More Heli-Doonesbury
September 14th, 2006 Stewart
Thursday’s Doonesbury is the funniest yet…
Mike will not go gently into helicopter parentdom.
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September 14th, 2006 Stewart
Thursday’s Doonesbury is the funniest yet…
Mike will not go gently into helicopter parentdom.
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September 12th, 2006 Stewart
Today’s Doonesbury is well worth a look. In fact, it looks like the whole week is going to be dedicated to Mike dealing with his daughter, who just started as a frosh at MIT. I’ve always loved Doonesbury, and Mike’s daughter Alex is such a perfect Millennial that this week’s strips are just irresistable.
Enjoy!
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September 3rd, 2006 Stewart
At 2-Year Colleges, Students Eager but Unready - New York Times
On top of the NYT article above, I have an interesting stat that was shared with me by one of the faculty during my recent SUNY Orange visit. Seven years ago, I’m told, the math department offered two sections of remedial math. This year, they have filled eleven sections. And, although she didn’t have the exact numbers for me, a member of the English department reported that the number of sections of remedial Reading/Comp courses has likewise increased dramatically.
Millennials make up one of the most competitive generations in history. The pressures to compete and succeed have been considerable, but actual achievement has rarely been part of the equation. This competitiveness has always been rewarded during childhood, regardless of outcome — Everyone who plays for the team gets a trophy. Eighty percent of high school grads plan on attending college, and they are assuming that high school has adequately prepared them for college-level courses.
Unfortunately, all the anecdotal evidence seems to be to the contrary — Having a high school diploma is, of itself, no guarantee that a student is prepared for college. A high school diploma used to mean a lot more than it does today. But as long as the federal and state governments continue to force K-12 programs to “teach to the test,” it’s unlikely that the high school diploma will ever mean as much as it once did.
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August 29th, 2006 Stewart
SAT Score Drop Biggest in 31 Years | Chicago Tribune
Reading scores on the SAT took a 5-point dive this year, which is significant, though no one can say of what. It’s either the test or the testers, and there’s quite a bit of disagreement on that.
Over the next few weeks, I’m going to be posting anything/everything I can find about the reading habits and skills of the Millennials. Stay tuned for more.
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August 25th, 2006 Stewart
Beloit College’s Mindset list has been released for the new freshman class. It seems that every year this list becomes a little less inspired or interesting than it has been in previous outings. Still, there are several items I really like, that seem to distinguish this group from other Millennials:
*They have known only two presidents.
*They are wireless, yet always connected.
*DNA fingerprinting has always been admissible evidence in court.
*”Google” has always been a verb.
*Text messaging is their email.
*Bar codes have always been on everything, from library cards and snail mail to retail items.
*Being techno-savvy has always been inversely proportional to age.
*They have always preferred going out in groups as opposed to dating.
What’s your favorite bullet this year? Take a look at the whole list and post a comment below.
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August 24th, 2006 Stewart
Just returned from SUNY Orange in Middletown NY where I gave my Millennials talk this morning. I had a great time and the talk seemed to go well enough, even if it felt a little bit truncated at the end due to time considerations. Well, I should say time was a consideration, right alongside the consideration of me standing between 100 hungry attendees and their BBQ lunch. Never start talking at 11:30 AM, especially if you haven’t had much breakfast.
I’ll be posting some notes in the next few days to follow up on some questions I was asked. One in particular, “Do Millennials read?” intrigues me quite a bit and I’ll have to do a little searching to see what I come up with. In the meantime, I want to extend thanks to Catherine, Donna, and Susan for all of the courtesy they showed me during my stay. A special nod to the librarians there who are enjoying some new renovations to their facility. We had a fun chat this afternoon about Library 2.0, etc. though I’m afraid I might have gotten a little long-winded. (”No, Stewart, not you!!!”)
The folks at SUNY Orange are very kind and welcoming, and they seem to have a really nice mix of people doing some great work there. Six hours driving is taking it’s toll, though, so I’ll call it a night for now.
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August 21st, 2006 Stewart
Enter Search Term Here, Forever - New York Times
I think it’s safe to say that the overwhelming majority of libraries do not store our users’ searches, unless users store the searches themselves or they are being used for SDIs. We certainly don’t share any search data with marketers, advertisers, politicians and similar forms of vermin.
Privacy is going to be the hot button issue of the next decade and libraries are well-poised to lead the charge for preserving the individual’s rights. That said, we need to begin the response now, and it needs to be big and loud. The NYT editorial talks about what the EFF is doing. We need to mobilize the ALA, SLA, and MLA to come out swinging on this issue. Our own individual libraries need to issue strongly-worded statements of support for our users’ right to privacy, with clearly noted policies of data non-storage and data protection.
We must be above reproach or criticism ourselves. We need to scan our contracts with database vendors carefully, to be sure that no one is collecting this kind of data without our knowledge via services that we pay for. If there is any language that is vague or permissive, we need to be prepared to make corrections or, potentially, sever ties with these corporations.
Libraries should be speaking out and speaking loudly. Now is the time.
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August 17th, 2006 Stewart
USATODAY.com - Colleges adapt to tech-savvy new students
Recycled stories about “Gen Y” Mils hitting college campuses with their laptops, cells and iPods are usually a good sign that a new school year is beginning.
That said, USA Today offers few surprises in their latest brief essay on the Mils. They do, however, have a really nice chart of DoE estimates for numbers of new undergrad enrollments compared with numbers of high school graduates. Also included is a quote from fellow Millennials researcher Richard Sweeney, NJIT University Librarian. I was already swooning over Richard’s information-rich PowerPoint presentation when I saw his quote here. Well worth a look, but give yourself some time to digest it all.
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August 14th, 2006 Stewart
Instead of another Millennials/cell phones rant, thought I’d make a quick post about some projects I’m currently working on:
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August 3rd, 2006 Stewart
Francesco Dell’Orso has published the latest version of his bibliographic management software analysis. If nothing else, it serves as a reminder that EndNote, while market-dominant, is not the only option.
Also, he links to a service that’s new to me: Connotea. Looks like this is the Nature Publishing Group’s attempt at social bookmarking/bibliographic management, very similar to CiteULike. Given how difficult it has become to keep software like EndNote updated and functioning correctly, these web-based alternatives are likely to become much more popular. What would be interesting now would be the creation of web-based document formatting modules that would take references from CiteULike or Connotea and publish them to Writely or ZohoWriter.
Just thinking out loud on a Thursday morning.
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