Measure Map

I decided to give Measure Map a try on my other blog Explorations in Learning, linking to my latest post "Experts in the Learning Profession." It is supposed to measure how many people visit your site, make a link to it, etc.
I've been able to see two visitors. Now with this post, I'll see if it records the links.

Slowing down for the summer

As this blog is for my classes and I will not be teaching during the summer, summer posting will occur at my blog Explorations in Learning.

Self-discipline better than IQ in achievement

David Munger, a research blogger who reports on cognitive research, has a recent article, "High IQ: Not as Good for You as You Thought", which reports on research by Angela Duckworth and Martin Seligman that shows that self-discipline is much more important than IQ in academic achievement. According to the study,

Most impressive was the whopping .67 correlation between self-discipline and final GPA, compared to a .32 correlation for IQ.

In other words, practice makes perfect, and the more one practices, the more perfect one becames.

That makes sense. We wouldn't expect an Olympic athlete to not put in lots of hours of practice and work-outs if s/he wanted to win a gold medal. Why would anyone think differently about academic achievement?

Oral presentations

Today in class, we covered the elements of oral presentations. For evaluation criteria, students came up with speaking, content, organization, presentation aids, thesis statement, creativity, and coherence. We then compared it to an article on Steve Jobs' presentation skills, "How to Wow 'Em Like Steve Jobs" by Camine Gallo in BusinessWeek Online. According to Gallo, what makes Jobs' presentations great are the following elements: Sell the Benefit; Practice, Practice, and More Practice; Keep it Visual; Exude passion, energy, and enthusiasm; and "And One More Thing ...". Obviously, there were some connections and some not-connections.

After comparing Jobs' style, we then looked at The Ten Commandments of Client Presentations. Three of the 10 commandments were Tell a Story, Don't Tell What it is, Show What it Means; and Be a Person. These three in particular reminded me of the summary on Steve Jobs' presentations.

When we think about how to apply these different perspectives to an academic presentation, it becomes more interesing. Research papers have a question/thesis, data collection methods, analysis/interpretation of the data, comparison with readings of research in that area, and then a conclusion. It seems that "Sell the benefit" would be related to the research question/thesis, and "Keep it visual" would connect to graphs and charts on one's data. But some of the other aspects take more imagination to connect. Hmm. Why?

Little things matter

Carlos Ghosn, the CEO of Nissan, believes little things matter (from Garr Reynolds of the Presentation Zen blog). Despite managing the huge company of Nissan, he has taken the time to learn how to use chopsticks in order to influence company employees. Rivas-Mcoud states:

"Holding chopsticks correctly was necessary if Ghosn hoped to make a good impression on Japanese subordinates and colleagues. The lesson reminded Ghosn of the importance of the tiniest facets of managing a company. You can not ignore them, just as you cannot ignore the proper way of holding chopsticks."

Garr Reynolds condenses key presentation points down to four items: 1. Show more passion. 2. End cookie-cutter design. 3. End confusion. 4. Think benefits not technology.

Annotated Bibliography

Just a few notes on the Annotated Bibliography to turn in on Monday. Mostly, you will simply copy and paste what you've already done at goodwriting.editme.com into a MS Word document so you can print it out and turn it in. That is, you will keep both the bibliography information and the paragraph(s) summarizing and responding to the article.

After that, you'll need to make sure that you have the correct format. Are you using APA, MLA, or another style? See what the journal requires. If you're not certain, visit or email me. According to the journal format you're using, it should be either alphabetical or perhaps numerical in order, which means that the summaries you have can't stay in the same order as they are at goodwriting.editme.com.

I took two examples from goodwriting.editme.com to post here. Notice that the two authors are in alphabetical order. The difference between here and in print is that you need to indent (tab) the second and third lines of the bibliography information. I wasn't quite sure how to do that on this blog, but it's easy in MS Word. Also, I had problems getting the font and font size the same for all the entries, but again, that's easy to do in MS Word.

Elias, P. (2005, August 18). Researchers Creating Life from Scratch. Retrieved February 2, 2005 from Breitbart.com Website: http//www.breitbart.com/news/2005/08/18/D8C2G7P01.html

Paul Elias, a biotechnology writer, calls synthetic biologist “bold” because of what they are claiming. Synthetic biologists believe to make living thing one molecule after another. They are mostly combining DNA’s chemical computers for a better future, which will be to make biologically based computers and an more improvement in medicine. That group of biologists, synthetic biologists, gathered together after 30 years of work from other scientists who tried to combine genetic materials of two species which was not successful. Synthetic biologists bring in a different approach that consist of using the same strategies in architecture and computerization. Synthetic Biologists have created a polio virus and another smaller virus. The world tiniest computer has been created in Israel by engineering DNA to carry out mathematical functions. The biological revolution has been a money attraction. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has donated millions in grant to the creation of a new malaria drug.

This article gives an overview of what synthetic biologists really do and what their intentions. It does show that they are determined to improve our world. The article gives information to those who are interested in synthetic biology, what the goals really are, and what is involved in their researches.

Hamburg, D (2006, February 22-28). Government Of, By and For the Pharmaceutical Industry. Retrieved
March 15,2006 from Santa Monica Mirror Online Web site: http://www.smmirror.com/MainPages/DisplayArticleDetails.asp?eid=2423

In this article, Dan Hamburg talks about another issue concerning the controversial issue: Thimerosal in Vaccines. Since Thimerosal has been added in vaccines, Autism has rose except for those who have been exempt because of religious reasons. While Autism has increased among children being vaccinated, it has not been among populations that do not get any vaccines. To prevent pharmaceutical companies from being sued, the President has passed a law prohibit parent from suing pharmaceutical companies for reasons such as Autism.

There is evidence that can definitely relate Thimerosal and Autism even though the relation between them has not been proved. The fact that Autism has not been found among people like the Amish should be used in order to prove that mercury in vaccines in harmful.

Using Citation

Citation, our bibliographic software, has been a little confusing, especially as we started in the middle of the semester. Plus, today, while wanting to use it through the projector for all to see, I learned it hadn't been yet integrated into the teacher's computer. The learning curve is a little steep, and the time remaining is more than a little short. So, I can't require that it be used. Still, if time is spent at home learning to use Citation, it will be worth it, as it can be used in other classes before graduation and perhaps even after.

Swales' Four Moves

According to John Swales, a professor of linguistics at The University of Michigan, all science journal articles mak four rhetorical moves in their introductions. These moves are designed to show to readers that the article is worth reading and that it has something new to say. These moves do not always occur in the same order, but they are always present. The four moves are:

1. Announce the topic and show its importance.
2. Review and summarize previous research pertinent to the topic.
3. Make a gap in the previous research, showing that it is incomplete in some way.
4. Introduce the author's present research as filling that gap.

The title of Graff and Birkenstein's book on argumentation condenses these four moves to just two: They say, I say.

Good blogging = Telling a good story

Chris Garrett of Performancing has a few paragraphs and pointers on good blogging as "telling a good story." Garrett notes that the 17 pointers need to consider the context and audience: For example, humor is not appropriate for all audiences. Some tips should always be considered, such as: "start with a good title."

Working memory

I was working with the bibliographic and research note software Citation about a month ago and found out how to use its research function to download bibliography information directly into my datafile. What a savings of time! Well, I was just trying it again and can't remember how I did it. I had to go back to the manual, and no wonder: it's just a copy and paste of the abstract information. It's not quite perfect, however. Perhaps, I need to review it a little more to better understand it. I can't imagine that the company wouldn't have figured this out yet. Even so, I do like the way it lets you add notes to your sources, search them, and so on.

Cute Overload

Cute Overload has lots of "cute" photos. They say:

At Cute Overload®, we scour the Web for only the finest in Cute Imagery™. Imagery that is Worth Your Internet Browsing Time. We offer an overwhelming amount of cuteness to fill your daily visual allowance. Drink it in!

Springdoo: talking emails

Springdoo is a way of adding voice to your emails. Basically, you record your voice to an online storage place, copy the site location, paste it into your email, and send it: Podcasting without the iPod. Distant grandparents will love it!

Online calendars

The number of online calendars is proliferating. I have a CalendarHub account and I'm also signed up at planzo.com. I like planzo because it also has a "To Do" feature that emails me every day if I want it to to remind me of what I want to do.

And yesterday I signed up for a 30 Boxes calendar. I have to say it is easy to use, and one outstanding feature is the ability to have "buddies" whose events can come to your calendar, and your events to theirs, that is, if you want to do that.

Richard Mamanus on ZDNet reviews these and other "best of breed" online products. He cites Thomas Hawk's review of 30 Boxes as the "Best... Calendar... EVER."

Blogging via Flock

Flock, a web browser with a built-in blog editor, has been updated. The editor lets you

drop in photos from the topbar, include Web quotes and links, and tag your post. When you're ready, click Publish, and your wisdom is transmitted to your readers.

Also, you can store web items on the Shelf:

The Shelf is a scrapbook where you can keep interesting URLs, pictures or text snippets from any web page. When you're ready to blog about them, you don't have to search--they're on the Shelf.

Anything you drag from the Shelf into a blog post is automatically formatted as a blockquote, with proper citation.

Flock makes blogging easy. It's still in beta, however, so be prepared to encounter a few bugs.

Blogging for beginners

Darren Rowse (ProBlogger via LifeHacker) is having a series of posts for new bloggers to better understand how to go about blogging. He says,

Over the next weeks I will be presenting an introduction to blogging that will help PreBloggers and NewBloggers unpack some of the basics of blogging.

The series is based largely upon the questions I regularly receive from newer bloggers.

By no means do I want to come across as the all knowing expert in this
series - I’m very aware of my own limitations as a blogger and strongly
believe that it is only collectively as a group that we really know
anything. As a result I’d encourage everyone (beginners or old hands)
to see each post in this series as an invitation to share what you know
on the topics we cover. As we all contribute what we know I’m confident
that we’ll all learn and create a useful resource for bloggers starting
out.

Ants and teaching

John Roach in the article "Ants have teacher-pupil relations, researchers report" (National Geographic News) reports on the research of Nigel Franks and Tom Richardson, biologists at the University of Bristol in Britain, who assert that at least one species of ants have teacher-student relationships. Ants of the species Temnothorax albipennis teach other ants how to find where food is in a method called tandem running, a method in which one ant goes slowly so another ant can follow and find the food place. Franks and Richardson define a teacher as one that “modifies its behavior in the presence of a naïve observer, at some initial cost to itself, in order to set an example so that the other individual can learn more quickly.” According to these researchers, because the lead ant is “sacrificing” by not going as fast as possible, it is teaching.

Not all agree that tandem running is an example of teaching. Marc Hauser, director of the Cognitive Evolution Lab at Harvard University, believes that information is being acquired but not a skill, so it’s an example of communication not teaching. Franks and Richards disagree, saying that, although the ants gain information, they are also learning how to find the location of the food, which they apparently consider to be a skill.

Research book notes

I like the research book's emphasis that research is not just collecting information, but rather it must include the interpretation of data, and I like the notion that it begins with a question or problem. There's a nice checklist at the end of Chapter 1 (pp. 13-14) for questions to ask when evaluating research in a journal article or elsewhere.

At the end of Chapter 1 is also a set of guidelines for keeping a research journal. This is similar to the summary/comments on articles that you did last week. One difference is that it has you determine "keywords that capture the focus of the article." That's a good idea as it not only helps you understand the essence of the article, but it will also help you later when you conduct searches for articles.

Chapter 2 has a good checklist for defining and setting up your research problem (pp. 23-24) and another good checklist for evaluating your research plan (pp. 33-34). Usually when we use guidelines like these, we end up with a much better idea of what we need to do for our research.

Finding photos

Most photos on the Internet are copyrighted and cannot be used without permission. One place to find photos you can use is Flickr's Creative Commons, where you use the photos as long as you give credit to the owner. Another place is Yotophoto. Yotophoto has both creative commons photos and also public domain photos, for which credit need not be given.

Blogs in disciplines

In looking for topics for research, blogs may be a good resource. Go to Google's blogsearch and type in the word of your major or discipline, along with the word "blog" and see what you can find. For those interested in science, I found a group of blogs at ScienceBlogs.

Text-messaging

Charles McGrath, a writer for The New York Times, in his article "The Pleasures of the Text" covers the nature of text-messaging, giving examples of how users achieve efficiency and style, and he writes about its greater use outside of the U.S. Moreover, he argues that text-messaging is

a kind of avoidance mechanism that preserves the feeling of communication - the immediacy - without, for the most part, the burden of actual intimacy or substance.

That is, text-messaging lets people feel that they are connecting to others without actually doing it.

The article is short but informative. The claim about avoiding intimacy and substance is interesting. Is this a byproduct or a subconscious desire? Is it even an accurate description? I can imagine that when one is constantly text-messaging, not much is new, and so not much is of substance. In fact, when I ask my 6-year-old son what he did in school today, he almost always says, "I don't know." Is he avoiding intimacy? Certainly not when he climbs all over me, trying to get my attention. Similary, when someone asks me what is new, I generally respond, "Not much." Rather than an avoidance of intimacy, I imagine it's simply the reality of much being the same. Yet people ask the same questions every day as a matter of keeping social contact. It's not clear why text-messaging should be considered different from normal conversations.