Another take on "genius"?

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/the-science-of-genius-a-qa-with-author-david-shenk/

Frank and I have been discussing these “genius” questions for awhile, though from his side at a much more sophisticated level (I read Gladwell’s “Outliers” while he read “The Cambridge Manual on Expertise”). This short Q&A gets at the basic ideas rather well.

Of course, Frank and I then take these ideas in different directions. I tend to think that these concepts supported the whole “engaged learning” paradigm (one element of which is Strengthsquest) because “anyone” can be a “genius” if you find the right ways to engage people’s interests and help direct their efforts. My understanding of Frank’s argument is that the engaged learning paradigm (especially the Strengthsquest version of it) can pigeon hole people too much in terms of which expression of “genius” should be fostered and how instead of focusing on the malleability of the possible paths people might take and the “directed feedback” process that seems to be at the heart of effective learning. I think Frank’s arguments are a misreading of what engaged learning in general and Strengthsquest in particular are about, but I can understand why people view these efforts this way.

How to become a more trustworthy leader?

Grow a beard?

http://chronicle.com/blogPost/The-Trustworthiness-of-Beards/22581/

Department of Higher Education data

No surprises. Enrollments are up overall, especially at for-profits. But revenues held steady despite the increase in student numbers because more students are receiving financial aid. Everyone’s margins are down, therefore, especially because of the stock market declines. Oh, and retention rates were flat, but because of the way the data is reported, that one's hard to track because it doesn't take account of the increasing numbers of transfer students. All of the above applies pretty much to JBU as well.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/04/07/enroll

More on the great "unbundling" of higher education

Here’s another story along these lines. If “Statistics.com” offers some of the best stats material at low cost (via a combination of content from “all stars” and outsourced support from India), then why not take these classes from this company instead of from JBU, especially if this is one of those fields where “integration” at the course level is much less explicit? And if that’s the future of technical education in particular (Engineering, Science, Math, etc.), what happens to our “all in one” education model at a place like JBU? These are the kinds of questions that are the focus nowadays of our CAO conferences and that keep me awake at night.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/04/05/statistics