Amy L. Cavender, CSC

My latest at ProfHacker: Managing Email with Postbox

acavender — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:14:04 +0000

Since we launched in 2009, we’ve written a lot about email here at ProfHacker. No doubt that’s a reflection of just how much email is involved in our day-to-day work. And whether you love or hate email, whether you use your inbox as a task manger or strive for Inbox Zero, the stuff’s got to be managed somehow.

Those who prefer a desktop client for managing their email might consider giving Postbox (available for Windows and Mac; alas, there’s no Linux version available or planned) a look. After hearing about it for quite a while, I recently decided to give it a try, and so far, I really like it. (I was actually a little surprised that it hasn’t received much mention here, though it did make Ryan’s list in the 2011 Holiday Gift Guide.)

Here’s what I’m really liking about it:

It has a nice interface, with some options for customization.
It plays well with GMail, including…

from ProfHacker » Amy L. Cavender, CSC https://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/managing-email-with-postbox/39968

My latest at ProfHacker: Staying Productive on the Go with Onlive Desktop

acavender — Thu, 10 May 2012 15:12:41 +0000

Academics seem to travel a lot (at least, more than a lot of people). Whether that travel is for professional or personal reasons, we seem to travel with a fair amount of tech gear, including (usually) a laptop. Though laptops usually weigh no more than about five pounds—and netbooks and machines such as the Macbook Air weigh even less—it can still add up.

It’s tempting to leave the laptop at home and travel with just a tablet. Some people have tried that, including James Kendrik of ZDNet. We’ve even had a guest post about it here.

While some users have reported good results traveling with a tablet alone, others have been hesitant to take the plunge. Onlive Desktop may make the prospect more tempting.

Onlive provides access to a virtual Windows machine capable of running the full Microsoft Office suite and browsing the web (including sites that use Flash). Each user has…

from ProfHacker » Amy L. Cavender, CSC https://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/staying-productive-on-the-go-with-onlive-desktop/39820

My latest at ProfHacker: Standardization or Variety? Where’s the Balance?

acavender — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:12:41 +0000

A student’s lament: “One professor refuses to accept assignments electronically. Another only accepts assignments electronically. One professor wants me to use Microsoft Word for all my writing assignments. One doesn’t want to see anything with a .doc or .docx extension. One professor thinks that ‘electronic submission’ should translate to ‘send as an email attachment.’ One can’t stand attachments, and wants everything shared with her in Google Documents. One posts everything related to the class in Blackboard. One stays as far away from Blackboard as possible, and uses a combination of WordPress and Engrade. Arrgh!”

One can understand the student’s frustration, but is this lack of standardization necessarily a bad thing?

Yes, having to learn different systems for different instructors can be annoying. And granted, some institutions use an LMS for purposes that go far beyond the…

from ProfHacker » Amy L. Cavender, CSC https://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/standardization-or-variety-wheres-the-balance/39704

My latest at ProfHacker: Great Lakes THATCamp 2012

acavender — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 12:12:19 +0000

It’s no great secret that many of us here at ProfHacker are huge fans of the THATCamp series of unconferences; we’ve written quite a lot about these gatherings—and there’s really no reason to change that pattern, is there?

This past weekend I was fortunate enough to attend this year’s Great Lakes THATCamp, which was held on the campus of Western University in London, Ontario. Over 80 campers attended.

Like many THATCamps, this one had workshops (or “bootcamps”) as well as regular sessions. These were held on Friday, and gave early arrivals the opportunity to learn by doing. The only downside I found was having to choose among concurrent sessions; there’s no way, unfortunately, to do everything. I was able to participate in “Introduction to Arduino and Physical Computing,” “Introduction to TEI for Hypertext and Digital Archives,” and the “Drupal Site Building Sprint,” each of…

from ProfHacker » Amy L. Cavender, CSC https://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/great-lakes-thatcamp-2012/39644

My latest at ProfHacker: Managing Meeting Notes with Meshin Recall

acavender — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 12:12:45 +0000

Meetings, meetings, meetings. They’re part of many people’s lives, and there’s no exception for those of us in academia. Often, when we attend meetings, we need to keep notes about them.

One way, of course, is to do it the old-fashioned way: with pen and paper. Those who prefer to take notes electronically, however, might want to have a look at Meshin Recall. Meshin works in tandem with Evernote and with the calendar application on your iOS or Android device. Opening the application brings up an agenda view of your calendar events. Clicking the + sign next to an event starts a new note in Evernote; you can assign the note to any notebook you wish, and Meshin gives you the option to set a notebook as the default if you like.

You can quickly find your notes in one of two ways. If you want a quick overview of which calendar events have notes, just tap the icon in the top right corner …

from ProfHacker » Amy L. Cavender, CSC https://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/managing-meeting-notes-with-meshin-recall/39581

My latest at ProfHacker: Scheduling Email Revisited

acavender — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 15:12:12 +0000

Email. It often seems we’re inundated with it, like it or not. We’ve written a lot here at ProfHacker about managing it, including scheduling it with Boomerang, which works with both Outlook (free for the first 30 days, $29.95 to keep) and GMail (available in free, $4.99/month, and $14.99/month plans).

For me, the ability to schedule email is important. Sometimes I need or want to write an email while I’m thinking about it, but for whatever reason I don’t want to send it right away—and I simply don’t trust myself to remember to go back to my drafts folder and find it to send later. My mind is much more at ease when I’m able to just write the email, schedule it, and forget about it.

Though being able to schedule email is important for me, I don’t need to do it terribly often, so Boomerang’s free plan is usually sufficient for my purposes. Still, I was glad to have two…

from ProfHacker » Amy L. Cavender, CSC https://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/scheduling-email-revisited/39260

Welcome!

acavender — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 01:21:43 +0000

On March 28, 2012, this blog crashed and burned—as did all the other sites hosted on this domain. I’m still not entirely sure what happened, but I couldn’t fix it.

Since I was nearly at the end of my contract with my current hosting provider and had been planning to change providers at the end of the semester, anyway, I took the opportunity to move the blog and start over. I’ll be rebuilding it, and the other sites, over the next weeks.

Sites for my classes take priority, so there may not be a lot of activity on this blog for a while.

Fidelity

acavender — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 01:10:35 +0000

Last weekend I finally had the chance to see the much-acclaimed film, Of Gods and Men. The film tells the story of the Trappist monks from the monastery at Tibhirine, Algeria (they were kidnapped and murdered in 1996 during the Algerian Civil War).

Oddly enough, there’s only a bare minimum of graphic violence in the film. That’s because the film isn’t primarily about the war in Algeria.

Nor is it really a film about religion, per se.

Instead, it’s the story about the way the priests and brothers at the monastery made the decision to stay, though there were plenty of reasons for them to leave (and, given that all of them were French nationals, they had a much safer place to go). It was, to put it mildly, an extraordinarily difficult decision.

What, in the end, drove them to stay? A conviction that they were exactly where they were supposed to be, a loyalty to their neighbors in the village, and a commitment to honor that conviction and that loyalty, despite the possible cost. These guys weren’t seeking martyrdom. They simply wished to be faithful—and if martyrdom came, it came.

The film should be out on DVD soon, and it’s well worth the time spent viewing it.