Submitted by Cathy Davidson on Feb 16, 2010, 06:34 AM

Galaxy Zoo sees publication of first scientific paper based on public's crowdsourcing efforts.

Submitted by Cathy Davidson on Sep 20, 2009, 12:48 PM

"What about the liability of not doing it? What about the liability, for everything else, of not taking responsibility?" That is the right answer to any experiment that pushes us to learn better and deeper, to take more risks, be more creative and bold together. And it is a very good thought with which to begin this new year.

Submitted by Cathy Davidson on Aug 20, 2009, 06:38 AM

As long as there is no counter solution, the opposition wins the numbers game. "It is easier to disqualify than to qualify." That is, the moment they put out any bill for discussion (and again, I am talking statistics here, not partisanship), it can then be the focus of "disqualification," which is to say disagreement. There are always, in any situation, far more reasons to disagree with something than to come to dissensus.

Submitted by Cathy Davidson on Aug 12, 2009, 01:37 PM

Galaxy Zoo needs your help once again, this time with a special project to search for supernovae exploding stars. Images of likely candidates captured by a telescope in California are being fed to our
website at http://supernova.galaxyzoo.org . Astronomers are standing by in the Canary Islands to follow up on the most exciting possibilities, but first we need your help to decide where to point
the telescope. Please take the time to go to the site, read the tutorial and then start hunting.

Submitted by Cathy Davidson on Aug 09, 2009, 08:36 PM

Please don't ever ask me to bet on which topics will be "hot" and which ones not. I managed to blog about an experiment in evaluation (y-a-w-n, so I thought!) during the week our new site was down several times for repair and then when I was off the grid, on my big one-week-of-vacation-fun of the year. Off the grid. I thought posting what is basically a revised version of a very successful course I taught last spring, "This Is Your Brain on the Internet" was a respectable place-holder during absence (www.hastac.org's and my own). I threw in some new ideas about experimenting with grading methods almost as an afterthought. About 5000 views and dozens of comments later, well, I get it now: Grading is a hot topic! Here's why . . .

Submitted by Cathy Davidson on Jul 26, 2009, 10:19 AM

I loved returning to teaching last year after several years in administration . . . except for the grading. I can't think of a more meaningless, superficial, cynical way to evaluate learning in a class on digital, collaborative, process-oriented online thinking than by assigning a grade. It turns learning (which should be a deep pleasure, setting up for a lifetime of curiosity) into a crass competition: how do I snag the highest grade for the least amount of work? There has to be a better way . . .

Submitted by Cathy Davidson on Mar 05, 2009, 03:59 PM
This Is Your Brain on the Internet: Episode 4

. . . In which we identify galaxies, Ananth loses sleep thinking about Jeff Hawkins? On INTELLIGENCE . . . Michael brings Jeff Hawkins to TYBI . . . and blogger Jennifer is invited to lecture the faculty on blogging . . .

Submitted by Cathy Davidson on Oct 29, 2008, 09:14 AM
When part of our professional team that is redesigning our HASTAC website suggested HASTAC might want to look into Crowdspring as a way to design a logo, we were delighted. HASTAC is dedicated to exploring all the different ways that new technologies are changing the way we think, create, learn, interact, publish our ideas, and do business together. Crowdspring is a Web 2.0 version of online design. It took a lot of hard work, by the designers and by our HASTAC web redesign team. We loved the result, but also wondered what the business model was. And then we learned about the controversy surrounding design on spec, and especially on Crowdspring. What was done was done . . . but we realized we could do what HASTAC does best, think about the pros and cons of such a system, send our readers to other informed sources, and use HASTAC as a forum on this issue. I've given several lectures, also available on this site, on "Do-It-Yourself" v. "Do-It-For-Rupert Murdoch," on the potential for exploitation from Web 2.0. Does Crowdspring fall into the Do-It-For-Them model? Let us know what you think!

Submitted by Cathy Davidson on Feb 25, 2008, 10:13 AM
A presitigious journalism award is given to someone for investigating what the standard media are not reporting.  Thank you, blogosphere!