Beautiful, Nose-Tickling, Irreplaceable Dust

I have spent the last week and a half in Birmingham, UK for the induction to my PhD program at the University of Birmingham.  Much of this time was dedicated to ensuring that the new doctoral students would not suffer the academic version of 'culture shock' after our two weeks on campus are over (a large cohort is Distance Learning students), but I have also spent a significant portion of my time in the campus Main Library.  It's a glorious building full of floors and floors of books, periodicals, and journals.  (And it doesn't hurt that there is a delicious café on the ground floor...)

Of course most of the time I've spent in the library has been focused on research and writing--although I spent all of today dealing with course assignments and student questions (I'm teaching my courses via DL/online platform for the two weeks I'm gone), but I've definitely spent more than a few minutes simply drooling over all the beautiful books.  Please don't misunderstand me: I love my iPad.  This [over-priced] magical tablet allows me access to millions upon millions of books; however, I will never, ever accept a touchscreen as an equitable replacement for the texture of paper.  True: I've sneezed more in the past few hours in the library than I normally do in a week, but this seems a small price to pay to be in the presence of so many glorious tomes.  Caxtons, caxtons, everywhere! 

I am an admitted, unabashed bibliophile.  --A sneezy bibliophile, but one who will defend the importance of paper no matter how brilliant the technology is to come.

Today's moral: Read a book, a real one, one that has a possibility of giving you a paper-cut.

Dissertation Schmissertation

I know I've already pointed out that the "lecture-less" idea isn't exactly patented mine, but this article on MLA's consideration of changing the format of the Humanities post-graduate dissertation feels relevant. "Dissing the Dissertation" not only deals with the problem of how long it takes for doctoral candidates to earn their dissertation-requiring PhDs, but also the format in which they are required.

We live in a digital, instantaneous time period, so why are dissertations, the products of what is presumably new, relevant and applicable research, still so old-fashioned? I think this fits in wonderfully with the idea that not only are we teaching our students (at every level) wrongly, but also that we are misleading them in the meaning of what it is to truly learn!

I have sat through some wonderful lectures in my day, both as a student and as a faculty member, but even I must admit that I found myself thinking about what I was going to make for dinner when I got home at least once in the course of the talk. The educational and academic systems must change how we (I include myself in this) approach learning and teaching. If we don't know how people learn, how on earth can we effectively teach?