Hey, let’s get back to some cool stuff I read online recently:
• I really like this post from Tenured Radical, which is largely about facebook, faculty meetings, and school starting. In particular, this line is spot-on:
If I can say I learned anything it was that faculty really ought not to complain about their students not listening properly and asking questions that have already been answered, because we are, as a genus, just as flawed in this respect as they are. Probably more so because we are more likely to ask questions at……great…….length.
• A new cafe, Snakes and Lattes, in Toronto has opened that is attempting to eschew laptops (no wireless there) and get people to actually interact with each other. The Torontoist covers it here.
• Inside Higher Ed has a great discussion about the textbook industry.
• Recently a man was prosecuted for videotaping a police officer and posting it online. The charges are that videotaping violates wiretapping laws, which seems flat out ridiculous. I’m reminded of David Brin’s The Transparent Society, in which he argues for reciprocal transparency. My major critique of his argument is that he doesn’t take seriously enough power relations. In an ideal world, sure we’d share information with powerful figures (law enforcement, corporations, etc.) if they shared the same information with us. But the world’s not ideal: crappy police actions can still be protected by crappy laws. The police have privacy in public that isn’t afforded others. (If I do something in public and it’s videotaped, the owner can post it online without a problem.)
• Profhacker has a new Teaching Carnival up! Lots of awesome blog posts to check out.
