Links for 10/20/10

EduBubble on what to do about college costs.

Steve Kolowich

good course design and good game design are based on the same factors: fair rules, clear goals, fair rules, and strong incentives to learn from errors and develop the knowledge and skills necessary to be successful. Judging by how many students choose games over coursework, it would appear course designers might have something to learn from game designers…

Most courses, she said, are taught in chunks that only make sense to students in retrospect. In a game, the skills are learned in a context that makes them seem less discrete and more like intuitive steps toward an explicit goal…

Don Troop

Eastern Michigan University gave Sam Fanning a degree in network and information-technology administration last December. A month later, after he couldn't find work, it gave him a job as a custodian in the student center.

Mr. Fanning feels fortunate to be working in a unionized job with benefits. As he toils to make monthly $500 payments on his student loan…

I don't feel incompetent. I just feel like my potential isn't being used.

Dean Dad

I stand in awe of Stanley Fish’s ability to maintain a prominent and successful career without ever, even by accident, getting anything right. It’s an astonishing record, really. He’s the David Hasselhoff of academia; nobody can really explain why he’s still there, yet he’s still there…