Victims of poor high schooling, of whom we have plenty at my university, often come to my classes asking, “Is this an ‘opinion paper’ or a ‘research paper’?” I tell them that that is a spectacularly bad question based upon a false dichotomy; that I’m interested neither in mere feckless opinion nor in the random accumulation of facts, but rather in reasoned argument based upon a secure empirical and philosophical foundation. —John D. Arras —It’s a Simple Game (Chronicle)

A great quote: “I generally believe that PowerPoint is the spawn of Satan. It breeds passivity in the students and it disconnects the speaker from the audience.”

I use slide shows only rarely — when I want to show students a typographical mistake in a sign, for instance. I’m working on a special slide show that uses images to teach the difference between active and passive verbs. I’ve probably put far too much effort into it, which means I’ll feel motivated to use it again in the future to justify the effort I put into it, even if it turns out to be no more effective as a teaching tool as a traditional workshop with a pre and post quizzes.

Next slide, please.