WebCT, like Blackboard and Jenzabar, is a content-management tool for online education. It sets up a password-protected space where students and teachers can present their materials. Laura Gibbs writes: “[O]ne of the major themes of the WebCT presentation was that ‘you don’t need a website anymore – not like you used to!’. Hmmmmm….. since when…
“The writing skills college instructors most want from incoming freshmen–proper grammar and usage–are considered least important by high school English teachers….Among six writing skills, grammar and usage were taught the least by more than 700 high school English teachers surveyed during a national curriculum survey ACT conducts every three years.” Rosalind Rossi —Grammar Valued More…
“The Institute for Interactive Journalism helps news organizations use innovative computer technologies to develop new ways for people to engage in critical public policy issues.” —The Institute for Interactive JournalismJ-Lab) Fascinating approach to journalism as telling, showing, and doing. The site features a “balance-the-budget” game and information about awards for innovative journalism. This site isn’t…
“The one thing that everyone who has studied college education can agree on is that students learn more when they work in groups. Yet colleges don’t build infrastructure to support this. A university will spend hundreds of $millions on dormitories, i.e., places for students to drink beer and sleep together. Why is there is no…
“The most common password was ‘password’ (12 per cent) and the most popular category was their own name (16 per cent) followed by their football team (11 per cent) and date of birth (8 per cent).” John Leyden —Office Workers Give Away Passwords for a Cheap PenRegister) Similar:Google's Super Bowl Ad: A Romance in SearchI…
“Investigators now have the strongest evidence yet that the space shuttle Columbia’s left wing was critically punctured during liftoff, when falling debris started the fatal chain of events that led to the breakup of the shuttle when it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere…” —Shuttle Doomed at TakeoffABC News) Similar:The elements, in haikuEach element of the periodic table…
“King County prosecutors and sheriff’s detectives asked the editors at the Eastside Journal, now called the King County Journal, to run a fake story about a staged arson to make Sherer believe an accomplice had carried out his plans. The newspaper complied.” —Ethics of Paper’s Fake Arson Story Debated Seattle Times) Woah! When does the…
“Retail employees who sell violent video games to minors would face a $500 fine under a bill passed by the Washington state Senate.” —Peddle a Violent Game [to Minors], Pay a Fine Wired) A tiny news item. I added “to minors” in the headline, because this tiny news item seems much more flame-worthy without it.…
“Although bell curve distribution is still considered normal, a surprising number of economic and social phenomena now seem to follow a different arc. Instead of being high in the center and low on the sides, this new distribution is low in the center and high on the sides. Call it the well curve.” Daniel H.…
“Usability has two roles: to set the direction for the design and to check that the design works. The second has gotten the most attention since it is the simplest: just run a user test of any Web site and you will quickly have a long list of things that must be changed to make…
“The arctic rodents called Lemmings are well known for their periodic mass suicides by collectively swimming into the sea and drowning, or at least the Norway lemmings do. This is probably caused by environmental pressures usually from over population…” —Mass SuicideHolology) Actually, the cause of this behavior is more likely to be Disney employees hurling…
“American troops in Saudi Arabia have been listening with amusement to Baghdad Betty, Iraq’s version of Tokyo Rose, who tries to demoralize them with her radio broadcasts. In one monologue, she warned them that their wives back home were sleeping with ‘famous movie stars,’ including Tom Cruise, Arnold Schwarzenegger and even Bart Simpson….” David Ellis…
“Over their keyboards, lonely souls submit questions into the ether, praying that answers lie somewhere in the vast network – and, if not resolution, then at least succor.” Michael S. Malone —Inside the Soul of the Web: 24 hours watching the world look for answers at Google.Wired) Articles in Wired make technology the hero of…
“Good evening, I’m Andy Card — Chief of Staff to President George W. Bush. I welcome you to the inaugural ‘Ask the White House’ online discussion. I am pleased to be here tonight to answer your questions. The Internet is an important communications medium. We have witnessed, especially during Operation Iraqi Freedom, a substantial increase…
“Until earlier this afternoon, a CNN server housed mock-ups of web pages announcing the yet-to-happen deaths. The CNN pages, which were discovered by the intrepid folks at fark.com, were yanked about 20 minutes after being exposed… In addition to Cheney and Reagan, CNN also prepped online farewells to Fidel Castro, Bob Hope, Pope John Paul…
“Many people who were classified as feebleminded would now be called mildly retarded, learning disabled, or simply underachievers. Although the eugenicists saw the Buck family as a pedigree of degeneracy, many would now say that they had few problems a bit of money, education, and opportunity would not have solved. Their only sin was to…
“For years, games have been racing to catch up to the visual standards of animated films. Before long, Carmack says, game graphics will rival Monsters, Inc. in their detail. When that happens, technical advances in games will proceed at Hollywood’s more measured pace – incrementally instead of in great, creative leaps. Innovators will focus on…
“I was on the roof of the Ministry of Information, preparing for my first ‘live shot’ on CNN. A producer came up and handed me a sheet of paper with handwritten notes. ‘[CNN President] Tom Johnson wants you to read this on camera,’ he said. I glanced at the paper. It was an item-by-item summary…
“In spite of denials from congressional leaders, the rash of job cuts has some legislators worried that Congress will be fully mechanized within 10 years.|’The House and Senate will always need people,’ Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert said. ‘These machines are a valuable tool, but there’s still no substitute for the wisdom and experience…
“Never, ever pick a fight with a surrealist. Not unless you are packing a kipper yourself, and are prepared to use it. That much I now know. But at lunchtime on Monday, when I tried to slip through the surrealist blockade of the André Breton auction at the Hôtel Drouot, I assumed a black polo…