Thanks for breaking the mold in the 30 year vision arena! Relative to other blogs I’ve read, you offer a unique perspective. In particular, I like your idea of regional focus rather in-state focus. While it’s a pretty drastic change, I think it could work. Do you foresee Virginia Tech being partially run by the federal government in this scenario?

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You do a good job conveying your tone in your writing (ha). All kidding aside, I appreciate your disgust with grading on the bell curve. I’m taking a class right now in which the average test grade (over the past 3 tests) is hovering right at 50%. Nearly a third of the class has withdrawn from the course because the professor isn’t curving grades until after the final exam. The tests are so difficult, even a “C” seems un-achievable. This discourages students from wanting to study the subject matter because the professor refuses to change his testing style. The result: the students don’t learn the subject matter yet will get a passing grade (due to the curve). Worse yet, students’ grades won’t reflect the professor’s poor teaching, and since the students receive a decent grade, they feel less compelled to give the poor SPOT evaluation the professor deserves.

So, I guess I decided to rant with you.

Great post! I’ve been contemplating what to do with my blog site as well.

As Perry pointed our, academic blogging is great writing practice. I know I have had little practice in non-scientific writing in the past five years; having to blog and keep a weekly journal has been a wake up call. While writing has gotten easier as the semester has progressed, I’ve also noticed that my verbal communication may have also improved due to constant blogging–just another benefit of maintaining a blog. That being said, blogging is time-consuming, and it will be hard to justify as I get closer and closer to my prelims.

By the way, I believe the concept you’re trying to recall is confirmation bias, and I absolutely agree that it is common for readers to have this type of bias when reading blogs. I know I, too, have confirmation bias when I feel passionate about a viewpoint.