January 2012
8 posts
ebrary + app = meh
Wouldn’t it be great if you could look up and read books from ebrary on your iPhone/iPad? Well, maybe, but I doubt that a lot of people are going to find out given how many steps it takes to their new app working.
Ask anyone who knows me and they will confirm that I’m not too good at reading directions so I’m more than willing to admit that another, more patient, person...
Information Overload? →
Selection of tweets related to Wikipedia’s blackout in protest of SOPA. As we all predicted, there were people who needed to do “research” that were shocked to find Wikipedia blacked out. I’m hoping they took the time to look it up, presumably on Wikipedia the next day, and find out what the fuss was all about.
SOPA/PIPA Infographic →
Apple's education event is getting seriously... →
As a Mac user, I am used to the hype that comes with a big Apple announcement. Apple, in fact, carefully orchestrates these events to generate hype, but the older I get the more I’m starting to think that this isn’t always such a good thing. As this article points out (assuming that it’s correct), there is a lot of misinformation pumped out by the media - all seemingly done in...
ScribblePress - Imagine Create Publish →
This is awesome! Imagine kids doing a little research on something and then using it to create their own book!
Unshelved by Gene Ambaum and Bill Barnes →
This shouldn’t be the case … but it is.
Free Technology for Teachers: An Excellent Set of... →
Richard Byrne’s blog is an awesome source for things related to education and technology and this ebook is no exception. I’m looking forward to reading it soon!
January Apple event to focus on two ‘large... →
Man, it didn’t take long for the first media freak out over an Apple announcement to hit.
On a more serious note, though, it will very interesting to see if this announcement does have something to do with iTunes and education. It certainly seems like it’s long overdue for Apple to reassert itself in this sector.
December 2011
1 post
November 2011
2 posts
Techno Germs →
There’s a fine line between enough “need to know” info and TMI.
"The Watchers" →
I’m always amazed at how the guys at Unshelved always seem to write about issues that we are facing in our library. Unfortunately, we’ve seen what seems to be a larger than normal number of thefts in the library this semester and we’ve been encouraging people to be more vigilant about watching their stuff. Of course, we know that people are not going to pack up all of their...
October 2011
3 posts
Apple - Remembering Steve Jobs →
I tend to not get very emotional when a national figure passes away, but I can honestly say that I gasped when I fired up Safari and saw the news that Steve Jobs had passed away (my Safari default is the Apple homepage - I know, how lame can you get). I’m an Apple supporter, but would not describe myself as a fanboy. Still, Apple has been there with me at several points in my life that I...
Microsoft confirms Zune HD death →
Not surprised, but it’s too bad to see the loss of a competitor. That’s what keeps Apple on its toes.
September 2011
1 post
What the Front Pages of the Web Looked Like on... →
August 2011
8 posts
Traditional Books v. Digital Readers: It's On!
++ Click to Enlarge Image ++ Image Source:MastersinEducation.org
New Gartner 2011 Hype Cycle for Emerging... →
Here we go again. Personally, I can’t wait until the wireless printing gets a little further along!
Happy Birthday CD →
Wow.
Priceless
Students Love Technology
The standard disclaimers apply here, but I am interested in the stats about texting vs IM use. I’ve been wondering how hard we really need to push IM reference, because I would wager that more of our students text. It’s still too soon to write the obituary for it though.
_________________________________________________________________________
Via: OnlineEducation.net
2011 Population Data Sheet →
I thought it seemed a little more crowded around here.
July 2011
8 posts
STUDY: Internet Explorer Users Are Dumber →
Ouch.
10 Guidelines for Running Synchronous Web Teaching... →
Excellent tips from Joshua Kim on running synchronous online class sessions. We mostly thing of online course running asynchronously, so it’s interesting to see these points.
Culture Clash with Citing Sources
Just finished reading “I’ve Lost My Identity - Oh, There It Is … in a Style Manual,” [source] which talks about the ways that librarians at Missouri State University tackle the problem of plagiarism. In the article, the author’s note that sometimes there are cultural reasons why students do not cite sources properly. For example, some students come from cultures...
Flipped Classroom Model: A Full Picture →
I’ve really been interested in how this might apply to IL workshops so it was nice to see a more expanded discussion of the concept.
How to Create Infographics →
You’ve seen all the cool infographics floating around, right? Like to know how to make them? Check out all these resources from Kathy Schrock. It’s amazing.
I Came, I Saw, I Researched →
Finally catching up on my professional reading (are we ever really caught up, though?) and came across this article about 6 word memoirs. I think that this is great. I can see me using it with the first year English comp students as a way to break the ice and maybe gain some insight as to what they do/don’t know about the library. Heck, it would be good for incoming grads too for that...
E-phemeral E-Books →
Interesting article about a segment of the e-book industry that we don’t hear about a lot. The first thing that came to my mind when I read this was something I read in a history of the 60s that talked about the huge impact that cheep scholarly paperbacks had on students at that time. It’s probably not exactly the same, but I wonder if this will spur any additional student reading?
...
June 2011
13 posts
How Much Data Will Humans Create & Store This... →
Mobile Devices Overtake Computers on Wi-Fi... →
As I mentioned in a previous post, it’s starting to become quite clear that we are in the middle of a change where mobile devices and the apps that power them are forever changing the computer landscape. Now here comes a new survey which finds that iOS and Android represent 58% of devices using wi-fi - up from 33% in 2010. The other kicker … iPad is crushing all other mobile devices...
Mobile Apps Put the Web in Their Rear-view Mirror →
We’ve all known that mobile apps are going to play some kind of role in our future efforts to reach patrons. We’ve even seen some early examples from library vendors like EBSCO and Gale. I never really thought about mobile apps taking away viewing time from the web, however, and it’s really interesting.
Right now, we generally believe that patrons won’t do “hard...
Apple's Retail Secrets Spilled: Lessons for... →
Earlier today, Business Insider posted about a Wall Street Journal article that describes some of the guidelines that Apple uses to train their store staff. As I read through them, I was struck by how clearly they meshed with many of the principles that library staff are supposed to follow (but sometimes don’t). For example, Apple store staff are not supposed to sell products, just help...
Nook Color →
Finally got an opportunity to play with my library’s new Nook color reader. For some reason, I was shocked at how heavy it was. I guess it’s officially 15.8 ounces, but felt much heavier for some reason. Kind of crazy to complain about that, I know.
I’ve never thought of myself as a dedicated-ereader-device kind of guy, but it is an interesting experience. Once you get...
Online Education
Interesting overview of online education and the inroads it has made in a fairly small time. At my college, we are just at the very beginning of exploring what our place in the world of online education will be. Of course, that just got a whole lot more complicated with the news that the US government now requires educational institutions to be authorized to offer online courses in any state...
Watch Out! There's Information Flying All Over...
I’m still processing everything that happened on Wednesday when the tornado ripped through Springfield, but one of the things that keeps popping up is how well informed, relatively speaking, we were during the whole event. Although the tornado caused significant damage in certain places, it was not large enough to devastate the entire city as the tornado that hit Joplin, Mississippi did. ...
Sources for Free Ebooks and Ereader Software →
Calm yourselves. Most of these free books are older titles in the public domain, but that’s not always a bad thing.
Lessons Learned
Yesterday, I experienced something that I have never experienced before. I saw a tornado. More specifically, I was working at Springfield College when the three (officially confirmed as I write this) tornados tore through Springfield Massachusetts. One of those tornados passed through a part of the campus snapping trees and severely damaging one dorm, which was unoccupied at the time. We were...
May 2011
9 posts
The future of the library →
As always, an interesting point of view from Seth Godin.
EBSCO Releases iPhone App to Access Database... →
I have had a chance to download and try EBSCO’s new app out and I’m mostly positive about it. The interface works fairly well and it takes advantage of some of the iPod/iPhone’s features like cover flow for results (when viewed in landscape mode). Overall, searches ran quite quickly and PDFs opened without much of a glitch on a wifi connection.
My biggest gripe is the...
6 Reasons Why Tablets Are Ready for the Classroom →
I’m more interested in the fact that this post came from someone at McGraw Hill than I am about what it says. Presumably, it gives an indication of where the company sees at least a fair share of its future in terms of distributing content. It will be interesting to see if something else comes along that knocks M-H off course or if it sticks to this “strategy”.
National Jukebox →
This is very cool.
Sitting Kills (to some extent)
Via: Medical Billing And Coding
Shit My Students Write | Took the words right out... →
Oh, well in that case, go right ahead and copy some more stuff from that book.