EduLinks

EduLinks – New Media, Web 2.0…oh, and some kitchen aid

Time for another set of EduLinks. Happy reading!

EduLinkz

Scientific American Blog – Online vs. print reading

Talking of reading, it makes a difference how you consume the text. Online reading can be very different to taking in the printed word.

New Scientist – Don’t believe everything you read online

New Scientist raises a good point about using the Internet for research and education. Even books can print mistakes, but anything can be published on the Internet, so there’s a greater chance that what you read isn’t necessarily correct. Funnily enough, someone has commented on the New Scientist website that even the article isn’t quite right…and that got published in the magazine. Consider it a warning when you research…It’s enough to make anyone’s head hurt.

Obama’s Inauguration

It’s all happening today. If you want to follow Obama’s Inauguration in Web 2.0 fashion, Intute have some of the lowdown in a few posts. There’s a lot going on…

SFGate – Kitchen techniques you need to learn

What a fantastic resource. Text, videos, easy to follow guidelines. This set of 10 techniques has it all. From dicing an onion to rolling out pie crust, from making a pan sauce to making vinaigrette. There are even some recipes at the end. It’ll make life in the kitchen a lot easier. Thanks to Ben Casnocha, as I found this link through his Delicious bookmarks feed.

Knowledge @ Emory – The art of making quality decisions

We’re not so independent as we’d like to make out. The way we perceive data can heavily influence our decision making.

To make matters even more confusing, your friends, your friends’ friends, and your friends’ friends’ friends can affect your mood and your subsequent actions and decisions.

Be careful!

Daniel Tammet – Autistic Savant:

Daniel Tammet shares some of his methods for learning. It provides an insight on how the mind can work and associate. Some people have commented that the methods aren’t necessarily suitable for everyone, but I did enjoy reading how Daniel interacts with information.

BPS Research Digest – Slumber quality important for learning

Getting a good night’s sleep isn’t top of the list of priorities for most students. Getting enough (whatever ‘enough’ means) is all that usually matters. But quality sleep does matter, as a recent report suggests. The British Psychological Society Research Digest Blog has more info. Are you willing to risk having a bad night’s sleep?

Happy 800th Birthday Cambridge!

Bless! You don’t look a day over 200…

Music Ally – Future of music – Nine Inch Nails

Chances are you’re happy to download some of your music illegally. Some of you may not even own any CDs. I’m sure some of you may not even realise what you’re doing isn’t allowed. And even that’s a grey area! Confusing, eh? Times have changed and not everyone has embraced the changes. The band Nine Inch Nails seem to have welcomed the changes and still made loads of money despite making their music freely available. While other bands (most famously Radiohead) have done this type of thing in the recent past, it looks like Nine Inch Nails took the game to a whole new level.

How To Say I Love You (YouTube video)

Congratulations to Hayley Stuart and Francesca Sophia at Manchester Metropolitan University for their short film that’s getting millions of views on YouTube.

“How To Say I Love You” has received well over 1.5 million views and over 6,000 comments online. According to YouTube, Hayley and Francesca have the fifth most viewed videos this month and are in the Top 100 most subscribed directors of all time. That’s pretty good going. Keep up the great work!

The Independent – Student Accommodation: The Answers

Sorting out accommodation both on and off campus is sometimes easy, other times a nightmare. The Independent helpfully eases you into the process and answers some common questions from students around the country.

Jennifr – There is more to New Media than Facebook

Jay Jay rightly points out that Facebook alone is not enough for organising events and creating complete connections. True clarity and organisation can only be achieved by using a broader range of tools.

Facebook is just a tool, like all the other social network services and new media functions. Using a combination of these tools effectively allows the best results. Jay Jay demonstrates her mastering of MSPaint (don’t mess with her, I warn you) and shows us the use of a ‘Hub’ to connect people properly. Now we need to find a way of aggregating the data properly and getting everyone to use all the services in a happy hub.

Two-year degrees: Will they catch on?

A degree doesn’t have to be a strict three-year affair. There are part-time courses, distance learning possibilities, work-placement years, and all manner of choices to get you working in a way that fits your lifestyle.

Photo by badboy69

The latest trend is with two-year degrees. Why spend three years doing what you can complete in two? It’s the same amount of work, but in a shorter space of time. You therefore need to be determined, enthusiastic, ambitious, and happy to ignore certain aspects of the social side attributed to university.

That’s not to say you’d be working 24/7, but the focus is automatically greater than the three year equivalent.

So what are the pros and cons? If you’re not already at uni, are you thinking that a two year course will suit you much better? Here are some of the things to think about:

POSITIVE

Potential to cost less – While it may not automatically work this way (i.e. check with the institution!), you may only need to pay about two-thirds of the price a standard 3-year degree would cost.
You finish more quickly – experience university AND get to work soon? Best of both worlds.
Less wasted time – The focus on blasting through the work in a third less time means that you won’t find huge chunks of time where you’re at a loose end. It’s nice to have free time, but it can work to our detriment if we have too much. You may find yourself taking longer than needed on tasks simply in order to fit the timescale.
Shows enthusiasm – Unless 2 year degree courses become a more popular norm, any employer should be impressed that you completed your study a year less than most people do. And if you incorporate your positive reasons behind wanting to complete in 2 years, it should look even more promising to prospective employers.

NEGATIVE

Less social time – Maybe you don’t find loose ends. Perhaps you thrive on the social life instead. With a 2 year degree, your timetable won’t have as much free time as those of other students on the standard 3 year fare.
You finish more quickly – Just as negative as it is positive. What if you love the university experience? Will you start questioning whether you really did want to fast track your way into the big bad world?
Less flexibility for part-time employment – Uni may be costing less over the whole time, but if you need to hold a job down to stay in education, a 2 year course may not work out. Working greater hours on your study gives you less time to do anything else.
At odds with the majority of students (for now, that is) – If you’re looking for the standard ‘student experience’, you’re best off taking a course that follows the usual path of 3 years (or sometimes 4 years). But with so many 18 year olds entering HE (and potentially more if the school leaving age goes up to 18), a ‘standard’ path won’t work for everyone. So while this point isn’t all negative, it is something you need to consider carefully when summing up the reasons WHY you want to go to university.
More difficulty getting tutor contact – Some tutors are hard to get hold of throughout a traditional three year course. With less time to waste, the issue of contact is even more important, so certain tutors may cause you to pull your hair out. Check my 6-point checklist for better feedback if you don’t get the communication you’re looking for.

The Independent has a piece on two-year degrees, including the differing opinions out there. A good read if you’re considering the option.

Can you think of any other reasons why two-year degrees may or may not be a good thing? Let me know in the comments!

EduLinks – Bad Habits, Problem Solving, Social Media…Oh, and an Election

Time for another dose of EduLinks. Happy weekend reading.

President-Elect Obama:

I hear there’s been an election in the US. That was kept quiet…

Justin Wise writes at Brazen Careerist that Obama “mobilized younger voters to actually show up at the polls”. Now Obama is in, a lot of young adults are very hopeful of what’s to come. As the Chronicle shows, online social media continues to give a hearty shout out of support to Obama. Here’s to the future!

Joongel – Internet Search Portal

This is one of the better search collaboration sites I’ve come across. It’s not perfect, but as a basic research tool, it goes miles further than Google alone. I stress the word ‘basic’ though, because it’s not an academic search portal. Good for most stuff, though. It goes through a wealth of sites, with the following categories:

Images; Music; Videos; Shopping; Social; Q&A; Health; Torrents; Gossip; Cooking; Analytics; Local; Finance; Jobs; Property; Dictionary; Reference; News; Family; Movies; Blogs; Tech; General

Bear in mind that Joongel is currently focused on the US, so some categories won’t be much use in the UK (such as Jobs, Local, Shopping, etc.). Joongel say that they are working on collaborations around the world, so it may not be long before a UK version crops up. Fingers crossed.

Zen Habits – The 7 Keys to Turning Bad Habits Into Good Habits

We usually know when we’ve got a bad habit. The problem is getting away from them. There may come a time when you want to try snapping out of unhelpful habitual routines. When that time comes along, let Zen Habits help ease you into a much happier way of life.

Leo explains, even if you slip up once, then twice, then seven time…don’t give up! He speaks from experience too.

Bangor TV @ University of Bangor

It may not be interactive, but Bangor TV is a growing set of videos to whet the appetite of prospective students to the university. I hope the output also boosts the engagement of current students and perhaps even allow them to give honest accounts of life at Bangor.

No university can offer 100% delight and it’s great for prospective students to hear from like-minded people already living a uni lifestyle, so I hope the UK can one day see their own version of Unigo, which is proving successful in the US.

Litemind – Einstein’s Secret to Amazing Problem Solving (and 10 Specific Ways You Can Use It)

If you can clearly define the problem, the solution is in easy reach. The key to solving a problem seems to be to enjoy the problem. Luciano has done a great job in highlighting ten problem-solving techniques that we’d all be wise to keep in mind when trying to figure out what’s going on.

Converstations – Social Media Success Plan for Beginners: 6 Hours for 6 Weeks

It doesn’t take long to move beyond Facebook and add a whole new dimension to your online being. Mike at Converstations urges you to spend six hours for six weeks, building up a blogging, reading, twittering, social media machine. It’s definitely worth it. And I suggest you read the comments too. For instance, Mike adds that a person who is bright-eyed and open-minded about social media should start on blogging, but a closed-minded and doubtful person should begin their quest with RSS feed reading.

Twitter How-to Links:

I use Twitter a bit. On and off. Not as much as I probably should. Nevertheless, Twitter is a great tool and it’s growing in popularity. If you’ve heard of it, but haven’t got as far as jumping in and joining the 140-character message bandwagon, these links make the process as simple as possible. You can follow me at http://twitter.com/universityboy/ and see if I get any better at posting!

TheUniversityBlog a year ago – November 2007

Essays, teamwork, spelling and study mistakes. They all had a place a year ago on TheUniversityBlog. Here’s my pick of the highlights from November 2007:

10 Commonly Misspelled Words & My Mad Memory Techniques

I have some strange ways of remembering how to spell certain words. Still, I hope they help someone else out there!

Why Your Essay Is Still Useful & Important After Handing It In

You (should have) put a lot of work in that last essay. Rather than file the paper away, never to be seen again, why not get some more use from it? Make your hard work go a bit further.

jump (photo by gozdeo)

Rehaul Your Standard University Day

You need to take control of your life at university. Nobody else is going to do it for you. Among the nuggets of advice here is, “Don’t attempt to do everything”. While I only make a brief plea to enjoy a limited schedule, it looks like Cal over at Study Hacks is writing a whole book on the matter. Good man!

Working With Others: Turning a ‘Group’ Into a Grade Winning ‘Team’

A lengthy article here. Essentially, it’s a two-parter that first concentrates on the selection of a team, then goes on to explain how it can shine. If you’re due for any groupwork soon, read this and move up a gear to ‘teamwork’.

Study traps short series:

We all make mistakes. Sometimes we don’t even realise we’re making them. Are you doing any of the things mentioned in these articles?

Girl in suitcase (photo by MaxMilli0n)