apple juice

Revolution Hits the Universities – NYTimes.com:

“My opening discussion of C. Wright Mills’s classic 1959 book, ‘The Sociological Imagination,’ was a close reading of the text, in which I reviewed a key chapter line by line. I asked students to follow along in their own copies, as I do in the lecture hall. When I give this lecture on the Princeton campus, I usually receive a few penetrating questions. In this case, however, within a few hours of posting the online version, the course forums came alive with hundreds of comments and questions. Several days later there were thousands. … Within three weeks I had received more feedback on my sociological ideas than I had in a career of teaching, which significantly influenced each of my subsequent lectures and seminars.’”

Good op-ed about MOOCs. I don’t know if they are the silver bullet, but they are another avenue. My experience with an online course on Coursera last semester was positive, but we had the face-to-face time as well participating online.

We are interviewing candidates for a position – an interesting cultural experience in and of itself – but during the interviews, it inevitably comes up, “so why do you want to come to Minnesota?”

Just found this blog post for all the Minnesotans who want Minnesota Nice to mean that we’re actually, you know, genuinely nice to people.

The tendency to keep one’s reserve, not make a scene, and remain unflappably friendly at all times is known round these parts as “Minnesota nice.” I’m sure you’ve heard about it before.

Let me go out on a limb and say that it’s a problem.

Say Goodbye to Minnesota Nice

Agreed.