Category Archives: Editorial

March 6, 2013, 11:00 am

Open Thread Wednesday: Mid-Semester Course Evaluation?

Many of us are now approaching the halfway point of the semester, which means it might be a good time to revisit a topics we’ve covered a number of times here at ProfHacker: mid-semester course evaluations.

Most recently, Meg Worley shared her advice about how to get the most out of such evaluations. (You might also want to read Amy’s tips on mid-semester sanity maintenance, while you’re at it.)

I’ve used mid-semester course evaluations successfully in several of my classes over the years. With today’s open thread, though, we’d like to hear from you.

What has your experience been with these kinds of evaluations? Are you conducting them this semester? What advice do you have for others who might be considering mid-semester course evaluations? Please share in the comments.

[Creative Commons-licensed flickr photo by Fabio Penna]

March 4, 2013, 11:00 am

From the Archives: All About Phones

By Natalie Houston

During the first months of ProfHacker, in 2009, Julie wrote a post introducing us all to Using Super Smartphones for Productivity.

Given how fast technology changes, and how nearly ubiquitous smartphones are today, that post has already acquired a kind of antique charm.

Over the subsequent years we’ve written quite a bit about using your phone productively, as you’ll see in this Archive collection.

(more…)

March 4, 2013, 8:00 am

The Latest From Digital Humanities Questions and Answers

By George Williams

Launched in September of 2010, Digital Humanities Questions & Answers is a joint venture of the Association for Computers and the Humanities (ACH) and ProfHacker. (See Julie Meloni’s launch announcement.)

Digital Humanities Questions and Answers (@DHAnswers on Twitter) is designed to be a free resource where anyone with an interest in the digital humanities can pose a question to the community of folks working in the field.

Since we last checked in with the site, many interesting threads have been launched and several “best answers” have been provided. Below, I’ve provided links to a few of the threads with best answers:

Lectures de base (en français) pour les ‘digital humanities’: “D’autres fils de discussion ont abordé la question de lectures de base pour les digital humanities (ou informatique en sciences humaines), comme celui sur les examens généraux pour les…

March 1, 2013, 3:00 pm

Weekend Reading: Creative Learning Edition

By Anastasia Salter

For the past few weeks, I’ve been participating in the MIT Media Lab Learning Creative Learning “MOOC.” All the session videos are available online, including a great discussion of Making & Constructionism. I’ve enjoyed the course’s fairly active Google + community most of all, as participants share their own experiments with learning creativity (and creatively) across a broad range of backgrounds and environments. This week’s readings are inspired by some of the conversations happening throughout that course.

LCL participant Rosa Aleman wrote a reflection on “Scratch & New Ways of Seeing“: ”Personally, I’m still learning fluency in the medium of coding– but what Scratch has done for me is given me a powerful concept to explore in the real world. I try to set up my collaborative projects and activities much like the interface of Scratch— offering with each project or them…

February 27, 2013, 11:00 am

Do You Share Teaching Materials Online with Students?

By George Williams

Much of the material we generate for teaching is digital, perhaps most obviously lecture notes and presentation slides. Some instructors put this material online as part of the course materials available to students.

For most of us, I think, this kind of material is not consciously designed to be used by students in this way, but that doesn’t mean that it would be impossible to do so.

One of our readers recently suggested that we cover this topic: Do you share your teaching materials online with your students? Why or why not? If you do, what do you do to make sure the material is both useful to you as the one teaching the class and useful to your students as the ones taking the class? Any stories of success (or failure) out there? Please share in the comments section!

[Creative Commons-licensed flickr photo by Denise Chan]

February 20, 2013, 11:00 am

Open Thread Wednesday!

By Prof. Hacker

Each Wednesday, ProfHacker hosts an open thread discussion. Sometimes a specific topic is announced, and sometimes the discussion is completely open. Please remember to abide by our commenting and community guidelines. Thanks!

Hey, it’s Wednesday! I think you know what that means. It’s time for an open thread!

What’s on your mind? Do you need advice or feedback about something related to life and work in higher ed? Do you have advice or feedback to share about something related to life and work in higher ed? What would you like to see covered at ProfHacker? Do you have any suggestions for Open Thread topics? Do you have any interesting, ProfHacker-y links to share?

Let us hear from you in the comments!

[Creative Commons-licensed flickr photo by Rock Cousteau]

February 15, 2013, 4:08 pm

Weekend Reading: Funding Higher Education Edition

By Jason B. Jones

This week the Campaign for the Future of Higher Education launched an important new paper series on funding higher education. Rejecting the premise that one of the richest nations in history can’t afford to educate its citizens, and strongly defending the idea that education is public good, the series offers pragmatic steps toward an ambitious goal: seriously funding higher education so that a quality education is accessible to all who would benefit from it.

In the series, Bob Samuels explicitly calls for “Making All Public Higher Education Free”, Stanton A. Glantz and Eric Hays explore “Financial Options for Restoring Quality and Access to Public Higher Education in California”, and AAUP president Rudy Fichtenbaum explains
“…

February 13, 2013, 11:00 am

Open Thread Wednesday!

By George Williams

Hey, it’s Wednesday! I think you know what that means. It’s time for an open thread!

Let us hear from you in the comments!

[Creative Commons-licensed flickr photo by Mary Ann Clarke Scott]

January 30, 2013, 8:00 am

From the Archives: All About Text

By Natalie Houston

Not surprisingly, the writers at ProfHacker have thought quite a bit about the software tools they use to write.

Here’s a collection of posts from the archives that focus on the use of plain text editors and alternative word processors.

Text Editors

Lincoln describes text editors like Vim, Notepad++, and TextWrangler as Writing Power Tools that are stable, efficient, and promote good writing habits.

Jason discusses Notational Velocity, a Mac plain-text note app that is can be used for idea capturing through to full drafting.

Jason recently reviewed TextDrop, which combines a browser-based text editor (with Markdown support) with Dropbox synchronization.

Alex likes JDarkRoom, a cross-platform java-based text editor, which he combines with Dropbox to gain cloud functionality.

In Using Invert Bookmarks in Your Text Editor I explain a useful tip about how to delete…

January 16, 2013, 11:00 am

Open Thread Wednesday: Do You Use Shame in Your Work?

By Brian Croxall

Recently, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about shame. Some of this comes from the Freakonomics podcast, which I’ve become enamored of. (If you’re looking for something to listen to, ProfHacker readers have previously chimed in about their favorite podcasts.) An episode from January 2012 discussed the problem of hand-washing among doctors who—contrary to what one might guess—tend to have the worst hand hygiene practices at hospitals. The solution to the problem: shame. Public announcements of those who have not been following hand sanitation procedures at staff meetings led to a dramatic increase of hand-washing at L.A.’s Cedars Sinai Medical Center. Shame, as the Freakonomics team likes to point out, is a tremendous incentive to change behavior.