Robin's Blog

  Image Source: The Times Higher Education The common thread of the three articles I picked under "college" is that college admissions staff are checking applicants' social media.  While the three articles disagree with the exact percentage of colleges that check social media, the lowest percentage of 25% is still significant.  The idea is that colleges want to get a more clear idea about the applicants and what impact those applicants would have on the school if they are accepted.  Since schools operate on reputation, it does make sense that a school would want to make sure that an applicant is a good fit.  Anything that student does or has done will come back as that person being a student or member of the alumni of University X. In general, college age students and those individuals who soon will be on their way to college are comfortable with posting their lives online for everyone to see.  Well, when it comes to college, this type of activity might not...

  Image Source: Capita Digital tattoo is so much more of a fitting term than digital footprint.  The term tattoo gives the feeling of permanency as compared to a footprint that can be wiped or washed away.  While I have tried to limit the size of my digital tattoo, I know there is still one there.  My caution about what I post online started when I was working for the federal government overseas, and today, it is because I have been fighting identity theft this year.  So much information can be found online now making identity theft fairly easy. For this post, I checked my name on seven different websites that either I use now or have used.  I decided to start with LinkedIn because I closed my account several years ago because the website was hacked, and my information was stolen.  I was curious to see what would pull up.  I am happy to say that nothing for me pulled up.   Google was the next site I picked because, well, we use Google fo...

                                              Image Source: Photomorphic PTE Ltd Whether it is mentoring, coaching, networking, or just picking someone's brain at lunchtime, being able to talk with someone about your professional development and improving your work performance is very important.  Picking the right mentor or coach and having targeted networking can really improve performance and development.  One thing that is essential, specifically with networking, is to target the right person to network with.  For example,  I plan on changing careers to work in a library or an archive.  I plan on targeting my networking to individuals in those fields since they can provide the best advice and guidance.  While I love baking, networking with a baker is not going to help with my career change. Networking does not have to be ...

  Image Source: Audioeye When I think about how assistive technology can help people, Stephen Hawking comes to mind.  Even though he had physical limitations due to ALS, he was able to communicate, to do research, to write, and to continue his life through assistive technology.  Through muscle and eye movements, Hawking was able to operate the computer that was attached to his wheelchair.   While Hawking's computer and wheelchair were very advanced and, most likely, very costly, as a general rule assistive technology does not have to be expensive to in order to be of service to someone. It is very impressive how computers now have built-in accessibility features.  I have a MacBook Air that I purchased in 2015.  Even though my laptop is nearly nine years old, updates that allowed current accessibility tools to be added.  Apple has made it easy to access these tools.  Below is a chart outlining the accessibility features that are found on the M...

                                       Image Source: Great Ormond Street Hospital   Peter Pan  isn't necessarily the first thing someone thinks of when considering copyright and fair use, but the book is an excellent example of copyright use.  Author J.M. Barrie gifted the rights to the book Peter Pan to the Great Ormond Street Hospital, which is a children's hospital in England, in 1929.  Royalties from the book helped to fund the hospital and its work.  In the UK, the copyright expired 1987, but British Parliament passed a law stating that all royalties from any production or publishing of Peter Pan,  be it the book, play, audio recording, etc. would go to the hospital for eternity.  This is quite a unique situation since in most circumstances there are time limits on copyrights. While in the UK, the Great Ormond Street Hospital, has the...

  Image Source: View Sonic  For this week, I read the blog post "The American Revolution…It’s Like We Were There!"   I think this project is an excellent example of active learning.  The teacher for this project used many types of activities to involve her students.  First, the classroom was decorated with photos and posters about events and individuals from the American Revolution.  Students were able to see and read these items every day in their classrooms.  Second, students learned to use PicCollage and were able to add themselves into some very famous portraits.  Third, through the use of AudioBoom (a podcast service), students were able to listen to various readings including the reading of the Declaration of Independence.  Students not only learned about the American Revolution, but they also learned some new technology skills. If it is at all possible, teachers should use active learning in their lessons.  Active learning he...