History Spacebook: A Constructive Use of Wikis in Social Studies

This study examines student engagement and short-term and long-term achievement when a wiki was used constructively in place of traditional lecture to learn about the Civil Rights Movement. The study was conducted with students enrolled in two rural high school contemporary issues classes in the southeastern United States. The results indicated that participants in the experimental and control groups were engaged and enjoyed the topic that was studied. The participants in the experimental group showed significant increases in engagement while synthesizing information from numerous resources to develop wiki pages and while working collaboratively with other participants. There was no significant increase in short-term or long-term student achievement. Students in both groups enjoyed learning about the Civil Rights Movement, but several became emotional, voicing concerns. Comments included, “I hate the thought [of] that happening to people, and I couldn’t imagine going through that or watching others go through it. It was cruel and wrong and I don’t understand how people can hate someone on the basis of their skin.” Another added, “it [Civil Rights Movement] is still a touchy subject,” and yet another said, “the Civil Rights Movement was a beautiful display of courage, support, and righteousness.

YARN begins

В статье представлен проект создания большого открытого тезауруса русского языка YARN (Yet Another RussNet). Основная особенность проекта — использование wiki-подхода к наполнению и редактированию ресурса. В статье описаны лингвистические принципы создания тезауруса YARN, формат данных, а также ближайшие практические шаги, которые планируется предпринять в рамках проекта.YARN (Yet Another RussNet) is a work-in-progress on development of a large and open WordNet-like thesaurus for Russian. The paper reports on linguistic design, development and organizational principles, and interchange format of YARN.Исследование осуществляется при финансовой поддержке РГНФ (проект № 13-04-12020 «Новый открытый электронный тезаурус русского языка»). Мы благодарим участников группы yarn_org за активность, замечания и предложения. Работа Андрея Крижановского выполнена при частичной финансовой поддержке РФФИ (проект № 11-01-00251, № 12-01-00481, № 12-07-00070) и РГНФ (проект № 12-04-12062). Работа Ольги Ляшевской и Анастасии Бонч-Осмоловской отражает результаты исследований, проведенных при поддержке Программы фундаментальных исследований НИУ Высшая школа экономики (2013), проект «Корпусные технологии в лингвистических и междисциплинарных исследованиях». Павел Браславский благодарит группу разработчиков GermaNet под руководством проф. Эрхарда Хинрихса из университета Тюбингена за гостеприимство, плодотворное обсуждение проекта и обмен опытом, а также MUMIA Network30 за финансовую поддержку визита в Тюбинген в рамках программы Short Term Scientific Missions (STSM)

Reason Maintenance - Conceptual Framework

This paper describes the conceptual framework for reason maintenance developed as part of WP2

Against the realistic interpretation of the Theory of Relativity

The Theory of Relativity has been portrayed as a theory that redefined the way we look at the cosmos, enabling us to unlock the reality we live in. Its proponents are constantly reminding us of how Einstein managed to reveal the true nature of the universe with his groundbreaking theory, which has been proved multiple times until now. Yet, philosophy of science teaches us that no theory has any privileged connection with what we call reality per se. The role of science is to formulate models of the cosmos we see and not to try to interpret or reveal reality. This paper tries to show how this holds true even for the famous relativity theory, by showing specific objections to the connection of the theory with the Holy Grail of philosophers. By analyzing various subjects related to the theory, from the twins’ paradox to the GPS satellites, this paper illustrates that relativity is much less connected to reality than what we would like to think. At the end, what Einstein’s theory provides is nothing more than a way to formalize the interactions of the world but without being able to make any claims whatsoever regarding the ‘reality’ of its conclusions

Philosophical foundations of the Death and Anti-Death discussion

Perhaps there has been no greater opportunity than in this “VOLUME FIFTEEN of our Death And Anti-Death set of anthologies” to write about how might think about life and how to avoid death. There are two reasons to discuss “life”, the first being enhancing our understanding of who we are and why we may be here in the Universe. The second is more practical: how humans meet the physical challenges brought about by the way they have interacted with their environment. Many persons discussing “life” beg the question about what “life” is. Surely, when one discusses how to overcome its opposite, death, they are not referring to another “living” thing such as a plant. There seems to be a commonality, though, and it is this commonality is one needing elaboration. It ostensibly seems to be the boundary condition separating what is completely passive (inert) from what attempts to maintain its integrity, as well as fulfilling other conditions we think “life” has. In our present discussion, there will be a reminder that it by no means has been unequivocally established what life really is by placing quotes around the word, namely, “life”. Consider it a tag representing a bundle of philosophical ideas that will be unpacked in this paper

An online authoring and publishing platform for field guides and identification tools

Various implementation approaches are available for digital field guides and identification tools that are created for the web and mobile devices. The architecture of the “biowikifarm” publishing platform and some technical and social advantages of a document- and author-centric approach based on the MediaWiki open source software over custom-developed, database driven software are presented

Using Participatory Media and Public Voice to Encourage Civic Engagement

Part of the Volume on Civic Life Online: Learning How Digital Media Can Engage Youth. Teaching young people how to use digital media to convey their public voices could connect youthful interest in identity exploration and social interaction with direct experiences of civic engagement. Learning to use blogs ("web logs," web pages that are regularly updated with links and opinion), wikis (web pages that non-programmers can edit easily), podcasts (digital radio productions distributed through the Internet), and digital video as media of self-expression, with an emphasis on "public voice," should be considered a pillar -- not just a component -- of twenty-first-century civic curriculum. Participatory media that enable young people to create as well as consume media are popular among high school and college students. Introducing the use of these media in the context of the public sphere is an appropriate intervention for educators because the rhetoric of democratic participation is not necessarily learnable by self-guided point-and-click experimentation. The participatory characteristics of online digital media are described, examples briefly cited, the connection between individual expression and public opinion discussed, and specific exercises for developing a public voice through blogs, wikis, and podcasts are suggested. A companion wiki provides an open-ended collection of resources for educators: https://www.socialtext.net/medialiteracy