Nerdy Rainbow Loom Crafting

My wonderfully geeky tween made these Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde pendants with her Rainbow Loom. Next on her list: making Pac-Man. Similar:Beard Typeface GuideChristian Goldeman felt compelled to mat…AestheticsMy parents doing their daily crossword. I’m spending a few days visiting my …PersonalUNC student newspaper goes viral for coverage of campus shooting As Emmy Martin…

AP reporter’s mistake: Did the punishment fit the crime?

Reporters have been sometimes fired for willful misconduct, such as repeated instances of plagiarism or fabrication. Reporters who’ve suffered that fate, such as the New York Times’ Jayson Blair and The Washington Post’s Janet Cooke, were guilty of gross journalistic malpractice. But firing a reporter over an unintentional mistake is “extremely rare,” said Scott Maier,…

The Decline of Wikipedia: Even As More People Than Ever Rely on It, Fewer People Create It

I’m getting ready to introduce my freshman writing students to college-level research, so I found it helpful to read this brief introduction to the internal problems Wikipedia creates for itself. When a major news event takes place, such as the Boston Marathon bombings, complex, widely sourced entries spring up within hours and evolve by the…

“Does size matter?” — student journalist, making…

“Does size matter?” — student journalist, making a person-on-the street video interview about the new iPad. Similar:RT @JordanFor: One of the counters from the Civil…RT @JordanFor: One of the counters from …TweetsCarolyn Gombell Is Not a Real Person: #JusticeforCarolyn Is a Campaign Against Twitter Ref…Fascinating use of social media. To be c…Current_EventsWhat kids do when…

RT @joningold: Thing is, the freedom of the parser…

RT @joningold: Thing is, the freedom of the parser is a sham – not because it *doesn’t* understand everything but because no-one plays as t… Similar:Classroom collaboration marketplaceWhile I am uncomfortable with the whole …BusinessJuror's CreedWhile researching my obligations for #ju…CultureJury Duty UpdateI’m a happy, responsible, and no-longer-…GovernmentJudge: Apple conspired to fix eBook prices.Judge: Apple…

Attribution, Editorializing and Defamation

In the Nightly Noodle Monthly, former North Adams Transcript journalist Isaac Avilucea posts this passage, which he says was removed from a sports feature that got him fired. But there’s a reason she’s not at MountGreylock anymore, choosing to transfer to a school with somewhat inferior academics and athletics. Part of it has to do with the stuffy social atmosphere that…

I just did the thing where you look everywhere for…

I just did the thing where you look everywhere for your glasses but you can’t find them because you are already wearing them. Similar:RT @JordanFor: One of the counters from the Civil…RT @JordanFor: One of the counters from …TweetsLoved seeing A Comedy of Errors @setonhillLoved seeing A Comedy of Errors @setonhi…TweetsI'm no longer surprised, but…

The t-shirt many professors would enjoy wearing

Inside Higher Ed Similar:Emily Dickinson Fun Page #literature #amusing #dashes Emily Dickinson Fun Page #literatu…AmusingThe lesson of Rolling Stone and UVA: protecting victims means checking their stories It is a depressing certainty that th…Current_EventsThe crisis in local journalism has become a crisis of democracyThe paucity of reporters has triggered a…CultureKids, Pants, Booze, Music: Trouble In…

Digital Storytelling (EL231: Topics in Creative Writing)

EL231 “Digital Storytelling” (Dec 18-Jan 22) Unit 1 (Dec 18-22) mostly experiencing digital stories (reading, watching, listening, playing, whatever), and reading articles & discussing them online. (We take a break Dec 23-Jan 1: no classes, no homework.) Unit 2 (Jan 2-7) trying out 4-5 tools for creating digital stories, and learning two in a little…

Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming

Neil Gaiman tells us why books matter: When you watch TV or see a film, you are looking at things happening to other people. Prose fiction is something you build up from 26 letters and a handful of punctuation marks, and you, and you alone, using your imagination, create a world and people it and…

In the publications office with student journalist…

In the publications office with student journalists. I’ve heard them saying “affirmative” and “negative.” The editor just said “Make it so.” Similar:Tweet: For an anatomy project, my #geekling made a Vulcan…For an anatomy project, my #geekling mad…TweetsOverheard at Quora: "Why after all these years is Moodle still so ugly?"Moodle is a free course-management tool …AcademiaRT…

Thou shalt not commit logical fallacies

  Thou shalt not commit logical fallacies poster. Similar:'Fontgate': Microsoft, Wikipedia and the scandal threatening the Pakistani PMI would call this “typefacegate,” but th…CultureHow Facebook – the Wal-Mart of the internet – dismantled online subculturesFacebook wants you to spend more time on…BusinessIt will be harder to leave Facebook than it was to leave Twitter It…

Ignorance Meets an Invisible Disability

I’m sure my young, healthy-looking friend will gladly give you his parking spot if you’ll take his bone cancer, too. http://t.co/z2ABY0huCN Similar:Slicing up a massively detailed trimsheet to simulate reflections and geometry for four va…PersonalPartisan Pa. websites masquerading as local news threaten trust in journalism, new report …People with financial interests to prote…Culture"The Machine Stops"…

SAT essay section: Problems with grading, instruction, and prompts.

In my freshman writing courses I work hard to convince students that many of the strategies that helped them get by in high school simply won’t lead to college-level work. For instance, I actually read their drafts, ask probing questions about their goals, options, and strategic choices, and then expect their revisions to follow up…