College Students, Technology, and Free Food = Food-Bot

Readers,

As a former college student, I appreciate free food. As a millennial, I really appreciate awesome technology! Greg Woloschyn, a student at Carnegie Mellon University, created an awesome website titled, Food-Bot. This website searches every mailing list on campus, searching for food-related keywords like “snack,” “cookie,” and “pizza.” last year. Sometimes the website fails to provide accurate results, for example a "bring your own lunch" entry was on the website's fail list. Woloschyn's invention enabled WoloSchyn and his friends to spend their funds on other items.

Check out his website - http://food-bot.com/home

Currently, only a few universities (Stanford, Carnegie Melton, Berkeley, Duke, UIllinois, MIT, Pittsburgh, Wootster, Case Western, Johns Hopkins, Maryland, Purdue) are included on the website, but it seems that the website is expanding (i.e. - the sentence on the website "Don't see your university? Request for it to be added so you can get in on the free food"...)

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

Green Printing for Students, Faculty, and Staff! - Some Great Tips from Environmental Communication Week @ Tarleton State University

Readers,


During Environmental Communication Week 2011, we were fortunate to have two wonderful presenters from our university's library (the Dick Smith library) and the Center for Instructional Technology and Distributed Education (CITDE) facilitate a session on Green Printing. Our university library (like many other university libraries) usually has a stack of papers that are left on the printers after the library closes each day. This presents a potential problem for our university (wasted paper) and the environment.


Here are some tips from their presentation...


- Be Patient (try not to print twice).
- Print Only What You Need (when listening to a presentation or lecture, ask which notes should be printed and which notes can remain electronic).
- Print Selectively (highlight the section of a document that you need to print and only print this section instead of the entire page)
- Print On Both Sides of Paper (duplex printing).
- Print Power Point Slides as Handouts Instead of the Actual Slides.
- Use Electronic Handouts (distribute a tinyurl link in class).
- Select the CENTURY GOTHIC font to save ink/toner. 


Here's their handout - LINK


This was a neat presentation and I adopted some of the suggestions from the presentation in my classes. I cannot wait to prepare "green" power point/Google Doc slides for the fall semester. 


Sincerely,


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

Freebie Friday! - Emergen-C Samples

Readers


I strive to keep a flawless attendance record in my classes and I am willing to take any natural supplements to keep myself healthy. One of my favorite colleagues recommended the Emergen-C product a few months ago. This product tastes great and it is a boost of vitamin C for the working woman (or man) on the go! 

Visit the website to request a few sample - http://www.emergenc.com/free-samples


I hope that I can stay well until my last final this semester! :)


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

Adopt This Technology - JoliPrint for Instant PDF Documents!

Readers,


JoliPrint (http://www.joliprint.com/) enables users to print webpages (documents, articles, etc.) without the color ads. This website would be helpful for instructors who teach online or hybrid courses, because they could post a link to the shared PDF document on blackboard (without uploading the entire PDF to their university's learning management system.


In addition, I plan to post job announcements on our Communication Studies Facebook and Twitter accounts via JoliPrint instead of saving the content to a Google Document and posting the link. Take a look at our current job postings! Become a fan of the Communication Studies Facebook page! http://www.facebook.com/TarletonCOMSDept


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

Wandering Wednesday's Academic Blogger - Academichic - http://www.academichic.com

Readers,

I LOVE exploring new blogs and since our week-long program for Environmental Communication Week 2011 ended, I have had a few extra minutes in the day to explore a new blog, Academichic! Academichic is a neat blog dedicated to fashion in the academy! I love wearing suits on campus and this site is definitely one of my new favorites! Check it out!

Academichic - http://www.academichic.com

                    

This website has various categories, which range from "Night Without Grading" and "Office Hours" to "Pregnancy in Academia" and "Visiting Lecturer". Very neat! Let me know what you think! :)


This is the first post in a new weekly featured titled "Wandering Wednesdays", which highlights an academic blog or a neat academic website. Enjoy! Come back soon! :)


Sincerely,


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

Goo.gl - A New Url Shortening Website (Thanks LifeHacker)

Readers,


I read the LifeHacker website on a weekly basis and recently the website focused on Goo.gl (http://lifehacker.com/5791974/googl-url-shortener-adds-easier-copying-better-dashboard-controls), a new url shortener website on Google. This seems like a great opportunity for those of us who regularly use bit.ly or tinyurl.com for links in our online and/or face-to-face classrooms.

http://www.thewwwblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/goo-gl-shortener-extension.png

I always place a tinyurl link (after testing the link) beside each of the external links on Blackboard. Since every browser and every computer is different, this enables the students to access the links when clicking the link will not work for the student.


For example:


Action Item - Read COMS 101 Notes - http://www.tinyurl.com/COMS101CH1


Since I am a big fan of Google AND Tinyurl, I think this new Google Service might work for some instructors who wish to use a certain link, but the link title is already taken by another user. For example, if I needed http://www.tinyurl.com/COMS101SpeechNotes and the link was always taken on Tinyurl, I can use the COMS101SpeechNotes link on Goo.gl.


I hope this helps someone! Read the LifeHacker blog for more information...
http://lifehacker.com/5791974/googl-url-shortener-adds-easier-copying-better-dashboard-controls


Sincerely,


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