Nothing to do with Christmas… just thinking about the upcoming group projects due in my online J-Term course. I should also probably re-read some Dale Carnegie, which I do every few years. Teams need conflict to function effectively. Conflict allows the team to come to terms with difficult situations, to synthesize diverse perspectives, and to…
Okay, students… who loves group projects! Let’s hear it for group projects! (Crickets… crickets…) Okay employers… who puts “Ability to work in a team” at the top of a Forbes Magazine list of 10 skills employers say they seek in new hires? Employers: (cheering wildly) We do! We do! Here are the 10 skills employers say they seek,…
Transmedia storytelling represents a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience. Ideally, each medium makes it own unique contribution to the unfolding of the story. So, for example, in The Matrix franchise, key bits of information are…
Fisher-Price enters the Apple aftermarket with an iPad holder featuring a large auxiliary compartment where you can store your infant. The little ones apparently need convenient access to apps to assist them with their gurgling, drooling, and pooping, but their adorable little chubby hands are poorly engineered to hold tablets. Fortunately, Fisher-Price’s team of parental…
Imagine: sharing a secret with a friend by touching your finger to her ear; rubbing a book’s page to reveal a hidden message; feeling the texture of a mountain range on a flat computer screen; or sensing the fluttering of a digital butterfly’s wings against your skin. These fancies have been made into realities at…
Facebook wants you to see more serious news, and fewer meme photos. Of all the posts your friends create and share, soon your news feed will be less likely to show you “a meme photo hosted somewhere other than Facebook,” and more likely to show you a news story your friends have commented on. Facebook…
I love me a good Amazon mock review. Here are several. From scientific miracles to literary criticism, by way of bodily functions and failures of common sense. Many moons ago, I wrote about the art of the humorous Amazon review as a modern masterpiece of parodic genius, embodying Arthur Koestler’s seminal “bisociation” theory of how…
I expect my English majors not to balk when I ask them to learn new software. One good way to learn is to shadow someone who already knows it well. Even better, work with a classmate who’s just a step or two ahead — that way they can both learn together. In my “News Writing”…
Suddenly, something that had been unthinkable–that the Internet might put a free, Ivy League–caliber education within reach of the world’s poor–seems tantalizingly close. “Imagine,” an investor in the Professor’s company says, “you can hand a kid in Africa a tablet and give him Harvard on a piece of glass!” The wonky term for the Professor’s…
Now that Blockbuster Video has officially closed, I welcome Chuck Tyron’s Storify aggregation, which turned up this goodie: When I was a kid, movies like The Wizard of Oz were aired on TV once a year (usually during Thanksgiving weekend). At school the next week, everyone would be singing the songs and quoting the lines.…
Update in a legal battle that’s been going on for 8 years. A long-running copyright lawsuit between the Authors’ Guild and Google over its book-scanning project is over, and Google has won on the grounds that its scanning is “fair use.” In other words, the snippets of books that Google shows for free don’t break…
Journalists will be allowed to use Instagram, Twitter and other social media to post still photos and news from the Sochi Olympics, International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams confirmed to For The Win in an email on Monday. “Please take as many photos as you like!” he wrote. “Sharing pix on social media positively…
Wonderful snark from an indie bookseller unimpressed by a fairly transparent plan by Amazon. “Left Bank Books announces its new program whereby Amazon.com buys its books from us at a fifty percent markup over list price. They will also be charged shipping. We believe this will allow Amazon to be a part of the bricks…
It: nailed. xkcd: Headlines.
Seriously: What is Amazon? A retail company? A media company? A logistics machine? The mystery of its strategy is deepened by two factors. First is the company’s communications department, which famously excels at not communicating. Three requests to speak with Amazon officials for this article were delayed and, inevitably, declined. This moves discussions of the…
Have you heard the story about the lady who spilled coffee on herself and won millions of dollars from McDonald’s? Have you looked up the details on the story, or do you just know the story as a TV show punch line? Stella became a symbol for frivolous lawsuits and fodder for talk show hosts,…
I can’t quite understand a world in which people will pay $4 for a cup of coffee… So I have no particular interest in coffee-shop culture, but the unrelenting advance of automation is worth noting. But note the word “could” in the headline. The Briggo coffee kiosk knows how to make a perfect coffee because…
To make a quick buck by annoying your online readers, alienate and frustrate them by breaking your silly compilation article up into 10 or more parts you expect them to click through sequentially, and don’t provide an “all on one page” view. Congratulations! You’ll make a few bucks, and you’ll increase the sum total of…
Random House, which jacked up its ebook prices to libraries 300 percent last year, limits the number of check-outs per ebook. This means libraries have to lease another “copy” when they reach a certain threshold … as if the ebook had died or something. In fact, that’s the problem some authors have with ebooks —…
I was never a fan of Sinéad O’Connor, but I remember being impressed back in the 80s when Madonna’s bohemian antics were threatening to overwhelm her talent (not that I was a fan of Madonna, either), and a wise-sounding O’Connor told her some of the same things she has just told Miley Cyrus. You are…