Home » EdTEch: Educational Technology (Page 4)

Category Archives: EdTEch: Educational Technology

Education and Technology meet both in and out of the classroom and library/information commons.

12 Ways to Make a Great Impression at Work

Posted on by | Leave a comment

By Dennis McCafferty  |  Posted 2015-11-26

It takes more than technical wizardry to emerge as a standout success at work. Unfortunately, many professionals lack the soft skills—including dedication, leadership, motivation, team spirit, etc.—that are essential to get ahead. Indeed, nearly one-fifth of managers cite a lack of these skills as a key reason for not hiring job candidates. With that in mind, we present the following 12 ways to make a great impression. They were adapted from the recent book, You Did What?! The Biggest Mistakes Professionals Make (Career Press/available now). In the book, authors Kim Zoller and Kerry Preston cover everything from written and verbal communications to networking etiquette to meeting decorum to handshakes. Taken individually, you may conclude that these practices aren’t really a big deal. However, when you incorporate each one into your routine, you elevate your professional presence and position yourself for career advancement. Zoller is president and founder of Image Dynamics, a professional development consultancy. Preston is a leadership, communications, strategic planning and time management consultant. –

See more at: http://www.baselinemag.com/careers/slideshows/12-ways-to-make-a-great-impression-at-work.html#sthash.fBgE3sIn.dpufgreatimpresswork_0a

Super Searcher Tips – Computers in Libraries

Posted on by | Leave a comment
Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

Left Behind by the EdTech Surge | From The Bell Tower by Steven Bell

Posted on by | Leave a comment
By on February 19, 2014 Leave a Comment

steven bell newswire Left Behind by the EdTech Surge | From The Bell TowerThere’s loads of activity happening in the world of educational technology. New startups. Dozens of websites for managing learning activities. Apps by the dozens. Academic librarians seem out of the loop.

A few months ago I subscribed to the weekly email newsletter from an organization called EdSurge. It’s subtitled “a weekly newsletter for innovators in education.” Depending on you how you feel about the phrase “innovators in education,” you may be thinking that’s exactly who you are—or maybe you’ve had your fill of innovation talk. While EdSurge does dedicate about half of each issue to the K-12 startup scene, there’s also reporting on the latest educational technology resources and utilities. Some of these are startup websites that may or may not be here for long. What it reveals is a veritable flood of new educational technologies. It leads me to question if academic librarian educators are managing to keep up with all these new resources. Are we taking time to investigate and explore these new tools or are we falling back on our old familiar standbys? Based on some time I spent listening to an instructional technology discussion at ALA Midwinter, I think it might be the latter rather than the former.

Some Old Wine

Admittedly, some of these new instructional technologies are simply variants, or even outright replications, of existing educational technologies. Coggle, for example, is hardly the first web-based mind-mapping tool, but it claims to add new collaborative sharing capabilities.  Some replication is expected, because it’s well known in the startup world that the trick is not always being first to the market but being the product in the marketplace that catches on with users (think MySpace and Facebook). However, that strategy is no surefire path to success. Right now a slew of imitators are trying to move into Snapchat’s space, but so far the original is still number one with the user community. Still, while discovering some truly original utilities takes a bit of work, checking out newcomers to an old space may lead to a great new find with better options or performance (think screencasting utilities).

Read more…

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

15 Apps to Make You an Awesome Intern

Posted on by | Leave a comment

15 Apps to Make You an Awesome Intern

Posted on September 4, 2013 by Inside Jobs

Apps for InternsWant to be the best intern, ever? There’s an app for that.

Technically, there are tons of apps to keep you organized, sharp, and constantly learning—everything you need to impress your new boss. And all most all of them are free!

So, grab your smartphone and start using it for exactly what it was meant to do– to help you become an awesome intern!

Get Organized

1. Evernote (Cost: Free)
Evernote is a great way to remember all those important ideas (and instructions!) you can’t afford to forget. Stay on top of your internship duties with notes, snapshots, and recorded voice reminders.

2. Workflowy (Free)
Love making a list and crossing things off? This streamlined app is for you. With hashtags, filters, and great search functionality, Workflowy helps you create the world’s coolest To-Do list.
3. Remember the Milk (Free)
Organize and prioritize your internship tasks with Remember the Milk—or, in your case, Remember the 1,000 Things You Need To Do Before Wednesday. You can set due dates, add notes, postpone or repeat tasks, and even print relevant checklists. Read more…

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

Designing Better Libraries » Shifting Too Far To The Experience

Posted on by | Leave a comment
[Designing Better Libraries is a blog about design thinking and how it applies to library settings. The goal of this blog is to provide information, news and ideas that librarians can use to design a great library user experience for their communities. Among the topics we’ll be covering are instructional design, innovation, technology design, and the application of new media to design – and of course – design thinking.]

On a recent visit to the new Hunt Library at the Centennial Campus of the North Carolina State University, I observed an unusual sight – for most libraries that is. A group of individuals, they might have been prospective students and their parents or perhaps just a group participating in some summer workshop, was highly immersed in a rather unique library experience. They were learning about and watching a demonstration of the Library’s robotic Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS), and rather enjoying how the Bookbot’s robot arm moved crates of books to and fro. The visitors were clearly immersed in this particular library experience. With a glass wall through which it could all be observed, the building’s designers clearly intended for this spectacle to catch the attention of all those entering the library. While it delivered a unique experience, did it motivate anyone in the crowd to search the catalog or move on to the stacks to find a book of their own? Or did they simply move on to the next destination point the way one might if touring the White House or Hoover Dam?

The question of the extent to which we should be re-thinking and re-designing the library experience as both immersive and interactive was the subject of an essay questioning similar work in the world of art museums. The author, Judith H. Dobrzynski, asks if it shouldn’t be enough to just view the artwork by yourself or with other people and obtain enjoyment or satisfaction from being exposed to great art. Why does it have to be embellished by some sort of artificially attached experience? She writes:

For decades, museums have offered social experiences — the fact that you can talk while you’re in the galleries has always given them an edge over the performing arts — and that is good. Now is the balance shifting too far to the experience? Are they losing what makes them unique? Should museums really follow the path of those “experience” businesses…In this kind of world, the thrill of standing before art — except perhaps for works by boldface-name artists like van Gogh, Vermeer, Monet and Picasso — seems not quite exciting enough for most people. What’s a museum to do? Read more….

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta