Emoticons Invade Academia

Experts not sure you need to pay $1.99 to get it across

(NEWSER) - Sarcastic people around the world, rejoice—a father-son team has finally developed a punctuation mark purpose-built to make sarcasm clear in written and electronic communication. “Questions have the question mark, exclamations have the exclamation point,” reasons the elder creator. The SarcMark is “the 21st century’s punctuation.” Newser will be punting on using it, however: We're not so sure it's worth the $1.99 it costs to download the software that lets Windows users insert it by pressing CTRL and the period key. More»

Enough is enough: We're smart enough to know when you're happy, sad

(NEWSER) - Since its inception in 1982, the "smiley" has been used in a number of ways, all of which make Mary Elizabeth Williams "want to smack the half circle off its stupid face." Even though bright people use emoticons, "when I see a smiley, my first thought is, 'What are you, 12 years old?'" she writes in Salon . It's time for the ubiquitous :-)—along with its garish, animated, higher-tech counterpart—to die. More»

Tech-savvy, yes, but far dumber than age cohorts past

(NEWSER) - Today's youth are dangerously dumb, Mark Bauerlein writes in his new book, The Dumbest Generation. Here's why:

1. Check out Jay Leno's "Jaywalking," where "the ignorance is hard to believe."
2. They boast "a new attitude," taking pride in their illiteracy.

First emoticon launched global communication revolution

(NEWSER) - They didn't seem significant at the time, but three keystrokes typed exactly 25 years ago tomorrow marked a groundbreaking change in the way we communicate. The keystrokes— a colon, hyphen and a right parenthesis—formed the first smiley-face emoticon. The were created on a computer bulletin board by artificial intelligence pioneer Professor Scott E. Fahlman of Carnegie Mellon University. More»

New teaching, learning styles may spell an end to lectures

(NEWSER) - An increasing number of colleges and universities are using new Web applications to engage a generation of students eager to collaborate—and strut their stuff—on the Internet. Blogs, wikis, and other collaborative tools are being used as more than just empty Web 2.0 buzzwords, CNET reports; they allow students to work and learn more efficiently and even help recruiting. More»