Monthly Archives: February 2021

A History of American Higher Education by John R. Thelin

Published in April 2019 (third edition)

Why is most thinking about higher education's future mostly mediocre?

Lots of reasons. Uncritical acceptance of applying (mostly discredited) business theories to academia. (Hello, disruptive innovation.) An inability to see beyond one's privileges. Anchoring on the belief that nothing ever changes in higher education. An unshakable faith that the market is either the answer to all of higher education's challenges or the root of all its problems.

However, the most profound cause of middling thinking about the future (or futures) of higher education is too little knowledge about higher education's past. Knowing the contours and causes of prior changes in academia is likely necessary, if not sufficient, for saying smart things about what will come next.

This brings us to Thelin's A History of American Higher Education. The third edition came out in 2019, bringing the story more or less up to the present. (Before COVID maybe changed everything).

Thelin should probably be required reading for anyone who wants to offer any utterance, no matter how small, about where higher ed might be going. Would it be unrealistic to ask Educause, UPCEA, OLI, ASU+GSV, WCET, ACE, AAC&U, FETC, ELI, AAU, CHEA, NAICU, AAUP and all the rest to send copies of A History American Higher Education to all their members?

Reading the Thelin book (as it always seems to be called), I was struck by a couple of things. First, it is interesting to me (as someone who works at a center for teaching and learning) how little a role teaching and learning plays in this history of higher education. Zimmerman's The Amateur Hour is an essential companion to Thelin.

Online education's growth gets some space in Thelin's history, but not all that much. There is some stuff on the role that for-profits played in the online learning story, and nonprofit distance learning and MOOCs make an appearance in the newest chapter on the 2010-2018 period. But Thelin covers very little about the impact of the development of CTLs, or the role that nonfaculty educators play in the instructional enterprise.

Nor does the history of educational technologies -- academic or administrative -- figure much into A History of American Higher Education. A historical and holistic account of the introduction and impact of technologies into the university has not been written yet (to my knowledge), a volume that may also make an attractive companion (and perhaps balance) to Thelin.

Despite what I see as shortcomings (not enough about teaching and learning, not enough about online education and nonfaculty educators, not enough about technology), it is undeniable that A History of American Higher Education represents a singular contribution. Thelin has given us a deeply researched and highly readable single-volume account of U.S. higher education, from 1636 (the year of Harvard's founding) to (almost) today.

The collective time spent on almost any higher ed conference, gathering or convening about the future of higher education would probably be better spent by everyone reading Thelin. However, the reality is that the communities of those who study higher ed's past and those who talk about higher ed's future seldom seem to converge. Why is this?

Part of the reason may be a mismatch between academic disciplines and professional organizations. Academics tend not to go to higher ed professional meetings, and higher ed professionals (nonfaculty) don't usually attend academic conferences on the history of higher education. Perhaps we should swap conferences?

There is so much to learn, so much to know, about the history of higher education. The task is daunting. A History of American Higher Education is the best place to start.

What are you reading?

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Reading Thelin's 'A History of American Higher Education' as an Amateur Futurist | Learning Innovation - Inside Higher Ed

Listen to the episode here or wherever you listen to podcasts:

Even in the wake of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, consumers and food companies still care about sustainability. It may have taken a backseat to food safety and health, but it hasnt gone away. In fact, as the pandemic wanes, consumers may be looking at sustainability differently.

Sustainability remains a priority, but how consumer define sustainability is likely to change, said Jack Bobo, food futurist and chief executive officer of Futurity, a food foresight company that helps brands get ahead of trends. When you ask consumers what sustainability means, you end up getting some strange answers. Consumers want fewer insecticides on their food, but they also want to increase yields. They want food to be long-lasting, but they dont want preservatives. Thats the challenge.

In this premier episode of season five of Since Sliced Bread, Mr. Bobo gives a tour of how consumers and food companies sustainability priorities sometimes misalign. To address that gap, companies need to tune into the nuances of what consumers are asking for and educate them on what they actually need.

Listen to this episode to hear what the baking industry is doing right and where companies can grow to not only better serve the consumer but also still improve the environment.

Past Episodes

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Food futurist Jack Bobo tells how sustainability will shape the future of food - Baking Business

Image by Natasha Connell via Unsplash / Futurism

A new artificial intelligence algorithm built by IBM may be able to help doctors diagnose or predict the onset of Alzheimers disease years before symptoms emerge.

And all it takes, The New York Times reports, is for subjects to tell that algorithm a story. By comparing writing samples from study participants over the years, the algorithm was able to predict the onset of Alzheimers disease years in advance with 75 percent accuracy potentially giving doctors a new tool for spotting Alzheimers and other serious neurodegenerative conditions before they would have otherwise.

The algorithm looks at data from a neurological study with 270 participants who were asked to, among other things, vividly describe what was happening in a simple image several times over the course of years, according to research published in the journal The Lancet. Based just on those samples, the algorithm learned to identify patterns like increasingly-repetitive language, typos, or missing words as signs of neurodegenerative disease.

This is the first report I have seen that took people who are completely normal and predicted with some accuracy who would have problems years later, Dr. Michael Weiner, an Alzheimers disease expert at the University of California, San Francisco who didnt work on the study, told the NYT.

Now that its been tested on Alzheimers, the IBM team plans to move on and test the algorithm against other neurological conditions, according to the NYT.

What is going on here is very clever, University of Pennsylvania Alzheimers research Dr. Jason Karlawish, who also didnt work on the study, told the NYT. Given a large volume of spoken or written speech, can you tease out a signal?

Read more:
IBM Algorithm Can Tell Who's Going to Get Alzheimer's by Reading Their Writing - Futurism

Apple car has been the hot topic for motorheads and tech enthusiasts alike for quite some time now. Now the ideation finally seems to be heading towards fruition as Apple has officially announced plans to collaborate with Hyundai-Kia to manufacture Apple electric vehicles. The deal is almost final as Apple plans to manufacture the car at the Kia assembly plant in West Point, Georgia. Presumably, the self-driving EV will be called Apple Car and slated for a 2024 production initiation. After years of speculation and pop-up rumors, this is some substantial news for Apple fanatics who want the ecosystem of Apple products to extend to the automotive realms.

The direct competitor for the Apple Car is obviously going to be Tesla whos got a strong foothold in the self-driving electric car market. According to some sources, the Apple Car will not have any drivers seat or even driving controls which could be a bummer for motorheads who love the feel of controlling their machine. What the Apple Car will look like is anybodys guess but to give a close idea of what it may be like, Ali Cams Apple Car 2076 is a good reference point to take home some inspiration. Adopting Apples sharp design aesthetics, the car looks like a mouse shaped like a car at first glance, but then you realize its actually a minimal car concept. Loaded with advanced driving systems Ali envisions the blueprint far in the distant future the year 2076 to be precise. The choice of year apparently is the 100the anniversary of Apple ever since it was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne.

On the inside, the Apple Car is more like a luxury lounge with infotainment displays all around (even on the doors), gesture controlled-entertainment systems, and the holographic display traverses the riders into a completely different reality. You would not expect the car to have a driver seat in the year 2076 which coincides with the vision for the Apple Car just announced. So, the Cupertino giant can take some healthy inspiration from Alis design. Access to the cabin is via touch ID sensors and presumably, Apple ID is going to be used here. The gull-winged doors give the car a very futuristic appeal, ready to take its passengers for a smooth ride actuated by the magnetic levitation technology. Yes, the one you see on maglev trains.

Although the final Apple Car will be electric powered and the maglev dream is a bit far-fetched for now, this concept by Ali Cam that could rival the edgy Tesla Cybertruck design refreshes things up in anticipation of the Apple Car thats slated to come sometime in 2024 or 2025. And of course, the real one is going to have wheels, so you can muster up the design with wheels on this one. Things are seeming exciting already, arent they?

Designer: Ali Cam

More here:
This Apple Car showcases a futuristic automotive revolution that makes the Tesla Cybertruck look old-school! - Yanko Design

Dinner with Gertrude and Lillian

Caryl Churchills Top Girls engineered a meeting between female historical figures. Little Wars, Steven Carl McCaslands new play, also sticks with literary heroines. When a dinner party includes Lillian Hellman (Juliet Stevenson) and Gertrude Stein (Linda Bassett, wondrous in Escaped Alone at the Brooklyn Academy of Music), the conversation could get interesting. Through Feb. 14; broadwayondemand.com

L.A. Theater Works specializes in audio theater with startlingly good casts, and its impressive catalog keeps growing. The latest offering is Hannie Raysons eco-minded Extinction, with a cast that includes Sarah Drew and Joanne Whalley. Hankering for the days of before? Check out the last two productions Theater Works recorded in front of a live audience, early last year: a commissioned adaptation of Frankenstein by Kate McAll, starring Stacy Keach as the creature; and Qui Nguyens semi-autobiographical Vietgone, inspired by his Vietnamese refugee parents, and directed by Tim Dang. latw.org

Theater or something companies are calling theater by mail is alive and well. Ars Novas P.S. project has been going on since November; the second season of the Artistic Stamp companys epistolary project is underway, with a third beginning soon; and next month, Arena Stage is starting Ken Ludwigs Dear Jack, Dear Louise: Love Letter Experience.

The most ambitious initiative yet may well be Post Theatrical, which encompasses 13 mail-based theatrical experiences from companies in the United States, Lebanon and Hong Kong. Through June 30; posttheatrical.org

Remember Yorick, the jester whose skull plays a big part in Hamlet? He takes center stage in Francisco Reyess solo with puppets Yorick, la Historia de Hamlet/Yorick, the Story of Hamlet, presented by the Los Angeles contempory-arts center Redcat. American audiences may know Reyes from his role as Orlando in the Chilean movie A Fantastic Woman. In English with Spanish subtitles. Feb. 12-14; redcat.org

If youre wondering about the back story to the French song in that Allstate commercial, its Non, je ne regrette rien, made famous by Edith Piaf. And if you missed the biopic La Vie en Rose, head over to Raquel Brittons docu-concert Piaf Her Story Her Songs, brought to us by Broadways Best Shows and the Actors Fund. Feb. 15-18; actorsfund.org

For tunes in English, turn to Theater Forward, an organization that supports regional theater, which will offer performances by Jason Robert Brown, Kate Baldwin, George Salazar, Anika Noni Rose, Shaina Taub, Branden Noel Thomas, Taylor Iman Jones and the Bengsons for its annual benefit. Feb. 8; theatreforward.org

Excerpt from:
Theater to Stream: Shakespeare Villains and Hot-Tub Dreams - The New York Times

"Every indication we have so far, in week two of the new administration, is that Artemis will not be abandoned."Forging Ahead

Even though its under new leadership and commanded by a new presidential administration, NASA is still pushing ahead to launch and complete the Artemis missions to the Moon.

The series of missions, which include plans to send the next man and the first woman to the surface of the Moon and to establish a base of operations on the lunar surface, were set forth under the Trump administration, alongside extremely ambitious deadlines. But in an interview with Futurism, acting NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk said that NASA is still pushing ahead despite the change in leadership, and he doesnt expect to be told otherwise.

Every indication we have so far, in week two of the new administration, is that Artemis will not be abandoned, Jurczyk told Futurism.

But no matter how much NASA wants to meet the timelines, financial reality may get in the way. Jurczyk told Futurism that NASA was only granted $850 million for the human landing system in its 2021 budget about a quarter of the $3.2 billionthe agency asked for which might force it to push later Artemis missions back.

Mostly driven by budget and not necessarily by policy, Jurczyk said, were looking at the timeline for the Artemis III mission and that might affect the Artemis IV mission.

That said, Jurczyk said he still plans to launch Artemis I an uncrewed test of the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System in November of this year.

But even if individual missions within the Artemis program get pushed back, Jurczyk maintains that the program will still be invaluable as a testing ground and development environment for bigger and better things specifically reaching Mars.

And because of that, he feels that the Artemis missions and other human space travel initiatives will be safe and valued during the current and future presidential administrations.

I think using the International Space Station, using missions around and on the surface of the Moon, with the ultimate goal being Mars, is still the strategic direction for human exploration, Jurczyk said.

Read the rest of the Q&A: We Interviewed the New Head of NASA About SpaceX, China, and Aliens

Go here to read the rest:
NASA Boss: We Have "Every Indication" That Artemis Is Safe Under Biden - Futurism

Image by Victor Tangermann

Joe DiMeo, a 22-year-old from New Jersey, recently underwent an extremely rare face and hands transplant, the Associated Press reports a testament to the advancements of modern medicine.

After being badly burned in a car crash in 2018, DiMeo spent months in a medically induced coma and had to have 20 reconstructive surgeries and skin grafts. But the most recent operation carried out at the NYU Langone Health hospital could end up being lifechanging.

I knew it would be baby steps all the way, DiMeo told the AP. Youve got to have a lot of motivation, a lot of patience. And youve got to stay strong through everything.

Despite the surgery, DiMeo will have to make some adjustments. For one, he still has to learn how to control the muscles in his new face and hands. He will also have to stay on medications for the rest of his life to avoid his body rejecting the transplants.

The fact they could pull it off is phenomenal, Bohdan Pomahac, a surgeon at Bostons Brigham and Womens Hospital, who had previously carried out a double hand transplant, told the AP. I know firsthand its incredibly complicated. Its a tremendous success.

The anonymous,deceased donor of DiMeos new hands and face was fitted with replica parts that were constructed using 3D photography and printing, the New York Post reports.

Despite the fact that theyre now declared deceased we still respect the dignity of the donor, Eduardo Rodriguez, lead surgeon, told the New York Post. Its important for us to continue to care for the donor because that patient is still our patient.

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Surgeons Give Man New Face and Hands - Futurism