Academia as a habitat

Academia as a habitat

Academia as a habitat
I have been writing this blog since 2006. In 2024, I created another blog called "AI in society" . This one will return to postings about life in academia and personal musings.

Dec 15, 2006

On the Money

Can you believe this? This is my blog #24. The basic principle of a market economic system is that there is some feedback loop: those who pr...

Dec 8, 2006

What makes a problem hard to solve

Here are an examples of hard to solve problems: 1. Two starving sailors on a life-boat are deciding who to eat first. Each has a veto p...

Dec 1, 2006

UNC’s Organizational Culture and Change

I have been here for 5 month, so perhaps I can be allowed to make some observations on UNC’s organizational culture. The balance is positive...

Nov 19, 2006

Community and innovation: On the Academic Plannign Process

The University has embarked on a massive academic planning process. The idea is to hold a series of conversations among faculty and administ...

Nov 10, 2006

Neo-prog’s Educational Agenda

Here is what the next Democratic presidential contender might include in his or her platform in the “education” section. If a Republican one...

Nov 3, 2006

Neo-progs wanted: Toward a new educational progressivism

In the even of the elections, I am thinking politics. The policy of school improvement through accountability enjoys remarkable bipartisan s...

Oct 27, 2006

The Academe and other Soviet states

At one of many meetings last week, we discussed equity in faculty workloads, and how hard it is sometimes to motivate faculty to do somethin...

Oct 23, 2006

Teaching as research

This weekend, I have attended the Annual National Academy of Education Conference, and graded papers from my class. The two activities prese...

Oct 14, 2006

Justice is good bureaucracy

Here is the essence of demographic projections by the Colorado Commission on Higher Education (Brian Prescott’s presentation at the Faculty ...

Oct 6, 2006

Fall, foliage, and intrinsic motivation

I went outside for a few minutes and have something to report: The dark-skinned trees along the 20th Street are desperately beautiful; their...

Sep 29, 2006

Notes from the Dark Side

That is, of course, a joke for those university professors who have become administrators. Most university administrators complain about the...

Sep 22, 2006

Accreditation and ambivalence

I have just returned from the NCATE conference in Washington, and am trying to figure out what do I think about this and other accreditation...

Sep 15, 2006

Levine Report

OK, teacher education is bad again, and it’s going to hit the news on Monday, just watch. A report on teacher education by Arthur Levine was...

Sep 8, 2006

Cultural cycles

I worry about cultural cycles today. All cultures exist in cycles of celebrations and the routine, of war and peace, the seasons, and leader...

Sep 1, 2006

On human errors

The first week of classes was very busy, yet it went rather smoothly, for which I am extremely grateful to our dedicated staff and faculty. ...

Aug 25, 2006

The anatomy of human conflict

Anything could trigger a conflict; I am not convinced there needs to be a trigger at all. Yet what happens next is fairly universal. “A” doe...

Aug 17, 2006

How to stop turf wars

Having some turf of one’s own is natural. Chimps, for example patrol their territories at night, and can severely hurt or kill intruders fro...

Aug 11, 2006

Your director's list of task, abridged

Here is what is on my project list. I realize this is not going to be interesting to everyone, but if you’re wondering how your director fil...

Aug 5, 2006

On the nature of human knowledge

I have been on the job for a month. Despite an effort to learn everything there is to know about the School and its programs, many details a...

Jul 28, 2006

On authority

There are two types of authority: relational and institutional. Both always coexist in any organization and any culture, but one of the two ...

Jul 21, 2006

Big ideas

I was taking my son Gleb to the airport on Wednesday, and he asked me how was my job and if I had any big ideas about it. My response was th...

Jul 15, 2006

Complexity and catch-22

I have spent most of the last week digging into the School’s procedures. Complex would be an understatement in describing those procedures. ...

Jul 10, 2006

On vision, geeks, and technology

I have received congratulations on surviving the first week on the job. These were nice, but not warranted. It has been very interesting, an...

Jul 2, 2006

WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT

This blog is for the faculty and staff of the School of Teacher Education, University of Northern Colorado. By definition, it is also open t...

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About

Alexander "Sasha" Sidorkin: Sacramento, CA, United States; I have been writing a blog about life in academia since 2006. I have also started this blog is on AI in education and larger society in 2023.

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