"Before the Internet, the only opportunity most students had to speak with their professors was during scheduled class sessions or office hours. Now, more professors can be in touch with students at any time — morning, noon, and night, seven days a week." [The article focuses mostly on courses that meet only online, but this article…
"First released in 1989, HyperCard still has a fiercely dedicated following despite no meaningful update in about 15 years." —HyperCard Forgotten, Not Gone (Wired) Similar:My big acting moment in this scene is declining a drink. #indie #filmAmusingRediscovering Infocom Games With My Kids Call it the Familyhood of the Tr…CybercultureBuzzFeed plagiarism, deleted posts: Jonah Peretti explains.In…
The second issue of Game Studies is out. Similar:Reading Literature on Screen: A Price for Convenience?Because all of my Seton Hill students ge…AcademiaSeton Hill discontinues mask requirement for vaccinated individualsThe pandemic is not over. It’s a blessin…AcademiaHow PatrioticAmusingStandardized Test Scores Don't Really Measure LearningThere are ways to raise a child’s test s…AcademiaGirlhood 2014They don’t even…
“D[ungeons]&D[ragons] sort of came about after a monster marathon week of reading Conan novels, eating popcorn until it was coming out of my ears-no I was not on drugs-and we got the idea to do something in a dungeon.” —Dave Arneson Interview (GameSpy) A “monster marathon”… ha, ha. Similar:Is Google Making Us Stupid?Nicholas Carr, in…
“Once upon a time, in a part of the house where grownups rarely visited, there was the Land of the Stuffed Animals… But Professor Blue Smush DinoBaby’s warning came too late. First a slight tremor came from within the box.” Jon Hansen —Tales of the Plush Cthulu Similar:Long Live The English Major—If It’s Paired With…
"The true link between technology and art, regarded in modern times as something shameful, is becoming increasingly apparent, and the evidence suggests that artists’ dependence on machines has been not only extensive but long-lived…" Charles Paul Freund —Traces of Genius: Is Art Sullied by Technology? (Reason) Similar:Homage to PoeMichael Dirda offers a thoughtful assess…BooksOwner of…
"Debate has raged in recent years whether it was even fair to call Pluto a planet, given its newfound status as one object among many in the Kuiper Belt — which actually contains more mass than the better-known asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter." Steve Kettman —Pluto: Too Hip to Be Out…
“Instead of a library, the school has a resource center equipped with computer workstations that can access the Web, e-books and online journals. The resource center also houses several meeting tables, audio-visual materials and a few paper magazines — but no books.” Katie Dean —Who Needs Paper? Not Iowa College (Wired) Similar:Video games 'teach dyslexic…
Is this for real? "The controversial suicide device will be promoted under the name "Aussie Bags" and will be shipped with the warning ‘DO NOT put this bag over your head. It could kill you.’" —Aussie Suicide Bags Delayedb> (AAP) Similar:Why Even Try if You Have A.I.? Now that machines can think for us, we…
"Mr. Storch has found that the ease, speed and accuracy of writing with a computer keyboard have vastly reduced the occasions on which he might turn to a pen or pencil. As a result, he and many others who spend hours a day using computers say that the penmanship they learned in school is deteriorating…
"Several years ago, the State University of New York at Buffalo took stock of its proliferating Web sites and found more than 250,000 pages spread out across 17 different servers. Not surprisingly, students and faculty members were having a hard time finding information they needed, even though they knew it was probably online — somewhere." Florence…
“Soon. Like in the next half hour or so. Given that I can’t do anything about it, I thought it might be interesting to stay online as long as I can and tell you what transpires…. I taste salt and something else. I exult in these moments. it’s the payoff for the bad times, the…
"After posting his father’s poem — a bitter reflection on the state of Egyptian society and culture after Egypt was defeated in the 1967 war against Israel — Shohdy was arrested in November 2001." Sergey Kuznetsov —Father’s Poem, Son’s Conviction (Wired) Similar:Humanities and STEM Can and Should Get Along BetterIn my lit and writing classes,…
: The Smoking Gun features a small trove of scanned images of Monroe artifacts, including her will and a love note to Joe DiMaggio. Marilyn Monroe Died 40 Years Ago Today Similar:Responding to Literature at the College LevelA new handout, based on the opening lect…AcademiaHow reading fiction can help improve our mental healthIn general, I…
When asked to read a magazine article, 40% of college students thought that the author had performed the research reported in the article: "The willingness of students to believe that anyone who writes is an expert and authority was striking." Kate Manuel —How first-year college students read Popular Scienceb> (Studies in Media & Information Literacy…
In light of the above, it might be appropriate to mention Don’t Link to Us!: “Stupid Linking Policies.” Thanks, “paheil”. Similar:Introduction to The Skin of Our Teeth (optimistic, absurdist metatheater; Thornton Wilder,…https://youtu.be/1okt8MIVTtsAcademiaBe Kind, for Everyone You Meet Is Misattributing This Quote in a MemeBe kind, for everyone you meet is fighti…AmusingOminous Darkness Descending On…
At Columbia, students "play pretend-journalism" for 10 months and leave with a master’s degree. "It’s striking how small has been the influence of J-school graduates on the upper reaches of American journalism." Tunku Varadarajan —Who Needs Dr. J? [Journalism-school reform at Columbia] (WSJ) Similar:How much of what local TV stations post to Facebook is actually…
Weblogs are vehicles for debunking inaccurate, biased reporting–exposing the media giants like never before. "A favorite target is the [New York] Times, which has developed the habit of running front-page editorials posing as news reports." John Leo —Flogged by Bloggers (U.S. News) Similar:Not sure whether I should be proud or embarrassed… As part of a…
"Researchers examined how different professions wrote text messages and divided them into four groups – creatives, jugglers, controllers and facilitators." —Children’s text messages are ‘the key to their future’ (Ananova) Sounds like a lazy journalist paraphrasing a press release rather than actually doing journalism, but the basic idea presented in the article seems interesting. Similar:Mary…
"The Internet is fueling an increase in library use which, in turn, has led to a library-construction and renovation boom." Steve Freiss —The Web Didn’t Kill Libraries: It’s the New Draw (CS Monitor) Similar:What Was the TED Talk?The title borders on clickbait, but the …CultureGoogle 1407Philipp Lenssen and I had a bit of fun i…AestheticsA…