Brad Rourke’s Blog
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How To Reclaim Pedagogy?
Andrea Jarrell drew my attention to a piece in yesterday’s Washington Post by former Howard Dean Internet wunderkind Zephyr Teachout. Both newspapers and universities have traditionally relied on selling hard-to-come-by information. Newspapers touted advertising space next to breaking news, but now that advertisers find their customers on Craigslist and Cars.com, the main source of reporters’…
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Video Dialogue: Beyond "Connecting"
My friend John Creighton and I have recorded another video dialogue about the shift in public life away from an “institution centric” world to a “citizen centric” world. Our starting point was a comment that I heard at last week’s working session so social media and community benefit organizations, which was organized by the National Conference on Citizenship,…
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Memory Of 9/11, From A Distance
I recall I was at LAX, on my way home to Maine. Our flight was being held, no one on the plane knew why. Shortly it became clear that something terrible had happened. Air traffic was grounded for the ensuing week. So many were far more deeply affected than I was. Friends of mine lost loved…
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A New Forum To Discuss Health Care
Interest in health care, and health care reform, have hit a fever pitch with President Obama’s speech last night and the public debates (and arguments) that have precipitated it. I wanted to let readers know about a new resource to think through the issue of health care costs and what to do about them. It’s…
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Trapped Girls Seek Rescue On Facebook
Recently two Australian girls trapped in a storm drain in Adelaide chose to update their Facebook statuses with please for help rather than dial the local equivalent of 911. This has local officials worried, according to a spokesperson in the ABC News article: “If they were able to access Facebook from their mobile phones, they…
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Video Dialogue: Activate, Don't Engage
My friend John Creighton and I have been talking about the shift in public life from an “institution centric” world to a “citizen centric” world. People no longer organize their lives and activities for the convenience of institutions, instead, they expect institutions to conform to their expectations. In this context, we propose that the notion…
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Questions On The Occasion Of A Presidential Address
Just to be clear: I regard it as a glorious thing that the president plans to address students in schools directly. The controversy that has brewed over whether this is indoctrination seems ill-founded. President Obama is not trying to control the thoughts of our young ones. He’s using the bully pulpit to urge them to…
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