Ends Lecture 4/14/09

We finished the lecture on knowledge production.  What I thought was interesting was that universities are still in a medieval setting, which I never actually noticed.  The other point was that higher education institutions focus on giving credentials rather than educating their students.  

I don't really see this soo much in major universities and professional schools, but I do see it in our lower grades.  All the schools want is the teachers to teach to this TAKS test which is a minimum requirement exam.  How are kids going to pass a minimum requirement if they are never taught anything but the minimum?  I would love to take a class and not even mention TAKS to them the whole year and just push them and let them learn the subject, then see how they do.  I bet a hundred dollars they will do better because the test will seem easy compared to what they have been doing. 

 Dr. Vanegas also showed us academicearth.com.  I had never heard of this before and I was in shock all this information was just sitting there on the internet!