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"To say that American universities are too expensive is like saying cars are too expensive. What do we mean by such a statement?  Are we talking about the cost of a Lamborghini Veneno (at 3.5M, one of the world's  most expensive cars) or a Hyundai Atos (at $9000, one of the least expensive)?  For the captain of industry, the sultan, or the magnate, there might not be enough luxury features on the Lamborghini.  For the person barely hanging on to that minimum wage job with no benefits, paying $9000 for an Atos to get across town to work at Walmart every day may be hopelessly out of reach.   "

on the revolutionary aspect of MOOCs to break down traditional barriers to higher ed as regularly stated by CEOs Koller and Thrun: "This rhetoric is perhaps the most glittery yet in the public discourse about online higher education. But it is also a diversion shifting attention away from the logic of profit-making. For parents, students, and the general public who focus primarily on what education means for people's futures, for social mobility, for a healthy economy and a robust democracy, a dip into the insider talk of MOOCs, their investors, and industry analysts is both instructive and disorienting."

Ben Sawyer is the cofounder of Digitalmill, where he is in charge of strategy, technology, and business development. Located in Portland, Maine, Digitalmill is a technology development firm with clients worldwide. It has worked on a wide variety of projects dealing with interactive game development, including support for The Sloan Foundation's Virtual U game project. The company has produced two books on game development, numerous articles about developing games, and several market research reports on the gaming industry. Currently Digitalmill is working on Virtual U 2.0, and consulting on other projects that integrate gaming, education, and training. Sawyer has authored or co-authored more than 10 computer trade books as well as numerous articles on a wide range of technology areas including e-commerce, interactive game development, software marketing, and computer graphics. Publications include The Ultimate Game Developer's Sourcebook, published in 1996 by Coriolis Group Books. To find out more about the author, please visit: www.dmill.com Contact the author: bsawyer@dmill.com

A essay pointing to the need for better, more rigorous teacher training as an important way to create significant, meaningful improvement in American Education. The Keller points to some programs that offer hopeful solutions.

"Nepris is an online platform that makes it easy for teachers to connect with industry experts to bring the real world to the classroom." This looks interesting!

Finally, for Mac now too!... After many weeks of waiting eagerly Adobe Captivate and eLearning Suite users may now download the free trials of Adobe Captivate 5. The release contains many significant enhancements that have Captivate and eLearning Suite users literally chomping at the bit to get their hands on it. You can also download the eLearning Suite here. Mac users are ecstatic as Captivate 5 and eLearning Suite 2 are now both available for the Mac OS, making the products the first major eLearning industry authoring packages to enter full force into support for the Apple Mac OS. Many Mac users have written, called and addressed me in person to wholeheartedly offer both encouragement and enthusiasm as we see Captivate and eLearning Suite move firmly into cross platform eLearning authoring tools. http://blogs.adobe.com/captivate/2010/07/free_downloads_of_adobe_captiv.html

One of the best articles that I have read on change, reform, school bashing, Waiting for Superman,...

Really liked this! I sent it to all my teacher friends. She does a good job addressing a much better way to enact change in our districts than the method used by media and Hollywood. I think Waiting for Superman is a cop-out. A bonafide cop-out. It's so easy for the media and entertainment industry to just throw sticky-bombs at public schools. The ironic thing is there are so many privileged individuals in the media industries that were taught in elitist environments. When is someone going to make a movie bashing parents who do nothing to help their children succeed? Lastly, I loved her comment about the decision being dumber the further the person making is from a real classroom. Classic. Thanks again for sharing.

Glad you found it helpful. I thought it was very clear, well written, and offers some solutions... solutions that require social and moral change, not just political and hegemonic change.

Worldwide collection of thematic maps: climate, energy, ethnography, industry & economy, land use, military, population, links to other sites.

Yochai Benkler's wealth of nations book online Next Chapter: Part I: The Networked Information Economy » read paragraph Chapter 1: Introduction: A Moment of Opportunity and Challenge 1 Information, knowledge, and culture are central to human freedom and human development. How they are produced and exchanged in our society critically affects the way we see the state of the world as it is and might be; who decides these questions; and how we, as societies and polities, come to understand what can and ought to be done. For more than 150 years, modern complex democracies have depended in large measure on an industrial information economy for these basic functions. In the past decade and a half, we have begun to see a radical change in the organization of information production. Enabled by technological change, we are beginning to see a series of economic, social, and cultural adaptations that make possible a radical transformation of how we make the information environment we occupy as autonomous individuals, citizens, and members of cultural and social groups. It seems passé today to speak of "the Internet revolution." In some academic circles, it is positively naïve. But it should not be. The change brought about by the networked information environment is deep. It is structural. It goes to the very foundations of how liberal markets and liberal democracies have coevolved for almost two centuries.

The PLUS Coalition is an international non-profit initiative on a mission to simplify and facilitate the communication and management of image rights. Organized by respected associations, leading companies, standards bodies, scholars and industry experts, the PLUS Coalition exists for the benefit of all communities involved in creating, distributing, using and preserving images. Spanning more than thirty countries, these diverse stakeholders have collaborated to develop PLUS, a system of standards that makes it easier to communicate, understand and manage image rights in all countries. The PLUS Coalition exists at the crossroads between technology, commerce, the arts, preservation and education.

An alternative to creative commons licensing?

Free Reading Program.. Open Source

FreeReading is a free, high-quality, open-source reading program addressing literacy development for grades K-3. Leveraging the collective wisdom of researchers, teachers, reading coaches, and other education and industry professionals, FreeReading provides a high-quality, cost-effective alternative to static materials. By establishing a foundation of hundreds of research-based lessons and materials that users can download and use for free, FreeReading has created the framework for intervention programs supporting K-6 literacy. The collective wisdom within FreeReading is invaluable and can be more beneficial than any one reading program.

Cathy Davidson

In general, I agree. However, novelists and poets don't need college?? And perhaps less so to artists and musicians? Perhaps... but what better way to learn the history and analysis of their Art, in order to place their own work in context?

I could not agree more with you Maureen. As a long time middle school teacher in Oakland and Mpls I am thoroughly convinced that our nation and our states are nuts to have cut all of the tech and arts classes out of elementary, middle and high schools. EVERY student should learn a trade/skill set in high school. The hs drop out rate is horrifying and no surprise that the crime rate follows. We have a nation of under achieving teens because the adults have not kept up with funding the myriad of opportunities that would capture and harness their interests and creativity. I look forward to reading your book Maureen and to following you on here.

A youtube channel about the importance of science in education from celebs of the music industry

Author and activist Michael Pollan is a passionate advocate for sustainable food. In his compelling talk at PopTech, he explores how our industrial food system is keeping us overly dependent on fossil fuels, destroying our environment, and making us sick. Breaking this cycle requires fundamentally changing our relationship to food - and eating more meals together. - awesome!