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Contents contributed and discussions participated by Adam Babcock

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Adam Babcock

If Romeo and Juliet had mobile phones | Networked - 13 views

networked.pewinternet.org/...o-and-juliet-had-mobile-phones

shakespeare love romeojuliet cellphones internet culture facebook socialnetworking PBLidea

shared by Adam Babcock on 21 Jul 12 - No Cached
    • Adam Babcock
      Adam Babcock on 21 Jul 12
       
      Yeah... but "wherefore" translates to "why" in our contemporary language...
  • would have allowed Romeo and Juliet to move around, liberated from locale and parental surveillance. They would have been less worried about their families when they were figuring out where to meet. At the same time, their parents would have felt reassured because they could call their children and ask where they were and what they were doing. But, would Romeo and Juliet have told the truth? A location-aware app would also have been useful for parents in tracking them. Or they might have prowled friends’ Facebook updates or photo albums for clues.
  • Romeo and Juliet could find each other now because mobility means accessibility and availability. They’d be on each other’s top-five speed dial. And they would probably have had a location-aware app that that showed exactly where each other were: no wandering the streets of Verona looking for each other.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Public spaces have become more silent, as people concentrate on their text messages, while downwardly-peering texters have limited eye contact.
  • Imagine Romeo making plans to meet Juliet in the park, but his father calls to say that he has to come home immediately. At least, the mobile connection would have allowed Romeo to alert Juliet to his role conflict and possible absence.
  • As long as they talked or texted in private, neither the Montagues nor the Capulets would know – unless, of course, they snuck peeks at the list of previous calls and texts on the phones. Instead of a phone ringing in a home—where all would hear it and possibly become part of the conversation—internet communication and mobile communication are usually exchanges between two individuals.
  • Mobile contact has become multigenerational, as teens—and even children—are increasingly getting their own mobile phones. This affords people of all ages opportunities to become more autonomous agents.
  • As they grew up, Romeo and Juliet had gotten past their childhoods of being household and neighborhood bound.  They made contact by encounters in public places. Teens still do that—the shopping mall is the new agora—but their mobile phones also afford continuous contact with their homes and distant friends.
  • If they are right, Romeo and Juliet might never look up from their mobile phones to see each other. Or, would the course of true love have led them away from their screens and into each other’s arms?
  • The story of Romeo and Juliet is the story of two individuals escaping the bounds of their densely knit groups. It is a story of the social network revolution that began well before Facebook: the move from group-bound societies to networked individuals. This turn to networked individualism transforms communication from being place-based to person-based.
Adam Babcock

Create timelines, share them on the web | Timetoast timelines - 16 views

www.timetoast.com

plot time web2 edtech

shared by Adam Babcock on 23 Oct 11 - Cached
  • Adam Babcock on 23 Oct 11
     
    Timetoast is a great way to share the past, or even the future...Creating a timeline takes minutes, it's as simple as can be
Adam Babcock

Dell Haiku | Scholastic - 9 views

www.scholastic.com/dellhaiku

writing poetry

shared by Adam Babcock on 09 Oct 11 - No Cached
  • Adam Babcock on 09 Oct 11
     
    Write an original haiku for a chance to win exciting prizes from Dell!
Adam Babcock

Story of the Week - 12 views

storyoftheweek.loa.org

shared by Adam Babcock on 22 Aug 11 - No Cached
  • Adam Babcock on 22 Aug 11
     
    Get a short story every week in your email inbox, thanks to Library of America.
Adam Babcock

Sistine Chapel - Cappella Sistina - Photosynth - 4 views

photosynth.net/view.aspx

history culture art literature bible

shared by Adam Babcock on 05 Aug 11 - No Cached
  • Adam Babcock on 05 Aug 11
     
    Great tool that encourages users/students to explore the different stages of the Sistine Chapel. Could work well with a Genesis lesson.
Adam Babcock

The Failure of American Schools - Magazine - The Atlantic - 3 views

www.theatlantic.com/...8497

education politics

shared by Adam Babcock on 01 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • recalcitrant
  • From 1960 to 1980, our supply of college graduates increased at almost 4 percent a year; since then, the increase has been about half as fast. The net effect is that we’re rapidly moving toward two Americas—a wealthy elite, and an increasingly large underclass that lacks the skills to succeed.
  • in education, despite massive increases in expenditure, we don’t see improved results
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  • That leads too many people to suspect that poverty is destiny, that schools can make only a small difference, and that therefore we’re unable to fix this problem, regardless of its seriousness. So why try?
  • That Kafkaesque outcome demonstrates precisely the way the system is run: for the adults. The school system doesn’t want to change, because it serves the needs of the adult stakeholders quite well, both politically and financially.
  • “Listen, they’re trying to get rid of a principal in my district who runs a Democratic club for us. If you protect him, you’ll never have a problem with me.” This kind of encounter was not rare.
  • President Obama was on to something in 2008 when he said: “The single most important factor in determining [student] achievement is not the color of [students’] skin or where they come from. It’s not who their parents are or how much money they have. It’s who their teacher is.” Yet, rather than create a system that attracts and rewards excellent teachers—and that imposes consequences for ineffective or lazy ones—we treat all teachers as if they were identical widgets and their performance didn’t matter.
  • The result: too few effective math and science teachers in high-poverty schools.
  • Many have candidly told me they are burned out, but they can’t afford to leave until their pension fully vests. So they go through the motions until they can retire with the total package.
  • And why give all teachers making $80,000, or more, a 10 percent raise? They’re not going to leave, since they’re close to vesting their lifetime pensions. By contrast, increasing starting salaries by $8,000 (rather than $4,000) would help attract and retain better new teachers.
Adam Babcock

Better Book Titles blog - 11 views

betterbooktitles.com

literature humor satire

shared by Adam Babcock on 13 May 11 - Cached
  • Adam Babcock on 13 May 11
     
    Note: some of the titles are a little nsfw, so use the website in the classroom with caution.  Know what titles you want to use and perhaps don't leave students to wander on their own.
Adam Babcock

The Sad, Beautiful Fact That We're All Going To Miss Almost Everything : Monkey See : NPR - 5 views

www.npr.org/...oing-to-miss-almost-everything

reading literacy education english

shared by Adam Babcock on 21 Apr 11 - No Cached
  • What I've observed in recent years is that many people, in cultural conversations, are far more interested in culling than in surrender. And they want to cull as aggressively as they can.
  • It is the recognition that well-read is not a destination; there is nowhere to get to, and if you assume there is somewhere to get to, you'd have to live a thousand years to even think about getting there, and by the time you got there, there would be a thousand years to catch up on.
  • If "well-read" means "not missing anything," then nobody has a chance. If "well-read" means "making a genuine effort to explore thoughtfully," then yes, we can all be well-read. But what we've seen is always going to be a very small cup dipped out of a very big ocean, and turning your back on the ocean to stare into the cup can't change that.
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