When the once-in-a-decade Granta Best of Young British Novelists list was announced earlier this year, it was noted with interest that the judges had expanded the parameters to include a couple of novelists who, although not technically British, currently call Britain home. Given the increasingly insular geopolitical landscape, a looser definition of national identity seems a welcome act of inclusivity and resistance, but—more pertinent to this series, which is a guide to some of the forgotten gems in the Booker archives—it also encouraged me to revisit Peter Ho Davies’s Man Booker Prize-longlisted debut, The Welsh Girl (2007). Four years prior to his Booker nomination, Davies—then the author of two short story collections, The Ugliest House in the World (1998) and...
Mary Taylor/Pexels If students have poor academic results early in school, do they continue to fall further and further behind as they move through their education? The intuitive answer to this question is yes. This perception is fuelled by relentless media reporting about falling standards in Australia, and claims about “widening gaps” between advantaged and disadvantaged groups of students. Read more: No wonder no one wants to be a teacher: world-first study looks at 65,000 news articles about Australian teachers The ‘Matthew effect’ If achievement gaps do widen as children develop, this would be evidence for what researchers call the “Matthew effect”. This theory, first described by Canadian psychologist Keith Stanovich, proposes students who start with poor academic skills early...
The Mechanical Turk was a fraud. The chess-playing automaton, dressed in a turban and elaborate Ottoman robes, toured Europe in the closing decades of the 18th century accompanied by its inventor Wolfgang von Kempelen. The Turk wowed Austrian empress Maria Theresa, French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, and Prussian king Frederick the Great as it defeated some of the great chess players of its day. In reality, though, the automaton was controlled by a human concealed within its cabinetry. What was the first chess-playing automaton? Torres Quevedo made his mark in a number of fields, including funiculars, dirigibles, and remote controls, before turning to “thinking” machines.AlamyA century and a half after von Kempelen’s charade, Spanish engineer Leonardo Torres Quevedo debuted El Ajedrecista...
Computers possess two remarkable capabilities with respect to images: They can both identify them and generate them anew. Historically, these functions have stood separate, akin to the disparate acts of a chef who is good at creating dishes (generation), and a connoisseur who is good at tasting dishes (recognition). Yet, one can’t help but wonder: What would it take to orchestrate a harmonious union between these two distinctive capacities? Both chef and connoisseur share a common understanding in the taste of the food. Similarly, a unified vision system requires a deep understanding of the visual world. Now, researchers in MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have trained a system to infer the missing parts of an image, a...
5 Ways to Teach Character Traits Hey there, rockstar! Looking for new ways to teach character traits in the elementary classroom? I have 5 PERFECT activity ideas to incorporate into your reading strategy lessons. These ideas are full of creativity and teamwork that your students will absolutely love. Don’t forget to sign up and grab a FREE reading comprehension color-by-number! Idea # 1: Use art! Elementary students LOVE being creative and making art. Bring art into your reading block! My favorite way? Make a classroom character trait quilt! Have a list of character traits. Each student will pick a different character trait to illustrate. Give each student a piece of paper, and they will create a visual representation of their character...
