our cohort is looking at trends in state level funding for higher education and saw Arkansas proposing a plan to tie funding to short term measures of performance like class completion %, which triggered the following reflection on my part during our weekly discussions 1. state legislatures are tied to the annual and biannual budget […]
Category: Creativity
Futsal season concludes with our best games of the season
really proud of our girls as they finished the season with a couple very well played, competitive games. even at age 12 they are becoming more mature and focused in practice. they get rewarded by participating in what we will do in each practice, provided they bring energy to the game. They usually like to […]
The power of water, and reflections on critical thinking
Image via Wikipedia A testimony to the power of water, in recent Australian floods. www.youtube.com/swf/l.swf?video_id=kYUpkPTcqPY Water level in rivers follows the Log-Pearson 3 probability distribution(see attached picture) Tightly clustered around the mean, with little variation, and a limit on how far the left hand tail can go (ie “dry”) The right hand tail though is […]
Reflections on economy, China and education
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704062604576105952027426880.html another step in the realization of the Chinese Century. They are in the same economic position the US was at the end of WW2: had all the money, the manufacturing base and the need & capacity to export to war torn countries of Europe. Look at what happened in the 50s and 60s until […]
Reflections on Starobin’s Five Roads to the Future
Paul Starobin’ s biography (from the author), from NationalJournal.com Related Link: http://www.afteramericabook.com Paul Starobin is a staff correspondent for National Journal and a contributing editor to The Atlantic Monthly. He is author of the new book “After America: Narratives for the Next Global Age,” available in soft cover as “Five Roads to the Future: Power […]
Reflections on “Sonic Boom” by Greg Easterbrook
Commentary on Sonic Boom by Gregg Easterbrook His reasons for believing that an explosion in globalization is coming: ease of communication freedom of speech and democracy markets tend to consumer demand rising education levels chip-based electronics equality of women reduced military spending and interlinked nations My concerns after reading his introduction: will he be addressing […]
Innovation as a function of R&D investments? not so much; check your network first
Image via Wikipedia Some excellent insights into the power of quality connections and the network effect with respect to R&D, innovation and open borders Hard times call for new solutions and we are starting to take a good hard look at how innovation really works and what we can do to improve performance. Recent reports […]
Excellence at work
Image via Wikipedia I sure wish i had said this: #6: Malcolm Gladwell is right, it takes 10,000 hours. I don’t think I ever appreciated what it takes to just stay current and, in hindsight, never comprehended what it takes to become good. I mean really good. Not to be overly dramatic but. . . […]
China brings a high-speed train to California; Harriman and Carnegie roll over in their graves
Image via Wikipedia In an era of lifelong learning, I wonder if the mark of real graduation is a ceremony at the end of the classes or is it measured by what you do with the education for the rest of your life? Is there even such a thing as graduation for lifelong learners? I […]
An executive summary of complexity theory
Image via Wikipedia An executive summary of complexity theory Johnson, N. (2007). Simply complexity: A clear guide to complexity theory. OneWorld Publications, Oxford. Futurists are in the business of providing a structured vision of the future that includes variables, dynamics, processes, themes and values by which the future will unfold and how we can be […]