Free cloze test generator

There were a lot of spammy hits out there, so here you go, semantic web: I just found a free cloze test generator that I rather like. It doesn’t seem to be able to save an interactive test, or score the test automatically, but it’s still a time-saver. I’ll be using as part of a close…

Challenging the lecture-homework paradigm

While discussion has always been a big part of my pedagogy, I very much enjoyed this item from an engineering professor about what happened when he pushed the lecture out of class time, and spent what used to be a lecture period as a lab. In my American Lit class, I’m not planning to record…

Study Says Brain Trauma Can Mimic A.L.S.

The mind boggles… Lou Gehrig might not have had Lou Gehrig’s disease. —NY Times Similar:Unity3D Maze Game TutorialWorkspace for an in-progress Unity3D tut…AcademiaJerz and Daughter Teach Scratch (Digital Storytelling Tutorial)In the past I have posted tutorials for …CybercultureMy English major skills crushed the girl in Bananagrams.Wildcard? You mean quitter tile! GamesUnearthing a Long Ignored African…

U.S.S. Requin Tour

Similar:IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE — Berkeley Rep audio productionSinclair Lewis’s 1935 anti-fascist novel…CultureGoogle 1407Philipp Lenssen and I had a bit of fun i…AestheticsHow do I cite generative AI in MLA style? | MLA Style CenterWe ask students to cite encyclopedia art…AcademiaAbout to launch. PersonalJuly 7, 1936: Get a Grip — Phillips Screws Up the ToolboxThis Wired…

Two Tips for Deliberate Practice

So, you’re an office worker who sends tons of email? Take one hour, read this article on writing effective emails, and then rewrite your last ten emails according to those guidelines. Forever after you’ll be a better emailer.–Stubbleblog Similar:Office Hours Are ObsoleteI have nothing against holding office ho…AcademiaVanessa Otero's Updated Media Bias Chart (Liberal/Mainstream/Conservative; Facts/Analysis/…Otero…

Why Does College Cost So Much?

Our technology story rests on three strong pillars. First, like many personal services, including much of health care, the law and banking, higher education remains essentially an artisanal industry. These are industries in which technological progress has not reduced the number of labor hours needed to “produce” the service. By contrast, labor productivity in basic…

Yahoo! mail no longer serves mobile version for my iPad

The very efficient mobile phone version of Yahoo! Mail, m.yahoo.com/mail, no longer works for my iPad. A purple screen with a spinning animation just hangs. What gives? The full web version is way too busy for a touchscreen. Similar:I MacGyvered myself a heat sinkI’m getting ready to record about 18hrs …DesignThe AI revolution is powered…

College Undergrads Study Ineffectively on Computers, Study Finds: Students Transfer Bad Study Habits from Paper to Screen

[A] new study indicates that computers alone can’t keep students from falling into their same weak study habits from their ink-and-paper days…. The research, published in The Journal of Educational Psychology, found that students tend to study on computers as they would with traditional texts: They mindlessly over-copy long passages verbatim, take incomplete or linear…

GET LAMP Sonnet Review

A skillful exercise, this sonnet blog. Such parser game nostalgia warms my heart. You might be int’rested in Graham Nelson’s Command-line Shakespeare remix, The Tempest. Similar:Past Tense, Part 2 (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 3, Episode 12) Sisko must channel socia…Rewatching ST:DS9 After the recap of …CultureDigital Storytelling: an Efficient and Engaging Learning ActivityA digital story…

Contextualizing Student Experiences with iPads in Academe: A Collaborative Exploration of What We Expected, and What Surprised Us So Far (proposal)

Here’s the proposal for an in-house “Teaching and Learning Seminar” I’ll be presenting October 13: There is no scholarship on the academic use of iPads, because people like us — who have just begun teaching and advising and facilitating with iPads — haven’t published it yet. We can, of course, draw on related academic inquiry…

Twenty-Six Old Characters, The (1947)

Sheaffer Pen celebrates the art of writing, highlighting (predictably) the technological advances of the fountain pen. (Thanks to Ryan Trauman, who posted this on techrhet.) Near the climax of Death of a Salesman, Biff confesses that he has totally blown a business opportunity because he stole a big-shot’s fountain pen. When I first read the…

Bushy Run Battlefield Re-Enactment

The volunteers at the Busy Run Battlefield (in southwestern Pennsylvania) put on a fantastic event today, commemorating the high point of Pontiac’s War (the last major unified attempt of the native Americans to oppose British colonization in the aftermath of the French and Indian War). The event continues tomorrow, with a very engaging series of…

LAMP: TAKEN

There was no leaflet in my mailbox this morning, but I did find something much better — a copy of Jason Scott’s text adventure game documentary.My commemorative coin… Similar:The Myth of MultitaskingPsychology Today summary of research tha…HealthWhy I Resist Web Redesigns (And Maybe You Do, Too)Words many of us never want to hear: “It…AestheticsWell-chosen wordsWhy…