Tuesday, January 11, 2011

My First Visit to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission

Readers,


Good morning! I am having a great time in Austin, TX at the TACUSPA board meeting. Yesterday, we visited the Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC) and we searched through over 85 years of TACUSPA history. We found some AMAZING items ranging from notepads created in the 1940s to conference books from the 1980s. Amazing information!


We were all responsible for a box (or two) of material and we had to write down information pertaining to past TACUSPA conferences. This information included the dates, location, themes, and keynote speakers. My TASK for the next few days will be to type all information we gathered pertaining to the conferences in a Google Document.


This was an amazing opportunity that I was glad to share with some amazing leaders from across the state of Texas!


Although this facility is about four hours away from my university, this would be a great opportunity for undergraduate students to discover Texas State History (or the history of your state). You would have to call the facility in advance, but they are very friendly and I think undergraduate students would benefit greatly from this experience!


Sincerely,


J. Edwards


Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Monday, January 10, 2011

My Goals for 2011! - Five Simple Things to Make Me Happy!


Readers,

I finally decided to write my New Year's goals for 2011 on my blog!

New Year's Goal #1 - To write at least one journal article every two months.


New Year's Goal #2 - To read at least one non-fiction book a week.


New Year's Goal #3 - To promote my blog and to gain at least 50 additional followers.
(I will need some help with this one).


New Year's Goal #4 - To promote my business and to gain at least 5 additional speaking engagements this year.


New Year's Goal #5 - To lose at least 10 pounds by next December (to accomplish this, I am giving up bread for Lent and beyond)...

That's it! Just five! We shall revisit this in December 2011! If you can help me accomplish ANY of my goals, please let me know! :) No bread please. :)

Sincerely,

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Ask a Millennial Professor Friday - Youtube and Classroom-Based Public Speaking

Readers,


I received this question via e-mail this week:



Jennifer,

How did you get your UTube account for your class? I want to use a flip camera and tape the student speeches in Public Speaking, then load them up to an account that the students can access. I will then have them do self-evaluations and peer-evaluations."

[Name of Sender]



Here's my reply:


Hello Sender!


Okay - Here's the skinny on Youtube. Anyone can create the account, but here's the scary part. I have the students upload their own speeches on Youtube and the students make their links private (only available to the people they add). As for the speech competition (last year), the students for which we uploaded videos had to give us written permission to do so. A lot of the students do not want to have their speeches available to the public. Just ask them... maybe they are a little different.


I think the self-evaluations are an awesome teaching tool, but there are some privacy issues as well. :( Let me know what you think!


Sincerely,


Jennifer


Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Digital Literacy - A Short Video to Help Millennial College Students Learn About Identity Theft on the Internet

Readers,

Good morning! I thought that this video was very interesting. Although I tend to release a significant amount of information online, I try to protect the "important information" (like the information in this video).

I think it would be a good practice to show this video to our students. It provides a great history of the social security number process and the video gives the viewer a good sense of what potential damage can be done when people release personal information on the internet.



What do you think?

Sincerely,

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.