I have finished all of my grading for the semester and submitted my grades. I am feeling the unbearable lightness of being. I’m especially feeling it since I now don’t have to grade anything for about 9 months. I’m on leave for the Spring 2007 semester, so I may not even set foot in a classroom until next August. Unless I have a meeting in a classroom. For those of.. Read More
Space, the Final Frontier of Metadata
I’m writing this in a hotel room in Newport News VA. Tomorrow I’m giving a day-long workshop on educational metadata to NASA’s Center for Distance Learning, which is near Langley Air Force Base. A rather alarming moment this morning when I Yvonne looked at Mapquest directions to NASA Langley. I had assumed — somewhat naively, I now realize — and without, you know, actually looking at a map — that.. Read More
Blackboard and WebCT to Merge
This news is less than an hour old, as I post this. I feel so in the loop. Blackboard and WebCT, leading providers of enterprise software and services to the education industry have announced plans to merge. From the press release: The merger of Blackboard and WebCT marks a major milestone in the build- out of networked learning environments by colleges, universities, schools and other education providers. It creates a.. Read More
Lemurs and Education
Duke Press Release: Anne Yoder Named Duke Primate Center Director A quote from Yoder: “When I was an undergraduate at UNC, I’d always been interested in biology and in animals, but I was rather undirected and not a particularly high-performing student. But when I took a class trip to the Primate Center, it just literally blew my mind! It changed everything. I suddenly had a focus in my studies. I.. Read More
Quote of the day
This is from a multi-part assignment where I have my undergrads review a range of types of information sources. This is from a review of a print source: Basically, it is incredibly dull. Being dull makes something much more scientific. Oh dear. Clearly I need to back up a few steps with this class.
Superfine teaching
This guy has the coolest name: Professor Superfine. And he’s at UNC! It’s so gratifying when we get good press. Bringing Life to Physics Class, from All Things Considered’s series on Popular College Courses. This story makes me wish that information science lent itself more to dramatic demos. This would probably work for showing how packets move, but to show how search engines work? How databases are structured? Maybe not.. Read More