Que Universidade?

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O que � bom n�o dura sempre, e o tempo deste blogue chegou. N�o por minha vontade, devo dizer, mas por vontade da aeiou (ou da Impresa, n�o sei bem). Acabei de receber a not�cia no correio electr�nico: a plataforma weblog.com. pt vai fechar.
Por um lado, ainda bem, porque o "software" era um "cad�ver adiado" que n�o era actualizado desde 2005. Depois de experimentar o WordPress, j� n�o era a mesma coisa. Por outro, s�o mais de oito anos de presen�a. C'est la vie.
De momento, o material do blogue fica no meu disco r�gido at� eu arranjar coragem para o exportar para o WordPress. Continuarei presente na outra vers�o: o QueUniversidade2, que j� cumpriu um jovem aninho.
Vejo-os por l�.

"Something to think about"

As their homes fill up with ICTs, people make it a daily routine to use them to stay connected as they move about. Networked families use ICTs to keep their family together. Their ICTs enable them to communicate and coordinate despite their mobile, individual lifestyles. ICTs allow them to reach out to new information and new contacts, and then bring that back to the family. At home, their family spends quality time together showing and sharing web pages, online media, and email messages. They rely on blogs and other websites for advice from other parents and organizations, often getting a sense of connectivity with other, sometimes beleaguered, parents. All of this communication and content creation has helped family members as they operate as networked individuals using personal technology to navigate family life. Two-fifths (39 percent) of all American households have at least two computers; three-fifths (58 percent) of married-with-children families have at least two.

[op. cit., p. 159]

LRainie & BWellman (2012). Networked: The New Social Operating System, MIT Press (369 pp.)

"Something to think about"

People are becoming more aware that each individual is at the center of his or her own personal network: a solar system of one to two thousand and more people orbiting around us. Each person has become a communication and information switchboard connecting persons, networks, and institutions. At the same time, each person has become a portal to the rest of the world, providing bridges for their friends to other social circles. With the size and complexity of these networks, each networked individual has to balance out collective and interpersonal commitments in unique ways.

[op. cit., p. 55]

LRainie & BWellman (2012). Networked: The New Social Operating System, MIT Press (369 pp.)

"Something to think about"

"Under the influence of materialism, job-smart students apply to universities not because of a school's true commitment to undergraduate education but because of the school's "prestige" which can later be parlayed into lucrative employment offers and salaries. Under materialism's spell, college becomes, in the words of the late Ernest R. Boyer, a mere "credentialing exercise". It's not seen as a serious intellectual quest. . . . The aim is to figure out what you need to get through this system. As a result, many students play the angles. As educated consumers, they appeal grades that might impede their financial goals and, in increasing numbers, resort to cheating to insure the highest grades with the least expenditure of effort.

[ � ]

Meanwhile, back on the mega-campus, professors are busily engaged in research to advance their own careers, leaving the actual task of instruction to overworked and underpaid assistants. Up in the tower, administrators huddle, devising marketing strategies to please the pragmatic board of governors, largely comprised of businessmen. They formulate market-driven plans, typically rewarding programs that attract the most students or research grants, and penalizing those programs that don't with attrition or extinction by denying them replacements when their faculty retire or die. More and more they allow the complexion of the university to mirror society's own commercial face rather than challenging society's conceit and their own by holding their blemishes up to the critical standard of another era."

[op. cit., pp. 80-81]

SBertman (2000). Cultural Amnesia: America's Future and the Crisis of Memory, Praeger (192 pp.)

Acad�mica!!!!

"Times' signals"

If a few star professors can lecture to millions, what happens to the rest of the faculty? Will academic standards be as rigorous? What happens to the students who don�t have enough intrinsic motivation to stay glued to their laptop hour after hour? How much communication is lost � gesture, mood, eye contact � when you are not actually in a room with a passionate teacher and students?

Bom, talvez n�o seja mau lerem o resto do artigo antes de entrarem em "stress", ;-)

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/04/opinion/brooks-the-campus-tsunami.html?_r=1

(via @hjarche)

"Press review"

A revolutionary new approach to making humanities and social sciences books free

Revista de imprensa 2

Do i "online":

Filomena M�nica. �S�crates foi um delinquente pol�tico"

H� que ultrapassar o t�tulo, feito � "boa" maneira dos jornais de hoje, e reflectir sobre muito do que � dito, como por exemplo:

� preciso lembrarmos que o 25 de Abril foi um golpe de Estado, uma insurrei��o militar. Desde o s�culo XIX at� agora, em Portugal, os regimes foram sempre mudados por insurrei��es militares. Ora, a liberdade conquista-se. E n�s nunca a conquist�mos, foi sempre algu�m que nos deu a liberdade. Em 1820 deram-nos o fim do antigo regime, vindo dos reis, com uma insurrei��o militar; em 1910, a Rep�blica veio com uma insurrei��o militar; em 1926 foi uma insurrei��o militar que mudou o regime e abriu o caminho a Salazar; e em 1974 foi tamb�m uma revolta militar. Facto � que o povo n�o participou. E, ao n�o participar, torna-se um espectador alheado. Quando recebemos a liberdade dada e n�o temos de a conquistar, n�o a tratamos como nossa. A Constitui��o de 1822 diz: �O rei outorga.� �Outorga� significa �d�. Foi sempre assim.

(via @JMF1957)

"A view from the web"

The (In)Direct Benefits of Blogging and Twitter for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education

Uma vis�o equilibrada e descomprometida, para quem est� na d�vida. Mal n�o faz!

(via @AnaCristinaPrts)

Revista de imprensa

Do P�blico "online":

Universidades fazem ultimatos para recuperarem milh�es em atraso

"Assessment Principles"

"Three sets of principles might be used to guide the design of assessment in HE or FE"

REAP Resources - Assessment Principles: Some possible candidates

(via @adfig)

"Academic involution?"

In the 1980s, such a program was an institutional innovation in the sociology department at the University of Oslo, larger than anything done before. Also, the program required work within the fifth role of institutional governance, such as redesign of teaching programs and establishment of cooperation with public and private institutions outside of the university. One of the changes in the study programs was that all graduate students had to read about sociology as a profession, preparing for work as experts. Some catchwords to indicate the readings were evaluation, development of organizations, development of local communities, and democratization of organizations. After national educational reforms 10 years ago, the Department did not keep these elements in its study programs. So now we again teach sociology as if the only legitimate and interesting type of sociological work is research (and research-based teaching).

RKalleberg (2012). Sociologists as Public Intellectuals and Experts. Journal of Applied Social Science 2012 6: 43-52.

(acesso livre tempor�rio (?) / free access - for the time being)

Revista de imprensa

Do I "online":

Ensino Superior. Conselho Geral da Universidade T�cnica aprovou fus�o com Cl�ssica

"Something to think about"

In addition to the keynote address, I also gave three workshops at EARCOS. The first was on �How We Measure,� and looked at new forms of assessment, and particularly the Finnish idea that we should be aiming for the best way for every student to attain an equal, high standard of knowledge. This flies in the face of the way most of the rest of the world judges educational success, by a relative, competitive, and extrinsic metric determined by how they do on standardized tests. And of course the punchline is that, when the OECD asked Finland (which all but abolished standardized testing in the 1980s), to take the same tests everyone else takes, the students, who had never seen such tests before, came out on top, as detailed in Pasi Sahlberg�s Finnish Lessons.

(destaque meu)

Parafraseando Fernando Pe�a: "E esta, "hein"?"

The Ethics and Responsibilities of the 21st Century Classroom: Part One, Cathy Davidson

(via @AnaCristinaPrts)

"Something to think about"

"WA � What happens to state schools, which enroll a bulk of students? What should they be doing?
MH � My guess is that many of the flagship universities in states will be fine. There is a good reason to have a good research base in a regional place. Schools do many good things for students in the community. They will be OK. The next tier of state institutions � it will be a much more significant issue for them that I am worried about. My advice would be to pick a strategy and focus� don�t try to be all things to all people. Really try to carve out an important niche for yourself that will be defensible and add value in the future. I do think it will be tough. For so long, the strategy of universities has been to try to emulate Harvard by adding everything � adding lots of research and sporting facilities and great buildings and so forth. That�s not going to be a sustainable strategy going forward. For many of these institutions, online may be a powerful part of what they do. That focus will be really important. When you are going online, what is unique about you?

Ref.: Interview: Author Michael B. Horn Talks About The Future of Universities

(via @adfig)