Archive for the ‘networking’ tag
Week in Review: March Madness Edition
What? There's another Kentucky basketball team playing this March?
What are you reading, watching, thinking about this week? As usual, here’s a few which have been on our mind. Let us know your thoughts on any/all of them. If you have items you’d like us to consider for the top five, add them in the comments or send them to Tom or Mike.
1. The Spiritual Pathway to March Madness (John A. Murray, Wall Street Journal, 3/18/2010): Keep in mind the history of basketball as the tourney heads toward its conclusion. HT: Miller.
As a young Christian, Naismith received a master’s degree from Montreal’s Presbyterian Theological College. Convinced that he could better exemplify the Christian life through sports than in the pulpit, he moved to Springfield, Mass., to serve as a physical-education instructor at the Young Men’s Christian Association’s International Training School for Christian Workers (now Springfield College). Naismith’s vision? “To win men for the Master through the gym.”
Photo Credit: Dan Issel and Artis Gilmore of the Kentucky Colonels, by retro-space via Flickr
2. Facebook and Twitter Keep Calipari Ahead of the Game (Thayer Evans, NY Times, 3/23/2010).
Calipari has 1,113,647 followers on Twitter, 138,325 fans on Facebook, and his Coach Cal application for the iPhone and iPod touch sold more than 6,000 applications in its first month, making it the top paid sports application on iTunes less than a week after its debut last month.
His Web site, CoachCal.com, which went up in July, receives more than 100,000 page views each week. It has been visited by people from more than 100 countries, even Kyrgyzstan, which borders China. …
3. Last week Tom had the opportunity to connect with staff from Nurses Christian Fellowship (NCF). During his brief time with them he received a copy of The Journal of Christian Nursing (JCN). He commends it to those who are connected with the university hospital (and health care professionals beyond the campus) Here’s an excerpt from A New Culture of Leadership: Service Over Self [Kamalini Kumar, PhD, RN, Journal of Christian Nursing (JCN), January/February/March 2010 - Volume 27 - Issue 1].
Servant Leadership, a 30-year-old leadership and management concept, is slowly gaining popularity, especially in faith-based healthcare institutions. However, although theory is present, actually putting the concepts into everyday practice lags far behind. This article discusses how a person’s worldview influences leadership; specific servant leader characteristics adapted from a biblical worldview; the need for emotional intelligence; and Jesus Christ as the ideal Servant Leader. The author includes a Workplace Questionnaire on Servant Leadership Qualities.
4. Does Geography Matter in Academic Hiring? (Chronicle.com) George C. Fant, Jr., dean of Arts & Sciences at Union University, asks if there is geographic snobbery in academia. He quotes a colleague:
“There is prejudice aplenty about candidates’ doctoral alma maters. An odd one is that you can move south and you can move west, but you will have a very difficult time moving north or east from your alma mater.”
Do you think there is geographic snobbery in academia?
5. The Power of a Thank You: Brian Croxall at ProfHacker.com suggests a simple way to expand your academic network: write a thank-you note. Specifically, thank someone who has written an article, essay, or book that you have found helpful.
We all know that the audience for academic publications is small, and one result of this is that you might never hear from anyone that has read something that may have taken you a better part of an academic year (or longer) to see into print. Writing to let them know that you enjoyed the piece is not only kind–something that we academics could spend some time working on in general–but also provides an opportunity to get to know someone new whose work is related to yours.
Have you tried this simple act?
Twitter: a tool for a new generation of academic conversation or Not? (Updated)
You might remember various Technology in Higher Education posts exploring:
“Creepy Treehouse”? Friending Your Professors or Students
New Technology and Academic Research
Who do you trust? Google and information gatheringWhat Tools Do You Use?
Should we not leave Twitter out as a tool for a new generation of academic conversation? A brief piece from The Chronicle of Higher Education reports on how Ed Techie, an education blogger, finds On Twitter, Academic Debates Fall Short. Note: Comments on the The Chronicle of Higher Education post, include suggestions for sharpening the use of Twitter for such excercises. Read all about it (and more) on Ed Techie’s blog.
What do you think of Twitter as a tool for educational conversation AND creating virality in education? Something you’d be interested in trying w/ESN?
Conference Rhythms
Last night as I packed for Following Christ 08, I reflected upon how conference preparation can suddenly turn from a marathon to a sprint. No doubt the race to the finish begins at different times for each of us based upon the complexity of travel plans, conference responsibilities, family size, past history at similar events, personality, support community/friends on site (and back home), etc. And varies from conference to conference, based upon the above factors and our current state of being (i.e., heart, soul, mind, and strength). Read the rest of this entry »
“Creepy Treehouse”? Friending Your Professors or Students
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?
Links of the Week
Christian Colleges Increase Diversity
Inside Higher Ed, citing an analysis from the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, notes that a number of colleges affiliated with ESN’s partner, the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, have seen a dramatic increase in African American enrollment.
At Montreat College, in North Carolina, undergraduate black student enrollment increased from 3.7 percent in 1997 to 23 percent in 2007, according to the analysis. At Belhaven College, in Mississippi, black student enrollment climbed from 16.9 to 41 percent. At LeTourneau University, in Texas, the figure grew from 5.7 to 22 percent.
The editor of JBHE notes the ties of many historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to churches (indeed, almost all American private colleges were founded with a connection to a church).
Graduate Junction
The Chronicle of Higher Education highlights Graduate Junction, a new website aimed that helping researchers connect with other researchers who share their same interests.
Advocacy in Teaching
In Christianity Today’s Books & Culture, Abram Van Engen reviews Stanley Fish’s new book, Save the World on Your Own Time, which argues that political advocacy has no place in the college classroom.
