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There is no other post possible right now than one on the Iranian elections, where Ahmadinejad’s claimed victory over Moussavi has resulted in continued fallout. In western perceptions, this is going to be a watershed moment for Twitter, the moment where it proves its worth. Communication coming out of Iran is at a crawl due to lack of cell and Internet connectivity, and journalists have been officially banned from the streets.

One of the hot-button topics in higher ed is the role of adjunct instructors. Part-time professors (or adjuncts, for short) are frequently employed - an english department in one large state school I know of is composed of 2/3 adjuncts - but are rarely talked about. I agree with Ihssen and Kaurin, who state that there is a crucial need for better communication between adjuncts and tenure-track professors.

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For the most part, Taylor’s recent op-ed piece in the New York Times repeats sensible recommendations for helping the sorry state of higher education. I agree that abolishing tenure and using more applied approaches to topics are necessary. As for Ph.D programs, there are simply too many over-educated individuals out there for a finite number of tenure-track (TT) teaching positions. As “Piled High & Deeper” puts it, it’s a ponzi scheme.

Journalism application rates are up this year, despite a tanking publishing industry. My personal take is that when people lose their jobs in a recession, or otherwise feel pressure, they take a “devil may care” attitude. Journalism is a profession that attracts people interested in making a difference and write about important issues, an ideal that may be insulated from economic factors. Applications for grad school also predictably increase across the board during economic decline.

This is an edit of my response to “Is Social Media an Industry?” on mashable

Companies seem to be intertwining capitalist goals with moral ones. Google’s primary rule is “don’t be evil,” and just about every company now touts its sustainable and green policies. Guy Kawasaki advises in “Art of the Start” that products should make meaning, specifically, “make the world a better place.” One of my students questioned how this could be a realistic goal for a company, or even an advisable one. She was exactly correct; how sensible is this?

Students in every discipline in college are expected to absorb not only core concepts, but a range of demanding and often arcane applications. Journalists learn CMS; artists are expected to understand the web and Dreamweaver; and musicians must understand online marketing. In a way, this is a step forward. There is no reason why students shouldn’t also have a diverse set of skills. It adds to their marketability and problem-solving abilities. The problem is that teaching these skills is just not suitable for the classroom environment where an understanding of theory and core topics is also to be expected. Time is taken away from central themes, and put instead towards tools that are difficult to learn in a short period of time.

The recession has had an undeniable impact on the overall economy, but it is unclear how it will affect positions working specifically with social technologies. Many job cuts in late 2008 have come from industries with considerable stake in either physical goods or production, such as manufacturing and publishing. Even those in the information economy have been altering their strategies. Sun has moved away from server sales, and Google is working more with distributed “cloud computing” in an attempt to diversify.

A draft of "Online Threats to Youth: Solicitation, Harassment, and Problematic Content" is now completed and available for public review. This document is a review of research literature on the risks posed by the Internet to youth (children and adolescents), as well as from specific technologies and social media. The focus of the document is on quantitative, national-level studies based in the United States, although qualitative studies and those involving more localized populations are also referenced.