Kelly in Kansas

It's the start of another week and I'm certainly glad daylight savings time is over. It was too dark too late in the morning. We're finally having some great fall days and I wore myself out working outside yesterday. We've had so much rain that there hasn't been the opportunity to make steady progress on the outside work. 

I spent two days at the Eisenhower Library last week. There were newly released documents (or at least critical parts of documents) and I also discovered a new big topic to investigate after I finish the current one. I'm actually pretty excited about given that I can do such a much better job this time around. I had taken teachers to the Ike Library a few years ago but otherwise it had been over a decade since I had researched there. But I was looking at some of the same collections with new and much more experienced eyes and felt much more efficient. This is the part of my job I've missed - doing my work and not scrambling to get material together for teachers that they sometimes use and sometimes don't. 

I'm headed to a national meeting and looking forward to engaging with colleagues from a variety of disciplines. I'll be in DC again in a month so there isn't the push to see and do everything in the evenings there normally is. I'm headed up early so that I can get out to Archives II to meet with the Assistant Archivist who was responsible for my appointment to the committee. I solicited his latest insight into the NARA move to a more comprehensive digital strategy and so I will navigate out to College Park and then get myself back. No rain is expected which always makes traversing walking and riding to the meetings and walking around in the evening. We were there for the election this time last year and I still remember waking up at 3 am to hear Katie Couric say that as Pennsylvania went, so did the rest of the country. It was amazing to be in DC that next morning - I hadn't thought about what great effort it would take to buy a newspaper announcing the election results. And, since we were near the capitol area, there was the post-election buzz in the air. 

The semester is on the downhill slide. Lots of grading awaiting me and managing some various personalities in both positive and less than positive ways. 

I'm using Facebook more for daily updates and to share but I'm not quite ready to let go of my version of reflective practice. I should be putting big project updates on that blog but I have to get a bit more organized. And I'll be learning Wordpress as a result of some of my service activities. 

Fall is definitely one of the best things about the academic life. And living in the Midwest. We had outstanding color this year despite what seemed to be the continual rain torrents. 

Labels: academic life, ACERA, DC, Eisenhower, Eisenhower Library, electronic records, ERA, Facebook, fall, Harry Truman, NARA, National Archives, Washington, WordPress

This semester really does seem to have gone faster than any other.

I am finding Facebook and Twitter more engaging than blogging given that I want to have interaction with others and not just talk to myself. This has been more the personal blog while my technology interests tend to end up on my Typepad blog. I've noticed some people integrating their blog/s with Facebook and Twitter so I will eventually end up doing that - or at least that's the most likely outcome of my personal tech integration.

I have almost consolidated my desktop and old laptop to my new dockable laptop. Still need to go back and get some "My Documents" that didn't make it over and get one login I didn't get written down. But I haven't unhooked the desktop totally so it shouldn't take too much. I am still surprised at how easily the cable internet router switched over to the new system. But I am still perplexed why, even after rebooting, the new Vista laptop appeared not to connect to the XP network yet when I went back to try to make it happen, I discovered I was indeed connected.

Outside the house, the Alltel broadband card is simply indispensable.

And I'm getting to know my Blackberry Storm. I jumped from a basic Motorola flip phone right to the top. I was simply too cheap to lay out $500 and then $400 and then $300 for a phone. But getting my parents the Blackberry Storm sold me and even though mine was about $200 since there were no family members to give a free one to.

It's the usual end of the semester grading and finals. I thought we were getting out early but it appears everyone else is out even earlier. Our summer activities start May 30 so I'm sure this summer will also go fast.

Labels: Blackberry Storm, Facebook, semester, Twitter, Vista

One the main reasons I've spent less time here, or at least less time lately, is the time I'm spending at Facebook instead. FB is obviously much more interactive even if, at times, it is TMI. I guess I know I am asking for the potential for TMI if I read someone's blog and I should accept that same premise about all of my friends all at once when I go to Facebook.

If you're a blogger, I'd be interested to know if you are also on Facebook and what your thoughts are.

It's put me in touch with some friends and classmates from the past. That's been both a good thing and, in at least one case, a somewhat scary thing. I have enough of scary with my a real life person in my own past to add to it with Facebook. It also may just be inherent to the exponentially 2.0 world of the internet today.

I was hoping to get more out of LinkedIn but that may be lacking due to the lack of ivory tower types there. But I do still see potential there.

And, of course, Facebook also provides yet another way to waste time online. I'll be interested to see if usage goes down during the warm weather months or if there is just most status updating via Blackberry instead.

Labels: Facebook

From the Chronicle of Higher Education:

Venting to her friends on Facebook one night, a religion professor at Dartmouth College updated her profile to say that she had just consulted an online encyclopedia entry on "modernity" to prepare for her class the next day.

"I feel like such a fraud," she wrote on her profile. "Do you think dartmouth parents would be upset about paying $40,000 a year for their children to go here if they knew that certain professors were looking up stuff on Wikipedia and asking for advice from their Facebook friends on the night before the lecture?"

Her profile featured other comments as well, including a dig at her colleagues: "Some day, when i am chair, we're all going to JOG IN PLACE throughout the meeting. this should knock out at least half of the faculty within 10 minutes (especially the blowhards) & then the meeting can be ended in a timely manner."

Ouch.

I arrived on Facebook courtesy of recent graduates who needed to keep in touch regarding teaching jobs and, quite possibly, because I was in their address book and they sent out "friend" invitations to everyone there, including old professors like me.

I've also experienced a student using the notes in Facebook as a "rate my professor" venting exercise even though he wasn't even my student but was just passing on what he had "heard". Another student brought it to my attention which meant action had to be taken - esp. when the student pointed out that this was embarrassing to everyone at the university, not just this student.

Most people of "my generation" are on Facebook to keep an eye on their teenage children and others become quite addicted when they find everyone they went to high school with. I found out the hard way that I don't want to know where everyone (all 232 of them) I went to high school with ended up. For me, it's been a less formal version of LinkedIn.

I actually prefer LinkedIn but no one seems to use it nearly as much as they do Facebook.

But I like the sharing features on other sites such as the New York Times that more commonly link to Facebook than to LinkedIn.

The primary rule that the author of this article didn't point out is that it's best to let your student friend you and not inappropriately friend them. And, even with graduate students I would advise caution given that that particular relationship can change in character over time - especially if the grad student gets distracted by their real life or doesn't pursue a research topic in the same way the professor would like them to do.

All in all, it pays to be cautious.

Labels: CHE, Facebook, Linked In, online networking, professors, students, Web 2.0

Here's something I'll share with students. It follows along advice in earlier years not to go to the liquor store in the town they are student teaching in. Yes, it will probably be some parent there that "reports" them to the school board but it's best not to push the envelope of community expectations at that stage of the game. It's just reality, folks.

And, I'm afraid, many of our students really do think Facebook and Myspace are private spaces just for their friends and "cute" members of the opposite sex. They are much more and only a window opening into the larger Web 2.0 world that connects us all.

Here's the Chronicle article:

Judge Sides With University Against Student-Teacher With 'Drunken Pirate' Photo
A federal judge has ruled against a former student who sued Millersville University of Pennsylvania for denying her a degree in education in connection with an online photo of her drinking, The Washington Post reported.

The former student, Stacy Snyder, sued Millersville in 2007. A year before, the nearby high school where Ms. Snyder was student-teaching had barred her from its campus days before the end of her semester-long assignment. Prior evaluations had criticized her competence and professionalism in the classroom, the legal decision says, but the school’s discovery of a photograph of Ms. Snyder on MySpace — with the caption “drunken pirate” and a note alluding to her strained relationship with her supervising teacher — precipitated the decision to end her assignment.

That prevented Millersville from awarding Ms. Snyder a bachelor’s degree in education. Instead, the university reclassified some academic credits and gave her a degree in English, a decision she appealed and lost. When she sued, alleging violations of her free-speech and due-process rights, she sought the degree in education.

Labels: Facebook, MySpace, student teaching, students

It's another beautiful day. We're getting some cool evenings and mornings - we thought maybe we had missed out those with it staying cold so long into the spring. But it looks like there will be some easy into summer heat. Given that fall and spring are my favorite seasons - but I really do like the best of all four seasons - this is good news.

Molly is getting more settled in. She's eating better and enjoying romping in her yard. I'm still getting used to the contrast of a male dog compelled to mark and a female dog who just takes care of business a few times a day.

I went out with a friend last night and had fun, including a trek to Target - always a dangerous thing for at least one credit card during each visit. I found Molly a new dog bed that is all her own. I will spread out Shadow's old ones for back-up and donate extras to the humane society. I'll also donate the dog "coats" that are too big for her to them. I did buy her one sale coat just so we have one on hand when needed. We go for utility more than cuteness and only put her in a coat when necessary. If all goes as planned, she will get her first bath tonight.

The yard is drying out a bit more but the city should be here this week to work on the dumped in area that is blocking drainage behind our houses.

Neighbor Mark was back yesterday to mow. He will continue to be missed even though he is just across town. My newer neighbor on the other side just bought a riding lawnmower - it's just too heavy to get much into my yard given the wet ground.

I have a bit of grading to finish up before the semester is done. My thesis workload has decreased given that a student chose to vent publicly on Facebook. Lessons learned for him.

I also have some grant reviewing to do but have through tomorrow to get that done and the agency understands that we've be in heavy school mode since they asked me to participate.

If all works as planned, Molly and I will be at the lake next weekend and visit with Uncle Bill when he comes through Springfield. His moving us away from Christmas makes the scheduling much more problematic for 5 adults.

Labels: dog adoption, Facebook, grades, grants, Molly, mowing, semester, students, yard

Apparently one of our students has started a Facebook group focused on how they hate climbing the stairs in our main building on campus that also houses my department. How do I tell them that these are the same students who drop each other off at the front door and drop each other off and pick each other up for class while complaining about the price of gas. A few semesters ago I had to explain to a student that their apartment is more expensive close to campus because the expectation is that you will save money on gas because you might walk to class. And, yes, we have the students who drive to a school parking lot that actually means they walk a further distance to class than from their apartment. . . . .

Labels: Facebook