Turning Off the Internet – Curious David in CARROLL LAND

Why Twitter is Rising in Importance in My Personal Learning Program

It’s my research day. I just helped Leo the Great Pyr onto his Central Bark Doggie Day Care bus

and had a team meeting with Lizzy and Alison, two of my student research assistants. Before I gave them research assignments, I shared with them my Christmas ritual of opening up Jacquie Lawson’s marvelous Advent Calendar App. Thank you, Jacquie, for giving us reasons to smile and be in awe.
While we are working I receive a Facebook communication (and feedback) that Katerina and Tim Miklos, now in England, enjoyed the wedding video that Alison produced with Imovie as one of her research projects with me on Tuesday. I hope in the near future to research and develop with my students global communication tools such as Skype by communicating with Katerina in England, Ben in Hungary, Maren in Madagascar, Andrew in Switzerland, and Hersonia in Mexico. Who else abroad is willing to help us learn together?
I’m monitoring my Twitter feed as I write this blog piece and find 10 ideas, resources, and thought-leaders worth following. The dross is outweighed by the nuggets as I refine my Twitter filters and make better use of Twitter applications. I still am not quite ready to explore Twitter Chats. Just because a technology learning tool HAS capabilities, doesn’t mean that I need them –or that I should change my teaching to accommodate them.
Thank you Teri Johnson and Jane Hart for firmly but gently nudging me into exploring the use of Twitter.
Here are 10 tweets that informed me or guided my personal learning today:

I see that Maria Konnikova has a new book out in January. She writes so well about psychology and pseudo science. I preorder the book and send her a brief note. Thank you, Maria, for your clear thinking, your lucid writing, and your thought-provoking ideas.
Alec Couros recommends a Ted Talk about “Where Good Ideas Come From.” If I can find time, I’ll take a look at that before teaching my research Seminar. Thank you, Alec, for the inspiration.
The indefatigable Richard Byrne alerts me to some free Technology Tools for Teachers.
While I am data mining resources from K-12 I take a quick glance at my Edutopia feed.
A colleague on LinkedIn suggests reposts an article about skills every young professional should have. I see value in sharing this with my advisees. Thank you, Rebecca!
I see a Mac 911 MacWorld piece about how to incorporate special characters into documents. I’ll need this as i try blog pieces in different language. I snag it (oops, gotta be careful. I own that App and I am starting to use my Dictation software as I write blogs).
Richard Kiker’s use of Paper.li motivates me to return to exploring its utility as a curating tool. I assign that protect to Arianna.
I am reminded and convinced that it is important that I incorporate thinking about climate change—and doing something about it into my life.
I take a quick look at a recent EverNote blog post since I continue to struggle with most best to master its features.
I glance at recent posts from LifeHacker—always fun to read and read one about how there just doesn’t seem to be enough time.

YIKES! Tempus fugit (or as Mrs. Bode, my Howland High School Latin teacher often punned, Time fidgets!)
Time to protect myself against Internet Distractions.

School Tools (Revisited): or Razing the Bars

I confess that I am addicted to buying office and school supplies and have been since I was a first-grader. With the beginning of classes imminent (and the deadline for Jane Hart’s top tools for learning survey on the horizon), it’s time to go to revisit my ~~school~~ toolbox. See Profhacker (and do a search for “tools”) for the preferred tools of younger and more digitally oriented colleagues.

Here are my top 10 tools NONTECHNOLOGY learning tools for razing the bars (homophone intended—in fact I toyed with the idea of writing this blog piece entirely in homophones AND publishing an audio version!)—i.e. for liberating the potential of students and of me from barriers that impede learning:

An assortment of number two pencils, plenty of erasers and some G2 bold thickness pens. (Yes, I COULD use a stylus with my Ipads).
An assortment of high lighters. Yes, I am aware of the research about the efficacy of highlighting for studying.
Moleskin-like notebooks. (Yes, I am aware of the online capabilities.)
Small legal pads at each of my desks at home and at school.
My Ipod nano and my Loksak splashsak fanny pack (like to listen to NPR and podcasts)
A Dymo label maker and an assortment of paper file folders.
A rolodex for keeping track of my myriad different web page and email logins
Printed copies of books. See my PsycCRITIQUES review “Lego ergo sum”.
Time protected against distractions, interruptions, and distractions. I prefer to use self-discipline to using electronic defenses against distractions.
My mind (whose thinking ability is always in need of sharpening). Fortunately I have frequent stimulating interactions with faculty colleagues, trustee friends, alumni, and students—and you, my non RSS reader.

Decluttering Revisited

I seem to return to certain topics—like reducing virtual desk top clutter. I am once again in the process of reviewing “applications”—I’ve installed (first on my Mac, then on my Ipads, then on my PC’s).I read a thoughtful piece in the New York Times this morning suggesting that the urge to declutter or the perceptions of succeeding in the task may be misguided.And I just ordered a copy of a revised Stephen Covey book to assist in my reordering my priorities.
I have a goal of reducing the 37-years of accumulated office clutter by pulling together all the institutional research have done the past 37 years (thank you former research assistants) and combining it with present data collection processes. however, I am amused and annoyed to discover how technology sometimes makes data acquisition more difficult.
Right now two of my student research assistants are helping me pull together a blog piece dedicated to the Carroll alumni I have known as students across the past 37 years. Take a peak at a work in progress.

Let me know if you’d like a picture of you from year’s gone by. I’ll trade you for one of me OR of you today.

Nifty Shades of Buzz-Transparently Attempting to Engage the Reader as I Move Forward with Rebranding:)

Three books that I have reread the past few years are George Orwell (Eric Blair)’s 1984 and Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson)’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There.

George Orwell fascinates me on a number of accounts—his mastery of language, his prescience, and his outlook about politics. While I was faculty president, I gave copies of his book to people as a reminder of the chilling threats and effects of totalitarianism and the dangers of doublespeak. Lewis Carroll, though more playful, also is masterful with language and with alerting us to the the dangers of when illogic becomes the norm and when language is misused and abused. I find my institution’s decisions a few year’s ago to redefine the word “department” in our Carroll argot and the changing of our name from “college” to “university” Humpty-Dumpty-like. And the “buzzwords” and evolving (sometime assaulting) lexicons creeping into our everyday discourse are painfully annoying, hinder communication and add many shades of gray to my beard. I am abuzz with buzzwords
Buzz:

hum
murmur
high
bombination
drone
purr
whirring
sibilation
hiss
whiz
sigh
rustle
sough
rumor
report
gossip
heresay
scuttlebut
scandal
small talk
chitchat
fizzle
sizzle
Look here for more here:

It is interesting how the “buzzwords” (e.g. transparency, branding, moving forward, engagement, buzz) have positive connotations for some professionals and create a need create a need for a swear jar or playing buzz word bingo for others.
Gotta buzz the dog outside before buzzing a friend to see if he wants to play buzzword bingo tomorrow. Or maybe I’ll buzz over to Melibee to read some of their wonderful posts about global issues and making the world a better place.

Stop the Internet—I want to get off!!!

Commencement 2014 was a month ago. I have already begun preparations for teaching in the Fall (how the years have flown by since February, 1978 when I taught my first class here).

From time to time I disconnect and disengage from my seemingly always being online and from focusing on productivity. Try it —-you may discover that you are more addicted than you think. Can you enjoy the twittering of the birds without thinking about this wonderful Twitter guide?:)

It is easier to so do during the summer, since I opt NOT to teach or to commit myself to grant work during that time. As author Naomi S. Baron acknowledges in her thoughtful book Always On: Language in an Online and Mobile World, one needs to be alert to the personal, cognitive, and social consequences of “24/7” connectivity.

Is Google making us “stoopid” (sic) or smarter? How can I ever find time to explore, evaluate, merge into my teaching the 2000 + learning tools which Jane Hart has alerted us to? I resolve these questions by stepping back, engaging in intense physical activity, reading widely, playing, and consulting the Newf!

Reducing Internet Distractions to Focus on the Writing Task at Hand

In response to my soliciting suggestions for improving my Experimental Social Psychology class last semester, one of my students suggested that …”if the class were to have many online assignments, I believe it would be extremely beneficially to teach students how to install software that temporarily restrains them from surfing distracting websites while studying. There are several free programs which can be easily set up in order to increase focus and productivity while completing online homework.” This got me reflecting on how the Internet has challenged my own ability to focus as I sit down tonight to read a book in preparation for reviewing it. Here’s where my distractions led me before setting down! Thanks for the suggestion AW!

Time to reflect upon all this and to read Howard Gardner and Katie Davis

The App Generation: How Today’s Youth Navigate Identity, Intimacy, and Imagination in a Digital World.