The author discusses an incident in which a student was threatened with expulsion for his involvement in a Facebook-based study group. Because the incident involved Facebook, it hit the news, with stories appearing in major Canadian dailies. It also became a web event, with a Facebook support group, photos on Flickr, and hundreds of blog posts.…

Potential students hoping to gauge the quality of courses at Portland State University might be forgiven for feeling confused. On the one hand, the University Studies program, which uses interdisciplinary seminars during the first two years to develop students' core skills, has been widely praised and emulated. The Council for Higher Education…

As college administrators, they take great pains to ensure that students admitted to their campuses have the intellect, motivation, and maturity to succeed. Similarly, they attempt to gather information about the character and integrity of the students they invite to enroll, to safeguard the reputation and well-being of their institutions. But…

IT is one of the most common (and unsettling) occurrences in today's classrooms--the ringing of a cell phone, often punctuated by some silly tune or sound effect that announces to everyone that a call is coming in. Inevitably, educators say, it happens during an important part of a lecture or discussion, just when a critical point is being made,…