Originally published on Medium.com [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="291"] The author, age 22, circa 1979[/caption] The recent avalanche of #MeToo recollections has kicked me back in time to my salad days, more than 40 years ago, when a much older, closeted male boss asked me to perform oral sex on him. Despite its...
We have just entered a period of potentially enormous social turmoil. But like the 1960’s, this new season of social angst and struggle could also set the stage for some unexpectedly positive outcomes, this time, by transforming labor markets and business ownership structures. In fact, as 2017 starts, there are...
If you want to read the five ideas first, skip to the Five Ideas heading below. If you want to know why I wrote this, start here: The outcome of the 2016 election was politically crushing for me and for many progress-minded activists. But I also have a personal reason to...
The annual Open Education Conference, which is coming up again next month, may be the world’s fastest-growing academic meeting. Scheduled this year for early November in Richmond, Virginia, the conference will open its doors 13 years after the first such gathering was conjured into existence by then-Utah State University Assistant...
The Association of American Publishers, which represents college textbook publishers, just wrote an inadvertently funny letter to California Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr. By misspelling common words, including some typos, and making other factual errors the publishers have accidentally made a case for the very same quickly-fixable open educational resources (OER)...
Everyone wants to be a successful venture capitalist. That’s the conclusion I draw from written protests lodged with the U.S. Department of Education by several higher education groups to a sensible and arguably long overdue rule change proposed late last year by the Obama administration. The Obama administration’s goal, which...
We should modernize how we approach testing in our public schools and colleges. Think about flight simulators. When U.S. Navy instructors train a new pilot they would never dream of giving her the keys to a $300 million fighter jet if she gets a passing score on a bubble (multiple choice)...
In a previous post, I expressed my dismay that President Obama and Vice President Biden have allowed their administration's victory on open educational resources (OER) to go unclaimed. It's not just a matter of failing to take a bow for a significant win. The larger problem is that by ignoring...
Today's LA Times carries a major expose on President Reagan's so-called Star Wars program, which I first investigated nearly 30 years ago. The paper's conclusion: most of the $10 billion spent to date has been wasted. That is exactly what the experts I profiled predicted back in 1986. Imagine what we...
One thing that gets me really excited is when someone demonstrates how leadership can happen in the age of the Internet. I don't know anyone who has illuminated this better than my friend, Larry Lessig. Rootstrikers is a case in point. Day after day I am blown away by Rootstrikers....
One of the best parts of the last five years was the chance I had to travel around the country and even around the world on occasion representing the Obama administration. I'd meet new people and learn new things. In most cases, I was expected to give a little speech...
It's been nearly six years since I blogged regularly. But before I can get started again, I have to do something first. Which is to thank and acknowledge my (wo)mentor, role model, friend, and collaborator, former U.S. Under Secretary of Education Martha Kanter. I worked with Martha for nearly 10...
My cousin, sociologist Jeff Weintraub, just forwarded a highly informative post, must reading, excerpting the work of his friend, Lane Kenworthy. Both deserve praise for bringing scholarly attention to a topic that often gets ignored or denied here in Silicon Valley. Perhaps some facts will help. Couldn't hurt. Here are...