Thursday, July 31, 2008

Three Tips to Please a Journal Editor

The Academic Productivity blog has a useful post on how to increase your chances of pleasing a journal editor.

COCAL VIII: August 8-10

The eighth Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor conference is happening August 8-10 in San Diego.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Online Teaching Job Resources

Virtual Professor over at the Teach Online blog offers up links to online teaching job resources.  Check out his blog while you’re there, too!

Bousquet Posts Six New Videos

Marc Bousquet has posted six new videos to his YouTube channel.  Check them out!

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Choice Quotes: Joe Berry #5

This post continues the thread of choice quotes from Joe Berry’s Reclaiming the Ivory Tower.

From “Getting Down to Work” (134):

Shifting to a corporate attitude makes higher education administrators potentially more vulnerable to job actions because they are more concerned about profit and production.  Beyond being disruptive, a strike may drive students away, which spells disaster for schools that are increasingly dependent on tuition and federal student aid to earn profits.

Corporate-led just-in-time higher education also makes institutions vulnerable.  Because the majority of students are “nontraditional” and part-time, the administration cannot stockpile services of the faculty nor can they stockpile students.  They are attempting to move in this direction with distance education, substitution of technology for faculty, and modularized learning, but still, in the main, they are forced to rely on the moment-to-moment, time-appropriate, face-to-face interaction of faculty (workers) with students (product).  We faculty have only begun to dimly grasp how to exploit this production model and have not organizationally used it at all.

Dean Dad Writes in Public

Dean Dad discusses writing in public at his great blog.  The comments, as usual, are worth reading.  While it is interesting in and of itself, it could make for a useful prompt or jump-off point for class.  It’s funny, though, that DD didn’t really discuss cell phones.  Far more annoying than any other sound in a coffee shop--to me at least--is the annoying ringing and inane dialogue folks feel that they have every right to subject the world to.  Please.

Non-Profit Activist’s View on Adjuncting

Rosetta Thurman, a non-profit leader and activist, reflects on adjuncting.