What are /r/Professors' favorite Products & Services?

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Our institution provides the browser-based version of Microsoft Office to all students. And I tell my students that if they don't like that version (it lacks some of the capabilities of the regular software, especially Excel), there is Open Office, a freeware (and completely legal) version they can use.

I met my wife on Match.com when I was an assistant prof, although I was quite a bit older than you (36). I liked Match because it costs money to do much of anything on it, which sort of filters out people who are just screwing around and most students, they'll largely just use Tinder/Bumble for free. So long story short I suggest Match!

Note that while Oracle got the brand OpenOffice when they bought Sun Microsystems a very long time ago, they did not do something with it. Almost all the developers went to LibreOffice, which is a lot more up to date.

https://www.libreoffice.org/

Former cybersecurity dude here. Bits of this fall into something like IANAL territory. Also, there are no guarantees of privacy or secrecy. But if I were in your situation -- or what I think your situation is -- I would do one of these 2 things:

1. Purchase a VPN subscription, e.g., from NordVPN. This is like creating a secret tunnel for your internet traffic to leave the university. They will know the tunnel exists, but they won't know where it ends.
2. Use the internet from my phone’s hotspot. I would consider this "enough" from a secrecy perspective, but I would probably opt for #1 because of the improved speed and reliability, and to avoid overage charges.

> Is this an "in" for university IT to see what files I’m opening or what I’m doing on my personal laptop?

IANAL but as soon as you are using campus infrastructure (using their power, internet, physical space) you are exposed to this risk. Keep your computer free of illicit material and use a VPN. For me, that's enough protection.

Getting a lot of reports on this post about it being 'racist towards white people' and other nonsense like that

Makes me think of this book

I was just thinking about this the other day.

Obviously, it would be horrifically unethical to post your lectures on YouTube and then monetize them (Today's lecture on Fourier Analysis is brought to you by Raid: Shadow Legends and NordVPN!)... but our school email system is managed by google, so I have the whole google suite of apps, including a YouTube account.

If I post a video to my academic account, will students still get ads? I've seen things stating that YouTube is showing ads no matter what, but I wasn't sure if there was a way around that with the right type of account or unlisted videos or something.

I might steal that example. It's epic.

I've seriously thought of requiring students to write a paper using something like this (a text editor that only lets you write the 1,000 most commonly-used words in English). I think it would be a great exercise.

Get your own doorstop. I recommend this one, possibly with a note saying, "We are not amused." Bonus points if you can roll this expense into a grant.

I'm about to start reading "UNgrading" by Susan D Blum. The book is 15 educators making the case for going "gradeless" and exploring how ranking and rating students undermines learning.

Not sure how much of it I'll be able to incorporate, but as a writing professor I'd so much rather mentor and teach students to interact with critical feedback than say "your memoir piece was a 'B+.'"

Sorry, not a professor, but a PhD student who's preparing for prelims. I just got an ipad for this exact reason. The 9.7 inch 2018 version has Apple Pencil support and sells for $250 on Amazon.

Picked up one of these, the apple pencil, and the notability app for under $400 total. It works beautifully and was totally worth it imo. All my papers w/ highlights and annotations synch directly to my computer along with all my notes etc through the app.

I use the "emacs" editor and LaTeX for anything that needs to be properly formatted, just as I have done for the past 40 years (well, the first few years of that were TeX, not LaTeX).

I have occasionally used "Pages" on my Mac, but I don't think I used it for anything at work.

I have used Google Docs a few times, when someone else has created a document that I needed to collaborate on (mainly for Academic Senate or department committees).

For web pages like my course syllabi, I generally edit HTML by hand (using emacs), keeping the format very simple.

For my blog, I use wordpress.com, which has a rather awkward, but adequate, online editing program.

I am eager to read others’ replies, as I, too, am interested in this. I just received my copy of this book (https://www.amazon.com/Ungrading-Students-Undermines-Learning-Education/dp/1949199827) and it seems like it will have lots of good ideas for what you’re interested in. Although I haven’t yet read it, perhaps you should check it out, too

Copy pasta FTW. You want to go to the next level? You want to go over 9000? Get one of these bad boys right here. 12 programmable buttons and a shift key to double the functional number. You also get three "modes" for a total of 72 saved templates. I have one mode for normal use, one mode for grading/emails, and one for gaming.

This tactic is becoming increasingly common actually, one could almost call it a movement. HuffPost did an excellent article on it which shows how these online learning companies are changing education at institutions across the United States. While these actors and the arrangements they have may be unscrupulous in your eyes, they are actually within a legal framework which has been set for them by federal regulators and Congress. I have a friend whose work at a large University is to manage a program developed by one of these companies, and they definitely seem more interested in the money than her team's desire for quality course content. Fortunately, she is excellent at her job and knows how to get them on her team!

> In all those fields though you get the opportunity to try really hard at your job and if you don't win or don't sell tickets or whatever you can figure out how to try again.

uh...

Participating in competitive fields can have major mental health impacts.

> You try really hard at these interviews with arcane irrelevant procedures that are all rigged and you don't even find out what went wrong.

As for bad communications in interviews, well - the private sector isn't uniformly better about this. I've applied to dozens of non academic jobs (in my pre-gradschool days) and made it to phone screens or in person interviews and heard nothing about why I didn't get the job. Not a word. That's just how it works, because it is and will always be easier for the search committee or hiring manager for it to work that way.

If you aren't plugged into a good network, job searches are brutal. This is true both in and out of academia - and is heightened in any hypercompetitive field (which nearly all academic jobs are).

Have you tried this: http://osxdaily.com/2014/07/16/open-pages-format-file-in-windows/

It looks like the .pages files are just zip files. So, change the extension to .zip and then open it to access the document inside.

Agreed. I had success with PollEverywhere—it runs off students' smartphones and/or laptops and is a cheap subscription ($14/year). https://www.polleverywhere.com/plans/higher-ed

I don't work for them, but I had a good experience with them And am using them again next semester.

Hey colleagues. This is my solution to the "how do I still write on the board when there ain't no board" problem. I use a USB webcam which can be easily grabbed and moved between being clipped to my monitor and this LEGO thing (or maybe you have two webcams). I think I captured enough of the construction to give you an idea of how it goes together.

I tinkered with the arm lengths to get the camera at just the right height to see fully an A4 sheet of paper or this wonderful Boogie Board which I heartily recommend if you want to save on paper and markers (note that it only writes in 1 color, so sometimes you just have to go back to paper and markers after all. but the quick-erase function is just great.)

Hope this helps someone :)

I bought my own off Amazon for less than $100.

It looks nice, it wears well, and best of all, because it's made cheap as shit, the material is super lightweight. I work in south Georgia, and our graduation is in early May, so lightweight breathable robes are a major plus.

You can get them on Amazon.

I got a pack and used them for the first time. I felt kind of band using the non-complementary ones so I only used them for my senior-level course where I know the students well enough to know which ones would find them funny.

I have a masters in college STEM teaching and this book was the backbone of our first course design.

https://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Learning-STEM-Practical-Guide/dp/1118925815

It’s not specific to data science, but has a lot of helpful guides on effective teaching.

I just put my mobile phone on a tripod and use a separate mic for sound.

Picture quality is way better than webcams. For sound, I use a cordless mic that is pricey, but you could also use this one:

https://www.amazon.com/BOYA-Electret-Condenser-Microphone-Smartphones/dp/B00MP566OM/ref=sr_1_4?crid=3OV9FRM302B39&dchild=1&keywords=boya+by-m1+lavalier+microphone&qid=1623309894&sprefix=Boya+BY-M1%2Caps%2C322&sr=8-4

I have several and they are great.

Plain black masters robes with the pointy sleeves plus a hat can be got on Amazon for only about $75.

The advantage of these incredibly cheap robes is that the material is rather thin -- if you have to do graduation in May outdoors, having a thinner material that breathes a little bit is a huge plus.

Yeah, Christensen gets big headlines by stretching. He points to legitimate truths (e.g., in The Innovator's Dilemma where he focuses on technology disrupting industries), but then extrapolates very exact and bold predictions from relatively general trends. He's correct that a good number of institutions will fold or merge, but probably not as many, or as quickly, as he's estimating.

I don't give bonus points for hyperlinks. I do, however, give bonus points when a student in a freshman world history class who has randomly capitalized and misspelled words like "agriculture" and "loose" on in-class exams and is unable to summarize a two-paragraph reading coherently turns in a paper that cites Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics with the correct Bekker numbers. Extra kudos if the assigned paper was supposed to be about China.

As a practical matter, you can try to segregate your business among several browsers - Chrome, Firefox and Brave - and use just one for teaching.

Keep in mind this isn't just porn - gifts for our partner, physical and mental health conditions, etc. can be on open tabs, and google can 'helpfully' show parts of previous searches when you start to type in a query that starts with the same first letters. Ads can also reveal previous searches. We want students to know we are people too, but there's also tmi (too much information).

Be aware that if you are signed into a personal gmail account, you are also usually signed into google, so youtube, maps and other google products will 'helpfully' display personal info. (Remember that Chrome is a google product.) I also try to put my email in a different browser than class tabs because email has student problems, complaints, dept politics, and personal email co-mingled.

FWIW I had a learning curve on this when I took care of my parents who had dementia. I was googling their health issues so I could work with doctors as their ability to participate in their care declined, and I also had to find out about the medications they were taking. I didn't want people to think I had dementia or the health problems of someone older. I became somewhat skeptical that I wanted google to record these searches either and started using startpage (which pulls results from google but through a proxy, so google cannot collect personal info about you.

For a more drastic solution, see if you can create a separate user on your laptop. Then you can switch from professor to another identity and not have to worry about mistakes.

I'm 35 TT in STEM (physics). I usually get my clothes from Amazon. I like the Lee Men's Performance Series Extreme Comfort Straight Fit. They're on the cheaper side of things, but are great quality. They're business casual and very comfortable. I live in a warm, humid climate, so breathable clothes are a must when possible.

For shirts, I usually find something I like on Amazon that's long sleeves, button-up (something like this). I do a lot of patterns. My sleeves are always rolled up past my elbow. So it gives me a dressed-up, but relaxed look. I'm professionally dressed, but relatable to my students.

My main concerns with my wardrobe are price (let's face it, we don't make a lot), style, comfort, and how I'm perceived by peers and students.

Imho, crushing is normal, it can happen to everybody. Obsessing (or rather - letting oneself being carried away by it) is psychologically unhealthy in the sense that it can become a habit; and that would be bad.

Long before college professors were invented, priests had very similar problems with their congregations. Origen (a saint heretic) have castrated himself over it: he just couldn't stand the fact that his feelings would stand between him and his vocation. Similarly, ascetic writings from 5-8 centuries have stories of priests who prayed so fervently to God to relief them from this annoying interference that God would send an angel to "spiritually castrate" them. The very appearance of these stories shows that people had this cognitive dissonance between their vocation and their "hormones" for centuries, and obsessed about it (except that back then they wouldn't write on reddit, but composed apocrypha instead). So unfortunately the problem itself (developing crushes that interfere with professional obligations) is perfectly "normal", in a sense that it is almost unavoidable.

And yet most people somehow manage to survive and function without going to the extremes, you know. My guess is that it's mostly humbleness and self-discipline. Don't blame yourself, but also don't let this style of thinking become pervasive. You know by now that it always goes away, and mentally you understand the stupidity of this all. So just relax, and wait until it passes. Don't act on it even mentally. And it will be OK. (Edit: links)

It might be different if I were in a different setting. I've never worked for a big company with a tightly defined project scope. I work for a small startup, so I do something of everything - dealing with the hosting, managing the security certificates, developing new features, doing QA and code review for the other devs, reviewing user feedback. I really enjoy seeing my work out in the world.

Rather than five into a code camp, maybe try something like this: https://www.freecodecamp.org/

There are meetup groups in big cities for mutual support, as well as online communities for free code camp.

If you do want to do a code camp, pick one with a high bar for entry, with a requirement that prospective students have a basic demo project.

I am using this device for the second semester. It is a little odd and I feel like Darth Vader, but I don't see how I could speak/shout for 50 or 75 minutes. The microphone part fits under your mask.

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https://www.amazon.com/WINBRIDGE-Voice-Amplifier-Loudspeaker-Presentation/dp/B07QXZTG2H/ref=sr\_1\_5?crid=2YSZGHHAQ80T7&keywords=W+WINBRIDGE+Voice+Amplifier+Portable+Microphone+and+Speaker+Loudspeaker&qid=1644462384&sprefix=w+winbridge...

Fun: Grade Inflation under the Threat of Students' Nuisance: Theory and Evidence,Grade Inflation under the Threat of Students' Nuisance: Theory and Evidence ” 29(3) Economics of Education Review 411 (June 2010) (Defining 'student nuisance' as "students' pestering the professors for better grades.")

When I last looked at this, there was a small amount of literature documenting and investigating gender bias

A quick internet search tells me that the literature is expanding in a number of disciplines

https://www.ecosia.org/search?q=teaching%20evaluations%20gender%20bias

Personally I prefer LibreOffice. Same thing, pretty much, but it has more features and has been a bit smoother, in my experience:

https://www.libreoffice.org/discover/libreoffice-vs-openoffice/

I recorded a teaching demo at the library once (university library, they had a whole set up for this), and I just recorded myself talking with slides. It was set up so that I was standing next to a small projector screen. I would ask questions as if there were students, but would then explain, "ok at this point we'd discuss X concept for a few minutes", or something like that. 10 minutes is not long, so you want to include as much actual lecture content as you can. I would also describe some sort of in-class activity that would connect to your lecture.

Another thought: you might think about using something like screencast o matic where you can show your slides and your face at the same time. It's really easy to use and I think the free version lets you record up to 15 min.

If you want to flip your classroom, make the students create a Kahoot quiz over the materials. When they come to class, you pick a student and they play it. Everyone has a phone. The results are displayed on the board if you have projector. It's a little competition and it breaks the monotony. Most of your students should be familiar with it from high school, it's real big in K-12.

https://kahoot.com/?utm_name=controller_app&utm_source=controller&utm_campaign=controller_app&utm_medium=link

I've only played around with it, but google has a new "classroom" thing:

https://classroom.google.com/

You can create assignments, rubrics, I think it has some sort of plagiarism checking.

If your school doesn't offer one, the free box.net individual subscription is probably how I would store them in your scenario.

Also, FWIW, are you sure the videos need to be so large? E.g., the built-in Mac recording option with Quicktime results in large .mov files. When I record that way, I run the video through a Handbrake default that produces a small .mp4 video.

I am the mom of a hearing impaired college student. Auto-generated captions are not ADA compliant - and YouTube is the worst of the worst. If there is any sort of technical language, or if the speaker has an accent, its accuracy goes way below 80%. I put auto generated captions on all my class recordings as a matter of course, for the convenience of my students, using otter.ai which is probably the most accurate one out there. But hearing impaired students need ACCURATE captioning, so live transcription services like CART are the only thing that works well. Your university should be providing the service if the student has registered with the disabilities office.

I use calendly. You can schedule in different appointment lengths, and students go to the site to select a slot. I find it easy to use, and their customer service is top-notch. I use the free version, which works fine for me. https://calendly.com

Hi. I teach public speaking. I also open up the room for outside of the box questions about me, the syllabus, play a quiz like game for fun and have them pair up to learn more about another student that will be their “speaking coach partner” for semester. A colleague shared a very powerful activity called “getting to know you” that has them answer 6 questions anonymously (i.e. the most effective teachers are the ones who_____, one reason I don’t participate in class discussions is _____) and they have to get out of their seats to do it. It’s very insightful. You can modify as you see fit. I find it very insightful. Here is my colleague’s step by step link and also some other activities: https://padlet.com/robotrachel/icebreakers

Happy 2020!

Absolutely! Just a heads up that the first set I received was not functional, but Amazon returns is pretty flexible. https://www.amazon.com/Mosthink-Spectrum-Dimmable-Hydroponics-Succulent/dp/B082PJJC8S

Turtle Beach Recon 200 Amplified Gaming Headset for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, PC, and Mobile - Black https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D3N7JTY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_6GYB4DQMKFAT4J9RPK0D

… I’m not recommending it as I haven’t used it; I just looked it up because I was curious about the recommendation and thought it might be useful to pop it in here.

The Productive Online and Offline Professor: A Practical Guide. The author runs a terrific podcast, Teaching in Higher Ed, which I also recommend to you. She has come out with over 300 weekly episodes, and there’s something for everyone, no matter what field in higher ed you teach.

The Productive Online and Offline Professor: A Practical Guide (Thrive Online) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1620367300/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_57CBT6KS4270AFHTWT64

I got a reusable metal straw that I stick into my water bottle. I can put the straw under my mask and drink, and it works well. It doesn't feel awkward, and I don't have to pull my mask down or adjust.

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Bought these because I like the color, but they have them in plain silver for cheaper! https://www.amazon.com/VEHHE-Stainless-Reusable-Drinking-Rainbow/dp/B07FXZHNZV/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=metal+straws&qid=1617720881&sr=8-2-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExU0w3RlBCVVlKUjg5JmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNTkwNTcyMkE4UzNLVlNRNkFIUiZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwODcxOTE2NFQwTjVTSzVMM1A0JndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

I just ordered https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07YJGSHJS which is a desktop unidirectional (cardioid) microphone, because I did not want to wear a headset. If you are willing to wear a headset, you might get better results with one, as it keeps the moth-to-microphone relationship constant, even if you turn your head or move around. Mics designed for use with phones are probably better than gamer's headsets, though they may limit the bandwidth deliberately to enhance voice frequencies.

The electret mics are essentially the same in all the different options, because even the cheapest electret mics are quite good as sensors, but the quality of the audio depends mainly on the housing for the mic and the mouth-to-mic relationship. Ideally, you want a mic that picks up just your voice, not the fans of your computer nor the traffic noise outside; that has the same gain even as you turn your head or move around; and that does not get noise from rubbing against clothing.

The body mics used by actors are probably the best for video (less visibly intrusive, constant mouth-to-mic relationship), but most are set up for radio links rather than USB connections and cost a lot more. Some of them are also a literal pain to use (taped or glued to skin to avoid motion).

If you're in academia and thinking about getting out and need help reevaluating your skills, check out this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Leaving-Academia-Practical-Skills-Scholars/dp/069120019X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3L0HVWDUQ6GOZ&dchild=1&keywords=book+leaving+academia+by+chris+caterine&qid=1600639221&sprefix=caterine+academ%2Caps%2C194&sr=8-1

Thats a great start. I'm going to link to the filters I was talking about below. They should be changed weekly to biweekly depending on how often you are using them. I think I read somewhere they increase protection by up to 10% (depending on how tightly fit the mask is) so to me that is worth the extra cost but everyone has to decide what works best for them! I don't have the study in front of me so remember to always do your own research before making a health decision!

I'm glad you found it useful, I am always happy to take the time to help others the way I would want people to help and look out for my own mom who is at risk.

I wish you the best of luck and just want to remind you, always take care of yourself first. Both body and mind. If you are stressed your body will be releasing stress hormones and those wreak havoc on your body and immune system. Set yourself some guidlines for the semester. Create time to yourself, a self care activity each day (a bath, walk, mindfulness, playing with a puppy, being intimate/getting a backrub from a partner).... something you can do once a day for youself! Always put your own oxygen mask on first!

I make no claims about this seller or their credibility. I only wanted you to see what types of filters I am referring to. LZYMSZ 30 PCS PM2.5 Activated Carbon Filter Mouth Masks 5 Layer Protective Filter Mask Filter Replacement (WHITE) https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B076Q27336/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_AsywFbT1YDAB4

Edit: in case it isnt obvious. You need to disinfect everything you touch, keep sanitizer in your picketd, bag, car and by the front door of your home. When you get home and take off your shoes sanitize your hands before doing anything else. Then remove masks, coats, scarfs and go straight to the bathroom and wash your habds thoroughly with soap and water. Make this a routine and do it every time you come home.

Oh! Also! If you need another pen, I recommend this one for ~30 dollars. It's bigger (in girth), feels more natural. There's no Bluetooth stuff, but all the s pen gestures in squid/Samsung notes will work fine. Accidental button presses went from a few per session to absolutely none with this pen.

A size comparison

I have a pen tablet ( not a tablet computer like an iPad or something) which I think is usually for digital artists. It has a big surface that you can draw on with a stylus that comes with it. It took some getting used to, but I'm pretty comfortable with it now. I then do my lectures on Microsoft white board (and just share that screen while recording the lectures). I think it works pretty well. There is a huge range in quality and pricing, but I'm happy with mine: HUION New 1060 Plus Graphic Amazon link

Price has gone up about 15 bucks from when I got it, but still worth imo.

This is my exact field. I taught middle school language arts until I got my Ph.D. in education and I now teach methods courses. One of the most effective writing activities is Reading Like a Writer. I have students analyze pieces of writing (published and unpublished) and discuss them in terms of writing techniques, NOT content. So students analyze what writing strategies work, and then learn to use these strategies in their own writing (i.e., use of sentence variation, coordinating vs. subordinating conjunctions, showing vs. telling, etc.). This gets them thinking about what makes writing effective, and it will make them better writers AND better teachers. I pm'd you my contact info if you want to brainstorm ideas this semester. :)

> Once you are born your parents owe you all their money.

I once caught my father reading a book called --and I shit you not-- Die Broke.

(Here it is).

I had a similar issue with a course I taught last year. I used Notion to build my syllabus, facilitate discussion, and post materials and it worked beautifully. I’m happy to share more info with you if you’d like to check out how I used the platform!

In my former life as a pharmacist, staplers made or broke your day and rhythm. Besides an electric one that wouldn’t always behave, I found these to be the best. Buy one for your desk and staple for them as they turn in? Might make it easier on you. Paper pro:

PaperPro 1210 Professional 65... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000J05GKA?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

I teach on zoom and record my class meetings, but I only post the audio on our learning management system. That way, I still feel comfortable requiring students to keep their cameras on -- they can ask stuff in chat if they don't want to be on the recording. To do that, you have to go to the zoom.us website, log in, go to Settings > Recordings, then check "Record an Audio Only File". I do it for other purposes than you, but it sounds like that might be a decent solution for your situation.

Thats cool.

I am thinking it was Ancestry that had the good records. This press release mentions using AI for locating obits, but cannot find any information on its census digitization (other than they received the microfiche). And we might run into a debate for what constitutes AI.

I think you have some good advice here already so I won't comment on how to handle the student, but in my own adventures with Zoom I learned that there is an option to hide all participant profile pictures- if selected it will show participant names but not display their photo if their camera is off. It might or might not be helpful now that everyone has already seen the photo, but here are directions to the setting anyway:

1. Open the Zoom app, and select the option for Zoom preferences (not sure if you are on a Mac or PC so it might be different on your computer- on my Mac I select zoom.us in the upper left corner by my apple system logo and then select preferences.
2. Go to the 'general' category and scroll to the bottom where you can click 'view more settings'
3. View more settings will take you to Zooms online platform- from here you will log into your account, and select 'in meeting (basic)'. The hide participant photo option is the very last option in meeting basic- 'in meeting (advanced)' starts right after that. Lots of other settings available there that you may also find helpful.

Good luck! Hope the student just didn't know and you don't have to deal with it further than that.

I had a similar issue with cellphone capturing to show students how to use PhyPhox. I downloaded scrcpy (on Windows). When I connect my phone via USB and run the program, it creates a window similar to any other program. I can control my phone from the computer (mouse or touchscreen) and from the phone equally well.

I found a program that looks similar called ApowerMirror. It looks like it simply displays your device's screen in a window. The website has a trial version with a watermark and some other limitations, or a VIP version. No idea on cost, but it might be worth looking into.

https://www.apowersoft.com/phone-mirror

I use a mobile voting app during my larger classes. It allows me to determine how well I am delivering the information and it gives me a good idea of who is present and participating. There are a few apps that I have used over the years including https://www.polleverywhere.com/smartphone-web-voting.

99% lockdown on my main campus. There is one person at the front desk and they have one classroom set up for professors who have poor internet connection at home. Nobody has used it.

100% lockdown on the other campus. Every computer is running Folding@Home.

Instead, why not teach them how to use a reference manager? Zotero is free, cross-platform, and integrates in a number of web browsers and word processors (including google docs).

If they really learn how to use the software, then they can easily switch between APA, MLA, Chicago, and many other citation/reference styles. That plus a few minutes learning how to do a quick check on references seems like a more useful & transferable skill than just learning one citation style (which will invariably have various changes in a few years anyway).

Kahoot is a poll/quiz app worth checking out. It costs $5/month for the lowest tier, so definitely not expensive if you have small classes. I've used it mostly for test reviews and for pre-post assessment in intro courses.

I've taught technical communication (and writing) for the last few years, exclusively to engineers. I've been pleasantly surprised that many of them write very well. A few tend to be a bit flowery and 5-paragraph essay-ish, but generally, quite a good command of English. I also have my share of students who write quite poorly but at least seem receptable to improvement.

One of the free resources I highly recommend is the Hemingway App which is actually just a website. It was recommended to me by one of my advisors since he didn't think too much of my writing style back in grad school. It made a huge difference to my writing.

I have my students plug in their writing whenever they are writing first person content (it's very strict on passive voice) and ask them to pay a lot of attention to the recommendations. The things that the HA flags for fixing really help clean up writing. Eventually, if you use it enough you start to adopt that style without really thinking. It's a great assistant without adding too much work to your own plate.

Look into https://miro.com/. It's an online collaborative whiteboard with sticky notes! I emailed them and was able to get a free educational account to be able to use it with my students.

I took an online design course this spring where this was used and I really liked it from the student perspective.

That’s a terrible feeling, I guess, especially if you have sympathy for the student. Did you manage to get a reason for such cheating?

It is important to provide such cases as examples to students from time to time in order to inform them about academic integrity, all negative consequences of plagiarism, and penalties for cheating. Moreover, you can also inform students about the innovative plagiarism checking features available that can verify the authorship and detect cheating within one course or university. Most papers are saved in personal libraries of academic institutions and it is very easy to detect submission of papers with the help of authorship verification software. Most students are not even aware of such functionality. However, I think they should know about it to understand all the consequences.

Our school faced this problem a few weeks ago (thanks, Mr. President). We also had to give up on Turnitin. Plagiarism checker is a must-have tool in my workflow so I was furious about it. I choose to be positive and decided to look for some alternatives. Firstly, I’ve tried some free checkers but’s it doesn’t even worth trying. They work awfully and at this point, I realized that we had to find some paid but less expensive alternative. We found several options but stopped with Unicheck plagiarism checker as we saw that they are integrated with Google Classroom, which would be handy for us as we use this LMS. After checking their prices https://unicheck.com/prices we realized that that was what we’re looking for. Now we’re using this checker instead of Turnitin in our school. All I think about now is, “Why I didn’t start using it earlier!” It’s cheaper and much better than the previous one. I love its design and it’s easy to use.
So you can also try this checker and maybe that’s what you’re looking for. Good luck!

What rubric are you using? The rubric will determine the amount of time. If you don’t have a rubric, make one! There is a good book by Stevens and Levi.

I've been telling everyone who will listen about John Warner's Why They Can't Write. It's not *strictly speaking* arts-related, but it's such a great examination of how creative pedagogy fails students and how to fix the ways that it does. FWIW I'm in music, and I use this book's ideas all the time.

It's not a crazy idea...

https://www.amazon.com/Hacking-Assessment-Gradeless-Traditional-Learning/dp/0986104914

Huston, Teaching What You Don’t Know. Particularly handy for those last-minute added classes.

Teaching What You Don’t Know https://www.amazon.com/dp/0674066170/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glc_fabc_UJ39FbS470X7M

Teach Yourself How to Learn by Saundra Yancey McGuire is a great resource for students. She also has a version for instructors (Teach Students How to Learn) that I found to be really helpful for guiding students who are spending a lot of time but not learning.

I do love the birthday Pusheen stuffie one of my lab kids got me.

I drink a lot of hot tea. Always have a fresh mug of it while I'm teaching. I often forget a stir stick, so I'd gotten in the habit of idly stirring it with a pen from my purse. I take a group of students to a conference every year, and they got together and bought me a souvenir mug with a spoon that slots into the handle. (not this one but same style). So I'd always have a spoon to stir my tea! <3

So Sidesync looks to have been discontinued. What seems to be the replacement- SamsungFlow, does not support tablets (Wow). Airdroid was painfree and simple to set up though.

Here's the web application (Can also install a real app for windows)

Andhere's the mobile app for your tab.

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You say you don't want to be looking at a little screen all day, I'm curious, have you mastered the art of not looking at the screen while you write? Otherwise, I think signing into the meeting from your desk/laptop and also signing in with the tablet and just disconnecting tablet audio is going to be a much simpler process than sharing something to your laptop then laptop to zoom.

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Also on airdroid, I've tried it for about 4 minutes now and after the first 30 seconds of being blurry, it came in clear. While I have stress tested using zoom to screenshare for hours on end several times a week since March, and literally never had an issue getting my tablet connected or keeping it connected... I've only stress tested airdroid for a few minutes.

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Sharing through a separate service also introduces a new point of failure (airdroid). If airdroid has issues one day, but zoom is fine you're downstream with no canoe. Students are still in the meeting, you're still in the meeting, but there's a holdup. Makes things awkward. (Same logic holds true for ipads with airshare or whatever their's is called). If you share through zoom, and zoom is having issues, then everyone is having issues, and it's less awkward lol

This set up a lot of people at my school swear by. I have it and students say it sounds 100 times better than most.

USB Microphone

I bought https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07YJGSHJS/ because it was the first one I found that was within my price range. It seems to be better than the built-in mic on the iMac, and much better than the built-in mic on the document camera.

I have a gaming headphone mic set up now. It is comfortable and quiet.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084CWCJTW/ref=pe_2640190_232748420_pd_te_o_gc_ti/134-5632129-3872924?_encoding=UTF8&amp;pd_rd_i=B084CWCJTW&amp;pd_rd_r=0EVSF549ZDS4YTQJA1ZA&amp;pd_rd_w=oYccF&amp;pd_rd_wg=bCIOZ

The camera, and then the tripod stand came with this

The camera is pretty high quality, but occasionally the autofocus is kinda wonky.

I'm thinking of ordering this outfit for the first day of class, which will be face-to-face with no restriction on class size and a mask requirement that faculty has been given no authority to actually enforce.

https://www.amazon.com/Bubonic-Plague-Doctor-Costume-Headsock/dp/B00B8NPCY2/ref=sr_1_11?crid=2F1Z8731HV8Z9&amp;dchild=1&amp;keywords=plague+doctor+costume&amp;qid=1596994844&amp;sprefix=plague+doctor%2Caps%2C186&amp;sr=8-11

One of my students just gave this book a glowing review after receiving it as part of a campus workshop: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1620367564

(I know, I know - I’m as surprised as anyone that they actually read parts of it already and voluntarily! I’ve heard the faculty companion book is great too, though admittedly I’ve yet to crack open my copy...)

I read as much, and broadly, as life allows (got a little one, another on the way, etc. etc.). Right now I'm reading Zero to One by Thiel, before that it was Huck Finn and before that it was Where Good Ideas Come From by Johnson.

I have subscriptions to the NYT, the New Yorker (which I love, but the issues pile up so fast) and am an avid user of Instapaper and have hundreds of article in my queue...lots from Wired, Atlantic, Harpers, etc.

Come to think of it - feel free to download any you want. Here's a google sheet with hundreds of ones that I've read in recent months and enjoyed. I'm into longform journalism, as you'll see: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AZ1cR4FJjLWrHBdLcYvB6evnwXT9KItiIf9JmDEH8YQ/edit?usp=sharing

Wrong sub. And nothing is going to be concise.

But here is one. A second would be Meltzer’s History if the Fed series

After my first, and very disastrous, semester as a professor I bought this book. I go back to it every semester as I prepare for classes. It has a wide variety of methods to teach students, clear examples, and shows the lecture to active learning ratios for multiple class lengths. It was also vital to helping make an easier to read and more accessible syllabus. I can’t recommend it enough!

I think what's missing is this perspective: https://www.amazon.com/Knowledge-Gap-Americas-education-system/dp/0735213550. That is, Common Core trains students to read short passages for "comprehension," but we've dramatically reduced time on other subjects. I have doubts about how many kids are actually reading books in their language arts classes when the emphasis is on reading short passages for tests. The solution proposed in the book is to better prepare them for the tests by spending more time on other subject areas, but I think the real problem is the idea of "reading comprehension" as a test construct. Let students read, discuss, interpret, and write about books on a variety of genres and topics rather than having to perform a narrow form of "comprehension" (i.e. choosing the "right answer" on a test).

I have the exact same situation. It's damn near impossible to find true beginner books. The "phonics" section at the library is way too advanced.

I got something from a friend called "my first bob books, pre-reader collection," by Scholastic. Most of the words are 3-4 letters. I'm also trying to drill lowercase letters with matching games and tracing and such. I also got a block & card matching game that helps with recognition. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09KN6BVQH?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Really, though, I'm still looking for ideas!

Depending on the context, research is generally synonymous with creative practice, especially at research-focused institutions like R1 schools. There's a few good examples in this book: Academic Job Search Handbook, 5th Edition

I generally describe my previous bodies of work, current work in progress, and plans for the future. I could probably spend more time talking about my process too, to be honest.

Somewhat relatedly, I once whiffed a video interview at an R1 once by answering the question "How do you keep tabs on research in your field?" by talking about the academic journals I read instead of the gallery and museum exhibitions I go to.

> Re your last sentence, if you were to classify Wokeness, how would you?

This is a thorny issue because the "woke" vehemently deny wokeness even exists (just as the alt right do with their own ideology), and they stomp off huffily if you try and identify them (not even the alt right does this).

But in a nutshell...

• Wokeness is demographic identity politics (based on race, sex, sexual orientation, etc.) rather than class politics.
• It interprets the world in terms of group privilege and group victimization ("oppression"), and establishes a whole hierarchy of victimization.
• It assigns status, prestige, validity and legitimacy based on the degree of oppression people of a given demographic group have historically faced.
• It scorns equality, egalitarianism and meritocracy in favor of targeted, demographic group-based discrimination.
• It believes free speech is a tool of "fascism" or "white supremacy" and vehemently defends censorship, suppression and punishment of speech it considers "hateful" toward approved demographic groups.
• It is utterly incompatible with any sort of Marxism as it rejects the fundamental role of class in society, and dismisses class analysis as "class reductionism", which it treats as heretical.
• It is almost completely indifferent to all core leftist causes, including control and regulation of corporate power, expanding workers' rights, redistributing wealth, strengthening unions, etc. The one exception is a general belief in racial reparations, but only for African Americans.

That's a start. Columbia's John McWhorter has an entire book on certain strains of wokeness called Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America. It's well worth reading.

I absolutely agree with the comments I'm seeing here: this is a combination of students coming in after a couple of years of distance learning in high school, as well as larger, lesser-prepared cohorts being admitted. Our students are not coming in knowing how to study effectively.

Our reaction is our choice. We can bemoan the fact that our students are unprepared, and blame whoever or whatever we care to, which doesn't help to address the immediate issue; or, we can teach our students what we need them to know.

I agree that either way, it's a pretty frustrating situation.

There are no magic bullets here, but my colleagues and I have had a certain amount of success after low exams with interventions as described in Saundra Yancy McGuire's book, Teach Students How To Learn.

“Agradezco”! Thank you for the new word!

De nada, mi hermano. Después de un buen número de décadas, he descubierto que mi propósito es aprender, enseñar, leer, escribir. Estas son las cosas que me dan la mayor satisfacción y, francamente, también son las cosas que me convencen de que tengo una razón para vivir.

A kind person offered a correction to my comment, but I believe that I am correct. When I have a question about English grammar, this is the first place I go: https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Style-Fourth-William-Strunk-ebook/dp/B0771WKC7H/ref=sr_1_2?crid=11T5MCC336BN5&amp;keywords=elements+of+style+4th+edition+by+strunk+%26+white&amp;qid=1667919566&amp;sprefix=Elements+of+style%2Caps%2C304&amp;sr=8-2&am.... There are, of course, many other fine reference materials. There is also a lot of crap.

I will always be happy to hear from you by comment or DM, though I will not always be able to reply within a day or even a year. But I never ignore a kind soul. If I don’t reply, you know that I wished to reply.

De nuevo, paz a ti, mi hermano. Que Jesús siempre te sostenga a ti y a tu familia en la palma de su mano.

Judge Posner’s Little Book of Plagiarism covers this very issue.

As for some immediate examples:

Legal opinions (often drafted in part or whole by law clerks and/or containing elements not attributed to briefs or oral argument).

An Op-Ed in the New York Times decrying the rise of plagiarism, putatively written by a university president, but without any other attribution, or acknowledgement his assistant wrote much of it.

The plagiarism section of most departmental websites.

A couple problems here -- first, you're assuming that competition will happen on the grounds of student performance. It's much more likely that vouchers have the effect of funding schools on ideological lines, and we end up with more students learning from Science 4 For Christian Schools, where students learn that:

>Electricity is a mystery. No one has ever observed it or heard it or felt it. We can see and hear and feel only what electricity does. [...] We cannot even say where electricity comes from. Some scientists think that the sun may be the source of most electricity.

However, more centrally, the issue with private schooling is that it is utterly devoid of regulation. With charter schools under a voucher system, there is no longer any guarantee about the sequence and pacing of early childhood education, leaving students in disadvantaged areas wholly unprepared for further study. You assume that the privatization of schools will cause a race to the top, when it is much, much more likely that it will do nothing but further accelerate the race to cut costs and treat teachers as unaccredited and disposable caretakers rather than as the educated experts that most are.

I just taught my 3-hour, 40-person class with a mild sore throat, 3M N95, and a portable voice amplifier. This is what I use SHIDU Mini Voice Amplifier... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08HQZL6DK?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

One of these, a 15.6" HP Pavilion. My last one was an MSI that I got during grad school; my fiance and I got the same laptops and both of us had issues. This one has been working pretty well though!

> dean's administrative associate person would go checking on people's office lights at 9 am

This would be when I install something like this switchbot,

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07B7NXV4R

which would automate turning on my lights.

I actually like Baroque organs more in general, especially those built for mean-tone tuning system instead of even temperment. Roth plays Sweelinck (and other baroque composers) on this (more modern) organ, although purists may cringe, I find it quite moving nonetheless. (Some baroque fanatics claim even temperment "ruined" music.)

We heard Sophi-V Cauchefer-Choplin (also on YouTube), the sub-organiste on our visit, and she is great as well. She, was playing Franck mostly, which is more suited to this style of organ.

If you like this music, you must buy the sets by Marie-Claire Alain L'Orgue Français: Alain - L'orgue français

The Grigny mass (two different recordings, with plainchant) are absolutely breathtaking. A must buy! The Franck and Couperin are also superb. Her Bach 14 CD set is another one you should get. Very cheap for what you get!~

I was traveling with a colleague for the past two weeks, and she is a psychology prof. She is noticing the same thing about herself, friends, and students. We are both now reading this book. https://www.amazon.com/Stolen-Focus-Attention-Think-Deeply-ebook/dp/B093G9TS91/

Your professional association could be a good source for finding folks for a distributed writing group.

This book is helpful on navigating the book process.

https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Published-Scholars-Serious-Publishing/dp/022628140X/ref=sr\_1\_3?qid=1664890132&amp;refinements=p\_27%3AWilliam+Germano&amp;s=books&amp;sr=1-3

While he was teaching on a yearly contract, he's not your typical adjunct professor. Dr. Maitland Jones is 84 and retired as a full professor from NYU in 2007. He kept teaching without research obligations on a post-retirement contract. These sorts of arrangements are fairly typical in academia, although maybe not for a decade and a half. But he was certainly not a bad professor and he even wrote a textbook on organic chemistry, which is available on amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Organic-Chemistry-Fifth-Maitland-Jones/dp/0393124231

I think this highlights a significant issue we're seeing with younger generations, in that they are becoming increasingly entitled and it they don't get the grade they want, they're going to complain. And the university's new "customer service" mentality is not helping when they'll even fire a professor emeritus for not satisfying his students.

Good grief! If these students can't get through organic chemistry, they don't have a prayer in physical chemistry!

I have two of these plastic cases that hold 5 pieces each—- one for white and one for colors. I can’t seem to find a link to purchase them separately.

https://www.amazon.com/Hagoromo-Fulltouch-3-color-Luminous-5-color/dp/B06XT21F19/ref=mp_s_a_1_18?crid=1JV6VA5PAMSR7&amp;keywords=hagoromo+chalk+carrying+case&amp;pscroll=1&amp;qid=1664244599&amp;sprefix=hagoromo+chalk+case%2Caps%2C93&amp;sr=8-18&amp;wIndexMainSlot=24

If you’re working with a laptop you can use a laptop riser and a wireless keyboard and mouse to improve your posture.

Get a chair you like. It’s always worth investing in the things that separate you from the floor.

I like the Little Norton Reader. It's all previously published essays from other sources along with a few student samples. The topics cover a wide range and they model a lot of the different things I want to work on throughout the semester. It's reasonably priced and easy to find used. It doesn't really cover visual texts, and it has some older items, but I find that it's accessible and still relevant.

Send them each a pair of noise-reducing earplugs—then they can ignore each other's loudness (though probably getting louder themselves). I'm thinking of something like https://www.amazon.com/Macks-Ultra-Soft-Foam-Earplugs/dp/B0051U7W32, not the $30/pair ear plugs.