This is Carrie's example post: http://www.objectofhistory.org/activity/tour/419

Solitude

The Germanna cohort is going to spend some time tonight talking about writing, and the importance of planning time for reflection. Two quotes from this article from the Chronicle of Higher Ed, by William Dereseiwicz caught my attention:

So we live exclusively in relation to others, and what disappears from our lives is solitude. Technology is taking away our privacy and our concentration, but it is also taking away our ability to be alone. Though I shouldn't say taking away. We are doing this to ourselves; we are discarding these riches as fast as we can.
......

We are each also separate, each solitary, each alone in our own room, each miraculously our unique selves and mysteriously enclosed in that selfhood. To remember this, to hold oneself apart from society, is to begin to think one’s way beyond it. …No real excellence, personal or social, artistic, philosophical, scientific, or moral, can arise without solitude.

It's a tough article to wade through, but these gems made it worthwhile. It has caused me to consider my life, and to ask myself: "When do you have time to be alone?"

A Better Pencil -- new book discusses whether the Internet is melting our brains...or not!

When it rains -- this article from a student from last year's class -- she knew we discussed the issue of the Internet changing how we think -- and saw this article from Salon about a new book out called A Better Pencil by Dennis Baron.

In his book, he calls the idea that the Internet is melting our brains as "hogwash."

www.salon.com/books/int/2009/09/19/better_pencil/index.html

Carol

A Nation of Wimps? What about the new generation...?

From a colleague...

www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200411/nation-wimps

Psychology Today Online --
Parents are going to ludicrous lengths to take the bumps out of life for their children. However, parental hyperconcern has the net effect of making kids more fragile; that may be why they're breaking down in record numbers.

How does a new generation take on the bumps and bruises of life? What are your thoughts...?

Carol

The Venn Diagram of Social Media

This came through my Google Reader account today, causing me to snort coffee...

Carrie @Germanna

Why in-person education still trumps online-only

This post, about the passing of Dr. Karel Liem, Henry Bryant Bigelow Professor of Ichthyology, Curator of Ichthyology at Harvard University, made an interesting comparison between his life and that of Dr. Randy Pausch, whose "Last Lecture" you'll be watching for class, if you haven't already done so. It's a beautiful memorial to a highly personable professor, and it illustrates, I think, why learning in person is still at an advantage over purely online teaching.

http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/mama_phd/abc_s_and_phd_s_academic_families

Are Dictionaries Obsolete?

This article, "Are Dictionaries Becoming Obsolete?" in the WSJ caught my attention - if you are in the Germanna cohort, we'll be talking a LOT about vocabulary and this sort of thing this week, so you might want to read it in full. Here's a snippet, to pique your interest:

Do we still need dictionaries in the age of Google?

Dictionaries are, after all, giant databases of words compiled by lexicographers who investigate word usages and meanings.

These days, however, Google is our database of meaning. Want to know how to spell assiduous? Type it incorrectly and Google will reply, in its kind-hearted way: "Did you mean: assiduous"? Why yes, Google, I did.

Google then spits out a bunch of links to Web definitions for assiduous. Without clicking on any of them, the two-sentence summaries below each link give me enough to get a sense of the word: "hard working," and "diligent."

Still not satisfied? Fine, click on the Google "News" tab – and you will be directed to a page of links where the word assiduous appears in news stories. Presto, sample sentences and usage examples.

"You and I can be our own lexicographers now," says Barbara Wallraff, the longtime language columnist for The Atlantic magazine. "We don't need dictionaries."

(Extra points for Germanna students for adding information about Barbara Wallraff in the comments....)

Carrie (@ Germanna)

Quick video overview of evaluating websites

The Germanna class has already seen it, and Carol referenced the referring page earlier, but here's the link to the Ball State University Library's tutorial on evaluating websites, “Who do you trust?”

(I find it a bit ironic that this is on myspace, and is from 2006, but there you are.)

Grit

This isn't, strictly speaking, on the topic of Knowledge Management, or even Information in the 21st Century. However, I'm inspired, because yesterday I drove out to Danville to see the first cohort there receive their diplomas. What an exciting day - every one of those 8 graduated with honors. This article, entitled "The Truth About Grit", was referenced in a blog post about scholarly publishing. Here's the main idea:

Unfortunately, the story of the apple is almost certainly false; Voltaire probably made it up. Even if Newton started thinking about gravity in 1666, it took him years of painstaking work before he understood it. He filled entire vellum notebooks with his scribbles and spent weeks recording the exact movements of a pendulum. (It made, on average, 1,512 ticks per hour.) The discovery of gravity, in other words, wasn’t a flash of insight - it required decades of effort, which is one of the reasons Newton didn’t publish his theory until 1687, in the “Principia.”

Although biographers have long celebrated Newton’s intellect - he also pioneered calculus - it’s clear that his achievements aren’t solely a byproduct of his piercing intelligence. Newton also had an astonishing ability to persist in the face of obstacles, to stick with the same stubborn mystery - why did the apple fall, but the moon remain in the sky? - until he found the answer.

In recent years, psychologists have come up with a term to describe this mental trait: grit. Although the idea itself isn’t new - “Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration,” Thomas Edison famously remarked - the researchers are quick to point out that grit isn’t simply about the willingness to work hard. Instead, it’s about setting a specific long-term goal and doing whatever it takes until the goal has been reached. It’s always much easier to give up, but people with grit can keep going....

You all can do it - I know you can. I've seen students with four kids, a spouse, and a responsible job (not to mention academic challenges) make it through the program - with honors. I can't wait to be at the reception when Dean Swartz hands you your diploma!

Carrie (Instructor @ Germanna)

No end to the writing & literacy articles today...

There was a glut of relevant articles today in my news feeds -- once we start looking, they ALL seem too good to miss.

"Can Twitter Turn Students Into Better Writers?"

Many of you have found articles looking at how the Internet has changed the culture of learning -- this article discusses the question of whether online writing -- on social Web forums, such as Twitter, improve or are detrimental to students' writing --
Here's the final quote that notes that there is no easy answer to this question:

"...As non-anecdotal evidence on writing skills creeps in, it could change the curriculum, perhaps banishing Internet-driven composition from the classroom, or perhaps encouraging it."

Carol @ UR