It’s been a while since my last one of these. Sorry!
Libraries and education
- Brian Herzog does a great bit on why tech services matters. (having done my share of cataloging and processing, and working in the same office as the people who do it at my current job, I totally agree.)
- One of the big topics out there right now are MOOCs – or massive open online courses. There’ve been several notable failures in planning some of them recently, and that’s brought about a host of articles talking about how to make that better. Check out How Not To Design A MOOC, EdSocialMedia, and
- Related, Clay Shirky talks about how our existing models of college are increasingly broken, and The New Inquiry takes on that article.
I think the Internet does nifty things, but so do people in classrooms, and I think a lot of the “how do we make this work” still needs – well, a lot of work. Honestly, about half the MOOC conversations I’ve seen show a marked lack of understanding about the Internet and how it works (both people and tech), which is sort of a problem.
Living in the future is awesome :
- Kristina Killgrove (a bioarchaeologist – if you like that sort of thing, and I do – she also does excellent analysis of the forensics of Bones episodes) did a really fascinating piece on how she’s using 3D printing to provide pathological bone specimens for her students to work with.
- I play the folk harp, and someone on one of the lists I read did a great round up of apps for music - many of which are great for non-harpers.
- Did you ever wonder about how to create historical hairstyles? Videos to show you how, based on various sources.
- Tracking down the history of a photograph from two decades ago.
Privacy and related issues:
- Nancy Sims, copyright librarian, explains why she turned down a job that required a background check (and why you might want to care.)
- ProfHacker had the best roundup of commentary on the new Facebook Graph search that I’ve seen yet. (Check out the various links in the article.)
- Creative Commons and later use – a question of image permissions from Bobbi Newman.
- Meredith Farkas takes on the right to develop one’s own digital footprint.
Stop, no, reconsider that:
- Can we give up on the comparisons between coding and things that are not *that* dissimilar? The Hedgehog Librarian takes on a “You wouldn’t knit your own sweater” comparison. (Some of us do. Signed, person who is pretty sure if I ever manage to learn coding beyond HTML and CSS, it’ll be because I figured out complicated knitting.)
Generally intriguing reading: (most of these came out of Longform.org )
- A Russian family cut off from the world for 40 years (via the Smithsonian)
- Trade in Mongolian dinosaur bones (NYT)
- A chart showing the many affairs of Zeus (and various other classical mythology figures)
- Why are we suddenly getting hit by so many space rocks? Good question.
- The emerging criminal element: Lead.
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