Thursday, May 27, 2010
Free Technology for Teachers: Free SMART Notebook Training on Online!
James Hollis, author of Teachers Love SMART Boards, is currently offering a free training course through his Teacher Online Training site. The course is titled Notebook Technique - Magic Slider (http://www.teacheronlinetraining.com/complimentary/). The course is delivered through twelve video tutorials divided into four sections. This is the course description from Teacher Online Training:
This course will guide participants through the process of creating an application that reveals information by sliding an object on the page. This technique can be used in a number of different ways to increase engagement and interaction with the information being displayed on the SMART Board.
Notebook Technique - The Magic Slider
This course will guide participants through the process of creating an application that reveals information by sliding an object on the page. This technique can be used in a number of different ways to increase engagement and interaction with the information being displayed on the SMART Board.
This course utilizes important features of Notebook to achieve the desired effect. Teachers will learn to use simple color blending and grouping techniques to create dramatic effects. They will also learn how to customize the Notebook Toolbar, save pages to the Gallery, and re-size objects at the same time. This course contains 12 short video tutorials and is divided into four sections that will guide the user through the entire process of building a Magic Slider.
Participants will also learn/reinforce their skills in adding and modifying shape objects, selecting objects, grouping objects, ordering objects, locking objects, and changing page backgrounds.
Professional Development Credit: 60 Minutes
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Microsoft at Work: Tips for working from home
More and more companies and organizations not only allow but also encourage telecommuting. If your organization offers that option, you can use your mobile PC to be productive in the comfort of your home or another remote location. In this article, I discuss the tools of the trade and provide tips to ensure that the familiar home environment doesn't prevent you from keeping your focus and achieving your goals.
Tools of the trade
To efficiently telecommute, you'll need the following tools.
Internet access: Most teleworkers have access to the Internet at home so that they can connect to their corporate network. As a home user, you can choose from three Internet access options:
•DSL: DSL stands for digital subscriber line. It uses ordinary telephone lines and a special modem to provide an Internet connection that can transmit high-bandwidth information to a user's computer. A DSL line can carry both data and voice signals. The data part of the line is a dedicated connection to the Internet and does not interfere with the use of the telephone. DSL is high speed and is always connected to the Internet.
•Cable Internet: Cable Internet uses your local cable TV line to receive broadband Internet content. This data rate far exceeds that of modems and is about the same as DSL. Your local TV cable company is typically the cable Internet service provider.
•Satellite Internet: If cable or DSL aren't available in your area, or if the slow dial-up access speeds are not acceptable, consider using satellite internet. It's available to you if you live in the northern hemisphere and have an unobstructed view of the southern sky. The service is expensive and the data rate is not as fast as a direct line, but it is a good connectivity alternative if you live in an isolated location.
Computer: Of course, you'll need a computer! You can use a desktop computer or a mobile PC. If you can take your mobile PC home from the office, you won't have to install the same programs on your desktop computer. If you do need to use a desktop computer to connect to your organization's network remotely, you may need to install additional software to meet your company's connectivity and security requirements.
Dedicated space with some privacy: I've heard more than one frustrated telecommuter state that they have a hard time focusing when they work at home. When I ask where their desktop computer or mobile PC is located, they usually say it's on the dining room table. By setting up your workspace in a busy location, you almost guarantee distractions. Instead, set up a safe, healthy, and efficient workspace with easy access to your computer, a phone, reference materials, and supplies.
Communication tools: When telecommuting, make sure that your colleagues, customers, and manager can communicate with you at all times. Whether you're in the office or working remotely, make it easy for people to contact you. Here are some suggestions:
•Share your phone number with people you work with regularly and leave your contact information with your manager and one or two additional contacts (such as your administrative assistant or receptionist). Also, consider using call forwarding to your home or cell phone so that you receive incoming calls wherever you're working.
•Consider using instant messaging (IM). Similar to a chat room, IM is a fast means of communicating with one or more people in real time over the Internet. IM also gives you a way to show and update your communication status throughout the day. For example, when you need a couple of hours of undisturbed concentration, set your status as "Busy" and let everyone know that you'll be slower than usual to reply to e-mail messages and phone calls.
Tips for staying focused
The tools of the trade don't guarantee success—you'll also need some strategies to help you stay focused.
•Start working at the same time. Treat telework days like regular workdays: get up, get dressed, and be "at your desk" at the usual time.
•Establish a schedule. Keep work hours similar to the ones you would keep if you were working at your office. Your manager and your co-workers appreciate knowing when you are available.
•Limit distractions. Be careful not to replace office-based interruptions with home-based ones (such as children, neighbors, and friends).
•Plan ahead. Take the appropriate work home. Some work may be better suited for the home office than other work, so be sure to plan the telework a day ahead.
•Take breaks. Plan time to get up and move around. Consider going for a walk or a run during your lunch break to keep your mind fresh.
•Focus on objectives. Work with your manager and colleagues to define clear goals and objectives against which your performance can be objectively measured.
Telecommuting is not for everyone, but if your job lends itself to working remotely and you are self-disciplined and highly motivated, you can reap the rewards of working effectively at home or remotely. Using the information presented in this column, you can take advantage of the opportunity to work efficiently away from the office while remaining in touch with your colleagues and customers.
This article was written by Armelle O'Neal.
Faculty Focus: Wikipedia in the Classroom: Tips for Effective Use
By John Orlando, PhD http://www.facultyfocus.com/author/johnorlandophd/ in Effective Strategies @: http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/effective-teaching-strategies/
Most academics consider Wikipedia the enemy and so forbid their students from using Wikipedia for research. But here’s a secret that they don’t want you to know—we all use Wikipedia, including those academics.
There’s a reason that the Wikipedia entry normally comes in at the top of a Google search. Google relies heavily on inbound links to rank a site, and Wikipedia is one of the most commonly linked sites on the Internet. Here’s another secret—Wikipedia is vetted by volunteer academics. Wikipedia’s motto is “no original thought,” meaning that everything must be cited, and uncited material is quickly removed. In fact, studies have shown the Wikipedia is about as accurate as Britannica.
Here are two ways to use Wikipedia to improve learning outcomes in your classes:
1. Have Students Build Articles
In the Spring of 2008, Professor Jon Beasley-Murray at University of British Columbia had the students in his class "Murder, Madness, and Mayhem: Latin American Literature in Translation" create articles for Wikipedia on the books that they read. He transformed his students from learners to teachers, which improves outcomes. Plus, creating public work improves motivation as well as performance.
Importantly, the students were instructed to make contact with the Wikipedia editors—called the “FA Team”—to receive feedback on their work for revisions. The instructor had effectively enlisted outside academics as reviewers for his class. Wikipedia also has a quality ranking system that assigns “Good Article” or “Featured Article” status to exceptionally good works. About 1 in 800 articles reach Good Article status, while 1 in 1,200 reach Featured Article status. The instructor guaranteed his students an “A” for Good Articles, and an A+ for Featured Articles.
The results? The students, who worked in groups of two or three, produced three Featured Articles and eight Good Articles, an exceptional result given how few articles achieve these levels. These articles receive thousands of hits per month, demonstrating to students the value of their work. Now more than 20 universities have projects in Wikipedia.
2. Host a Course on Wikiversity
Wikimedia—the non-profit foundation that created Wikipedia—also hosts nine other wiki projects, including: Wikibook (free textbooks), Wikispecies (dictionary of species), and Wikiquote (compilation of quotes). One interesting site is Wikiversity, which provides a space for hosting courses or other content. An instructor can build a course page with syllabi, lesson plans, and other material for the students to access whenever they need it. That page can also be linked to other educational material such as videos.
Best yet, students can be given editing access to the page to add their own material. Groups can be assigned to add material to the course, such as resources for further exploration of the topics. Another option is to have the students build self-tests on the material using free web-based quiz functions for future students. This will enlist the students in an ongoing project of developing knowledge that outlives their particular class and is passed on to future generations of students.
Resources
The Latin American Literature Project - http://www.facultyfocusmail.com/ls.cfm?r=241441965&sid=9563083&m=1013702&u=MAGNA_FF&s=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jbmurray/Madness
Guide for university projects - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:School_and_university_projects/Piotrus_educational_boilerplate
Listing of university projects - http://www.facultyfocusmail.com/ls.cfm?r=241441965&sid=9563085&m=1013702&u=MAGNA_FF&s=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SUP
Guide for peer review of articles - http://www.facultyfocusmail.com/ls.cfm?r=241441965&sid=9563086&m=1013702&u=MAGNA_FF&s=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:PR
Wikiversity - http://www.facultyfocusmail.com/ls.cfm?r=241441965&sid=9563086&m=1013702&u=MAGNA_FF&s=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:PR
John Orlando, PhD, is the Program Director for the online Master of Science in Business Continuity Management and Master of Science in Information Assurance programs at Norwich University. John develops faculty training in online education and is available for consulting at jorlando@norwich.edu.
HBCU Library Alliance: The Atlanta Post...Many HBCUs Remain Socially Liberal, Fiscally Conservative
Since the start of the economic downturn many institutions have struggled to fund increasingly costly operations with diminished funds. But if the old adage is correct – when America has a cold, black America has the flu – historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) hoping to weather this storm are forced to be more careful than their counterparts in investing.
“Howard’s investments have performed fairly well compared to other colleges – the big names,” said Robert Tarola, chief financial officer and treasurer for Howard University. “We lost, but not 30% like some of the big name Ivy schools. Howard takes a very conservative and thoughtful approach in managing the endowment.”
The university’s endowment currently stands at $424 million. According to it’s 2008-2009 Financial Statements and Supplementary Information report, Howard invested a total of $426 million during the 2008-2009 fiscal year. During that same year it experienced a $90 million loss on its investment return. It takes $800 million dollars a year to run the school and it’s affiliated hospital. With this sort of price tag, taking measures to responsibly manage funds is paramount. “We allocate endowment funds to over a dozen different asset classes,” said Tarola. “We have a highly diversified portfolio both in terms of the number of asset classes, as well as the number of investment managers. We don’t have a large amount in any one bucket because diversification reduces risks.”
Lavera Prestage, comprehensive financial advisor for Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc., believes universities with modest endowments, as is the case with most HBCUs, should approach investing with considerable caution as a matter of necessity. However, she contends risky investments are necessary for financial growth. “They should have some aggressive investments, but they also need a smart level of conservative investment,” said Prestage. “Ninety percent of performance depends on the mixture of investments.”
While sampling this recipe for growth may challenge organizations across the board, one could argue that stewardship of funds for historic institutions must be handled with greater care. The number of constituents to whom they are accountable – not just for the operation of a school, but for the continuation of a legacy – is substantial.When the city of Atlanta threatened to shut off the water at cash strapped Morris Brown College in 2009, interest swelled well beyond faculty, current enrollees and alumni. The Black community banded together to help save the debt-strangled institution from drowning. It wasn’t just the threat of a school suffering, it was the idea that one of black America’s most prized possessions – the Negro college – was in danger.
Robert Flanigan, chief financial officer of Spelman College, is well aware of his role in preserving the institution’s legacy and it’s place in the country’s academic community. “I always feel pressure with regards to creating equity and capital,” he said. “We have to provide spending for the existing population at Spelman and maintain this same endowment for students 100 years hence. I feel that pressure every day.”
Spelman suffered along with other universities when the economy tanked, but things have been rebounding and the school is shooting for an 11% increase over the next decade. In order to make that happen, Flanigan believes the school must continue with a relatively aggressive strategy when it comes to diversification. Currently the school has stakes in foreign equities, private equities, venture capital, real estate, commodities and currency.
“We’ve all learned a lot from 2008,” he said. “The world markets are not as uncorrelated as we thought. Before we had the fall in 2008, Spelman’s endowment stood at $350 million, then went down to $285 million. However, that 17 percent loss was probably one of the least losses in the U.S. with aggressive investments.”
SANDRA M. PHOENIX
Program Director
HBCU Library Alliance
sphoenix@hbculibraries.org
www.hbculibraries.org
404.592.4820
1438 West Peachtree Street NW
Suite 200
Atlanta, GA 30309
Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (Lyrasis)
Fax: 404.892.7879
www.lyrasis.org
Honor the ancestors, honor the children.
Register now http://www.hbculibraries.org/html/meeting-form.html for the October 24-26, 2010 HBCU Library Alliance 4th Membership Meeting and the "Conference on Advocacy" pre-conference in Montgomery, AL. The Pre-Conference and Membership meeting are open to directors and other librarians.
Campus Technology Smart Classroom: The "Ed Tech Quarterback"
By Michael David Leiboff - 05/26/10
In the design of learning spaces, one key member of of the planning team is often not formally identified: the educational technology quarterback. This is the person who acts as both an advocate for technology and a coordinator between disparate departments. But the function of the "ETQB" doesn't end there.
Inside Higher Ed: Credit for Teaching
At many colleges and universities, the tenure trinity of teaching, research and service is widely viewed (at least by those coming up for tenure) as a myth. A new book (or articles in the right journals) will trump a great teaching idea every time, say many professors. Classroom innovation doesn't get any credit.
The American Sociological Association on Tuesday announced a new effort that -- organizers hope -- could change that. TRAILS -- the Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology Web site -- will be an archive for peer-reviewed classroom innovations, including syllabuses, class activities, individual assignments, bibliographies and Web sites -- all focused on teaching. A two-level peer-review process is being created to vet entries, and association officials promise that plenty will be rejected, or, as with journal submissions, sent back for revisions.
The idea is that by adapting a rigorous peer review process, successful items on TRAILS will be granted the respect on a tenure dossier that good teaching evaluations or a portfolio might never garner.
TRAILS will not be the first effort at peer review in teaching, which happens when senior faculty observe classes and in broader efforts such as MERLOT and the Peer Review of Teaching Project. Where TRAILS may be significant and successful, some experts say, is in its broad disciplinary focus. Junior faculty members win tenure based on publishing in their fields' top journals, the thinking goes, and the way to see teaching ideas actually get credit may also be to have the imprimatur of the discipline.
"I think there is power in having the discipline take it on," said Mary Taylor Huber, senior scholar emerita and consulting scholar at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, which has long promoted the idea of "the scholarship of teaching," advanced by the late Ernest Boyer when he headed the foundation. "I think there is a long way to go before there is a wide enough understanding and acceptance of this kind of pedagogical work as a serious intellectual enterprise, and I think this is a step forward."
Huber said that some disciplines and departments have made it possible for people to receive credit for teaching ideas in tenure and promotion by writing up scholarly articles about their teaching ideas and then publishing those ideas in key journals. While the basis for those articles may be teaching, they are ultimately being evaluated as research -- based on their publication. What she likes about the sociologists' idea, she said, is that the emphasis is on rigorous evaluation of and (where appropriate) "full credit for teaching as teaching."
How TRAILS Will Work
To get a resource accepted on TRAILS, a scholar will have to submit documentation that the learning tool meets a series of criteria -- and that assessment has been done by the professor to show that the idea actually works. The tool must also be demonstrably useful to others and explained in a clear way. Then the submission is reviewed by an "area editor," a professor selected by the association either for a focus on a type of teaching (introductory course, capstone course, research methods, etc.) or for sociology subject matter (from policy analysis to animals and society to stratification to immigration to biosociology). The area editor can approve the proposal for a second level of review (by the association's office or later by other panels), reject it, or ask for revisions.
Only after the second review would the resource be accepted and included on the Web site. To submit or to have full access to the materials submitted, sociologists will need to subscribe to TRAILS ($25 for association members and $100 for others). Those who join TRAILS will also be able to use any of the materials in their courses, with the only condition being that they give visible credit to the scholars who created them. So instructors will gain access to resources without any permissions process. Among the samples provided by TRAILS are a syllabus for a course on the sociology of the body, and a class module on AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.
Margaret Weigers Vitullo, director of the ASA’s Academic and Professional Affairs Program and the creator of TRAILS, said she was under no illusion that the application of peer review would make teaching innovations be seen as identical to research innovations. "I don't think that publishing a class activity is the same thing as publishing a journal article," she said.
But if sociologists believe that teaching innovations matter, she said, they should consider why current systems for evaluating teaching don't end up getting much weight in tenure reviews. "Measuring excellence is very difficult," she said. Teaching portfolios may not be reviewed by people with expertise in teaching that subject, student evaluations of instructors are widely questioned, and in-person observation by senior colleagues is "a snapshot of a day."
The TRAILS idea is to provide "meaningful evidence of teaching accomplishment" that could earn the respect of tenure and promotion committees. Vitullo noted that Boyer argued that teaching would get real respect in academe only when reward structures reflect its importance, and added that she hoped this project would move the field of sociology in that direction.
While TRAILS "can't magically undo" a century or more of institutions giving relatively little credit to teaching, Vitullo said that she hopes review committees will pay attention. "We are showing that we can measure high quality teaching in a way that is public and peer reviewed and scholarly," she said.
Further, the effort asserts -- in the face of calls for accountability to be demonstrated through testing -- that a discipline takes teaching seriously, but doesn't want to rely just on testing. "Rather than say that we know a university does a good job of teaching because we are giving all of our students a test that may or may not measure what we want," the individual reviews of teaching techniques and tools (all accompanied by evidence of success) speak "to the push for accountability" and show that it is "something we take seriously," she said.
— Scott Jaschik
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
A List Apart for People Who Make Websites: Quick and Dirty Remote User Testing
by Nate Bolt
Published in: User Interface Design, Project Management and Workflow, Usability
8 Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers
by Annabel Candy
Do you want to be a successful blogger?
I do. I might be getting a bit obsessed with it, actually.
Post ideas pop into my head unexpectedly. I keep a long running list of ideas for improving my blog.
I also study how the most successful bloggers got where they are, and I pore over every word that they write.
If you want to be a great blogger, you should, too.
A lot of the top bloggers like Brian Clark, Darren Rowse, and Leo
Babauta have shared hundreds of tips about how they made their blogs so successful. But each blogger’s tips are just a little different.
There’s too much advice to follow
So I would read one special report with a great idea and put that into place on my blog. But the next day I’d find a podcast from another top blogger with contradictory advice, so I’d change my blog again. Then I’d come across a third idea from an equally successful blogger, which sent me down a totally new path.
Finally I realized I needed to stop focusing on little things like what plug-ins to use, how to write my About Page, or where to position my ads.
I needed to focus on a bigger picture. I wanted to find out what all these top bloggers had in common. Their mindset, their mental habits.
I spent a lot of time observing, which led to this list of the eight success traits shared by all top bloggers I’ve found. I’m happy to share it with you.
The good news is that even if you don’t have all these personality traits already, most of them can be developed over time. Best of all, if you can cultivate these traits, you’ll become more effective in the rest of your life as well.
1. Effective bloggers are prolific
The first key to being a successful blogger is to write. A lot.
The more you write, the better your writing gets. The more posts you add to your blog, the more juice you’ll get from search engines. And more content means more reader visits to see what’s new.
There’s no way around it; it takes work to be prolific. Effective bloggers work hard. Putting a successful blog together requires a lot of time in front of your computer, and not surfing LOLCats or Twittering about what you had for lunch. Great bloggers put serious time into researching, writing, editing, and planning posts for their blogs.
2. Effective bloggers are concise
It is a truth universally acknowledged by top bloggers; people come to your blog for a reason. Usually because they want to learn something from you.
No one wants to read fluff or blather, especially online.
Top bloggers know how to quickly get people’s attention, how to keep it, and how to make their posts easy to digest.
Most effective bloggers tend toward short posts. They also divide their copy into short paragraphs, and use bullet points or numbered lists to keep the reader scanning. They use compelling subheads so readers can scan for the information they need.
Brevity comes in handy in other areas of life, too. Keep your phone calls short. Pare your email messages down to the essentials. You’ll have more time for creative work, and people will be much more interested in what you have to say.
3. Effective bloggers are analytical
Successful bloggers don’t work or live in a bubble.
They always look to their readers, observing carefully to see what readers care about and respond to.
They study their statistics, so they know where readers come from — what sites, what search engines, what search terms, and even what countries.
They know when they tend to get the most traffic, what kinds of posts are best suited for their audience, and what kinds of headlines get tweeted most often.
Then they tailor the timing, content, layout, and images of their posts to suit their audience.
4. Effective bloggers are lifelong learners
If you’re new to blogging, you’re probably on a steep learning curve at the moment.
Maybe you tell yourself that things will get better when you’ve been doing it longer. There won’t be so much to learn. You’ll have systems in place soon and everything will run smoothly.
Sadly, I think this is a myth. I’ve been using and designing for the Internet for about 15 years, and it keeps changing. Just when you’ve got one element sorted out, something new gets released. Or becomes obsolete. Or mutates in 20 different directions.
If you want to stay ahead in blogging, you have to keep learning.
Fortunately, being curious and wanting to learn keeps you young and your brain active. A love of learning doesn’t just set you up for a successful blog, but for a successful and happy life.
5. Effective bloggers are focused and consistent
Successful bloggers choose a topic and stick to it.
They write consistently about their chosen subject, and with a consistent voice and approach. Even when they write about something that seems to be off-topic, they relate it back to the niche they know their readers are interested in.
Top bloggers are also consistent about timing. Most stick to regular posting schedules. Whether they post three posts a day or two posts a week, their readers know what to expect.
6. Effective bloggers plan ahead
Successful bloggers know where they’re going. They have a master plan and they stick to it. Yes, they adapt based on feedback, but always in service of a vision.
To paraphrase Seth Godin’s recent book Linchpin, “Effective bloggers ship.” Top bloggers don’t waffle for months about the typeface on their upcoming ebook. They may tailor the angle, price, or format to better suit their market. But they don’t let themselves get derailed. They follow the plan.
7. Effective bloggers are persistent
Top bloggers understand that success doesn’t happen overnight. Real success rarely happens quickly.
Time is on your side. To get to the top takes consistency, hard work, serious study, and lots of persistence. Successful bloggers don’t give up.
8. Effective bloggers are self-starters
I’ve been self-employed for years.
I’ve noticed a lot of people like the idea of working from home, working for themselves, being their own boss. But if you want these things, you need to be able to manage yourself.
No one is going to sack you if you’re late. No one reminds you of important deadlines or nags you to get your sales numbers up.
If you want to be a successful blogger, you need to be a self-starter. It’s not enough to have good ideas. You have to act on them.
What trait do you think is most valuable?
What do you think the most important trait of a top blogger is? It might be one of these eight, or something completely different. Let us know in the comments!
About the Author: Annabel Candy is a travel fiend who currently calls Australia home. She has travelled widely and writes a personal improvement blog called Get in the Hot Spot. It’s stuffed with inspiration and tips to help people live their dreams.
The Code4Lib Journal Article: A Principled Approach to Online Publication Listings and Scientific Resource Sharing
Jacquelijn Ringersma, Karin Kastens, Ulla Tschida and Jos van Berkum
The Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Psycholinguistics has developed a service to manage and present the scholarly output of their researchers. The PubMan database manages publication metadata and full-texts of publications published by their scholars. All relevant information regarding a researcher’s work is brought together in this database, including supplementary materials and links to the MPI database for primary research data. The PubMan metadata is harvested into the MPI website CMS (Plone). The system developed for the creation of the publication lists, allows the researcher to create a selection of the harvested data in a variety of formats.
Information Literacy: A Neglected Core Competency
Sharon A. Weiner, Professor and W. Wayne Booker Chair in Information Literacy at Purdue University writes for Educause Quarterly about Information Literacy: A Neglected Core Competency. In her article she discusses the recent report from the researchers at the Information School at the University of Washington titled Lessons Learned: How College Students Seek Information in the Digital Age, and offers these takeaways:
• College students think of information seeking as a rote process and tend to use the same small set of information resources no matter their question.
• Information literacy is essential for lifelong learning and empowers individuals and societies.
• Our educational system should expose students to information literacy from elementary school through postsecondary education so that it is a habit of mind they can call upon throughout their lives.
• Collaborative efforts between faculty, librarians, technology professionals, and others can develop students who graduate with information literacy competency.
- Forest Woody Horton, Jr., (2008). "Understanding Information Literacy: A Primer," UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization), 2008. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/001570/157020E.pdf
- "The Information Behavior of the Researcher of the Future," A CIBER Briefing Paper, January 11, 2008. http://www.ucl.ac.uk/infostudies/research/ciber/downloads/ggexecutive.pdf
- Irvin R. Katz, "ETS Research Finds College Students Fall Short in Demonstrating ICT Literacy: National Policy Council to Create National Standards," College & Research Libraries News, vol. 68, no. 1 (January 2007), pp. 35–37. http://crln.acrl.org/content/68/1/35.full.pdf+html
- Anne Marie Perrault, "American Competitiveness in the Internet Age: Report," 2006 Information Literacy Summit, Washington, DC, October 16, 2006. http://www.infolit.org/
- Alison J. Head and Michael B. Eisenberg, "Lessons Learned: How College Students Seek Information in the Digital Age," Project Information Literacy Progress Report, Information School, University of Washington, December 1, 2009. http://projectinfolit.org/pdfs/PIL_Fall2009_Year1Report_12_2009.pdf
- National Leadership Council for Liberal Education and America’s Promise, "College Learning for the New Global Century," Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2007. http://www.aacu.org/leap/documents/GlobalCentury_final.pdf
- See the CIC’s annual report for 2008–2009, "Creative Leadership for Challenging Times." http://www.cic.org/ABOUT/annualreport/annualreport0809.pdf
Inside Higher ED: The Aging of Science
What if key elements of science policy are based on patterns of discovery that no longer exist?
That's the question behind a paper ( http://papers.nber.org/papers/w16002 ) released Monday by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The paper -- by Benjamin Jones, associate professor of management at Northwestern University -- argues that science has changed in key ways. Specifically, it argues that the age at which researchers are able to make breakthroughs has advanced, and that scientists are parts of increasingly larger teams, encouraging narrow specialization. Yet, he argues, science policy (or a lot of it) continues to assume the possibility if not desirability of breakthroughs by a lone young investigator.
Much of the paper focuses on the greater difficulty of making key contributions -- solo -- early in one's career. Jones cites, for example, the growth in the number of journal articles. In 2006, for example, there were 941,000 journal articles published, 90 percent of them in science and engineering, and these articles cited 4,372,000 unique journal articles. With the publication rate growing by 5.5 percent a year, someone able to read only a certain number of articles a year is seeing his or her "fraction of extant knowledge" decreasing by the same percentage.
He then reviews a variety of measures that show the twin trends of an aging and more group-oriented scientist. On age, he notes that:
•During the 20th century, the average age at which researchers made the accomplishments that were later honored with Nobel Prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine and economics increased by 5.83 years.
•During the 20th century, the average age at which researchers made "great" technological achievements rose by 4.86 years, while the age of those achieving a first patent -- for more average inventors -- went up by 6.57 years.
In exploring the data more fully, Jones finds that the gains are not the result of people living longer, but generally of a decline in "great achievement" in scientists' 20s and 30s. "Peak productivity has increased by about 8 years, with the effect coming entirely from a collapse in productivity at young ages," Jones writes.
Then Jones looks at the teamwork trends, focusing on data for journal articles (since 1955) and patents issued (since 1975). He finds here that the mean size of teams is increasing (across both categories) by 15-20 percent per decade. The growth is nearly universal across scientific fields (including the social sciences). By 2005, he finds that more than 80 percent of science and engineering publications, more than 50 percent of social sciences publications and more than 60 percent of patents had multiple authors or inventors.
While Jones notes that some might view the question of collaborating or working individually as a choice, he argues that the most influential science is increasingly done in teams. Between 1995 and 2005, he writes, group papers had twice as many citations as those authored by individuals. And comparing "home run papers" -- those with at least 100 citations -- team papers are more than four times as likely to produce such impact.
A series of changes may be needed in science policy to reflect these shifts, Jones argues. He notes some efforts already under way at the National Institutes of Health and other funding agencies to reward interdisciplinary research and work by young scholars.
But he also argues for changes in the mindset about science, as expressed in the way discoveries are honored. "Celebrated achievements historically often carry the scientist’s name – Euclidean geometry, Newton’s laws of motion, Mendelian inheritance, and the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, to name a few," he writes. Those who award prizes and whose opinions confer prestige should consider that "shifting toward high status and/or financial reward 'team prizes' for particular innovations could help undo the incentive challenges that individual rewards impose," Jones writes.
— Scott Jaschik
The Teaching Professor: Practicing Learner-Centered Teaching in Large Classes
Date: Thursday, 07/15/10
Time: 12:00 - 1:15 PM CDT
Cost: $229 ($254 after 07/08/10)
Three easy ways to register!
Online: http://www.magnapubs.com/calendar/440.html?s=cj&p=email Phone: 800-433-0499 / 608-227-8182
Featured Higher Education Presenter: Carol Hurney, Ph.D.
Practicing Learner-Centered Teaching in Large Classes is a 75-minute audio online seminar presented by a leading expert in learner-centered teaching. The seminar presents a multi-level method that can be tailored to fit any teaching style and classroom.
• View and discuss real-world case studies, which show successful, learner-centered redesigns of large classes.
• Implement strategies to create a manageable structure while simultaneously shifting the balance of power to students.
• Evaluate the impact of learner-centered teaching on student reaction and achievement through the prism of a large introductory general education course.
Plus, why gradual changes pay off in the long run, how grading processes can be easily altered to fit this new paradigm, and the best way to evaluate student feedback. It’s all presented in a participant-centered way. The seminar includes live question and answer, polling to help direct the content, and a constant dialogue between participants and the presenter.
Expert presenter
Dr. Carol Hurney serves as the Executive Director at James Madison University’s Center for Faculty Innovation. She’s the driving force behind campus-wide programs to enhance scholarship, leadership, and service roles of JMU faculty. Dr. Hurney is also an associate professor of Biology and in 2005 was honored as the Distinguished Teacher in General Education.
Inviting the whole team is easy and economical!
Pay just one fee per site, no matter how many people attend. Magna Online Seminars are easily set up in an auditorium, conference room, or private office depending on the crowd. And the best part: no expensive travel or registration fees.
This seminar is designed for:
• Instructors
• Professors
• Department heads
• Deans
• Faculty development staff
Advice - Marian the Cybrarian - The Chronicle of Higher Education
By Thomas H. Benton
For all the concern expressed about the imminent demise of the college library, there may never have been a time when librarians seemed more vital, forward-thinking—even edgy—than they do now.
It's a dated reference, but today's information professionals often remind me more of Ian Malcolm, the "chaos theorist" played by Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park (1993), than of the eyeglass-chain-wearing librarians of yore, if they ever existed in significant numbers. (I have seen only one, Mrs. Evelyn, from my elementary school in the early 70s.)
It's not that many of today's librarians routinely dress in sunglasses and black leather (though some do). It's that, more than any other class of professionals in higher education, librarians possess a comprehensive understanding of the scholarly ecosystem. They know what's going on across the disciplines, among professors and administrators as well as students. No less important, they are often the most informed people when it comes to technological change—its limits as well as its advantages.
Marilyn Johnson's This Book Is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All (HarperCollins, 2010) provides an entertaining, picaresque narrative of her experiences with librarians who, these days, are "wrestling a raucous, multiheaded, madly multiplying beast of exploding information." Ostensibly a gathering of amusing anecdotes about library culture—including the famous performances of precision book-cart drill teams at the convention of the American Library Association—Johnson's book is a stirring defense of the library and librarians, whom she presents as activists defending democracy and the First Amendment, as well as visionaries opening the door to the digital future, while protecting our printed legacy.
As Johnson presents them, librarians may seem aggressively avant-garde, but they are rarely techno-utopians. They understand the chain of events between the butterfly and the hurricane, so to speak, because they have experience with the cultivation of knowledge and with the practical consequences of institutional overreaching. They see the potential of new tools, but they are also the guardians of tradition. From that permanent dialectical struggle, they appear to acquire a mixture of whimsy and wisdom—in addition to a notable taste for eccentric eyewear.
In my experience, librarians almost always pass the beer test: They are among the most likeable people you'll find at any college. They have the intellectual curiosity of academics without the aloofness and attitude often displayed by professors. If you are a stranger on a strange campus, the one person who will always save you is a librarian. They may still shush you in some places, but librarians will also go to the most extraordinary lengths to help you achieve your scholarly goals without asking for any of the credit.
Recently, one of our college's reference librarians drove a student of mine around town on a tour of historic sites to help her with a project that combines archival research with new media. And, earlier today, when I casually mentioned that I was writing this essay, one of our librarians provided me a link to hundreds of relevant resources within minutes. If I send them a student with a problem, not only is it solved, but the student returns with information about resources that I didn't even know existed.
Try depending on a fellow professor to respond to an urgent e-mail message within a week, and you'll begin to understand my appreciation for librarians as colleagues.
As highly professional guides who can lead us through an increasingly tangled bank of information, librarians provide a voice of caution in a period when drastic, irreversible change seems like an easy fix for a concatenation of expensive institutional ailments.
When a major university such as Harvard loses a substantial portion of its endowment, the $165-million budget and 1,200 employees of its 73 libraries begin to seem like low-hanging fruit. One unnamed scientist, quoted in the May-June Harvard Magazine, suggested that the collections of Widener Library—the accumulated holdings of more than three centuries—should be dumped in the Charles River, leading Jonathan Shaw to ask, "What future for libraries?" And, one might ask, "What future for the librarians?"
A balanced answer is provided by Robert Darnton, director of Harvard's University Library and a professor; he is the author or editor of more than 20 volumes on the history of books, particularly in the context of the French Enlightenment, and has been a notable supporter of Harvard's relationship with Google Books. The Case for Books: Past, Present, and Future (PublicAffairs, 2009) is a collection of essays from the last decade in which Darnton offers an "unashamed apology for the printed word" while assessing the "place of books in the digital environment." He also makes some judicious predictions, some of which are already coming to pass at Harvard and at small colleges like mine.
As someone with experience in print and electronic publishing, Darnton is seeking "common ground" between the Luddite jeremiad and come-to-Jesus techno-millennialism. Just as Corbusier redefined architecture as "machines for living in," Darton suggests that the codex is simply an interface and "the study of books need not be limited to a particular technology." While he sees Google Books as an opportunity to democratize access to information, he also expresses concerns about the potential for monopolistic control over resources originally provided by nonprofit institutions.
One way for such institutions to serve the "Republic of Letters" and to retain a distinct role in the universe of digital information, Darnton observes, is to place the scholarship of faculty members and students online, free for anyone to read. Such an approach can combat the escalating costs of serials that devour more than half of many library-acquisitions budgets, and can expand the potential reach of scholarship in an era in which monographs are becoming too costly to produce. Judging by the online presence of DASH: Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard, that approach has made some promising first steps: The resources offered are extensive, but only a fraction of what could be available.
While Darnton presents digital technology as giving us new opportunities for gaining access to information, he is no advocate of abandoning the printed word. He observes that the "number of books in print goes up every year, currently amounting to more than a million new titles." It's an alarming rate of increase, one that many libraries, such as Harvard's, can deal with only through the use of off-site depositories.
In terms of cost, depository storage of physical books is competitive with digital storage, and, equally important, there are more assurances that the book will be there in 250 years in a form that you can read. Unfortunately, much of our born-digital era will ultimately be lost to history because it was never recorded in the more stable medium of paper. Librarians can observe problems in physical libraries (such as fragments of yellowed paper around copiers), but media obsolescence and bit-rot can go on undetected until someone needs something digital that can no longer be recovered.
I can't even open my dissertation documents from 10 years ago; none of my computers includes a floppy drive.
Much is inevitably overlooked in the process of digitization. For example, Darnton wonders who is preserving our "computer manuals or telephone books" (not that I care now, but maybe my great-grandchildren will)? What seems like trash in one era is treasure in another because nearly every copy was thrown out.
Moreover, one digitized copy of a book does not make all the other copies redundant. Books often contain paratextual information, such as annotations, that can become unexpectedly valuable. I sometimes find the smell of an old book can open up the memories of when I first read it, and Darnton notes that 43 percent of French students "consider smell to be one of the most important qualities of printed books." A scratch-and-sniff sticker on your Kindle won't do the trick.
And, of course, for all its promise, Google will remain burdened by the complexities of copyright law for the foreseeable future, meaning that books that are more recent than 1923 are still protected. And what happens if Google goes bankrupt? No business is too big to fail, as we all know now.
For all those reasons, Darnton believes—and I hope he's right—that physical books will remain with us indefinitely. But, as any collector will tell you, "you can't keep everything," so librarians will face the challenge of "advancing on two fronts: the analog and the digital." They will have to do it all, increasingly through collaboration with other librarians: sharing resources, streamlining interlibrary loans, integrating their catalogs, and managing open-access collections of faculty and student publications.
One strategy that appeals to me, in particular, is giving renewed attention to special collections, even in relatively small libraries. "Google will have scanned nearly everything in standard collections," Darnton observes, "but it will not have penetrated deeply into rare-book rooms and archives, where the most important discoveries are to be made." For example, Hope College has one of the most important collections of unique materials on Dutch-American history, and more could be done to showcase those materials online. More effectively utilizing special collections can increasingly become the basis for new collaborations between professors, students, librarians, and technologists.
"Having hoarded their treasures for centuries," writes Darnton, "libraries will at last be able to share them with the rest of the world."
The holdings of our libraries—like the publications of our faculty members and students—can become a major part of the public face of our institution.
Through the many twists and turns of Darnton's book, one major point emerges: "Libraries were never warehouses of books. They have been and always will be centers of learning. Their central position in the world of learning makes them ideally suited to mediate between the printed and the digital modes of communication."
And as Marilyn Johnson describes them, libraries are becoming "the new village green." Far from being the declining years of these revered institutions, the present offers new opportunities for collaboration and democratization with the library—and librarians—at the center of that experience.
Thomas H. Benton is the pen name of William Pannapacker, an associate professor of English at Hope College, in Holland, Mich.
Monday, May 24, 2010
The Teaching Professor: Practicing Learner-Centered Teaching in Large Classes
Putting more learning responsibility in the hands of students doesn’t mean they’ll take the easy way out. In fact, learner-centered teaching is catching on in higher learning–especially in large classes–and they’re proving a highly effective method of engaging students in course content. This 75-minute audio online seminar is a step-by-step guide to integrating learner-centered strategies into existing courses.
Creating a learner-centered classroom involves more than just engaging students; it is a philosophical shift in how the instructor approaches the class.
The seminar will help participants visualize every step of the process:
• Identify opportunities for learner-centered activities
• Make gradual and meaningful changes to existing courses, from content to grading
• Evaluate the challenges presented by learner-centered teaching in large classes
• Use student feedback to tailor course content and increase achievement
Participants will go through three steps:
1. Dissect real-world case studies to help form a foundation in the learner-centered paradigm.
2. Study strategies to shift the balance of power to students and enhance learning.
3. Analyze student reaction and achievement through the lens of a large introductory general education course.
About the presenter:
Dr. Hurney serves as the Executive Director at James Madison University’s Center for Faculty Innovation. She’s the driving force behind campus-wide programs to enhance scholarship, leadership, and service roles of JMU faculty. Dr. Hurney is also an associate professor of biology and in 2005 was honored as the Distinguished Teacher in General Education.
Great Value
At a time when budgets are getting tighter, Magna Online Seminars are an economical choice. Pay just one fee per site, and invite all the interested members of the team. The seminar has all the information and interactivity of a large conference at a fraction of the price.
Bring your questions to this live, interactive session!
The presenter practices what she preaches and has designed the workshop to be “participant-centered”. Dr. Carol Hurney will take questions, poll for feedback, show video clips from successful learner-centered courses, plus provide opportunities to join an ongoing dialogue.
A truly vital seminar for:
• Instructors
• Professors
• Department Heads
• Deans
• Faculty Development Staff
Featured Higher Education Presenter:
http://www.jmu.edu/biology/faculty/hurney/hurney.shtml
Distance Education Report: Teach More Effectively with Customizing Learning Experiences
Featured Higher Education Presenter: Judith Boettcher, Ph.D.
Audio Online Seminar with Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro • Wednesday, July 14, 2010 • 12:00 PM - 1:15 PM CDT • $239 Register today and save! (Price increases to $264 after 7/07/10)
Expectations are rising in higher ed. There’s a growing emphasis on outcomes and accountability, and a steady trend toward personalizing the educational experience to boost individual student achievement and competency. That prospect causes many online faculty to swallow hard. Their fear is that introducing customized, student-specific learning to online courses will add a crushing amount of work for them. And indeed, that’s a fear that could easily be realized if the process was approached incorrectly.Audio Online Seminar with Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro • Wednesday, July 14, 2010 • 12:00 PM - 1:15 PM CDT • $239 Register today and save! (Price increases to $264 after 7/07/10)
But there’s a way to do it right–a way that can actually reduce faculty workloads while increasing personalization of online learning. You can learn about it in Teach More Effectively with Customizing Learning Experiences, a new online seminar coming July 14. This 75-minute audio presentation will introduce you to a model for offering personalized content without creating overwhelming responsibilities for the instructor.
You’ll learn:
How to better understand the goals and mental models of individual learners.
How to integrate the concepts of social, teaching and cognitive presence into course creation.
How to “design in” choices and options for readings, assignments and projects.
Where customization makes the most sense within a course.
How to use rubrics to incorporate self- and peer-review processes.
And much more.
The program presenter is Judith Boettcher, Ph.D., an author, consultant and leading voice on educational technology and online teaching. Dr. Boettcher has more than 20 years’ experience at institutions including Penn State and the University of Florida, and is co-author of the just-published Online Teaching Survival Guide: Simple and Practical Pedagogical Tips.
Rich in content, low in price
Magna Online Seminars are known for delivering outstanding content at a reasonable cost. This one is no exception: the seminar fee is a modest $239. What’s more, it applies per site, not per person; you can invite others from your department or anywhere on campus to attend, and it won’t cost you a penny more. Simply sign on from a facility large enough to accommodate your group.
Who should attend
Distance learning deans
Distance learning directors and coordinators
Instructional design professionals
Faculty who teach online
Program leaders
Anyone interested in sound online pedagogy
It is possible to give students a rich, personalized educational experience online–without overloading the instructor. Don’t miss this eye-opening seminar!
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