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Lessons Learned I: Penn State—Overview
By Bill Tierney
I have refrained from writing or speaking about the events at Penn State because I needed time to process what we might learn from such a tragedy. When the events were unfolding a bunch of reporters called me for a quick quote and I declined saying anything in large part because there was too much [...]
Playing with Soul
In late December, Collegeology game designers Elizabeth Swensen, Sean Bouchard and I traveled to Texas to conduct a case study at a Houston area high school. Our goal was to playtest the card game (Application Crunch) and soon-to-be launched online game (Mission: Admission) with a group of predominately African American, low-income students. We arrived right [...]
Don’t Let a Lack of Financial Aid Choices Keep You at the Gates …
The Thursday Pop One of my favorite quotes from the reality prison show Lockup on MSNBC is from an inmate who said: “We control everything but the gates.” I thought that was a powerful quote because this inmate really did believe (or at least wanted the viewer to believe) that he had an immense power [...]
Club College: Why So Many Universities Look Like Resorts
By Bill Tierney
Andrew Rosen has penned Change.edu: Rebooting for the New Talent Economy which in some respects is a typical text that talks about the need for new kinds of postsecondary institutions. It’s a breezy easy-to-read book and for those who are not in higher ed there’s nothing wrong with reading it to learn about the changes [...]
Governor Brown Sends the Wrong Message about Education
Last week, Governor Jerry Brown described his 2012 budget proposal, which included a $5.2 billion cut in education if voters do not approve a tax increase on the ballot this November. Of the total, Brown plans to cut $4.8 billion in K–12 public school funding—the equivalent of three weeks of schooling—and $200 million to the [...]
Negotiating Reciprocity through College Readiness Efforts
My interest in college readiness includes organizations and individual actors; therefore, the case study methodology is an appropriate research tradition. After receiving approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB), and gaining entrée and access to the respective case, the data collection begins. However, one of the first elements established for my projects is determining reciprocity: [...]
Thursday is TechDay: The Evolution of the Web
This post is a look back at the web of 2011 (dominated by Web 2.0) and a look forward to the web of 2012 (welcoming Web 3.0). If you’ve heard of Web 2.0 and aren’t sure what that means, here’s a quick refresher. The World Wide Web in its initial incarnation (retroactively dubbed Web 1.0) [...]
TQM, Bologna, and Hot Topics
By Bill Tierney
My last blog of the year was a quick summary of “the year in review.” In the short review I touched on topics that had been of concern to me, but neglected to mention anything having to do with issues beyond the border of the United States. My chum, Cliff Adelman, posted this on Facebook: [...]
Education 2012: Will Politicians Make Campaign Promises that Matter?
“Yes, we can,” exclaimed Senator Barack Obama after winning the presidential primary in South Carolina nearly four years ago. The slogan signified hope and change for a country that desperately needed it. By alluding to Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers, it also hinted at a promising new future for the working class and [...]
What’s on tap for 2012
By Bill Tierney
I ended my last blog in December with “a year in review” a day or two before I flew to Malaysia for a conference. I want to catch up on that conference in my next post, but suffice it to say, it was one heckuva long trip there and back, but worth it. We had [...]
