The Emerging Scholars Blog

This morning Russia Licenses Faith Healers topped my new mail. The one who forwarded it to me commented, They are soooo far ahead of us.  Read the rest of this entry »

A few links to pass along, regarding connections between new technology and academic research.

• The Chronicle’s Wired Campus blog last week reported on academic uses for Google Earth, such as a map of county-by-county election results, dating back to 1840.
• Alice Marwick has posted an annotated bibliography of academic research on LiveJournal. (HT: danah boyd, who has also compiled a bibliography on social network research)

Online social networks are one of my (many) casual interests. Any other links on this topic that I should know about?

Speaking of all of this technical stuff, there is a very cool post about academic citations at The Immanent Frame. They have added a new feature to their blog that provides a drop-down list of standard ways of citing that particular blog entry - MLA, APA, Chicago, etc. It’s a very convenient way of getting the correct citation information for a blog post (if, that is, a blog post is something that you should or could cite - I have a feeling the answer to that depends on your discipline).

A side question: has anyone cited a blog in an academic paper? What was the context and the reaction?

Tom’s recent post about online materials got me to think about tools to organize that research.

With the glut of information now available, what do you use to keep it all organized?

I’ll start. First, a disclaimer: I use a Mac, and I think all of the tools I use are Mac-specific. Here are the tools that I use:

• For news and RSS feeds, I use NetNewsWire.
• For research material (quotes, docs, notes, etc.), DEVONthink Pro.
• For larger writing projects, Scrivener.
• To keep track of my library, Books.
• To keep track of people, organizations, to-do items, projects, etc., Daylite.

So, what tools do you use?

How do we find, evaluate, share, and use on-line resources/data?  In this morning’s Daily Report from The Chronicle of Higher Education, I came across the post Thinking About Truth, Lies, and the Power of Google.  The flow of comments focused upon librarians, the vetting of information, and the current election (what article doesn’t relate to McCain/Palin and now I’m even doing it!).

Out of curiosity, I followed the link to the original post on the ACRLog (i.e., Association of College and Research Libraries: Blogging by and for academic and research librarians):  Information is Power - Even When it’s Wrong.  Then I took some time to ruminate over the piece, particularly the concern Sometimes aggregators are misleading. … Anyone have thoughts and/or tips on how to find, evaluate, share, and use on-line resources?

By-the-way, the last time I followed the Daily Report to the ACRLog, I read about the rise of the blog among academic and research librarians in What Happened To The Personal Web Site.  Next time I visit the ACRLog, I’m going to look to see whether someone wrote about the question of accessing material received from a blog (or how about a Facebook post) versus a personal web site, an organizational web site, or an on-line journal article.  Fascinating questions, maybe I should consider a degree in information science.

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports on a new online term, “creepy treehouse”:

A growing number of professors are experimenting with Facebook, Twitter, and other social-networking tools for their courses, but some students greet an invitation to join professors’ personal networks with horror, seeing faculty members as intruders in their private online spaces. Recognizing that, some professors have coined the term “creepy treehouse” to describe technological innovations by faculty members that make students’ skin crawl.

In any venue, mixing business with pleasure can be awkward, but one commenter notes:

It seems if students are finding use of online sites for class and personal use as creepy we have failed as a system in our integration of what happens in the courseroom with what can happen in the real world…

Later in the comments, a professor offers what seems to be a wise via media: don’t friend your undergraduate students, mention to your grad students that you are on Facebook, and friend them only if they make the request first.

To me, it seems that ESN members may have good reason to connect with their professors online. If you are pursuing an academic vocation, your professors are not merely your teachers, but also your future colleagues.

But what do others think?

Last Lecture Book Cover

When I purchased Randy Pausch’s The Last Lecture, I mentioned to the cashier how I played pick-up basketball with Randy while a campus minister at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU).  She responded by sharing excitedly about the CMU Computer Science Professor’s book and interview with Diane Sawyer.  I asked her if she watched The Last Lecture.  She responded, No.  I encouraged her to do so.  Why?

1.   Randy was a dynamic, creative, and refreshing personality at CMU well before he faced pancreatic cancer.  His optimism in the face of tragedy was inspirational to many people.  And his legacy will continue to be influential for years to come.  In Randy’s lecture, entitled Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams, you find a hopeful Tigger instead of an cynical Eeyore pushing his technological habitat forward with his last breath while at the same time leaving a legacy for his wife and children! 

2.   Randy confronts head on the elephant in the room, i.e. his terminal cancer.  Passionate about honesty, he writes, If I could only give three words of advice, they would be “tell the truth.” If I got three more words, I’d add: “All the time.” My parents taught me that “you’re only as good as your word,” and there’s no better way to say it” (p. 163).  Note:  for Randy’s chronicling of his journey, check out his health update page.

3.  The Last Lecture stands out as a command performance, truly worthy of high regard in the genre, check out the various Last Lecture website media links (including his interview with Oprah).  

But as a follower of Christ who has faced his share of brick walls, including a personal struggle with intermediate grade mucoepidermoid carcinoma along with post-treatment health concerns and the death of my infant daughter Elise Faith; I find optimism alone to be lacking when facing life’s tragedies.  Although some hardships may, as Randy states, give us a chance to show us how much we want something because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people, I find that brick walls remind me that the world is not about me, that I depend upon Another (beyond family, community, financial resources, contacts, and memories), and I have been given One More Day to be a blessing to those around me.  

I enjoyed my time on the basketball court with Randy, never-the-less I wish that I would have had One More Day to chat with him about facing brick walls not by one’s own will but through Christ Jesus.  If you have a moment as the new term begins, let me know your thougths on The Last Lecture.