Grant to lure male teachers

The Catholic Education Office abandoned plans last year to challenge sex discrimination laws after it agreed to add an additional 12 female-only scholarships to balance plans to offer 12 male-only scholarships. —Samantha Maiden and Paige Taylor —Grant to lure male teachers (News.Com.Au) Becasue a scholarship program designed to increase the number of male teachers was ruled…

Fat Cat Publishers Breaking the System

Sadly, commercial publishing threatens the very system it exists to support. When expensive commercially published materials cannot be bought, when university presses cannot afford to publish monographs for junior faculty, everyone suffers. Students and scientists cannot gain access to badly needed materials; scholars cannot get tenure for lack of that first published monograph. The modern…

Google files for IPO

Ending months of speculation, search engine company Google plans to float by selling $2.7 billion worth of shares in an online share auction. —Google files for IPO (Internet Magazine) The online community has been waiting for this for a long time. How long will Google’s geek-friendly “don’t be evil” philosophy last under the pressure to make…

Cool Hunting at Seton Hill University

Discuss William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition. In-class activity: find a partner. Inspect what he or she is wearing or carrying, and write down every brand name you can spot. We will collate the results and vote on what is, or isn’t “cool.” Brand Name Cool rating? VICTORIA SECRET 14+ Advil 14 Hanes 13 Adidas 12 Smackers…

Disappearing Act

About 45 percent of all faculty members are now part-timers. Each year thousands of people with new doctorates in fields like history and English fail to find the tenure-track jobs they are chasing. In English, for instance, fewer than half of the new Ph.D.’s win tenure-track jobs initially, according to the Modern Language Association. When…

Unnaturally Speaking

In Dragon’s Looking Glass world, inanimate objects speak in tongues; cups, saucers, hammers, and styrofoam are endowed with the gift of speech; and the babble of a brook is literal, not metaphorical. It’s personification (and heteroglossia) taken to an extreme. It strikes me that this peculiar propensity for hearing the cacophony of voices in anything…

A Tree-Mail 'Thank You'

A Tree-Mail ‘Thank You’Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) Sometimes, even for a cyber-guy like me, an old-fashioned, hand-crafted “Thank You” note just makes it all worthwhile. From my former student Kirsten Schubert, who really knows how to make a fellow feel appreciated. You’re very welcome, Kirsten! Similar:Ideal Homeschool Summer Day: Studying Latin, Justifying Nilla Wafers, and Making…

On Instructional Technology and Face-to-Face Interaction

Similar:The Life and Times of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯But, in addition to symbolizing despair,…CybercultureThat gut-wrenching photo of immigrant children in a cage? First published in 2014.Don’t blame “the media” for using this p…CultureRobot competition requires science, innovation and teamworkEarly tomorrow my son and I will be carp…EducationWhat if Generative AI turned out to be a Dud?I’m sad thinking…

Princeton faculty approves grade-rationing plan

Under the guidelines, which go into effect in the fall for Princeton’s 4,600 undergraduates, faculty are expected to restrict the number of A’s to 35 percent in undergraduate courses; for junior and senior independent work, the percentage receiving A’s will be capped at 55 percent. —Princeton faculty approves grade-rationing plan (CBS/AP) Similar:Desiderata (Nerdy Inspiration)This is a…

Primetime Cheating

—Primetime Cheating (Pedablogue) My colleague Mike Arnzen has already created the blog entry I was about to create, so I’ll just link to him. Similar:If not enough people are stopping by your table to hear your presentation, you take your p…AcademiaMentoring skills, communication/listening, empathy, critical thinking define successful em…A Google self-study found that its own m…BusinessThe…

More Blog. Less Talk.

Complaints I often hear around campus (our students don’t read/write) are turned on their head when we see the kinds of writing circulating around the economy of expression called the Web. Not everyone‘sthere yet, but many are; many we don’t realize are our the students in first year writing sitting there bored because of some…

Whatever happened to Dungeons and Dragons?

In the 1980s millions of teenagers world-wide would battle dragons armed with just dice, paper and pens. D&D became part of youth sub-culture but as the game celebrates its 30th birthday, is anyone still playing? —Darren Water —Whatever happened to Dungeons and Dragons? (BBC) Similar:The Masterpiece Society (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 5, Episode 13) Space Thing…