US schooling. Includes a view nice lines: The claim speaks volumes about the low status of education, which (along with politics) is the only profession where lack of experience can be a credential instead of a flaw; and, the one-room schoolhouse of the nineteenth century was “the best school we ever had.
Textbook pricing and the naivety of academic economists here. Via Stephen Downes
Here’s What Will Truly Change Higher Education: Online Degrees That Are Seen as Official. I agree, at least re certification— that is where one battle must be fought (just look at the farce of medical degrees across the world, or even within the EU). I haven’t read the book.
In 1958, Walter Reuther, a powerful US union leader was taken on a tour of a newly automated Ford Motor plant. “Aren’t you worried about how you’re going to collect union dues from all these machines?” Response: “The thought that occurred to me,” Mr Reuther replied, “was how are you going to sell cars to these machines?” Steve Johnson.
OA and academic publishing. I still think the real issue is that publication is increasingly no longer about sharing discovery, but an accounting mechanism — and a way to make money or at least employ people.
Medicine’s dysfunctional research system here and here. ‘What do readers think? Do these constant reversals on everyday questions make consumers wary of science in general? ’Yes, is the only sane answer.