Danny 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (265)

• On the post: 200 Students Admit To 'Cheating' On Exam… But Bigger Question Is If It Was Really Cheating Or Studying

  

  Danny ( profile ), 19 Nov, 2010 @ 05:04pm

  Re: Re: I have just started school again...

  "Eighty percent of being successful in life is showing up."
  
  -Woody Allen

• On the post: 200 Students Admit To 'Cheating' On Exam… But Bigger Question Is If It Was Really Cheating Or Studying

  

  Danny ( profile ), 19 Nov, 2010 @ 10:37am

  This discussion misses the big picture

  First a point to the previous posts:
  
  1. Most text publishers make review questions available to students (back of chapter or online); if a professor tests from these he has to accept that some students will use them to study. Most publishers also make "test banks" available to professors. My reading of this case is that it is such a test bank this professor used. While these are not supposed to be accessible by students, we all know that there is no way to fully secure information that is distributed to some.
  
  Second, this whole discussion misses the point that testing from a publisher's test bank is no way to help students learn skills useful to the real world. This professor is doing his students a disservice and his teaching/testing technique should change ASAP.
  
  a. The publisher test bank notoriously do not ask for any conceptual thinking, they simply ask students to feedback as fact information presented to them in the textbook.
  
  b. There is no useful reason to memorize textbook information (except, perhaps, toward building a functional professional vocabulary--and even then I am not sure simply knowing the word means one knows how to use it properly.)
  
  c. Once one is finished with school, one can always Goolge information. We no longer live in an age where information is a useful resource--or memorized information is a useful job skill.
  
  d. What differentiates people in the workforce are several things: [1] knowing how to access the right information quickly; [2] knowing how to apply that information to inform decision making; [3] knowing how to combine information in novel ways to solve problems; (there are probably more statements along these lines). All of this assumes one can easily access basic factual information; all of this assumes no reason to memorize information because one can access it upon need (and anyway, information changes quickly--so what is memorized in school is potentially out of date by the time the student is in the workforce and would need to be reconfirmed anyway.)
  
  e. So why would a professor ask students to memorize a textbook and feedback factual multiple choice information?
  
  f. I am giving a final exam Monday in an undergrad Content Management Systems course (IT-320 at DePaul). I've arranged to give my final exam in a computer lab. I've told the student the final is "open everything"--the only thing they are not permitted to do is have synchronous or asynchronous communication with anyone inside or outside the classroom during the two hour exam period. I've told them they can access anything on the Internet they want (outside of communication tools); and that they can even pre-build their own repositories of information to call upon if they like.
  
  My exam is about 20 multiple choice questions (that I've written myself) that take a form when you have to understand the underlying "why" to get the question right. Plus, one short essay (on a topic related to one of my lectures, but not exactly the same--so they will have to give it some thought or quick research). Plus I am having them build two quick and dirty CMS (one in WordPress and one in Joomla (probably) to my specifications.
  
  I am testing deeper understanding of concepts and the ability to solve problems under time pressure. I am also testing that they've been doing their own work all term as this is far to much for them to complete if they've been having someone else do their project for them.
  
  My system may not be perfect (and my teaching leaves a lot to be desire), but I think I am better preparing my students than this UCF professor is his.

• On the post: 200 Students Admit To 'Cheating' On Exam… But Bigger Question Is If It Was Really Cheating Or Studying

  

  Danny ( profile ), 19 Nov, 2010 @ 10:19am

  Re: I have just started school again...

  You might want to rethink getting a degree that requires a course on writing DOS batch files in 2010.

• On the post: Mafia Boss Arrested While Playing Godfather Xbox Game

  

  Danny ( profile ), 02 Nov, 2010 @ 10:39am

  Art imitates life

  Finally. Inconravertable evidence that violent crime leads to video game playing!

• On the post: Canon Creates Keyword-Based DRM For Copy Machines?

  

  Danny ( profile ), 13 Oct, 2010 @ 12:09pm

  law firms are going to love this

  "...but it seems like just another form of DRM which will likely only serve to piss off legitimate users."
  
  If anyone suspends a legitimate activity, they are going to have a hell of a time copying a memo instructing people to RESUME it, should the company block RESUME in order to limit job seekers from using the copy technology.
  
  I've actually had email rejected from a corporate server for using "resume" (first meaning above) in an email to an employee inside the firm.

• On the post: IBM Patents Dividing The Number 60 By Your Car's Speed

  

  Danny ( profile ), 07 Oct, 2010 @ 04:19pm

  The denominator doesn't have to be zero if the numerator is infinity

  Will you see an infinite number of ads if traffic comes to a full stop?"
  
  Um, Mike.
  
  If you sit there long enough you will.
  
  Am pretty sure that works at all refresh rates.

• On the post: Preparing New Techdirt CwF+RtB Offerings, And Extending The Crystal Ball For Those Who Bought

  

  Danny ( profile ), 07 Oct, 2010 @ 04:12pm

  Or would you prefer no irony clothing?

  I'd like a t-shirt that says
  
  "the message on this t-shirt is in the public domain"
  
  With a copyright (c) next to the message.

• On the post: Guy Sends Camera Up 100k Feet To Photograph Space (And Gets It Back Safely)

  

  Danny ( profile ), 06 Oct, 2010 @ 01:57pm

  Re: How do you avoid planes?

  You launch your balloon into the 99.99999999999% of space where there are no aircraft. Tricky, but managable.

• On the post: World Progress Report Promotes Program About 'Scams'; Helps Hide All The Complaints That It's A Scam

  

  Danny ( profile ), 04 Oct, 2010 @ 11:08am

  Re:

  Actually, no.
  
  As sleazy as they are, I have to give them credit for figuring this out. Unless it was just luck they fell into it.

• On the post: City Councilor Sue Uteck Silences, Threatens To Sue, Person Who Set Up FakeSueUteck On Twitter

  

  Danny ( profile ), 01 Oct, 2010 @ 02:44pm

  FakeMikeMasnick.ha

  This woman is just begging for someone to buy the domain name fakesueuteck.com to track her misplaced outrage.

• On the post: Patent Lawsuit Fight Over Who Has The Right To Sell Paris Hilton Hair Extensions

  

  Danny ( profile ), 30 Sep, 2010 @ 02:37pm

  Jenny Lind hair extensions?

  People have been trying to look like celebrities well before Farah Fawcett and Dorothy Hamill had "signature" hairdos. There must be some prior art that invalidates this patent.

• On the post: Back When The Senate Tried To Ban Dial Telephones

  

  Danny ( profile ), 22 Sep, 2010 @ 04:16pm

  ...back when I used to call the White House on a regular basis

  I was a cloakroom page in Congress in 1974. One of our tasks in the cloakroom was to dial the phones for congressmen. We had a simple PBX system with a switchboard phone mapped to the phones in each of 13 phone booths. The congressman would hand the page at the switchboard a sheet of paper with a number on it, and walk into a phone booth. Then the page would dial the number, nod to the congressman who would pick up his/her extension and talk.

  Some, of course, dialed their own calls.

  Here's a recent photo I just found of the cloakroom I worked in. The page is sitting at the switchboard; the phone booths look the same. The door opens onto the back corner of the House floor. That flat panel screen wasn't there in '74 :-)

  Looks like pretty much the same place. Oh, and I believe the elevators still require operators so Congressmen and Senators don't have to push their own buttons.

• On the post: Is The Contract Cast Members Sign To Be On Survivor Covered By Copyright? CBS Thinks So…

  

  Danny ( profile ), 04 Sep, 2010 @ 02:08pm

  Selling one's soul to the devil (AKA) CBS

  Wow, are those contracts/releases one sided! Of course they are written by one side, the one with all the power in this relationship.
  
  I guess any adult can sign a contract like this if he/she really wants to appear on the show. There must be many nasty family situations when other adults refuse to sign their release. It isn't at all clear to me that the relatives' release is binding in any way as it is not clear what consideration passes to them to make it a contract.
  
  The release for kids to sign is just obscene. Not only does there appear to be no consideration passing to the kids, but the CBS lawyers know full well the signature of the minor is not binding in any way.
  
  Sheesh.

• On the post: Is Jeftel A Spamming Front?

  

  Danny ( profile ), 26 Aug, 2010 @ 04:08pm

  Piece of work

  Mike, you might want to delete the religious and Tom jones spamming from the thread. The pro-Morris comments, while likely placed as part of a campaign seem legit in that they are on topic.
  
  While I have no idea whether Mr Morris is Jewish ( and don't care), I can see why one partisan would call him a shyster. He really is a piece of work. And it was nice of him to start the ball rolling again so that a whole new generation can learn about him and his evolving company names.
  
  Please keep us posted as to how this turns out.

• On the post: Recording Industry Using Net Neutrality Debate To Try To Link Child Porn With Copyright Infringement Again

  

  Danny ( profile ), 19 Aug, 2010 @ 04:34pm

  And she's not the worst of it

  If you've seen Hannah Montana lately you realize how closely commingled the two concepts actually are

• On the post: Court Tells Mall That It Cannot Ban Customers From Talking To Strangers

  

  Danny ( profile ), 18 Aug, 2010 @ 04:10am

  I want to flirt; would you wait there while I go fill out a form to get permission to do so?

  I can see them having the right to police speech on their private property as long as they do so equally across the board and not use it selectively to exclude specific classes of people they are not comfortable with.

• On the post: Rolling Stone Offers 'A Big Fat Thanks' To The RIAA For Screwing Up Music Online [Updated]

  

  Danny ( profile ), 17 Aug, 2010 @ 02:15pm

  Re: too little too late

  I hadn't thought about it, but I rarely buy music either. I got back into music a while ago when I had Limewire installed. But I pulled it down about three years ago due to all the threats out there.
  
  Since that time, I watch/listen a bit on YouTube, but that and my radio listening is mostly very old stuff. There are so many other things competing for my attention I hadn't even noticed.

• On the post: Best Buy Threatens Priest Over His God Squad Parody; How Does God Feel About Trademark Law?

  

  Danny ( profile ), 17 Aug, 2010 @ 02:09pm

  Or as I like to call them: corporate secular humanists

  I doubt the Best Buy marketing people are not nearly as amused as I am that their lawyers have outed the company as being "anti-God".

• On the post: UK Supermarket Starts Making Its Own Movies

  

  Danny ( profile ), 11 Aug, 2010 @ 03:36am

  What goes around comes around

  There is a reason soap operas are called soap operas

• On the post: Now Someone Else Claims He Deserves That 84% Ownership Stake In Facebook

  

  Danny ( profile ), 03 Aug, 2010 @ 05:57pm

  Springtime for Friendster

  "I'd almost assume this level of insanity was actually planted as marketing material for that fictional Facebook movie coming out this fall."
  
  All we need now is a beautiful Swede and some Nazi wannabees.

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