A review of The New Education: How to Revolutionize the University to Prepare Students for a World in Flux, by Cathy N. Davidson (New York, Basic Books, 2017); a summary of the recent announcements of a major restructuring of MIT, and a synthesis of other relevant developments.
It is increasingly obvious that we are living in one of the greatest ages of paradigm-shifts in Western history, compa...
Another women’s conference?
Those three words haunted our Alumni Relations team’s discussions last summer as we considered which programs to fund for MIT alumni in the year ahead. The MIT Alumni Association had produced or sponsored a series of women’s conferences over the years. Was it the right time for another one?
Even simply by event-planning standards, things in 2017 were differe...
In 2004, then-University of New England President Sandra Featherman authored a piece for NEJHE (then called Connection) headlined “Emotional Rescue” and focusing on how a new generation of troubled college students was putting a strain on campus resources. Featherman, who died in April, wrote of colleges and universities scrambling to provide additional and better support services for students...
When MIT approached Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) to participate in edX, the new Harvard/MIT massive open online course (MOOC) initiative, we reacted with both interest and skepticism. What did MIT have in mind for Bunker Hill Community College? How would edX “transform the way that community college students learn” as edX President Anant Agarwal claimed, when he discussed the l...
Innovators and entrepreneurs are using technologies to make freely available the things for which universities charge significant money. MOOCs ... free online courses ... lecture podcasts ... low-cost off-the-shelf general education courses ... online tutorials ... digital collections of open learning resources ... open badges ... all are disrupting higher education's hold on knowledge, instructio...
Click here for videos of BIF-8 storytellers!
The Business Innovation Factory (BIF) held its eighth annual collaborative innovation summit on Sept. 19 and 20 in Providence, and the key, as always, was the art of storytelling. No themes, said summit facilitator and BIF founder and “chief catalyst” Saul Kaplan. You decide which connections you can make, he told the 400-plus attendees.
Granted...
MIT President Susan Hockfield announced she would leave the position she has held for more than seven years once a new president takes office.As the first woman president of MIT, Hockfield presided over significant strides in hiring and promotion of women scientists and engineers after a faculty report brought national attention to inequity in campus. Among students, the MIT Class of 2015 will be...
MIT will screen “The Finland Phenomenon: Inside the World’s Most Surprising School System” on Thursday, May 5, at the Ray and Maria Stata Center, beginning with a 6 p.m. reception and followed by an 8 p.m. panel discussion with: Massachusetts Secretary of Education Paul Reville, Cambria Managing Director Ellen Kumata, Harvard Graduate School of Education Academic Dean Robert B. S...
Daniel Mark Fogel announced he would step down as president of the University of Vermont, effective June 30, 2012, after 10 years at the helm of Vermont's land-grant university. In a letter to the UVM community, Fogel cited successful UVM initiatives such as the creation of the Honors College, a six-credit diversity requirement and the UVM Transportation Research Center.****Brown University anno...
Following last week's 8.9 magnitude earthquake off Northeastern Japan, continuing aftershocks and a massive tsunami, colleges and universities are keeping a close eye on that part of the world. Below are some updates from New England institutions.
Boston University's Daily Free Press reports BU students in Tokyo O.K.
19 Yale Students Safe in Tokyo, reports The New Haven Register
WTNH says two C...
A review of The New Education: How to Revolutionize the University to Prepare Students for a World in Flux, by Cathy N. Davidson (New York, Basic Books, 2017); a summary of the recent announcements of a major restructuring of MIT, and a synthesis of other relevant developments.
It is increasingly obvious that we are living in one of the greatest ages of paradigm-shifts in Western history, compa... 
Another women’s conference?
Those three words haunted our Alumni Relations team’s discussions last summer as we considered which programs to fund for MIT alumni in the year ahead. The MIT Alumni Association had produced or sponsored a series of women’s conferences over the years. Was it the right time for another one?
Even simply by event-planning standards, things in 2017 were differe... 
In 2004, then-University of New England President Sandra Featherman authored a piece for NEJHE (then called Connection) headlined “Emotional Rescue” and focusing on how a new generation of troubled college students was putting a strain on campus resources. Featherman, who died in April, wrote of colleges and universities scrambling to provide additional and better support services for students... 
When MIT approached Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) to participate in edX, the new Harvard/MIT massive open online course (MOOC) initiative, we reacted with both interest and skepticism. What did MIT have in mind for Bunker Hill Community College? How would edX “transform the way that community college students learn” as edX President Anant Agarwal claimed, when he discussed the l... 
Innovators and entrepreneurs are using technologies to make freely available the things for which universities charge significant money. MOOCs ... free online courses ... lecture podcasts ... low-cost off-the-shelf general education courses ... online tutorials ... digital collections of open learning resources ... open badges ... all are disrupting higher education's hold on knowledge, instructio... 
Click here for videos of BIF-8 storytellers!
The Business Innovation Factory (BIF) held its eighth annual collaborative innovation summit on Sept. 19 and 20 in Providence, and the key, as always, was the art of storytelling. No themes, said summit facilitator and BIF founder and “chief catalyst” Saul Kaplan. You decide which connections you can make, he told the 400-plus attendees.
Granted... 
MIT President Susan Hockfield announced she would leave the position she has held for more than seven years once a new president takes office.As the first woman president of MIT, Hockfield presided over significant strides in hiring and promotion of women scientists and engineers after a faculty report brought national attention to inequity in campus. Among students, the MIT Class of 2015 will be...