Hilarious bit about what happens when students are made to memorize great poetical works and can recite them at will for life, even when drunk and wandering the streets in the dead of night. This post from Fielding at The Guardian makes me regret not keeping up the curious habit of learning poems by heart so one can pull them out at odd times throughout one’s life. My fifth-grade teacher made her students memorize a poem of their choice every week, and then recite the poem on Friday. I loathed every single Friday from September through June in 1985. The vomit wants to come back whenever I see a Shel Silverstein book.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

Physics is phun! Except when you don’t check your math. Occasionally I am referred to as an obsessive, over-achieving re-checker of my answers. Trig, chem, calc, or physics. Doesn’t matter, I’ll re-check everything just to be dead certain sure it’s right and I didn’t flip a negative sign somewhere. And have I ever launched a cannonball through a house and a minivan? No, I have not.

Those Mythbusters guys (and girl) are smart and creative and have, quite possibly, the coolest job ever. In eight years of mythbusting experiments that have included a lot of potentially dangerous situations (they really like to blow sh*t up), nothing like this has ever occurred. I’m quite certain that the math was checked, just so we’re all clear on the fact that one flukey screw up among hundreds of potential fails does not take down one of the best television shows of all time. And who else teaches the world physics, math, and chemistry while doing insanely dangerous stuff?

Further Reading:

Mythbusters Cannon Experiment Ends in Epic Fail
Dr. Tae Tells It Like It Is
Launching Potatoes for Physics Lessons

Posted by Alexa Harrington

Technology and education coming together to make college students smarter, faster, better! I’m so excited I can barely keep my pants on!

CourseSmart announced today that they’ve launched some sweet techno wonderfulness for reading eTextbooks on mobile devices. It means carrying fewer of those spine-telescoping textbooks and saving reams of tree parts.

SAN MATEO, Calif., November 21, 2011 — CourseSmart®, the world’s largest provider of eTextbooks and digital course materials, today announced the launch of their new, industry first, mobile Web app that provides students and faculty access to a catalog of more than 20,000 eTextbooks andother digital course materials on a variety of mobile devices including the Kindle Fire and the iPad®. This breakthrough brings thousands of digital course materials to the most popular mobile reading devices furthering the company’s mission of anytime, anywhere access to course materials in higher education.

“Our mission is to connect students and faculty with affordable course materials that they need to become successful. With this new Web-based application, we are putting the world’s largest catalog of eTextbooks and digital course materials in the hands of an increasingly growing number of digitally-dependent students and faculty,” said Sean Devine, CEO at CourseSmart. “As mobile devices like the Kindle Fire and iPad continue to make their way onto college campuses and into the classroom, we are excited to offer yet another option for our users to not only access their digital textbooks but to improve their reading experiences with features such as page fidelity.”

The mobile Web app is optimized to best support multi-touch screens of today’s most popular mobile devices and it is designed to offer users the:

&bullConvenience to view all eTextbooks from a single location,
&bullAbility to search for a topic within your eTextbook including access to the Table of Contents,
&bullCapability to zoom in on text and graphs as well as to add and view notes, and
&bullSame page fidelity experience as found in a print textbook version equivalent.

There is no downloading process to access the free Web app. On supported browsers, CourseSmart users with an active eTextbook account will automatically be prompted to sign into the Web app when they begin reading their eTextbooks. Any future enhancements for the app are automatically updated, eliminating the need to visit an app store to obtain the latest app version.

The app is supported by Amazon Silk, Safari and Google Chrome browsers on the following devices: Kindle Fire, iPad and Androidâ„¢ 3.0 and higher OS tablets.

Further Reading:

CourseSmart Research Reveals College Students Lerve Their Digital Devices
College Students, eTextbooks, and Tablet Devices
Buying Textbooks: New, Used, Rented, or Digital
CourseSmart’s eTextbook App for the iPhone

Posted by Alexa Harrington

The unfortunate phenomenon of elementary-aged girls becoming interested in STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) subjects, going off to college intending to major in and then pursue a career in one of those fields, and ultimately veering off somewhat sharply into less science-and-math rich majors and careers is common.

Fortunately, it has not gone unnoticed by the chicks who have gone on to work in their dream STEM fields, and several entities have started working to foster girls’ education and career paths in STEM subjects.

Michelle Obama, not a STEM girl herself (what with being a lawyer and all), is all for supporting girls in math and science and gave a little talk about it recently. My favorite bits from the transcript:

And if we’re going to out-innovate and out-educate the rest of the world, then we have to open doors to everyone. We can’t afford to leave anyone out. We need all hands on deck. And that means clearing hurdles for women and girls as they navigate careers in science, technology, engineering and math.

And it starts with lighting the spark for science and math in elementary school and grade school. We talk about this all the time. I know for me, I’m a lawyer because I was bad at these subjects. (Laughter.) All lawyers in the room, you know it’s true. We can’t add and subtract, so we argue. (Laughter.)

And so encouraging girls early not to lose heart in those fields, and encouraging them through high school is important. But it also means making sure that these young women can keep pursuing their dreams in college and beyond.

Further Reading:

Why So Few Women In Science, Technology, Engineering and Math?
Dual Academic Careers
First Lady Michelle Obama Speaks to the Dept. of Education

Posted by Alexa Harrington

Along the lines of my previous post regarding the much abhorred Epic Fail, Emily Chapman at Hack College wrote a piece advising one to Refuse to Dwell, Move On, Kick Ass. Well put.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(photo: kick-ass)

It turns out parents and students are less than rational when it comes to choosing institutions of higher learning for the prospective college student’s matriculation. Paying for the education venture twists everyone’s grey matter into knots as well. Let’s keep our heads in the game, people! Read this article in the Wall Street Journal: Get Smart About College.

From the article:

When weighing present obligations against future potential, it can help to take a step back. College is an investment but it’s a peculiarly intimate one; students are investing in themselves, parents in people they love. To get some perspective on the matter, families should look at choosing and paying for a college like starting a small business (You, Inc.). Would someone launch an enterprise without a line of credit? Or skimp on equipment and human capital to avoid cutting into short-term consumption?

Families should also think carefully about context when they’re making estimates of future earnings. Someone who graduates in four years is likely to have a shot at a much better first job than someone who graduates right now; many experts hope and expect the economy to look quite different by the time today’s high school students finish college.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(photo: campus)

According to the Associated Press, American public colleges and universities have managed to spend their way through the $10 billion-pile of government stimulus money. Insanely large tuition fees and class sizes along with decreased course offerings are still front and center on American campuses, but at least the stimulus money helped to prevent (or maybe only slow) the shutting down of degree programs and entire schools. Now that the money’s gone, I predict more and deeper tribulation.

Is it too obvious to suggest that keeping higher education a viable option for Americans should be among the highest priorities? An ever-expanding cohort of young, energetic, jobless and uneducated Americans sounds like the crappiest American Dream ever.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(photo: ed andrieski)

They always make you take history in school. I’m more of a math and science girl and will always choose a good chemistry lab over a history lecture. However, having been expected to complete several history courses (for the well-rounding of me and my education), I did pick up on the patterns we humans cycle through as decades and centuries go past. The technology we create for ourselves, ostensibly to make our lives easier/better/faster, seems always to impact more than just the job it was created for. I’m talking about wheels and looms, satellites and cotton gins, not Silly Putty and Flowbees.

Dean Shareski over at Ideas and Thoughts wrote a piece about technology in education and whether or not its just a tool. We’re in the midst of that changing moment, the one some hardcore science geek college girl will have to learn about a few centuries hence.

Further Reading:

Literacy: We’ve Still Got It
Another New and Exciting Way to Be Driven Over the Edge by Technology
New Essay Writing Apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch
Implementing Different Tools
Launching the Emerging Media Major
“Don’t Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please?”
The Future of Education
Digitizing Knowledge
21st Century Learners

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(technology)

The Memorial was opened Sunday, August 28th, the 48th anniversary of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

Sometimes mankind doesn’t let me down.

Further Reading:

Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial
A Dream Fulfilled, Martin Luther King Memorial Opens

Posted by Alexa Harrington

The five commandments Valerie Strauss at the Washington Post has come up for college freshmen (so they won’t screw their first term up too badly):

Thou shall be responsible for YOU.

Thou shall take advantage of what college offers.

Thou shall be a student of learning.

Thou shall develop a personal brand.

Thou shall not forget those who are making college possible and gave you this great start in life.

It’s difficult to balance the learning part with the taking advantage of everything college life offers, but you’ll figure it out eventually. I hosed Fall Term of my freshman year pretty well, but I maintained a life and a solid GPA after that. Good luck, everyone. Here’s some advice from me:

Further Reading:

College Advice
Don’t Screw Up Your Future
I Live In A Van Down By Duke University
Year One: A College Blog

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(fall foliage campus)