Very interesting. Innovation and use of technology is something that will benefit higher education as well.

I agree. Maybe the faculty should pick a time slot and ask the students to do it as an in-class assignment, that way its likely that he/she gets more responses.

It’s gone by too quickly! I will miss all of you. I think the best part of the course is that people from all over campus get to know one another, understand each other’s research, and become friends. Stay in touch with one another–and me!

I’m so glad you had a good experience! I wish we had had a larger audience, but the people who were there seemed to appreciate it, and it’s good for the whole class to hear everyone’s presentations, too.

Sounds like a great workshop! I like the idea of direct, specific, non-punishing.

I agree that sustainability is crucial, and universities have a good opportunity to use best practices when it comes to sustainability, since students are often very passionate about these issues. When I was in undergrad, the students were always trying to push the administration to become more sustainable and I think a lot of concrete progress was made! By the time I left, students had to specifically ask to get to-go containers from dining halls (rather than have them be freely available), and an on-campus community garden was thriving.

Interesting…this is something that has always got me thinking onto whether faculty are actually carrying out their roles other than research (at least major ones like teaching and service). And how well candidates for a faculty position represent their potential for these roles by only talking about their research in seminars and the like.
Essentially, potential candidates need to be evaluated for all their roles and not just research.

Thanks for the great post. Very well written.

Contrary to your experience, I didn’t grow up with cell-phones, internet, email and social media. And the more those “high seas” of the internet world become increasingly dangerous to sail through, the more I am happy to have known a time when, to find information, you searched for the printed encyclopedia on your parent’s shelf. Don’t take me wrong: I agree with you in the many educational possibilities the internet era provides. At the same time, however, I feel that it is also turning newer generations too focused on facts and “too impatient” to learn. Furthermore, I don’t think we have the tools (will we ever?) to steer our students adequately across those “oceans of nonsense” one can find on the net. Society has moved from the mouth-to-ear (“someone told me”), to “I heard it on the radio or read on the paper”, then to the “I saw it on the TV” of my generation, and now to the “I found it on the internet”. The problem here is that this is an exponential curve of the potential of each of those mass media to spread out nonsense. A lot more information funnels out a lot faster when climbing a step in that evolution of transmission of knowledge, but so does the speed of disseminating garbage. Plenty icebergs ahead, at port and at starboard.

You bring up a lot of good points. I honestly don’t know how I feel about student athletes getting paid. On one hand, they sure do a lot of work on behalf of the university. In fact, they are often the face of the university. I also believe that student athletes receive a lot of benefits already for just being a part of a collegiate sport. I can’t think of anything comparable except for graduate teaching/research assistants, but in the case of college athletes, we’re talking about undergraduates. I do agree with you on having standards with admissions. It is an ongoing problem. Students that are not qualified to attend a university are accepted due to their athletic abilities. However, some individuals that are not as academically gifted may see their athletic qualities as being what will eventually make them successful. Indeed this is a tricky subject.

I agree with you that university education at the undergraduate level should focus on preparing well-wounded individuals. the problem is that, instead, it has become some sort of chain production factory of individuals who know how to do x, y or z. I think this is partly a consequence of massification of the university system and technification of society. It is going to be hard to revert this situation, but people need to be able to see the value of becoming educated beyond the goal of finding a job. But, of course, many people go into large debt to go to college, so they need to see an applicable (that is, landing a job) outcome to their degree. It is a difficult balance.