Campus Tech
Can you blame Facebook for your bad grades? Maybe.
Some activities may lead to lower marks
Photo by Spencer E Holtaway on Flickr
It’s common to use Facebook as a scapegoat for poor academic performance. That’s because a few small studies have shown that grades are lower among students who spend more time on the social media site. The assumption has always been that more time spent on Facebook translates to less time spent studying, which leads to lower grades.
But a newer, bigger U.S. study has found that Facebook time and study time are only weakly related. It takes many extra hours of posting and chatting before grades start to slip. What’s more, although the new study found negative relationships between grades and certain types of Facebook activities, other types of activities appear to be a associated with higher grades.
Continue reading Can you blame Facebook for your bad grades? Maybe.
School uses app to keep freshmen out of parties
Students worry about privacy
Photo by Brian Lane Winfield Moore on Flickr
An American university has gone to great lengths to enforce its new rule that first-semester students may not attend fraternity or sorority events.
Cornell University is releasing an ID scanning application for Apple devices. Fraternity and sorority party organizers will be required to borrowan iPod with the application installed from the school, which they’ll use at the doors of their social events. The app allows them to check student’s names, class years and whether they’ve reached 21, the legal drinking age in the U.S.
The information scanned is accessible “to a limited few in our office… and stored on a secure server with no plans to share further,” Travis Apgar, associate dean of students for fraternity and sorority affairs, told The Sun. “The use of the scanners will improve [the Greek community’s] management of risk by properly identifying the class year of attendees,” he said.
Continue reading School uses app to keep freshmen out of parties
Concordia library to start lending out iPads
But is it a good use of tuition money?
Photo by Rego - d4u.hu on Flickr
Concordia University’s library will lend out iPads to students starting this month. OpenFile Montreal reports that the library has acquired 25 of the tablet computers and they’re almost ready to go.
Concordia, like many schools, lends out laptops. That’s undoubtedly a useful service for students who want to do research in the library instead of carting home a pile of books. And not everyone can afford a laptop, so this improves access.
But while a number of American university libraries lend out iPads to students, Concordia is the first university in Quebec to do so. Some universities, including nearby McGill, offer e-readers, but iPad lending appears to be rare in Canada. The only other example I can find, using an (albeit non-exhaustive) Google search, is at York University’s Steacie Science and Engineering Library. They have a single solitary iPad to lend.
Continue reading Concordia library to start lending out iPads
Five more apps for students
Improve your finances, romantic life, grades, research…
Photo by miss karen on Flickr
Scott Dobson-Mitchell has sifted through dozens of apps for students. Earlier this month, he reviewed five of his favourites. Here are five more.
Tired of your parents nagging you about wasting money? Now there’s a website that can do that for them! Mint offers tools for budgeting, tracking investments (like you have any) and managing your money. When it’s time to pay a bill, it sends a reminder via e-mail or text message. The website also categorizes all the money you make and spend and then gives you ‘personalized recommendations.’ Can you still afford pizza night after buying textbooks? Mint can tell you. Free for Android and iPhone.
Want free pizza? Hazy about last night? Try these apps.
Scott Dobson-Mitchell reviews five apps for students
Photo courtesy of Alla_G on Flickr
1) FoodBot [mobile site]
Nevermind medical diagnoses or space exploration. Artificial intelligence has found a more important calling — locating free food on campus! FoodBot combs the web for events where free food has been advertised, such as fundraisers, job fairs and council meetings. It puts them on a calendar that details quality, quantity, time commitment, and — importantly — awkwardness. Too bad it’s only available at a few schools so far.
Continue reading Want free pizza? Hazy about last night? Try these apps.
Dalhousie abandons anti-plagiarism software
Victory for student groups
A majority of university presidents in the U.S. (55 per cent of them) say that plagiarism has increased in the past 10 years. Of those, 89 per cent blame the Internet, says a new study by Pew.
Many universities have fought back by using software like Turnitin, which forces students to upload their papers to be scanned against a database of published works, before their professors grade them. If passages appear to have been copied, the professor is informed and may investigate.
But profs at Dalhousie University learned this week that they no longer have access to the software, in part because papers were being stored on U.S. servers against the school’s wishes, Dwight Fischer, the school’s Chief Information Officer told the Toronto Star.
Continue reading Dalhousie abandons anti-plagiarism software
Five websites all students should bookmark
Study, research and procrastinate like never before!
Photo courtesy of kennymatic on Flickr
1) AbeBooks
There’s nothing worse than paying $100 for a book that’s going to make your life miserable (I’m thinking of you, Organic Chemistry). In some cases, you might think that you’re actually finding it interesting, but it’s probably Stockholm Syndrome. Once rescued from your hostage takers by the sweet December holiday break, you won’t want to see that book ever again.
That’s where sites like AbeBooks come in. You can buy used copies for a fraction of the regular price, or older editions that are even cheaper. In most cases, older editions are practically identical to new ones, except for a few diagrams. When you’re finished, sell the books back to the site.
Stanford virtual course attracts 58,000
Professors want to help students in developing world
Photo courtesy of Abode of Chaos on Flickr
How much demand is there for free online education? When the topic is Artificial Intelligence and the teachers are star Stanford University professors, the answer is 58,000 people from 175 different countries, reports The New York Times. That’s how many have expressed interest in an experimental course that will offer no credits, but will instead consist of virtual lectures, assignments, a ranking in comparison to other students and a “statement of accomplishment.”
The instructors are Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig. Thrun is well-known for his robotic cars. Norvig is Google’s director of research. News of the course went viral after an e-mail was sent out to members of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence earlier this summer.
Website hooks students up with “sugar daddies”
“Arrangements” help women pay off student loans: founder
Photo courtesy of Photocology on Flickr
A dating website offers young women — who it calls Sugar Babies — the opportunity to meet up with wealthy older men —- a.k.a. Sugar Daddies.
SeekingArrangement.com is especially popular with students who have school debt, Brandon Wade, the site’s founder told WCBV Boston.
“Out of brutal honesty, [users of the website] form mutually beneficial relationships,” Wade explained, adding that it’s not a prostiution site.
But on the homepage, young women are told to sign up if they “seek a generous Benefactor to pamper, mentor and take care of you — perhaps to help you financially?” And older men (and women) are told they might find, “someone special to spoil… perhaps a secret lover? student?…”
Continue reading Website hooks students up with “sugar daddies”
Students can now buy and sell notes
Is sharing notes cheating?
Photo courtesy of Tulane Publications on Flickr
It was two o’clock in the morning on the night before her physiology mid-term when Jennifer Hidy turned on her laptop and saw what she calls “the blue screen of death.” A virus had killed her hard drive, erasing all of the carefully curated lecture notes that she was planning to read in the wee hours of the morning before her nine o’clock exam. She had visions of failure. She considered calling a friend. Then she remembered hearing about a new website called Notesolution.
Hidy headed to the school library, entered her University of Toronto email address into the site and—much to her relief—found that someone else had uploaded notes for her physiology classes. She printed them off and studied. A mere seven hours after recoiling from the blue screen, she sat down and aced her exam.
The best university lectures to go
Catch up on everything you wish you’d learned in school
Photo courtesy of pamhule on Flickr
You’ve grasped the intricacies of quantum mechanics, toured the great museums of Europe, understood the significance of the Peloponnesian War and come to terms with why evil exists. So what’s next? Perhaps wine appreciation, the mysteries of brain science or Hitler’s rise to power.
Welcome to The Great Courses, a company that’s been selling erudite audio and video lectures delivered by top-notch professors to well-heeled and inquisitive American customers for over 20 years. Now it’s planning a big Canadian presence too. Minds: prepared to be expanded.
The course selection at The Great Courses reads like an educational playground for the intellectually curious. It’s as broad and detailed as any university course calendar, although much more convenient. Courses typically consist of 12 to 36 half-hour lectures on CD, DVD or audio file. Packed with undergraduate-level information, each lecture is short enough to enjoy while commuting, after dinner, or while killing time during your kid’s dance lesson.
Study finds 80 per cent of students “sext”
Beware of child pornography laws, say researchers
Photo courtesy of Chris JL on Flickr
Nearly 80 percent of students have received sexually-suggestive messages, say researchers from the University of Rhode Island.
And they’re warning students about the legal implications “sexting.”
Sue Adams and Tiffani Kisler found that 78 per cent of the 204 students they surveyed had received sexually-suggestive messages via text message. And 56 per cent had received sexually-suggestive images on their phones. Of those messages, 73 per cent were from a partner — but 10 per cent were unsolicited.
That’s a problem, they say, considering that “sexting” is illegal for minors in Rhode Island.
Canadian teens should be cautious too. An 18-year-old Alberta man was charged in 2007 with possessing and distributing child pornography after he showed friends sexually-suggestive pictures that were forwarded to him by a 15-year-old girl. He pleaded guilty to a less severe charge.
Want to save hundreds of dollars this year?
Digital textbooks proliferate
Photo courtesy of Cipher on Flickr
It may not make up for high tuition bills, but Canadian students may be able to save hundreds of dollars this year on textbooks — if they rent digital copies instead of buying print versions.
Follett, which owns 35 campus bookstores in Canada, will offer discount digital books through the website Rent-a-Text to students at all of the schools where it operates. For a list, click here.
A survey conducted by the National Association of College Stores shows just how quickly the rental trend (including old-fashioned prints rentals) is taking off. In January, rentals were available at 2,200 of the 3,100 of the NACS member bookstores — up from only 300 stores a year-and-a-half earlier.
Continue reading Want to save hundreds of dollars this year?
Search engines make us forgetful
Brain’s first response to questions: “where’s my computer?”
The Internet is making it more difficult for humans to remember certain types of information.
When presented with trivial questions, the human brain’s first thought is often about how to look up that information online, than the answer to the question. That’s according to new research printed today in the journal Science.
“We can “Google” the old classmate, find articles online, or look up the actor who was on the tip of our tongue,” they write. “When people expect to have future access to information, they have lower rates of recall of the information itself and enhanced recall instead for where to access it.”
Memories about where to find facts (rather than memories of facts themselves) are called “transactive memories.” They may explain why younger contestants fare so badly on the trivia show… what’s-it-called… with what’s-his-face Trebek. Hold on a minute. I need to look something up.
$38,000 scholarship for one Tweet
Essays are unoriginal, says student aid official
The University of Iowa is offering a $38,000 scholarship to its business school for the best tweet by a prospective student who explains why he or she will make a good MBA hire, reports USA Today. That’s right, it’s a 140-character application that pays $271 per letter.
Jodi Schafer, the University of Iowa’s director of MBA admissions and financial aid, told the newspaper that application essays were “becoming unoriginal,” She explained that, “we’re hoping that incorporating social media in the process will help bring back some of that creativity.” Students can include a link to anything they like in their tweet, including blogs, videos or Facebook accounts.
The University of Iowa isn’t the first school to eschew the 800-word entry essay in favour of the Tweet. Kentucky Fried Chicken received 2,800 applications for it’s $20,000 Twitter scholarship last year. To enter, students explained why they deserved the cash. The $20,000 winning entry was by a student who didn’t even use all 140 characters. She wrote that the scholarship “is the secret ingredient missing from my recipe for success.”
On Campus grades six university apps
One school gets an A-grade. Another failed the assignment.
Photo courtesy of UBC Alumni and University Relations
Universities in Canada are rushing to get their apps onto your phones and tablets. When done right, those apps can help potential students see into the soul of a campus. Even better, they can help current students find their way to lunch, to class and to enriching events. But when done poorly, apps can make a school look out totally of touch with technology. The lesson? Don’t rush your app schools. Here’s what we think of six Canadian universities’ apps for iPhone.
University of British Columbia — Grade: A
If every school made an app this good, then there would be no more paper brochures arriving in the mailbox, no one will ever get lost on campus, and no student would ever have an excuse to say that they’re bored.
Blanket-ban on social media in high schools
Rhode Island legislators say Facebook causes bullying
The U.S. state Rhode Island has passed an “anti-bullying” law that creates a state-wide ban on the use of social networking sites anywhere on school property. As The Huffington Post points out, that means students won’t be able to access the legislature’s own Facebook page, which could make it difficult for the government to extend its fan-base beyond the eight people who have “liked” it so far.
Plan to marry a lawyer? This site should help.
Dating website for students finds success in exclusivity
Photo courtesy of Kelley Mari on Flickr
DateMySchool.com wants you to know that, no, it’s not the same as Facebook and yes, it will come to Canada — eventually.
That’s good news if your plan is to meet a rich lawyer before the age of 30. Or just a nice girl from your school. Either way, the site could help you narrow your search.
DateMySchool is a quickly-growing American dating website that’s exclusively for students from exclusive schools. Many have likened it to Facebook and it’s easy to understand the comparison. The link spread to thousands of students at the Ivy-league school where it was launched in the first week in November 2010. Since it’s expansion to 140 universities, more than 20,000 students have signed up.
Continue reading Plan to marry a lawyer? This site should help.
Ivey School of Business uploads case studies to iTunes
First school to distribute this way
The Richard Ivey School of Business has become the first major school to make its case studies available on iTunes where they can be downloaded onto smart-phones and tablets for $3.99 each, reports the Financial Times. The Top 50 business school, which is part of the University of Western Ontario, has already uploaded 500 cases and will publish 200 more each year. Paul Beamish, director of Ivey Publishing told FT that, “It supports our emphasis on making Ivey cases easily accessible to everyone.” Ivey is one of the world’s four largest publishers of case studies.
Socials networks get academic
If you’re considering grad school, you should know about these sites
With social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter becoming increasing important for job hunting, social networks have slowly matured from being primarily a medium for posting embarrassing party photos to a legitimate professional development resource.
Still, I was surprised to learn that the social media model had spawned so many websites available to help connect academic researchers from universities around the world.
Sites such as ResearchGate and Scispace connect researchers by making use of social network features such as profiles, comment walls and blogs, but with a focus on sharing files and research tips rather than vacation updates. ResearchGATE also allows users to browse conferences and other events related to their field, as well as job listings and over 35 million documents.
