Akamai University NOT spurious

Re: Re: now that's spurious, mes enfants

And you know what? I think YOU had better just shut up.....

 

Or, don't you really mean your revisionist version thereof?

There are few things in life quite so entertaining as watching a racist decry racism... and getting all frothy-at-the-mouth about it along the way, to boot.

 

You're right. He is racist, showing a typical southern barbarian's failure to honour Chinese military achievements. Oh. Yeah:

I get my history from Ssu-ma Ch'ien
not from sound bites on CNN.

Book of Odes #301

 

I can make up my mind
about Akamai
by ignoring a shrill
and reading DI.

Once again (just to tick off some wackos): I'm pro-Akamai, not heedlessly, but definitely pro.

 

Akamai University not spurious,
really has me quite curious.

And who is this Dr. Lee?
of what sinister sort is he?

How can we know and who can say?
perhaps we just wasted our time today.

 

DegreeInfo.Com Members

Wan Salleh stated: "I posted questions to Dr. C becuase be started a thread that Akamai is not a Dubious University but his absence from the forum and reluctance to answer questions surely reflect shortcomings in him and Akamai university on the whole. "

I wanted to explain my absence....

There are times when little of what is posted on DegreeInfo merits serious attention, or should I say that there are matters so serious that they cannot be resolved on a forum. I have limited time in my days as it is….

At other times, postings seem to have been made only to draw us all into disputes and arguments...and name-calling...not to resolve matters that can better the field of higher education or provide meaningful guidance. I acknowledge that some of the bantering is just letting off steam, but isn't it going a bit too far for a group of "academics" to set our sights so low? Most of it has not been overly mean-spirited…but certainly little has reflected a trusting or welcoming community. Have I been missing something?

Perhaps I’m showing a weakness in all this, but I am an individual that has contributed more than thirty years to community-based human service programs and grass roots literacy and education endeavors. Much of my background rests in correctional education, adult job training, special education, crisis intervention programs, and emergency human service programs including work with migrant farm-workers, homeless families, destitute individuals, and adult non-literates. Over the years, my profession has altered my temperament and now I fear I cannot put up with too much hostility and ill will … at least from my own team. It seems like a huge waste of time and energy in a world that is spinning out of control.

Part of the reasoning behind Akamai participating in the online educational forums was to seek guidance for Akamai from "reasonable" and "competent" academics, administrators and professionals across the global community. Even if it meant facing the hard questions, we thought it might be worth our effort entering the forums.

Gregg L. DesElms noted that "There are some fairly bright people around here who pretty much know what's up -- some of brightest of whom you've either now heard from or are about to..." No doubt, there are some very bright people involved in this forum…that is why we posted originally. Those are the fellows we hope and had hoped to meet.

Are you there? If so, could you please help bring direction and a sense of importance to this forum. If you cannot...I’ll be forced to spend my time looking elsewhere for council.

DrCapogrossi

 

Re: Re: Re: now that's spurious, mes enfants

Oh Now we only realise how a Senior Member behave in the forum. It look like you had lost.

 

Huray... It realy proved that this forum is not fair for those telling the truth and the truth will turn down bu someone which is act like Cowboy ... Now pro words also out already, lady and gentlement believ it or not! sorry Asean people will never use Babarian words due to we find that it is not suitable for us to use it Asean and it is too rude to use it. Here we use Tiew Thei Kam Sau.

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: now that's spurious, mes enfants

Look.... like Uncle Janko I'm fine with debate and hearing from Dr. Capogrossi or whatever his name is.....

YOU, on the other hand....... I thought I had already told you.

SHUT UP!

 

I appreciate and welcome your participation here. I also apologize for the behavior of some of our more child-like participants (on both sides of the Akamai issue).

A number of them appear to offer courses and programs leading to degrees that are technically granted by Akamai.

Why does Akamai have affiliates in the first place?

I appreciate your honesty in admitting these shortcomings.

The biggest difficulty that I see is a problem that afflicts all unaccredited schools, not just Akamai. It's the fact that the only thing that we have to go on is assurances coming from the school itself.

A couple of years ago Henrik Fyrst was here trying to promote his Knightsbridge University. When he was asked why anyone should trust Knightsbridge's academic credibility, he always launched into involved descriptions of KU's impressive internal procedures. But unfortunately, these were visible only to Mr. Fyrst and his posts all translated into the same message: 'trust me'.

That seems to be where you're at right now. You can tell us how everything is different with your affiliates now. If that's true, then it's obviously a very good thing. But the problem is that all this still translates into 'trust me'.

What Akamai needs, and needs badly, is some external validation. People have to have some reason to trust Akamai that doesn't come from you. If you choose to proceed without accreditation, then you will need to find your validation somewhere else. Where you find it is up to you, but it's mandatory. It's the basis from which other people will judge your school.

My entirely layman's suggestions on improving Akamai would be:

A. Lose the affiliate schools.

B. Stop marketing your degree programs so heavily, particularly overseas. Personally, I think that selling unaccredited American degrees to foreigners who don't understand our higher education system, an unaccredited school's place in it, or the limitations of the degrees that they will earn, is simply unethical.

C. Focus Akamai. Decide what its purpose is. Is Akamai a 60's-style non-traditional school teaching alternative medicine and new-age spirituality? Is it some kind of social change organization working on international development and environmental issues? Or is it something else? Do one thing, and then do it right.

D. Clarify Akamai's organization. I might be entirely mistaken, but Akamai seems to me to be a core of people in Hawaii holding their organizational umbrella over people who came to them with their own interests and their own proposals. I imagine this is one reason why Akamai appears unfocused and disorganized.

E. Lose degree programs extraneous to your focus area. Don't offer doctorates unless you can fully support them. Personally, I'd like to see Akamai start out by offering one or two solid masters degrees in subjects that are hard to find elsewhere.

F. Get involved in the intellectual life of your focus area. Start some Akamai research activities. Publish Akamai work and present it at conferences. Enter into collaborations with people at conventional universities. Fly the Akamai flag a little bit. Make professional peers familiar with what's happening at Akamai. You probably should do that kindof stuff before you think about offering doctorates.

Right now, Akamai seems to me to be overextended in the marketing area and underextended in the intellectual one. Whether it's fair or not, that creates the impression that Akamai's managers are businessmen before they are educators.

Anyway, that's the path that I'd like to see Akamai take. It would probably reduce Akamai's profitability, but it would probably improve its credibility.

 

What a great analysis, Bill! I would particularly chime in on points A, B, and the first part of F among your recommendations. Akamai has a number of fine faculty--Tony Maranto and Keith Seddon come to mind (Keith's work in Stoicism is, well, I'd say it was awesome but that would be awfully overexcited for a Stoic so I'll say it's above the mean)--who from all I know of them are clearly competent to supervise doctoral work if Akamai has the structural resources to support them in it.

_________


I have a question also for you, Douglass. Would you explain how doctoral processes are quality-assured at Akamai? Thx.

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: now that's spurious, mes enfants

I think you are really a communist. The best position for you should go to Iraq to find someone to fight for. I think you better SHUT UP as well due to you had lost your patient.

 

Poep.

 

Xtra, Xtra... read all about it

Dammit! I hate it when Reginstein loses a patient. I keep telling him and telling him, "Lock the door!" And don't turn your back on 'em. They'll run, I tell ya'... they'll run. And they're nimble little critters once they're out the door. Why, you can't even find 'em at night... not even with the help of lightnin' bugs. It's really... [sigh] ... it's... it's a problem, I tell ya'... it's really a problem.

 

But Dr, C you've been a DL president for years and a colleague of Dr Bear in the battle of mills. If so why do you need any feedback? You should have a good grip on the issues. Yet it seems this is the same unaccredited thing all over again.

So many questions left unanswered. Why is Hawaii after IUPS ? Why so many faculty with substandard degrees? And why is Bill giving you very good advice on how to run a DL school? Shouldn't this stuff have been done already? Kind of embarrassing it seems.

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: now that's spurious, mes enfants

This is eerie.... What I'd really like to know is how YOU knew I was a pro-Iraqi communist? Why I've had my black beret with the yellow star on it (you know? My "Che hat"?) hidden away in the back closet for years now.....

If you DO decide to come back to be my patient, however, I have a rectal exam waiting for you - courtesy of Dixie Randock..... who will perform the procedure ever so delicately.....

In the meantime, I am delighted that you appear to have SHUT UP.....

 

I think that I like Seddon. He's a peculiar guy, but he's a philosopher so he probably can't help it. (Besides, I'm one to talk...)

Seddon has a Ph.D. from University College London, plus some publications.

Seddon's online cv lists his current institutional affiliation as Warnborough University where he manages the philosophy program (and refers to it as "my program"). The cv doesn't mention Akamai.

http://www.btinternet.com/~k.h.s/kcv.htm

Seddon tells us that he was previously "program director" at IUHS, Greenwich, Fairfax and Columbia Pacific. (He did hold a conventional gig at the University of Hertfordshire at one point.)

Seddon seems to be the Director of Akamai's Center for Sustained Human Development (the same title that he had at IUHS):

http://www.akamaiuniversity.us/CenterforSustainedHumanDevelopment.html

So... what is Seddon really doing for Akamai? I can't help thinking that this guy's basically an independent scholar that has assumed a series of impressive titles at some questionable universities, probably none of which consume very much of his time.

Under the auspices of Seddon's Center for Sustained Human Development, we find this:

INSTITUTE FOR STUDIES IN THE HUMANITIES

A number of the programs within the Institute for Studies in the Humanities are conducted in collaboration with Educate Yourself for Tomorrow, a popular online humanities program under the leadership of Andrew Flaxman.

Which kind of illustrates the Akamai "umbrella" theme, permitting Flaxman and his own organization to offer university credit and apparently even (albeit indirectly) advanced degrees.

The humanities program is nothing if not ambitious:

For the Humanities Program, each student's program requirements are selected with the guidance of the graduate faculty advisor...

Our degree offerings within the Humanities are intentionally broad to allow effective interdisciplinary studies. Humanities concentrations include the following:

Ancient Philosophy
Humanities
Critical Thinking
Ethics
Global Climatic Conditions
History of Ideas
Human Ecology
Human Geography
Human Suffering and Poverty
International Media (journalism, mass media, radio, TV, mass communication)
Linguistics
Literature Studies
Natural Disasters
Philosophical Spirituality
Philosophy
Philosophy of Religion
Political Philosophy
Population Studies
Religious Studies
Rural and Urban Studies
The Good Life
Urban Sprawl
World History and Civilization
World Languages
World Missions

Seriously. Does anybody really believe that Akamai is equipped to offer all that? (And that's just a fraction of Akamai's offerings.)

Akamai really needs to focus. Forget doctorates and just offer a masters degree. Then dedicate some real resources to doing things right.

If Seddon wants to teach ancient philosophy (which he seems competent to do), then maybe Akamai should actually hire the guy to do that. Deemphasize titles and emphasize (and be willing to pay for) time and commitment.

 

His online CV says he obtained a degree from University of Hertfordshire in 1982.

But the University of Hertfordshire didn't exist in 1982.

And yes, I do know its history as Hatfield Polytechnic.

Nevertheless, I wouldn't trust this man.

 

Janko
A number of the programs within the Institute for Studies in the Humanities are conducted in collaboration with Educate Yourself for Tomorrow, a popular online humanities program under the leadership of Andrew Flaxman.

Dayson
Which kind of illustrates the Akamai "umbrella" theme, permitting Flaxman and his own organization to offer university credit and apparently even (albeit indirectly) advanced degrees.

Bear
I met Flaxman years ago through my then-friend Reshad Feild, whose books (The Last Barrier; The Invisible Way) I like a lot. We (Flaxman and I) talked a lot about the kinds of affiliations he might wish to seek. And now, in addition to Akamai, he is affiliated with the truly dreadful American Coastline University for everything from high school diplomas to doctorates. Ah, wel . . .

 

Flaxman was also part of St. Regis at one time.