Monthly Archives: December 2012

December 6, 2012
10:19 pm
by: Mike Ekoniak

Higher Education Should be Publicly Funded

In many countries, attending university is “free” to the student.  Of course, it’s not really free, it’s subsidized by the taxpayers.  In the United States, on the other hand, students typically pay much of their own way.  Of course, this … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Preparing the Future Professoriate

December 6, 2012
10:01 pm
by: Mike Ekoniak

Eliminate the House Rake

In poker, the house rake refers to the flat percentage of the pot that the house skims off the top to make its profit.  At universities, there is an analogous skimming from research grants called “overhead” or “indirect costs” which is generally … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Preparing the Future Professoriate

December 6, 2012
9:32 pm
by: Mike Ekoniak

When students and teachers disagree

As a follow-up to my previous post on studying Slovak in an intensive program, I thought I’d share an experience that I had: One of the biggest things that stuck out in my mind during my first 10-week intensive Slovak … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Preparing the Future Professoriate

December 6, 2012
9:27 pm
by: Mike Ekoniak

Language study during engineering graduate programs

One of the things that I always regretted about going to my small private engineering college for undergrad was the fact that I didn’t really have the option of taking language classes.  Even though I was interested in engineering, I … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Preparing the Future Professoriate

December 6, 2012
9:14 pm
by: Mike Ekoniak

Starting a conversation on sexual identity in engineering

According to the limited available literature, one of the issues faced by lesbian, gay and bisexual engineering students is that of isolation.  Students feel that they must hide their sexual orientation in order to succeed in the culture of engineering … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Preparing the Future Professoriate

December 6, 2012
8:00 pm
by: Tarantulana

Blog 6 – Scientific Misconduct and Living with a Broken System

In a previous blog, I talked about the limitations of peer review in catching cases of scientific fraud. Science has traditionally been considered a self-policing field, but if our peer review process cannot determine if a paper is fraudulent, how … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in PFP12F

December 6, 2012
7:59 pm
by: Tarantulana

Blog 5 – Flipping the Classroom

One topic that has come up in our discussions in class is the idea of flipping the classroom – in this blog, I talk about my experiences with and thoughts on how this technique can be used in engineering. As … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in PFP12F

December 6, 2012
6:16 pm
by: Tarantulana

Blog 4 – “Binary” Representation of Ethics

In class, we touched a bit on the way ethics is typically taught at the undergraduate level in the engineering. For me, this brought to mind my recent experience taking the FE (Fundamentals of Engineering) Exam. Because of my background, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in PFP12F

December 6, 2012
6:41 am
by: Tarantulana

Blog 3 – Reflections on Online Education

One topic we have discussed several times this semester is the ever-increasing role of online courses in higher education. Today, I reflect on my experiences with and future hopes for online education. Online Learning – Love it or hate it? … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in PFP12F

December 4, 2012
4:10 pm
by: souvik

Circumlocution: our tools of the trade these days?

I recently read an interesting article in the Chronicle about the use of circumlocutory language and phrases to mesmerize common people  in academia and industry. It is very amusing to note that some people like to use complex words to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in PFP12F