http://www.rhetoricville.com A blog on teaching, writing, living, learning and more Wed, 30 Apr 2008 21:51:55 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I have been playing around lately with Joomla, the open source content-management system.  Partly I just like to learn new technologies -- new to me, I mean.  Partly, I am thinking of using Joomla for the web site I manage for my union.   I am fond of open source software.  ... http://www.rhetoricville.com/2008/04/30/learning-joomla/ I'm thinking of moving this blog off of the root directory at www.rhetoricville.com.  The reason is, I have put up a Google Apps site for the rhetoricville domain, and want to have the root available to represent that.  Or to be connected with that.  I may want to use the ... http://www.rhetoricville.com/2008/04/30/moving-the-blog/ I was doing some of that grading the modern way this afternoon when the server at my school went down. So I have the work graded, but can't return it online until the server comes back up. This is not a big deal for me; I did not promise ... http://www.rhetoricville.com/2008/04/27/technical-difficulties/ I am doing all of my grading via computer these days. When I am in the office and see boxes around for dropping off papers, I think, "How 20th Century." There are numerous advantages to grading on the computer and returning the work through an online classroom program such ... http://www.rhetoricville.com/2008/04/25/paper-grading-the-modern-way/ Well, almost. I still have papers to grade. Only none of them are actually on paper. I have all my students submit their work electronically now, using the Blackboard online program.  A nice thing about it is that you, the teacher, can see exactly when each assignment was ... http://www.rhetoricville.com/2008/04/22/another-semester-done/ There is good news for coffee drinkers. According to a recent story by Victoria Brett of the Associated Press, coffee drinking is on the rise among teenagers. Naturally, this raises concerns about caffeine-addiction. The story quotes caffeine-expert Roland Griffiths, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University: [Caffeine] is not associated ... http://www.rhetoricville.com/2008/04/15/coffee-habit-on-rise-among-teens/ Barack Obama has caused a political dust-up with a remark he made last week at a closed-door fundraiser in San Francisco. Speaking of working class Americans, he said: “And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them ... http://www.rhetoricville.com/2008/04/13/are-we-bitter/ M. Daniels at Princeton has a online playable version of the Prisoner's Dilemma. The computer opponent is programmed to play four different strategies. The human player can pick the strategy or let chance do it.  It's a simple interactive introduction to a basic non zero-sum game. http://www.rhetoricville.com/2008/04/10/the-prisoners-dilemna/ Apparently I qualify. You need to be 50+ and blog. This according to Ronni Bennett over at the Time Goes By blog. Well, I may as well own up to it. I passed 50 a few years ago. The year I turned 50, I helped organize a ... http://www.rhetoricville.com/2008/04/07/elder-blogger/ On Friday, I went to a small conference at UM-Flint on engaging students in on-line learning. The keynote speaker was Fred Goodman, a professor emeritus of Education from the Ann Arbor campus. He is a game maker, and his ideas for teaching revolve around games and the insights that ... http://www.rhetoricville.com/2008/04/06/gaming-and-learning-20-questions/