I just touched up a handout on Parallel Structure vs Faulty Parallelism. Similar:Hypertext as a Teaching Tool — Brown University Poetry Classroom 1974This short film documents an early attem…Academiathe history of computer games: from 'pong' to 'pac-man'”in the beginning, there was nothing. we…CybercultureTwo Cheers for the Middle Ages! by Eric ChristiansenI love good writing. “Even…
These comic panels cover the issue well. (Pennington Publishing) Similar:How Common Core Testing Damaged High School English ClassesHelping my students understand how my ro…AcademiaLanguage Log » 25 Questions for Teaching with "Word Crimes"A little perspective is good. So is genr…AcademiaJack Rollins-Frosty the Snowman I voiced Jack Rollins, writer …HistoryMy crazy Friday night involved tweaking…
A thoughtful reflection on religion in Star Trek. While Humans aren’t depicted as participating in any form of organized religion (there is a reference to a Christmas party here, a nod to monotheism there), the series also includes a distrust of science and technology, regularly depicting mad scientists, societies over-dependent on technology, etc.) that insists…
If you’re legally present on a public street or sidewalk, you can legally photograph anything in plain view. (This includes children and crime victims… but just because it’s legal doesn’t mean it’s always a good idea.) If law enforcement engages you, ask whether you are free to go; if so, then move out of the…
Standardized testing rewards standardized thinking, while excluding creativity, resilience & other “soft” skills. I have started gong out of my way to remind students in my classes that I am not comparing their papers to a “correct answer” in the back of my book — I want them to learn a habit of mind that…
It’s a good day when one’s nerdiness is an asset to a colleague. Similar:Actors can't play Hamlet as simply mad in world of mental health awareness, actor saysHow does our 21st century understanding …CultureSecret Mouthwash Dance Exposed as FraudRecently, while getting the kids ready f…AmusingThe science of fake news: Addressing fake news requires a multidisciplinary…
I’m a happy, responsible, and no-longer-obligated-for-jury-duty citizen. Similar:The Problems of Real-Time Feedback in Teaching WritingSometimes my students get nervous becaus…AcademiaIt's “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” 111th birthdayInteresting introduction to the history …BooksA Brazilian couple bought a deforested ranch and spent decades planting over 2 million tre…A Brazilian couple bought a deforested r…PersonalThe daughter missed her graduation ceremony…
Keep a local backup of anything important you’ve entrusted to online services. There’s no guarantee that, years from now, those services will honor the terms you agreed to. Backed by new investors, including singer Justin Timberlake, Myspace (after dropping the capital ‘S’) has been rebranded as a music-streaming service, with a new sleek interface, and…
Penn and Teller are involved with this story. Worth a read. The only record of the game’s existence was a handful of review copies that had been sent out to journalists in the weeks before the publisher went bust, in 1995. The game remained a curious rumor until September, 2005, when Frank Cifaldi, a freelance…
Judge: Apple conspired to fix eBook prices. #ethics #books The Federal lawsuit claimed that Apple, led by then-CEO Steve Jobs and senior vice president of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue, conspired with HarperCollins, Hatchett, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster to drive e-book prices up from the $9.99 price point Amazon had established. –readwrite.com Similar:Kairos: Open…
RT @spj_tweets: How TV could suffer the fate of newspapers: @alanmutter shares the second installment of his two-part blog – http://t.co/l… Similar:Loved seeing A Comedy of Errors @setonhillLoved seeing A Comedy of Errors @setonhi…Tweets10 Rules of Internet – Anil DashA very useful, concise summary of web-en…BusinessHabits for happiness: tips for looking on the bright side…
RT @DepressedDarth: Dear J.J. Abrams, If the new Star Wars is bad, you will forever be known as Jar Jar Abrams. Sincerely, Star Wars fans Similar:Children of Time #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 22) Defiant crew meets happy co…Rewatching ST:DS9 In the Defiant mess…AmusingLooking forward towards the wardroom (center) and the officers' pub, the…
I really like MailChimp’s “Social” plugin, which not only publishes a WordPress blog entry to Twitter and Facebook, but also collects responses from Twitter and Facebook users and collects them as WordPress comments. Today I installed a different plugin, Twitter Tools, which is really just a single tool — it lets you create a WordPress…
Habits for happiness: tips for looking on the bright side of life. At bedtime, in order to avoid a nightly litany of complaints, I ask my glass-is-half-empty-and-I-hate-the-pirate-glass-and-there’s-a-bug-in-it tween to list three good things, two neutral things, and one sad thing about her day. Sometimes if she needs to share more than one sad thing, I…
While researching my obligations for #juryduty Thursday, I came across this “Juror’s Creed.” The gender-specific reference to men, the instruction to reflect upon the virtues of democracy, and the instruction to respect the judge’s education all hint at a historical context for the creed. Institutions never put their creeds into writing unless they feel those…
Spent a productive work day doing nothing but optimizing my blog. Added a very nice plugin for displaying thumbnails of related posts. Similar:First They Got Sick, Then They Moved Into a Virtual UtopiaWhen my son was about five, I sat him on…CultureFacebook Announces $300 Million Project, Allegedly to Support Local JournalismOnce upon a time, local…
RT @mykidcancode: Managing Your Preschooler’s Fascination with Apps – bit.ly/lv1ZyR #parenting #technology Similar:SAT essay section: Problems with grading, instruction, and prompts.In my freshman writing courses I work ha…AcademiaHe Googles for some random memes to connect with weak prose, but what he does next is shoc…BusinessHow journalists can prep for a possible violent eventJournalists face a…
Not kidding — 254,460 spam comments in my trash folder! Similar:14 Machines That Were Brilliant in 1985I used something very similar to this sh…Culturei trained an ai chatbot on my childhood journal entries – so that i could engage in real-t…I kept a journal from Feb 3 1983 (the da…CultureR.I.P. Blogging, Killed By Screenshorts Are…
“Bach is not for the weak of mind.” — Miss Renee, my kids’ piano teacher. “I’m in trouble.” — Peter, my son. Similar:Responding to Literature at the College LevelA new handout, based on the opening lect…AcademiaRandom sibling selfie.PersonalWhy Creative Side Projects Are Good for YouSan Francisco State psychology professor…BusinessIf I am not a pedagogical god,…
While I am uncomfortable with the whole “classroom as marketplace” metaphor, since it’s pretty much gamifying without the fun, I am nonetheless interested in this strategy for encouraging students to collaborate by having them attach a value to the artifacts they present to the class for sharing.. We shop for everything from apps to ideas.…