Category: Science & Technology
-
Hi-ho, Heyo, It’s Off to Blacksburg We Go!
Yesterday I argued that the economic odds were stacked against Virginia’s smaller metropolitan areas when it came to stimulating the start-up and growth of technology businesses. Economies of scale in the knowledge economy, I suggested, favor large regions with larger, more diverse labor pools. Could I have been wrong? (What, me wrong? Never!) This morning,…
-
A Moment of Clarity on The Lawn
By Peter Galuszka Calm seems to have returned to the Lawn at the University of Virginia where one of the most crucial battles in current higher education was fought in June. Now that the dust has settled, The University of Virginia Magazine, a publication of the alumni association, has come out with a remarkable Fall…
-
The Biggest Transportation Game Changer of All
In a recent post, “Fixing Transportation Takes More than Money,” I argued, among other things, that it is useless to forecast the need for future transportation capacity based on past trends. I neglected to mention one of the greatest game changers on the horizon: Intelligent vehicles. The ability of cars (1) to sense one another…
-
Forbes on Cutting Virginia’s Defense Sector
By Peter Galuszka A couple of days ago I went to my mailbox next to the brightly-bloomed crepe myrtles and there was a four-color brochure from my Congressman, Randy Forbes, whose district stretches from the military-saturated cities of South Hampton Roads to the southern part of Chesterfield County where I live. Randy Forbes is a…
-
Last Year’s Quake Shook Up Virginia Nukes
By Peter Galuszka A year ago tomorrow, Dominion Virginia Power operators watched dozens of brightly-lit boxes strung across several walls in their control rooms for two nuclear reactors at the North Anna Power station about 50 miles northwest of Richmond. It had been a sleepy, sunny afternoon. Suddenly, at 1:51 p.m., delicate sensors noticed that…
-
Hottest July on Record!
—
by
in Business and Economy, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Land use & Development, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Taxes, Water-waste water‘Nuff said. — PAG
-
Online Education’s Dearth of Dialogue
By Peter Galuszka Despite the “existential threat” involving online education at the University of Virginia, Mr. Jefferson’s school certainly seems to be at the forefront of the debate. You have President Tereaa Sullivan being fired and then reinstated, the curious fact that the school actually was involved with online advacements after all, criticism from the Darden School…
-
Darden and MOOCs, Not Exactly a Love Affair
Regarding my recent post on UVa partnering with Coursera (“Yes, Hybrid Online Learning Delivers“), I came across this blog post by the dean of the Darden School of Business, Robert F. Bruner. The dean, who was instrumental in forging the technology partnership, sounds less than convinced that MOOCs (massively open online courses) represents the future…
-
Yes, Hybrid Online Learning Delivers
The University of Virginia, it seems, is one of more than a dozen prestigious universities to have signed a partnership with Coursera, a company that provides hosting services for massively open online courses (MOOCs). The deal was in the works even as UVa was roiled by controversy over the forced resignation of President Teresa Sullivan,…
-
The Dangerous Online Education Craze
By Peter Galuszka Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell sure seems to love lobbyists. When it came time select someone to be co-chairman of a “summit” on education in August, he chose James W. Dyke Jr., a former state secretary of education who is now a registered lobbyist for the big-time online, for-profit companies as The…
-
Virginia’s Slipping “Best To Do Business” Rating
—
by
in Business and Economy, Demographics, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Property rights, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, Taxes, TransportationBy Peter Galuszka Old Dominion politicians and economic boosters love to tout the state’s typically high ranking in various surveys of the “best states to do business.” But the latest such ranking, by CNBC, shows Virginia dropping from first place to third. One reason is roads. “Infrastructure – specifically the state’s perpetually clogged highways –…
-
Can Technology Save Us from Dysfunctional Educational Institutions?
by James A. Bacon Tech journalist Michael S. Malone makes the case in today’s Wall Street Journal that technologies nearing commercialization will revitalize the American economy. Just as fracking technology transformed the energy sector, nanotechnology, big data, three-dimensional printing and online education will create a new wave of abundance, he argues in “The Sources of…
-
Hotter Than. . .
By Peter Galuszka …The Fourth of July. Sorry that I have to spell it out, but there are a number of climate change deniers at this blog, including the Big Blogger himself, so it may be necessary to make things simple. In case, you haven’t noticed, this Independence Day marks a period of some extreme…
-
What An Existential Threat Looks Like
by James A. Bacon For a glimpse of the disruptive future of higher education, University of Virginia stakeholders who are up in arms over the resignation of President Teresa Sullivan should enroll in a class taught by David Evans, a popular computer science professor and winner of the Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council…
-
Online Class Myths and Fantasies
By Peter Galuszka Far too often on this blog, a new program or an event gets taken far beyond its intrinsic value. One obvious example is a new program offered by Harvard and MIT for online classes. The program is being touted by the right-wing crowd as the next wheel or airplane or laptop computer.…