Plagiarism: It's not fair excuse doesn't work

The exact same excuse appeared in the papers last year IIRC ... let's hope it doesn't catch on ;-)

Assessment tasks shouldn't be Googleable

If your students can complete your assessment task and receive high grades by copying from Google or Wikipedia, the problem is not with the student but with the task.

Amen to that!

21st century academic

via MASHe:

more than a quarter (28.7%) said they deal with over 250 emails a week and those with 250 or more emails a week said they did just 0-5 hours of research a week, 5-15 hours of teaching, but 25 hours or more of administration

sad but true :-(

Until the academy recognises that a true academic (not an ersatz one who (a) isn't a Reader/Prof but (b) "focuses on research") has to balance all three legs (teaching, research and admin) instead of just playing lip-service, things will not change. You'll get promotion from research or admin, but teaching is the main income-generator and raison d'être of higher education!