Good literacy news from the Washington Post: The share of kindergarten students in the county who can read simple books has risen from 39 to 93 percent in six years, according to school system data culled from reading assessments given each spring. Achievement is so high, and across so many demographic groups, that school officials…
I took a little break from evaluating a close reading assignment in order to look into the online chatter about George W. Bush’s interpretation of a painting called “A Charge to Keep.” Bush hung it on his wall because he identifies with the guy out in front, whom he sees as leading a tough climb…
Wired: A leading general and former top military spokesman in Iraq is pleading with the armed services to let troops blog and post to YouTube. Too bad the video site is banned on military nets, and Army rules squeeze military bloggers, hard. Greg Grant notes, politely, that Caldwell’s “recommendation that appears to run counter to…
Yahoo (AP): “Microsoft’s consistent belief has been that the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo! clearly represents the best way to deliver maximum value to our respective shareholders, as well as create a more efficient and competitive company that would provide greater value and service to our customers,” Ballmer wrote. It has been years since I’ve…
Frontline (PBS). This quote is from one of the producers, Caitlin McNally. There’s not a whole lot there that’s new to me, but it looks like the show will be good introduction to the subject. The majority of teenagers we talked to expressed good-natured exasperation that their parents “didn’t know how to work a computer”…
Jennifer Howard (Chronicle) The guidelines recommend 12 methods for achieving those goals. “Extensive and diverse reading requirements” leads the list. Instructors should also make sure their students study literary terminology and critical approaches, and that they practice critical reading as well as doing their own creative and critical writing. “Close reading of literary works and…
Jenna Wortham (Wired): Wednesday is International Delete Your MySpace Account Day, an online protest geared at uniting users eager to ditch the popular social networking site. Similar:Results of the 18th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition The 18th Annual Interactive Fiction Com…Current_EventsMicrosoft lays off journalists to replace them with AIMicrosoft is laying off dozens of journa…BusinessVideo Tips for…
While walking an introductory class through a close reading of “The Defense of Fort McHenry” (better known as “The Star-Spangled Banner,”) I noted that a student had wondered whether the appearance of “In God We Trust” on US currency had anything to do with the inclusion of a similar phrase, “In God is our Trust,”…
This message arrived in my in box today. The author gave me permission to answer it here. It must have been fate that led me to your site which I perused with great interest. Please allow me to introduce myself. I am a 57 year old male, separated after nearly 27 years of marriage, now…
Non-Gamer: Why is it called “Dance Dance Revolution?”Me: Because the demographic wouldn’t go for “Dance Dance Establishment.” Similar:Fake News Is Not the Real Media Threat We’re FacingConservative talk radio predates the Int…CultureHow to fix the internet: If we want online discourse to improve, we need to move beyond th… A teenager in Indonesia may not see…
A close professional contact who regularly takes on student interns shared this list of guidelines, which she has found necessary to include when orienting a new intern to the routine of office work. Although the site is a non-profit educational organization, and thus the environment is more relaxed and forgiving than it might be in…
The Lego brick system was patented 50 years ago today. Gizmodo offers this timeline. Similar:Hexagons Are the Bestagonshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thOifuHs…AmusingCarnegie Science Center's Guitar ExhibitThis summer, I’m a “CSC Insider” — mean…AestheticsTexture WriterI’ve only glanced at TextureWriter, but …CyberculturePreview of "The Fantasticks" (thanks, Tribune-Review, for covering the arts community)For Luisa, Jerz’s character, “the world …CultureUltimate Infographic Design Guide…
Some thoughtful development of a powerful meme in cyberculture studies, from Henry Jenkins: Talking about digital natives and digital immigrants tends to exagerate the gaps between adults, seen as fumbling and hopelessly out of touch, and youth, seen as masterful. It invites us to see contemporary youth as feral, cut off from all adult influences,…
Great satire from The Onion. Breaking News: Series Of Concentric Circles Emanating From Glowing Red Dot Similar:Can you melt eggs? Quora’s AI says “yes,” and Google is sharing the resultGoogle Search is already well-known…CybercultureIdlewild's Story Book Forest Improves Its SignageIn the past, I have pointed out copy-edi…AestheticsFound: Brass Candle SnifterThis was by the teacher’s station in…
Filed away to read on a rainy day (after I’ve cleared some big projects from my to do list): Jonathan Bate The original manuscripts of Shakespeare’s works do not survive: the sole extant composition in his hand is a single scene from Sir Thomas More, a multi-authored play that cannot really be described as ‘his’.…
WON’T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN??!!!!! Wired Gulf Middle School resource officer John Nohejl didn’t have porn on his MySpace profile, and he didn’t link to porn. But one of the 170-odd people on his friends list, which seems mostly populated by students at his school, had a link to a legal adult site. Now…
Of course it’s not scientific, but it’s fun. Virgil Griffith: Ever read a book (required or otherwise) and upon finishing it thought to yourself, “Wow. That was terrible. I totally feel dumber after reading that.”? I know I have. Well, like any good scientist, I decided to see how well my personal experience matches reality.…
Lauren Collins (The New Yorker) Teen-age identities mutate so quickly online, and can be masked so easily, that by the morning after Megan was pronounced dead Josh Evans had vanished from MySpace. It wasn’t until a month after her death that a neighbor named Michele Mulford told the Meiers that Curt and Lori Drew, who…
Via Language Log: It is a small but not insignificant recent change in written English that in Britain the newspapers have started spelling acronyms in lower case with capital initial instead of all in caps. The Universities and Colleges Employers Association and the the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs are not UCEA and…
Interesting historical anecdote of an early attempt to make an artistic statement with photography, using visual elements that were acceptable in painting, but considered controversial in photography: Rejlander’s “Two Ways of Life.” (via Metafilter). Useful, perhaps, as a point of comparison for what happens when video games cross the line, and attempt to make serious,…