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…
Remixing the “What I learned” essay. Take 20 min to create a 1-min video in class. Peer review. Re-imagine & reshoot. Polish up as homework. Similar:She doesn't have keys or a phone or an ID. Why does my tween need a purse?To stash her Lemonheads and Smarties. ht…AmusingMy Minecraft-obsessed tween made this blocky foam pig…
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…
“I’m bored,” is something my daughter knows NOT to say around me. If she does, I will look into her big brown eyes with my most sincere fake paternal concern, and say, “Honey, you are a talented, intelligent, wonderful kid with so many opportunities. You have no reason to think people find you boring.” She…
For all the reform campaigns over the years, most schools continue to teach math and science in an off-putting way that appeals only to the most fervent students. The mathematical sequence has changed little since the Sputnik era: arithmetic, pre-algebra, algebra, geometry, trigonometry and, for only 17 percent of students, calculus. Science is generally limited…
Stoked from a morning show-choir performance and an afternoon rehearsal, Carolyn is lumbering around the kitchen floor, belting “I WANT A HIPPOPOTAMUS FOR CHRISTMAS!!!” Peter, his nose in a book, expresses a stoic disapproval. “Peter, you never ask for anything,” says my wife, raising her voice over Carolyn’s singing. “If you could have anything, regardless…
If we are really wanting to help these kids that might be coming from poor situations, we need to rethink the practices that we already have in our schools to provide for them. For example, many schools have “computer labs” where we take kids once or twice a week, to do something with technology or allow them…
I love books. I love smelling them, touching them, stacking them, unwrapping the plastic from a new purchase, and cracking the spine when I’m halfway through a hardback. (My wife *hates it* when I crack a spine). I love books. I love downloading them, searching them, copying-and-pasting passages, reading them to my kids at night…
Scholars and people who are activists for disability rights have spent a lot of energy in the last decades showing that disability is not about the state of a human body; it’s about the built environment, structures, and institutions that make life possible and meaningful—or conversely, impossible and meager—for certain kinds of bodies and minds.…
@cjprender @readywriting Compared to what? Similar:In Defense Of Metaphors In Science WritingWe live in an elegant universe. The c…CultureRT @PhilKomarny: A floppy disc… In #context htt…RT @PhilKomarny: A floppy disc… In #co…TweetsHow hate and misinformation go viral: A case study of a Trump retweetOn Sunday night, President Donald Trump …AcademiaRT @JordanFor: One of the counters…
RT @samplereality: Push the button Frank. Similar:What kids do when Dad won't hand over the iPod So I’m not being selfish… this is …EducationYes, I do feel rather awesome right now.Lost brand-new earbuds. Reached in pocke…PersonalJuror's CreedWhile researching my obligations for #ju…CultureJudge: Apple conspired to fix eBook prices.Judge: Apple conspired to fix eBook pric…BooksAnd the…
RT @goudyliv84: “Make it so, make it so, make it so.” #StarTrek #Christmas youtube.com/watch?v=oiSn2J… @DennisJerz Similar:She doesn't have keys or a phone or an ID. Why does my tween need a purse?To stash her Lemonheads and Smarties. ht…AmusingTweet: For an anatomy project, my #geekling made a Vulcan…For an anatomy project, my #geekling mad…TweetsRT @JordanFor: One…
RT @CordeliaLogan: @DennisJerz If you are not watching the Ron Burgundy press conference, you are missing out on real journalism. http://t.… Similar:My Minecraft-obsessed tween made this blocky foam pig at art camp. Next up: Stage Right summer musical th…AestheticsHow hate and misinformation go viral: A case study of a Trump retweetOn Sunday night, President Donald…
Good article on Catching Fire. (I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I like this analysis.) The personal is political because there is no personal. There is no private realm to retreat into. Haymitch tells Katniss and Peeta that they will never get off the train – meaning that the reality TV parts they are…
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…
The article-as-numbered-list has several features that make it inherently captivating: the headline catches our eye in a stream of content; it positions its subject within a preëxisting category and classification system, like “talented animals”; it spatially organizes the information; and it promises a story that’s finite, whose length has been quantified upfront. Together, these create…
I’m nerdy enough to give my 15yo a used copy of “The Hero with a Thousand Faces.” He’s halfway through it now. (Nerd kids are awesome kids.) Similar:An Hour of Monastic Silence in Media Studies Class (plus an awesome drum solo)I announced that my 300-level Media and …AcademiaThe dangers of 'character education' in universitiesAs the…
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 would never have chosen to watch “Cowboys and Aliens” but it was surprisingly enjoyable. Similar:Jury Duty UpdateI’m a happy, responsible, and no-longer-…GovernmentClassroom collaboration marketplaceWhile I am uncomfortable with the whole …BusinessTweet: Came around the corner and saw my kids huddled on…Came around the corner and saw my kids h…TweetsParallel Structure vs. Faulty ParallelismI just…
RT @dloehr: 12yr: “Those Muppets are lip-synching.” Similar:Desert Bus: The Worst Video Game Ever CreatedPenn and Teller are involved with this s…BooksJudge: Apple conspired to fix eBook prices.Judge: Apple conspired to fix eBook pric…BooksIn Defense Of Metaphors In Science WritingWe live in an elegant universe. The c…CultureJuror's CreedWhile researching my obligations for #ju…CultureIt's been nice…