http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/11/141124162926.htm
UCLA neurophysicists have found that space-mapping neurons in the brain react differently to virtual reality than they do to real-world environments. Their findings could be significant for people who use virtual reality for gaming, military, commercial, scientific or other purposes
http://www.livescience.com/49021-virtual-reality-brain-maps.html
a new study in rats shows that the virtual world affects the brain differently than real-world environments, which could offer clues for how the technology could be used to restore navigating ability and memory in humans.
Per Google Scholar:
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=brain+and+virtual+reality&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart&sa=X&ei=KvCMVKrHPIaayATNjYKADA&ved=0CB0QgQMwAA
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2014/03/three-mind-mapping-tools-that-save-to.html
MindMup
Lucidchart
Mindmeister
7 Tools for Creating Flowcharts, Mind Maps, and Diagrams
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2015/11/flowcharts-mindmaps-diagrams.html
Coggle
MindMup
Sketchlot
Connected Mind is a free mind mapping tool that you can find in the Google Chrome Web Store.
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top-teaching/2014/12/shelfies-holiday-gift-will-last-lifetime
My note:
LRS can have the same initiative of students’ selfies with the LRS book, which served them best during the semester and post their selfies @SCSU_Library.
If it picks up, it can be taken further with tweeting the class and the instructor and then, respectively work with the instructor on further involvement.
To encourage participation, the entire initiative can be put on competitive ground (e.g., the 100th participant gets a reward or something of that sort)
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141209145608-52594–everyone-is-replaceable-and-other-business-lies
Only fearful managers say “Everyone is replaceable.” Fearful managers say other hateful things, too, things like “I don’t pay you to think” and “That’s my decision, not yours.” Those fearful statements make it easy to tell which managers are deserving of your talents and which aren’t.
My note:
This line “Everyone is Replaceable” is ascribed to Stalin. In 1939, when he was sending his top officers to the Gulag, later not able to stop Hitler’s 1941 invasion.
When I heard the same expression from my former boss, I was thinking about Sting’s song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNt5iK8EuAU
I was pleased to read the article and I agree with the ideas laid out.
However, it was an eye opener to read also the comments. I realized that the “managers” (even if some of them claimed they are “leaders”) are very critical toward the ideas. I realized that throughout reading the article, I was identifying myself with an “employee,” not the “manager” view point.
It is sad to see how critical the “managers” where toward the article, how behind they are the times; since the technocrat management is passe and people now long for a “human” leadership (Friedman’s “The World is Flat.”)
I was also flabbergasted to read the comments of all these experienced administrators, who cannot see the forest, only the three. Is it cultural? Generational? Gender-based? Whatever it is, it certainly does not paint pleasant picture for the work environment around us, the employees.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-we-shouldnt-always-get-lucy-p.-marcus
A bit of disharmony can be very fruitful in a decision-making group. If we are to achieve innovation and disruption, then sometimes we first need discordance and discontent.
But the things that make for a great dinner party are not necessarily the things that make for a good decision-making body. Indeed, in some cases they might be just the opposite.
My note: I see the “dinner party” analogy very much as the “MN nice” analogy. When my previous boss said to me on my second year at SCSU that the foremost goal is to “get along,” my jaw dropped, since my German education and upbringing had taught me that the foremost goal is to “get the job done.”
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141210080103-64875646-the-free-big-data-sources-everyone-should-know
European Union Open Data Portal, click here.
The CIA World Factbook, click here.
NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre, click here.
Amazon Web Services public datasets, click here.
National Climatic Data Center, click here.
Million Song Data Set, click here.
http://techcrunch.com/2014/12/10/hemingwrite
Want to get off the grid? well, not entirely, since you still will be in the “cloud.” 🙂
But if you are into “disconnect” and “mindful computing,” this typewriter can be a good start
http://campustechnology.com/articles/2014/12/04/stratasys-launches-free-3d-printing-curriculum.aspx
Here is a link to the first unit: web.stcloudstate.edu/informedia/3dprint/U01.zip
The documents are big (up to 400MB). Please let us know, if you want to work together.
One common trend, however, is that several of the library directors who have left their jobs in recent years have done so after long-term disputes with other groups on campus about how the academic library should change to better serve students and faculty.
In the
Ithaka S+R Library Survey 2013, released this March, almost 90 percent of survey respondents named financial constraints the primary obstacle facing their institutions.
“My sense is that administrators look at libraries as something that is easy to cut or easy to subsume under an IT department, because it feels as though when library materials become electronic, they are best managed by, say, an IT department instead of being managed by the library,”
Other institutions have created positions that combine IT and library director duties, but those efforts haven’t always been successful. At two such institutions, senior administrators introduced the idea, but after faculty members and staffers grew concerned that the directors were emphasizing digital work over books, both lost their jobs. Some of those involved discussed these developments on condition they not be identified.
Nokia N1 Android tablet: an iPad mini lookalike with the first reversible USB port
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/nokia-unveils-n1-android-tablet-an-ipad-mini-lookalike-with-the-first-reversible-usb-port-9867400.html
Visually the tablet is a dead-ringer for the iPad mini, but the N1 actually manages to be both thinner and lighter than Apple’s tablet – just 6.9mm thick and weighing in at 318 grams.
The N1 looks very healthy spec-wise, with a 2.4GHz quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage and 8-megapixel and 5-megapixel cameras on the back and front.
‘Z Launcher’ software: essentially a customized lock screen that studies your habits to give you the right app at the right time of day (eg, email in the morning, Instagram at night) while also letting you launch apps by scribbling the first letter of their name.
The N1 is launching first in China February 2015 for $249 (around £160 – the same as the iPad mini) but it’s not clear when it’ll be making its way to the US or UK.