April 2012
8 posts
9 tags
How to Make Yale Facebook Even Better
by Emmanuel Quartey
photo credit: susanvg via photo pin cc
In a recent post, I criticized the Yale Facebook site (a web app that allows students to look up information about their classmates) for looking like it hadn’t been updated since the early 90s. It seems like someone was thinking the same thing. Barely 3 days after the post went up, Yale Facebook has been given a gorgeous...
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Three Takeaways from Teaching with Technology...
by Emmanuel Quartey
Last week, the Wires Crossed team had the opportunity to present the project to staff members at Teaching with Technology Tuesday. The following is a round-up of three ideas that emerged during the Q&A session after the presentation.[[MORE]]
1) There is an incredible amount of student talent out there. With the right incentives, that talent could be directed towards...
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Inside a Yale Summer Session Online Class
by Emmanuel Quartey
We recently interviewed Richard Collins (Yale Summer Session Online Manager), who told us all about how students will be able to take Yale courses online for credit this summer. This video gives you an inside view of what an online class actually looks like.
Want to connect with Wires Crossed? Follow us @wires_crossed or email us at wirescrossedblog@gmail.com. More posts...
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PROFILE: Susan Gibbons (University Librarian, Yale...
by Emmanuel Quartey
Susan Gibbon has only been University Librarian for under a year, but she has quickly made her presence felt with a series of events and study breaks aimed at familiarizing Yalies with the resources available to them, and introducing them to the custodians of Yale’s famed collections.
In the following interview, Gibbons explains:
How the Library is incorporating...
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Box 63 and the Modern Restaurant
If you read Wires Crossed, you’ve probably thought once or twice about how social media has changed your life. But how has social media changed the expectations for small business? Wires Crossed sat down with Caroline Condon, social media director at Box 63, to find out. [[MORE]]
Situated just off Broadway in New Haven, Box 63 American Bar & Grill is the quintessential American...
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PROFILE: Jared Shenson and Charlie Croom...
by Emmanuel Quartey
Jared Shenson ‘12 and Charlie Croom ‘12.
This is an epic 3-part interview with Jared Shenson ‘12 and Charlie Croom ‘12, co-founders of Yale Bluebook, in which they talk about the experience of making Bluebook, and Yale’s growing startup community.[[MORE]]
In Part 1, Jared and Charlie talk about what motivated them to create Bluebook, and what...
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PROFILE: Diana E. E. Kleiner, Founding Project...
by Emmanuel Quartey
Diana E.E. Kleiner, Founding Project Director and Principal Investigator, Open Yale Courses; Dunham Professor of History of Art and Classics, Yale University.
If you’re curious about the changing nature of higher-ed, you absolutely can’t afford to miss this fantastic interview with, Diana E.E. Kleiner as she discusses the lessons learned from spearheading...
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What do we mean by "eTextbooks"?
by Emmanuel Quartey
photo credit: Stanford EdTech via photopin cc
This post is the result of three things.
Firstly, after years of watching from the sidelines, I’m using DC Comics’ massive reboot as an opportunity to get into comics for the first time. As part of the reboot (all DC titles are reverting to issue #1), the digital versions of the comics go out on the same day that...
March 2012
13 posts
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Rebtel Is An International Student's Best Friend
by Emmanuel Quartey
Once in a while, something comes along that solves a painful problem so elegantly that it leaves you speechless. For me, the pain point was the intensely unpleasant process of using international phone cards to call my family in Ghana. This is the story of how Rebtel allowed me to call my family more often (and basically saved me from being disowned).[[MORE]]
Before I...
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REVIEW: Yale Dining Fast Track App for Android
by Emmanuel Quartey
It took a few months, but Yale Dining finally released a Beta version of its Fast Track app for Android a few weeks ago. It’s not perfect, but it’s still worth adding to your app tray.[[MORE]]
First, it’s worth pointing out that I wasn’t able to find the application in the Android Market. It seems that the only way to get the application is to...
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Yale Wiki Is The Most Comprehensive, Living...
by Emmanuel Quartey
Remember EverythingUseful, the compilation of great-to-know tips for life at Yale? Well multiply that ten-fold and what you get is Yale Wiki, ” a centralized place to organize all Yale-related knowledge.”[[MORE]]
As a senior, this is yet another thing I wish existed four years ago. It’s insanely useful, and the wiki format allows Yalies to help each other...
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Help Redesign The Yale Library Website
by Emmanuel Quartey
photo credit: garden beth via photopin cc
The Yale Library is redesigning the homepage of its website, and it wants to know what you think. The survey literally takes less than 5 minutes to complete, and your suggestions will actually have a huge impact on the outcome.
Is there something about the site that has always bugged you? This is your chance to let them know so...
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Optimize Yale Dining Website for Mobile
by Emmanuel Quartey
This is what happens when I try browsing the Yale Dining site on a Samsung Galaxy S II.
The central image awkwardly covers items at the bottom.
This is what happens when I try to bring up the list of links in the Quick links drop-down.
Again, the central image obscures important navigation items. I should also mention that the size and the placement of the Quick links...
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PROFILE: Richard Collins, Yale Summer Session...
by Emmanuel Quartey
A few weeks ago, I discovered that Yale will be offering accredited online classes this summer. I met up with Richard Collins, Yale Summer Session’s new Online Learning Manager, to discuss how the University is approaching it’s first accredited online learning initiative.[[MORE]] Wires Crossed: Thanks for taking the time to talk to Wires Crossed, Rich. Could you begin by...
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Required Twitter Follows for Students: Political...
By Henry Furman
Despite Mom’s gripes about technology, Twitter is a great source for news and education when sifting through the Times isn’t going to fit into your schedule. But it goes deeper than following CNN Breaking News. Here’s a few of our favorite accounts for aspiring presidents and lawyers. [[MORE]]
1. @nprpolitics & @foxnewspolitics
Keep your friends close and...
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Review: Goodreader
By Salvador Fernández
Now, you might be thinking, “We’ve already talked about Goodreader! This isn’t new.” Well, that was brief. Time to go in-depth![[MORE]]
As mentioned previously, Goodreader is an awesome PDF annotator on the iPad. I have used it for all my Cell Bio notes, especially because all the lecture slides are posted online before the lecture. If your lecture...
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It's Time to Rethink the Résumé
by Emmanuel Quartey
photo credit: scottkellum via photopin cc
Real talk. I think it’s time to rethink the role that the one-page résumé plays in the recruiting/job search process. Here is the problem: after many hours spent trying to distill a lifetime of experiences, passions and accomplishments into a single 8.5” x 11” sheet of paper, I feel like this document barely begins...
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You Need to Check Out Yale's Facebook Timeline
by Emmanuel Quartey
If you haven’t gotten around to it yet, you really should take a look at the Yale Facebook Timeline. At first, it looks like any other Facebook fan page in the new timeline layout, but if you look to the right, you’ll see that the timeline encapsulates all of Yale’s 300 year history, all the way back to 1701, when the University was founded.
I love how...
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Foursquare at Yale
by Emmanuel Quartey
I finally got around to checking out Foursquare. This is what I found.
1) Deals and discounts: I was pleasantly surprised to discover that a number of local businesses are offering rewards for checking in on Foursquare. For instance, Box 63 offers two Foursquare specials, a Flash Special, where “You buy the meal, [Box] buy the drink!!” and a Friends Special,...
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Yale's eBook Lending Program Is A Great Idea, But...
by Emmanuel Quartey
I should preface this by saying that when I first saw the posters announcing Yale’s eBook lending program, I cheered. I want the initiative to succeed. I really do. But after after trying it out, I’m sorry to say that it fell short of expectations.
BACKGROUND
The Yale University Library has partnered with OverDrive Media to allow Yalies to download eBooks and...
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List of Prizes Sponsored by the Yale University...
by Emmanuel Quartey
photo credit: kevinthoule via photopin cc
If you’re a Yale undergrad who has written at least one paper, you might want to check out this list of all the prizes sponsored by the Yale University Library.
Some of the prizes reward research based on the Library’s vast archives, while others celebrate outstanding scholarship within broad categories. Some examples:
...
February 2012
16 posts
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The Inconveniences of Spotify
by Henry Furman
The marquee innovation in the music industry in the past twelve months, Spotify, has changed everything. Since July, American users have had a majority of the world’s music at their fingertips. All for free, making the potential for discovery and thorough appreciation endless. But what does this mean for the money and time we’ve put into our personal music collections?
Spotify is...
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YouTube in the Classroom
by Emmanuel Quartey
When I think of YouTube, I think cat videos and music, not educational content - seems like the YouTube Powers-That-Be are trying to change that.
YouTube Education brings some of the best educational content on the video platform into one place, featuring lessons from a variety of great sources.
YouTube for Schools allows instructors to create course from any of the...
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Do you know who your Yale Personal Librarian is?
by Emmanuel Quartey
Fun fact: if you’re a Yalie, you’ve been assigned a Personal Librarian who can help you navigate Yale’s vast library resources. Can’t remember who your personal librarian is, or curious about the program? You can find out here.
Each major also has a Subject Specialist, who you can contact about more advanced research within your discipline, which is...
14 tags
The iPad as a Reading Device
by Emmanuel Quartey
File this one under “arguments for why touch tablets have a role in education.”
I’m not quite sure when it happened, but my iPad has suddenly become my primary reading device. Blogs, tweets, class readings, articles - if it’s text, I instinctively reach for the tablet.
It started with GoodReader, a fantastic application that helps me organize and...
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Take Yale classes online. For credit. But... →
by Emmanuel Quartey
photo credit: Lauren Manning via photopin cc
I don’t know why this isn’t a bigger deal on the interwebs, but you can now take nine Yale Summer Session courses for full Yale credit in Summer 2012. The courses are:
SESSION A (June 4-July 6)
ENGL S220E Milton, John Rogers
MUSI S265E Jazz and Race in America, Tom Duffy
PSYC S110E Introduction to Psychology,...
Mindshift
coursekit:
Really been enjoying MindShift lately. The NPR off-shoot site chronicles the future of learning. Their catchphrase - “how we will learn” - pretty much sums it up.
A couple must reads:
Ernest Hemingway Meets “This American Life”: the New English Lit Class
Do Students Have Copyright to Their Own Notes?
What If Robots Taught Kids?
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First Impressions of Apple's iTextbook
by Emmanuel Quartey
Cinematic opening sequence of “E. O. Wilson’s Life on Earth”.
Apple made waves last month with its entry into the digital textbooks market. The commentary around the announcement was impassioned, but for this post, I’m not going to revisit the arguments for/against the iTextbook. Rather, I’m just going to speak to my experience of reading...
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Top Three (Free) iPad Flashcard Apps for Students
by Emmanuel Quartey
photo credit: d3b…* via photopin cc
It’s already midterm season, which means that if you’re taking a class that requires a lot of memorization, you’re going to need to come up with a way to commit all those terms to memory. Flashcards are a tried and true method of getting the job done, but writing out dozens of physical flashcards can be a chore....
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Presenting Wires Crossed to the Trumbull Fellows
by Emmanuel Quartey
Last Thursday, we had the pleasure of presenting before the Trumbull Fellows, a group of instructors and professionals affiliated with Trumbull College. It was a much larger turn-out than we were expecting, and underscored in my mind how deeply curious educators are about the emergent tools that promise to aid learning.
We introduced them to examples of student-led...
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Potential and Possibilities at the Bass Media Fair
By Austin Bernhardt
Listen up, Yalies: renting and using equipment from Bass Media has never been easier. This past Saturday, ITS hosted what it hopes will become an annual fair to show off some of its latest acquisitions, as well as to spread the word regarding some of their new programs. If the news isn’t groundbreaking per se, it’s definitely exciting for anybody interested in...
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Top Five iPad Note Taking Apps for Students
By Henry Furman
As the iPad continues to trickle into every little niche of productivity you never thought it would, more and more students, from grade school to grad school, are finding it conducive to learning. Whether it’s Apple’s launching of iBooks Textbooks or the countless number of flashcard apps that make Spanish vocabulary a little less painless, iPads have asserted...
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HackYale alum launches car sharing platform for...
by Emmanuel Quartey
Will Moritz (TC ‘12) just launched a car sharing service for Yalies called Friends With Wheels. It’s a platform that allows Yalies to find cars at a better price than Zipcar, and allows students with an idle set of wheels to make a little money.
The idea for the site came from Will’s frustration as a freshman. He says, “I always wanted a car as a...
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Top 10 ‘Metatrends’ Shaping Educational Technology
coursekit:
Here are the Top 10 ‘Metatrends’ Shaping Educational Technology, as decided by the New Media Consortium conference sketched out!
A favorite was what they referred to as “transparency movements.” This essentially referred to the recent open data and open-educational resource trends that are disrupting content ownership of the textbook days.
via The Chronicle
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Bass Media Fair this Saturday!
by Emmanuel Quartey
At the first-ever Bass Media Fair, Yalies can get their hands dirty with the ever-popular Bass Media Equipment Checkout program’s equipment! We’re unveiling new items, a new consulting aspect of the program, and we’ll have 3 media demos during the event.
Come play with our cameras, ask questions about hardware and software, and find out more about how our...
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Sign up for the Yale Hackathon!
by Emmanuel Quartey
From the Computing and the Arts email list:
YALE HACKATHON Yale Hackers (Undergraduate Computing Club) is having a hackathon two weekends from now. The theme of the hackathon is making life more efficient. How can you play into the laziness of Yale students? How could you automate your life? We’ll have food, prizes and sponsorship from great potential employers, so...
4 tags
The second most popular online social network at...
by Emmanuel Quartey
Image from Yale Daily News
Quick, what’s the second most popular online social network at Yale? I’m willing to bet that after Facebook, the site that most Yalies are posting/lurking/procrastinating on is YaleFML.com.
Anisha Suterwala recently wrote a nice YDN piece about this unique anonymous hangout. It’s fascinating to see the many different functions...
January 2012
16 posts
7 tags
Idea Wall responses
by Emmanuel Quartey
photo credit: smokeghost via photopin cc
Erin Scott from Academic Computing Resources wrote to mention helpful resources for meeting some of the wants identified on the Idea Wall.
IDEA WALL #2
2. Registered student organizations should be able to access a basic CMS (content management system) for putting up basic, smart-looking websites.
“There is answer to #2 on...
6 tags
Sal's Attempt to Go Mobile: Part 1?
by Salvador Fernández
Source: macstories.net (To be replaced with original picture)
For many people, mobile technologies are completely separate from classes. At least for me, I was used to taking all my notes by hand, buying a stack of notebooks at the beginning of each semester. I even had difficulties using my laptop for notes, because the wonders of the internet promised easy distraction....
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Free audio workshops at the Digital Media Center...
by Emmanuel Quartey
Photo from the Yale School of Music website.
Are you a Yalie who enjoys making music? You’ll want to know about this.
The Digital Media Center for the Arts at Yale is a “multimedia facility created to establish connections between traditional art and the computer age.” In addition to making high quality equipment available for rent, the Center also...
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Help test a new, mobile-optimized version of...
by Emmanuel Quartey
The Yale Center for Media and Instructional Innovation (CMI2) is testing a new version of Classes*v2 optimized for mobile. Click here to sign up for the pilot.
Do it for SCIENCE.
For non-Yalies, Classes*v2 is Yale’s online learning environment, built on the Sakai platform.
p.s. Did you know that Yale had a Center for Media and Instructional Innovation?
Want to...
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Yale buys Lynda.com subscription for the entire...
by Emmanuel Quartey
Yalies now have free access to Lynda.com, the popular online learning platform where you can get video instruction in an insanely broad range of software and computer skills, including Photoshop, HTML/CSS and Apple programs like Final Cut Pro. This is the email announcing the subscription from John Eberhart, Director of Digital Media at the School of Architecture.
To all:
...
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The Best Classes*v2 Course Site at Yale: Roman...
by Emmanuel Quartey
So, I’m calling it right now: the Classes*v2 site for HSAR 252b: Roman Architecture is easily the best demonstration of the power of the platform that I’ve seen in my 3+ years at Yale.
Unsurprisingly, this class is taught by Diana E. E. Kleiner, the Founding Project Director of Open Yale Courses, whose commitment to improving Yale’s online offering comes...
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Education on a Digital Scale →
dbreunig:
Felix Salmon provides us with an update on Sebastian Thrun’s free Stanford class “Introduction to Artificial Intelligence”, which wrapped in last year:
Just a couple of datapoints from Thrun’s talk: there were more students in his course from Lithuania alone than there are students at…
One highlight:
Thrun was eloquent on the subject of how he realized that he had been...
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Tech Takedown 1: Chegg
By Salvador Fernández
Image source: AllThingsD.com
Now, for the first in a series of rants about any tech-related thing I can find. First target: Chegg.
Let’s start off by recognizing that their textbook rental service is brilliant. Nobody wants to pay for some overpriced textbooks every semester, especially when they have little use at the end of the year. You can resell them at the...
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Apple is Getting into the Textbooks/Education...
by Emmanuel Quartey
Apple’s Thursday education announcement has left educators and publishers wondering what the company’s new products mean for the future of learning.
The three major components of the announcement are as follows:
iBooks 2
This update to iBooks introduces textbooks with multimedia content, including 3D animation, video and sound clips and the ability to...
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Shopping Period Dispatch: The Laptop Policy...
by Emmanuel Quartey
photo credit: Anna Briggs via photopin cc
So, the professors of all three of my seminars began class by declaring their position on laptops/devices in the classroom: not allowed. All of them are trying this policy for the first time this semester, and I can’t say I blame them.
I’m really conflicted on this issue. On one hand, I can’t deny that tech can...
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Shopping Period Dispatch: The Pleasures of the...
by Austin Bernhardt
Photo from gourmet.com
One of our goals at Wires Crossed is to test the limits of mobile technology and its utility in everyday student life. Over the next week or so, we plan to put those tactics to use by using shopping period as a case study. Now, before I go any further, I should probably mention that mine is a bit of a unique case. Many people hate shopping period. For...
