Girls Gone Wild!. Like many of us, I enjoy the bad women, from your garden variety betrayed women to the problem girls, the untamed youth running wild. An all too brief gallery of documentary films about this fascinating subculture is up over at retrocrush. [MetaFilter]

subcultures upon subcultures upon subcultures upon subcultures, are any of them real?

Doc Saves the Net. Doc's Linx Journal article on saving the Net is setting new records for page views and comments. Jeez, all it does is tell the truth. I don't see what the fuss is about … [Joho the Blog]

this is an important article

Knowledge game.

Something I missed earlier [via Joy London]

Knowledge game  by Dave Pollard

This post contains The Knowledge Game, a tool you can use to educate yourself, or a group of business colleagues, about intellectual capital, innovation and knowledge management, and their importance for modern organizations. It's played as a game, with two to eight teams who compete against each other. Each team acts as the Board of Directors of a fictitious consulting firm, and the objective is to make investment decisions that provide the best ROI. Those decisions require choosing between investing in traditional physical and financial assets, and among six forms of intellectual capital: human, structural, customer, social, risk and innovation.

[Mathemagenic]

I could use this when i teach my political economy course that focused on intellectual property… mmmm gooood.

Schools stay mum on file traders' names. Boston College and MIT are the first to contest subpoenas from the recording industry demanding information on alleged file swappers, but others may follow. [CNET News.com] [A blog doesn't need a clever name]

this is the way it whould be.

Open-Source Development.

HBS Working Knowledge has an interview with Siobh‡n O'Mahony who discusses her research on foundations formed around three projects: Debian, GNOME and Apache. Some excerpts:

The hacker culture prizes autonomy and self-determination. Eric Raymond defines hackers as those who love programming for the sake of doing it, for the sake of obsessively solving a problem. Thus, hackers who contribute to the open source community are often intrinsically motivated.

[E M E R G I C . o r g]

I'm actually not sure that the hacker culture prizes this at all. I think this is put forth by certain people as something that it prizes, but really, i've not seen any proof that it does, and looking around hackers seems happiest when they are working with others on something….. independent projects seem to come together….

Grading Standards for Writing Assignments in an Online Course. In theory, living in the web world would lead to improved writing skills.  After all, most of the communication is done through e-mail, discussion boards, instant messaging, and chat.

Most instructors of online courses point out that in many cases, just the opposite has occurred.  Instead of fully formed thoughts supported by plausible evidence, the average paper becomes a sketchy affair written in a kind of e-mail-ese that consists of rants and choppy, disconnected thoughts, non-standard spelling, and pseudo-plagiaristic “borrowing” that manifests as unreferenced segments of online articles copied and pasted into the body of a paper.

In addition, it is important to help students come to realize that the standards for non-Internet-based writing should apply to Internet-based writing.  Online courses should not have different standards than onsite or traditional courses.  If anything, there should be higher standards, given that the writer is potentially writing for a larger audience who will read the work on the screen as well as on paper.

The first step in writing is learning how to organize one’s thoughts.  Writing is all about thinking.  It is not about mechanistic goose-stepping to grammar.

For an essay, such as those required in college first-year composition courses, the criteria may be summarized in the following manner:

 Content:  The essay reflects the original thought of the writer, centered around a central point, idea, or thesis.  The idea and key terms are clearly defined, and the points are supported by relevant, credible, and referenced evidence.  The concepts cover ideas from more than a single field or source, and cross disciplines.

 Organization:  The essay is organized in a manner that can be followed by the average reader. Whether the structure follows inductive or deductive logic is not as important as overall coherence of the argument.  Each point is well-developed and balanced.  Sentences are correctly constructed, and follow established norms of syntax and grammar.

 Presentation:  The presentation should be appropriate for reading on the screen or on paper.  Ideally, paragraphs are short, font size is readable, and subheadings are used to cue the reader and organize the thoughts and points.

 Diction:  Word Choices and Tone:   The essay contains word choices that are appropriate for the topic, with a tone that is appropriate for the audience and the subject matter.  Wrong words and awkward constructions are avoided.

 Mechanics:  Grammar, Punctuation, Spelling:  The essay follows the standard grammar, punctuation, and spelling of American English.

 Citing Sources:  Sources are cited in a consistent manner, following the conventions in an agreed-upon style guide.  Citations are not presented in a back-to-back manner.  The author’s original thoughts dominate, and citations serve to reinforce or support the primary thesis.

 Because the standards are fairly subject to interpretation, it is important to provide examples of successful essays.  However, there is a danger in this.  The more insecure student will use the sample as a model and will not deviate from it.  Such slavish adherence to the model of the sample essay leads to a less than ideal learning experience.  Deep learning takes place when the individual makes connections between the subject of his or her essay and her own experience and life.

 More useful is a template, guide or flowchart.  This will help the student structure the initial draft, but does not constrain him or her in terms of subject, style, ideology, or overall tone.

 The  key to success is the human touch.  The student will gain confidence as the instructor provides timely and relevant feedback.  Instead of punishing and “correcting”, the instructor should guide and encourage intellectual risk-taking.  Grading guidelines and standards are fluid and flexible.  They are meant to be applied in an appropriate way that leads the student to introspection and deeper learning, in addition to enhanced skills in writing.

 

 

 

 

[Xplana]

This is really good, I'm keeping a copy in teaching and spreading the meme.

Good Experience: Top Sites' User Experience Teams and Their Challenge. Across all of those companies, the issues were strikingly similar. Despite the different business models – e-commerce, content, software development, search, etc. – team after team recited the same few issues that they are now trying to address. [Tomalak's Realm]

this is an interesting site, it will be good to watch and read it for a while.