Archive | Economy

Artificial Intelligence – Choosing to Be a Victim or a Victor

By Wally Boston on March 21, 2017 in Current Events, Economy, Environment, Technology, Trends in Higher Education

Last week, serial entrepreneur Mark Cuban created a stir with his statement at the SXSW (South by Southwest) conference that the world’s first trillionaire will be someone who masters artificial intelligence (AI). In the past, Cuban has been an avowed proponent of the value of a liberal arts degree for its ability to teach critical thinking. However, at SXSW, he advocated the study of computer science, stating, “Whatever you are studying right now, if you are not getting up to speed on deep learning, neural networks, etc., you lose."

Continue Reading 0

Internet, Politics, Policy Conference 2016: The Platform Society

By Wally Boston on October 26, 2016 in Economy, Technology

The fourth conference organized by the Policy and Internet Journal (PIJ, founded in 2009) and the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) was held at the Mathematics Institute at Oxford University in late September. I was pleased to attend and represent American Public University System. The following recaps some of the presentations.

“We move from one online platform to another as part of our daily lives,” said Professor Helen Margetts, OII chair.

Continue Reading 0

Down and Out in Silicon Valley

By Wally Boston on August 16, 2016 in Book Reviews, Current Events, Economy, Technology

Oakland has been chosen as a pilot for the concept of UBI (universal basic income). Y Combinator, a Silicon Valley incubator and early-stage funder of Airbnb and Dropbox, announced a pilot in May to provide 100 individuals a monthly stipend for up to a year. The purpose is not just to test whether the UBI theory will succeed, but to also test the logistics of how to manage such a program. Matt Krisiloff, the manager of the pilot, noted that he was inspired to conduct the experiment based on his work with Artificial Intelligence.

Continue Reading 0

Jeff Selingo Life after College book cover

There Is Life after College

By Wally Boston on June 1, 2016 in Book Reviews, Economy, Student Persistence

Jeff Selingo, author of College (Un)bound, recently released his latest book, a primer for parents of college-aged children. He maintains that today’s teenagers and young adults have many challenges ahead of them after college graduation and that it’s appropriate to start thinking about how to manage your career as soon as you finish high school. Selingo notes that the education system is out of sync with the economy and that college is a platform for lifelong learning that we will leave and return to whenever we need further education and training to get ahead in our existing job or to switch careers.

Continue Reading 0

Public Service Recognition Week

By Wally Boston on May 11, 2016 in Economy, Online Education

As Public Service Recognition Week (PSRW) comes to a close, I’d like to reflect on how we honored our amazing federal employees. This year, the week started with the President’s Proclamation declaring its observance. In his edict, the president reminded us that being a federal employee is about more than having a job.

Continue Reading 0

A Benchmark for Making College Affordable – The Rule of 10

By Wally Boston on August 26, 2015 in Access and Affordability, Economy

As part of its ongoing contributions to improving higher education, the Lumina Foundation issued a white paper in August 2015, A Benchmark for Making College Affordable – The Rule of 10. The paper initially references the 45 percent increase in the cost of college over the past decade while the average family income rose only 7 percent over the same period.

Continue Reading 0

Revenge of the Philosophy Majors

By Wally Boston on August 12, 2015 in Economy, Technology

The Aug. 17, 2015 issue of Forbes features an article by George Anders, whose premise is that brilliant coding and engineering is a given in Silicon Valley corporations but that their real value-add comes from employees who can sell and humanize their products. He writes about two executives with Slack Technologies, Anna Pickard and Stewart Butterfield, who majored in theater and philosophy, respectively.

Continue Reading 0

Graduation Gap Wider than Enrollment Gap for the Poor

By Wally Boston on June 4, 2015 in Access and Affordability, Economy, Environment, Student Persistence, Student Retention

Susan Dynarski’s June 2 article in The New York Times elicited more than a few tweets. Dr. Dynarski, a professor of education, public policy and economics at the University of Michigan, wrote about a project called the Education Longitudinal Study that began tracking 15,000 high school sophomores in 2002. Last month, the researchers updated their educational attainment data for those sophomores and issued a report.

Continue Reading 0

A Leader’s Perspective

By Wally Boston on July 7, 2014 in Economy, k-12 education, Uncategorized

Dr. Wally Boston was invited by The Education Alliance, a non-profit that works to improve K-12 education in the state of West Virginia, to participate in: EDTalks: Connecting Education, Jobs and Our Future event.

The EDTalks event featured three speakers: the Honorable Joe Manchin, III, United States Senator, Erin Sponaugle, 2014 West Virginia Teacher of the Year, and Dr.

Continue Reading 0

The Metropolitan Revolution: How Cities and Metros Are Fixing Our Broken Politics and Fragile Economy

By Wally Boston on December 16, 2013 in Book Reviews, Economy

It may have been the subtitle that drew my attention to Bruce Katz’ and Jennifer Bradley’s book or it may have been a reference to the text in an article that I read. Regardless, the book opened my eyes to the increasingly important role of metros and cities in our national economic recovery. According to the authors, the nation’s top 100 metropolitan areas occupy 12 percent of the U.S.

Continue Reading 0

1 2 … 4 Next →