested their interest in getting this work.

The workshop is fully financed by Media Lab Madrid and the Centro Cultural
Conde Duque. You only have to take care of your transportation +
accomodation in the area.

For more information and downloading the application forms, please check
the following web-sites:

- http://www.interactivos.org

- http://www.medialabmadrid.org
<p>——–<p>
i wish i could go to this, but i’m teaching this semester, so i can’t spare two weeks.

Center for the Study of Rhetoric in Society :

On Monday, April 24, 2006, the Center for the Study of Rhetoric in Society is sponsoring “Representations of Race and the African American Community.” This interactive event is designed to connect members of the Virginia Tech campus and surrounding communities through a day-long series of conversations including a lunchtime poster session and opportunities for small group dialogue.

The initial goal is to examine the way that race is represented in our personal, academic, and civic lives. By the end of the day, participants will be invited to explore possibilities for campus-community projects and partnerships aimed at improving the climate for racial relations and understanding.

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this should be a very interesting event, but they are limiting it to on campus.

Having poured over the umpteenth attempt to give some meaning to the
now-official ‘crisis’ of the EU, this one looked all the more
refreshing, as the reiteration of Stenger’s call for a democratization
of the production of scientific authority reminded me of the many
terrains ‘beyond politics’ where Europe takes (its) shape, sz

Europe’s foremost philosopher of science offers a devastating indictment
of contemporary European science

Isabelle Stengers
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/WSWE.php

As a philosopher, I can imagine no better keynote to strike than: what
are you doing, what are you trying to do? Organizing a discussion on the
European Research policy matters! It matters because it is both urgently
needed and difficult.

How to read the seventh framework programme? The first point to note is
that this programme does not really invite political debate. Indeed we
do not dealing with choices that could be discussed but with what
presents itself as the simple enactment of the “Lisbon agenda”, fully
endorsing its slogans, such as “knowledge society”, “economy of
knowledge”, “knowledge and its exploitation” as “the key for economic
growth” and “the competitiveness of enterprises.” All this, leading, as
we should trust, to employment, while maintaining and strengthening the
so-called “European Model”, and also providing an improvement of welfare
and well-being, quality of life, health and the environment; for such
improvements rely, as history has shown, on the progress of knowledge
and its many applications.

Wisconsin State Journal:
Senior John Koskinen, 22, Lechner’s best friend, estimates that eight out of 10 students know Lechner or have heard of him. Last year, Lechner even had a car in the Homecoming parade with the sign, “Been in college for 10 years.”

“He’s one of those people in life who actually has the guts to do what makes him happy,” Koskinen said. “He’s one of the happiest people in the entire world, and if you reach that level of happiness, why not keep doing it?”

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if he pays the money and is happy…. why not?

revising tenure
Giving young professors up to 10 years — instead of 6 — to earn tenure

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this isn’t what is needed. what is needed is a restructuring of the escalation of tenure requirements. one thing that a 10 year rule will do is make people take 10 years 1/4 of their career to find out if they are good enough to keep it. that… creates a new underclass from the untenured. untenured people also don’t have tenure, so they can be fired more easily.

Leiter Reports: The Horowitz Attack on Academic Freedom Arrives in Ohio

The Horowitz Attack on Academic Freedom Arrives in Ohio

The bill introduced in the state legislature is here.  (Thanks to Joshua Smith for the pointer.)  As one news story (for which I could not locate a URL) stated, the bill would regulate what professors can say in class, and that’s exactly right.  Here’s some illustrative provisions:

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gack! this is fake academic freedom, it is meant to allow ideological freedom, not academic freedom and they are not the same thing. my students in political economy for instance generally can’t pass if all they demonstrate is an understanding of work not presented in the course, likewise, i’ll mark students down for having fundamental misunderstandings or ideological understandings of economic systems, but that is what most of them want to do, they want to say ‘market freedom is good’ and never say why or even acknowledge market failure…. education isn’t about ideological freedom, i’m sorry. this bill needs to fail.

European Union IT research is failing:
Viviane Reding, European Commission information society and media commissioner, said, “Fast-changing IST research is, and must remain, a key driver for the rapid economy-wide technological innovation on which Europe’s skilled jobs ultimately depend.”

She said, “I intend to respond very quickly to the panel’s concerns about red tape, which is a general problem of EU research programmes, but felt most directly in IST research where we operate in a particularly dynamic and fast evolving environment.”

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this will be good, but there still needs to be some solid oversight.

European Union IT research is failing:
Viviane Reding, European Commission information society and media commissioner, said, “Fast-changing IST research is, and must remain, a key driver for the rapid economy-wide technological innovation on which Europe’s skilled jobs ultimately depend.”

She said, “I intend to respond very quickly to the panel’s concerns about red tape, which is a general problem of EU research programmes, but felt most directly in IST research where we operate in a particularly dynamic and fast evolving environment.”

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this will be good, but there still needs to be some solid oversight.