All
Shades of Tom Lehrer: "The old dope, pedlar, spreading joy
wherever he goes."
The PPT topic has been taken way too seriously by many of you
academics in academe.
eric
On Mar 9, 2006, at 10:52 AM, Frisch, Thomas wrote:
> Piotr,
> It wasn't Powerpoint that was being criticized. It was some of the
> pedlars of PPT that were being taken to task.
> Tom
> _________________
> Thomas Frisch
> Geological Survey of Canada
> 601 Booth Street
> Ottawa, ON K1A 0E8
> Canada
> e-mail: [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tectonics & structural geology discussion list
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Piotr Krzywiec
> Sent: March 9, 2006 5:28 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Academe
>
>
> Alan and others,
>
> Extremely good and well-balanced comment I suppose, I fully agree
> with you.
>
> I'm bit puzzled by all the criticisms poor PowerPoint suddenly
> received on
> this discussion group - after all it is all about us presenters
> that are
> giving horrible / good/ excellent talks and lectures, not the
> medium we're
> using ... Finally, can anyone imagine overhead / blackboard talk or
> lecture
> based on or directly describing e.g. 3D seismics and other leading
> edge
> technologies being extensively used these days in the Earth
> sciences ... As
> imprefect PowerPoint (and Adobe and other similar software, do not
> blame
> poor Gates for everything) is, it does provides a lot of
> functionality that
> should be simply wisely used, that's all.
>
> cheers,
>
> Piotr
>
> *********************************************************************
> Dr Piotr KRZYWIEC
> Polish Geological Institute tel: +48-22-8495351 ext. 498 (office)
> ul. Rakowiecka 4 +48-605-242791 (mobile)
> 00-975 Warsaw, Poland fax: +48-22-8495342
> email: [log in to unmask]
> http://www.pgi.gov.pl/
> http://www.pgi.gov.pl/www/geofizyka/pkrzyw/
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Tectonics & structural geology discussion list [mailto:GEO-
>> [log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Alan Gibbs
>> Sent: Thursday, March 09, 2006 9:06 AM
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: Academe
>>
>> Hi, I don't know the answer to this one but for what its worth:
>>
>> Any institution exists only because society sees some sort of
>> value in it
>> and successful ones tune their behaviour to optimise that value.
>> Darwinianism I guess.
>>
>> Right now we want as many of our young folk as possible to get the
>> chance
>> of
>> a University education rather than in the 60's and 70's with just
>> a few in
>> university and the rest going into the commercial world through
>> apprentice
>> schemes, or some on the job training. We have to accept that, and not
>> think
>> we can turn the clock back to some Utopian dream of a past
>> perfection -
>> which I expect was illusory.
>>
>> My kids are currently going the rounds of Universities looking for
>> the
>> place
>> to go, and there is no doubt that there are some very good
>> departments as
>> well as some absolute crap out there. No difference there then.
>> But there
>> is
>> a big difference in that they are much more critical, and able to
>> judge
>> what
>> they see than I was at a similar stage.
>>
>> At the other end, as an employer I recruit PhD s. and use some of the
>> research that comes out of the system. Some fantastic people, and
>> some
>> research work that is as good as anything we've done before. A lot of
>> dross
>> too, but there are ways to weed that that weren't around before.
>>
>> I too think that Universities need to sit back and take a real
>> hard look
>> at
>> themselves, and some are. There seems much less of the academic
>> complacence
>> that was the norm 30 years ago and that can't be bad.
>>
>> As one of the "grumpy old men" I hate some of the things I see in
>> Universities and some of the changes that have occurred like the
>> sausage
>> machine publications. ( I can supply a list to anyone who wants to
>> listen!)
>> But I do remember that as one of the "angry young men" I hated a
>> lot of
>> the
>> things I saw too. It's the nature of beast, John.
>>
>> On the whole I'm pretty optimistic about it all, and I think that
>> if it
>> does
>> go to hell and perdition that Darwin and the smart young folk out
>> there
>> will
>> find a way to sort the mess we've made.
>>
>>
>> Alan
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Tectonics & structural geology discussion list
>> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Malcolm McClure
>> Sent: 09 March 2006 00:03
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Academe
>>
>> Well said, John.
>>
>> The entire academic system is like the Vatican before the
>> Reformation.
>> What is needed in each university a Martin Luther to nail 95
>> useless PhD.
>> Theses to their Vice-chancellors' respective doors. Perhaps if
>> they read
>> the
>> rubbish, then someone will get the message.
>>
>> Seriously if you expand the university population to 50% and still
>> cream
>> the
>> PhD students on the Bell curve you are going to have theses
>> produced by
>> people who wouldn't have got Hons. under the old, decrepid but
>> effective
>> 5%
>> system.
>>
>> Peer review is no longer an effective deterrent, so anyone with
>> tenure
>> should be allowed to publish what they dare directly on the
>> internet then
>> the entire geological community can respond with appropriate
>> criticism.
>> That
>> will soon sort the sheep from the goats.
>>
>> Malcolm
>>
>>
>> On Mar 8, 2006, at 10:43 PM, John F. Dewey wrote:
>>
>>> Grenville Draper makes important additional points. Academe is
>>> becoming a big artificial unscholarly game driven by government
>>> bean-counters . Part of the problem is recognized in the novels of
>>> David Lodge. Many researchers are not engaged in scholarship but
>>> work
>>> at a rapid, quick and dirty way, do not read or know the literature
>>> before five or less years ago, and push out as many papers as
>>> they can
>>> on a wide variety of topics, which they cannot know or understand in
>>> depth.
>>> There are far too many meetings and conferences, many designed
>>> for the
>>> aggrandizement of the conveners, from which poorly-conceived and
>>> unoriginal publication volumes result. There are also too many
>>> people
>>> competing for scarce resources. In structure and tectonics, one
>>> could
>>> easily become a Morris Zapp flying around the world to an endless
>>> string of useless conferences from which one learns little or
>>> nothing.
>>> Science, geology included, needs to move from the present frantic
>>> random motion mode into a more contemplative, quieter, scholarly
>>> mode
>>> in which people are given the breathing
>>> space to do long term quality research. The science will benefit,
>>> people will not feel the pressure to push out garbage onto the
>>> conveyor belt, and we will not have to read much of the trash in
>>> journals. However, our government and university masters and
>>> paymasters have generated a new growth industry of constant review,
>>> assesssment, and accountability resulting partly from the fact that
>>> mutual trust has vanished from academe. This growth industry pays
>>> the
>>> salaries of armies of non-productive paper-shufflers in quangos and
>>> universities, who have a vested interest in keeping and expanding
>>> such
>>> a system. Hence, it may be too late to reverse the progressive
>>> deterioration of universities in Britain and one has, therefore to
>>> play the ridiculous game. We need a system where clever people just
>>> get on with the research that they wish to do without
>>> interference and
>>> being constantly reviewed and assessed , to change direction
>>> whenever
>>> the see a new idea or opportunity and to be given a modest
>>> background
>>> level of funding to do it, rather like the South African system.
>>> Just
>>> as in the NHS, where it is time again for medics to take over and
>>> run
>>> the system again, it is time for academics to take over their
>>> institutions and run them as universities, peaceful havens of
>>> scholarly research and teaching, not businesses. Irish universities
>>> seem to do be doing well in this regard.
>>>
>>> John Dewey
>>> --
>>>
>>> -----------------------------------
>>> John F. Dewey, Professor of Geology
>>> Department of Geology
>>> UC Davis
>>> One Shields Avenue
>>> Davis CA 95616
>>>
>>> Telephone Nos:
>>> 530 754 7472 (office)
>>> 530 757 7915 (home)
>>> 530 752 0915 (Fax: )
>
>
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