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Opinion

Innovation Thrives!

6/22/2006

Monoculture, Blackboard, the President’s Commission, and Accreditation

6/21/2006

I’m not a big fan of monoculture. It is the concept of everything being too much alike. I keep hearing that some people are beginning to feel like learning management systems (LMS) are creating a vast monocultural crop of online course information, much in the way that agribusiness has with wheat, corn, and soybeans.

One Night @ the Call Centre: Don’t Forget the 35:10 Rule

6/14/2006

Friends Forever: From "Prison" Through a Lifetime

6/7/2006

How Do You Get the News?

6/1/2006

Dark Web or Net Neutrality. Do Something About It?

5/24/2006

Feeling Whole Again: Getting Appropriate Technology Back In Hand

5/17/2006

When I Was In Law School

5/10/2006

Net Neutrality: Bedrock Principle or Intrusive ‘Performance’ Barrier?

5/3/2006

Tougher Passwords Are Easier to Forget and Lead to Productivity Loss, Occasional Misery

4/26/2006

Extra Charges for Special People

4/19/2006

MySpace Is, In Fact, Addictive

4/12/2006

The Transition from IT as Infrastructure to IT as Ecosystem

4/5/2006

Yummy Thoughts: Cyberware and Cultured Meat

3/29/2006

Is Text Inadequate?

3/22/2006

In This Human Versus Machine Battle, My Bet Is On the Cyborgs

3/14/2006

Love/Hate Relationship with Professional Conferences

3/8/2006

Net Generation and Degeneration of Online Forums

2/15/2006

A while ago I wrote a column describing what I felt was a Lord of the Flies situation in cyberspace, because young people (early teens) were spending a lot of time online interacting in venues where there was not only very little adult presence, but little or no established culture, and no mature role models. Now I read about what's been happening in MySpace and other online venues, and it seems as though there now is a developing culture coming out of that, but--surprise--it's not the kind of culture most of us older folks are very comfortable with.

Steal This Article . . . Please!

2/1/2006

So, yet one more information dinosaur, fat reserves dwindling, wakes up from its long nap, looks around and is startled by change. Of course it then begins trampling around with its weight's worth of lawyers, trying to put the pieces of its broken eggs back together by legal force.

Guest Column: Honey, Have You Seen My Market?

1/25/2006

My friend Richard Katz sits where he has a good look at the corporate mergers and acquisitions that have alarmed many in higher education have taken place recently. He's reached a place that the rest of us might get to in a year or two. Enjoy his essay and, thanks Richard! - Terry Calhoun

Educating the Net Generation and What To Do About Printed Publications?

1/18/2006

There is this new book that you must read. It is edited by Diana G. Oblinger of the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, and James L. Oblinger of the University of North Carolina. It's called Educating the Net Generation, and you will find it completely available online, at no cost to you, in HTML and PDF--but EDUCAUSE is not printing, warehousing, and distributing printed copies.

A Dark and Stormy Night, and a Loss

1/11/2006

The loss of a favorite cell phone leads our columnist to experiment with the cool new ones that college kids are using. So far the results are mixed.

Painting and Film Photography for Illustration Are Both Dead. What's Next?

1/4/2006

I think we all knew the writing on the wall was there for traditional photography when eight megapixels packaged with an SLR camera body with interchangeable lenses became available at reasonable prices. And I don't think for a moment that the changes we're going to see in digital photography are even slowing down. It won't be long now until everything, even the buttons in our clothing have high-quality cameras in them.

Wikians R Us and Some Folks Don't Like that Very Much

12/7/2005

In the popular media it was at the same time as the biggest press that the Wikipedia has ever gotten--and pretty negative press at that.

The Turkey Techie and the CIFAC Report

11/30/2005

So, before Thanksgiving I had told myself that I would read the CIFAC Project report and write about it. A quick glance had told me that it contained useful results from research of computer "incidents" and was probably not yet getting the attention it deserved.