I haven’t been shy over the years in criticizing the LMS. Students have consistently told me to stick with my website instead. Downside: they can’t see their grade up-to-the-minute. Upside: it’s organized to make it simple and easy to use. Plus all the stuff I’ve mentioned before (openness, availability outside semesters, etc.) Still, my critique … Read moreGiving the LMS a chance
The news about Evernote had been bad for a while, but when they raised their prices this summer, that was it for me. I don’t mind paying for services, but $70 a year is too steep. Plus, I’ve always had a problem with having my data scattered among lots of different platforms. Ideally, I’d like … Read moreAfter Evernote
Recently my dad came to visit, and he asked me questions about my job that made it clear he doesn’t really know what profs do. This isn’t exactly a surprise: my dad is a Frenchman who never finished high school (or more exactly, he never passed the baccalauréat). Really, why would he be familiar with … Read moreExplaining professoring to foreign parents
Last year I developed and taught a new LEGO-themed freshman seminar. Turns out I’ll be teaching it again this coming fall, so I have added motivation to take a critical look at successes and failures of my new course. While I don’t want to dwell on failures, fact is I made a big gamble in … Read moreLEGO FSEM redux
A couple years ago, when I started blogging, I reviewed a few apps I use to stay as paperless as possible. I think it’s time to revisit them: the technology has changed quite a bit since then and so have (some of) my habits. Some apps I’ve replaced altogether. For instance, I used to have … Read moreTime-proven faves
I’ve established before that I am an unapologetic early-adopter-fan-girl-nerd. I love new technotoys. Over the past few weeks, I’ve tested a couple, with surprising (for me) outcomes. Here’s my review of the first. I’ve been seeing the livescribe pen in class pretty regularly for at least a year now. When I saw it, I … Read moreIt’s not you, it’s me.
Snow day. Email server down. Flooding in the computer lab. Broken projector. Murphy’s Law is one of the realities of teaching. One time I completely lost my voice before an important class and had to lecture entirely without speaking. It took a custom-made presentation and lots of pantomime, but it worked. I can’t really teach … Read moreThe Importance of Padding
A few weeks ago, I got an email saying the Simpson Library will be culling its art-related collection (everything in the Ns), and went there to see which books I thought should stay. When I got there, I saw many more books with the “marked for culling” white slips than I had expected. I madly … Read moreHunting and gathering in the stacks
When the apple announcements dropped on Tuesday I was busy working with Martha Burtis. More specifically, I was watching her show off the incredible work she’s done with the surveying the burg site. I’d match it up against professional CRM apps any day, and will have more to say about it soon. Anyway, I missed … Read moreA fan girl’s two cents
I’m not exactly the patient type, so after last week’s rant I decided to do something about my cloud storage/filing conundrum. First, I needed to brainstorm, and lucky for me Ryan Brazell came over for dinner and very graciously let me bore him to death. Then, I looked at many, many reviews and finally pulled … Read moreImpatience and clouds