Along the lines of my previous post regarding the much abhorred Epic Fail, Emily Chapman at Hack College wrote a piece advising one to Refuse to Dwell, Move On, Kick Ass. Well put.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(photo: kick-ass)

Fall term is here. Students across the nation are moving from the simple and perfectly organized beginning of a fresh term into the messy, I-don’t-have-time-to-wipe-my-ass remainder of the term. Not too much panicking as of yet, but the perfection is fading fast. Before things get so out of control that you don’t have time to learn about and implement a better, faster system, read Dawn Foster’s post on how to Take Control of Your Inbox: 9 Ways to Sort Email.

1. Status Reports
2. High Volume Subjects
3. Twitter Messages
4. Services
5. People
6. Unimportant
7. Important People
8. Critical Notices
9. Projects and Topics

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(sorted)

The five commandments Valerie Strauss at the Washington Post has come up for college freshmen (so they won’t screw their first term up too badly):

Thou shall be responsible for YOU.

Thou shall take advantage of what college offers.

Thou shall be a student of learning.

Thou shall develop a personal brand.

Thou shall not forget those who are making college possible and gave you this great start in life.

It’s difficult to balance the learning part with the taking advantage of everything college life offers, but you’ll figure it out eventually. I hosed Fall Term of my freshman year pretty well, but I maintained a life and a solid GPA after that. Good luck, everyone. Here’s some advice from me:

Further Reading:

College Advice
Don’t Screw Up Your Future
I Live In A Van Down By Duke University
Year One: A College Blog

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(fall foliage campus)

Ever wonder what those professors with their cush teaching posts do with their well-paid time? Educate young minds or lie about, smoking pipes and wearing tweed and discussing any topic in the most pedantic way possible? Perhaps. Or maybe they’re working their asses off trying to keep the jobs they nearly killed themselves to get.

An article about faculty productivity in The Chronicle of Higher Education made Dr. Sara Goldrick-Rab want to list her schedule so we could all decide for ourselves whether or not she earns her keep. I read it, and since I can’t see how she has time to wipe her nose let alone have a proper life, I say she’s well worth her paycheck and clearly contributes to her students’ education.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(professor)

CourseSmart just released the results of a study by Wakefield Research. The study clears up any questions we all may have had with regard to how addicted college students are to their technological gadgetry. Students really, really need their Smartphones and their laptops and cannot go more than ten minutes without checking their devices for any updates from the outside world.

I would scoff and begin dishing out pen-and-paper snobbery if technology-is-for-sucks me didn’t also require her Smartphone, laptop, and iPod to get through the day. I mean, I don’t NEED my devices, and it goes without saying that I can stop anytime I want. But then I would be out of several social loops, I would have no idea what I should be doing or where I should be going, I would miss appointments and dinner parties and deadlines, and I would be unable to do my job or complete my coursework.

Which is to say I do not require technology in order to survive, but my life would deteriorate rather quickly if I were to unplug and stick with a pen-and-paper lifestyle. I choose life, people, and for that I prefer sexy, sleek little devices that connect me gracefully with my world. What a wretched thing to admit. I may have just rolled over in my future grave.

From the press release:

CourseSmart today announced the results of its “Digital Devices in Higher Education” survey, conducted by Wakefield Research. The new survey provides insight on the digital devices students are using, how often they use them and how these devices are changing the traditional college experience. The findings include:

“¢ Nearly all of the students surveyed (98%) own a digital device
“¢ 38% of students surveyed said that they could not go more than 10 minutes without checking in with their tech device
“¢ 63% have read an eTextbook on their device at least once
“¢ 46% reported they would be more likely to complete their reading if it was in a digital format
“¢ 85% of students reported that technology saves them time when studying—an average of two hours per day

Digital Dependence of Today’s College Students Revealed in New Study from CourseSmartâ„¢
Findings show college students feel helpless without technology—checking their devices at least every 10 minutes and foregoing face time for Facebook®

SAN MATEO, Calif., June 1, 2011 — CourseSmartâ„¢, the world’s largest provider of eTextbooks and digital course materials, and Wakefield Research, a consultancy specializing in strategic and tactical research, recently completed a survey of more than 500 currently enrolled college students, providing insight on how mobile devices and technology have changed the traditional college experience and the role technology plays in students’ academic abilities and success. Today’s students are truly carrying a digital backpack with nearly a quarter (27%) of students surveyed listing their laptop as the most important item in their bag—almost three times the number of students who chose textbooks (10%).

The findings further reveal that students are completely dependent on technologies—eReaders, Smartphones, laptops and more—to get through their daily college routine. Nearly all of the students surveyed (98%) own a digital device. And 38% of students surveyed said that they could not go more than 10 minutes without checking in with their tech device—about the same amount of time it takes to walk to class. Largely based on the fact that technology helps students learn more efficiently, 85% of students reported that technology saves them time when studying—an average of two hours per day.

Given this shift in behavior towards technological dependence, it’s unsurprising that almost three-quarters (73%) of students surveyed claim they would not be able to study without using some form of technology. Additionally, it is clear that laptops and Smartphones are two types of devices that students are using to further their academic potential. Nearly half (48%) of all students who own a tech device frequently read eTextbooks and 63% have read an eTextbook on their device at least once. In fact, of the 91% of students who said they failed to complete required reading before classes, about half (46%) reported they would be more likely to complete their reading if it was in a digital format.

According to the survey, eReaders and eTextbooks are some of the emerging technologies helping students save time while still being effective. While 69% said an eTextbook is easier to carry than a traditional textbook, 61% cited that eTextbooks make it far easier to search within a text (thus saving time), 60% mentioned that eTextbooks save them money, and 55% said that they are easier to read “on the go.”

Additionally, new media options are increasingly engaging students, who said they use tools such as CourseSmart (39%), videos and podcasts (24%) and iTunes® (12%) to access study materials from a professor — a far cry from the library card catalogues and encyclopedias of previous generations. Students are also spending their time using email (89%) and school Web sites (83%) for gathering course materials from their professors.

The library is not the only college campus fixture fading into the past; office hours are quickly becoming an antiquity as well. Students seem to prefer Facebook® to face time with the majority seeking extra help from their teachers via email (91%), cell phone (13%), or social networking sites (8%).

Furthermore, outside of everyday reading and studying, students also use digital devices for many of the tasks that previously required a pencil and paper to carry out—writing papers (82%), research (81%), taking class notes (70%) and making class presentations (65%).

Posted by Alexa Harrington

Everyone needs to back the hell off of policing my caffeine consumption. One hundred years ago this month, the Coca-Cola company was in court fighting a lawsuit brought against them by chemist Harvey Washington Wiley: He felt the company had “adulterated” their wonder beverage with high doses of the chemical we know and love as caffeine. A bottle of Coke in 1911 had as much caffeine as a can of Red Bull does in 2011. I fail to see the problem with that. Eighty milligrams per bottle/can is still less caffeine than one cup of coffee.

Caffeine may not be considered as beneficial as scarfing down 5 pounds of organic kale, but it’s not the worst chemical we humans suck up. I feel particularly justified in my caffeine use/addiction as I don’t drink alcohol or smoke or have any recreational chemical habits of any kind. If I didn’t need caffeine, what else would I have to lose when the apocalypse comes? How would college students get through four years or more of lecture halls, paper writing, and all-nighters? And who in their right mind would pass up something that can give you a day like this?:

On Feb. 25 [1911], an abstainer was dosed with four grains of caffeine (260 milligrams, the approximate equivalent of a 12-ounce cup of Starbucks coffee): “Gradual rise of spirits till 4:00. Then a period of exuberance, of good feeling. Fanciful ideas rampant.”

The scientists are still cranky, and feel the need to do lots of research regarding the detrimental effects of caffeine on sleep, blood pressure, etc. so as to get some regulation going on the caffeinated beverages of 2011. They must be working some long, hard research hours in the lab. One wonders which chemical fuels their intense lab time…Nutritious kale smoothies? Stimulating, I’m sure.

Further Reading:

Caffeine Content in Coffee, Tea, Medications, Etc.
Is Caffeine Dehydrating? [No]
Caffeine: How Much is Too Much? [Way beyond average consumption]
A Century Later, Jury’s Still Out on Caffeine Limits
Caffeine and Blood Pressure [Not so bad]

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(coca-cola bottle)

Researchers studying highly anxious people were intrigued to find that the more twitchy humans among us don’t necessarily want the sources of our anxiety to be dealt with; we like our high anxiety levels where they are, so back the hell off. It’s free, it’s legal, and it’s an awesome rush.

According to the study, some of us are used to living in a constant state of panic and anything resembling peaceful calm either freaks us out or bores us to tears. Living calmly and peacefully is a lovely, healthy thought, but being naturally amped is difficult to give up. Some of us find great comfort in existing in a highly anxious head space, and some of us get an excellent kick in productivity when we’re going 80 million miles an hour and are right on the edge of losing it.

Caffeine is only necessary (for me) first thing in the morning. I avoid it otherwise. There’s a reason I’ve never ingested a Red Bull: No one wants to watch me dig to the center of the earth using only spoons.

I lived peacefully once. I was calm and had no stress or anxiety from October of 2004 through December of 2005. I was so bored I re-cleaned, re-catalogued, re-archived, re-organized, and re-alphabetized my entire existence.

My dreamy vision of my future (when I can’t take you humans any longer and have to chuck it all) involves a tropical island, books, pens, notebooks, fruit, hammocks, and diving equipment. Just myself and my significant others in paradise. Sounds wonderful, yes? Here’s what would really happen: within a week I’d be eating a tree just to have a new project.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(tense)

Posted by Alexa Harrington

Sometimes, in the midst of the slammed life of a college student who has too much input heaving around in her head, I trip over the weird way a particular word is spelled or the wondering why that person over there doing whatever it is they’re doing. It’s a momentary flicker through my overwhelmed, zippity speedy head and 24 hours later I realize I’ve been obsessing about the word or the unknown person’s mysterious actions to the detriment of my perfectly stacked house of efficiently productive cards.

These bothersome fixations are not at all interesting except to some annoying-ass bit of my grey matter, which has no effing business using its precious energy on anything but my quest for badass knowledge-acquisition and the pulling of me through reality in one piece. I don’t even want to be thinking about the nagging bit of fluffy, time-wasting nothing, but my brain has latched on and won’t let it go.

A Freakonomics reader has the same situation going on with his neighborhood Banana Stand Lady. She sells fruit, including bananas. Her customers can buy 1 banana for $0.40, 2 bananas for $0.80, 2 bananas for $1.00, or 3 bananas for $1.00. The reader cannot figure out why seemingly identical (in both appearance and taste) bananas all sell for differing amounts.

And has he asked her? No.

Thanks, Freakonomics guy. Now it’s bothering me, too.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

*Every third comment on the Banana Stand post at Freakonomics was this quote. Now I’m righteously (and obsessively!) angry all over again that some chucklehead in a suit canceled Arrested Development, the only television show that was capable of making me laugh every episode.

(photos: William Kearney)

Here, waste some time. But at least make it educational and cool. Make fractals without a computer:

Posted by Alexa Harrington