academhack

I must admit that when I first heard about Twitter I thought it represented the apex of what concerns me about internet technology: solipsism and sound-bite communication. While I obviously spend a great deal of time online and thinking about the potential of these new networked digital communication structures, I also worry about the way [...]

I am currently working on a longish post about using Twitter in academia, but in the meantime I have collected some useful links to peruse.

First up Big Think. Think of YouTube for ideas. The polish on this site is nice, and it seems to be off to a good start with some rather substantial names [...]

Larry Ferlazzo who writes a blog about using technology to teach ELL, ESL, & EFL has a post highlighting the top web applications of 2007. The sites he lists cover a range of uses, from social bookmarking, and presentations to media sharing and website archives. Reading this post is well worth your time as many [...]

The short version: Yale now offers a range of course materials online free to the public. While currently the number of courses is rather limited, the scope of materials for each class is substantial and more thorough than current alternatives. The Yale Online Initiative isn’t perfect, but it is a huge step in the right [...]

I was going to right a post about a new online tool, Sandy, but Gearfire has already done it. Sandy is a personal organization tool that allows creates reminders and to-do lists and then will email them to you, so you don’t have to remember. As Gearfire concludes, this would be useful for students or [...]

I have been increasingly interested in the way YouTube changes the public sphere. Over at Emerging Media and Communications (website for my department here at UTD) I wrote about a teacher who is exploring these issues in the classroom and at Media Commons I raised the question about how the Youtube Debates might change our [...]

The Chronicle points to this report by the Center for Social Media, which found that even those in media studies vastly misunderstand issues of copyright. For those in media studies, or who want to use various media in their classrooms this report is a good place to start.

Today I received an email promoting The University of Toronto’s online writing workshop. Less than a workshop this site is really more of a series of guidelines for composing college papers. While not as extensive as Purdue’s Owl (one of the best around), the Toronto site has some useful information, and appreciate the way it [...]

Stanford University has launched a blog directory, a list of students, faculty, alumni, and student groups with blogs. While the list is pretty short (I imagine there are many more Stanford “community members” who blog than this) a couple of things about the list strike me as interesting. First, that it is conceived not just [...]

I think one of the most brutal experiences I have had is being on the academic job market. Another faculty I know equated it with being audited by the IRS for 18 months straight . . . which I think pretty much captures the mental anguish involved. If you are going on the job market, [...]