Brown-Bag Tech

Let's Sit at a New Table

To facilitate people finding interesting reading, here is the del.icio.us link where I save things that I have found:

http://del.icio.us/robin.simmons

When the title isn't self-explanatory, I have provided a brief description of the piece.

At the Back of the Fridge

Professors Strike Back is an mtvU video blog that allows faculty to respond to comments left about them at RateMyProfessors.com. Here are some of my favorites:

Friday Loaded Baked Potato

You can eat even the salt-encrusted skin:

• Let's face it--Google's design lacks pizazz. Now you have an alternative, a search engine with sass! Try Ms. Dewey, a recommendation from Jackie.
• In an earlier post I linked to "The Power of I," an essay extolling the virtues of first-person papers. This week, Rate Your Students has addressed that same teaching strategy--there named the "special snowflake essay." Here's the thread:
  • Putting a Stop to the "Special Snowflake Essays"
  • The Snowflake Essays
  • Two Chief Correspondents Cannot Stay Quiet
  • We're All About the Opposing Viewpoints
• With predictions that gasoline will soon cost $4 per gallon, Dean Dad asks a good question: how does a community college stay in business when it relies on commuters?
• Ms. Mentor points out a simple truth, one that is easy to forget: We all get just this one life. Her advice for a number of colleagues is that if they are unhappy, they should move on.
• Is writing hard work? If for you the words flow with ease, Rachel Toor wants you to keep that fact to yourself.
• Indexed is still posting 3x5 cards. Here are some of the best:
  • Ground Chuck. Or Larry.
  • Fitting in
  • Making a Big Stink
  • There Is vs. There Are
  • Doesn't Look So Good
  • Just Desserts? Or Drive-Thru Value Meal?
  • Tight Pants III: The Terror Expands!
  • Quiet Desperation?
  • Pick Your Main Verb Carefully.
  • Lock the Library

This week's YouTube fun is an inspiring story of what a student can accomplish despite adversity:

Friday Bag of Candy

Here are more goodies to unwrap:

• Do you have leftover Halloween candy? You might want to save it for the day you do student evaluations. Researchers have discovered that professors get higher ratings if they offer students chocolate before distributing the forms. News of the research has caused all kinds of student and faculty reaction.
• If you are exhausted and cranky, you might enjoy "The Day I Lost It in Front of My Students," an interesting narrative that takes place in a remedial-English class.
• At Inside Higher Ed, Alison Wunderland, the pseudonym of a tenure-track professor, explains how her hard work and sacrifice might mean that she is now "too good" for tenure.
• Lee Tobin McClain observes that faculty often act like grade-school children in department meetings. In "Surviving Faculty Meetings," she offers advice on how to appear adult even if you are behaving like a child.
• As final papers/final exams approach, the topic turns to academic dishonesty. What are appropriate punishments? Who really gets hurt by the cheating? Here are three recent pieces that address those questions:
  • Something Else to Worry About
  • Someone Wants to Be Reasonable About Plagiarism
  • It's Not You
• In "Degree Required," Evil HR Lady explains the importance of finishing a college education. Her department will reject any applicant who applies for a professional position but does not have a degree, an insight your students might like to know.
• Do you want to help feed hungry people without leaving your computer? FreeRice is an addictive, challenging word game that donates 10 grains of rice for every right answer. Don't be fooled by the first couple of easy questions!

This week's YouTube video has made the "top watched" almost all week. The students in it say a lot even though they never open their mouths!

Friday Minestrone

Lots of flavors all in one post:

• Are you sick of family emergencies and rogue computers as explanations for absences and late work? Carolyn Foster Segal has a great essay categorizing student excuses, "The Dog Ate My Disk, and Other Tales of Woe." I'm thinking about making my own students read this one!
• According to Rob Jenkins, a regular contributer at The Chronicle of Higher Education, administrators come in two flavors, those who trust faculty and those who don't. For the analysis, read "A Matter of Trust."
• What does your office door say about you? Can students tell if you are an easy grader or have a sense of humor? In "Realities of the Decanal Suite," one dean contrasts the personality that his faculty office door could express to the joylessness of his new door in the administrative suite.
• Before you visit Amazon.com to shop for a book, you might want to read "The Ethics of Technology," a piece that explains the appropriate use of your office computer.
• At Confessions of a Community College Dean, Dean Dad bemoans the tenured professor who does a bad job but has yet to commit a fireable offense.
• Angry Professor visits RateYourProfessor.com and joins the insurgency.
• Rate Your Students plays fair, giving students the opportunity to voice their own thoughts on the modern classroom. Here are some recent goodies:
  • The "Go-To" Student Arrives Just in Time to Save Our Sanity
  • This Guy Is Just Dying for Us to Call Him an @#$%&
  • "We're Just a Bunch of Kids." A Student Waxes on Adulthood

A couple of posts ago, I noted that Valencia ranks 23 on the list of top 30 community colleges. Paul Glastris, editor in chief of The Washington Monthly [the magazine responsible for the rankings], appeared on The Colbert Report to discuss what should matter at a school. Here is this week's video fun:

Friday Lasagna

Enjoy the delicious layers:

• Should you have a Facebook page to communicate with students? Should you allow your students to carry AV equipment if your arms are already full? In "Don't Teach So Close to Me," Ms. Mentor grapples with the amount of professional distance professors should keep.
• According to Thomas H. Benton, the average academic is 50ish, overweight, and boring--the epitome of uncool. So Mr. Benton is offering The James Bond Lifestyle Seminar for Academics©. Read what he suggests so that you can upgrade your image--dress with class, drive the right car, and get seen with the right people!
• If you have ever written a statement of teaching philosophy, you will enjoy Academic Cog's rant as she tries to decode what exactly hiring committees want to see in her own.
• Are you a Team Player or a Slug? A member of the PC Police or a Cynic? Try this classification post, "Academics on My Nerves." The pronoun style gets a little tiresome, but you will probably recognize yourself and others in the descriptions!
• Evil HR Lady provides another perspective in "Diversity--of Personality and Styles." From a manager's perspective, the type you are can cause real headaches!
• As midterm approaches, you might enjoy these posts from Rate Your Students:
  • Some First-Year Pre-Midterm Jitters
  • We'd Encourage Future Students to Read the Syllabus
  • Scenes from a Midterm

In honor of Ms. Mentor's advice above, enjoy "Don't Stand So Close to Me":

Friday Seven-Layer Dip

Grab a handful of chips and dig in:

• After the recent department meeting, you might appreciate that one use of CCSSE data has been Washington Monthly's rankings of community colleges. Valencia scores 23 on the list of top 30 schools. You can read Dean Dad's take on this information here.
• Months ago, Female Science Professor explained why she keeps her office door closed. After the massacre at Virginia Tech, you might find the behavior of campus police stranger than the "strange man" they finally arrested.
• Troubled by a loud talker on your hallway who listens to messages on speaker phone AT THE HIGHEST POSSIBLE VOLUME? Evil HR Lady and Dean Dad take on noise problems with these two posts:
  • Peace & Quiet--Or Not So Much
  • The Sounds of Silence
• Frustrated with low participation during a lecture, Angry Professor at A Gentleman's C considers a solution if she ran the world.
• If you have any interest in refreshing your knowledge of a second language or learning a new one--even Russian or Mandarin Chinese--you might want to visit Mango, an impressive, free internet program. After a very quick registration, you can start the first of 100 lessons in your chosen language, complete with native-speaker audio. Mango even offers English instruction geared to native Spanish and Polish speakers.
• How well do you know your geography? This map quiz will test your knowledge!

Do you remember how limited your vocabulary was when you began a second language? The student in this charming YouTube video makes use of every phrase he can remember to capture the attention of a pretty woman in "The One Semester of Spanish Love Song":

Friday Pizza Supreme

Lots of tasty toppings on these slices of academic life:

• When the book buyer knocks on your office door, are you a Purist, a Profligate, or a Pragmatist when it comes to parting with your examination copies? Find out in this great essay by Daniel Ennis, an English department chairman.
• The Chronicle of Higher Education celebrated Fashion Week with two great articles. In the first piece, Ms. Mentor explains when "fashion statements" at school are not appropriate. And in the second piece, Tim Gunn, Mr. Make-It-Work of Project Runway, explains the biggest mistakes he observes in faculty attire.
• In this this essay that addresses a very different style of merit pay, James Miller, professor of economics, advocates giving graduates $1,000 to divvy up among their favorite faculty.
• The Associated Press has a great picture of an embarrassing spelling error.
• At Educated and Poor, a composition instructor explains how she dealt with a classroom heckler.
• Not everyone is happy about the new academic year, and the cynicism and irony are a hoot:
  • When Someone Offers Some Sterling Smackdown
  • Float Free, Friend
  • Driving the Lamborghini to Starbucks
  • Can You Feel the Excitement?

The students in this Eric Prydz/Pink Floyd "mix" really don't "need no education" as they have plenty to teach the adults concerning global warming:

Savor the Poet's Work

In preparation for Nikki Giovanni's Visions and Voices appearance, you might enjoy the following links:

• You can visit the poet's website for video of Giovanni reading her own poems:
  • Ego Tripping [There May Be a Reason Why]
  • Nikki Rosa
  • Stardate 18628.190
  • Train Rides
• For links to the poems "My First Memory [of Librarians]," "Possum Crossing," and "Quilts," go to Giovanni's Poets.org page.
• Her Virginia Tech faculty profile is here.
• Moreover, Giovanni is one of Oprah Winfrey's Living Legends.

On YouTube, you can catch an appearance of Giovanni on Def Poetry [she is the third of three poets in the clip] as well as her rousing performance at the Virgina Tech convocation.

Friday Mixed Nuts

Salty selections for your enjoyment:

• Diether H. Haenicke, interim president of Western Michigan University, has this advice: "Helicopter Parents -- Stop Hovering!"
• How many "visible" and "invisible" tasks make up your day? Carolyn Foster Segal, a professor of English, examines the amount of observed and solitary work that faculty perform in her essay "Invisible Hours."
• In "The Treadmill of Tenure," a tenure-track professor explains the no-pain-no-gain mentality that one must have as he analyzes washouts and successes in the tenure process.
• The creative writing faculty of Virginia Tech now have guidelines to identify and respond to disturbing writing. Read what the red flags are and what to do if you see them.
• With a new academic year come email woes and advice:
  • We Always Love the Give and Take of an Email Exchange
  • Another Entry into the "Let's All Communicate Better" Sweepstakes
  • To: Professor@University.edu Subject: Why It's All About Me
  • Young Workers: U Nd 2 Improve Ur Writing Skills
  • 12 Tips for Better E-mail Etiquette
• If a student tries to make excuses for missing work, you might want to say something like, "I'll need the bloody keyboard as proof that you did indeed try." The animation, not necessarily the post, is worth the visit.

Comedian/cynic George Carlin--with some especially salty language--takes on education in this week's YouTube fun: