Polls Apart

Blogger has some new sidebar tools. One is for polling. Try mine (not that the question is original but it would still be cute to know where people stand on it) . I don't know how useful polling is for teaching and learning. In many contexts I can think of, I don't want students to be anonymous. Perhaps there is some use nonetheless.

Classes start here next week so tracking presidential politics will drop of my personal radar. But it is interesting to note that in New Hampshire the College Towns favored Obama while the bigger cities favored Clinton. What inferences can one make from that?

If you look for the most hated man on Wall Street these days, it is probably Ben Bernanke. The street wants the Fed to lower interest rates more than he is so inclined. Bernanke is seeking a middle way, one that keeps the economy growing with low inflation, and surprisingly enough, one where the sub prime market works, but not with loans equal to 100% of purchase price nor with adjustable rate mortgages. I watched this presentation from Wednesday. (The link should work for a couple of weeks). I thought it was really excellent. What a well reasoned and data driven response to Wall Street. I wish we could talk this cogently with Learning Technology.