By Any Other Nerd

Estimated Reading Time: minutes  It happened again. Someone wrote something and I had some thoughts that I decided to respond with; we know the deal!  In this case, it happened at Inside Higher Ed, a news site that focuses on higher education.    " In a recent blog post,  Matt Reed raises concerns about gas prices and their impact on the majority of students on physical campuses (that is, commuter students).  This is a real concern and one that I was thinking about back in the early part of the 2010s when I first started developing and teaching hybrid flexible courses. Before the pandemic made it obvious to all, my concerns focused on the fact that there are real barriers to getting to campus that will continue to multiply. Students who have been marginalized will also feel the effects the most.  Gas prices, natural and unnatural disasters, and pandemics are some of the ways that disruption will continue to occur." Read the rest here . This was one of...

Estimated Reading Time: 4.5 minutes The following is a Letter to the Editor I wrote to Inside Higher Ed a few months ago that never got published.  Given it's about the transition back to the office for higher education, especially instructional designers, I thought I would share it here since it was never published but I think is stillan important contribution to the conversation.  And since I'm talking about work culture, if you're not reading Anne Helen Peterson's Culture Study newsletter, you really should be. Our not-so-new offices? Here is what I wrote: Joshua Kim's thoughts about keeping campus online learning teams permanently remote are important to consider as indeed, many institutions have missed opportunities for amazing talent and a more diverse staff while offering possibilities to create more pathways for inclusion.  Those are valuable elements to such a team.  Yet, I can't help thinking that those would not be the actual reasons an institution ...

Estimated Reading Time: minutes Recently, I had another Letter to the Editor published.  It was largely a rebuttal to this letter that upon reading, I felt compelled to respond to.  Here's the start and the rest you can read on the Salem News website: "Why is the “flat earth” and Columbus still something believed by people like Beatrice Heinze (”Don’t shun Columbus,” Aug. 3)? People knew the world was round; it was a question of the size and scale of the ocean between Europe and China. Research, not fealty to myths, shows Washington Irving told the “flat earth” story in his 1828 biography of Columbus shortly after the country’s 50th anniversary." Read the rest of the letter to the editor . Did you enjoy this read? Let me know your thoughts down below or feel free to browse around and check out some of my other posts! . You might also want to keep up to date with my blog by signing up for them via email. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution...

Well, we know I like to write letters to the editor , because well, it's just something I've had a tendency to do over the last 8 years.  Since moving to Watertown, I haven't really done much along those lines, often being inundated with other projects (ahem, see the PhD Chronicles !).  But I've been reading The Watertown News , the local paper on a regular basis and an Op-Ed showed up that I couldn't resist.  The original post was from MA State Senator, William Brownsberger who argued for putting in cameras that autocapture street violations .  I did not quite agree with his arguments (to no one's surprise). Here's some of what I wrote: "As someone who works with technology on a daily basis, I appreciate Brownsberger’s effort to convince us that cameras and computer programs can help us. But his message confuses me. He hints that municipalities would use this tool transparently and conservatively, yet also tells us that this method will be a l...

Here's another letter to the editor that I recently published. It's about the abuse of "breaking news" and its impact on eroding news. "The media’s ability to command respect continues to dwindle for many different reasons. But one that the media must own up to is their editorial choices; media outlets must learn to be less complicit in overinflating, distracting and unnecessary news. Nowhere is this more evident than in the flagrant use of “breaking news.” The labeling of the mundane as “breaking news” continues to erode our faith in journalism. " For the rest of the letter, feel free to go onto the Salem News website . For a sense of what those "Breaking News" headlines were, here's the ones that I was referring to: Theriault steps down as Danvers football coach after three seasons Registry of Motor Vehicles eyeing Route 1 site Murder suspect Doughty arraigned today on carjacking charges Doughty pleads not guilty in Peabody killings Peabo...

So here is part of a letter to the editor that I had published last month.  It's about free movie night at The Cabot.  I am a big fan of The Cabot as a classic theater and have written about some of their other amazing events .  Each month, they are running a free movie sponsored by The Film Detective .  It's a great opportunity to enjoy a vintage theater and classic film.  The next film they are feature is Beat the Devil (1953) on Wednesday, September 14 at 7:00pm .  It's definitely worth the experience and I hope to see you there! Here's an excerpt of the letter: "I love the new reclining chairs and spacious seating of the newer theaters. My back escapes feeling increasingly irritated and I don’t have to awkwardly squirm my way through the aisle to get to the bathroom. But watching a black-and-white film at a vintage theater like The Cabot in Beverly obliterates such creature comforts and exposes the power and longevity of such spaces." For the res...

Last month I had another Letter to the Editor published.  This particular letter was in response to this Our View at the Salem News .   "We love to talk about running higher education “like a business.” But when it comes to paying leadership a competitive market price, we balk and cry “that’s egregious!” I call foul on The Salem News for whining about public higher education leadership pay while contrasting it with cost students are paying. When have they have ever complained about the product’s cost in relation to the pay of the CEO? But these are public funds, you say, and it’s not fair to the citizens? OK, I’ll take up that argument." For the rest of the letter, click on through to the Salem News . Did you enjoy this read? Let me know your thoughts down below or feel free to browse around and  check out some of my other posts! . You might also want to keep up to date with my blog by  signing up for them via email. This work is licensed under a  Creative...

This piece I recently wrote got published in both the Salem Evening News and the Daily Item .   Confederate Flag at 58 Bridge Street Salem Mass "To whomever at 58 Bridge St., Salem, proudly displays a Confederate flag in your first-floor window, I appreciate the U.S.’s right to freedom of expression that allows you to do so. Though it’s unclear what you are expressing. Are you are celebrating the Confederacy’s repression of freedom of expression for millions of U.S. citizens? Are you lamenting the lost art of slavery? Are you demonstrating your faith toward people who killed U.S. soldiers to keep U.S. citizens enslaved? Perhaps, you are embracing history (the history of people who wanted to keep humans enslaved for profit)? Might you be showing solidarity with Dylann Roof? Or are you truly dismayed that TV Land has stopped airing the “Dukes of Hazzard”? It’s simply unclear." To read the rest, check out the full piece at the  Salem Evening News  and the...

This is a letter to the Salem News from last week that I had published on sex education.  Enjoy! "To the editor: Joseph Sciola (”Condoms have no place in schools,” April 4) advocates abstinence-only education when he asks “Whatever happened to telling kids that sex outside of marriage is wrong, it’s immoral, it’s sinful?” The easy answer is that it failed, and horribly so. It fails to delay first sexual engagements, it fails to prevent teen pregnancy, it fails to halt the spread of sexually transmitted infections, and it fails to account for homosexuals (upward of 10 percent of the population) who cannot marry in more than 30 states." For the rest of the letter, visit the Salem News opinion page . Did you enjoy this read? Let me know your thoughts down below or feel free to browse around and  check out some of my other posts! . You might also want to keep up to date with my blog by  signing up for them via email. This work is licensed under a  Creative Commons ...

The following are two letters to the editors at the Salem News that never got published.  Both I feel are useful to have out there as part of the conversation. No, Bill Maher Was Right The following was a response to this editorial about Bill Maher and his comments on the Boston Marathon Bombing .   After lambasting Bill Maher as "morally bankrupt" and "sarcastic" (FYI: he is a comedian), the Salem News attempted to prove how "out of touch" he is by quoting some of his remarks on 9/11 and the Boston Marathon bombing.  Appalled by what he said, they call for HBO to "let Maher go forth on his own and find some religion."  So, it's “morally bankrupt” to identify hypocrisy with sarcasm and satire about two religiously-motivated events, but acceptable for Salem News to recommend religion?  What's wrong with Maher, asks Anthony Weiner and Salem News (now that’s an interesting pairing).  He called out the Emperor in his birthday suit...

Here's another letter to the editor published.  It's on texting while driving.  It's not my first one critiquing the discussion the texting while driving.  There was this first one published last year   and this other one I had published a few months ago. Letter to the Editor at Salem News: "Two letters begged readers to take the pledge not to text while driving. They tell us things like, 'There is nothing more tragic than a death caused by texting while driving.' Really? We can’t imagine bigger tragedies? Let’s use those smartphones (while parked, of course) to find innumerable daily events that are indeed 'more tragic.'" For reference to the two letters, I'm referring to, check out this link and this link . For my full letter to the editor, click on through here . Did you enjoy this read? Let me know your thoughts down below or feel free to browse around and  check out some of my other posts! . You might also want to keep up to date...

I was happy to see this letter finally published.  I was thinking that maybe they would skip on it, but here is my letter to the editor, thanking the City of Peabody for being efficient. "To the editor: As a kid, it always seemed like potholes would continue to grow and become the thing of legends in size. When they were filled with rain water, we would dare one another to leap over them or even more risky, reach into the murky depths, anticipating something gross or monstrous. They were curious obstacles in the landscape of childhood. When I first started to drive, they became threats to my tire and shock system. Over the last year, as three large potholes developed at the end of my driveway in such a way that it was impossible for me not to hit one of them, I grew leery about what to do. If my childhood was any indicator, they would grow ever larger until the entire street was paved over. Sure, I had heard of potholes being filled, but it always seemed like some magical p...

Below is an excerpt of another letter to the editor.  It was written in response to Mary Alice Cookson's column, " Does Facebook cause unhappiness? "  We can all guess that my answer was largely no, but for more details, see below. "Here’s a bit of news you’ll either “like” or not depending on your point of view: A recent study links Facebook use to unhappiness. The study by researchers at the University of Michigan surveyed 82 young adults over a two-week period, sending them text messages five times a day asking how they were feeling and how much time they’d spent on Facebook since the previous text. And guess what? The researchers correlated increased time spent on Facebook to a drop in mood." To read the rest of the letter, click on through to the Salem News website .  And since I'm on the topic of Facebook, have you "liked" my Facebook Page ?  Now's a perfect time hit the "Like" button and get the latest updates on your F...

Here's another letter to the editor published in the Salem News : "The Salem News is right that the New York City soda ban is unconstitutional and we should be leery of government control. There’s no need to cite the ever-increasing statistics on obesity, along with its secondary and tertiary effects on the overall society. It’s not an individual problem; it increasingly is a societal problem. Numerous sources show how companies purposely make food more addictive while simultaneously targeting children (just like the cigarette companies did). Weight control for many people is extremely hard to manage, even when not being blasted by thousands of ads per day telling us to eat more." To read the rest, click on through to the full letter . Did you enjoy this read? Let me know your thoughts down below or feel free to browse around and  check out some of my other posts! . You might also want to keep up to date with my blog by  signing up for them via email. This work is...

Here's another letter to the editor in the Salem News : To the editor: Brian Watson is correct that technology may not be neutral (”Online technology is not neutral,” Aug. 1). But it’s too bad he doesn’t push his analysis of “The Diagnosis” any further than a plot summary and offering a weak implication that we are under a threat by “private corporations.” He can quickly point out problems (”we increasingly rely on computers, increasingly replace humans with various ‘smart’ technologies, increasingly live online and increasingly replace live experiences with virtual or mediated ones”) but fails to show us what drives this non-neutral technology. We learn the protagonist of the novel deals with “incessant phone use, nonstop emailing and texting, constant access to a computer, reduced personal life, inadequate sleep, and above all, frenzied deal-making.” Also, we learn that “He feels that everything is rushed and that everything is computerized and that interpersonal relations ha...

This letter to the editor was motivated by the Salem News' column by Brian Watson's Ohio rape case indicts social media .  A technopanic shift in the conversation away from the actual criminals to blaming the technology. "Brian Watson’s exploration of the Steubenville rape case (“Ohio rape case indicts social media,” March 28) is riddled with problems. Never mind he cannot bring himself to say the teens raped the young victim (their “crime was to sexually molest”), he described it as merely “wrongful behavior” and that the use of social media “compound(ed) the damage” like this was a mere car accident. The passivity he assigns to the perpetrators speaks volumes: “a video of the incident was uploaded” and 'the two young perpetrators were influenced and encouraged.'" For the full letter, check out the Salem News . Did you enjoy this read? Let me know your thoughts down below or feel free to browse around and  check out some of my other posts! . You might al...

To the Editor: Perry Glasser is right: no teaching career was promised to Joshua A. Boldt ("Who's to Blame? The Adjunct?" The Chronicle, April 1). But Mr. Glasser's approach is rather disappointing. "The fact that 70 percent of all sections are being taught by underpaid adjuncts may be a shame and is undoubtedly exploitive, but it is no secret," he writes. But what Mr. Boldt's Adjunct Project attempts to reveal is the depth and variation of that exploitation. Changing exploitative conditions starts with quantifying what the conditions are. For the rest of the letter,  click through here . Did you enjoy this read? Let me know your thoughts down below or feel free to browse around and  check out some of my other posts! . You might also want to keep up to date with my blog by  signing up for them via email. This work is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License .

Intolerance can be lethal Letter to the Editor by Lance Eaton on October 26, 2010  Self-hatred, self-abuse, and suicide attempts stimulated by bullying and widespread cultural disdain are issues that have existed for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender youth long before the media’s attention to the recent tragic suicides. I know. I work as a counselor with this population at Waltham House, a program of the Home for Little Wanderers, and one of the nation’s only residential group homes for GLBT youth. Ostracized teens come to us looking for help. Fear and isolation are just a few of the issues they face. Read the rest of my letter to the editor in the Boston Globe, here. Did you enjoy this read? Let me know your thoughts down below or feel free to browse around and  check out some of my other posts! . You might also want to keep up to date with my blog by  signing up for them via email. This work is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution-Sh...

Toys are used to foster affection for McDonald's Letter to the Editor in the Boston Globe : July 29, 2010 JOANNA WEISS’S discussion on Happy Meals (“Happy Meals and Old Spice guy,’’ Op-ed, July 25), advertising, and parenting has some great insights, but misses one major element. While the ads are an important factor, the problem with Happy Meals is the toy itself. That’s not just an advertisement, it provides repeated engagement with the company (or more important, the unhealthy food) for the child and the parent, too. The toy is a focal point for imaginative play, reemergence in favorite stories, and a tactile object for a developing set of hands — all of which is branded with the McDonald’s logo in the child’s mind and thus creates a strong positive relationship between the child and the product (the unhealthy food, not the actual toy). This seduction through association focused on children has been increasingly problematic, which is why other countries regulate advertisem...

Letter: College degree losing value in consumer-dominated economy June 7, 2010,  To the editor: Neil Barry's June 4 letter to the editor ("Education can be a liability for some job-seekers") hits and misses with regards to the perception of education within our country. The U.S. has a history of anti-intellectualism. There's some precedence for fearing the intellectual class; after all for most of history the "smartest" were also the "richest" and went hand in hand with the nobility and religious institutions; exploiting and manipulating the masses for millennia. Fear of intellectuals is also something the Right strongly courts in many of its messages, particularly with leftist leaders (labeling John Kerry as "French" could be read as his being intellectual or non-masculine). For the full article, click through . Did you enjoy this read? Let me know your thoughts down below or feel free to browse around and  check out some of my...