Lots of new lesson planning sites...

I've added a lot of new links for lesson planning resources to the Education Guide: http://guides.library.unlv.edu/content.php?pid=9423&sid=61979
The Education Guide is intended to support your teaching and your students, so please suggest additions that you think would be useful.

Teaching the academic essay as conversation

Having myself written a couple of articles about using conversation as a metaphor for the research process, I immediately jumped into this post by Dr. Kelli Marshall where she talks about her students' writing problems as a result of never having been taught that "they need to “enter a conversation,” using what other people say as a springboard for their own ideas/thesis." I couldn't agree more. Even if you're not familiar with the Burkean Parlor metaphor, experienced writers will recognize the need to read widely in order to write well. As Peter Elbow also addressed this conversational nature of academic writing when he said, “this is what we academics do: carry on an unending conversation not just with colleagues but with the dead and unborn” (1995, p. 79).

Access to publically funded research

In her Library Babel Fish blog post this morning, Barbara Fister points out the many disingenuous--actually self-serving and downright dishonest--remarks made in support of the current scholarly publishing system. She concludes, "I find these logic-defying arguments based on faulty reasoning, misrepresentation of how the process works, and appeals to anxiety about foreigners even more angering than the fact that in 2009 Elsevier made a billion dollars in profits with a tidy 35% profit margin. Wasn't that the very same year that saw enormous hardship in higher education, with layoffs, rising tuition, and libraries scrambling to manage huge budget cuts? What a weird coincidence.
But don't worry about it. There is no crisis. You whiners have plenty of access to information. All you have to do is buy it."

ProfHacker now aligned with CHE

The blog which discusses technology in teaching, ProfHacker, is now under the umbrella of the Chronicle of Higher Education blogs. This is from their post about the move...
"Today marks a new partnership between ProfHacker and the Chronicle of Higher Education. Since George and Jason founded the site, ProfHacker has focused on pedagogy, productivity, and technology, and the various ways these intersect in higher education. ... The Chronicle was interested in the idea of a site that looked at the practical side of academic life, and rather than starting one themselves, they offered to bring us on board."

New Blog link--CHE Campus Cuts

Not sure how long I will leave this blog linked (see right hand side of the page) but thought some might be interested to see what programs are being cut at other campuses.

Preserve YOUR copy rights!

Read this post on the Duke U. Scholarly Communications blog: http://library.duke.edu/blogs/scholcomm/
APA (American Psychological Association) is trying to charge authors for putting their NIH-funded work into into PubMed--as mandated by law. This is a good reminder that the creators of the content--you the faculty--are the only ones who can rein in such attempts by the publishers. If you need more information on how to negotiate maintenance of copyright for articles you want to publish, see the tips at the SPARC website.

Recommended education blogs

Nice article in Washington Post recommends a handful of education blogs on policy and practice. Well worth a look and you may find some blogs you want to monitor on a regular basis!

Book Whisperer Blog

Some of you may already read blogs. I try and am always behind but that doesn't stop me from adding more to read :-) I've sent out previous posts about this 6th grade teacher in Texas who converts the most reluctant (she says "dormant") readers into avid book junkies. She has her own blog now, if you're interested. Book Whisperer Blog. I love reading for myself and believe in the power of reading to help in so many ways--academically and personally. There was a really interesting article by Caleb Crain in the New Yorker recently about the rise and fall?? of reading. Reading has changed the brain over the centuries and more changes are on the way if we move away from reading.