Yes, self-referential posts rule the blogosphere, but that’s not what we’re trying to do here. We realize that blog audiences, much like academic departments, can exist in silos. So we want to make sure you don’t miss some great writing about technology over in The Chronicle Review.

Siva Vaidhyanathan wrote a nice essay about youth, technology, and pedagogy late last week. There is a crisis in education, which some see as a result of technology, Mr. Vaidhyanathan writes.

“There has been a steady and dangerous erosion of authority in teaching at all levels in America. It’s older than Facebook, even older than AOL. It’s not the fault of teachers (although many have been passive or complacent in its face). It’s not the fault of the students, who will...

Slippery politicians: Watch out for those hack-happy, tech-savvy college students. Tech-savvy students: Beware your own desire for glory.

Newspapers in Tennessee are reporting that a University of Tennessee at Knoxville student may be at the center of the investigation of who hacked into the Yahoo e-mail account of Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee. To make matters even more interesting, the newspapers say the investigation is focusing on the son of a Democratic state representative.

Over the past couple of days, a person who claims to have been the hacker has done something very stupid, given that he or she is the subject of an FBI investigation: bragging about how the deed was pulled off. The hacker used personal information about the Alaska governor and vice presidential can...

A recent Boston Globe story says that the state of Massachusetts is asking its employees to turn off their computers when the machines are not in use — a move that could save the state $2-million a year and prevent the release of 5,000 tons of carbon emissions. The story notes that state officials would like to see Massachusetts colleges participate in the program. ($2-million a year in a state like Massachusetts is a small amount to fuss about, but the effort seems honorable.)

The policy will require offices to set computers to shut down after a period of inactivity. It’s difficult to imagine whether a program like this would work if it relied entirely on education and volunteer effort. Sustainability advocates will tell you that changing behaviors is usually the hardest part of their jobs. The “think before you print” campaigns probably had some effect, but paper still seemed...

Stanford University is offering 10 online computer-science and electrical-engineering courses for free. The content will be offered through a variety of media and formats, including video on YouTube and podcasts on iTunes, and will present an introduction to computer science, artificial intelligence and robotics, and linear systems and optimization.

The courses will be covered under a Creative Commons license, which means that professors and students can download and use the courses for noncommercial purposes, as long as they give Stanford credit.

Stanford officials said the program could be expanded to include more courses if it proves popular and successful.

So, if you’re Stanford, why do this? To test a...

Amy Fry, a San Diego librarian, has a thoughtful little post on ACRLog called “Information Is Power — Even When It’s Wrong.” It’s basically a dissection of the United Airlines stock-value dive that occurred after a reporter from Income Securities Advisors posted erroneous information that he had gotten from a Google search.

For the average librarian, the event provides a series of lessons: that “proper metadata is important” or that “sometimes aggregators are misleading.”

But a big lesson for Ms. Fry: “Google is more powerful than we even realized.”

“If any one of you has been underestimating the role of Google in the information food chain, STOP,” she writes. “As more and more information is accessed through and archived by private companies …, librarians must take on greater responsibilities as...

Recent editions of Tech Therapy covered how to hire a chief information officer and some things that CIO’s should look for in prospective employers.

Well, what is a new CIO going to do if there aren’t people to boss around? So this week’s Tech Therapy is a discussion of how to hire tech staff members.

“Recruiting is very difficult … and depending on where a college is in the country, that can make things more difficult — or less difficult,” says Warren Arbogast. “One of the ways people deal with that is by promoting from within, which is a great thing for all organizations. At the same time, you want to make sure that you have the right people matching up with the right skills....

In this contentious election season (like all of them), promises to count every last vote will certainly be a constant refrain leading up to the big day in November.

The old quote from Stalin has gained traction in recent years: “Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything.” The Computer Security Group, in the department of computer science at the University of California at Santa Barbara, cites the adage in a report examining who — or, rather, what — will count the votes in California.

“Our team focused on the security analysis of the Sequoia voting system,” the group says on its Web site, with a link to the report. “We found a number of major flaws that can be exploited to compromise the...

The University of Montreal says one of its researchers is looking into a “new addiction” — Internet addiction.

Well, maybe it’s new in Canada. People have been talking about Internet addiction around here for more than 10 years. (See old Chronicle articles here, here, and here.) The idea generated some buzz back then, but now people seem more or less inured to the notion of spending countless, pointless hours checking their e-mail, playing games, and watching videos of

Who the heck is Ajay Chahar? You may find out if you follow his life by visiting Colgate University’s home page. (Look in the bottom-right corner.)

That’s because Mr. Chahar, a freshman at Colgate, is more or less the university’s official twitterer — that is, someone who posts “tweets” on Twitter, the real-time message service that goes out to cell phones and computer screens. The university provides its home-page link to “follow Ajay Chahar” under the heading “’Gatetwitter.” The last update pretty much gives an indication of the excitement that is the life of Ajay: “finished physics class and now headed to the library!” The exclamation point is too much.

Mr. Chahar

The University of Maryland at College Park is giving iPods and iPhones to students to find out if the devices can have any educational use.

The iPod Touches and iPhones will go to 133 freshmen who received one of two scholarships—the Maryland Incentive Awards Program, which goes to students who go to college despite difficult challenges (mainly African-Americans), and the Banneker-Key scholarship, the university’s most prestigious merit award.

Haven’t we been down this road before—at, say, Duke University? Or how about Abilene Christian University? How many studies do...