<meta charset="utf-8"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><div>Hello!<br>I'm intrigued by the goings-on on this list and excited to join you in the fall.</div>
<div>My somewhat unusual entree into the topic of education was as a freelance writer in my early 20s writing about the effect of student loans on young people. I published a book (Riverhead, 2006), and two columns, one in the Village Voice and later on Yahoo! Finance, all titled Generation Debt, all dealing</div>
<div>with generational economics and politics including student loan policy. Message: the system is broken.</div><div><br></div><div>This led to my first job at Fast Company magazine where I ended up covering technology and innovation, with an emphasis on social entrepreneurship and sustainability. The two streams merged when I published </div>
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">DIY </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">(Chelsea Green, 2010) which investigated the roots of the cost, access, and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">quality crises in higher education as well as innovations to address these crises. Message: the system can be fixed, or maybe we'll just make a new system! </span><div>
<font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">DIY U was researched and written in conversation with an amazing community of thinkers such as yourselves. So were two forthcoming followups:</span></font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "> Learning, Freedom and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">the Web, funded by the Mozilla Foundation, and The Edupunks Guide, funded by the Gates Foundation. Both are free ebooks. LFW, which will also be available print-on-demand, glances over the scene of makers and hackers using openness and technology to transform learning. The Edupunks Guide is a hands on manual for people without a lot of cash who want the shortest path to an education that will transform their lives.</span></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">I have a </span></font><b>Fast Company column</b> <a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/user/anya-kamenetz" target="_blank">Life In Beta</a>, a <b>Tribune Media column</b> <a href="http://www.tmsfeatures.com/columns/business/personal-finance/savings-game/" target="_blank">The Savings Game</a>, my b<b>ook is found here</b> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/DIY-Edupunks-Edupreneurs-Transformation-Education/dp/1603582347" target="_blank">DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education </a>, I <b>Blog</b> <a href="http://diyubook.com/" target="_blank">DIYUbook.com </a> and <b>Twitter </b><a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/anya1anya" target="_blank">@Anya1anya</a>. </div>
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