Vote for Carolyn’s Headshot — Round 2

Vote for Carolyn’s Headshot — Round 2. Similar:More delightful #steampunk control panels. These are computationally efficient bitmap rect…PersonalAnother corner building. Designed and textured. Needs an interior. #blender3d #design #ae…Another corner building. Designed and te…AestheticsFurnished a random nook in the #neovictorian #steampunk cruiser I'm building. Not ha…PersonalStunning picture of my daughterAestheticsPinkalicious — "Buzz Off"My daughter plays…

Imaginary vs Real Office Space

Here’s a fantasy workspace, that I built in Blender 3D, using various Googled images of old books and this awesome steampunk keyboard. Here’s me in my real office. The books aren’t as neat and tidy. I just took some reference photos of the chair… I’ll add it to my fantasy office the next time I…

Flannery O’Connor: “I am in a state of shock”

There’s often a moment in a lit class when a student says, “Since the professor says there’s no single ‘correct’ interpretation of a story, then pretty much anything goes, so I’m going to argue ‘Huck was a girl’ or ‘Hester was a witch.’ ” Of all the possible “correct” answers, the stronger ones are better…

Mars Panorama — 10yo with iPad Pretends Her Bed Is NASA Rover

Mars Panorama — My 10yo Pretends Her Bed Is NASAs Curiosi – YouTube. Similar:Ushering for a school matinee. Love seeing the kids excited about @prime_stage Frankenstei… CultureWhat Grammar and Style Checkers MissTeaching students to write does not mean…AcademiaThe College Fear FactorWhat happens in a literature discussion …AcademiaThe Women’s Media Center: The Status of Women in…

Choosing Carolyn’s Headshot

Which of these headshots do you like best? Let me know on Facebook. Carolyn Headshots. Similar:Happy Easter!PersonalUpdating a villain's lair in #Blender3D. Still a work in progress.AestheticsSettling in for a half day updating my knowledge of the job market my students will face.Settling in for a half day updating my k…Personal1776. Binge-watching Liberty's Kids. New…

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.…

Dennis G. Jerz | Associate Professor of English -- New Media Journalism, Seton Hill University | jerz.setonhill.edu

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. Similar:Apology of Socrates, By PlatoAristotle classified Plato’s work, repre…AestheticsCollege is not a commodity. Stop treating it like one.If we are going to…

‘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. Similar:I just dusted off a #textadventure project I started in Inform6 around 1999.I just dusted off a #textadventure proje…CybercultureA young father sold his beloved sports car for “diaper money.” Years later, the man’s son …“While…

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. Similar:Mask-wearing cuts Covid incidence by 53%, says global study…

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

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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…