sundries, educational edition

[rm]

With a bit of luck I booked a beach weekend for us at Spring Lake. Next year maybe we'll manage the big beach trip with other people. I'm just glad we're managing to fit this in with the season ending fast and us going to Chicago and Patty needing to prepare for comps. No firm date on her departure for Cardiff yet, but we have a general sense of it being around Sept. 20.

Speaking of which, she has questions about Cardiff and such-like.

I started Rosetta Stone for German last night. I now know the word for cat.

New items up at graduate_maria. You have through this weekend.

Plagiarism lines blur in the digital age. This article annoys me, because it's another case of "THE INTERNET IS EVIL!"

While I can buy that some of this happens because, as the article says, students have grown up with "information just hanging about online" without an obvious author; you know what else has happened in the last 20 years? People thinking they deserve to pass or get good grades in college classes no matter what fuckery they commit because they paid for it; and administrators wanting to show an awesome success rate and so disallowing professors from setting actual consequences for people fucking up. If people were not given second (and third and fourth and fifth and sixth) chances on assignments, failed in classes, and kicked out of schools for plagiarism people wouldn't goddamn do it.

The Open Source textbook movement - take that Texas!

Last night we sang to the cats:

o/~ Sneaky cat, sneaky cat,
What are you up to?
Sneaky cat, sneaky cat,
You're not a spy! o/~

The Piano in the Hallway is back in the hallway.

Comments

[miep.livejournal.com]

just remember that pregnant in German does not mean pregnant.

cognates and false friends are fun!

[yendi]

I attended a few open textbook panels when I hit the Sloan-C conference last week, and it's definitely a movement I'd like to see take hold (if only for the cost savings involved for students). Incidentally, one of the bigger players in that area is Rice, who launched a company dedicated to open source textbooks, who seem to be trying to yank Texas back to respectability (even if it's the pull equivalent of Sisyphus's rock).

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

People thinking they deserve to pass or get good grades in college classes no matter what fuckery they commit because they paid for it; and administrators wanting to show an awesome success rate and so disallowing professors from setting actual consequences for people fucking up. If people were not given second (and third and fourth and fifth and sixth) chances on assignments, failed in classes, and kicked out of schools for plagiarism people wouldn't goddamn do it.

HUZZAH. Yes, thank you. My wife has been wrangling with plagiarist after plagiarist in her classes (a full third of her 12-member summer intensive plagiarized), and the administration is SHIT at backing up their professors. She generally loses an entire day of teaching in any of her classes to make certain that she's given a full accounting of what plagiarism is and how they will be penalized for it, and then, of course, the various administrators will often not let her deal with it as summarily as it deserves. GRARGH.

[sethg]

My wife was a chemistry TA and caught one student plagiarizing a lab report from The Journal of Chemical Education. This was about as blatant an academic fraud as one could ask to see, and the administration’s level of support was... tepid.

She fears waking up on a hospital gurney and recognizing the doctor as someone who used to be a pre-med in her class.

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

She fears waking up on a hospital gurney and recognizing the doctor as someone who used to be a pre-med in her class.

AUGH. Yes. Yes, indeed.

[ex-adarog.livejournal.com]

So, did you plagiarize the Smelly Cat tune for your song? *g*

Reason why people have pets, #3: To sing silly songs to them.

[missysedai.livejournal.com]

I started Rosetta Stone for German last night. I now know the word for cat.

I'm interested to hear what you think of Rosetta Stone as you go along.

If you're of a mind to have some fun, Sesamstraße (http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Sesamstra%C3%9Fe&aq=f) is very helpful. My host Mom used to look at me funny for watching Sesame Street before school, but it really helped cement my vocabulary and grammar.

[rm.livejournal.com]

So far, just dealing with it briefly, I like it, but I don't know if it will enable me to actually use the language no matter how well I learn it. I am extremely weird about "speaking wrong" because of years and years of speech therapy. As such, my comprehension tends to be good in languages I study, but I usually freeze up in conversation. While even this comprehension would be useful dealing with my home-office, which is German-speaking, it would still really suck if this is still the case for me. That said, I hear German so much, it's my hope that I have more of an ear comfort with it than previously realized.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

One thing abuot Rosetta Stone, BTW, is that it's Hochdeutsch, and Schweizerdeutsch has a very particular cadence (and a French influence as well).

I'd also be interested in knowing about your experiences with it.

Ph, and Deutsche Welle also does a very slow, simple podcast of the news that I found helpful

[nekosensei.livejournal.com]

Ich habe zwei Katzen. Sie hießen Cosette und Arwen. Cosette ist 14 Jahre alt und Arwen ist 8. Sie sind sehr niedlich.


That reminds me. I've got to sign up for my German 102 class this week!

P.S. Figuring out the plural form of nouns in German is infuriating....

[rm.livejournal.com]

"I have two cats. They are called COsette and Arwen. Cosette is 14 years and Arwen is 8." is all I can get. I can't figure out the last sentence at all.

[nekosensei.livejournal.com]

The last one means they are sweet/cute. Yeah...I had to look that last word up.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

There's also the element of a lack of writing instruction (or at least certain aspects of writing instruction) that I'm glad to see the article at least touched on.

[aviv-b.livejournal.com]

Did you'borrow' the tune for sneaky cat? And does it fall under fair use?

I really think we need a podcast of all your kitty songs.

[rm.livejournal.com]

FILK!

Although there's a key change.

Hahahaha.

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

Information may well be "just hanging about online," but you know what they started teaching us to do in, oh, 1993? FUCKING MLA CITATIONS FOR INFORMATION FOUND ON THE FUCKING INTERNET.

*simmers with the sort of rage he is pretty sure only people who majored in English have*

Also, I'm not sure whether or not to be happy to hear that the piano is back, but...well, the piano is back and that made me smile.

[citrinesunset.livejournal.com]

THIS! How can people use "It was just on the internet" or "There was no author!" as an excuse? My MLA guide that I had to get in my first semester has clear instructions for that stuff! I've cited internet articles without a credited author before, no problem.

Yet, several of my peers, who had the same MLA guide and took the same introductory course, continued to mess up when it came to citing sources in future courses. I don't understand it. I'm not even an English major anymore, but I still feel the rage.

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

o/~ Sneaky cat, sneaky cat,
What are you up to?
Sneaky cat, sneaky cat,
You're not a spy! o/~

This is pretty much the best song I've heard of in a long while.

~Sor

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Rosetta Stone German was my lifesaver when I went to Switzerland! (Say what yuo want about the price, it works).

You might also want to check out denglish

[nobodyreally.livejournal.com]

The plagarism, photo theft, etc. that is so rampant seems to be done by the ids who got a trophy for showing up. Maybe once they create something original of their own, they might appreciate the work that goes into that stuff they are stealing.

Then again, maybe not...couple years ago, a local rag lifted a photo of mine from my site, cut off the copyright notice and used it as a full-bleed tabloid-sized cover. Fuckers. When confronted, there were half a dozen iterations of how it was not her fault, followed by a guilt-trip about how it was a free rag (that she makes a living from) so I should do it for the 'community,' and ending with a promise to pay that lasted until I showed up to pick up the check. Worse, the image was of a 4 year-old whose parents were pissed at ME!