{"id":1415,"date":"2010-01-31T05:12:45","date_gmt":"2010-01-31T10:12:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/?p=1415"},"modified":"2013-08-02T17:57:33","modified_gmt":"2013-08-02T21:57:33","slug":"week-in-review-january-2430","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/2010\/01\/31\/week-in-review-january-2430\/","title":{"rendered":"Week in Review: January 24\u201430"},"content":{"rendered":"

Having posted daily headlines for over a year now<\/a>, I wanted to try a weekly round-up of the key stories from the previous week. This is the first effort in that project. My goal is to identify the key stories that a college educator should know about, and occasionally to pass along some “assorted extras” that might be useful or amusing to teachers and students.<\/p>\n

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Academic Freedom<\/strong><\/p>\n

The AAUP announced this week that they’ve begun a new publication, The AAUP Journal of Academic Freedom<\/a>, to focus on the significant questions of what we can teach, when and how we can teach it, and what difference our teaching and research decisions make upon our careers (ProfHacker). <\/p>\n

At the same time, students in Culpepper, Virginia are denied the chance to read the newest edition of The Diary of Anne Frank<\/em><\/a>, due to the “sexually explicit material and homosexual themes” (Washington Post). Also facing censorship, students at work on the newspaper at L.A. City College<\/a> have found administrators attempting to control the topics they cover and information they publish (LA Times). <\/p>\n

Assessment<\/strong><\/p>\n

A campus-wide understanding of how students are learning<\/a> and how each campus contributes to a national snapshot of educational outcomes was the focus of discussion recently at the annual conference of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation’s annual forum (Inside Higher Ed). <\/p>\n

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development is developing discipline-specific tests to measure learning outcomes<\/a> and cross-institutional comparisons, with the participation of the U.S. government (Inside Higher Ed). <\/p>\n

Improving instruction and student achievement<\/a> may rely greatly on eliminating obstacles and motivating faculty, according to commentary at the annual conference of the Association of American Colleges and
\nUniversities (Chroncile of Higher Ed).<\/p>\n

Government<\/strong><\/p>\n

President Obama’s State of the Union address proposed changes to financial aid and support for lowering the high cost<\/a> of a college education. Meanwhile Jill Biden stressed the presidential administration’s support for community colleges<\/a>. Congressional Reps. Timothy Bishop (D-N.Y.) and Michael Castle (R-Del.) introduced legislation to help identify and eliminate diploma and accredidation mills<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Tablet Computing <\/strong><\/p>\n

Predictions ran wild early on<\/a> (Inside Higher Ed) about Apple’s much anticipated tablet PC this week, but turned to criticism as the iPad was introduced with a conceivably ill-chosen name<\/a> (PCWorld) and an all-white male introductory video. Tablets are a hot topic of discussion<\/a> in educational circles (Chronicle of Higher Ed) because of their potential effect on collaboration and electronic textbook use. <\/p>\n

Obituaries<\/strong><\/p>\n