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Mickey Schafer
a lapsed linguist currently teaching undergrads scientific prose (at Univ. of Florida)
A tech question -- is anyone using web-based file storage? If so, what company would you recommend as host?
Yaroslav Nikolaev, Iddo Friedberg, Bruce Lewis and 4 other people liked this
What do you want to store? Bits and bobs or lots of stuff? I use google doc for bits and prices dropbox is useful as it has an iPhone app.
- Jo Badge
from iPod
How big of files are you thinking about?
- Holly Rae, FFer
Hell yes. For me, photos -> flickr, audio -> divshare, video -> youtube/vimeo, PDF's -> Mendeley/scribd and google docs for various other bits 'n bobs.
- Graham Steel
SlideShare, SciVee (vids), Scribd (pdfs), Flickr, YouTube, lots of GoogleDocs and Wikispaces will take up to 10Meg misc files
- Jean-Claude Bradley
favorites are dropbox (good file sync) box.net (webdav standard support) drop.io (quick, easy) and wuala (free limit is high). specialized storage by file type such as flickr for images or gdocs for docs is also a good option, and there are some utilities that can help synchronize with these services
- Mike Chelen
Google docs for documents, Mozy for backup, dropbox for sync across computers
- Pedro Beltrao
Junlgedisk for archival, dropbox for "hot" content.
- Deepak Singh
from iPhone
Jungle disk for big files, documents etc. I also use google docs and dropbox for convenience.
- ashish
Ooh - dropbox seems rather handy. Thanks. On Desktop now.....
- Graham Steel
Gspace? https://addons.mozilla.org/pt-PT...
- ovigia
Any specific suggestions for podcasts/sharing?
- Allan Besselink
I use ADrive for pretty much everything. If sharing, will host things on Slideshare, Scribd, Flickr, YouTube, etc. But if it is just for me ... ADrive. Free accounts get something like 50 GB. Podcasts get hosted with Archive.org.
- Miss Elle
Allan, I use vanilla S3 for all my podcasts in combination with Cloudfront for edge delivery.
- Deepak Singh
Dropbox for a collaborative document share. Wiggio.com for inter-institutional share and collaboration tool. I belong to a group that uses a pogoplug, too, which has been a boon (the trick is where to host it).
- Jason Miller
JungleDisk on the Mac - off-site backups of docs + family photos
- 'Mummi' Thorisson
Also a Jungle Disk user -- have a workgroup account with all partners and customers having partitions. Use it for backup, transfer of large files (audio, video, lesson packages) to and from internal people and customers.
- Brian Sullivan
Scientists still not joining social networks -- Scholarly Kitchen -- http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2009...
Mike Chelen, Joe...., paul baker and 12 other people liked this
Personally, am not convinced of some of the assumptions, e.g. "...Both are unfortunate, but are parts of the current culture [reference to sharing early lab results]. Any network that hopes to succeed must adapt to the culture of the community, rather than trying to rewrite it." First, though likely rare, I think there are instances where culture gets "re-written" -- another perspective is that this form of communication provides an alternative to established routes. That is, does not replace them but adds to the diversity of communication means.
- Mickey Schafer
The only thing I really disagree with here is that I think there will be a shift towards more open approaches as more examples of success show up. Then everyone will go over the edge like lemmings and there will be a backlash again but by then the funders will be piling in with conditions to push things forward.
- Cameron Neylon
<cynical>It doesn't matter what the scientists think. What matters is what the funders demand of them.</cynical> Open science doesn't really depend on "[online] social networks" and never has. It's true that most open-science sorts are active social networkers, but when the rubber hits the road, I don't care who's on FriendFeed -- I care who's sharing data. If the funders demand the latter and not the former, good on 'em. Behavior will shift accordingly.
- D0r0th34
But the funders are the scientists in most cases - so a mixture of pushing from within the community - as well as top down mandates will get us there. The question is how to get the funders into a position where they feel bound to impose mandates _and_ provide the infrastructure that makes it possible to observe them...?
- Cameron Neylon
Mmm, I'm not sure I agree. Funding infrastructure relies on a fair amount of scientist labor, yes -- but it's not career scientists who have been calling the funder shots; it's been top-level administrators (some of whom are ex-scientists, admittedly) looking at bottom lines. The Wellcome Trust mandate didn't come from scientists. Neither did the NIH policy. <cynical>One can't rely on scientists for effective science policy.</cynical>
- D0r0th34
Fair enough. UK Research Councils case is more nuanced. Even Wellcome Trust policy was driven to a certain extent by the fundees or at least not in the face of belligerent opposition from them. But comparing the independent funders like Wellcome to the Research Councils (run more by councils of academics) is instructive.
- Cameron Neylon
I thought the spin on your lovely shout out for Medeley on ch 4 news was interesting, Cameron (nice monitors btw!). 'government backing for innovators to meet and share' was the message. Have you had any responses to that yet? Maybe systems like Mendeley will be the things that start to crack the nut of social networking for scientists? I'm not sure it's a killer app, more the thin end of the wedge...
- Jo Badge
Shorter DC: I don't like social networks or spend any time on them, so they must be useless.
- Bill Hooker
I'm afraid they're not my monitors but those for the control room for one of the instruments (not incidentally the one that got filmed in the piece - but at least there was no blue liquid!) But they are in fact necessary to keep the instrument running and processing data efficiently.
- Cameron Neylon
Bill, I am afraid your DC is heads on :-)
- Claudia Koltzenburg
I can imagine a report from 1670, a full five years after the creation of academic journals, concluding that virtually no scientists were using academic journals as a matter of course, and thus they are useless. (Technological progress has sped up a lot since 1670, of course. But social change isn't all that much faster, in my opinion. And this is fundamentally a social change.)
- Michael Nielsen
Michael++
- D0r0th34
I think we also tend to forget the granddaddy social software: email. In some fields there are tremendously active listservs that have been around for over a decade especially at research universities where faculty got email before it really caught on in the wider world. What evidence would convince a scientist that Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter offer better communication opportunities than an archived listserv?
- Jenny Reiswig
Well, aren't most scientists using email as "communication opportunities" and nothing else? (social network, listserv etc)?
- Maxine
were observations limited to sites specifically designed for scientists? perhaps to the exclusion of other significant mainstream platforms like facebook or twitter
- Mike Chelen
(just kvetching)Trying to locate an article but publisher (routledge) has placed an 18 month embargo on electronic availability -- stupid stupid stupid. Bad for consumers, but particularly bad for the researchers -- why publish anywhere with that much of a delay when the specialty is early childhood education and ICT?
Mike Chelen liked this
On the web: links to web-based resources for teaching about interpreting evidence (provided by NSTA): http://science.nsta.org/enewsle...
Mike Chelen liked this
"Study: 2 in 5 Teachers disheartened with profession" http://www.eschoolnews.com/news...
"What the survey found was disheartening in itself: 40 percent of teachers reportedly are disheartened, 37 percent are merely content, and only 23 percent of teachers are idealists."
- Mickey Schafer
"Contented teachers are more likely to report excellent working conditions, be experienced in their profession, work in middle or higher-income schools, and believe their students' test scores have increased a lot because of their teaching. These teachers are more likely to say that their schools are "orderly, safe, and respectful." Also, a majority of these teachers hold a graduate...
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- Mickey Schafer
See the "Also of Interest" box for recent reports on education and tech intersection.
- Mickey Schafer
compares well with the general average of 5 in 5
- Mike Chelen
Got an invite to Google Wave today from a former student currently doing MA work in the U.K. Woo hoo! Now, I just need to figure out how it works.
Mike Chelen, Björn Brembs, Steve Koch and 2 other people liked this
There are some wonderful waves and websites. If you are looking for anything specific please let me know.
- Holly Rae, FFer
If you figure it out, be sure to let everyone else know. :)
- Curtiss Grymala
Thanks so much, Matt. Thus far, I've only once hit a key (don't know which it was) which through me into edit mode. Twice. Deleted them, then back to the wave I was on..riding..writing..blipping..what on earth is the proper vocab?!
- Mickey Schafer
from email
lol!
- Mickey Schafer
from email
Using music to ease patient's stress during surgery -- http://www.time.com/time...
Got this link from the NSTA's quick-hit list relating to interpreting evidence-based inquiry. Others include http://www.scientificamerican.com/article... and http://www.time.com/time...
- Mickey Schafer
"The Effect of the Background Color of Computer Programs on the Functional State of Preschool Children Working on a Computer" in ISSN 0362-1197, Human Physiology, 2009, Vol. 35, No. 2, pp. 192–196. © Pleiades Publishing, Inc., 2009.
Mike Chelen liked this
"In this connection, the objective of this work was to study the effect of work on a computer on five- to sixyear-old children using computer programs with differently colored backgrounds (lettuce green, blue, black, and gray-purple). The goal of this research was to determine the optimal (among the above) color scheme variants of the DS background for children aged five to six years." [DS = developing software]
- Mickey Schafer
"An integrated assessment of the state of the CNS showed that children finished their work on a computer in a state of fatigue after using DS with a blue background (14%), black background (25%), or gray-purple background (25%). No signs of fatigue were observed only after working with DS on a lettuce green background. Thus, the presented results evidence that the most favorable color of the DS background is lettuce green."
- Mickey Schafer
language in the article is quite different from typical "English" publications but I thought the main result was fairly interesting -- not an OA article, but interesting results! However, they don't define "lettuce green" -- I was expecting a red blue green value.
- Mickey Schafer
I'd want to know a lot about the lighting in the room, too.
- D0r0th34
the article is an interesting mix of detail and missing detail. There is a reference trail in the paper regarding proper "hygienic" and "physiological" characteristics of computer use by children -- lighting could be in that trail somewhere.
- Mickey Schafer
"Believe it or not, computer games can be healthy": http://www.webmd.com/balance...
Mike Chelen, Holly Rae, FFer and Steve Koch liked this
read this in print form while awaiting my h1n1 flu mist -- sooo looking forward to exercising valid excuse to play online!
- Mickey Schafer
I'm pretty sure everyone I know has played a bunch of computer games. The others must have died off by now. :)
- Steve Koch
Depends how many lives they had, Steve.
- Matthew Todd
"An absolutely riveting online course: Nine principles for excellence in web-based teaching" -- http://www.cjlt.ca/index...
Mike Chelen, Daniel Mietchen and Jason Miller liked this
abstract: This article explores excellence in web-based teaching. Drawing on the views of experts in the field and the perspective of their own years of experience, the authors compiled a list of 9 principles to provide direction in the search for online excellence. The principles include: the online world is a medium unto itself; sense of community and social presence are essential to online excellence; in the online world, content is a verb; great online courses are defined by teaching, not technology. The list is not intended to be an exclusive set of principles or a comprehensive guide to online teaching. Rather it is a collection of important ideas and suggestions for teaching excellence in the online world.
- Mickey Schafer
"A special issue shift from dual medium to open access academic publishing" -- http://www.cjlt.ca/index...
Mike Chelen, Jim Till, D0r0th34 and Dimitrios Diamantaras liked this
"Therefore, the Fall 2008 print issue is the last hard copy version of CJLT that will be distributed by mail to Canadian Network for Innovation in Education (CNIE) members. Starting with Volume 35 in Winter 2009, CJLT completes the transformation from dual media to a fully open access journal. CJLT will provide immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. CNIE members will be notified by email as new issues of CJLT are published online."
- Mickey Schafer
"With the transition to open access, the CJLT Editorial team is in a great position to consider educational technology research and scholarship that goes beyond the primarily text and graphics rich print medium. While print journals continue to serve the research community well, it seems fitting for scholars in educational technology to chart and explore new Web 2.0 and Web 3.0...
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- Mickey Schafer
Researcher Jim Jansen On The “Sex” Of Search Queries & Personalization -- http://searchengineland.com/researc...
"Again, it’s a “why” thing. We spend a lot of time in web search trying to personalize to the individual level and really haven’t got very far. But now people are trying to do things like personalize to the task rather than the individual person, and there’s some interesting things happening there. Spell checks and query reformulations and things like that are very task-oriented rather than individual searcher oriented."
- Mickey Schafer
Jansen's page: http://jimjansen.blogspot.com/2009...
- Mickey Schafer
on the counter-intuitive "mystery" that gender-neutral queries were more successful "We looked at it this way: not whether the searcher was male or female but did the particular query fit a gender stereotype—did it have a kind of a male, for example, feel to it or stereotype implications?"
- Mickey Schafer
*jaw drops* This is so methodologically ludicrous it makes my head hurt.
- D0r0th34
Good resource for understanding ethical writing -- and written for students in the sciences (much work on plagiarism and such is done from a humanities perspective) -- "Avoiding plagiarism, self-plagiarism, and other questionable writing practices: A guide to ethical writing" -- http://facpub.stjohns.edu/~roigm... -- freely available
Katy S, 'Mummi' Thorisson, Jo Badge and Mike Chelen liked this
ah, so self-plagiarism would be to include one's prior works without proper citation?
- Mike Chelen
An interesting and useful distinction between research and scholarly writing and ordinary freelance writing. For freelancers, "self-plagiarism" is another term for survival--reusing good material in as many venues as possible.
- Walt Crawford
Self-plagiarism is the one that trips most students up -- in fact, I was asked privately by a colleague to defend a student (freshman) who's failed a class b/c of this; my colleague had never heard of such a thing. But, rather like publishing a paper, you are not allowed to use the same work twice w/out instructor permission. One rather frequent violation is among my premed students who...
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- Mickey Schafer
Walt -- and the same goes for teaching! Imagine never being able to use a lesson plan or activity in a class with a different employer. But the model in college/university is much closer to that of academic publishing as opposed to almost any other kind of trade publication. Personally (and I teach my students this strategy), while in college, I would take at least 2 classes similar enough in content that I could at least share part of a bibliography, even if the papers I wrote were distinct.
- Mickey Schafer
Pages 11-15 on "highly technical language" are the ones I really focus on -- my answer to this is to teach students to synthesize sources, which is what this little blurb is aimed to do: http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users...
- Mickey Schafer
@mickey your synthesising sources blurb is fab stuff! Do you mind if I share it with some colleagues at Leicester? we have an online tutorial designed to help students avoid plagiarism - see: http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices... the first one was written for biologists, but then it went on to be customised for lots of subjects. The subject specific nature helps deal with some of the issues you have raised above.
- Jo Badge
I'd be happy for you to use it, Jo! It's the rough draft of part of a "manuscript" I've been working on for too long now. Considering just tidying everything up and dumping it online somewhere to see if it can be of use. For my classes, I do dredge up discipline-specific examples for students to practice on. I pull out individual paragraphs rather than have them look at whole articles -- it's all for practice before writing review papers.
- Mickey Schafer
Is anyone else experiencing FF problems the last couple days? I've been getting many stalls and error messages.
Once in a while, yes--just as FB has recently been stalling a lot. (In my experience, FB is doing much worse than FF.)
- Walt Crawford
Thanks, Walt. It's been frustrating, and yesterday while showing FF to a student, was a bit embarrassing -- he's actually pretty tech savvy, though, and did a good job of being impressed by FF, Delicious, Open Access, and JoVE.
- Mickey Schafer
noticed this last night - taking it as a sign some work is being done to move FF onto new servers
- Dan Freeman
live tech demos are always a crapshoot - I've been lucky for the most part this term - at least with FF
- Jean-Claude Bradley
October 2009 -- my one year anniversary of having discovered web/science 2.0:-).
Jean-Claude Bradley liked this
A bit of experiential evidence "The Future of Textbooks?" in Electronic Journal of Sociology -- http://www.sociology.org/content...
Jean-Claude Bradley liked this
specifically, the author used wikibooks as a solution to the problems of textbooks: "I believe my favorite description of textbooks was that of a colleague who described them as 'a necessary evil.' Why a necessary evil? Textbooks boil down subject matter to its simplest form, facilitating digestion, but foregoing complexity."
- Mickey Schafer
http://reactome.org describes itself as a textbook. The whole pdf version of the database is available for download
- Frank
Thanks for the link, Frank. That's a useful site, and I'll pass it on to my students.
- Mickey Schafer
For those teaching undergrads and perhaps early grad students, two NSTA "College Science Teaching" publications I thought might be of use. Please excuse the lousy pdf quality -- the scanner isn't great, and I had to copy from the publication since it isn't OA!
Maxamad (Amazigh) liked this
"A Versatile Module to Improve Understanding of Scientific Literature through Peer Instruction" -- this article looks at a means of teaching content (which is different from what I do) to undergrads dealing with the primary literature for the first time. Though biology, the method is adaptable to any science. http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users...
- Mickey Schafer
""Web-based Learning Enhancements: Video Lectures Through Voice-Over PowerPoint in a Majors-Level Biology Course" -- this article examined the effectiveness of using web-based modules for self-guided learning of some core course material. http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users...
- Mickey Schafer
Must be in a political frame of mind: "Apps for Republicans in Congress" -- a worthwhile way to spend a couple minutes! http://www.youtube.com/watch...
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More fun with links -- from Lifehacker "Top 10 Web Collaboration Tools that are not Google Wave" http://lifehacker.com/5373339...
Daniel Mietchen, Joel Zehring and Andrew Su liked this
The Best Web 2.0 Applications for Education -- http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2009...
Daniel Mietchen liked this
I hadn't heard of many of these, so thought this list could be of use!
- Mickey Schafer
bought the livescribe pen today -- wanted it in time for OA week!
Pierre Lindenbaum and Graham Steel liked this
That reminds me -- Bora, how do you like yours?
- Bill Hooker
http://directory.scienceafters... -- CSAS National STEM Directory
"Welcome to the CSAS National STEM Directory, a resource designed to help parents and young people access science and technology learning opportunities in their communities. This tool was developed in partnership with Time Warner Cable as part of a new soon-to-be-announced philanthropic initiative."
- Mickey Schafer
OA in Haiku? SHERPA sponsors competition for spirit of OA in Haiku -- http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/
Daniel Mietchen liked this
the most direct route: http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/news...
- Mickey Schafer
Hi, Folks -- a PLoS publishing question -- a former student of mine (doing grad work in autism - vestibular system connection) is in grad school and has her project ready for publication. She's been accepted to a small, very specific OT pub, one UF doesn't even have a sub. to and so she went and purchased one herself.
Shirley Wu, Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie), Steve Koch and OpenSci Info liked this
I've suggested that she consider PLoS as an alternative, and she's interested in that (potentially wider audience!), but is a bit nervous about the "commenting" function...doesn't want to get "trashed" on her first publication. What is the best way of demonstrating this function, and quelling her nerves?
- Mickey Schafer
I imagine passing a formal peer review stage should reduce the odds of her getting trashed post-publication significantly. Then again, I don't know what the OT/UF pub/sub things mean, so maybe I'm missing an important detail :)
- Wobbler
oops! OT = occupational therapy; pub = publication; sub = subscription -- she was invited by her initial journal choice to submit a brief report. This is original work for her (she had the idea, she did the initial studies as an undergrad; she was "accepted" into grad school to finish her work before she'd even applied; she's now finished the project). I said I'd help with the manuscript. The point about passing peer review is a good one! I guess I should have though of that...:-).
- Mickey Schafer
I'm confused too, a bit. But...As for worry about PLoS, you and her could have a competition to see who can find more examples of papers that have been trashed so far. I've never seen one :)
- Steve Koch
You could point out that very few papers receive comments ;-) Of those that do, I've never seen "trashing".
- Neil Saunders
Unfortunately, what Steve and Neil said ;-)
- Bora Zivkovic
I don't think she'll jeopardize her acceptance if she CommentPresses the work (or something similar). Find out first, of course, but that may be a way through.
- D0r0th34
@bora, tell them to add openID and Facebook connect. When I added anonymous commenting to my site, people actually started commenting on articles because they didn't have to register. Unless if you think the only worthwhile comments will come from those who will sign up for an account? I think it's worth a shot. As far as this post goes, I think your student should be confident in the...
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- Brian Krueger - LabSpaces
@Brian - second that. Often I just can't be bothered to register on a blog site to comment, BUT if I can quickly sign in via my OpenID (as in single sign-on) it lowers the bar substantially for me. Anonymity isn't an issue to me, but registering again and again all over is a killer.
- 'Mummi' Thorisson
I did mention that relatively few comments get posted...her PI is more concerned that PLoS One doesn't have a citations ranking yet, though he did say that both PLoS Medicine and Biology are "highly regarded" -- so far, she's really interested in some kind of OA publication since she sees the value of immediate access to a wider audience. I've also recommended she explore some of the...
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- Mickey Schafer
I also agree with Brian. IMO, the only real issue about getting "bad" feedback is that you usually can't do a whole lot about it. It's not like you can just "open, edit, save, republish" your article. Still, if PLoS thinks it's good enough to publish (after revisions from the peer review feedback, optionally), it's unlikely that she'll get trashed.
- Wobbler
Right now, I'm experiencing an interesting sense of caution -- this is her professional life, not mine. My job is to help her succeed in her profession, so the question emerges what is the best model for early, pre-doctoral, pre-tenure-track-position publication? I tend to think OA is a good route b/c the potential for article-level citation counts shows a positive impact; clearly, her PI is going with the highest IF available, and that makes sense for post-docs/jobs.
- Mickey Schafer
A question about Mendeley -- I work in a networked environment that prohibits downloads without permission. I can get it for an obvious academic tool like Mendeley, but to save time, does anyone know if the Mendeley desktop can run off a flash drive?
Mike Chelen and Bora Zivkovic liked this
We are working on it - it's almost ready, next release will have it! Right now, if you used it, Mendeley would always store all personal information on the computer you are using the USB stick with. And since we haven't really tested it I would recommend not doing it at the moment...
- Jan / Mendeley.com
Thanks, Jan! The IT folks have granted permission to download the desktop, but since I work on different machines, it would be useful to carry around a USB stick. Also, since I want to work a demo into a page for students about using academic book marking sites, any kind of portability helps.
- Mickey Schafer
from email
I see - if you work on different machines, for now you can also sync your library and access from different machines (and also online).
- Jan / Mendeley.com
One option might be Portable Ubuntu http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardwar... which can run off a USB stick without installing anything. For systems where the app is installed, online sync works well.
- Mike Chelen
Thanks, Mike.
- Mickey Schafer
from email
portable ubuntu might be overkill, but it's pretty flexible. sounds like mendeley could use a windows portable version like the http://portableapps.com/ apps
- Mike Chelen
More fun online -- world's "biggest" game of monopoly, courtesy Google maps: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2...
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