Book Review – Page 2 – techKNOWtools

#phdchat, Book Review, Higher Education, PhD

I’m “On the [Job] Market”: The Application Process

November 12, 2013 Laura Pasquini

As academic job postings and other employment opportunities are becoming available, I decided it was time to prepare my own application materials and announce that I’m ON THE JOB MARKET. It should be no surprise to many as I am ABD (not a title), and I have been diligently working on my dissertation— so there is really no better time for a job search.

I’ll be honest. I’m quite accustomed to the thrill of the job hunt (I am in my 3rd position of employment, since I have moved to Texas 5 years ago); however the academic job search has upped the ante. My future career planning involves a potential re-location (either in the US or abroad) and new career beginnings (either as a junior faculty member, research or other), which means this job search and application process is being treated like a job itself.

To prepare for my job search and career planning…

I have been talking to many researchers in the field, administrators in higher education, companies who seek my support, current faculty (off and on campus), mentors, and peers over the past year [Thank you for these discussions and talks – you know who you are]. More than not, many are quite open to offer advice, share professional experiences, edit my application materials, provide a reference, or send potential job postings my way (hint, hint). In my spare time, I have been reading Barnes’ (2007) “On the Market: Strategies for a Successful Academic Job Search,” specifically, Chapter 4: The Application Process. This section of the book includes great questions to ask and think about before the application process, and examples of deciphering what academic job postings mean to decide what I want. Here are some current, pre-application questions I am currently pondering:

What type of position am I most interested in?
What sort of institution or organization do I want to work for?
Where do I want to live?
Do I want to apply for administrative or faculty track positions?
Who will write my reference letters?
Will my academic search focus on research or teaching institutions?
What is my best academic “fit” for department?
Do I want to look beyond higher education & academia?
Who will I connect to discussion the application process?
What is my timeline and schedule for applications?
How will I best organize a joint career search with my partner in crime?

Fortunately, most of my academic application requirements are “works in progress” from my doctoral program and portfolio requirements (Thanks #untLT department!) these past few years. My current objectives are to edit and prepare materials I have for my academic job search and application, including:

Cover Letter
Curriculum Vita
Letters of Recommendation
Writing Samples and Other Supporting Documents
Teaching Portfolio (Dossier)
Social Media Spaces & Places
Application Schedule – to track applications & submissions

This chapter also includes helpful templates for CV’s and cover letter formats. I plan on re-tooling and modifying my current application materials based on position type and job description, so a review of these examples were helpful. Here are a few suggestions for cover letter writing items to include – 17 elements for the academic cover letter:

Do you have academic job search advice? Tips on the application process? Considerations for the academic research and faculty positions? Potential openings I might be interested at your institution? Let me know. Academic job search advice is welcome.

Reference:

Barnes, S. L. (2007). On the market: Strategies for a successful academic job search. Lynne Rienner Publishers.

Book Review

#BookReview – Brain Gain: Technology and the Quest for Digital Wisdom

September 17, 2012August 12, 2019 Laura Pasquini

A late add to my #summerreading list was Marc Prensky’s Brain Gain: Technology and the Quest for Digital Wisdom. With the start of the semester underway, I finally found some time to review this book.

The premise of Prensky’s new book looks at how technology is changing and enhancing our minds with digital wisdom:

“Human culture and context is exponentially change for almost everyone. To adapt to and thrive in that context, we all need to extend our abilities. Today’s technology is making this happen, and it is extending and ‘liberating’ our minds in many helpful and valuable ways. Our technology will continue to make us freer and better — but only if we develop and use it wisely” (Prensky, 2012, p. 2).

Prensky shares how technology will “change our minds” to learn new things and produce new thoughts. With our gadgets and technological capabilities, we are able to extend our minds, heighten our cognitive surplus, increase our thinking powers and improve our thought process and concentration. As Albert Einstein stated “a new type of thinking is essential if mankind [and womankind] is to survive and move to higher levels” (Prensky, 2012, p. 35). It might be time to outsource some of our brains limitations, including memory, storage, accuracy, complexity and prediction, to a technological source. Prensky believes that by using technology we have an advantage to be “better thinkers who make wiser decisions and choices” (2012, p. 52). Much of our decision-making can come from the symbiosis of the mind and technology.

Although technology is often viewed in a negative light, this book identifies ways we enhance our “digital wisdom” via technology. Prensky defines wisdom as “the ability to find practical, creative, contextually appropriate and emotionally satisfying solutions to complicated human problems” (2012, p. 45). In contemplating the arguments against this idea of being wise with technology, the author introduces several fallacies, including:

“Human” as Being Special and Always Better
“Genuine”
Longer Always Being Better
Privacy Always Being Better
Depth and Always Being Better
Slower Being Better
“One Thing at a Time” Being Better
“Brain Science” Providing All , or Even Enough, Answers
Relying on “Tried and True” Solutions in New Contexts
“Reflection” Being Slow
“Expertise” Meaning “Knowledge and Analysis of Data” and of Expertise Coming Only from Professionals
Short Attention Spans
“Limited Capacity” and the Need for In-Person/Online Trade-offs
The “Cultural Now”
“Wisdom” as Coming Only from Humans

Throughout this book (especially in Chapter Three) there are a number of examples of digital wisdom to demonstrate how the mind and technology function well with one another. Also scattered throughout the text, there are a number of references to other great technology-focused reads – many I have on my “to read” list or just added. Here are a couple of suggestions you might like shared by Prensky:

The Dumbest Generation – Mark Bauerlain
The Shallows – Nicholas Carr
Hamlet’s Blackberry – William Powers
Alone Together – Sherry Turkle
Blown to Bits – Philip Evans & Tom Wurster

The book continues to share examples of digital cleverness and digital stupidity, with suggestions and examples on how we all can be smarter with our technology software, hardware and digital presence. Prensky continues to share how to cultivate digital wisdom in our personal life, at work and finally in education:

“Cultivating digital wisdom means being intellectually curious and active, continually expanding one’s online universe rather than sticking with the same things, and continually bringing more of the new world into our lives” (2012, p. 182).

Although Prensky touches on his former definition of “digital natives,” he digresses to move towards the need for educators to get comfortable with developing wisdom in classrooms with technology. The skills identified with digital wisdom and technology include collaboration, teamwork, decision-making, taking risks, making ethical and moral decisions, employing scientific deduction, thinking laterally and strategically, problem solving, and dealing with foreign environments and cultures (Prensky, 2012). The final chapters discuss the real dangers, things to be wary of, acknowledging problems to fix them, and evolution of the human as being impact by technology and singularity.

Overall, I think much of this book summarizes the impact of technology and our brain power with gadget and tech consumption. Prensky presents a decent summary and tries to synthesize how our thinking, actions and learning have changed – by curating and compiling examples and theories in a digestible way for the reader. Although the concepts are not novel, I think a number of readers will appreciate the concepts put forth around digital wisdom and technology.

Reference:

Prensky, M. (2012). Brain gain: Technology and the quest for digital wisdom. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

**Full disclosure: This book was sent to me by the Palgrave Macmillian publishing group to review on my blog. Thank you for the read. **

Book Review, Higher Education, K-12, Open Education, PLN

10 Principles for the Future of Learning

September 10, 2012 Laura Pasquini

While working on some late night treadmill mileage, I decided to catch up on documents and books I have been collecting on my Kindle. Last week I read The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age, which was a precursor to The Future of Thinking: Learning Institutions in a Digital Age book published by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Although this material is a bit dated, I think that some of the pedagogy still applies for educational development.

Image c/o Martin Hawksey (and his musings on this text as well).

In the first collaborative project, the authors share ten principles to support the future of learning. Davidson and Goldberg (2009) presented these pillars of institutional pedagogy to help institutions rethink learning and meet the challenges that lie ahead for both K-12 and higher education:

Self-Learning – discovering and exploring online possibilities
Horizontal Structures – how learning institutions enable learning; from learning that to learning how; from content to process
From Presumed Authority to Collective Credibility – shifting issues of authority to issues of credibility; understand how to make wise choices
A De-Centered Pedagogy – adopt a more inductive, collective learning that takes advantage of our era and digital resources
Networked Learning – socially networked collaborative learning stressing cooperation, interactivity, mutuality and social engagement
Open Source Education – seeks to share openly and freely in the creation of culture and learning; provides a more collective model of interchange
Learning as Connectivity and Interactivity – digital connection and interaction to produce sustainable, scaffolding ensembles
Lifelong Learning – there is no finality to learning; learning is part of society and culture
Learning Institutions as Mobilizing Networks – networks enable flexibility, interactivity, and outcome; new institutional organizations reliability and innovation
Flexible Scalability and Simulation – new technologies allow for collaboration beyond distance or scale for productive interactions that warrant educational merit

Reference: Davidson, C.N. & Goldberg, D.T. (2009). The future of learning institutions in a digital age. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

#AcWri, #phdchat, Book Review, LPQ, Social Media

Book Review: Social Media for Educators #summerreading

August 21, 2012February 17, 2015 Laura Pasquini

After reading, Social Media for Educators by Tanya Joosten (a.k.a. @tjoosten), I decided to complete an #AcWri book review in the Learning and Performance Quarterly 1(2). Since this journal is online and open access, I thought I would blog a few key ideas and highlights from this #summerreading book. Book Review: Social Media for Educators [PDF]

Abstract: Social Media for Educators is an excellent book that interweaves theory, applications, and current pedagogical experiences for learning environments. For those in the learning and performance industry, this book provides insights and ideas to help guide social media use for both educators and learners. Joosten provides current examples, benefits, and considerations throughout each chapter. Whether educators are beginning to design their learning curriculum or learners are considering social media for organizational development, this book presents helpful insights and experiences that will potentially influence and shape effective engagement and learning with social media.

Keywords: Social Media, Education, Strategies, Practices Although I have previously blogged about strategies for developing social media guidelines — I thought I’d share a few other suggestions for social media engagement from the book. Here are a few ideas, but really I would just recommend reading the book if you’re interested in social media for learning, training or development.

Part One: Background I appreciate how Tanya Joosten lays out the history and evolution of what we now know as social media. Social media is defined by a number of educators and summarized as “A virtual place where people share; everybody and anybody can share anything anywhere anytime” (Joosten, 2012, p. 6). Social media encompasses Web 2.0 tools, social networking sites, and user-generated content where individuals engage and contribute to these digital spaces. This section introduces readers to how social media is being used to build a network, establish support systems, and grow relationships among peers. There are a number of examples where professionals can “get their feet wet” for using social media for professional/personal use. Finally, this section wraps up with implementation considerations and identifying the following pedagogical needs (Joosten, 2012, p. 30):

Increasing communication and contact
Engaging students through rich, current media
Gathering and providing feedback
Creating cooperative and collaborative learning opportunities
Providing experiential learning opportunities

Part Two: Social Media: What to Do With It? I enjoyed how this section of the book presented practical case studies and useful ideas for social media communication and instructional design. The examples and “how to” guides for using social media are very helpful when considering how to enhance the learning environment. Many of these examples are excellent models for various types of learning experiences (in class, online, blended, etc.) and training opportunities (professional associations, affiliations, etc.). As an instructor/student, I agree with Joosten’s thoughts on how social media helps facilitate peer instruction and greater interactions. I also agree that social media features and characteristics often provide a richer learning experience (Joosten, 2012, p. 54), including:

Provides a virtual space for storing, archiving, and retrieving
Facilitates rich and current information
Increases the ability to aggregate resources to share
Offers immediate access to information through mobile apps or through RSS feeds

Part Three: Other Considerations in Implementation The last section of this book deals issues that often accompany social media in education, including policy, administrative and IT support, cost, user-generated media, support for educators, training needs, effective evaluation practices, and challenges for implementation and use. The last few chapters guides educators on how to go forth and create their own social media instructional plan at their home institution. Dr. Joosten provides evaluation instruments, suggestions for establishing learning outcomes, and assessment ideas for using social media in education.

References

Joosten, T. (2012). Social media for educators. San Francisco, CA: Wiley/Jossey-Bass.

Pasquini, L. A. (2012). Book review: Social media for educators. Learning and Performance Quarterly, 1(2); 83-84.

#AcWri, #phdchat, Book Review, PhD, Professional Development

Book Review: How to Write a Lot #SummerReading For #AcWri

July 4, 2012July 4, 2012 Laura Pasquini

In working on my research and dissertation proposal, I have been spending time with literature and #SummerReading. My #SummerReading book stack contains some theoretical works, #acwri support books, #phdchat guides, instructional design tips, and using the social web better for training, learning and development. [There are others, but they are loaded on my Kindle – more to come soon!]

Part of my summer away from course work is also dedicated beyond just reading, and is also focusing on my academic writing (#acwri). This turns my attention to the next book on my stack I’m currently reading = How to Write a Lot by Dr. Paul J. Silvia.

With travel time and holidays, there is plenty of time to both read and write. It’s nice to be away from the daily grind. This time away from the office and regular routine provides space for me to think about ideas and write. Since I finished this book, and I am motivated to write – I thought I might share it with other academic researchers who may need a little puss for their own writing practice.

I would agree with the author who defined this short text as “a practical guide to productive academic writing.” Dr. Silvia shares specious barriers to writing, and a few motivational tools to avoid “writer’s block” – which he thinks is bunk for most academic writers. There are a number of other hints and strategies shared for becoming a regular writer in graduate school and beyond in terms of writing style, manuscript submissions, and managing editorial responses. I also appreciated the helpful suggestions on how to create habitual writing practices for different types of projects, such as grants, books, journal articles, etc. The most helpful section in this sort read that might be useful for graduate students or junior faculty is the section on developing an agraphia group to keep you motivated and on track. Here are the five components suggested by Dr. Paul Silvia for a successful agraphia group for those of you who might need constructive source of social pressure to write:

Set concrete short-term goals and monitor the group’s progress – proximal goal setting
Stick to writing goals, not other professional goals – it’s not about professional development or reading about writing
Big carrots can double as sticks – have informal social rewards for good habits; intervention required for those who are not meeting writing goals; check and balance for writing
Have different groups for faculty and students – each group will have different writing priorities (see Chapter #3) and different writing struggles
[Optional] Drink coffee – or tea, smoothies, etc. Meeting outside the department or office can be a good thing for this writing group.

Reference:

Silvia, P.J. (2007). How to write a lot: A practical guide to productive writing. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.