Promoting Instruction and Learning Opportunities with Technology (PILOT) project

Promoting Instruction and Learning Opportunities with Technology (PILOT) project (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) I’m taking training in acessibility via Seton Hill’s Promoting Instruction and Learning Opportunities with Technology (PILOT) project. I’ll be blogging some of my thoughts on the “inclusion” unit of this online course. Revising Seminar in Thinking and Writing (with an eye on inclusion) Universal…

Oscar-winning composer Goldsmith dies

Academy Award-winning composer Jerry Goldsmith, who created the memorable music for scores of classic movies and television shows ranging from the “Star Trek” and “Planet of the Apes” series to “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” and “Dr. Kildare,” has died. He was 75. —Oscar-winning composer Goldsmith dies (CNN/AP) Similar:Love Online”The exchange of love letters was centra…CultureUdacity's Sebastian…

Getting back into the groove

Queen Victoria, Abraham Lincoln, Florence Nightingale and other characters from history may soon be able to speak again, as scientists perfect techniques to recover the sound from recordings that are far too delicate to be played. —Maggie Shiels —Getting back into the groove (BBC) Thanks for the suggestion, Rosemary. Similar:Seton Hill Student Journalists Launch Local Election…

Guide to the Early Star Trek Novels

Today STAR TREK spans six television series, ten feature films and several interactive CD-ROMs. In addition, the STAR TREK afficionado had hundreds of novels to choose from with dozens more being published each year. It was not always thus. Those of us who were loving STAR TREK in the late 1960’s and into he early…

Reading at Risk: A Response

The NEA’s recent “Reading at Risk” report, which concludes that there has been a 10% national decline in what it calls literary reading since 1982, with the drop-off even more precipitous among younger age groups, is surely of concern to anyone who cares about the future of literature and a literate populace. While the report…

Political conventions to welcome bloggers

More than 30 independent Web journalists have been accredited to cover the Democratic convention, and the Republicans said Friday they’ll also credential so-called bloggers. It’s the first time bloggers will be joining the thousands of newspaper, magazine and broadcast journalists at the quadrennial presidential-nomination events. —Political conventions to welcome bloggers (CNN/AP) A few people have mentioned…

Game with God

“Games that treat religion realistically, weaving it into the game as it is woven into people’s lives, can provide a richer and more realistic simulation,” says Destination Games founder and Ultima creator Richard Garriott. “Spirituality lends the game world credibility and completeness. The search for meaning in life is universal, and a shallower life of…

An Adviser Without Advice

She graduated a year ago with a major in English and a minor in information systems. Now she works as a cashier. She wore a red smock and a little plastic nametag with the word “Target” on the bottom. Pampers, VeggieTales videos, Harry Potter paperbacks, and kitchen utensils designed by Michael Graves rolled by. My…

In the Penthouse of the Ivory Tower

A road trip with someone you’ve never met—more specifically, a road trip across a prison-clogged desert with an English professor you’ve never met—is a delicate thing, and we both want this to go well, because he’s about to be my guide and interpreter for four days at the 119th Annual Modern Language Association Convention. Gideon…

Beowulf Goes To Movies

Warner Brothers is developing a film based on the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Newcomer Matthew Sand will write the script for the film version of the story, about a knight who takes up the sword against a monster. The eighth-century tale centers on Beowulf of the Geats, who is called…

10 Dumb Moments in Sci-Fi Cinema

Once people overhear some pale guy with wizard hair explaining how a light saber simply isn’t possible, as the exposed plasma from the device would irradiate every living organism with a 5-kilometer radius, what are people supposed to think? “Sexy?” Yet, part of being a sci-fi fan is being its harshest critic, and so we…

A royal occasion as Web inventor is knighted

The father of the World Wide Web was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II on Friday, and said his revolutionary invention was the result of being in the right place at the right time. —A royal occasion as Web inventor is knighted (Independent) Similar:Bilbo's party sociological infographic.AestheticsHaven (TNG Rewatch, Season 1, Episode 10) When a low-stakes rom-com…

Wired for Cheating: Some professors go beyond honor codes to stop misuse of electronic devices

At the start of the final exam for “Principles of Accounting I,” the team of professors who taught the popular course posted on its Web site an answer key loaded with false responses to the 30 multiple-choice questions. As some 400 students deliberated over their answers, the exam proctors sat and watched — ignoring occasionally…

Suzuki Sampler: Guitar

Suzuki Sampler: Cello | Piano | Violin | GuitarSuzuki Sampler: Guitar (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) It’s 20 minutes after we’re supposed to have started, and there’s no instructor here. When you consider how rapidly a Suzuki lesson goes, I figured that didn’t bode well for today. My son Peter and the other student in the class, Georgie,…