All the best and worst to you and yours from '10!

Happy New Year from the underrated band/best concert of the year!

Best movie
Exit Through the Gift Shop

Second-best movie
Toy Story 3

Greatest invention in a film
Inception: we all have a little safe in our subconscious that has a trinket in it. Guard it, baby.

Best explanation of Inception
The last line of Row, Row, Row Your Boat.

Best translation

Best new Winnipeg restaurant
Segovia

Best old Winnipeg restaurant
Orlando's

Best new bar
The Grove - within staggering distance of Mission Control.

Best beer
Innis & Gunn

Best wine
Flat Roof Manor in the summertime, on the patio at Civita

Overused word that makes people laugh but isn't funny
Douchebag

Underused word that is actually funny
Twerp

Best catchphrases
- "Thank you for the criticism!" - Richard Baschak
- "Yay, science!" - Richard Baschak

Best book
Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter by Tom Bissell (left)

Best book about what's happening to media - but why is it a book?
Futuretainment by Mike Walsh

Best book about what's happening to journalism
What is Happening to News by Jack Fuller

Most promising development in journalism
WikiLeaks

Worst PR - ever
BP Oil

Most shameful businesses
Oil, airlines, cell-phone "service providers"

Best PR campaign
Adopt a Dot - Art Institute of Chicago

Best real invention
iPad

Best class invention
BriteBites - candles that melt chocolate!

Best app
Flipboard for iPad

Worst app
Winnipeg Free Press for iPad

Best digital magazine
WIRED - iPad edition

Best digital newspaper
New York Times

Best paper magazine
Q - the British music magazine

Best sign
Star Wars protester sign: for its message, reproduction of the original logo, and timeliness

Best TV show
Mad Men

Best new TV show
Boardwalk Empire

Best TV show to play catchup on DVD/download
Breaking Bad

Best TV shrink
Dr. Paul Weston (Gabriel Byrne) - In Treatment

Best video game app
Angry Birds Halloween/Seasons

Best console video game
Halo: Reach

Best podcast
Adam Carolla Show 

Best lectures
TED Talks

Best dance


Best song
The Unthanks - The Testimony of Patience Kershaw

Best album
Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More

Most-heralded band plays its worst concert
Arcade Fire at Lollapalooza

Least-heralded band plays its best concert
Kissaway Trail at Lollapalooza

Best new band
The Drums

Best band comeback
OMD

Best stand-up comic
Norm MacDonald, Walker Theatre

Best stand-up comedy show
CreCommedy Nights at the King's Head

Class most likely to get a noise complaint
Comedy Writing - six years in a row!

Worst bank machine

Best class "arguments"
- Orange Crush is a brand?!
- Reverse type is crappy (informed opinion) versus it's awesome (drunk opinion)

Best learning curve
Google AdWords

Most beloved late actor
Tony Curtis - Sidney Falco in the Sweet Smell of Success - the greatest PR movie of all time - and da singa of sawngs from Brooklyn in Spartacus.


Best student
The one reading this right now

Best ad campaign
Never say no to Panda


Worst copywriter
The one who wrote this:

Out of date, but happy they're still here
Music stores - Into the Music, Music Trader

Out of date, get out of here
- TV weather forecasts
- Hour-long local TV newscasts

Best blog
The ones that are regularly at the top of the student blog rolls, because frequent updates almost always indicate passion.

Least-useful feedback
Anonymous blog comments

Best blogging inroad
The ability to identify "anonymous" comments

Best and most prolific tweeter
@ebertchicago

Best photo NOT in need of a caption

Least useful accessory
Hair

Most useful accessory
Sarcasm

Best brush with celebrity
Juliette Lewis speaks directly to me at the Pyramid Cabaret. And I'll never reveal what she said!

Best viral video
New York snow removal:


Now let's drink champagne from plastic cups, shall we?

What up, (Google) Doc?

I looked up "wiki" in Wikipedia, and it said, "You're looking at it. See "idiot." So I looked up "idiot," and it said, "You again?" - updated Steven Wright joke

As a teacher, I can remember when the word "Facebook" appeared out of nowhere.

I can actually recall the first student who said the word in class and my initial reaction: "Oh great, an online yearbook. Thank God I graduated from high school years ago."

I instantly hated the site, its name, and everything about it.

When I checked it out, I saw that all of my least-favorite people from high school were all over it. "It will never last!" I proclaimed confidently, before eating my weight in Twinkies.

Mock at your own peril, Larsen!

This year, for the first time, I heard the words "Google Docs" come up in casual conversation, oh...about 1,000 times.

Of course, I knew that Google Docs (Wikipedia link) existed, but like many Google products, it rolled out with great fanfare and then kind of vanished, until this semester, that is, when it came back with a vengeance.

I bent my wiki 

Google Docs "is an online word processor, spreadsheet and presentation editor that lets instructors and students create, store and share instantly and securely, and collaborate online in real time."

Like, duh. This idea has been around for a while in "wiki" form. Though Google Docs and wikis are both collaborative online tools, there are some differences:

• Google Doc authors invite collaborators - with Google accounts - to edit documents, but wikis are open to anyone's views or edits, whether they have an account or not. 

• Google Docs are built for simultaneous, real-time editing, but wikis are not. 

• Google Docs are the online equivalent of Word documents, wikis are Web pages.

In my infinite bonheadedness, I was still thinking of "group-writing projects" as the kind of thing where, in a five-student group, three or four students would gather data and two students would have the terrible task of putting it together in a written document and making sure it all had the same tone.

As with any group assignment, it always comes down to the last person with the document. If that person screws up, everyone gets screwed over, including the poor sap who has to read and mark it (sympathy for the Devil, anyone?).

A light at the end of the group-projects tunnel

My own experience with group projects is that I hate them - I've uttered, "Oh, just let me do it" to many a lousy group in my time, and I see the same thing go on in my classes every year - the old "one student coasting on the work of four other students" trick.

And, in this day and age, it's impossible to get anyone to cop to anything other than stellar work. The best you can do is, "I did everything I was told." Boo. Put me out of my misery, Soul Asylum:



But once students told me how they were using Google Docs to collaborate on group assignments, I saw a light at the end of the group-projects tunnel: what I had considered to be a step-by-step process, in fact, had become a real-time conversation/editing/learning mashup.

I had instructed the class to make sure that the last person with the project document was someone with strong writing and editing skills; in fact, I should've suggested that the students use Google Docs to watch and participate in the editing process, so that even weaker writers could learn from the process.

I resolve to build Google Docs into group assignments, effective immediately. And to go to the gym five times a week. And to grow my hair back.

50 ways to use wikis in the classroom

As Smartteaching.org points out, like Paul Simon leaving so many lovers, there must be 50 ways to use Wikis in the classroom, including resource creation, student participation, group projects, student interaction, and classroom resources.

Wikis for teachers

I must also mention Weblogg-ed writer Will Richardson's wiki prescription for teachers:

"Step 1: Put up a wiki page with a list of interesting tools that teachers might use in the classroom, fairly complete descriptions of what the tool can do, and a few links to great examples of (classroom) use. Ask teachers to read through the descriptions and sign up for the sessions that interest them.

"Step 2: When people arrive in the rooms where the sessions are scheduled, write this on the board: “YOU HAVE 90 MINUTES. FIGURE IT OUT.”