Before having Gatton Academy students in my life, I had never really heard of XKCD, the crudely drawn though almost always head-nod worthy bit of internet miscellany. Heck, Gatton Academy students even went so far as to stage an elaborate riff on one of its most famous cartoons. (Search “Justin Howell” on the page.)

It should come as no surprise, then, that this little jewel showed up in my Twitter feed this morning. What’s particularly funny is that this Venn-Diagram comes along just as WKU is planning and executing a major revamp of the main university website. Take a moment to study the cartoon diagram below and meet me after the jump.

University websites are generally terrible affairs thanks to the myriad interests that must be served and the quite literally thousands of pages of information found within those websites. Have a look at the current WKU homepage, which has been more or less the same for the past five years.

It’s all there, folks. Consider for a moment that 80% of the column space of the page is dedicated to extraneous information that serves very little purpose to an outsider. In may ways, I find I’m able to navigate the website because I’ve been doing so for the past several years. I think it would be extremely helpful to share the diagram with the folks in the Public Affairs office on campus. This is by no means something that is exclusive to WKU. I’d wager it’s a concern for 90% of higher education websites.

University websites are no longer placeholders on the Internet or simple news websites. They have to be everything to everyone, which is often the major cause of confusion and strife when it comes to managing the site. Creating a new website on this scale is a task that I do not envy. However, the state of Texas recently mandated that the University websites serve a much more important role: accessible information clearinghouse.

Texas House Bill 2504 (2009) includes several measures that mark higher education’s full transition into the information age. Under the law, state universities are required to post professors’ course syllabi, vitas, publications and salaries. Institutionally, cost of attendance and departmental budgets must also be easily available (defined as a searchable database no more than three clicks away from the university website homepage). In a time of calls for greater transparency in the use of public funds, the system seems somewhat innocuous. Most of this information is already viewable in one venue or another; however, objectors within faculty ranks insist the move is an attack on academic freedom.

Despite faculty resentment, ease of information is not a simple luxury among the current economy, it’s an outright necessity. While the Commonwealth of Kentucky may not be anywhere near close to mandating such a program, I think universities can take away some useful information about how to better serve their students not only in online classes but also on the homepage of their university website.

Yale University certainly needs very little help in getting students to apply. The prestigious Ivy League school is one of the nation’s most difficult schools to get into, after all.

That doesn’t mean their admissions office doesn’t know how to have fun. Hitting the internet over the past few days has been a 17-minute musical titled “That’s Why I Chose Yale.” The student-produced film has almost 118,000 at the time of posting.

Current students applying to college have grown up accustomed to individuals breaking into song and dance for no reason whatsoever. Think about it: High School Musical, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, and the TV series Glee all rely heavily on bits of the old song and dance.

What’s particularly fun for forensicators is that the star of Yale’s YouTube sensation is Kobi Libii, a 2003 NFL National Finalist in Original Oratory. Check out Yale’s official YouTube channel to see the viral hit, or hop on over to NFLtv to see his final round speech titled “Spin Cycle.”

p.s. Don’t miss the cameo from NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams at the 6:50 mark.

Over the years, our furry friends from that fictional New York borough have built quite the pedigree (122 Emmy wins and broadcasts in 140 countries worldwide). In addition to being woven into the very fabric of American culture, the folks at the Workshop have another milestone to celebrate next week: 40 years of television history. Since it’s inception four decades ago, Sesame Street has made a lasting impression on countless children who are now well into adulthood. When the show began, the landscape of both television and culture were very different.

The New York Daily News sums it up nicely:

The groundbreaking show, produced by the Children’s Television Workshop and a staple of public broadcasting, was years ahead of its time in promoting values that are now taken for granted in many places – accepting and appreciating diversity, not making assumptions based on gender, and being sensitive to cultural and economic differences, are all ideas the show emphasized before it was fashionable to do so.

The show has changed over the years in many ways. What was once a program intended to supplement learning for inner city children has become a cultural mainstay.

In time, most people and things grow up. It just so happens that Sesame Street has gotten younger over the years. As a wider variety of children’s programming has developed thanks to the dearth of cable channels, the show has shifted its target audience to younger and younger populations. Today, the intended viewership is someone in the ballpark of a four-year-old.

A CNN headline today boldly proclaims “Seasame Street‘s been swept but the magic of the show remains“. Can you imagine it? The show I watched as a kid featured a blue monster who smoked from a pipe and had a serious eating disorder. Even the recently released DVD collection of early episodes carry the following disclaimer: “These early Sesame Street episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child.”

I guess the producers didn’t get that message when the show lampooned the popular AMC series Mad Men.

If you really want to spend some time walking down Memory Lane–which is probably only a few blocks off Sesame Street–be sure to check out The Christian Science Monitor’s collection of their 11 favorite clips from the show’s history. (I still find myself humming the 1-2-3-4-5 pinball song randomly from time-to-time.)

There’s a lot of great stuff on the interwebs today. I hope you don’t mind a variety of sachhrine tributes.

Sesame Street: 40 Years Of Sunny Days David Fear, Time Out New York Kids

Sesame Street: Google Celebrates 40 Years Of Big Bird And The Gang Jack Schofield, The Guardian

How We Got To ‘Sesame Street’ Tim Murphy, New York Magazine

That leads us to the questions: Can entertainment effectively serve a dual purpose of education? Does our contemporary cultural sensitivity challenge nostalgia? Is Sesame Street still relevant?

Finally, check out the following preview of the new season before it premieres of November 10. Jazon Mraz, Michelle Obama and other novelties abound.