Choosing Carolyn’s Headshot
Which of these headshots do you like best? Let me know on Facebook. Carolyn Headshots.
Dozens of Plagiarism Incidents Are Reported in Coursera’s Free Online Courses
“If we really are trying to teach the world, including people from other cultures, we have to take a responsibility to educate people about plagiarism, not just vaporize people for it,” said Mr. Severance, who is also a clinical associate professor of information at Michigan, in an interview on Wednesday. —The Chronicle of Higher Education.
If in question, have more GOOD than BAD? University of Georgia Student Journalists Walk Out
My students and colleagues sometimes wonder why I don’t approve the Seton Hill student paper before it’s published, or give students grades on their published work. Student journalists at the University of Georgia resigned en masse rather than relinquish editorial control to an “editorial director” and nonstudent staff. In a draft outlining the “expectations of editorial…
Brain Rules: The brain cannot multitask
Multitasking, when it comes to paying attention, is a myth. The brain naturally focuses on concepts sequentially, one at a time. At first that might sound confusing; at one level the brain does multitask. You can walk and talk at the same time. Your brain controls your heartbeat while you read a book. Pianists can…
Stage Right Water Sprite
Last week my daughter and I were a little too early to see the Westmoreland Museum of American Art’s new exhibit, so we revisited some of our favorite items in the permanent collection.
‘I’m Not Paying for Your Opinion’
Students also need to learn that being offended is an emotional response, not a rational one. If you don’t like something I’ve said–or, as in this case, something somebody else said–don’t just get upset about it. See if you can formulate a cogent rebuttal. That, too, is a key element of critical thinking. Finally–and most…
U.S.S. Requin — Extended Tour of the Cold War Submarine at the Carnegie Science Center
Soon after WWII began, the USS Requin began serving as a training target for sonar crews. After several refits during the Cold War, she eventually came to rest in Pittsburgh as a museum exhibit in 1990.
SCUBA Diving at the Pool
Because a beautiful sunny day at the pool apparently by itself isn’t enough, we upped the ante with SCUBA gear.
Official Rules to Nanofictionary
I was at a youth car wash today, watching my son and the other the kids spray each other (and sometimes the cars). One of the customers happened to be carrying an anthology of dystopian science fiction. We got to chatting, and he told me about this parlor game — which sadly seems to be…
Jacqueline Wilson: Five Children and It, and me
A long-time fan of Edith Nesmit recounts what it was like to be asked to write a sequel. I was flattered to be asked but initially declined: I felt it would be restricting to try to write in another author’s style, especially if they were writing long ago. I did say, just to sound obliging,…
An unreal Mars skyline
That awesome image showing Earth, Venus and Jupiter from Mars? It’s cool, but according to Phil “Bad Astronomy” Plait, it’s from planetarium software. I was about to reblog it myself, but did a quick check first. An unreal Mars skyline | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine.
NASA Calls It A Mission As Curiosity Rover Fills Up Whole 2-Gigabyte Memory Card
More great satire from The Onion. PASADENA, CA—Barely 72 hours after the landing of its Mars rover, NASA officials announced Thursday that their mission had ended, as Curiosity’s two-gigabyte memory card was now filled to capacity. “Well, that’s that, folks,” said chief scientist John Grotzinger, explaining that after Curiosity’s Mars Descent Imager took an especially…
The Qur’an gives us insight into the Muslim world—as well as the Christian faith
My colleague Fran Leap, a thoughtful and wise explorer of intellect and the human heart as related to the divine, describes her experience as a Christian coming to know a very different holy text– one that comes from an aural rather than scriptural tradition. The Qur’an longs to convince its hearers of the fragile and…
Ten Basic New Media Skills Journalists Need To Know
Word. This list was published in 2008, so it’s unthinkable that student could graduate from a journalism program today without these competencies. I’d have to add “the fundamentals of coding a multimedia project” and I want to add “the ability to mine a database for a story.” With all the new changes brought about by…
Flying Saucer Irony
My Summer Project: A WordPress Website for Stage Right, a Local Non-Profit
Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. Stage Right has a 15-year history of quality education and professional local theater. But you wouldn’t know it from their old website… the talented and busy people who maintained the old site would regularly take down old content (such as the announcement of cast lists, or…
Technical Writing Instruction
I haven’t taught a technical writing course in a while… I was thinking of offering it again sometime soon, so I was happy to see the recommendations on the rhet-comp making list, Rhonda McCafferty: There are also good excerpts in David R. Russell’s *Writing in the Academic Disciplines: A Curricular History*. The second edition was published…
Mom scheduled to serve community service hours for chalk vandalism
Even though both sides share their point-of-views, they agreed on a common ground to help beautify the James River Park System. —NBC12.com A typical TV-news style “send them into the laundry detergent commercial feeling happy” story conclusion, designed to train the viewer to think of TV news as a valuable provider of wisdom and establisher…
I haven’t had a poison ivy rash this bad since high school
A couple weeks before my high school production of Arsenic and Old Lace, I got into a batch of poison ivy at a mandatory class retreat. I was playing the lead, and there were a couple of stage kisses, so rehearsals were quite awkward with my bandaged hands. A couple days ago I (finally) mowed…
NASA mission to Mars: Rover Curiosity touches down – The Washington Post
NASA’s rover Curiosity touched down deep in a Martian crater early Monday after a picture-perfect descent and landing, beginning what promises to be the most ambitious planetary mission in history. via NASA mission to Mars: Rover Curiosity touches down – The Washington Post.