KU links: Comanche the horse, temper tantrums and more on online education
The calendar has flipped into May, which means folks at KU are no doubt quite busy with the semester’s end approaching and a bit melancholy because they have only one more chance this semester to come to Heard on the Hill Office Hours (one week from today, 9 a.m. to noon in the Media Crossroads at the Kansas Union).
But here’s something to distract you from all that (well, don’t forget about the office hours part): your weekly-or-so collection of KU-related tidbits from around the Internet.
• CNN had a piece this week on the art of horse taxidermy, and alert readers might know immediately why there might be a KU connection there: KU’s Natural History Museum is the home of Comanche, the legendary horse that survived the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876 and was preserved by Lewis Lindsay Dyche, who helped found the museum. CNN talked with Leonard Krishtalka, director of the museum and the KU Biodiversity Institute, about Comanche and taxidermy.
• Also at CNN, via Real Simple magazine, is this story about temper tantrums that has a good deal of input from Robert Harrington, a KU professor of psychology and research in education.
• The Wichita Eagle asked Scott Reinardy, associate professor of journalism, for his thoughts on the bid by Koch Industries to purchase the newspapers owned by the Tribune Co. (Update: This previously linked to a Kansas City Star story, but the Eagle is actually the publication of origin — my mistake.)
• The Daily Kansan today reports that students at KU who’ve received Pell grants have been less likely to graduate than other students, which is in line with trends around the country.
• Last week brought another update from Leobardo Espinoza Jr., the Topeka high-schooler blogging about his choice among KU and some other colleges for The New York Times. Sounds like he’s largely narrowed his choices to KU, Yale and Amherst College in Massachusetts. It appears KU’s not exactly a front-runner, but it’s in consideration, and you can read to see why.
• And finally, I’ll share two other NYT links that aren’t directly related to KU but might be interesting if you’d like to read more about developments in online education after reading our update over the weekend on KU’s strategies in that area. The two stories both describe how some universities and colleges are using free Massive Open Online Courses as tools in their on-campus classes. They’re an interesting look at one of many possible ways forward for higher education as budgets tighten and online tools increase.
So there — if you took full advantage of that linkfest, you probably distracted yourself for a good 10 minutes or so. In return, take another 30 seconds to send a KU news tip to merickson@ljworld.com.