Accessing Your Zotero Library on an iPad with Mendeley

I should point out that I didn’t mention an obvious use of the Mendeley iPad/iPhone app: to get your Mendeley library on your iPad. That is, you don’t need Zotero in order to use the app, or Mendeley, which are separate services. If Mendeley is your main reference manager, then the app is your perfect solution for accessing and (with the latest version of the app) editing your citations on your iOS device.

Thank you Mr. Christie for creating (filling) another worthless government position.  Excluding teachers, how many  government  education officials are there?  How much money will she make?  Some people talk a lot about cutting spending, but their actions are spend, spend.

You are correct. The only problem is that admissions groups discriminate against local students in the name of diversity.  Another problem is that they don’t have as many requirments for foreign students as they do for American students.  I have never met one student from Asia who had volunteer experience, work experience, or any other extracurricular activities on their resumes (unless it was a complete lie they made up to get accepted).  However, for American students, they require all and more.  On top of that, most Asian students can’t even speak English as they cheat on their tests and even employ people to write their admissions papers for them.  I know, as I have been an educator in China for the past 7 years and have always had to deal with cheating.  It is disgusting how little American universities know about cheating from asian students , but yet they accept them blindly to STEM programs because they supposedly have good math.  The good math thing is also a myth. 

Asian students only have one advantage; they know how to cheat and show face.  US admission groups need to stop discriminating against American students and demand more proof that these massive amounts of Asian students flooding US universities are actually qualified enough to be there.  I know that some of my student were accepted to George Washington University, Maryland University, and Boston University even though I know for a fact that these students are cheats and are seriously under-qualified.  This is one reason I am finished with being an educator in China (I have recently changed career paths.)

While I completely support this program (and liberalized visa policy in general), there are many fields on this list for which there is clearly no shortage of fresh PhDs.  In some there are dozens or even hundreds of recent PhD applicants for every open position.  On the other hand, every time we hire a foreign national we have to file some nonsense avowing that the person is superior to every available US candidate, so perhaps the steady receipt of such statements has convinced ICE that it is actually true.

It is easy to see that your reponse is very biased, and a good example of how people in your position discriminate against better qualified American students.   

Burger, I hope you’re not talking about Asian American students, right?

As for foreign students, and particularly Chinese foreign students, just think about this when you buy stuff made in China:  the trade imbalance is helped by having Chinese students come to the US and pay out of state tuition without financial aid.  It’s a drop in the bucket, but don’t we need all the drops we can find since we gave up on manufacturing just about anything?

If you do actually speak Chinese, there are lots of opportunities in business for you….. 

To private schools.  Or to the private sector, where we’ll be competing with you for your job.  Watch out.  We’re smart, resourceful and have already been taught to do more with less.

Thanks for providing very useful information such a nice
post please do keep posting..

I found a solution that works a lot better for me than the Mendeley app. Also, if you’re a bit handy with Python scripting, this solution could be improved to work two-ways (which I don’t need myself but which might be interesting to other people).

I’ve written an article about it on my blog. It’s only fifteen minutes of work to setup:
http://www.bobdeschutter.be/?p=498

Personally, I still prefer Zotero above Mendeley. One of the reasons for that is that Zotero allows users like me to come up with custom solutions if a feature is missing. :-)

Is there anyone out there who still seriously thinks that a URL has any real marketing value?

They’re marketing to the tl;dr generation.  If it takes more than a couple of clicks to get from the main page to admissions, a student who’s looking at several dozen schools simply won’t bother.

They may also be getting a lot of their traffic from snail mail materials, and a direct url is more aesthetically pleasing and easier to copy than something with a bunch of slashes.

True.  When I was teaching “how to use the Internet” to high schoolers, that was a significant point.  But that was years ago.  Today, it means “sites with a .edu will have a very strong liberal bias; sites with a .com, not so much, with a few (mostly ‘news’) exceptions” (e.g.: huffingtonpost.com, nytimes.com).

More like “their lame home page needs a serious redesign.” N.B.: http://xkcd.com/773/

Can’t speak to marketing value, but for the past 15 years the general characteristics of a domain type have been a useful shorthand when teaching students about the nature of web-based information.  I have never heard of .edu signifying a liberal bias, but I have certainly long considered, and long recommended .edu domains as being more reliable as scholarly information than .com or .biz.  In terms of our students and their information literacy, the proliferation of domain types will further cloud an already murky area.  Most folks, even in academia, would not believe how shaky undergraduate understanding is of the significance of domain designations.

What I don’t understand is why there’s no discussion of “.org” in this article. I’m not opposed to universities using other TLDs for ancillary sites, but surely “.org” is more in line with what a university is SUPPOSED to be about.

This is not going to go forward. It doesn’t make sense for universities to invest in something that makes them the same as everyone else.

It may make marketing easier, but it’s a deal with the devil that universities must not make.  To allow the .edu domain to be equated with .com is to cheapen the very valuable information from university websites–making a vast wikipedia of the whole mix.  The commodification of the university website may only be a symbolic surrender, but it’s a symbolic surrender in the largest gallery of human perception, and ought not to happen.

So they bought getintoweber.com to redirect to http://www.weber.edu/getintoweber.  All of the content is still at a .edu site, and Google/Google scholar searches will still find content at .edu, not the .com site.  Big deal.

This whole thing is not really that complicated.  

In a marketing sense, it is much easier to use a .com (i.e. getintoweber.com) than using some convoluted subdomain.  With the short attention span of high school kids (and many adults,) you have very little time to make an impression.  If some domain is used that pushes students to your school, what is the big deal?  Frankly, I’ve advised administrators of this tactic for some time and believe it is a good tool to funnel students to your Admissions page.  

You’re free to start your own domain (.snob maybe) and make your criterion “non-profit accredited post-secondary educational institutions.”  Go for it.  Just pay your money and make your choice.  Maybe you could even take a page from the .XXX guy, and send out a blackmail letter (“For a mere $12,000, you can ensure that no-one will ever be able to register phoenix.snob”).  No, I have never had any association with any for-profit school*.  I just don’t see why the unprovoked vitriol.

* Full disclosure: Public elem., private (jr) high, Ivy undergrad, State grad, work for a “highly selective” (Ivy wanna-be) private non-profit U.  Also taught in public and non-profit private high schools.

I admire him, too, but if you download his statement, you’ll see he had another reason as well:

“By into the fall of last year, it had been brought to my attention that [Vantage's program manager] was concerned that my lead production had fallen below the team average …. Having never been terminated in my working career, I made the decision to protect my record and leave the company in December of last year. I’m now currently employed at one of the best jobs I’ve ever had and have no regrets…and no reason to bare a grudge.”

But he goes on to say:

“I just feel bad, I feel bad that I was part of something that took advantage of people, a lot of them kids still in high school. I feel bad being witness to fellow workers losing their jobs for not being in compliance with the policies of a client whose business model can not function without first excelling in deceit.”

I have no doubt that both motives were in play.

As someone who is inside the online college directory industry I will tell you that consumers are 3 to 20 times more likely to click on an ad that mentions the name of a trusted state or residential college.

The lead generation mills know this and are not shy about using the best bait available to them. Ethics are not a consideration in this sector.

Is this deceptive? Yes, I believe it is, but the dominant business model for online college directories is lead generation.

Colleges can help buy not patronizing lead gen systems.

As long as
colleges see the pay per lead system as a good way to get students the
students will encounter these aggressive ploys which routinely use the
best bait to get that lead.

State colleges need to understand that their names are worth a great deal in attracting students.
They need to protect this asset and use it to honestly attract interested students.

Vicky Philips
GetEducated.com

So I visited educationstart.org to see how this process flows…It asked me to select a state, I selected Indiana, then I selected one of the IU schools. Interesting to note that the flagship campus for IU, IU Bloomington is not listed…hmmm. So I selected Indiana University Northwest and completed the web form and submitted. he next page reads Thank You with a message we’ve found another school in your area that matches your interests. 

I click continue and this takes me to a page with a University Of Phoenix ad on the left and a web form to request more information on the right. I also have the option of skipping this school and reviewing another, which I did, for another twelve clicks with different schools listed on each page along with web forms to request information.

The schools in order are: Phoenix, Grand Canyon, Walden, Capella, Kaplan, North Central, Strayer, American Intercontinental, USC Rossier, Keiser University, and finally Seneca. What suprised me was Benedictine and Saint Xavier which are two for profits located near me in Illinois who also now offer online programs. So it’s not just the for-profits.

I am eager to receive a call from Indiana University Northwest to see if they actually receive my request….or will another entity call me to try to convince me to consider one of the schools mentioned above.

At least with the online process the text is clear that you are requesting information from a nother school, however it may not be so clear to a high school student new to this process for if one only reads the web form on the left, and dismissing the school’s logo on the left as just an ad, then you may think you are requesting further information from your intended school on financial aid and such.

So we’ll see if they call, however at this point with the attention this article may bring, I’m not sure they will. And I also will be curious to see if IU Northwest calls….to determine whether educationstart.org or Vantage really did refer my request to them.

The practice in the article of calling leads that were to be directed to other schools would be considered deceit and potentially fraudulent, however their online presence appears ot be fairly clear. The schools listed are obviously paying for this lead generation service, but I wonder how many leads for the publics are actually forwarded, for it’s unlikely they are paying and frankly most are probably not aware they are listed here and on other websites like this one.

Vantage’s name should be changed to “Take Advantage.”

No

 By ‘liberal agenda’ I mean those of political liberals., This has NOTHING to do with liberal arts.

Can you elaborate?  What evidence do you have for your final statement?  Can you give examples?  What do you mean by “creative course offerings?  Can you give examples?

I like the idea of high school kids being “counseled” by someone who says he has “no reason to bare a grudge.”

Yeah, those grudges get grumpy when you expose them.

If the public schools could somehow quantify how many potential students were diverted away, and calculate how much tuition they potentially lost, they might be able to hit Vantage up for $$$.  I also feel sorry for any legitimate education consultant whose reputation is no doubt suffering.  

The whole thing reminds me of the scams that Lonely Planet warns travelers about – taking a taxi to a reputable hotel and being told that it is “full, blown up, etc” and taken to a disreputable place that the driver receives commission from.  Have we sunk to this level.

As for shortfalls in education, perhaps they should start teaching Consumers Ed and immunize students against this sort of scam.

That’s exactly what I mean. I remember a time when an education really meant something and one had to earn a diploma or a degree. Now we cannot , and I do mean ‘cannot’ hold students responsible for anything. Grade inflation, dumbing dow, and social promotions have changed both the landscape and the culture of education.

Note that my blaming the liberal agenda is not taking a political side. I belong to neither party. I look at each issue individually and assess all options on their own merit.

Forget it, Antsy.  Who_profits is evidently blind to the irony.