And a joyous, if also slightly belated, Beltane to you all.

We start off today’s roundup with the still-venerable (so far… Murdoch, we’re watching you) Wall Street Journal. More specifically, the College Journal, which offers an encouraging article that outlines ways to get yourself or your child into college despite the kersplat of the economy.

It seems like all the news in higher ed these days is about how on earth we’re supposed to afford it. Higher Ed Watch doesn’t disappoint; they are keeping close tabs on Congress’ complicated efforts to make college funding easier. This week: the House gets ready to pass HR 5175, the bill I mentioned a few weeks ago that increases loan limits, extends repayment times and appoints the Dept. of Ed itself as a secondary lender. The Senate already approved it, and for once, the President agrees with them. He should be signing it soon.

Closing today with cute, fluffy kittens (no, not lolcats). Connectivism offers an amusingly titled piece on the universal appeal of OERs (Open Educational Resources), a topic I rounded up a month or so ago. The problem with them, of course, is the same problem that plagues Wikipedia, to a certain extent. If the knowledge is just lying around there for anyone to get ahold of (very cool), how do you keep people from messing with it (not so cool)? Also, once all that lovely learning is hanging out in the, um, learnosphere, what do you do with it? Who organizes it? If you take advantage of it, how do you prove that to employers?