in the cloud

1956 short film on how to take a test. Has much changed?

Thoughts from a Neuroscientist and Art Historian

“Given the over-saturation of images, what is your visual breaking point?”

We feel history. We shouldn’t be focused on knowing, but instead feeling history. Teaching empathy.

The Central Park Five is on now

Ten Years After: How Not to Teach About the Iraq War

This is why we need to search out—and to create—materials that help teachers not only “teach outside the textbook,” in the words of the Zinn Education Project, but teach against the textbook. We need to invite dissident perspectives into the classroom: those that challenged the baseless connection between Saddam Hussein and the 9/11 attackers, those that question the military recruitment tactics that target our students, those that expose the reality of war with honesty and compassion, and those that pose fundamental questions about the roots of empire. Lets not allow the Holt McDougals of the world to decide what our students will learn about war and peace.

The Problematics of the Fake Harlem Shake

A major problematic of this meme is that it takes an already marginalized group in America, one whose history and culture has often been appropriated and co-opted in fetishistic ways by the white majority, and makes a mockery of not just them, but an entire dance tradition.

This literal erasure of black culture and its replacement with an absurdist movement and meme needs to be considered in light of African-American oppression and institutionalized racism in the United States. Supplanting the sinuous artistry of the Harlem Shake with frenetic styleless arm flailing and hip thrusting is yet another brick in a grand wall of symbolic and structural violence that further relegates an entire culture to the margins, both on and offline.

Here’s how to do the Harlem Shake

theinsidelane:

Book of Kells - Thanks to @seomraranga for spotting this. The excellent Book of Kells iPad app is free today, St. Patrick’s Day. The app is normally €11.99 so grab it today. Follow this link to read more about the app on Seomra Ranga.

Grammarians in Hoodies

Grammar instruction has been mocked and marginalized for decades, partly because the rules were too cold and unfeeling. Lately, the rules have been making a bit of a comeback. Educators are starting to believe that English grammar, even with its quirky rules, is far better than nothing, after they’ve seen the results of nothing. The SAT added grammar questions to its format in 2005 in response to pressure from college administrators. Parents have begun to push for more English language instruction. The NCTE has softened its position, and now we see a growing number of teachers bringing grammar, the forgotten spinster of school subjects, back to the party.

“In the work force, grammar will be as important as this training of analyzing literature,” says Ms. Bassett. “[These students] are not going to be paid in 20 years for analyzing literature. They’re going to be paid to present something to their company.”

photo via flickr:CC | the_munificent_sasquatch

10 African-American History Month Teaching Resources

photo via flickr:CC | USACE Europe District

Israeli, Palestinian schoolbooks flawed: study

A new study weighed in on one of the hot-button subplots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Monday, saying schoolbooks of both sides largely present one-sided narratives but rarely resort to demonization.

The study, presented at a news conference Monday, said the books of both sides are flawed but on par with what is typical of societies in conflict.
“There’s no hate speech. There is no incitement. There’s selective narratives,” said Palestinian scholar Sami Adwan of Bethlehem University, one of the lead researchers, along with Israeli Daniel Bar-Tal from Tel Aviv University and Bruce Wexler from Yale University.

photo via flickr:CC | severinelaville

Thinking Like a Historian

Students need to be taught to “think like historians” not because they will become professional historians but precisely because most won’t. The goals of school history are not vocational but to prepare students to tolerate complexity, to adapt to new situations, and to resist the first answer that comes to mind.

High-res

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a United States federal holiday marking the birthday of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It is observed on the third Monday of January each year, which is around the time of King’s birthday, January 15. The floating holiday is similar to holidays set under the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, though the act predated the establishment of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day by 15 years.

Did you know..?

• Was originally created by Harris Wofford and John Lewis to create a day of citizen action volunteer service in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.
• President Ronald Reagan opposed the holiday, but signed the bill creating the federal holiday November 2, 1983.
• It was observed for the first time on January 20, 1986.
• For the first time in 2000 it was officially observed in all 50 states.
• Was known as “Human Rights Day” in Utah until 2000.
• Is still shared with Robert E. Lee’s birthday celebration in Mississippi.
• It is celebrated outside the USA in one country: Japan.

Top 10 Words Worth Reviving

As part of its initiative to draw attention to some of the English language’s most expressive — yet regrettably neglected — words, Wayne State University has released its annual list of the year’s top 10 words that deserve to be used more often in conversation and prose.

1. Buncombe  Rubbish; nonsense; empty or misleading talk.
2. Cerulean  The blue of the sky.
3. Helonian  Like a turtle (and who doesn’t like turtles?).
4. Dragoon  To compel by coercion; to force someone to do something they’d rather not.
5. Fantods  Extreme anxiety, distress, nervousness or irritability.
6. Mawkish  Excessively sentimental; sappy; hopelessly trite.
7. Natter  To talk aimlessly, often at great length; rarely, it means simply to converse.
8. Persiflage  Banter; frivolous talk.
9. Troglodyte  Literally, a cave-dweller. More frequently a backward, mentally sluggish person.
10. Winkle  To pry out or extract something; from the process of removing the snail from an edible periwinkle.

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thisistheverge:

Google60 makes your web search slower, noisier, and exponentially more amazing

Google didn’t exist during the 1960s, but if it did, it may have looked a lot like Google60. Described as “an art project to explore distances and heroism in user interfaces,” Google60 is the latest creation from designer and developer Norbert Landsteiner, who earlier this year released Google BBS — a project that allowed users to conduct Google searches from within a 1980s bulletin board-style interface.

howstuffworks:

Tech Stuff podcast: Was Ada Lovelace the first computer programmer?

Happy birthday to Ada Lovelace (aka Augusta Ada Byron) — born this day, December 10th, in 1815. A gifted mathematician and daughter of the infamous Lord Byron, Ada met one Charles Babbage at a party when she was 17 and became fascinated by the mathematician’s Analytical Engine — a kind of mechanical computer that could make complex calculations, including multiplication and division. From that chance meeting grew a strong, dynamic relationship. Ada discussed Babbage’s ideas with him and offered her own insights. In 1843, she published an influential set of notes describing Babbage’s Analytical Engine. Ada also added in some sage predictions, speculating that Babbage’s mechanical computers might one day “act upon other things besides numbers” and “compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity …”

Listen in on Tech Stuff’s classic podcast to learn lots more.

[Image by Colin Adams, based on the original A. E. Chaton portrait, for the Ada Initiative.]

vimeo animates:

A Short History of the Gif | Moving the Still by LEGS MEDIA

In 1987, Compuserve released an image format called 87A, not knowing it would evolve into the Internet’s favorite file-type, the animated GIF.