Blake Ranking wrote “I did it” on his blurty.com journal three days after the October 2004 crash that caused a friend’s death and left another seriously injured. He had previously told investigators he remembered nothing of the crash and little of its aftermath. —Teen Guilty Of Manslaughter After Online Confession (AP | The Pittsburgh Channel.com) If…
On the last day of class, I handed out index cards for our last collaborative piece of writing. I told my first year students to write something they learned this semester, in any class or in the residence hall. Then we shuffled the cards together and read them aloud. Here is what one class came…
I saw one ray of hope — a “popular writing” program at Seton Hall University, where nontraditional students (i.e., grownups with day jobs) could earn a degree and, more to the point, gain serious professional training without having to attend a university full time. The fact that one school had dared to attempt such a…
—Editing He-Man (Penny Arcade) Who’s been vandalizing the Wikipedia entry for He-Man? (Warning, punchline requires knowledge of 80s pop culture.) Thanks for the link, Matt. Similar:How Social Media Silences DebateThe Internet, it seems, is contributing …CultureWhy the King’s Quest demo reignited my love for adventure gamesI would give this King’s Quest reboot a …CultureCreate Joy with…
If they want to deliver a written paper, they need to understand that, no matter how short they think it is, the odds are against their finishing it. They need a conclusion they can jump to when they get the five-minute warning. That conclusion must be brief. Rather than reading a full paper, it’s better…
Journalists “are not Emily Dickinson writing poetry on backs of envelopes, not caring whether anybody reads them.” Given the state of the industry, with newspaper circulations dropping and publications closing, Collinger said that part of the plan is to develop data and “customer driven communications” is integral to making sure the “cobbler’s children have shoes,”…
While the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal is conservative, the newspaper’s news pages are liberal, even more liberal than The New York Times. The Drudge Report may have a right-wing reputation, but it leans left. Coverage by public television and radio is conservative compared to the rest of the mainstream media. Meanwhile, almost…
It’s true that young offenders who have committed school shootings in America have also been game players. But young people in general are more likely to be gamers — 90 percent of boys and 40 percent of girls play. The overwhelming majority of kids who play do NOT commit antisocial acts. According to a 2001…
Because so many deaf children have problems with basic language skills, they get a disproportionate number of exercises related to these “abstract little pieces.” And unfortunately, that’s exactly what most educational games offer–more of the same thing that’s been shown not to work for these people. So what do I propose? For one thing, I…
For some volunteers, LibriVox is a way to combine their love of literature with their passion for the spoken word. Kristen McQuillen, 39, has recorded 21 different chapters across nine different books from her home in Tokyo. For her, reading a book aloud to someone can make the work more understandable. “I’m giving people who…
Gender in the Workplace (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) When two students followed me to my office after an exam, they gasped when I opened my door. Student 1: “Dr. Jerz — your office is clean!” Student 2: “Did your wife come here?” The shocked guffaws from myself and Student 1 attracted the attention of a colleague from…
The problem is this: if you want to teach Victorian literature at the university level, the path to doing so, while not easy, is straightforward: you go to a Ph.D.-granting university English department, take a doctorate, and apply for suitable jobs in other university English departments. But because all of the various fields and subfields…
Electronic-entertainment giant Take-Two Interactive, parent company of Grand Theft Auto series creator Rockstar Games, released Stacker Tuesday, a first-person vertical-crate-arranger guaranteed not to influence young people’s behavior in any way. —New Video Game Designed To Have No Influence On Kids’ Behavior (The Onion (Satire)) Similar:I was 'raped' in VR – the effects can 'mirror' real sex…
Google Inc., the leading online search engine company, will open a new engineering and research office in Pittsburgh next year to be headed by a Carnegie Mellon University professor, the company announced Thursday. The facility will be charged with creating software search tools for Google. It is expected to create as many as 100 new…
In the new world of interchangeable, interdependent entertainment modules – athlete performs four songs on soundtrack to movie based on videogame! – a football injury can have unexpected repercussions. I’m here looking for some insight into the growing practice of adapting games into movies. There are plenty of them – Double Dragon, from Gramercy Pictures,…
Only eight serious errors, such as misinterpretations of important concepts, were detected in the pairs of articles reviewed, four from each encyclopaedia. But reviewers also found many factual errors, omissions or misleading statements: 162 and 123 in Wikipedia and Britannica, respectively. —Internet encyclopaedias go head to head (News @ Nature.com) Wikipedia stood up fairly well against…
“I will NEVER EVER DO THIS EVER AGAIN and I am once more terribly sorry… Please let me go for I am terribly sorry!!! I’m only a kid! Help me out. I just want to go home. I did this not knowing of the serious penalty that lies behind it. Please! Please! Please!” —Jonathan Baldino…
Many American academic libraries have sought to provide journals in both print and electronic formats for the past 5 to 10 years. The advantages of the electronic format have been clear, so these were licensed as rapidly as possible, but it has taken time for some faculty members to grow comfortable with an exclusive dependence…
Interview with open ended questions and, as with all interviews, use silence on your part to lead the subject to jump to unexpected comments. Most people cannot stand silence, so they will move in to fill it. Great salespeople know this and they use it to close sales. The salesman who closes the sale is…
Interwoven into the scarf material are pixels containing red, blue and green light-emitting diodes (LEDs), so adjusting the brightness of each type of diode turns the scarf a different overall shade. —Chameleon scarf coordinates with your outfit (NewScientist.com (will expire)) O brave new world, that hath such gadgets in it! (I Googled for photos but I…