Blogs

Webcam "Netiquette"

I found this eye-opening article from Wired Campus (link at end of article).  It discusses how synchronous online classes are raising questions about what is appropriate "Netiquette," since people are eating or lying down while on the webcam, and in one instance, a nude spouse walked by in the background!  I have experienced similar things in my online courses, where students leave their mics on while talking to their children or spouse, or have a TV playing behind them.  Part of the benefit of taking online courses is being able to interact from the comfort of your own home, but how "comfortable" do we really want students to be? I think it's obvious that students probably shouldn't eat or watch TV while in the class session, but can we really restrict whether or not their children cry or dogs bark in the background? Didn't we offer them online courses so that they could still take care of their children or other responsibilities and stay home? I've also noticed several students who log in from work, and you can see other employees in the background.  Is this acceptable?  Do we need to accept it because we want online courses to be accessible for stay-at-home moms or working professionals, even if it is distracting and detracts from their and others' education?

What's cooler than bein' cool? Ice Cold!

 

This goes under the, ‘of course, why didn't I think of that’ category. Facebook is building a data center near the Arctic circle. They’ll use artic air to help keep all those servers nice and cool. Which brings up two questions: Will the heat generated from all those servers effect the local climate? And, can you like Facebook on Facebook? 

 

http://gizmodo.com/5853819/facebook-data-center-goes-arctic-for-chilling-effect

Internationally Renowned Filmmaker Comes to Campus as part of Year of China

 

As part of the College’s Year of China events, A&S is excited to welcome internationally renowned filmmaker Carma Hinton to campus this week. Keiko Tanaka, sociology professor and Director of the Asia Center, will show the documentary, “Morning Sun,” in her class, “Passport to China: Global Issues & Local Understanding.” "Morning Sun" is a psychological history of China's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, which took place from 1964-1976. The film provides a multi-perspective view of a tumultuous period as seen through the eyes — and reflected in the hearts and minds — of members of the high-school generation that was born around the time of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

Hinton was born and lived in China until she was 21. She received a doctorate in art history from Harvard University and has lectured on Chinese culture, history, and film at various educational institutions around the world.

The film will be shown on October 25 at 5:00pm in room 118 of the Whitehall Classroom Building. The discussion of the film with Hinton will be held on October 27 at 5:00pm also in room 118 of the Whitehall Classroom Building.

The Streets of Toulouse

Did I mention that Toulouse is really old (i.e., 23 centuries)?  One implication of that fact is that the streets are generally very narrow in centre ville (city center), where we live.  Many of the streets are 1 lane wide and are paved with brick or stone.  Another implication is that the streets are definitely not laid out as a grid or in any other systematic pattern that I can detect.  When you combine these two observations, you can explain many of the differences between French and American culture.  On the one hand, you have a French city with narrow streets that wind all over the place; on the other hand, you have the wide avenues laid out in grids in American cities.  Many implications follow from these differences, including: 

Peta Pixel Conflict Photography

 

I have always wondered how photographers could capture such dangerous moments in certain situations, and whether they would go all the way into those situations risking their life. Do people or enemies not harm them just because they have a press badge on? The movie Blood Diamond also made me ponder on this thought; how many photographers have died trying to capture an image representing a certain conflict? There are those people who may have given there lives in hope that they would capture an award winning photograph and then there are photographers who take a not-so-violent situation and skew it to make sure their photograph forces an award winning conflict. Watch this video below in order to see what i'm referring to.

Ruben Salvadori

Ramesh Bhatt Awarded NSF Grant to Study Autism

Congratulations are in order for Ramesh Bhatt, who has recently won a three-year National Science Foundation grant worth $432,751. Bhatt, a professor in the Department of Psychology, will use the support to expand his research on the development of social functioning in infancy. For example, Bhatt will analyze how infants from 3 to 9 months of age react to systematic changes to body and face images, documenting which aspects of bodies and faces infants scan. The results will help Bhatt determine whether babies know as much about bodies as about faces.

In addition to supporting the university’s mission to contribute to basic scientific knowledge, Bhatt’s NSF grant may also help answer questions about Autism, a developmental disability that has had a great impact on our society.

Light and Ramonville (dimanche, 24 Juillet, 2011)

I begin to understand why artists talk about light with such reverence.  Provence is fabled for its light: A destination for artists and for sun-worshippers, en general.  Toulouse is in the Midi-Pyrenees, which is immediately west of Provence and definitely southern France.  So the light in Toulouse can be pretty spectacular, too.  Evenings are really the best time to watch the light.  It is clear and soft and the change from early evening to late is a constantly evolving show.  There’s a big, old (built before Columbus sailed) church visible from my balcony.  Around 8:00 p.m., it is white-washed by the sun.  By 8:30, it radiates a rose color, as does the city (hence the nickname “pink city” although I prefer the untranslated “ville rose”).  By 9:00, the sun is low enough that the buildings are in shadow, but the cumulus clouds are lit up – textured whites on top, blue-grays and pinks on the bottom.  It will stay like that for another 30 minutes or so and be twilight around 9:30.  But the most amazing light I think I’ve ever seen was on a short evening trip from Ayron to Poitiers two weeks ago.  It was about 9:30 p.m.