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50 Ways to Increase Your Chances for an “A” Research Paper

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Educational uses of Social Networking and Microblogging

I recently gave a presentation to our faculty on the educational uses of Social Networking and Microblogging. Some faculty members had some experience dabbling in the various tools, but some were brand new to the ideas. I created a PowerPoint explaining:
Facebook.com
Linkedin.com
Myspace.com
Twitter.com

I shared some videos, and I found that this video on how a professor uses Twitter in the classroom was the most intriguing for faculty members.


I made the PowerPoint slides from my presentation available on SlideShare.

After the presentation, a faculty member approached me about collaborating next quarter in a project to get her students more involved in using Twitter for sharing links on a group project that will develop into a debate with two teams using different hashtags. I will keep you updated on the progress of this experiment.

*A special thanks to Cindy Bassett for sharing her experiences with presenting on Twitter to faculty. Twitter was a great tool for getting ideas on what educators need to know about social media.
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Jing

Are you using Jing? It's really easy and FREE. You can capture images or videos for tutorials. I was able to make this video. It was my first attempt. Then, I attempted practicing with sound.

I think this tool will be most useful in chat or email reference interviews when you reach a dead end. Usually, I take screen shots and create a word document guide for students. Then, I have to attach it via email. Now, if I am on chat reference (Meebo), I will be able to just paste the URL.Retweet this

Marketing Workshops - Follow up

I wrote a blog post in February that showed an image of the form that I use to determine which marketing strategies are attracting more students to my information literacy workshops.

The results are in. I tabulated the results of my May 14th "Clean Off Your Google Goggles" workshop. This shows how important faculty/librarian collaboration truly is! I am very grateful for my awesome faculty.

The question is "How did you find out about this workshop?"
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Visual Learners

We know that many of our students are visual learners. Here are some websites that are awesome for instruction purposes as well as suggestions for students outside of the classroom.







The Virtual Body is a great website to recommend for students taking classes in Anatomy and Physiology.








The Merriam-Webster Visual Dictionary is a dictionary that would be helpful for visual learners as well as ELL and ESL students.










Free audio and video at Learn Out Loud
We know that audio and video can spice up a lecture. This website has a lot to offer. I personally liked what was available in the Business and Economics section.



Check out these resources. Let me know what you think. Do you have other suggestions to add to this list?Retweet this

Plagiarism in the movies...

Students often view the topic of plagiarism as boring or intimidating.

I wanted to spice up my library instruction. So, last week before I taught my students about paraphrasing/summarizing/quoting and citation styles, I showed this video clip from Good Will Hunting. From watching this clip, I was able to get the students to make an emotional connection to plagiarism. We discussed which characters in this clip ended up looking foolish and unoriginal vs. very intelligent and able to integrate their own voice. We know that making emotional connections helps with memorization and information retrieval.


Do you have any suggestions for other video clips that could be shown on this topic?Retweet this

Holocaust Remembrance Day Resources

In honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day, here are some Holocaust resources that can be accessed through the Rasmussen College - Eagan Campus Library. Click on each image to find the call #.



Recommended websites on the Holocaust:
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Cybrary of the Holocaust: Remember.org
Memorial and Museum: Auschwitz-Birkenau
Anne Frank Center
Stories of Survival: Children of the Holocaust

I also just finished reading a great piece of historical fiction by Jenna Blum called Those Who Save Us. This item can be borrowed from the Rasmussen College - Aurora Campus Library.
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