The multiplicity of communications channels and increasing cultural and linguistic diversity in the world today call for a much broader view of literacy than portrayed by traditional language-based approaches. In this article, the New London Group presents a theoretical overview of the connections between the changing social environment facing students and teachers and a new approach to literacy pedagogy that they call “multiliteracies.” Continue reading
peer reviewing
“Well-established authors in a given field tend to be regarded as the best reviewers as opposed to the less-established ones. As a result, novel and little-known lines of research often meet with reluctance from the most prestigious publishers.” Inés Méndez Continue reading
battle of the Internet
“Whatever happens in the coming months may very well determine the future of the free and open internet.” Buffalo Forrester Continue reading
scholarly communications must be scalable
“Any learned communication that is not made to scale will shrink in its audiences and relevance, whereas scholarship that embraces scalability will be far more dynamic, flexible, and responsive—a manifestly superior mode of knowledge.” Gideon Burton Continue reading
the age of big data
“We’re really just getting under way. But the march of quantification, made possible by enormous new sources of data, will sweep through academia, business and government. There is no area that is going to be untouched.” Gary King Continue reading
fast-food scholarship
“Too many academics—veterans and neophytes alike—are producing scholarship that appears to have traded careful, methodical, fully developed intellectual work for quick and dirty publication.” Lynn Worsham Continue reading
collaborative science
Collaborations take place in a variety of forms, including the borrowing and lending of supplies, resources, and equipment between researchers; seeking input from an expert in a different discipline; and partnering with colleagues who have a similar background or field of knowledge for fresh ideas and abilities. Continue reading
open science, a primer
“Right now, the incentive network that scientists work under seems to favor ‘closed’ science. Scientific productivity is measured by the number of papers in traditional journals with high impact factors, and the importance of a scientists work is measured by citation count.” Dan Gezeltner Continue reading
autocracy by democratic rules
This paper examines one type of hybrid regime, which we call competitive authoritarianism. Such regimes are authoritarian in that they do not meet standard procedural minimum criteria for democracy. (abstract) Continue reading
reviewing peer review
JISC’s executive secretary, Malcolm Read, comments on the recent UK report into peer review and the role of data in evaluating research quality. Continue reading
the price of information
Academics are starting to boycott a big publisher of journals. More than 2,700 researchers from around the world have so far signed an online pledge, promising not to submit their work to Elsevier’s journals, or to referee or edit papers appearing in them. Continue reading
stop deifying peer review
“Peer review is not something that one can just ask for and “poof” it happens. Peer review of articles (or any other type of peer review for that matter) frequently does not work as sold—work that is poor can get published and work that is sound can get rejected.” Jonathan Eisen Continue reading
open source ed
Why aren’t we more vigorously developing cooperative learning environments to help replace the existing paradigm? Top down models are obsolete, just as crowdsourcing settles in as a viable alternative to manage big data. Continue reading
open academia
What does open peer review mean for the advancement of learning itself and for the politics of academia? (video) Continue reading
big data revealed
“To gain value from big data, you must choose an alternative way to process it.” Edd Dumbill (video) Continue reading
e-framework for education and research
As end users, both students and research institutions can gain from a service oriented approach to linking digital systems and applications. (video) Continue reading
student loan debt
Outrage! How Student Loans are Destroying Us (illustration) Continue reading
how science works: interactive flowchart
Excellent use of interactive schemata to reinforce the scientific method by visual association. Continue reading
something rather than nothing
“Science doesn’t necessarily have to get in the way of spiritual fulfillment. The real story of the universe is far more interesting than any myths or fairy tales that people wrote thousands of years before they even knew the Earth went around the Sun.” Lawrence Krauss (video) Continue reading
inside academic peer review
“This study will provide an overview of the [peer review] process, an identification of its major pitfalls, and end with guidelines for re-envisioning peer review so that policy can be based on the best of our scientific understanding.” Amy Kaleita Continue reading
