Maker Faire and Science Education: American kids should be building rockets and robots, not taking standardized tests.

I was at a “serious games” conference several years ago. During a crowded seminar, where I found myself seated on the floor because there were no open seats, one of the industry types was frowning because an educator kept speaking critically of testing. “If you don’t test,” asked the pragmatic businessperson, “how can you assess?”…

We’re Creating a Culture of Distraction

I’d argue that what’s happening is that we’re becoming like the mal-formed weight lifter who trains only their upper body and has tiny little legs. We’re radically over-developing the parts of quick thinking, distractable brain and letting the long-form-thinking, creative, contemplative, solitude-seeking, thought-consolidating pieces of our brain atrophy by not using them. And, to me,…

My Parents (ages 72 and 78) Learn a Polka Step from my iPad

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Stage Right’s Alice in Wonderland

My daughter shared the role of Alice this weekend (she played “Small Alice”). On one night, she also doubled as the mouse, for a different Alice. Similar:Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, Minecraft Stylehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?time_conti…AestheticsMy buddy JTK helps me make a key point in my slideshow. #4c18 #b29Putting speaker notes on an iPad is alwa…AcademiaThe Justice Department Deleted Language…

Is Bilderberg a conference on world affairs or a powerful global cabal? Depends on who you ask. – The Washington Post

I love the obscure Prufrock reference win this Washington Post story: So as the motorcades come and go, are they talking of Marco Rubio? via Is Bilderberg a conference on world affairs or a powerful global cabal? Similar:What's a Snollygoster? Even lexicographers are wrong sometimesThis is an amusing little story about ho…Culture#PPTPlaytime Tartuffe @thepublicpgh (Looking forward…

Redshirt (fan video for Jonathan Coulton song)

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The Pulse: Seton Hill’s iPad Experiment

This month’s edition of The Pulse podcast features a conversation with Mary Ann Gawelek, provost of Seton Hill University, discussing how her institution’s iPad experiment — begun in 2010 — has fared. RPP_102_iPads-in-Education.mp3 via The Pulse: Seton Hill’s iPad Experiment | Inside Higher Ed. Similar:COVID-19 Becoming Less DeadlyBits and pieces from a news article that…Current_EventsMultiple…

Youngest-ever National Spelling Bee competitor says fatigue, stress led to misspelling onstage

“Overall, it was just boring. Really boring! Really boring!” —The Washington Post. Similar:As yearbooks die, colleges lose a link to the pastThis year, for the first time in decades…AcademiaSlashes in Legal WritingI’m not a student.  I found your we…BusinessFascination (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 3, Episode 10) Comic crush after crush; that's…Rewatching ST:DS9 A character-driven …AmusingIn…

National Headline Contest 2011

Great headlines from winner David Bowman. National Headline Contest 2011. Similar:The karyotype of Pimelodella cristata (Siluriformes: Heptapteridae) from Central Amazon ba…Some scholarly journals have a more rigo…AcademiaLearning the hard way, by making mistakes and starting over. The fore section of the fanta… AestheticsHow CNN Found the Reddit User Behind the Trump Wrestling GIFCNN is protecting…