Aidnography

I have been following the debate around Massive Open Onli n e Courses ( MOOCs ) for a while now. In my own imaginary Wordle cloud , the word ‘disruptive’ probably features most prominently, but this post deals with the potential impact on Western educational institutions and higher education only on a side-note. But issues around MOOCs and development (policy) have not been really addressed, yet t here is no d oubt that Online learning and various new providers are responding to a major global development, the massification or universalisation of higher education that is creating huge and unmet demand in the developing world . [ Source ] I n this post , I am more concerned what the rise of MOOCs and the growing interest in/from developing countries may mean for local higher education institutions that are already often underfunded and are struggling to meet the demands for adequate education in the 21 st century . I fully agree with Tony Bates ’ criti cal reflections and...

Hello all, First a rather technical announcement: Since I have r eceived a few messages regarding subscription options I have update d the forms for email subscription and RSS - so you will hopefully never miss a post again ;)! Now back to the contents! This week 's list has a bit of a 'critical journal ism' topic, ranging from crit ique of The Observer's p ortrait of Kony 2012's Jason Russell to (more) critique of Nick Kristof's reporting and new research on Mother Teresa that casts her legacy in a more complex light. A n American war resisters story is well worth the read, followed by a 'link I di sliked': The story of Ernst & You ng's corporate vo lunteering program is an interesting example of elite language and co rporate discourses creeping into th eir 'corporate responsibility' appr oach. 'Reaching those beyond big data' is my Women's Day recommendation as it combines e thnography, critical research on and around bi...

That's the World Ban k Have you heard from the World Bank recently? Or, more precisely, have you read much about the Bank recently? I haven ’ t. Well, that’s not entirely true: I read about the ' Big Idea 2013: Learning Fast From Failure ' by President Jim Kim. But g iven the amount of debate during the nomination process ( Selection versus Election: A Wasted Opportunity at the World Bank? ), Kim’s first months in o ff ice ha ve really turned out well for the Bank – from an organizational communications standpoint. Any question about the legitimacy of the nomination process, accountability of the Bank or other criticisms all but died down when the Korean Chinese -American medical doctor/anthropologist took over the leadership of the Bank in July 2012. So what can ‘we’ (development researchers, anthropologists, political scientists, blogger) learn from this ‘golden silence ’ that has since engulfed the Bank and took it out of the critical headlines ? No matter how...

Dear all, Another we ek is coming to an end and some interestin g readi ngs have found there way into my Inbox...after a reminder that the debate on unpaid internships in development is far from over yet and a n inter esting article with background informati on on conflict & peace in Mali , the 'theme' for this week is about the future of the humanitarian system - complete with drones, civil-military cooperation and new non-Western donors. Re flections on the use of open development data , reflexivity and a new autobiography of a great woman Nobel Peace Pr i ze laureate round off the development section. 'Designing for Stories' is a recommended read on how to make participatory exercises better designed and more engaging. Last not least , two essays on neoliberal reforms in higher education in Australia & the UK are featured in the academic section! Enjoy! New on aidnography Are journals hindering creative academic writing & engagement with research? Th...

tl;dr (for those who find blog posts on academic publishing too long) The focus on ‘ open access publishing’ and ‘better academic writing’ may be overrated when it comes to fostering creative writing , public engagement with research or finding cures to eradicate poverty because the commodity of academic journal articles has limited value outside a relatively narrow circle of academic insiders. In addition to advocating for more open access publishing we should think outside the box of a particular written genre to ensure that the goals we envision to achieve are truly met in today’s digital world. And sometimes not publishing another article at all can be the part of the solution, too... A familiar presentation of journal article writing rituals and standards For quite some time now, there has been a debate in the academic sphere about the future of academic journal article publications that more or less focuses on questions around access, namely on publishing these articles und...