Social Media and Job Recruiters - Decision Tree

Still very relevant for students getting ready to begin their careers or applying for grad school:

Open Data Sets for U.S. States via Socrata

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Philae on Social Media...

March madness bracketology: Census style!

Ready to get your Geek on?  The US Census Bureau has a new game where you can choose your brackets based on population tables.  Who knew Texas was bigger than New York?!

Pillows & Matresses to Raise Awareness of Sexual Assault on Campus

Students, faculty and staff on college campuses across the country are taking collective action to support survivors of sexual and domestic violence on college campuses by carrying a pillow or mattress around campus tomorrow [Wednesday, October 29, 2014]. 

This national day of action is inspired by the activism and art of Emma Sulkowicz at Columbia University and led by Columbia student activists. Emma carries a mattress with her as part of a performance art piece to protest the dismissal of her rape report by campus officials at Columbia University.

The day of action aims to raise awareness about the prevalence of sexual and domestic violence, advocate for better campus policies, and challenge rape culture. To find out more and share photos of the efforts of students on our campus visit the Carry That Weight website.

I just ran across this infographic shared on the Feminist Law Professors blog and originally published in Macleans.  As a fan of both the HeForShe Campaign and of infographics, I just couldn't resist. As of this posting 47, 942 men in the United States and 168,731 men world wide have taken a stand for gender equality since the campaign launch on September 20, 2014.

ORCID - Persistent identifiers for authors

One of the most useful attribution tools that I've found to help distinguish yourself as an author of scholarly works is ORCID. I'd recommend it to anyone pursuing a tenure track position! ORCID provides scholars with a persistent identifier that helps distinguish you from others with similar names and helps link scholars with their works and to any other indetifiers out there (e.g. Scopus or ResearcherID, LinkedIn etc.).  They also work closely with organizations like DataCite to make finding and linking scholars and their research as seamless as possible.  I've noticed that publishers are also starting to ask authors for their ORCID iD as part of the workflow for publishing. So, if you haven't done so, check out orcid.org to see if an ORCID iD is right for you.

And DON'T forget your towel!

Today is Towel Day where fans carry a towel in commemoration of Douglas Adams, one of the most hilarious and forward thinking writers of this century. As many of you know, the towel, according to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, is perhaps the most important thing you can possibly have if you plan on any (or accidentally happen to find yourself involved in) interstellar hitch hiking…

photo credit: Wikimedia Commons 

I discovered Douglas Adams when I was in high school in the early 90’s, much to the dismay of my parents (I think). I remember with delight the way Adams used his cynical wit to illuminate the absurdities of the human condition. I avidly consumed his Hitchhikers "trilogy" and Dirk Gently books and waited impatiently for more. I was devastated to learn of his untimely passing in 2001. Nearly fourteen years passed before I heard Richard Dawkins' Lament for Douglas Adams, who read it himself for us in a forward to the audiobook version of The Salmon of Doubt, which had been published posthumously in 2005. If you haven't read or listened (or both), I urge you to correct that immediately.

Douglas Adams, you are missed.

And because I can't seem to help myself where infographics are concerned, here’s one on the “massively useful” ways to utilize your towel:

by Lemonly.

Happy Towel Day folks.

Earth Day 2014

In honor of Earth day, I'm evaluating how I faired regarding last year's resolutions to reduce my eco-foot print... I have reduced the number of global acres of the earth's productive area that I use from 23 to 17.

Unfortunately, it would still take four planet earth's to sustain us if everyone lived like me--discouraging indeed.  I looks like I've got more work to do in the coming year to live a greener lifestyle.

Here's a great infographic snapshot of the environment in 2014:

Explore more visuals like this one on the web's largest information design community - Visually.

Change your passwords to avoid heartache from heartbleed

If you’ve been under a rock the past week, you might not be aware that many of your online accounts may have been compromised by the heartbleed bug.  The security breach is with the servers you have been logging into (e.g. Gmail, instant messaging, Facebook, Instagram, Netflix, Dropbox, etc.), so the only thing that you can do is change your passwords sooner rather than later.  

Mashable has compiled a great list of accounts that may have been affected including social networks, email providers, online shopping sites, financial institutions and more.

Bottom line, change your passwords ASAP!

Where do we stand with MOOCs?

A small multidisciplinary group from across campus came together today for a conversation about MOOC’s and what they mean for higher ed.  The anticipatory set from the discussion moderator  included a memorable analogy: A year and a half ago, MOOCs were to higher ed as Godzilla was to puny NYC inhabitants.  Now, most folks seem less enthusiastic about their ability to replace the traditional college education [our moderator used an image of a dead mouse which brought quickly to my mind thoughts of the San Jose MOOC catastrophy]… 

Yet, the reality of where MOOCs fit into higher ed surely lies somewhere in between the two extremes and requires a closer look at more successful programs like Georgia Tech’s MOOC Master’s degree in computer science now available through Udacity.  So where are we headed? I don’t see MOOCs crushing traditional higher education beneath its heel like Godzilla crushed taxi cabs any time soon. The cost to develop and deliver a MOOC ($50K-250) means most MOOCs will be low cost, but not free.  Given the challenges of assessment, low completion rates and problems ensuring or certifying the quality of learning, MOOCs could coexist (and/or be utilized as resources in more traditional higher ed courses), be used outside higher ed for public relations (i.e. NGO PR, ed programs or social engagement) or be used within higher ed for student recruitment for higher ed organizations (i.e. showcasing what a college has to offer).

New report sheds light on how K-12 students use digital tools & resources

Project Tomorrow released the report The New Digital Learning Playbook: Understanding the Spectrum of Students’ Activities and Aspirations at a Congressional Briefing held in Washington, DC this week.  This report provides some insight into the profile of students entering college in the next few years.  The sad news is that the widening digital divide and getting girls interested in STEM related disciplines are still problematic.  Check out this infographic for some of the highlights in the report.

Digital Playbook: Mobile Learning Infograph

Detailed infographic of the missing Malaysia flight MH370

This highly detailed infographic contains data from flight MH370 news as well as info about just what those little black boxes look like and how they operate.  The question upermost in the minds of most of the world... Is that plane and its 239 passengers in Khazakhstan, elsewhere in the Middle East or South Asia, or somewhere in the Indian Ocean?

by newsillustrator.
Explore more visuals like this one on the web's largest information design community - Visually.