May 30th, 2006 Stewart
Ex-dean says Harvard run like day care - The Boston Globe
Nothing here that we haven’t heard before, really, but illuminating to hear it from someone so prominent, and about a school as dominant as Harvard.
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
May 22nd, 2006 Stewart
Again, my good intentions have gotten the better of me as I have found myself so entrenched in MLA Annual Meeting activities that I haven’t been able to find the time to post. I think I’m going to wait ’til my return to post anything about the length and breadth of the conference, but I have a few minutes and thought I’d at least get some thoughts down:
That’s all for now. Tonight several of the vendors are throwing parties and I’m looking forward to cutting loose with the other attendees. When I post again, it will be after my return home.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
May 20th, 2006 Stewart
I’m going to try to post something about my experiences at the Medical Library Association Annual Meeting each day that I’m here. Since the conference hasn’t actually started yet, with the big Hall of Exhibits opening being tonight, about the only thing I have to talk about is my breakfast.
Which was awesome!
The restaurant is called “Matador,” and it’s right across the street from my hotel. Last night, one of my colleagues found a listing for it in her travel guide and the words “Mexican breakfasts” and “cheap” sort of stuck in my head.
I ordered the Chorizo con Huevos, which is basically an omelette with Mexican sausage, cheese and peppers, served up with excellent refried beans, fresh flour tortillas, and hot coffee. Add a glass of fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice and I was in Mexican food heaven for about an hour. Believe me, this becomes damned important when you live in Buffalo, NY, home to pizza and wings and no decent Mexican restaurants to speak of.
I should have much more interesting things to post after the meeting gets going. Bear with.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
May 18th, 2006 Stewart
EDUCAUSE | Resources | Educating the Net Generation
I only briefly mentioned this book in a few of my Millennials talks, but this is, to my mind, the single-best book on teaching college-age Millennials that I’ve read. It also has the distinction of being completely free for downloading — I’ve printed and bound a copy myself that is never more than arm’s reach away.
Highest recommendation.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
May 18th, 2006 Stewart
…and how it turns into high-tech cheating in the classroom.
But do they know that what they are doing is cheating? And, even if they don’t, is ignorance of “the law” really an excuse?
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
May 17th, 2006 Stewart
Freakonomics Blog — Is This Man a Thief or a Do-Gooder?
I checked Freakonomics out of the library several months ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Only recently did I discover the blog and add it to my Bloglines feed.
Everyone interested in how Millennials percieve the economics of downloading/sharing and the morality of paying for creative works should take a look at this post. It offers a real look inside one of their heads.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
May 17th, 2006 Stewart
As mentioned at lunch yesterday, RateMyProfessor seems to equate being a good teacher with “hotness” and “easiness,” mostly.
[rollingeyes]So at least our students take class evaluations seriously…[/rollingeyes]
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
May 17th, 2006 Stewart
This past weekend, I gave three invited talks on the Millennials to librarians and faculty in Westchester, New York.
On Friday, I gave a brief workshop at the Westchester Library Association Annual Meeting. This is a great group of librarians from all walks of life — public, academic, school media, and special — and the session I gave was brief, focusing mainly on the generational cues that brought us to the Millennials, and a little on Library 2.0 principles and Connectivism.
This talk was expanded somewhat when I met with the librarians at Westchester Community College on Monday, along with their guests from SUNY Purchase. This was a lively discussion, with many good ideas for classroom techniques and an all-too-brief look at assessment. I have to admit, this is an area that I need to look at more closely, as many library instructors are finding themselves needing to report assessment activities as part of their jobs.
Then yesterday, the big show, I addressed about 100 Westchester Community College faculty on the Millennials and finding ways to teach them better. I think the talk went well, considering that it was relatively short, and the WCC faculty were engaged and had some excellent Mils stories of their own to share.
I want to thank Laurie Corey and Karen Vanterpool for making all my arrangements and for being such gracious hosts. I also want to thank all the attendees who came to my talks. And special thanks go out to my aunt and uncle for putting me up for the weekend — It was fun to spend time with family that I see all too rarely.
I promised everyone that I would link my bibliography and PowerPoint slides (WLA, WCC) for them to use. Also, if anyone from my Westchester sessions would like to start a discussion thread on anything from my talks, please use this post and add a comment. I have more meetings in my near future, but I will try to respond to postings here as quickly as I can.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
May 8th, 2006 Stewart
From a 60 Minutes piece on Sallie Mae, I found out about Student Loan Justice. Some of the statistics cited on SLJ are chilling, especially the bonuses and stocks granted to employees.
There has to be a better way to pay for college than this.
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
May 5th, 2006 Stewart
ACRLog — Look Out For the XC OPAC
This is the kind of project more libraries should be attempting, building services that work better for our users, that are open source, that are collaborative, that cost less money.
Congrats to U of R River Campus for getting funding for what sounds like an amazing project! Well done!
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »