Alvin Trusty recently pointed out the inefficiencies of synchronous chat rooms in online courses. The social protocol of the chat room does not always lend itself well to serious discussions. In a chat, people are constantly entering and leaving. Some people try to monopolize the conversation by responding to every comment made. Others take the discussion off-topic by following tangents. The result can be a … Continue reading Inefficient Technology

Last year, I started listening to The Word Nerds podcast. This show examines a particular aspect of our language and culture in each episode. If you know the difference between a mondegreen and a portmanteau, this is the kind of thing you would like. I found it interesting for a while, but after a few months, my interest waned. Recently, the show has shown signs … Continue reading Grammar Girl

Over at TechnoSpud, Jennifer Wagner has been coordinating collaborative projects for nearly a decade. She started by collecting data for a science project, and reasoned that she could use the Internet to collect data from students all over the world. Eight years later, she’s coordinating five projects a year, involving hundreds of classrooms and thousands of students. Registration is now available for the St. Patrick’s … Continue reading Collaborative Projects

I love optical illusions. It’s a lot of fun to see how we can play tricks on our minds by exploiting our understanding of how our brains interpret what we see. Most of the time, I can see right through the illusions. We’ve seen the impossible trident, the Rubin vase, the Penrose Triangle, and the work of M.C. Escher enough to know when we’re being … Continue reading Optical Illusions

Maybe not. It was just the Sound and Video Catalog at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Macaulay Library. Despite the fact that there aren’t any cheetahs, the catalog does have an impressive collection of animal recordings, some of which date back half a century or more. Many also have video. As you’d expect from a lab of ornithology, there are lots of birds. But I … Continue reading Thought I Heard a Red-Winged Blackbird

The problem with storing information is that the media is always changing. Almost seven years ago, I bought a new computer. This was my first computer without a 5.25″ floppy drive. I reasoned at the time that I could always connect a drive to it if I ever needed the data on those disks. I never did. I have a box full of disks which … Continue reading Print is Dead