“One might object that MOOCs are no different from textbooks. What is a textbook, really, but a programmed course template, a whole course in a box? Have popular textbooks destroyed local learning communities and entrenched established hierarchies? No. … But maybe the comparison with textbooks breaks down.”
Tag: 05.03.13
Royal Ballet Runaway Sergei Polunin Complains Of ‘British Mafia’
“The British paid for their houses with Nureyev and made their careers out of him. But, when he was past his best, they simply threw him out. … They get rid of everyone: It’s a kind of British mafia. So I thought that, in a few years’ time, someone young would come along – someone who was easier to manage and who didn’t need to be paid as much.”
Don’t You Dare Call Us The Happiest Town, Says Sag Harbor, NY
“The cause of distress: a national magazine, Coastal Living, named Sag Harbor as a finalist in a contest to crown ‘America’s happiest seaside town’.” Says one longtime resident, “Is Sag Harbor a happy place? No, Sag Harbor is not about happy.” (Note: The town that ended up winning the title just elected Mark “Hiking the Appalachian Trail” Sanford to Congress.)
Venice Is Losing A Great Artwork, For A Really Dumb Reason
Jerry Saltz: “Here we go again. A handful of politicians and citizens get their low-information artistic panties in a twist, get insulted by whatever work of public art they decide offends them … Especially if there’s a penis or vagina involved and if the location of the public sculpture happens to be one of the most extraordinary spaces in all of Christendom.”
Australia Council Rejects New Business Plan For Orchestra
“A review panel charged with finding a sustainable business model for Orchestra Victoria has been sent back to the drawing board.”
How Sequestration Threatens The Library Of Congress
“Just as military contractors, air traffic controllers and federal workers are coping with the grim results of a partisan impasse over the federal deficit, the Library of Congress, whose services range from copyrighting written works — whether famous novels or poems scribbled on napkins — to the collection, preservation and digitalization of millions of books, photographs, maps and other materials, faces deep cuts that threaten its historic mission.”
Companies Get Rich Off Our Data. Shouldn’t We Charge Them For It?
“Whenever Amazon uses our customer history to make a sale or whenever OkCupid matches a couple based on our dating history, we should get a cut — a “nanopayment.” As Google Translate gets smarter while we translate rap lyrics from Maltese to Latin, shouldn’t we get something? Perhaps — let’s just wait for Google Translate to earn Google some money first.”
Riz Ahmed Plays – And Is – A Complex Character
“I’f you cut Riz open, you’ll find London inside,’ said Solomons, who is a fellow Londoner. ‘He really is kind of what young Britain is like. He’s kind of spry, he’s kind of sly, he’s kind of moveable. He kind of adapts. He can kind of pass anywhere.'”
H.G. Wells, Toy-Soldier Gamer (And Influencer Of Military Strategy?)
“While miniature war-gaming has never been able to claim a place in the mainstream, it has influenced almost everything we think of as gaming today. By the middle of the 20th century, war-gaming had not only added new sets of rules for armies of many periods, but it had inspired a new kind of richly complex board game.”
Commission, Compose, And Perform The Occasional Cheeseburger
“There is a dearth of musical ‘cheeseburgers’ in contemporary concert music today.” (And that’s a problem.)