ALT Lab

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

"This represents perhaps the most foundational of all the connections that Stephen Lehmkuhle and his colleagues have been steadily knitting together in Rochester: that between facts and ideas. Traditional college instruction-epitomized by the lecture-is largely a process of orally transmitting facts from the brain of a teacher to a student. It's a tremendously inefficient method-even harmful. UMR chemistry professor Rajeev Muthyala points to research finding that undergraduates often finish lecture-based introductory science classes with less expertise than when they started. They get worse."

"In short, says Stahl, "[infants] take surprising events as special opportunities to learn." This theory, that we're born knowing certain rules of the world, isn't new. We see evidence of it not only in humans but in lots of others species, too. What's new is this idea: that core knowledge seems to motivate babies to explore things that break those rules and, ultimately, to learn new things."

"We would much rather define rigor as the pursuit of solving a really difficult task that you care about solving. And that persistence can be taught in that way as opposed to, "Yeah, let's teach kids persistence by having them do this thing that they couldn't care less about, but it's really hard and just if you can survive it, that's persistence.""

Worth keeping mind . . . . "Originally, reading about the assignment for what we have to do for class on Wednesday I got kind of annoyed. I am not good at open ended assignments and they frankly frustrate me to no end."

I could have written this (absent email arguments). "I could have written that yesterday. I've learned a ton more about programming and databases; I've spent time getting the basics of computer science; and it's all to just keep doing the same damn things over and over again, and then forgetting I did them, and repeating them. Like a version of Groundhog Day about making Groundhog Day. "

"A group of almost 40 mathematicians wrote a 600 page textbook on Homotopy Type Theory in less than six months. They taught themselves git, and they used GitHub for hosting, pull requests, and discussions. The book simply wouldn't exist without GitHub. That. Is. Amazing. I subscribed to the project on GitHub and I receive email updates every single day. The book has been released, but they're still iterating constantly. I can't even begin to comprehend the complex mathematics racing through my inbox, but the fact that these brilliant mathematicians are collaborating like this, creating something that has never existed before, out in the open, and I have a front row seat... it just blows my mind."

"The art of science and the science of art. "

Some really interesting stuff going on in the science/art sphere. Really seems like VCU ought to be able to do some amazing things here especially with student clubs like the scientific illustrators society.

Worth thinking about for our own space (digitally and otherwise). "It is important when you walk into any studio that you feel as much as see what is being built - the studio should crackle with creative energy. Specifically, I believe you can determine the health of any design studio simply by looking at its walls."

This is one of the most depressing charts you will see in the foreseeable future http://t.co/BlHNmufut0 http://t.co/utvG1squcQ

A hackathon for Explorable Explanations, hosted by *Carnegie Mellon*! http://t.co/anZRtOgzsq (May 1-3) So excited~ http://t.co/BOb0kOafZI

History podcast - might be a resource or might provide a fodder for a discussion about the differences between educational content and entertainment content

"Be deeply curious about the world around you. Become aware of your thoughts and learn to think about thinking. Practicing metacognition will help develop a sense for the tricks your mind plays, and how to overcome them. With this awareness, learn to overcome automatic processing. When confronted with something new or unfamiliar, withhold judgment; if you see something you don't understand in the negative space, go with it and see where it leads. Remember that impossible geometry exists, and your mind is constantly trying to force you to see things that you already know how to see. It's learning to see the unseen that makes this practice valuable! Be aware of the limitations of the labels that have been applied to the world. Keep in mind how small the grid of words is compared to the wordless plane. Opportunity exists where words don't exist, yet. Learn to sit with Keats in uncertainties, mysteries, and doubts without grasping for conventional explanations. Allow time to visit the fantastic and the unconventional, and become aware of the moments when you're avoiding staying in these contexts. Meditation can be essential here."

"The weird stellar winds of Eta Carinae are hard to visualize -- so astronomers used a Makerbot to create 3D models that they could hold in their hands. "

"It was 2:45 a.m. on a Thursday last April. Matthew Rognlie was still awake, like a lot of graduate students. He had just finished typing 459 words and a few equations. They totaled six paragraphs, which he posted to the comments section of a popular economics blog. Thus begins the unlikely story of, arguably, the most-influential critique of the most influential economics book of this century."

Interesting to see different approaches to the same data and how people build compelling and understandable data visualizations.