Comment WOOO (Score 0) 83
This is the first time I'm a first poster. I love this limelight!
Comment Re:American race to the bottom roadshow (Score 1) 606
I am in agreement with all the reasons you put forth aside for will power. It is quite different to not have the drive to better yourself.
Comment Re:Disconcerting? (Score 1) 348
Because it is worthless.
Again the easy thing to measure is the wrong thing. If the student read the material from this ebook has not a thing in a the world to do with the student knowing the material or not. He may have learned it in the past, he may read another book about the subject or hacked the ebook so he could read it on another device.
The danger here is substituting the easy to measure metric "Pages Read" for the much tougher "Material Understood".
THANK YOU! And as a teacher I am going to add that most textbooks are dry, boring, and ineffectual.
Comment Re: What the fuck is a GPA? (Score 1) 441
While I am flattered, please post a picture with boobs before I decide to go on with letting you
Do man boobs count?
Yes.
Ask Slashdot: What Would You Include In a New Building? 422
First time accepted submitter weiserfireman writes "For the first time in our company's 60 year history, we are going to be building a new facility from scratch. We are a CNC Machine shop with 40 employees and 20 CNC machines, crammed into a 12,000 sq foot building. We are going to build a new 30,000 sq foot building. I am the only IT person. I support all the computer systems, as well as all the fire/security/phone systems. My Boss has asked for my input on what infrastructure to include in the new building to support current and future technology. 1st on my list is a telecommunications equipment room. Our current building doesn't have one. I have been researching this topic on the Internet, and I have a list of a lot of different things, all of them are nice, but I know I am going to have a limited budget. If you were in my shoes, what priorities what features would you design into the building?"
Comment Re:No good news in that (Score 1) 350
Actually that isn't such a bad thought. Set the Corporate tax rate to zero, or legislate that COMPANY profits can not be taxed, but levy taxes against the people that work for that company. I don't think this is a new or original idea, but I felt it should at least be voiced.
If someone knows about any economic sources that comment on these type of policies I would love to look at them.
Comment Re:Start with a good book.... (Score 1) 146
Data mining with Rattle and R
Most librarians were probably not math majors, and are unlikely to be expert in statistics. But if you can work your way through the book, you may get enough insight into your data to ask good questions from a local Math department. No doubt some graduate student(s) can get a paper out of it, or at least some applied class project credit.
But if you don't understand what it is you are looking for, you probably won't coax them into figuring out what questions you ought to be asking. So start with the book.
While a free version is on the site, support the work by buying a hardcopy for the library
I am actually curious as to how many librarians have math degrees. I have only met 2 so far; myself and my former professor back in grad school.
Comment Re:Find out the real need and focus on that (Score 1) 146
You're not suggesting a complex open-source application that will require intensive work and special skills to implement to solve a basic task? You must be new around here.
I will concur with my colleague above.
Comment Re:A suggestion... (Score 1) 146
I suggest you post your question to the code4lib mailing list. It's going to get you much more informed and practical advice. You might even find some people who already have a good workflow who will share their tools.
-Esme
I shall try exactly that. Thank you for directing to that mailing list!
Comment Re:What output do they want and what answer? (Score 1) 146
The library staff is currently working jointly with the school administration to determine what kinds of information we want to look at and analyze. Though it increasingly looks like the statistics we currently collect are going to be analyzed in more and various ways. I just wanted to take the initiative and come to the table with a potential solution in the form of a low cost software package capable of providing that functionality.
Submission + - Statistical Analysis Packages for Libraries 1
HolyLime writes: I'm a librarian in a small academic library. Increasingly the administration is asking our department to collect data on various aspects of our activities, class taught, students helped, circulation, collection development, and so on. This is generating a large stream of data that is making it difficult, and time consuming, to qualitatively analyze. For anything complicated, I currently use excel, or an analogous spreadsheet program. I am aware of statistical analysis programs, like SPSS or SAS. Can anyone give me recommendations for statistical analysis programs? I also place emphasis on anything that is open source and easy to implement since it will allow me to bypass the convoluted purchase approval process.
Ask Slashdot: Building an Assistive Reading Device? 134
RulerOf writes "A few years ago, my girlfriend's grandfather was diagnosed with Macular Degeneration. Ever since, he has had progressively more trouble with daily activities. While his wife and family are able to help him with most things, at the age of 88 and without many living friends left, he dearly misses the ability to read printed text. He was able to get by for some time with magnifying glasses and other basic aids but now even those do not help. Recently, a local clinic which specializes in treatment for low-sight and blind individuals made him aware of and showed him several assistive reading devices that successfully allowed him to read. He mentioned this to his family members, and when I was told about it, I thought that these devices sounded like they were not much more than a camera attached to an LCD monitor or television with a little bit of special software thrown into the mix." (Read on below for more.)
Missouri Hedges On 'Teachers Can't Friend Students' Law 102
bs0d3 writes with an excerpt from an AP story, as carried by NECN.com: "Missouri senators took a step Wednesday toward repealing a contentious new law limiting online conversations between teachers and students, but stirred opposition from the governor by still attempting to mandate that schools adopt their own policies about online chats and text messages. The action by the Senate Education Committee comes a couple of weeks after a Missouri judge blocked the new law on teacher-Internet communications from taking effect because of concerns it infringes on free-speech rights."
Teaching Game Development To Fine Arts Students? 172
jkavalier writes "I've been asked to prepare a short course (50 hours) of video game development to Fine Arts students. That means people with little-to-no technical skills, and hopefully, highly creative individuals. By the end of it, I would like to have finished 1-3 very basic minigames. I'm considering Unity 3D, Processing, and even Scratch. How would you approach teaching such a course? What do you think is the best tool/engine/environment for such a task?"
Comment Re:Fantastic... (Score 1) 157
That part will probably never change. What I would like to point out would be the money making venture in this. This is probably a low risk way for Boeing to make money. Because wouldn't this be one of the first deployment of a hydrogen powered military vehicle, and I KNOW someone is going to prove me wrong in this. But after this gets into general production and the cost lowers it should be relatively easy for the company to turn around and find other uses for the engine and few system. What OTHER things can we power since there is now an established, low cost, reliable hydrogen power system out there. Since this is Boeing maybe a first application could be civilian aircraft, and then moving on from there.
But my point is I think someone will figure out much more lucrative, noncombat way of utilizing this system.
And if someone really wants to commit murder lack of available weaponry is not going to stop them; just grab a chair or a bat.
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