Obama & Patrick converge in Bean Town

On October 16th President Obama and MA gubernatorial candidate and incumbent Deval Patrick joined forces in Boston at a rally for Patrick and his campaign. Recent news concerning MA students going to attend the event and also being “inspired” by the speeches got me thinking about the MA politician and his pledge to continue to invest in/support MA education. What has he done thus far to back this up?

First, the Massachusetts Teacher’s Association is backing Patrick in his current bid for governor and have touted the fact Patrick took the lead in lobbying Congress to support the Educator’s Jobs Bill as well as lobbying for federal stimulus funds that “saved 25,000 MA jobs, including 8,600 teachers jobs in the past two years.” But his Republican opponent Charlie Baker has also highlighted Patrick’s support of adopting national standards, and changing MA education standards, which Baker feels could threaten the current MCAS system — one of the most rigorous in the country. Education is going to be/is a large bone of contention between the two campaigns and will be interesting to see how this all shakes out.

Second, Patrick is proclaiming that he expanded early childhood education in the state. This turns out to be true. According to Mass Resources.org Patrick has expanded education opportunities for 3- and 4-year-olds by struggling to pass legislation that specifically addressed the need. He also ensured free, full-day Kindergarten programs were made available for all 5-year-olds in Massachusetts. 

Therefore I believe he has done some things to support education but he must continue to do more, especially in the realm of primary public schools in the city.

Bad PR for Law Schools

A frustrated student has publicly announced his dissatisfaction with law school in what seems to be a growing trend with interesting social and economic causes. According to the Boston Herald, an anonymous Boston College Law School student posted “an open letter to George D. Brown, the school’s interim dean, offering to leave law school in exchange for a tuition refund” reported CTICareerSearch. The letter was published in the law school’s student paper.

According to the piece in CTICareerSearch, other bloggers in August had voiced vexation toward “deceptive law schools” promising a cushy job when students graduate without following through. But with this recent case as with the others, mounting law school debt and the state of the economy is causing students to lash out at administrators. Its quite ballsy what this anonomous law schooler wrote so I will post a portion as a long quote here: “I am willing to leave law school, without a degree, at the end of this semester. In return, I would like a full refund of the tuition I’ve paid over the last two and a half years.”

To be quite honest, I don’t think this is a half bad idea!

Immersive Education

One of the most exciting initiatives going on around higher education, technology and best practices is something called “Immersive Education.” Immersive Education entails myriad communities of support, such as teachers, administrators and researchers who are pushing for virtual reality and game-based learning and training systems to be used in the classroom. Here is an example of this being used at Boston College in 2006. What do you think are the advantages to this? Are there any disadvantages?

Walking to Boston to Protest Higher Ed Cuts

In light of campus layoffs, increases in student fees, and full-time prof’s dropping while enrollments continue to grow, the populace is becoming agitated. Rightfully so.

On October 7, ten marchers traveled, wearily, from Pittsfield all the way to the Statehouse – 144 miles in total! – to protest and deliver a message that after years of budget cuts, public higher ed is in a “free fall.” According to the Boston Globe

Massachusetts ranks 46th among the 50 states in per capita support for public higher education and has cut funding per student more than almost any other state in the last five years

This strikes me as incredulous seeing as the vast amounts (and supposed high caliber) of public universities and colleges here on the East Coast. But organizers of the “walk” and the community of higher ed administrators etc. hope that it indeed brings attention to the need to bring funding, tuition and fees in line with the national average. I think there is a long road ahead concerning this topic.

Technology & Community

In spirit of this assignment I wanted to concentrate a post on Web 2.0 technology and communities that have formed in or around “Boston,” and higher education. In searching the web for different groups espousing/fitting the above mentioned criteria I came across a slightly different angle of community, Web 2.0 and the benefits of belonging.

Education Week in Boston occurred the week of October 4th and there were many events and forums in the city. But what perked my interest was a blog post I stumbled across whose author was semi-promoting the Education Week Leadership Forum there. He was offering “Members of my community and/or blog readers can save $100 when registering” for the event. He also used this blog platform to inform his community of his keynote title so they could be sure to check it out. I forgot about this specific aspect (insider benefit) of Web 2.0 community and I’m glad I was reminded of the many different forms it takes.

Teacher Bashing in the Bay State?

There was a semi-controversial piece in the Boston Globe today that covered the Boston Teacher Union’s recent accusation that a school superintendent bashed teachers. Superintendent Carol R. Johnson joined other administrators nationwide in signing an opinion piece in the Washington Post rallying against unions for protecting “ineffective” teachers and advocating for more charter schools. The piece was supposedly intended to highlight the desperate need for overhauling public education, but all it did accomplish, in my opinion, was to highlight ineffeciencies in the whole system and give a public platform to personal grievances. Although I agree there are some teachers in the state that just aren’t effective for whatever reason, why not concentrate on the positives and get down to business?

For example, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported today on their site that despite budget woes colleges are pushing for new technology. The piece states

“Colleges are putting more course content online with wikis and lecture-capture techniques. Approximately 65 percent of colleges said they are developing a strategic plan to deliver instructional content through lecture capture and podcasting”

There are a lot of institutions and partnerships doing great things in Boston higher ed that highlight the positives and the power and utility of collaboration and community. I will discuss these throughout this blog. Stay tuned.

The State of Boston Higher Ed

The ethos behind this academic blog is to illustrate and inform, with the higher education system in Boston serving as the subject and jumping off point. Boston, my current city, is home to over 50 universities and colleges and a robust information/tech industry. With the state economy still sluggishly moving along, and with advances in technology as well as the vital questions of if and how to apply it to the classroom prevalent, there is plenty to discuss. I will be utilizing topical news of the day to help flesh out different issues and make them more compelling and applicable to people.

I understand that this is an expansive topic, with many different facets and nuances, therefore I am choosing to concentrate just on Boston higher education and new technology (i.e. social media, social networking, computer displays, new media, etc.). I will both discuss these separately and their influences on each other. Hope you enjoy.