Category Archives: Academic Life

That’s Not Fair!

When Scott Adams gets it right, he gets it right. And guess what? He got it right here as he uses Dogbert to point out the truth about how people bandy around the phrase, “That’s not fair,” when it really … Continue reading

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Crowdsourcing Food

A few weeks ago, the JCCC English Department elected to collect food for the school’s food pantry. Being the cheapskate that I am, I figured I should dump the responsibility over to my students. Here’s how it worked. I have … Continue reading

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Sisyphus is Us

At this point in the semester, you might think that you’re doing an absurdly difficult thing, like rolling a boulder up a mountain, as you complete classes. But take heart. Not only will the boulder probably roll back down on … Continue reading

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10 Benefits of Attending College

A post on Wise Bread tells us of “Ten Surprising Ways a College Education will Improve Your Life.” Unfortunately but not surprisingly (in our data-obsessed culture) these reasons mostly revolve around monetary benefits. You’ll earn more, be unemployed less, and … Continue reading

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Changing Education Paradigms

A 12-minute video about education and change and ADHD and stuff like that. It’s worth our time.

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Browning Tweets

I am attempting something new this semester, beginning today. I aim to use Twitter to supplement my classes. If you’d like to check into this bumbling, stumbling try, you can follow @Prof_Mark_JCCC. My intention is to restrict this to class … Continue reading

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A New Model of University

What if you could go to a school where you didn’t learn information but instead learned how to process information. That’s the goal at a start-up school in California, the Minerva Project But while there are many things that make … Continue reading

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The iWatch and the End of Western Civilization

“In my day, students had to write with quill pens on vellum using ink that they’d mixed themselves. For math, if you couldn’t do it on an abacus, then you were on your own.” –Professor Meriwether Q. Curmudgeon It seems … Continue reading

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The Power of Noticing; The Power of Literature

Why do I think that the study of literature is important even for people who do not have plans to be English majors or to consign themselves to permanent poverty by teaching literature? Having just read a review of The Power … Continue reading

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Another Reason Why Writing Is Important

In a book on how we think, Roger Martin suggests that: Thinking – especially thinking in words and sentences – is a form of internal communication. In thinking, you-in-the-present communicates with you-in-the-future. But though thinking is a private and covert … Continue reading

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