Faculty Development News This Week:


Pedagogy


--"Liberal Education in the New Century"


This article considers the liberal arts in the twenty-first century.


"Liberal Education"


This is a 12-page PDF file


--"Credibility of the Web: Why We Need Dialectical Reading


"Credibility of the Web"


Recommended.


--Book: Research Strategies


Research Strategies: Finding your Way through the Information Fog, Second Edition, by William Badke, is available online.


Research Strategies

Active Learning


Active Learning with PowerPoint


This site provides an "online tutorial that suggests ways faculty can use PowerPoint as a medium to support active learning. The tutorial includes sections on active lecturing, active learning strategies and their delivery via PowerPoint, creating and using effective handouts, using PowerPoint to play in-class games, and using PowerPoint for formative assessment."


Active Learning with PowerPoint


"The Ethics of Learner-Centered Education"


This article is from Change magazine, 2000.


"The Ethics of Learner-Centered Education"


Recommended.


--Active Learning in Library Instruction


Here is a bibliography on active (cooperative) learning in Library instruction.


Active Learning...Library Instruction


--"Cooperative Learning"


Read the introduction to this article:


"The use of active learning strategies, such as cooperative learning, is growing at a remarkable rate. Professors are incorporating cooperative learning to increase students' achievement, create positive relationships among students, and promote students' healthy psychological adjustment to school. This monograph is about how college faculty can ensure that students actively create their knowledge rather than passively listening to the professor's. It is about structuring learning situations cooperatively at the college level so that students work together to achieve shared goals."


"Cooperative Learning"


--One Word, Little Time


This link is on free writing.


Try it!


One Word

Service Learning


Deliberative Democracy.Net


"Deliberation is an approach to decision-making in which citizens consider relevant facts from multiple points of view, converse with one another to think critically about options before them and enlarge their perspectives, opinions, and understandings.
Deliberative democracy strengthens citizen voices in governance by including people of all races, classes, ages and geographies in deliberations that directly affect public decisions. As a result, citizens influence--and can see the result of their influence on--the policy and resource decisions that impact their daily lives and their future."


Deliberative Democracy

Online Learning


--Drupal.org


"Drupal is an open-source platform and content management system for building dynamic web sites offering a broad range of features and services including user administration, publishing workflow, discussion capabilities, news aggregation, metadata functionalities using controlled vocabularies and XML publishing for content sharing purposes. Equipped with a powerful blend of features and configurability, Drupal can support a diverse range of web projects ranging from personal weblogs to large community-driven sites."


Drupal


Recommended.


--"Nine Rules for Good Technology"


This entry is from the blog Carving Code 3 April 2004.


"Nine Rules"


--Technical Advisory Service for Images (TASI)


"This resource provides links to more than 60 vocabulary sources."


TASI


Recommended.


--Using the Internet to Conduct Research Surveys


"Internet-based surveys, although still in their infancy, are becoming increasingly popular because they are believed to be faster, better, cheaper, and easier to conduct than surveys using more-traditional telephone or mail methods. Based on evidence in the literature and real-life case studies, this book examines the validity of those claims. The authors discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using e-mail and the Web to conduct research surveys, and also offer practical suggestions for designing and implementing Internet surveys most effectively."


Conducting Research Surveys...the Web


This is a publication of the RAND Corporation. The book is downloadable and free.
Multiple PDF files.


Recommended.

Students


--"Before College, a Taste of the Real World"


This article is from The New York Times.com, New York Region.


Before College""


--"The Relationship Between Achievement, Goal Orientation, and Coping Style: Traditional vs. Non-Traditional College Students."


This article is from The College Student Journal, March 2003.


Traditional vs. Non-Traditional College Students


Recommended.


--"Unemployment of College Grads Surpasses That of High School Drop Outs"


This article is from Economic Snapshots, an online publication of the Economic Policy Institute.


"Unemployment of College Grads"
Recommended.


--Curriculum Coherence and Transfer Issues: "Why Do I Have To Take This Course?"


This article is fromPeer Review, a publication of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, March 2000.


"Why Do I Have To Take This Course?"


Survey: How Well Do You Communicate with Students?


The authors of this survey "studied communications between faculty and students, and they identified effective skills in initiating and responding to students' comments. They suggest that faculty ask for student feedback on their listening and communication skills about three weeks into a course, and they offer the instrument below for this purpose. You might like to use it in this way, or merely as a list for self-reflection."


How Well Do You Communicate with Students?

Library


--Progressive Librarians Guild


"Progressive Librarians Guild was formed in New York City on January 1990 by a group of librarians concerned with our profession's rapid drift into dubious alliances with business and the information industry, and into complacent acceptance of service to an unquestioned political, economic and cultural status quo."


Progressive Librarians Guild


--Social Responsibilities Roundtable of the American Library Association (SRRT)


"SRRT has worked effectively to make ALA more democratic and to establish progressive priorities not only for the Association, but also for the entire profession. Concern for civil and economic rights was an important element in the founding of SRRT and remains an urgent concern today."


Social Responsibilities Roundtable


--Library Juice


"Library Juice (ISSN 1544-9378) is a biweekly online magazine for librarians, library and information science students, and other interested people. It includes discussions, commentary, announcements, humor, web links and news affecting the library world. Much of the material is about librarianship as the servant and protector of the public sphere; intellectual freedom and social responsibility as central to the profession. Library Juice is not a discussion list but a digest of material from a variety of sources. Much of the material comes from individual contributors; you are welcome to submit articles of between 200 and 7500 words."


Library Juice

Blogging


--UTHINK: University of Minnesota Blog Initiative


The libraries at the University of Minnesota have just gone live with UTHINK, a blog initiative that assigns a blog to all students and faculty.


UTHINK


--"Publishing a Project Blog"


This article is from InfoWorld, 28 March 2003.


"Publishing a Project Blog"


--Sharing Knowledge in Organizations Through Blogging"


This article is from re.engage, 8 March 2004.


"Sharing Knowledge”

Blog Grab Bag


--The Bio-Web


"Your source for Molecular and Cell Biology-Bioinformatics-Technology news and online bio-resources.”


The Bio-Web


--African Studies Internet Resources


"Columbia University's collection of African Studies Internet Resources is an on-going compilation of electronic bibliographic resources and research materials on Africa available on the global Internet, created under the purview of the African Studies Department of Columbia University Libraries."


African Studies


--Technorati


"Technorati is a conversation engine. It tells you what's being said, right now, about every blog or site that has something to say -- and says it so well that others point to them. Search for the "cosmos" of any page, and Technorati lists every other page that has linked to it in the past 24 hours, ranked by freshness or authority. It shows the contextual text surrounding the inbound link, its age, and other helpful facts. There isn't another search engine like it."


Try the Beta version.


Technorati


--Association of Knowledgework (AOK)


"AOK is organized in the same way we want your workplace to be -- an environment without cultural, political, professional or structural boundaries; where workers and managers at all levels can think together, drawing on the rich and diverse backgrounds, training and work experience previously confined to the information silos and narrowly defined jobs of the former Industrial Age."


AOK


--Innovation Tools


"The Innovation Weblog is a meta-index of the latest innovation trends, news, technology, resources and viewpoints. It covers topics including innovation research and best practices and strategies, innovation management, business use of Weblogs for ideation and collaboration, and much more! This blog is updated frequently, so be sure to check back here often for the latest updates."


Innovation Tools


--"Seeing the Ordinary as Extraordinary"


This article is by a former National Geographic photographer.


"Seeing in the Ordinary as Extraordinary"


--The Long Now Foundation


"The Long Now Foundation was established in 01996** to develop Clock and "Library" projects as well as to become the seed of a very long term cultural institution. It has been nearly 10,000 years since the end of the last ice age and the beginnings of civilization. Progress lately is often measured on a "faster/cheaper" scale. The Long Now Foundation seeks to promote "slower/better" thinking and to foster creativity in the framework of the next 10,000 years."


The Long Now Foundation


--Mapper: ACME Laboratories


Enter a zip code or the name of a city, and see what comes up on screen.


Mapper


--Business Search Engine: SmealSearch


"SMEALSearch is a niche search engine that searches the web and catalogs academic articles as well as commercially produced articles and reports that address any branch of Business. The search engine crawls websites of universities, commercial organizations, research institutes and government departments to retrieve academic articles, working papers, white papers, consulting reports, magazine articles, and published statistics and facts."


Smeal Search


--National Science Digital Library (NSDL)


"NSDL is a digital library of exemplary resource collections and services, organized in support of science education at all levels. Starting with a partnership of NSDL-funded projects, NSDL is emerging as a center of innovation in digital libraries as applied to education, and a community center for groups focused on digital-library-enabled science education."


NSDL


--Journalism.org


"The project pursues the aim of clarifying standards by bringing journalists together to decide for themselves what their purpose and aims are. It sponsors, with the Nieman Foundation at Harvard, The Committee of Concerned Journalists, which has called journalists to a period of national reflection through a series of nationwide public forums and a landmark report on the purpose of journalism. It produced The State of the American Newspaper project, a landmark series of magazine articles on the profession edited by Gene Roberts. It conducts an annual review of local television news, which is published by the Columbia Journalism Review. It also produces a continuing series of content studies on press performance. "


Journalism.org


--Arts and Letters Daily


This portal links to interesting articles.


Arts and Letters Daily


--Boing Boing


This portal advertises itself as a "directory of wonderful things."


Boing Boing


--Engaging Business Students in Online Research....


"This presentation illustrates the information literacy approach for undergraduate, adult and MBA courses at California Lutheran University, Thousand Oaks, CA. Emphasizing the value of librarian-faculty partnering, the presentation explores techniques for engaging undergraduate and MBA students in using business databases for research and for applying critical thinking skills to assignments. Also discussed is how the assignments are crafted around the ACRL Competency Standards for Higher Education. Included are examples of business research assignments for use in upper division and MBA-level organization theory and strategic management courses and a sample student paper. The lecture was presented at the October 24, 2003 Academic Business Librarians Exchange (ABLE) South/ Southern California Instruction Librarians (SCIL) program entitled: “Designing and Assessing Student Business Research Assignments: Strategies for Business Faculty and Librarians."


Although this presentation is directed toward graduate students in business, it also has applications to undergraduate students as well.


Engaging Students in Online Research....


--Cyber Economics


"This website is designed to support courses in both macro- and micro-economics. By clicking on the Table of Contents, one can access information on a variety of topics. Each of these contains links to other explanations."


Cyber Economics


--"How India is Saving Capitalism"


This article is from Salon.com. To read the entire article, you can acquire a free day pass or subscribe.


"How India is Saving Capitalism"


--Drive the Mars Rovers!


Do you want to take a spin on Mars?


This site is associated with the NASA Mars 2004 project and provides a Flash Macromedia virtual ride on the Mars rovers.


Mars Rovers

Until next week!


Blog editor


Image credits: www.spacedaily.com/news/ mars-general-00j1.html