Month: May 2005

Constitution Day

By AMH

Can I get a big eye roll over the mandate, recently getting press, that all schools and colleges receiving any federal funding must recognize September 17th as Constitution Day and offer an educational program on the constitution on that day? The Department of Education’s notice on the topic does make it clear they’re flexible about the form of such a program, but it’s still being required. Woo hoo – I know I feel better with Congress setting curricular requirements without any pedagogical justification for such an approach to educating students on the topic. I doubt that there are school boards … Continue reading Constitution Day

Google and AAUP

By AMH

Late last week Google was sent a letter from a representative of the Association of American University Presses regarding concerns with Google’s Print for Libraries program, laying out a number of unanswered questions and suggesting that unlike the Print for Publishers program, in this case Google is crossing over the “fair use” line. It’s a rational presentation of the concerns of these publishers, and I’m keeping my eyes open for the response from Google.

Hacking at DefCon

By AMH

These types of articles are usually fun, but I liked this discussion of hacking competitions at Def Con. It was interesting that the winning teams for the capture-the-flag competition were academic teams.

Your AI is Weak!

By AMH

The final exam today was a proud day for this AI professor: while waiting for me to hand out the exams, we heard someone smashing their computer on the quad outside the classroom and one student yelled out “Yeah – your AI is WEAK!” I’ll be missing this class….

Going to Kenya!

By AMH

I’ve been walking around with the song from the Kenya animation in my head all day, doing the lion dance while nobody is watching (I hope!), because it is funny and painfully catchy, and it’s the last day of classes here, and it’s finally sunny and warm. You must go check it out – it’s at the same place as the “Badger, badger, badger” thing that was going around, but this is much better. [via Bitch. Ph.D.] Addenedum: The link above hasn’t been loading recently, so I found this alternate site with the Kenya animation.

Good Book Links

By AMH

This is about as crazy as the academic year can get, but the good news is that I’ve got my tickets to go see Star Wars, the night after grades are due. In the meantime, there are a couple of items that have been coming through the BookPeople mailing list that I want to make note of: Online book Educating the Net Generation looks like its worth a skim, though I think there can be value in understanding how students interact with technology and yet not having to entirely give in to all of their preferences. There may be a … Continue reading Good Book Links