This is a well put together argument.
Reply
Approximate Reading Time: < 1 minute
Approximate Reading Time: 2 minutes
-
About Sharkworld | Sharkworld – a project management game
Sharkworld offers aspiring project managers the opportunity to gain experience with several aspects of project management in an attractive and motivating setting. The game creates a convincing virtual environment in which projects develop in real time (accelerated). The player is forced to act to problems immediately and intervene properly. The game is propelled by an underlying suspense story. It deliberately blurs the line between reality and fiction, to form a lifelike test case for aspiring project managers.
The game will be playable online, but will also make use of other means of communicating with players. The time it would normally take to bring a project like the Sharkworld project to a good end is much longer than the five days playing time in the game. In order to enhance the feeling of passing time, time tightens at strategic moments. A trip from the hotel to an appointment is done at lightning speed. Images of the city with accelerated traffic streams, sunrise and sunset all illustrate the passing of days and nights.
-
publicscience.ca – Science that Protects You
Latest Faces – Scientists Tell Their Stories
Every day, scientists, researchers and regulators working in government departments, agencies and laboratories contribute to the health, safety and prosperity of Canadians and their communities.
Here are some of their stories… -
This viewer shows how information about thousands of object and action categories is represented across human neocortex. The data come from brain activity measurements made using fMRI while a participant watched hours of movie trailers. Computational modeling procedures were used to determine how 1705 distinct object and action categories are represented in the brain. Further details on this work can be found in this video or in the paper by Huth, Nishimoto, Vu and Gallant (2012), “A continuous semantic space describes the representation of thousands of object and action categories across the human brain”, Neuron 2012.
If you have problems, email us.
Approximate Reading Time: 2 minutes
phd031305s.gif GIF Image, 600 × 260 pixels.
Author lists SHOULD demonstrate scholarship and the advancement of knowledge. They should NOT be about politics. They ESPECIALLY should not be about paying ‘homage’ or stroking egos.
Sadly, and, more and more, they are. I realize this is typical. That doesn’t make it right.
I’ve always thought that ONLY people who actually contributed intellectually to the paper should have their names attached.
I’ve never thought being the head of the lab should be worth publication credit. They deserve thanks in the acknowledgements. They shouldn’t be authors.
There are people who insist their name go on everything that comes out of their lab (subtly sometimes, but the pressure is there just the same). I have NO respect for those people, and neither should you. Sure, they have money to pay grad students to do work for them, and that’s great. That does not (at least, it should not) qualify anyone for authorship on the publication of a scholarly work.*
When I talk to students about scholarship and publication, there are a few things I tell them to watch out for.
- Someone with a very large number of publications. Chances are very good that all they contributed was money (which includes equipment and space). I know more than a few who probably couldn’t understand the contents of the paper that bears their name, even if they DID read it (which they likely didn’t). They for sure didn’t write any of it. If paying the researchers actually qualified someone for authorship, then every taxpayer ought to be listed on every paper. After all, their money made the work possible.
- Someone who NEVER publishes as sole author. Theses, book reviews, and articles written while editors of journal don’t count. If this person never publishes alone, you really need to wonder why? Are they actually doing their share of the work or just hanging off of someone else’s coat tails? Are they even capable of the work? Maybe all they have to contribute is funding; in other words they are BUYING authorship, which should not be worth scholarly credit. Maybe their chief talent is in convincing others to do work and write it up. If you are an academic, mentoring others is part of your job. It should not earn you your name on a paper.
- Someone who ONLY publishes as sole author. It is quite possible this person doesn’t play well with others. Scrutinize their work VERY carefully.
Those few who actually do original research and who actually have original ideas should be the ones getting credit for those ideas. I realize this may an overly idealistic view, but scholarship should be about the advancement of knowledge – not politics, or economics.
BAH!!
* Unless of course, you adopt the medicine model, in which case EVERYONE who had anything to do with the work gets their name added to the list. Then it’s fair again. I got my very first publication this way – I wrote the SPSS programs to run the stats. The statistician who analysed the data also got his name on the paper.
Approximate Reading Time: < 1 minute
Sigh.
Sandy Hook Shooting: Video Game Violence Isn’t to Blame | TIME.com. Dec. 20, 2012
Yesterday, Senator Jay Rockefeller introduced a bill calling on the National Academy of Sciences to “study” video game violence on children. Speaking of the recent Brown v. EMA Supreme Court decision, which criticized the existing research as inconsistent and methodologically flawed, Rockefeller stated, “Recent court decisions demonstrate that some people still do not get it. They believe that violent video games are no more dangerous to young minds than classic literature or Saturday morning cartoons. Parents, pediatricians and psychologists know better. These court decisions show we need to do more and explore ways Congress can lay additional groundwork on this issue. This report will be a critical resource in this process.”
This sort of knee jerk reaction isn’t new, of course. It happened long before there were videogames – even long before electricity. The development of the printing press brought with it dire warnings about how access to the Bible by “ordinary people” would ruin society.
Why do we insist on trying to blame the latest new media development for society’s ills? Are we really that dumb? Or are we just that lazy?
Approximate Reading Time: 2 minutes
Worth Reposting….
Clay Shirky is our MP3 » FOLLOWERS OF THE APOCALYPSE.
For those who don’t know, Clay Shirky talks and writes about the Interwebs. He’s faculty @ NYU . He likes to make predictions about the future.
He’s now claiming that Higher Education is being disrupted by MOOCs.
Udacity and its peers try to answer some new questions, questions that the traditional academy – me and my people – often don’t even recognise as legitimate, like “How do we spin up 10,000 competent programmers a year, all over the world, at a cost too cheap to meter?”
Udacity may or may not survive, but as with Napster, there’s no containing the story it tells: “It’s possible to educate a thousand people at a time, in a single class, all around the world, for free.”
Once you imagine educating a thousand people in a single class, it becomes clear that open courses, even in their nascent state, will be able to raise quality and improve certification faster than traditional institutions can lower cost or increase enrolment.
Now, I do believe that formal education is broken, but the problem is NOT that we can’t “educate” sufficient numbers. The biggest problem is precisely the thing that Shirky seems to be claiming will solve the problem – the “massification” of education. Education is not, and should never be a “business”, folks. And a university education is (or should be) more about growing up and learning to be than about the “content”. If all you are getting out of school is “content”, then, by all means, don’t bother with college. If THAT is all that your college can offer you, find a different college.
Really.
From David Kernohan‘s article:
To think that all a university experience can be is a bunch of lectures and some essay questions. To think that the availablity of a new format that suits some peoples needs a bit better means that nothing else is viable. To think that a degree is something that you purchase and experience, not something you work for with a great degree of pain and personal change.
The needs that MOOCs satisfy are the needs of a bunch of middle-aged men (and it is – nearly – always men) who are comfortably tenured but seek the thrill of being on the cutting edge of technology and “innovation” (whatever that is – looks to me like inventiveness with all the fun sucked out of it). They make for great TED talks. Wonderful blog posts. But they are nothing more than a surface solution to the surface problems a non-specialist observer could see in higher education.
The problems Higher Education does face is that it is a marketplace when it doesn’t need to be. We spend billions of dollars forcing universities to compete without any evidence whatsoever that this leads to a better or cheaper product. We spend more on HE than at any point in our history whilst departments are closing, services are withering and talented young academics are leaving in droves because they have reached their mid 30s without finding anything other than temporary hourly-paid work.
University is about more than training people for today’s jobs. It’s supposed to be about educating people for their future, whatEVER that may hold.
p.s. I got news for you – “spinning up” COMPETENT programmers takes a whole lot more than teaching them how to write code.
Approximate Reading Time: 2 minutes
-
Game Developer Salary Survey 2012 – GameCareerGuide.com
[Originally published in Game Developer magazine’s free Career Guide issue, this annual survey provides a comprehensive breakdown of salaries and job prospects for entry-level game developers and beyond.]
Every year, we ask thousands of Game Developer and Gamasutra readers to tell us how much money they made last year, along with a slew of related questions. We get everyone from established developers to newbies to tell us their base salaries, benefits, additional compensation, and other work information so we can show you what to expect if you decide to pursue a career in the game industry.
-
Social Science Palooza III – NYTimes.com
Social Science Palooza III
By DAVID BROOKS
Published: December 10, 2012 69 CommentsFacebook
Twitter
Google+
Save
E-mail
Share
Print
ReprintsElections come and go, but social science marches on. Here are some recent research findings that struck my fancy.
-
A Tale of Transhumance: Herding Sheep with Livestock Guardian Dogs – Environment – Utne Reader
“Shepherds of Coyote Rocks” reveals the broad spectrum of the human relationship with nature, from harmony to rugged adventure. Author Cat Urbigkit offers interesting reflections on the role of pastoralists around the globe and on the controversial issue in Western American lands—private livestock herds being run on public space.
Cover Courtesy Countryman Press
Article Tools
Image Gallery
Print
E-mail
Comments
RSSWriter and photographer Cat Urbigkit got to know public lands in the Upper Green River Basin by living the practice of transhumance—herding sheep across the seasons—by living with livestock guardian dogs and joining the ancient tradition of the shepherd. In this excerpt from the first chapter of her book Shepherds of Coyote Rocks (Countryman Press, 2012), read about the beginning of this communion with the outside world.
Approximate Reading Time: < 1 minute
Global Edmonton | Lynden Dorval weighs in on proposed school board policy.
I’ve been following this story since Mr. Dorval was first suspended. I hope this passes.
Approximate Reading Time: 2 minutes
-
From Angry Birds to World of Warcraft, the charismatic popularity of entertainment games is the envy of every trainer teaching information security 101 or facilitating new hire orientation. Multiple articles, webinars, and conference presentations have touted the potential of incorporating the addictive and immersive features of commercial games to create “serious games” for workforce learning. In other words games have emerged as one of trainers’ most seductive silver bullets.
-
Terra Nova: Micro rewards have weird effects on decisions
Micro rewards have weird effects on decisions
by Edward Castronova
on November 30, 20121195422416303492988johnny_automatic_mathematician.svg.medMost games use a sequence of little rewards to nudge players around. This is very different from most salary and hiring and review structures, which are big rewards in big intervals. Much has been made about the power of the games approach and how it should be used everywhere. To date (I haven’t been looking very hard), I’d not seen a hard analysis of how a sequence of little payments might affect the quality of decisions. Do they help people solve new problems? Do they help people remember what they are doing, and transfer the learning to other situations?
-
Scientists Create GM Corn Which Prevents Human Conception >> Four Winds 10 – Truth Winds
Still unknown is who funded this original research (UPDATE, major funding was from the USDA) . But once the Epicyte gene, which irreversibly sterilizes humans who eat it, was patented, Monsanto and DuPont bought the company in order to “commercially exploit” the Epicyte gene. That means they had a customer for this product! Who is buying this gene and where is it being used? After ten years, how many GMO products have included this human-sterilization gene?
-
Assholes are killing your project
slideshare
-
Research Paper Planner – University of Saskatchewan
The research paper planner will provide you with resources and helpful tips to guide you through the steps of the research and writing process. To start, simply enter the dates that you plan to work on your paper:
-
Are violent video games harmless fun or a dangerous pastime? | The Sun |Fun|Gaming
As far back as the ’70s there were claims that arcade gaming was damaging impressionable youngsters.
And there were fresh outcries in the ’90s as hi-tech consoles moved into homes, with improved graphics making violence more gruesome.
But new research by Brock University in Canada claims to have found the first clear link between teenagers playing graphic titles and displaying aggressive behaviour in real life.
Researchers said games like Grand Theft Auto could be teaching kids that aggression is an “appropriate way to deal with conflict and anger”.