Dear Commons Community,

The Sloan-C Conference on Blended Learning is in full swing here in Milwaukee.  The keynote was delivered by David Wiley, Associate Professor from Brigham Young University.   His topic, Openness in Blended Learning:  Perfecting the Blend, focused on open educational resources and courses, affordable computing, open licensing, open access journals and open textbooks.   He was well-received by the audience, made up mostly of faculty and instructional designers.

Tanya Joosten (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee) gave a brief preview of her new book, Social Media for Educators, and was available at a book signing.  I bought a copy and while I have not read it yet, it appears to have a good deal of useful insights on how to integrate social media into teaching and learning.

Also many excellent workshops, information and poster sessions.

Well done, Sloan-C!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The New York Times is reporting that New York University will lead a consortium of universities in building a new school for applied science in downtown Brooklyn.  Its partners include the City University of New York, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Warwick, the University of Toronto and the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.  The school will be located at the old headquarters of the city’s transit authority at 370 Jay Street. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority had largely abandoned the 61-year-old building, transferring many of its occupants to other offices in Manhattan.

“To move the transit authority’s equipment and remaining employees out, N.Y.U. promised to pay $50 million of the relocation costs. It also agreed to pay as much as $10 million to move the New York Police Department out of some space it occupies in the building.

In exchange, the city agreed to rent the building for $1 a year to N.Y.U., a private university with an endowment of $2.5 billion. The city also offered a $15 million package of breaks on taxes and energy costs and possibly some cash.”

This is the second major announcement of a new school of applied science being built in New York City.  Last year, Cornell University, in partnership with the Technion School in Israel, won a competition with a plan to build a $2 billion campus on Roosevelt Island..

Hurrah for New York City!

Tony