Friday, July 28, 2006

Mastering Engineering

Original Article

Draft. Some thoughts
  1. Is 4 year really not enough? Or like what was pointed out by the comment its the tandancy of adding instead of re-structuring?
  2. Like point out by the article, things are moving fast. Graduates need to adopt need things when it come out. So some of the practical details could be leave out. Re-structure seems should be the way to go.
  3. I still have to think about the need of humanity in higher ed.

Dream Deferred

Original Article

Draft. Some thoughts
  1. There will be loving parents that suffers for their kids. The question is what are the humanian, which is what American is great, way of treating them.
  2. There are a lot of people wanted to become US citizen, what are the better criteria instead of what we currently have.
  3. We should have a clear and better immigration goal - do we select talent people, hardworking people, ernest people or just rich people. All and all we like people that contribute to our society. The current criteria like caps on each country may not appropriate. We simply need think through what our goal is and what better law can be crafted to attain our goal. Don't getting into the superficial argument of illigel and legal arguments so easily - law can be changed!

Rallying Behind Open Access

Original Article

Draft. Working some ideas.
  1. Government pay for it and have the right to the result - but in what form? Does it have to be in journist form?
  2. Government can publish what ever they requested as a result.
  3. Researcher write it out and can send to both government and journal. Currently, journal will serve the purpose of review, a gate keeper. What will happen if government simply publish the report without review? This can be good and bad. The good is that people can see the original and it's possible that some articles that fails the journal review do have its values. But. The review is also so important. Without it, public can easily mis-interpret a lot of thing without the proper trainings.
  4. If government is to accept the journal submission as acceptable report, do they need to fund any of the reviewing cost?
  5. Who's paying for the reviews and clarical works?
  6. So. What's the reasonable way of doing this?

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

What Role for Sociology

Original Article

The proposal is a very good one especially at the time of calling for accountability. All majors should do the same by revisting their way of measuring success as pointed out by the article: on Higher Ed. competency-based assessment. The clear the people understand what contributes to the capabilities of students, people and business can make more sensible decisions. This includes hire people with trained abilities, which, in turn, promote students to take those courses seriously. A positive feedback loop, is, therefore, begin.

Friday, July 21, 2006

Show Them the Money

Original Article

Facts are good to know. But we have to be careful about how we go about it. A not well thought advocacy can teach its citizen the wrong lesson and cause the fail of the society.

I understand that there are concerns about minorities are in a disadvantage status. However, we should be careful about how we should provid the help.

I am sure not all languages have the same volcabularies. Even different fields of study use word differently. But I don’t think it should be an execuse that we should provide more assistants to minorities.

Personally, my parents can’t help me on anything about student loan, financial aid ... etc. I am now having a child approaching the college-going age and I know I will have to study about it. To me, if a school did provide info to students and parents and did not intentionally favor one race or the other, I will consider they did their job since everyone had been given the same oppotunity.

From time to time, I feel people need take more responsibility and I think society should be careful not to demote the importance of it. How a society work is a vivid real life lesson to its citizen. A not well thought advocacy can teach its citizen the wrong lesson and cause the fail of the society.

Hispanic is not the only race that START in economic disadvantaged state. A lot of immigrants are. But some of them are very successful, like Asian in general. I am sure their laguange barriers are larger.

The most important lesson that should be taught in K12 is the responsibility. If you don’t think school can do it along, then it’s time to involve and educate parents too.