September 23, 2011, 3:00 pm
By Erin E. Templeton
Despite the fact that for many of us at ProfHacker, the fall semester started weeks ago, the season officially began this morning at 5:05 AM (Eastern Time). Hopefully the last few weeks of summer have been productive ones for you as you have gotten into the swing of the semester and settled into your classes and committees and research.
While Mother Nature seems to have eased up on tropical storms for the time being (knock on wooden surface now, please), it’s been a busy week for us on a number of fronts: the week opened for many of us with a bizarre email from Jeff Reed announcing Qwikster, developments in Google+, the Kindle Library Lending possibilities, ever-continuing changes in Facebook protocols and settings, persistant rumblings about the iPhone 5 . . .
On to the links:
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September 15, 2011, 3:00 pm
By Erin E. Templeton
Long-time ProfHacker readers know that we like Interfolio. We’ve written about it several times over the last three years: Julie Meloni wrote “Using Interfolio to Manage Your Professional Documents“; Brian mentions it when advising readers about “Preparing Now for Next Year’s Job Market,” and I included it in “Five Things That Helped Me Survive the Job Market.”
The MLA job list went live yesterday, and with it the cycle of hope and anxiety has begun anew for academic jobseekers, from ABDs venturing out into the market for the first time to seasoned pros who might be looking for a change of venue to everyone else in between.
One of the questions that job-seekers frequently ask is whether or not to use a dossier service, whether Interfolio or something similar provided by their university. The answer to this question: Maybe. Or to put it another way, the answer here is not near…
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September 9, 2011, 8:00 am
By Erin E. Templeton
A while back, I introduced ProfHacker readers to my “Rule of 200.” In a nutshell, the Rule of 200 is my way of maintaining writing momentum when life gets busy by writing 200 words a day, every single day. I figured that even if I couldn’t begin my writing session until 11:00PM after a full day of teaching, I could still produce 200 words. They don’t have 200 words of unadulterated genius, or remotely close to genius; my word count simply needs to be 200 words higher when I am finished.
Recently, I have adapted this principle to my fitness routine. I try to stay active and exercise throughout the year, but I have a tendency to let things slide as the pace of the semester picks up and the demands on my time from students, advisees, and committee chairs multiply. Those demands on their own aren’t generally what breaks my habit. There is one more ingredient, however, which is both…
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August 19, 2011, 8:00 am
By Erin E. Templeton
As promised earlier this week, today I’ll introduce you to Amazon’s (other) new service, the Amazon Cloud Reader. The Cloud Reader was unveiled on August 10, and unlike Kindle.Amazon.com, this service is one that actually has gotten some stage time on the Amazon homepage. But stage time is about all it has gotten. By this, I mean that while Amazon features the Cloud Reader prominently on its homepage, you actually ge surprisingly little information about it until after you’ve installed it. After writing one post on a subterranean Kindle service, I’m not sure why I was surprised, but I was surprised nevertheless. Basically, if users click on the “Read Now” link, they are taken to an installation page, rather than an information page. Call me skeptical if you will, but I want to know what I’ll be installing before I make such a decision, but such was not an option (unless…
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August 15, 2011, 11:00 am
By Erin E. Templeton
A little over a week ago, I received a curious message from Amazon.com. I was confused at first because I had not placed an order, and unlike many other retailers, Amazon doesn’t send me random “sale-mail.” My uncertainty grew when I opened the message to learn that one of my Twitter followers was now following me on Kindle. Following me on Kindle? Huh?
Many of us at ProfHacker are fans of the e-reader. Kindles and Nooks have made appearances on both of our Holiday Gift Guides (2009 and 2010). Amy has written about Calibre, as have I). I am a Kindle devotee and have been for years. In fact, over the two plus years that I have been “Kindling,” I have sworn allegiance to my electronic love both in ProfHacker (see “Kindling the Classroom ?” and elsewhere). The device (I use a second generation Kindle 2) has changed my life for the better. For example, despite the…
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July 25, 2011, 11:13 am
By Erin E. Templeton
We seem to have reached the point in the summer when the emails start to come in from students asking for the reading lists for their fall classes. At first glance, such requests might seem welcome—after all, who wouldn’t welcome such signs of enthusiasm and eagerness? The desire to read ahead is supposed to signal ambition and achievement. The early bird catches the worm; the first to the buzzer wins the round; the first to the table gets the bacon, etc., etc., etc.
And yet, I find myself deeply ambivalent about such requests not because I think that my students should bow to my every whim or because I refuse to acknowledge that they have other responsibilities and obligations, but rather because the act of reading ahead is often exceptionally damaging to our work together in the classroom.
Such a claim probably seems counter-intuitive. How can trying to get a head start be a …
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July 5, 2011, 8:00 am
By Erin E. Templeton
A few weeks ago, a friend posted something to Facebook from a site I wasn’t familiar with: Pinterest. The post in question was a wonderful photograph of a wall of bookshelves filled to the rafters with various texts. Like many academics, I love books; I love libraries, and I love photographs of both books and libraries, so I had to see where this photograph came from.
Enter Pinterest. Pinterest is an electronic bulletin board that allows users to pin images from around the web onto one communal space. Users can manage several different categories on their boards, and you can use either the default categories (eg. “For the Home,” “Recipes,” “Quotes,” etc.) or create your own.
Users can limit their views to only pins that they themselves have contributed, they can “follow” other users and see those pins in addition to their own, or they can also browse everything that has been …
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June 24, 2011, 11:00 am
By Erin E. Templeton
In recent weeks, ProfHacker has featured several posts about THATCamp. Ryan wrote about his experience organizing THATCamp LAC. Heather wrote about her experience attending THATCamp LAC as as an “outsider.” My student, Celeste Kahn, discussed what is was like to attend an unconference as an undergraduate and encouraged more of our readers to consider bringing their students to such events.
If the thought of bringing a student (or students) to THATCamp appeals to you, you might consider attending the upcoming THATCamp Pedagogy in October (2011). While most THATCamps do feature discussions of course and syllabus development and various digital tools in the classroom, I think it’s fair to say that many of them emphasize digital technologies and project management over the pedagogical implications and possibilities of such tools. In contrast, THATCamp Pedagogy will focus…
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June 13, 2011, 8:00 am
By Erin E. Templeton
Most regular readers of ProfHacker know that we like Dropbox. We’ve featured several posts about it (see, for example, these posts by Jason, Ryan, and Brian). But just in case you are new to ProfHacker, in a nutshell Dropbox is a cloud-based service that syncs data across different computers and allows you to access your files on any computer that either has the Dropbox software installed or has access to the internet. Users who register with Dropbox are given 2GB of storage space for free. If you sign-up with a referral from a current user, you are automatically granted an extra 250MB of storage, and if you complete the Dropbox tutorial (which takes all of 60 seconds), you are given another 500MB. If you then refer other people to Dropbox, you will earn more free space for each person who completes the registration process–users can earn up to 8GB through referrals and the tutorial…
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February 24, 2011, 8:00 am
By Erin E. Templeton
Smartphones, whether you prefer a BlackBerry, an iPhone, or one of the many devices that run the Android operating system, have many wonderful features. The battery life is generally not one of them. I have gathered a few tip in hopes of helping you power through long days on campus, at the archive, or on the road:
Screen Brightness: Anytime the screen of your Smartphone is illuminated, it uses battery power. The brighter the screen, the greater the drain. Most Smartphones will allow you to make several adjustments to your screen settings that can reduce consumption. You might check to make sure that the ambient light sensor is turned on (sometimes called “auto-brightness”), which adjusts the brightness of the screen according to the light in your environment. A dimly lit room will not require as much light as a brightly lit one. Also check the settings for the backlight…
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