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Category Archives: social issues
By The Numbers
This article discusses the latest round of changes in the WNCP Math Curriculum. Somehow, after seeing perhaps half a dozen rounds of this game, the rhetoric of revolutionary change wears a bit thin.
TIMSS 2007 – How are we all doing in math? – squareCircleZ
The part I find most encouraging in Murray Bourne’s discussion of the latest TIMSS 2007 report on mathematics performance around the world is the distribution of gender differences – in particular the fact that the relative performance of females is … Continue reading
Internet Safer Than Thought vs Flickr Perversion
In contrast to this study (which I came to via Stephen Downes)showing that the internet just isn’t the danger to children it is often portrayed to be, we have Alec Couros reporting on Open Thinking & Digital Pedagogy » Blog … Continue reading
How Much is Too Much?
I have always believed that disprportionate reponse is justifiable (if struck once I will strike back unpredictably harder if I can so that there is no future temptation to estimate expected value of an attack). And I understand that in … Continue reading
Posted in world
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Trigonometry tips @ squareCircleZ
Murray Bourne’s IntMath Newsletter this week includes a nice preamble to the study of Trigonometry. I’d like to be able to link to that item specifically when introducing the topic, so maybe I’ll ask him to isolate it if he … Continue reading
globeandmail readers on copyright
globeandmail.com: Your thoughts on copyright in Canada
Posted in canada, copyright
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BCcampus OER site – Free Learning at EdTechPost
Scott Leslie writes about the BCcampus Open Educational Resources site with some new ideas for using social networking sites like del.icio.us
Posted in education, web
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Canadians Need Net-Neutrality
Take Action: Say NO to Corporate Control Open Letter to CRTC Chair Konrad von Finckenstein: Dear Sir, Canadians rely on the CRTC, as the federal communications regulator, to act in the public interest, which in this case means ensuring we … Continue reading
Posted in canada, uncategorized, web
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Computer Algebra Systems
(This posting was prompted in part by a brief mention of the issue in squareCircleZ ) It is often claimed that Computer Algebra Systems will (or already do) eliminate the need for much of what is taught in high school … Continue reading
Posted in education, mathematics
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Goodbye College Diplomas ?
Stephen Downes links to Tom Haskins saying Goodbye College Diplomas Thank god that the time will soon arrive when a prospective employer will not be denied the pleasure of reading all my undergrad essays but will instead be able to … Continue reading
Posted in education, web
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Online Literacy Is Lesser Than What? – Bauerline earns an ‘F’
OK this is Mark Bauerline again, this time writing in the ChronicleReview.com with a rehash of the ideas he expounded in ‘The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future’ and particular emphasis on the … Continue reading
Posted in arts and culture, education, literature
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McCain Puts Country Second
John McCain’s nomination of Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential running mate is a mind-blowingly cynical choice in the light of his criticism of Barak Obama as not yet ready to assume the highest office. Michael Cohen says it well in … Continue reading
Posted in politics, usa
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It Ain’t No Repeated Addition Ain’t It?
I don’t hold back from challenging the way mathematics is taught in schools myself, but Keith Devlin’s recent MAAonline column is off base and out of line.
Posted in education, mathematics
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Don’t Drink the Nuclear Kool-Aid | AlterNet
Don’t Drink the Nuclear Kool-Aid | AlterNet Typical knee-jerk anti-nuke article but comments actually worth reading
Posted in climate, sustainability, world
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Attention Returns to Distraction
A couple of weeks ago I posted briefly on (one of the many responses to) Nicholas Carr’s article in the current Atlantic Monthly. Now I am reading another article on the topic. Bryan Appleyard in the Sunday Times refers to … Continue reading
Cultural Identity
This article by Keenan Malik (from Butterflies and Wheels via ALDaily) challenges some of the attitudes attributed to cultural preservationists and comes close to, without quite making explicit, the essentially organic nature of cultures and their interactions. What he misses … Continue reading
Posted in arts and culture, social issues
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I Google, therefore I Don’t Think
My friend Gerry Pareja sent this article by John Naughton from The Observer, responding (I think very well) to Nicholas Carr’s ‘Is Google Making Us Stupid?‘ in The Atlantic, but I can’t say that its arrival is what distracted me … Continue reading
Posted in education, literature, psychology, web
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Hedonic Man
Hedonic Man is the title of a review by Alan Wolfe of two books on the “new economics”. Like Wolfe (and probably countless others) I am sure that the science of economics is sorely lacking, but also like him I … Continue reading
Posted in economics, politics, psychology
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Gates on Watson on Race
The Science of Racism is an odd title for an article in which Henry Louis Gates identifies James Watson’s view as something he calls “racialist” and distinct from “racist”.
Posted in biology, social issues
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CO2 Reduction Scenarios (UK example)
Heavyweight physics prof weighs into climate/energy scrap [printer-friendly] | The Register
Posted in climate, economics, sustainability, world
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