Author Archives: Robert Frodeman

This is a bit dated now–July, 2012–but I just ran across a striking step in the development of online education at NAU

Nota bene: Age 25 and Over (2011)[2] Education Percentage in the US High school graduate 87.58% Some college 56.86% Associate’s and/or Bachelor’s degree 39.89% Bachelor’s degree 30.44% Master’s degree 7.95% Doctorate or professional degree 3.00% -what conclusion can we draw … Continue reading →

Interdisciplinarity is motivated by the 20th century failure of disciplinary knowledge to be relevant. But rather than questioning whether knowledge itself is relevant to our problems, rather than, say, being a matter of will (cf. Nicomachean Ethics Book 7, on … Continue reading →

The central idea of disciplinarity: the separation of knowledge production from knowledge use. This means: talk of method is hopeless, since there is no method to politics.

I watched the SCOTUS ruling today on ACA, in real time online, on scotusblog while bouncing between Sullivan’s Daily Dish, the NYTs, Drudge, and others. Sullivan too was collating comments from all over. And he posted screen captures of both … Continue reading →

Is the dam about to break? Watch out, UNT…. Harvard and M.I.T. Team Up to Offer Free Online Courses – NY Times

I grant that there are two historical tasks to philosophy, one socratic and outward looking, testing ideas within the community, and a second turned inward, philosophers addressing one another on recondite questions that the community will not understood or will … Continue reading →

There are many. One of which is this: Philosophers do not keep a sufficient eye out for when a field or topic has become largely ‘emptied out’–where most of the useful work has been done. I’d argue that this is … Continue reading →

KONY 2012 – YouTube. If you haven’t seen it, see it.

Franzen vs The Internet: Round Two – The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan – The Daily Beast. More evidence of the mashed up silliness and evil of twitter. Or not.

The academy and its offshoots (eg, NSF) are struggling to come to terms with the ‘accountability moment’ that steadily grows in importance. Accountability is typically about taking count of something. This explains in part the overwhelming urge to turn things … Continue reading →

Research Works Act: Elsevier and politicians back down from open-access threat.. A brief account in slate Magazine, with links.

NPR Tries to Get its Pressthink Right » Pressthink. An interesting post on the new ethics handbook issued by NPR.

Amazing stuff: this year 11% of the incoming freshmen at the University of Washington are Chinese nationals, paying 3 times in-state tuition. International Students Pay Top Dollar at U.S. Colleges – NY Times

Boston Review — Carlos Fraenkel: Citizen Philosophers. Talk about field philosophy!

Imagine: a day without Wikipedia…. Wikipedia to Go Dark on Wednesday to Protest Bills on Web Piracy – NY Times

Anguish Trumps Activism at the MLA – Labor & Work-Life Issues – The Chronicle of Higher Education. A constant drumbeat of this stuff now….

MLA considers radical changes in the dissertation | Inside Higher Ed. We are finally seeing some real movement, in terms of shifting perspectives toward the academy, dissertations, and the humanities. About time.

The Humanities Aren’t Totally Useless After All – The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan – The Daily Beast. Interesting what is good (education and health jobs) and what bad (arts and architecture). The rest fall into the middle….

Iowa: The Meaningless Sideshow Begins | Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone. Taibbi is gaining a following for his speaking truth to power/clotheless emperor approach to the contemporary political farce.

Philosophers debate meaning of meaning at annual conference – The Washington Post. A slightly smartass account of Andrew Light’s effort to broaden the philosophical conversation….

Professor Kevin Anderson – Climate Change: Going Beyond Dangerous –welcome to the Apocalypse.

“The Philosophy Of Food” – The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan – The Daily Beast.