Comments on: Academic Obsolescence, Indeed http://www.plannedobsolescence.net/academic-obsolescence-indeed/ falling indelibly into the past Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:56:56 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: Planned Obsolescence » Blog Archive » The Definition of a Bad Work Day http://www.plannedobsolescence.net/academic-obsolescence-indeed/#comment-4255 Planned Obsolescence » Blog Archive » The Definition of a Bad Work Day Tue, 01 Apr 2008 17:56:31 +0000 http://www.new.plannedobsolescence.net/?p=984#comment-4255 [...] enough—and I know you’ll be stunned to hear this—it turns out to be a mail-delivery problem.  For whatever reason, the DMV [...] [...] enough—and I know you’ll be stunned to hear this—it turns out to be a mail-delivery problem.  For whatever reason, the DMV [...]

]]> By: bootsy http://www.plannedobsolescence.net/academic-obsolescence-indeed/#comment-2362 bootsy Mon, 22 Jul 2002 21:32:10 +0000 http://www.new.plannedobsolescence.net/?p=984#comment-2362 <p>Proposition 1. We already miss diminished respect for faculty, particularly fresh, critical people capable of extremely arcane reasoning.  This is manifest in the paucity of our current societal expectations of education.  Well, a few people miss it.  [insert elitist dispairing very un-PC tome here.] <br /> Proposition 2: Yep, the market has decided and academic publishing is superdead.  It’s not sad, it’s just an interface issue.  And as long as people can print out web-based monographs and read them in bed, they will.  You’re cool. </p> Proposition 1. We already miss diminished respect for faculty, particularly fresh, critical people capable of extremely arcane reasoning.  This is manifest in the paucity of our current societal expectations of education.  Well, a few people miss it.  [insert elitist dispairing very un-PC tome here.]

Proposition 2: Yep, the market has decided and academic publishing is superdead.  It’s not sad, it’s just an interface issue.  And as long as people can print out web-based monographs and read them in bed, they will.  You’re cool.

]]> By: KF http://www.plannedobsolescence.net/academic-obsolescence-indeed/#comment-2361 KF Wed, 17 Jul 2002 12:47:59 +0000 http://www.new.plannedobsolescence.net/?p=984#comment-2361 <p>It’s clear we need some kind of reshuffling of priorities.  But places that consider themselves research universities (my old alma mater among them) not only fail to take teaching seriously as a criterion for tenure, but in fact look with great suspicion on those who do take teaching seriously.  There’s some kind of assumption that you can’t be both serious about your research and serious about undergraduate education.  So I fear that any shifts in priorities in those places (the ones that, for better or for worse, many other schools look to in setting their own agendas) will require new kinds of ways to assess research itself, as they’re unlikely to abandon that as their ultimate litmus test. </p> <p> And you know, if you’d made all those folks in the acknowledgements buy copies, you might be somewhere up around 645,000 or so… </p> It’s clear we need some kind of reshuffling of priorities.  But places that consider themselves research universities (my old alma mater among them) not only fail to take teaching seriously as a criterion for tenure, but in fact look with great suspicion on those who do take teaching seriously.  There’s some kind of assumption that you can’t be both serious about your research and serious about undergraduate education.  So I fear that any shifts in priorities in those places (the ones that, for better or for worse, many other schools look to in setting their own agendas) will require new kinds of ways to assess research itself, as they’re unlikely to abandon that as their ultimate litmus test.

And you know, if you’d made all those folks in the acknowledgements buy copies, you might be somewhere up around 645,000 or so…

]]> By: tim http://www.plannedobsolescence.net/academic-obsolescence-indeed/#comment-2360 tim Wed, 17 Jul 2002 02:56:13 +0000 http://www.new.plannedobsolescence.net/?p=984#comment-2360 <p>I got the same letter from the MLA and wondered about some of these same questions. As a guy who’s written a poor-to-fair scholarly book just so he could get tenure, a book that hasn’t been read by anybody but the poor bastards listed on the “Acknowledgements” page (current Amazon.com sales ranking: 695,858), I can honestly say that not too many people would miss the scholarly monograph. Correction--we wouldn’t be worse off without most scholarly monographs. I think there are much better ways to determine tenure decisions other than weighing publishing accomplishments on some arbitrary scale, especially considering the fact that recent hires, say, within the last 8 to 10 years are facing much steeper publishing requirements than our senior colleagues. However, in most departments, these senior colleagues are the ones making tenure and retention decisions. Instead of writing more books, we should invite people into our classrooms, so they can watch us teach. </p> I got the same letter from the MLA and wondered about some of these same questions. As a guy who’s written a poor-to-fair scholarly book just so he could get tenure, a book that hasn’t been read by anybody but the poor bastards listed on the “Acknowledgements” page (current Amazon.com sales ranking: 695,858), I can honestly say that not too many people would miss the scholarly monograph. Correction–we wouldn’t be worse off without most scholarly monographs. I think there are much better ways to determine tenure decisions other than weighing publishing accomplishments on some arbitrary scale, especially considering the fact that recent hires, say, within the last 8 to 10 years are facing much steeper publishing requirements than our senior colleagues. However, in most departments, these senior colleagues are the ones making tenure and retention decisions. Instead of writing more books, we should invite people into our classrooms, so they can watch us teach.

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