Blogging is Good for Your Health

This week, Claudine Ryan of ABC Science/Discovery Health offers an article titled, "Blogging's is Good for Your Health". This article is exactly what I needed today.

This week has been a VERY busy week at XYZ university in the south. After midterms, I had to compile the grades for almost all of my classes and I have revealing the grades to each class all week. I have a presentation on Friday that I am very excited about and I hope that the audience will be as excited as well.

Wish me luck on my Friday presentation on my favorite type of college students.

Read the article, which I hope will make your day a bit brighter.

Texas Southern University - Increased Admissions Standards...Potentially...

The link to the article -
http://diversepodium.com/?p=804

The new president at Texas Southern University (TSU) is thinking about ending their open-admissions policy for undergraduate students. As an African American, this is very interesting. Texas Southern University is one of the two public historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in Texas.

Another interesting aspect of TSU is that the university is currently not under a "higher education" system. In Texas, we have four systems for public universities:

a) Texas State University System
b) Texas A&M University System
c) Texas Tech University System
d) The University of Texas System

In my opinion, ending the open-admissions policy is a step in the right direction for Texas Southern University. This step may make a difference in the perceived competitiveness of the university. A few years ago, there was a large push for public universities in Texas to cease their open-admissions policies and to increase admissions standards.

Now Is the Time to Prepare for Millennial Faculty

"Now Is the Time to Prepare for Millennial Faculty" is the title of a wonderful article that is a little too late. Newsflash!!! We are already here and we are invading your campuses as adjuncts, instructors, and assistant professors. Currently, we are navigating the waters of academia and are striving to make our mark as faculty.

This article focuses on cultural differences, collaboration opportunities, technology, and how academic departments can attract millennial candidates.

Empower your millennial faculty.

Give your new/potential millennial faculty the chance to make a difference in academia. Currently, I am interested in engaging millennial students in the classroom environment. Therefore, I incorporate blackboard.com in every face-to-face class that I teach.

Utilize available technology.

Some professors in my department merely post their syllabus and information pertaining to class assignments. However, I organize my students into virtual focus groups (VFGs) and each group has to complete discussion questions that are focused on the current chapter. I post most of the students' grades online (except for tests administered in class) and the millennial students like the fact that they can check their grades through the "my grades" feature on blackboard.com.

This is one of the only articles that I have found that is focused on this topic of millennial faculty and I am desperately seeking other articles.

Communicating with Students via Yahoo Instant Messenger

Communicating with Millennial Students by Using the Yahoo Instant Messenger Program:
A Forthcoming Study

In the fall, I started using Yahoo Instant Messenger to communicate with my students during office hours. My office hours are in the morning and afternoon. I try to make office hours convenient for both me and my students, but sometimes both cannot be accomplished for all parties involved.

Therefore, I incorporated the use of Yahoo Instant Messenger to communicate with my students. Most of my students are millennials and they are excited about an additional way to communicate with me during office hours and outside of the workday. However, I use the "invisible" feature very frequently to avoid the "24 hour professor" syndrome.

The Future Study
I am writing a paper about my experiences, but I wanted to share then with the blog readers. Last fall, only five students from my 100+ students joined my instant messaging program. In addition, most of the students communicated with me through blackboard.com. This spring, over 20 students have joined my instant messaging program and midterms have not occurred yet. Who knows what the number will be by the end of the semester.

Implications for Further Research
After the semester ends, the students do not delete my name from their Yahoo Instant Messenger list and I am able to maintain communication with them. This may serve as a longitudinal qualitative assessment mechanism for my virtual communication research.

My Instant Messaging Background
I have used instant messaging programs since 1998 when I was still in high school. Back then we had ICQ and I thought that program was the best thing since sliced bread. During college I made the switch to AOL instant messenger to keep in contact with my sorority sisters. In graduate school, I started using Yahoo IM, myspace.com, and recently facebook.com.

This American Life

This American Life: My Guilty Pleasure

On a gloomy Saturday evening, people tend to focus on activities that are lower on the priority list in the work week. All day I have been glued to my laptop listening to podcast after podcast of my favorite online show "This American Life". I would have to say that this is my guilty pleasure. This podcast has very interesting stories, which range from an environmental expose' on the diminishing landmass of Nauru to an ethnic doll selection process as perceived by little girls and their mothers.

Yes, I have been an avid podcast listener today, but I have also completed the following:

(a) read and outlined two academic books
(b) created a 2008 monthly budget
(c) created family dinner menus for everyday
(d) sorted through my 1,000+ articles on google reader

Now, for another podcast - 307: In the Shadow of the City

Millennials Do Not Read

I personally feel that millennial students/Gen-Yers do not read. After conducting research, another source agrees (Sweeny, 2005).

However, I feel that I am one of the outliers when examining this subject. Since the age of eight, I have read the Sunday newspaper from cover to cover EVERY Sunday morning. Currently, I live right outside of a large city and I am able to get the local and regional Sunday newspapers.

As I stated in the beginning, I feel that I am outside of the norm. My students do not READ newspapers and consequently they do not know what is happening around them. This year, I have started my class with an icebreaker pertaining to the news. I ask the students a question about the election, the obesity problem in Mississippi, the Grammys, the Super bowl or ANYTHING that focuses the status quo. I post the question about current events to the students, most of them look at me with a blank stare. However, there are some students who started reading the news after I began this current event icebreaker.

I am a BIG advocate of the NAA College Readership program, which supplies the students, faculty and staff with newspapers that are available across campus. Personally, I think that this program is VERY underutilized by all of the students, faculty and staff on campus. Some days I walk by the newsstands on campus and there are still MANY newspapers that were not taken during the day.


Sweeney, R. T. (2005) Reinventing library buildings and services for the millennial
generation, Library Administration and Management. 19(4), 165-75.