tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-131006492010-01-04T07:38:22.645-05:00Tales from the trenches at the Harvard Extension Schooliannoreply@blogger.comBlogger411125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13100649.post-48595718907209183162008-09-07T07:50:00.058-05:002010-01-01T14:22:05.713-05:00

(Updates to Q&A section during the summer of 2009. Please also see my Sept. 2009 review of Dean Michael Shinagel's history of the Extension School, "The Gates Unbarred") After writing more than 400 entries, I've decided to bring the Harvard Extended blog to a close. This is the final post. It's a long one, filled with observations, praise, and criticism of the Harvard Extension School and its

iannoreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13100649.post-7094920856406500982008-09-03T07:48:00.011-05:002009-03-02T18:07:41.398-05:00

This post was originally part of my epic last entry for the Harvard Extended blog, but I have decided to split it off and post it now.It's a criticism of the Extension School's aggressive expansion into online/distance education. It's difficult for me to express, considering a good friend in the ALB program is completing his degree remotely. In addition, I have never taken an online class for

iannoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13100649.post-77894668095434432742008-08-30T20:31:00.002-05:002008-09-01T21:09:23.500-05:00

Earlier this week, I was lamenting the state of research and the dissemination of knowledge in academia. Despite the incredible tools at the disposal of students, scholars, and professors, paper is still the medium of choice when it comes to publishing research and sharing knowledge. I am not alone. This morning I was reading the September-October issue of Harvard Magazine, and spotted this quote

iannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13100649.post-31720519906953084022008-08-29T08:33:00.002-05:002009-09-28T11:13:04.735-05:00

I received an invitation through the Harvard Alumni Association to take "Justice" online. The class is taught by Professor Michael Sandel of Harvard's government department. I've heard about this class for years, and the preview looked fascinating. It's a great opportunity to take it online for free. It looks like it will require a significant time commitment. There are 24 streamed sessions

iannoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13100649.post-65024587561633920562008-08-26T06:54:00.003-05:002009-03-15T10:44:19.571-05:00

When scholars from the year 2058 look back on the current state of academic research and the dissemination of knowledge, they surely will marvel at the fact that so much of it remained oriented toward printed words on paper. It is a surprising situation. Never mind that nearly all educated members of early 21st century society are already familiar with the World Wide Web, the most extensive and

iannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13100649.post-24019624175309557022008-08-03T20:40:00.000-05:002008-08-03T21:16:49.150-05:00

I just noticed this on the ALM/Biotechnology admissions page:Because most of our students are experienced professionals, we believe an applicant’s ability to do honors-level work at Harvard is a more relevant predictor of academic success than standardized test scores or undergraduate grade point averages. Thus, a prerequisite of admission is the successful completion of three courses from the

iannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13100649.post-51679733626075578662008-07-26T09:38:00.003-05:002008-07-26T09:46:39.419-05:00

Sorry for the delay in posting. There're a few essays in progress, and later this summer I will be wrapping up Harvard Extended (but keeping the blog online as an archive) with a long, final post. In the meantime, you may want to check out some of the writing activity over at my other personal blog, I, Lamont, and on The Industry Standard (scroll down below the list of friends to see the

iannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13100649.post-31042047956226171942008-07-06T19:31:00.001-05:002009-03-15T10:42:11.619-05:00

I've updated a post from last year that described the completion of my thesis, and thanked various faculty and family who helped me during the long research and writing process. Besides adding the final grade report from Prof. Johnston (my thesis director), I also removed the broken link to the archived PDF version of the thesis. It had been stored on my personal FAS Web account, but that expired

iannoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13100649.post-46962313287177686922008-07-02T17:41:00.001-05:002008-07-02T18:01:54.308-05:00

This afternoon around lunchtime there was a severe hailstorm in my neck of the woods, about a quarter mile from the junction of I-90 and I-95 (about 10 miles west of Boston). Our family has a Flip video camera, so I grabbed it and took three quick clips, including this one:Posting video on blogs is not a big deal nowadays, but as I went through the process, I was struck by how much things have

iannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13100649.post-46684656407250080752008-06-28T22:38:00.002-05:002008-06-29T08:38:36.352-05:00

This week I received a comment on an older post, comparing the Harvard College AB degree with the Harvard Extension School's ALB degree. "Chris" says forget about the differences in the two undergraduate curriculums or the academic abilities of students -- he found that cost and the Extension School's original mission set it apart from the College:Back in 2000 I worked as a student assistant at

iannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13100649.post-26724970495994812422008-06-18T19:13:00.001-05:002008-06-19T08:22:43.551-05:00

Learning Chinese characters is perhaps the most difficult aspect of studying Mandarin. It's not just a matter of memorizing what a character looks like, the constituent parts (known as radicals), or the etymology. There is also a fairly precise "stroke order" that governs writing. It can be very frustrating for Western students. I was reminded of this as my young daughter attempts to learn some

iannoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13100649.post-54582005965276422872008-06-05T21:08:00.007-05:002009-08-08T18:28:02.756-05:00

(Note: Videos and pictures of the June 5 ceremonies are available below) Commencement 2008 is finally over. It wasn't just today's exhausting slate of ceremonies -- it was a whole week of activities and get-togethers that brought students back to campus over several days this week.For the Liberal Arts ALM recipients, there was a pleasant Faculty Club reception on Monday in which prizes were

iannoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13100649.post-21916234091984435472008-06-03T23:33:00.005-05:002008-06-04T11:05:25.837-05:00

I've been reading a lot lately, following the completion of my last class and a change of jobs. After being hired as managing editor of The Industry Standard at the beginning of the year, I decided I needed to brush up on the history of Silicon Valley and the first Web bubble, so I tackled The New New Thing, The Nudist On The Late Shift, and a history of The Industry Standard itself, Starving To

iannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13100649.post-11059443622331873682008-06-03T23:30:00.000-05:002008-06-03T23:33:26.302-05:00

I just discovered that I've written 401 posts on this blog since May of 2005, including this one. In my final post, which I'll put together sometime in the next few weeks, I'll do a rundown of some of the highlights.

iannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13100649.post-27316878365878388022008-06-02T21:31:00.002-05:002008-06-06T15:46:12.944-05:00

I went to the Coop this evening to pick up my cap and gown for Commencement. The gown rental is $75, but we get to keep the cap and tassle. I am getting up very early on Thursday morning -- we have to be on site at seven in the morning, meaning I will probably leave my home at around 6:30 in the morning. I'm taking a cab -- parking in and around Harvard Square will be very difficult as tens of

iannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13100649.post-77053817510792505092008-05-29T22:32:00.001-05:002008-05-29T22:54:49.319-05:00

I just noticed this today: The Kennedy School of Government -- which used to be referred to as "The Kennedy School" or "KSG" by University staff, when I worked there -- is now the HARVARD Kennedy School. Check it out -- the old Web URL, http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/, now redirects to http://www.hks.harvard.edu/, and the once blue-themed website has been replaced by a sparse white and crimson design

iannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13100649.post-55556660666166832372008-05-29T22:08:00.000-05:002008-05-29T22:32:02.276-05:00

These days, a lot of people are taking advantage of the Extension School's distance education offerings. Courses are mostly offered as a combination of streaming video, class websites, and online discussions via email and other tools (there are a few exceptions -- see my earlier discussions of virtual world-based instruction at the Extension School).But it's currently impossible to get an ALB or

iannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13100649.post-90571323850735295912008-05-27T12:49:00.000-05:002008-05-27T12:50:56.839-05:00

Sorry for the late notice about this, but I only just found out that the second annual thesis forum is taking place this week, from May 27 to the 29th. It's at Hilles, and the thesis presentations are grouped by concentration: Humanities on Tuesday night, biology and social sciences on Wednesday night, and professional concentrations on Thursday. Names, titles of presentations, and other details

iannoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13100649.post-49940379993232150252008-05-12T07:42:00.004-05:002008-05-12T13:41:26.429-05:00

The independent Harvard alumni fashion magazine, 02138, has been sold to a small magazine publisher, reports the New York Times:Manhattan Media bought 02138 from Atlantic Media, publisher of The Atlantic and National Journal, and the magazine's young founders, Bom Kim and Daniel Loss, who held a minority stake. The price was not disclosed.The deal was something of a surprise; Manhattan Media's

iannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13100649.post-8623368889693380812008-04-30T15:10:00.000-05:002008-04-30T15:18:10.169-05:00

... The hourly flow of redirected spam ceases flowing to your Yahoo inbox!Seriously, I won't be missing Harvard's FAS email system, or, for that matter, Harvard's computer services for students. The spam, the 1990s-style UIs, the constant prompts to log back in to the Harvard PIN server, the weird password policies ... this was the reality of using Harvard's student-oriented computing systems. I

iannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13100649.post-23571313701205886542008-04-27T08:13:00.001-05:002010-01-01T14:22:42.682-05:00

Today's New York Times takes a look at the Daewon prep school and the Minjok Leadership Academy in South Korea. Both schools have perfected a system for admissions to Harvard, Yale, and top-tier colleges in the United States, which includes a regimen of non-stop cramming, instruction from foreign teachers in writing and other subjects, and an enormous amount of pressure from parents and

iannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13100649.post-73444154271805853932008-04-24T09:02:00.000-05:002008-04-24T09:17:04.455-05:00

Spotted on the Boston 1775 blog, operated by writer and historian J.L. Bell: A list of rules that Harvard frosh had to follow in 1741. A sample:... 18. No Freshman shall call or throw anything across the College yard, nor go into the Fellows’ Cuz-John.19. No Freshman shall mingo against the College walls.20. Freshmen are to carry themselves, in all respects, as to be in no wise saucy to their

iannoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13100649.post-27978826278231983682008-04-23T14:19:00.002-05:002008-04-23T14:35:28.019-05:00

Richard over at ClueHQ alerted me to a problem with ExtensionStudent.com, which I now see is offline. If you visit the URL, you'll see that the domain is "parked" with a bunch of cheesy hair extension ads. This probably means that the registration or hosting expired, which would make sense, because the site was created last April 23 (see my interview with the founder) and registrations typically

iannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13100649.post-6761537633452459862008-04-07T09:17:00.002-05:002008-04-08T15:34:12.446-05:00

I was just cc'ed on a letter to President Faust from someone who has a big problem with Harvard's graduate student financial aid policies (my own commentary follows the excerpts):A few weeks ago, I received the wonderful news that I have been accepted to study at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government (KSG), but my initial euphoria was soon stamped out as a second KSG email arrived announcing

iannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13100649.post-83372468824531822882008-04-05T09:30:00.001-05:002010-01-01T14:23:16.112-05:00

The New York Times takes a satirical look at legacy admissions at Harvard College:Here at Harvard’s Office of Admissions, we have some very exciting news for you. While your SAT scores and grade point average fall below the threshold for acceptance to Harvard’s class of 2012, your Harvard parents’ dogged participation in our annual fund-raising appeals — including their generous contributions to

iannoreply@blogger.com26