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A group of renowned disability studies scholars are seeking to clarify what makes a book accessible with a set of guidelines that authors can use to help publishers make their books readable by anyone.

The guidelines, a one-page template letter, read a little like an ultimatum. The letter opens by asking a would-be publisher to confirm in writing that print books and accessible formats will be made available simultaneously, then launches into an explanation of how publishers should handle everything from digital rights management to authoring software.

Lennard J. Davis, professor of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said the letter is meant less to threaten a boycott and more as a public service announcement. Some authors may not budge from the demands in the letter, he said, but others are likely to use it as a way to spread awareness about accessibility.

"THE EDITORS OF THE Public Library of Science (PLOS) family of scientific journals recently decided to give their authors much more specific instructions for sharing data. They announced that "authors must make all data publicly available, without restriction, immediately upon publication of the article." They defined data as "any and all of the digital materials that are collected and analyzed in the pursuit of scientific advances," and now require authors to provide a "data availability statement" that serves the purpose of "describing where and how others can access each dataset that underlies the findings.""

VisuaPedia, the online social platform and the authoring tool that they created, provides drawing, animation and other art production tools for students. They can also collaborate on art pieces together. With the social platform integrated with authoring tools, students can view and comment on each other's works with a click.

"Traditional artworks like paintings, photographs, or films can be reproduced by conventional media like printing or video. This makes visitors of museums possible to purchase postcards, posters, books, and DVDs of pictures and/or movies shown at the exhibition. However, newly developing arts so called interactive art, or new media art, has not been able to be reproduced due to limitation of functionalities of the conventional media. In this article, the authors report a novel approach of sharing such interactive art outside the exhibition, so that the visitors of the museum can take a copy to home, and even share it with non-visitors. The authors build up their new projector-and-camera (ProCam) based interactive artwork for exhibition at Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT) by using Apple's iPhone. The exactly same software driving this artwork was downloadable from Apple's App Store -- thus all visitors or even non-visitors could enjoy the same experience at home or wherever they like. "

A cardiologist/researcher/author who puts a lot of interesting medical/health things on Twitter.

""The real concern of this book is how existing scholarly activities (things like writing, publishing, networking and engaging) can be enhanced through social media and perhaps transformed in the process.""

Several parents and academics I interviewed think Minecraft servers offer children a crucial "third place" to mature, where they can gather together outside the scrutiny and authority at home and school,

"After reading our classes popcorn poem I realized that a good portion of the class is amazed by how we were able to construct poetry to social media. I myself am one of those people. We've always considered poetry to be something containing a higher meaning with vocabulary words we wouldn't use on a daily basis, but as of last friday we created poetry where the stanzas were replaced with tweets by different account users, and the theme of the poem was spread through the us of a twitter timeline, and retweets. With using my new definition of a genre of poetry I see these popcorn poems as multiple authors, viewing the potential of poetry in the social media realm, were so used to seeing poem being on paper containing X amount of stanzas, but now we see people's different first impression on what poetry via internet is like. For the most part each student was surprised, and had a good feeling about what this could be going forward with the more assignments we get that involve us doing popcorn poems. "

": Hansen's study comes via a nontraditional publishing decision by its authors. The study will be published in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, an open-access "discussion" journal, and will not have formal peer review prior to its appearance online later this week. [Update, July 23: The paper is now available.] The complete discussion draft circulated to journalists was 66 pages long, and included more than 300 references. The peer review will take place in real time, with responses to the work by other scientists also published online. Hansen said this publishing timeline was necessary to make the work public as soon as possible before global negotiators meet in Paris later this year. Still, the lack of traditional peer review and the fact that this study's results go far beyond what's been previously published will likely bring increased scrutiny. On Twitter, Ruth Mottram, a climate scientist whose work focuses on Greenland and the Arctic, was skeptical of such enormous rates of near-term sea level rise, though she defended Hansen's decision to publish in a nontraditional way."

"Interdisciplinarity -- of any stripe or variety -- depends on disciplines."

"Think of yourself as someone who sells aspirin. And realize that the best customer for your aspirin is someone who is in pain. Not a lot of pain. Not a migraine. Just a little. Piaget called that pain "disequilibrium." Neo-Piagetians call it "cognitive conflict." Guershon Harel calls it "intellectual need." I'm calling it a headache. I'm obviously not originating this idea but I'd like to advance it some more. One of the worst things you can do is force people who don't feel pain to take your aspirin. They may oblige you if you have some particular kind of authority in their lives but that aspirin will feel pointless. It'll undermine their respect for medicine in general."

"There are a variety of ways to learn from someone else's experience.  Start by reading and researching.  Libraries and the internet are great sources for exploration.  When using the internet, look for recognized and reliable sources.  There's lots of erroneous information on the web, so be discriminating. Attend classes.  You have many choices for live or online classes on virtually any subject that interests you.  If you're so inclined, you can work full or part time on a degree.  Adding academic credentials to your resume is always beneficial. Find a mentor who is an expert in the area you are interested in.  Offer to volunteer, apprentice, or intern.  Working with an authority in a particular field is a great way to acquire lots of experience quickly. Observe people who are already where you want to be.  You don't have to know them personally.  You can read about them, read books and articles they write, or follow media accounts of their exploits.  Join associations or professional groups in your area of interest.  They are an excellent opportunity to meet and connect with experienced people.  You will have many opportunities to ask questions and attend a variety of educational forums."

I found myself almost getting on board this article until I got to the end: "Don't waste time learning from your own experiences. Acquire an edge by learning from what others have already been through. Whatever your goals may be, there are those who have a lot to teach you because they have already traveled your path." I believe there is great benefit to being reflective on one's own actions and experiences. At the end of the day, we certainly can learn and make connections through other's experiences, but frankly we go to bed, and wake up, as ourselves every day. The more we understand and know ourselves the better we can be accurate guides.

Author states "this has been a long, rambling article....My basic thesis is that IoT technology can be a tool for behaviour change for social and environmental benefit, through involving people in making systems which address problems that are meaningful for them, and which improve understanding of the wider systems they're engaging with. "We're heading into a world of increasingly complex engineered systems in everyday life... "Yet there is a disconnect between the potential quality of life benefits for society, and people's understanding of these - often invisible - systems around us." Worth a read to inspire several thoughts and arguments.

Some of the literature technology projects developed through the course include:

A series of e-books pairing poems with accompanying audio tracks read by the poets;
Cureador, a tool for sharing book recommendations with friends and family;
ParallelLit, a tool for comparing literary translations side-by-side;
BookTracks, a forum for creating soundtracks to novels;
Think'der, a mobile encyclopedia of thinkers and theorists, inspired by Tinder, a popular dating app;
(RE)write project, an online collaborative reimagining of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, currently offering six alternative storylines; and
Kvizsterical, an online collection of engaging literary quizzes, with topics ranging from literary monsters to authors snubbed for the Nobel Prize.

This study has identified the extensive theoretical and literary diversity surrounding the term "digital competence". We have shown that authors and researchers, in attempting to coin new concepts, have provided multiple definitions: some are similar, others are quite differentiated, and many are redundant. Our review shows that digital competence and digital literacy are closely related but not identical.

""One thing I've been thinking about lately is that the way I present myself in the online course is pretty different from how I present myself in the face-to-face course. In the first iteration of the course, I presented myself in a way that I assumed would be most effective." She described emphasizing a scripted, polished presentation and a no-nonsense persona of clarity and precision. "Now I am concerned less with my authority as a teacher in an online environment. Before, I presented myself in a more authoritative matter, which was not as effective, because I had a certain feeling of a barrier between myself and the class." She explained how she was willing to risk "being more effusive, more warm in written communication, more bubbly for lack of a better term" than her initial impulses dictated. "