Sunday morning miscellany--

Writing a blog may truly be a new genre.  It's unlike making diary or journal entries, which are meant to be personal and self-reflective, because there is an audience of others, ill-defined as it may be.  It's unlike writing a letter, since the public nature of a blog means that certain stories, particularly my favorite kind, the foibles of friends, can't be posted for all to see.  It's unlike an autobiography because it's spontaneous; what one writes is going to be read immediately after it's written.  There's no time for subsequent revisions.  It lacks the perspective of later modifications.  The organizing principle, at least in my case, isn't entirely focused, no matter what the original intention might have been. 

A further reflection on Syria:  Let's assume a best case scenario, one where Assad allows the U.N. inspectors in, the sites and size of the chemical weapons caches are accurately located, the schedule is followed and the weapons are destroyed by the middle of next year, and bombing is averted.  Does Obama deserve credit since Assad would never have agreed to these arrangements without the threat of even a limited attack?  Or was Obama played by Putin, who seized on Kerry's offhand (?) remark to look as if he took the initiative and made the U.S. a secondary player?  More importantly, does the plan do anything more than re-establish the status quo ante with Assad still in power?  What happens to the fragmented rebel movement?  Does the civil war continue and the 100,000 dead increase in number?  Although the destruction of chemical weapons would undeniably be a positive accomplishment, how does that affect the more general situation?  One thing that can't return to the way it was is the status of the millions who have been displaced by the civil war: at least two million Syrians have been externally displaced---into Turkey, Iraqi Kurdistan, Jordan, and Lebanon.  Over one million of those refugees are children since 40% of the Syrian population is under the age of 15.  Not only are there the immediate problems of housing, food and water, sanitation, education, and health care for the refugees (and another four million or so Syrians have been displaced internally), but there is the uncertainty of the effects of all these humans on the already fragile states particularly of Lebanon and Jordan.  The number of displaced persons will surpass those from the war in Iraq and soon become the largest movement of humanity since Rwanda.  One small, tentative, potential victory on chemical weapons; many huge, seemingly intractable problems remaining.

Almost every semester, Mohamed takes one of his courses online, and it's been interesting to see the way online courses are taught and which instructors actually make them work while others just coast through with as little work as possible.  Every day there are commercials for previously unknown universities--Southern New Hampshire University, Ashford College in Iowa, and others are inviting students from all of the country.  In Kansas, Fort Hays University has become the third largest university in the state.  How is this possible, since Fort Hays is located in the middle of nowhere?  It's possible because few of the students are actually in Fort Hays; the vast majority are in China, taking all their course work online.  Where do these institutions of higher education get enough instructors?  It's a cinch that the teachers don't move to Fort Hays or to Clinton, Iowa, the home of Ashford.  I learned on Friday, for example, that the instructor of the online course Mohamed is taking this semester teaches online at numerous other schools.  It's what she's chosen to do with her retirement.  And it's moderately lucrative for the instructors--and very lucrative for the schools.  Online courses aren't necessarily of inferior quality; I taught courses online, a couple successfully, I thought, one as a complete disaster.  But what strikes me is how little work an instructor can get by with if he wants to and how little interaction between the teacher and the students and among the students themselves is possible.  In many of the classes, there are no required discussion postings.  In many others, the quizzes and tests are tied directly to the texts and are created and graded electronically; there is no instructor involvement whatsoever.  It's an easy gig if you want it to be.  How well it educates is another question entirely.