Eyetrack III

Tips Using blurbs with headlines rather than headlines-only seems to help disperse interest throughout a homepage (down the page). Recognize that a list of headlines-only high on the page might not get people to look as much on lower portions of the page. The use of blurbs does not appear to affect the number of…

Exams: Hard vs. Unfair

Exams: Hard vs. UnfairĀ (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) As students got their first look at the final exam for “American Lit 1800-1915” the other day, a few gasped, “This is hard!” One student shushed the others. “It’s not all that hard if you think before you write.” Our classroom culture was open and friendly enough that the…

A Nation of Wimps

“She’s somewhat neurotic,” he confides, “but she is bright, organized and conscientious–the type who’d get to school to turn in a paper on time, even if she were dying of stomach flu.” He finally found the disability he was to make allowances for: difficulty with Gestalt thinking. The 13-year-old “couldn’t see the big picture.” That…

Nuclear Family

“Will you sit with the baby while I read the boy a good-night story?” “I’m so dead,” the wife sighs. “You put them both to bed tonight.” The six-year-old parades past holding the book he’s chosen. Nuclear Energy. Husband and wife exchange glances. “Look!” the boy beams. “It has a whole chapter on protons!” Wife…

Sharon Stone sues doctor for liable

Actress Sharon Stone has filed a liable suit against an LA plastic surgeon for comments he made about Stone having had plastic surgery. Stone adamantly denied the claim and is suing. —Freddie Mooche —Sharon Stone sues doctor for liableĀ (Axcess News ™ News for the X generation) Earth to copy-editors… that should be “libel,” shouldn’t it?…

Barriers to Entry

“When I told my daughter that I was going to a presentation on blogs, she said ‘NO! You can’t do blogs in schools! Blogs are OURS!’” —Barriers to Entry (Weblogg-Ed) While I still encounter many students who have never heard the word “weblog” before I introduce it in class, I’ve been increasingly encountering students who already…

Classroom Blogging

Blogging is good. So is school. This we know. And when you put them together, they create something even better. This is the main point in Terra Williams and Charles Lowe’s article, Moving to the Public: Weblogs in the Writing Classroom. The article makes the argument that blogging can be an effective classroom tool. I…

Not Exploited

I hate it when people say I was exploited. If language really does have power, then calling me exploited turns me into a powerless cog in a brutal machine. I’d rather be called a fool. At least that leaves open the possibility that I am in control of my own life, however irrational my choices…

Why Nerds are Unpopular

Nerds serve two masters. They want to be popular, certainly, but they want even more to be smart. And popularity is not something you can do in your spare time, not in the fiercely competitive environment of an American secondary school. —Paul Graham —Why Nerds are Unpopular (Wired) This popular raced through the blogging community back…

Online Research Worries Many Educators

Young people may know that just because information is plentiful online doesn’t mean it’s reliable, yet their perceptions of what’s trustworthy frequently differ from their elders’ – sparking a larger debate about what constitutes truth in the Internet age. Georgia Tech professor Amy Bruckman tried to force students to leave their computers by requiring at…