Damning report on @BBCRadio4 this morning about the financial situation of UK universities. As Id been told by others involved in UK digital policy, the general attitude is to digitise almost any aspect of UK HE that can be automated, and employ #AI tools to achieve this. To me this is almost a death knell of UK HE standards. No one attends university to learn with a bot, least of all to pay high fees for the pleasure. #bbc#highered#academicchatter
Today in my Astro Sci-Comm class we tried something new: we watched clips of 4 astronomers, & discussed the wildly different speaking/presenting styles. Of course I chose these to be VERY different in style. Only 1 was a chaotic train wreck (spoiler, it was me from +10yrs ago) #astrodon#academicchatter#astronomy
Also, this is my fundraiser for my internship as an MSW student. I’m a student medical social work intern, placed on the Mom and Baby unit of the hospital. This internship is unpaid, therefore, this fundraiser helps me as a student with costs until I graduate in December. All boosts & donations are appreciated.
@Cosmosis@academicchatter Basic is fine! It might be new to students in your field and it might be new to members of the public who want to start reading up out of interest. #AcademicChatter
Whelp. Grant submitted. Probably, a modest waste of time, since the earlier edition was recommended for funding** (if funds are available). But I couldn't risk not going in this round. Finger's crossed that this one is good enough to be recommended for funding immediately with no budget cut.
Because seriously, I can't see continuing this project on the same >50K less than modular that I've had the last two grants.
"When applying a risk assessment framework to universities, research is an activity that is inherently high risk, since we are working to create something that is not yet known."
I've had a pair of students who've taken every class I've offered all year and started out really struggling. Like, a lot. Like, getting Cs and Ds in their writing assignments. But they worked super hard, came to office hours, showed me lots of drafts, and their MA dissertation proposals are super good! Well-structured, well-written, showing evidence of really strong learning in both writing and technical experimental design skills. Proper A level work. I'm so proud!
For my upper division classes, there is a research project due at the end of the term. 3 weeks before they have a literature review due so I can make sure the students are going generally in the right direction. For the literature review, they have to list their sources (some peer-reviewed) and describe how they will use said sources. I green light the sources. The new thing is not to use those sources I approved but some crap sources. 🤦♂️ What gives?! #academia#academicchatter
All my students now were born after 9/11. I tell them I’m a being from another century. And I often feel that in my bones. I look around and am baffled by the world we have built. #academia#academicchatter
1 hour after submitting grades, LMS notification of student message. Bracing for grade complaint, procrastinated opening app and spent intervening day grumbling about youth of today. Buckled down + opened messages, to discover that student wrote to say what she loved about the course and learnt from fellow students. Friends, I am crying. #AcademicChatter
It's a very odd feeling, having played a role in Web 1, 2, & 3, to be mentoring students who only know of those moments via third-party scholarship.
Much of that scholarship is very good. But it's all coalesced around received wisdom & fixed narratives, and those tend to leave out a lot of important details.
I'm always torn about whether and how much to use my own memory/experience of the events to add nuance, or to just let the official story be the official story.
“Sorry, I couldn’t do the reviews nor submit that abstract. We had to hack a replacement for shitty #Sonos app for there’s no way we can do any scholarly work without appropriate music and nap timers”
Hey, has anyone here had experience examining a PhD thesis “by publication”? I’m doing an admin task around revisions to a thesis (in Australia we don’t have a thesis defence), and the student/supervisor team have dismissed any comments on chapters which were already published (there were many comments from 3 examiners). Is this common practice? #academicchatter#phd
Work: We really value grad student opinions in our new director search. Would you like to serve on the director search committee? It'll be about 60 hours of work during the fall semester.
Me: Cool. Is there funding to cover the students' time?
Work: ....
Work: This is a service position
In a donor list to an early 17thc convent, all the men (so far, only men!) are named & their titles given, & then the thing that they paid for is listed. One didn't just give money to the project; donors want their name on this window, that door, this meaningful space within the edifice.
And in my monastic chronicle, men evidently pay for things, while women pay more often for prayers and services. (This is ca. 1606-7)
Not entirely, of course: one of the women pays for a window, and two others for specific door-latches. ("I scrimped and saved and paid for this lock and key, look at me!")
Also, you could be a servant and still help fund the monastery.