tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-183343562024-03-05T16:20:41.723-08:00It's all connectedWhen we enter the landscape to learn something, we are obligated, I think, to pay attention rather than constantly to pose questions. To approach the land as we would a person, by opening an intelligent conversation. And to stay in one place, to make of that one, long observation a fully dilated experience. - Barry LopezBetsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747860184086713536noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18334356.post-16251386979479652152007-08-17T13:19:00.000-07:002007-08-17T13:48:34.132-07:00How Compulsive People Plan VacationsWe spent last week in New England, and stopped by Wellesley College. It started like this:One cold rainy day last winter M and I sat in our kitchen with a couple of glasses of wine, thinking about how fast D was growing up and how short the period of time is while your kid is old enough to be physically competent and intellectually eager, but emotionally not-yet-screwed up. This lamenting grew Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747860184086713536noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18334356.post-86812976960392517762007-07-20T15:13:00.000-07:002007-07-20T15:31:07.863-07:00Library 2.0Our fabulous Library team is using Blogger to communicate about their experimentation with a variety of emerging (or recently emerged) technologies. What they're doing is safe and supportive and very, very cool. Nonexperts pick a topic, do some research, and create a little module in the form of a blog that includes recommended readings, some instructions for getting started, and an opportunity Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747860184086713536noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18334356.post-21730405490431036562007-04-27T15:45:00.000-07:002007-04-27T16:04:42.676-07:00Do I blog?Earlier this week I was sitting in on a presentation by a candidate for our Writing Center Director. He asked, "How many of you blog?" I raised my hand (along with a surprising number of my colleagues), but I felt really guilty about it. I don't blog, do I? I have a blog, but do I blog? Not since November!And then today I listened raptly to Gardner Campbell's amazing and inspiring audio piece Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747860184086713536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18334356.post-1163115177136459412006-11-09T14:56:00.000-08:002007-07-16T16:32:11.442-07:00Academic Resource Center: the Little Engine that CouldSix weeks into classes, and our Academic Resource Center is just sitting there, so over-resourced and underused it's almost embarrassing. It was a good idea -- to create a space where students can go to get help about any of the services offered by our academic support group, a one-stop shopping resource offering services from the library, IT, media center, writing center, and quantitative skillsBetsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747860184086713536noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18334356.post-1161202786807518712006-10-18T12:57:00.000-07:002006-11-15T14:25:24.615-08:00Getting a Life*One of the really intriguing things that people were talking about at educause this year was the use of multi-player on-line games in instruction. I was mulling that over yesterday while reading blogs and came across a mention of Second Life in ALA Tech Source, lauding the amount and variety of library activities available there. I don't know where I've been (I think maybe under a big soggy leaf)Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747860184086713536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18334356.post-1160780187451452802006-10-13T14:46:00.000-07:002007-07-16T16:30:33.599-07:00Back from EDUCAUSEIt's always rejuvenating, going to EDUCAUSE. And although I usually get some great information from the sessions themselves, the best part is the talking and listening - the conversations with colleagues who get closer every year and chance meetings with strangers during lunch or while waiting for the shuttle.I think I swapped baggage. I left home feeling ineffectual, very cynical, and pretty Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747860184086713536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18334356.post-1159563279322408422006-09-29T13:46:00.000-07:002006-11-15T14:25:24.435-08:00Blog TopicsYou sure wouldn't know it by reading this blog but I actually do think, a lot, about blog topics. I've got quite the list of things that I might some day write about. Maybe. Here are some of them:- Why I don't blog very often- Exercise as a way to access the divine (or maybe it's just the sublime)- UW's courseware discussions- Can collaboration work when there's unequal commitment to a project?- Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747860184086713536noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18334356.post-1149617674960003802006-06-06T10:49:00.000-07:002006-11-15T14:25:24.342-08:00ProcrastinationOur Frye Practica Reports are due soon. Here's what happens when I try to work on mine:I'd better check my mail first to make sure there aren't any crises I should know about. Oh, I haven't read today's Chronicle mail. I really ought to scan through that so I can stay on top of what's going on in the world of higher ed. Article on how priming can affect how beautiful you think something is Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747860184086713536noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18334356.post-1147812493531702642006-05-16T13:33:00.000-07:002007-07-12T10:44:09.034-07:00ProgressSomehow mountains move. Which is why I am so drawn to that Goethe quote that serves as the subheading for this blog: there's a magic that happens when you start something. And it's really, really cool.Despite my fears and complaints during the past year about the work we're doing here, there is progress. It won't look like much to some people, but given the enormous workload we struggle under, Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747860184086713536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18334356.post-1142986961813071102006-03-21T16:12:00.000-08:002006-11-15T14:25:24.088-08:00Getting saved through laughterThere's way too much seriousness in the world. Today I ran across this great essay by Ryan Bachtel on the American Democracy Project. Lorenz believes that humanity’s one ace in the hole might be our capacity to laugh. In his words: “It redirects threatening behavior [and] forms immediate bonds … Humor is a lie detector. It unmasks pretence, debunks arrogance.” He takes this further, quoting G.Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747860184086713536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18334356.post-1141681931144248942006-03-06T13:15:00.000-08:002006-11-15T14:25:23.986-08:00Time and iTunesTime is most definitely not a river, or if it is then the one that I'm riding on crashes and bounces down waterfalls most of the time. Who has time to keep a blog? Not me, apparently. But I refuse to drown! Very soon, really, I'm going to blog about progress on the local electronic communities front. But for now I have to make note of my idea for a future update to iTunes software.Playlists Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747860184086713536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18334356.post-1138299011420238432006-01-26T09:52:00.000-08:002006-11-15T14:25:23.871-08:00They're starting earlyI was thinking this morning about ways we can start getting ready to support podcasting, and then read Dan Karleen's posting about the use of podcasting in K-12 that referenced this article in the New York Times . As Dan says, it won't be long (it's even already happening) before students will be coming to us already expecting podcasting, the way they've been expecting other online communicationBetsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747860184086713536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18334356.post-1138250026772207902006-01-25T20:27:00.000-08:002006-11-15T14:25:23.798-08:00Why I read the newspaperIt started around the time Davey was born, almost 9 years ago now. We would lounge in bed in the early mornings, nursing. Mark would bring me the newspaper and a cup of coffee. In those first months, Davey would often go back to sleep, and I would leisurely sip my coffee and read the paper. That's the way I remember it, anyway. Over the years since, coffee and the newspaper (the actual paperBetsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747860184086713536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18334356.post-1137620197487915122006-01-18T12:43:00.000-08:002006-11-15T14:25:23.705-08:00The Fabulous Peruvian has wirelessI'm just back from a glorious week of skiing at Alta. We walked into the Alta Peruvian for the first time in 10 years or so to find it exactly the same as it used to be, with one exception. It was the middle of the afternoon, so everyone was skiing and the lovely lobby was almost completely empty. However, there were 5 or 6 guys lounging about, and every single one of them was on a laptop. ItBetsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747860184086713536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18334356.post-1136571115481777412006-01-06T09:42:00.000-08:002007-07-12T12:40:44.833-07:00The FrontrunnerFor 6 or 7 months I've been posting off and on over on Bloglines, mainly because I've been very happy with their aggregator for so long. A couple of months ago I started playing with Blogger, mostly because I thought it would be a good idea to try to separate work blogging from non-work blogging. Working for the state makes you kind of cautious in that way.However, it turns out that the BloglinesBetsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747860184086713536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18334356.post-1130540851843016872005-10-28T15:51:00.000-07:002006-11-15T14:25:23.341-08:00The first postIt's kind of like writing to someone you haven't written to in a long time -- it's hard to know how much of the gap to fill in, how much to ignore, whether to just start from yesterday. I'm recently back from EDUCAUSE, which seemed extra specially good this year, not for the talks (although there were some useful things there) but mainly for the reconnecting with people. Frye opened up a lot of Betsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11747860184086713536noreply@blogger.com0