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Bet you never thought of the adjective "cool" when writing your syllabus. In case you want to start, this syllabus is very cool. I will be following this class as they publish their writing openly. I am optimistic that the teaching & learning will be pretty cool.

" This course is not one in which an instructor feeds you information and you regurgitate it for a good grade. You (the student) and I (the instructor) are almost certainly going to disagree on some things, and that's just fine (see the Grading section below). It's probably easiest to think of this course as a small, independent publication/think tank focused on the concept of 'cool'. Your job is to look carefully and thoughtfully at the world around you, and produce a series of essays that would help a potential reader understand your stance on what 'cool' means to you. You'll be using the process of writing and editing to help you define, and refine, that stance for yourself. You're also responsible for helping your fellow writers do the same. " h/t Stan

"More than a technique, PCR is a concept, that enables molecular biologists to think in new ways of their object of study, DNA, to ask genes new questions. Opening the way to new experiments, it literally frees the imagination. Some even use PCR machines as fridges. After all a thermocycler is nothing but an intelligent heating and cooling block. It can be set on 4ºC for 48 hours, to conserve the result of an experiment over the week-end. "

Really cool mapping tools. *THIS* is what computing + the Web affords by way of augmenting human intelligence.

Pretty much the pattern I use for most things . . . "I started by examining her portfolio, moved on to the portfolios of other student fellows, then further into whatever I could find through Google. The process helped me see concrete examples and visualize what I was trying to learn. My website now is more or less a melting pot of all cool things I found on about 40 websites along with my own additions and stylistic choices and is completely different from any of them. With all that in mind, I wanted to share how seeking inspiration from existing projects can help you. "

"Mapping Networks of Reprinting in 19th-Century Newspapers and Magazines" Really cool digital humanities project

Looks like a cool, powerful tool for in-class quizzing and review, designed to facilitate collaboration, competition, and discussion.