By Barbara Fister. I’m one of those people who others probably call a privacy nut when I’m not listening. (Because I would never listen in – trust me! I’m a privacy nut!) I get really cranky when people tell me privacy is impossible today or if they claim that Young People Today don’t care about it, so get with the program (in which case I tell them to ask danah boyd about that. She’ll tell you it’s complicated.) I get testy when I advocate for privacy as a library value and other librarians say “yeah, but access is a value, too, and that's what patrons care about. Read more...
15 février 2015
Not In the Clear: Libraries and Privacy
The Rise of the Student Affairs Digital Communicator
By Eric Stoller. Student affairs practitioners have to be good communicators. Whether in-person or online, quality communications is a must. With a historical foundation built upon the counseling and helping professions, higher education administrators have a background in face-to-face communication. In fact, it wasn't too long ago when most people in the profession were positioning in-person conversations as the preferred method of connecting with people. While face-to-face meetings are still prevalent, the rise of online learning and social media (sites and apps) has caused a digital communications evolution in student affairs. However, this transition into a blended communications model has not been without issue. When Facebook first came online in 2004, it was promptly labeled as a "space for students." It makes sense as the origins of "The Facebook" stem from a student driven enterprise. Read more...Prezi logic
By G. Rendell. I do a fair amount of public speaking, to classes, community groups, administrative departments, you name it. I've been using presentation software since before there was a PowerPoint. (Anyone else remember Adobe (neé Aldus) Persuasion?) Typical presentation software is great for topical presentations which define an area of interest and then delve down into it. Read more...
Translating MOOCs
By Stella Li. In May 2014, former HarvardX research fellow Sergiy Nesterko created an interactive map that showed learner registrants hailing from 195 countries---and, yet, the majority of them came from English-speaking ones. The same pattern, no doubt, exists for other open online courses. More...
Take-Away From the Gates Report on Faculty
By Lee Skallerup Bessette. The Gates Foundation just released a really interesting report on Faculty Trends (PDF). The focus of the report, based on a robust amount of survey data and informed by a solid review of the literature, is professors’ adoption of technology in their teaching and what motivates them to adopt new approaches to their teaching. It’s a really informative report, especially from a faculty development perspective. Read more...Data Privacy Month Shorts
By Tracy Mitrano. It’s Data Privacy Year from what I can tell, but let’s use this trope!
First, President Obama has proposed federal legislation on student data privacy. I will devote another blog to this issue down the road. For the moment, the higher education community should be prioritizing this matter with a focus on two areas: one, including higher education (at this point it is written for only K-12) and – this is important – two, making sure that the language is precise about the most critical issue of this entire conundrum: profiling. Read more...
Burton Clark Revisited
By Qiang Zha and Chuanyi Wang. In his most recent book, Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalisation of Democracy (2014), Francis Fukuyama argues that a well-ordered society requires a strong state, the rule of law and democratic accountability; he insists that states that democratize before acquiring the capacity to rule effectively are likely to fail. It is effectively a lens through which we might revisit Burton Clark’s influential model of the relationship between the academy, government and the market, and makes a case for a stronger state role. Read more...
Combating Shiny Object Syndrome
By Katie Shives. In graduate school it is extremely important to know when you are putting your time towards professional activities that are directly beneficial to your dissertation progress versus activities that are interesting or fun but do not contribute to moving you forward. In terms of time and resources spent on experiments, staying on task is a serious consideration or else you run the risk of falling victim to Shiny Object Syndrome. Read more...Career Resources for the Academic and Non-Academic Job Search
By Jason McSheene. Many graduate students are well aware that the tenure-track career path is no longer the “default.” Where a postdoctoral research position was once the expected norm, the current climate for stable academic careers after that postdoc has become increasingly perilous to early-stage researchers. Thankfully, this is no secret. To the contrary, it is the beginning point to many discussions and writings concerning the current state of PhD programs in context of a proper job training. There is a major downside to the “default tenure-track mindset”. Read more...Coffee: Words from a Grad Student/Addict
By Erin Bedford. In terms of drug addictions, addiction to caffeine is a pretty easy one to have—our drug dealers are everywhere and they let the stuff go for pretty cheap. In general, it’s also not a bad one to have. Research shows that there aren’t too many health risks (although it can worsen conditions like anxiety and insomnia) and even some evidence of health benefits, like lowered risk of type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and liver disease. While caffeine can be found in many forms, my personal favorite source is coffee (tea drinkers, check out our post on making good tea). Read more...
