Category Archives: higher ed.

A Critique of Rick Hess’ Edu-Scholar Public Presence Rankings

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Jon Becker | Permalink 0

Rick Hess just released the 2013 version of his Edu-scholar Public Presence Rankings. He claims that these rankings are “…designed to recognize those university-based academics who are contributing most substantially to public debates about K-12 and higher education. The rankings offer a useful, if imperfect, gauge of the public impact edu-scholars had in 2012.” I’m [...] Read more »

communication, data, dissemination, Ed. Research, eduscholars, Hess, higher ed., public presence, research, RHSU, scholarship, social media

The Coursera Gift Horse?

Posted on September 25, 2012 by Jon Becker | Permalink 0

On multiple occasions, a friend or family member not in the field of education has asked me for my opinion of Khan Academy. Maybe they saw Sal Khan on 60 Minutes or a teacher has introduced my friend or family member to KA. My response usually goes something like this: “I have a few concerns [...] Read more »

Coursera, distance learning, higher ed., MOOC, professioonal development, SNA

Best. Dissertation. Ever.

Posted on October 25, 2011 by Jon Becker | Permalink 0


Well, certainly the best one I’ve ever read (and I’ve read dozens). This is the dissertation recently defended by one of my new colleagues, Dr. Hilary Hughes-Decatur. It is an absolutely brilliant piece of work; it’s rich with issues to be explored, ranging from how we deal with “bodily-not-enoughness” in schools to how we elicit [...] Read more »

Ed. Research, higher ed.

My “guerilla” tactic for Open Access Week

Posted on October 21, 2011 by Jon Becker | Permalink 0


I’ve copied the text of an email that I sent today to all the members of the VCU School of Education community. To some of you, the idea of scheduling a room and inviting people to have a conversation may seem benign, hardly “guerilla;” especially in “the academy.” But, I anticipate a good deal of [...] Read more »

higher ed., OER, open access, openaccess, publishing, scholarly communication, scholarship