Classically, senioritis is a high school affliction, the product of the gap between sending off college applications (and especially learning of admission!) and the end of the school year.  But anyone who’s taught in higher education knows that a similar illness plagues college students.  Second-semester seniors, with a mere 12-18 credits remaining before graduation, can be pretty hard to motivate.  This month, there was a rash of absences right around April 1, as students received admissions decisions–both up and down–from various professional or graduate programs, and took a day to take stock.

But it’s not just seniors who go a little batty.  Teachers start to look ahead, too: Registration for next semester is well underway.  Book orders are probably due.  One starts to imagine future classes, chock-full of eager, inquisitive learners.  If a class isn’t going well–it happens,...

There were a lot of interlocking posts this week–posts about the iPad, about conferences, about tools, and more. Not *as* much that’s directly about teaching, although that’ll soon change, I’m sure.  After all, the semester’s end is rapidly approaching, and we’ll all need some strategeries for survival.

• I shuddered at Blackboard’s new iPad app, while George offered practical advice on “How to Email an Event Announcement.”  Speaking of Apple’s new shiny, Kathleen Fitzpatrick debuted on ProfHacker with “Initial Thoughts about the iPad.”  Bryn Lutes contributed a guest post on “Getting Started with LaTeX.”  George offered “Two Reasons We Love Our Readers” (hint: they’re makers!).
• Nels pointed out the “Pros and Cons of National, Regional, and Local Conferences,” while Erin suggested yet another type, the “Boutique Conference.”  Billie...

I’d like to say this is late because of something awesome–alas, it was just Little League field triage after the inevitable pre-Opening Day rainstorm. But hey–baseball!

On to the links:

• Florian Cramer explains how Wikipedia’s neutral point-of-view guideline is the translation of Ayn Rand’s school of thought and other libertarian influences into the project. Wikipedia, as well as other FLOSS movements, are built on consensus. The main problem is that this consensus is built on fictions. (The website, which I also linked to last week, are notes and papers from the “Wikipedia, Critical Point of View” conference a couple of weeks back.)
• Last week I spotted two articles on the same day about quitting social media.
• What if we named graduate student slots in the same way we do distinguished chairs? A thought experiment by Sisyphus: The advantage to naming each slot is of...

Today Blackboard has announced a new iPad app that lets users interact with the learning management system. (On the one hand, this isn’t going to make anyone feel any better about the iPad’s educational potential; on the other hand, given the lame design of their web interfaces, this can only be an improvement for those people forced to use Blackboard by their school.)

I found a couple of things interesting about the announcement. First, one of the nice things about the iPad is that it runs on the iPhone OS. In some situations, then, you could write a single app that would run on all three devices that run iPhone OS–the iPad, the iPhone, and the iPod Touch. (Instapaper does this, for example.) Blackboard, however, promises: In June, institutions will be able to expand support for Blackboard Mobile Learn to a broad range of device platforms — including iPhone OS, An...

On the one hand, Easter and Thanksgiving (or, depending on your school’s schedule, Halloween), stand roughly the same distance from the end of their respective semesters. On the other hand, how different! The end of the fall semester is gloomy: the days are getting shorter, it’s cold, most of the work of the academic year has still to be done. But the spring! Brighter, warmer days–and in a few weeks, everyone disperses. It’s *so* much better.

Here’s what you may have missed last week at ProfHacker:

• George evaluated Aviary.com’s free suite of creativity apps.  In the latest installment of “All Things Google,” Natalie explained the productivity mindset of Tasks. George asked five questions about “iPads and the Cost of Higher Education.”  I found Douglas Rushkoff’s SXSW claim that “if you’re not a programmer, you’re one of the programmed,” and...

Friends, I can’t lie: Between tomorrow’s iPad release and that evening’s show by The Hold Steady, my fanboy gauge is on the verge of redlining. (No, I’m not getting an iPad just yet. Not from any wait-and-see skepticism, but because the next couple of weeks are crazy, and I can’t get lost in a new interface. Definitely going to the concert, though!)

Here’re the links:

• Dan O’Sullivan, “An Encyclopedia for the Times: Thoughts on Wikipedia from a Historical Perspective“: The NPOV is at the root of the problem, combined with majority decision making. These lead to a consensus which is very limiting. It doesn’t allow you to see different voices and result in an article that sounds very sterile and boring. It would be much more interesting when dealing with a controversial topic if they could take different points of view and give them one ofter one another...

The Sunlight Foundation has announced a new contest: Design for America, which offers $5000 to the best visualizations of open-access government data in several categories: Visualization of Sunlight Community Data; Visualization of Data from the Budget; Visualization of Recovery.gov Data; Visualization of How a Bill Becomes a Law; Visualization of Congressional Procedures; Redesign of a Government Form; Redesign of a .Gov Website.

From the announcement:

Sunlight Labs is pleased to announce our latest contest — “Design for America.” This 10 week long design and data visualization extravaganza is focused on connecting the talents of art and design communities throughout the country to the wealth of government data now available through bulk data access and APIs, and to help nurture the field of information visualization. Our goal is simple and straightforward — to...

On the one hand, there’s something quaint about the question posed in this headline: “Can the iPhone Save Higher Education?”  This question has been asked breathlessly about various forms of technology for decades now, and, what’s more, it becomes obsolete this weekend, when the newest higher-ed saving technology comes out.  (And on Easter weekend, no less!)

On the other hand, contemporary handheld computers–whether powered by iPhone OS, Android, or something else–really do seem finally to offer a combination of power and convenience that could provoke meaningful change.

We’ve taken up this question at ProfHacker before: For example, I often lend all my students iPod Touches, and I’ve posted before about Abilene Christian University, which has the best-publicized effort to give out iPhones to everyone on their campus.  The newest round of press coverage...

Here’s what you may have missed last week on ProfHacker–especially if it was your spring break or your mortgage-funded brackets went sufficiently haywire:

• Amy went to Ethan’s Great Lakes THATCamp, and reported on the results, while Julie introduced us to the basics of version control systems. For Ada Lovelace Day, George looked back at the women who’ve shaped his hacking ethos.  He also urged scholarly societies to step up their social media presence, both during conferences and all year.  I pointed to the recent Day of Digital Humanities as a good practical introduction to the field.  George’s quest to find an ideally-useful academic scheduling software continues, while I found some iPhone apps helpful–even without internet access–during a study abroad program.
• Erin shadowed an undergrad for a day. (Um, in a totally non-creepy way!)  Guest Derek Bruff returned...