We've been thinking about the data cloud in the Lounge these days. "What data cloud?" you may ask, and well that you should: it's a term relatively new to English and it hasn't yet settled down to a single fixed meaning. The data cloud we've been thinking about is the Big One: the nebulous dataset consisting of all the data that is, in principle, at your fingertips when they are poised above an Internet-connected keyboard.  Continue reading...

Frescata? Bananarcalepsy? Dreadhawk? Any of these ring a bell? They're all entries in a fascinating online project to document "false words" called Fauxlogism. Check out their entire list.

Our youngest generation is a scarce and precious resource facing a human wave of global competition. This reality is changing the way teachers think of literacy, and more importantly, it is changing their classroom practice. Teachers across the entire curriculum spectrum are beginning to realize that they are responsible for producing learners who possess the literacy skills needed for the 21st Century. They are realizing that literacy is the ability to comprehend all sorts of text, and helping students accomplish the goal of comprehension requires more than asking them to open a book and read the chapter.  Continue reading...

Looking for a good read or good reading about good reads? Check out these university press blogs for reviews, interviews and tidbits about the wide-ranging and fascinating books they publish:

Indiana University Press Blog

University of California Press Blog

University of Nebraska Press Blog

University of Hawai'i Press Blog

Off the Page (the Harvard University Press author forum)

These books offer advice, know-how and personal experience for teachers striving to grow professionally:

The Teaching Gap: Best Ideas from the World's Teachers for Improving Education in the Classroom by James Stigler

Becoming a Better Teacher by Giselle O. Martin-Kniep

Educating Esme: Diary of a Teacher's First Year by Esmé Raji Codell

Holler If You Hear Me: The Education of a Teacher and His Students by Gregory Michie

Audio Preference: This control allows you to change the audio pronunciation from a British English accent to an American English accent. You can also turn off audio pronunciation

Show Narrower Terms: This control limits when the Visual Thesaurus will show narrower terms for a selected meaning. If you set this too high, or to "show all," it may make the display cluttered and slow down your computer.

 Continue reading...

How do you effectively communicate -- sell -- your ideas in the marketplace? Anne Miller, a speaker, author and corporate trainer, answers this way: Think in metaphors. Metaphors? Review a speech by Ronald Reagan, Jack Welch or Steve Jobs -- or other legendary communicators -- and you'll read prose laced with imagery and analogies that drive their points home. As the author of Metaphorically Selling, Anne teaches businesspeople to put metaphors to work in their own communication. We spoke to her about her approach:  Continue reading...