PSI Tutor:Mentor (Professional Support Insights)

The site is undergoing a spring clean to provide You, the student, with better access to resources that are relevant and useful to your needs, and to make navigation of the site that much easier  ~:-)

Meanwhile, here is a  collection of study resources for uni and college students. An actual carnival collection of blogs focused on study resources will be posted on the 3rd of November, 2009. Stay tuned~

Maria Gracia hosts the fantabulous site Get Organized Now which has thousands upon thousands of tips of use to the student, for de-cluttering, getting organised and basically just freeing up some space in your home, office, backpack and mind.

Tackling Your To Dos is Marie’s latest gem. Read through the article and then spend a few minutes (hours!) exploring the rest of the site.

Shalu Wasu has a guest article over at the inspirational site Tickled By Life titled, Avoiding Death By PowerPoint! What student, and student audience (not to mention tutors and lecturers), couldn’t use tips like this…? Note his “Rule” number 2, and how it relates to Rutledge’s article below…

Here is an excerpt from his article:

1. Don’t use too many words. Better still, don’t use them at all! I don’t like to use words in my presentations. I use pictures instead. If I have to, I will restrict the number of words to 3-5 (in font size 100+). If your slides contain the full text of what you want to say, you’ll be tempted to just read from them, rather than communicating with the people in the room, and most of your audience will be reading them instead of listening to you. My personal challenge is to go through an entire presentation without using any words at all! I will update this post when I am able to do that.

Joshua Kim guest posting at BlogU also shares insights about presentations, such as uploading them on Slideshare. Here is a snippet from his article, Slideshare predictions and wishes:

Every presentation that you make should be posted up to http://www.slideshare.net/ Every slide deck that your students create should be posted to Slideshare. Every conference presentation should have a Slideshare.

Also having a guest post at BlogU is Dean Dad with his insightful article, Seeing Like A Student. The sentiment of his article is one of the key reasons that I left my tutor position at my local uni to launch PSI Tutor:Mentor~ to provide resources and support to students as identified by them. Here is an excerpt from his article:

To better promote success, it appears that not only do particular student support services need to be in place — including in-depth orientations, proactive advising, early warning systems, and well-organized tutoring and other academic supports — but those services must be well coordinated among themselves and with academic programs. Seamless integration of programs and services from the student’s perspective and collaboration among faculty, staff, and administration are what seem to contribute most to student success. (emphasis added)

Oh Joy! The 6th and most recent edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association is “laden with errors”. Thankfully, a corrected edition is now on sale, however those who have purchased the first run are not about to be reimbursed. News at Inside Higher Ed shares in the article, Correcting a Style Guide:

“It’s egregious,” said John Foubert, an associate professor of education at Oklahoma State University, who bought two copies of the book – one for his office and one for home – when it was released in July. “These are the standards for how we write our manuscripts and how our students write their papers …. The irony is so thick.”

Libby Gruner guest posting at Mama PhD with her article, Mothering at Mid-Career: My take on “Opting Out”. Libby points to the view of Judith Warner’s report (The Choice Myth):

…every mother is a working mother. Warner goes on to note that, according to a 2007 study, “The only women ‘opting out’ in any significant numbers were the very richest — those with husbands earning more than $125,000 a year — and the very poorest — those with husbands earning less than $23,400 a year.” The reason those spouses of highly-paid husbands are “opting out,” by the way, may not be “choice” in the sense we usually use the term; rather, those high salaries may demand the kind of commitment that usually involves someone else—yes, a wife—at home taking care of family, social life, etc.

Dr. Pamela Rutledge blogs about The Media Psychology Research Center (MPRC) which is a not-for-profit research center. The center explores the human-media interaction and so their blog may be of great interest to social science students.

Rutledge’s article Drucker and Facebook- Organizing for Change focuses on Drucker’s insights about organisations emphasizing innovation. Students too can take a leaf from the management guru’s articles, in that practices of study need to be geared for “creative destruction” too, in order to discover methods that work for you.

Suzen’s inspirational blog Erasing the Bored delivers a slice of the funnies from the 2006 Montreal Comedy Festival, with a vid clip of Cohen Barron (one of Australia’s best comedians). His piece is all about the power of words~ as a student you need to watch this!

2009 Technology Innovators Conference, November 16-17,  Washington, DC, The Madison Hotel. Register now! This looks like a conference I would love to attend, though my budget and lifestyle at moment does not allow. However, don’t let it stop you if you are in Washington for this two day event. Here is part of the overview of the conference from the National Tech Center website:

The 2009 NCTI Technology Innovators Conference, Educational Futures — Powered by Technology, will focus on how learning and assistive technologies can supercharge education for all students.

With “must-attend” keynote speeches, engaging panel discussions, powerful presentations, and the extraordinary opportunity to network with fellow leaders and innovators representing exciting programs across the country…this is YOUR conference!

Over 200 nationally recognized leaders from academia, corporations, government and the media will examine the big ideas that have emerged to strengthen teaching and learning through the effective use of technology. The presentations will focus on best and emerging practices to ensure that all students, particularly struggling learners, fulfill their academic and social potential.

Evidently an awesome opprotunity for social science students in Washington over the two day s of the conference.

What study resources have helped you recently?

• What if retired profs offer to help and no one listens? (scienceblogs.com)
• Yet Another Adjunct Is Fired for the Truth: San Antonio College Punishes Adjunct Gerald J. Davey (unaskedadvice.wordpress.com)
• Shooting for the Moon: How Universities Can Turn Innovation into Companies (techcrunch.com)