College Professors Hate Sharing These Mind-Blowing Study Tips (#3 Made Me Cry)

Read the syllabus. Read the syllabus. Read the syllabus. Read the syllabus. Similar:An Adjunct's Death Becomes a Rallying Cry for Many in AcademeBecause I blogged Kovalik’s editorial ye…AcademiaFive myths about daylight saving timeNo, Daylight Saving Time was not created…BusinessWhat Makes Ohio State the Most Unequal Public University in America?So while university presidents are makin…Academia"I don't view Shakespeare's…

Incoming Seton Hill Students Pick Up Their MacBooks and iPads Today

I find it impossible not to be cheerful amidst all the energy on campus as new students register and move in. Our tech staff is busy distributing magical devices that can create and distribute knowledge, or destroy contemplation and attention. Are we wise enough to serve those students well? Let’s hope we are! Similar:Had a…

BREAKING: British Burn Washington … 2 Centuries Ago

Two hundred years ago this week, during the War of 1812, invading British troops destroyed two of the nation’s most important buildings — the White House and the Capitol. The war had started over issues of tariffs and the taking of American sailors on the high seas; by the summer of 1814, British fighters were…

How Facebook and Twitter control what you see about Ferguson

On Twitter, I see tear-gassed civilians, heavily armed cops, and reporters being arrested. On Facebook, I see people dumping buckets on their heads. The Washington Post offers a good overview of a complex, and important, issue. “The study found that, because Facebook friend networks are often composed of ‘weak ties’ where the threshold for friending…

Editorial: Video Games and The Great Train Robbery

Through the development of crosscutting and other continuity editing techniques, many filmmakers (perhaps unwittingly) found “that the development of systematic narration and continuous action could also deliver a sense of shock, of percussive action that is broken and picked up again continually.” (Gunning, 311, 2006) The once disjointed forces, attraction and narrative, came together to…

The Best Way to Start an Academic Paper

Both of the following writing samples demonstrate effective use of grammar, punctuation, and other surface-level matters. Which version does a better job introducing an argument? Version 1: The Best Way to Start an Academic Paper In universities across the country, students start papers in different ways. Some papers start with a statement about life or…

▶ Taylor Mali on “What Teachers Make”

I find that re-watching this every year just before school starts is a great way to keep my energy up as I prep my classes.

The End of Print Journalism

The future of print remains what? Try to imagine a world where the future of print is unclear: Maybe 25 year olds will start demanding news from yesterday, delivered in an unshareable format once a day. Perhaps advertisers will decide “Click to buy” is for wimps. Mobile phones: could be a fad. After all, anything…

Forgive and Remember: How a Good Boss Responds to Mistakes

I’m thinking about risk. When my tween decided to try out for a local professional production of Annie, she told me she’d feel less nervous if I auditioned along with her. I found myself muddling through a dance routine, alongside teenagers who have been taking ballet and tap since they were 4. It’s humbling to…

Want a tech job? Study this. Advice from Mozilla, Reddit, Tumblr and more

Students often say they hate group work. I don’t attach a huge amount of points to group work, but I do ask them to collaborate on various projects. Learning how to deal with a team member who isn’t pulling his or her weight, or how to work with a take-charge person who tries to shut…

Should your grieving mum see your digital secrets?

A US state has passed a law that will give the family of a deceased person access to their Twitter, Facebook and email accounts just as if they were physical assets. Delaware’s “Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets and Digital Accounts Act” grants heirs and the executor of the will the same powers over digital accounts…

The News from Ferguson – Live, on Twitter

[I]t turns out that Twitter is not just a place where scholars take notes publicly at conferences, it’s a medium that does a better job than most of including the voices of African Americans, and that matters. To a large extent what has been happening in Ferguson is the result of white folks’ near-total deafness…

BuzzFeed plagiarism, deleted posts: Jonah Peretti explains.

In 2012 my former Slate colleague Farhad Manjoo revealed that several of BuzzFeed’s most popular listicles were lifted in large part from other websites, including Reddit. In the years since, the site has been hit with lawsuits and public accusations from people who feel it has exploited or flat-out stolen their work. Last month the…

I Quit Liking Things On Facebook for Two Weeks.

She stopped liking, and started commenting. And maybe what she discovered is what old-timer bloggers remember the blogosphere being like before Facebook. Back in my day, we didn’t need someone else’s algorithm to show us what we were interested in. We clicked on insightful, valuable, and compelling comments to see what else the author had…

A Mind Forever Voyaging review

When it comes to gameplay, A Mind Forever Voyaging also seems modern and innovative. Yes, it’s a text adventure, which some may wrongly view as self-evidently antiquated. But it’s also a largely puzzle-less, combat-less story that could almost be compared to games like Gone Home or Dear Esther, but with a larger and more open…

Reading Literature on Screen: A Price for Convenience?

Because all of my Seton Hill students get iPads and MacBooks, I try to assign ebooks whenever possible, though students are welcome to use paper, too. This study suggests that students who choose the ebook option have a harder time reconstructing the a timeline of plot events. I’ll keep that in mind as we discuss…

Zagg.com Just Provided Me with Great Customer Service

tl;dr: Zagg.com just offered to replace an iPad Mini keyboard that was not clamping on as well as it should have been. Even though the warranty had recently expired, a Zagg tech support person wrote me a detailed email walking me carefully through the process. Now, if the website had been better designed, that email…

Confuse Students to Help Them Learn

Confusing sometimes helps cats, so why not students? I’m afraid your cat badly needs to be confused. Confusion is a powerful force in education. It can send students reeling toward boredom and complacency. But being confused can also prompt students to work through impasses and arrive at a more nuanced understanding of the world. “Common…

In Ferguson, Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery gives account of his arrest

Comedian Robin Williams and actress Lauren Bacall died. That news made me sad. Reporters from the Washington Post and the Huffington Post were arrested last night by police who refused to provide their badge numbers. The reporters were covering the ongoing tension between police and crowds protesting the death of an unarmed teenager, who police…

5 myths about Facebook’s Messenger app

Real journalism takes a look at that Huffington Post blog warning you that Facebook Messenger will summon intubation associates who will extract up to a pint of six different bodily fluids. And I, for one, welcome our Facebook overlords. One blog from the Huffington Post published in December has gone viral, making the rounds on…