For those of you who use anecdotes to justify learning punctuation conventions, here’s a report on how the lack of a comma had an impact on the interpretation of Maine’s law on overtime.
Momentous Application of the Oxford Comma
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Author Archives: Linda Schofield
Job: Tenure-Track Communication Studies Position
Applications for this position in “data and networked publics” at Concordia University in the Communication Studies department are due March 24. A notice was sent out by the chair recently to remind people to apply and to hint that the deadline might be flexible in certain circumstances. Her message could be a sign that not a lot of qualified people have applied, so if the job is up your alley, this may be the time to give it a shot.
The Fate of the Critic in the Clickbait Age
A New Yorker article on the gradual demise of theatre and music critics contains some interesting observations about reading patterns, audiences and digitial vs. analog media.
Supporting Stressed-Out Students
Copyright © Kris Erickson
At this point in the semester, there are usually a few tired and teary eyes in class, in offices, and in hallways. While I have come to expect this – first as a TA, then as an instructor – I have remained reluctant to ever normalize this period of high stress, high anxiety, high emotional student life. I try to take a few minutes in class to point out the importance of taking care of oneself, particularly one’s mental health, but as I am not trained to diagnose mental distress or distinguish amongst degrees of intensity, I feel highly inadequate as I do so.
This term, I have also decided to send an email to my students (see below), offering reminders of support and resources (though without referring to course obligations, extensions, or accommodations).
I share it with you, unedited and imperfect, in case you would like to speak to the ways you have addressed this in your own class or in communications with your students.
The email below would have the subject line “CMN279: End of Term and Mental Health.”
Book-Length Resource on Postsecondary Pedagogy
The most recent edition of Linda Nilson’s book, Teaching at Its Best: A Research-Based Resource for College Instructors, provides some helpful guidance for managing the 21st-century classroom. The following are some topics you’ll find in the table of contents:
- Understanding Your Students and How They learn
- Outcomes-Centered Course Design
- Building Critical Thinking into a Course Design
- Deciding What Technology to Use
- Copyright Guidelines for Instructors
- Creating a Welcoming Classroom
- Enhancing Student Motivation
- Preventing and Responding to Classroom Incivility
- Preserving Academic Integrity
- Managing Productive Groups
This book covers these topics succinctly, yet comprehensively.
I’ve linked to the Ryerson Library catalogue, so you can access the book using your own account.
Ryerson Faculty Conference: May 2017
A call for proposals has just been sent out for presentations at this conference. For those new to Procom, you can be assured that CUPE frequently participate as speakers. If you have an idea related to post-secondary teaching, send it for consideration. RFA in Procom are also often open to collaboration.
Job: Assistant Professor, Speech Communication
Thanks to Catherine Jenkins for finding this job ad for a faculty position at Waterloo. Deadline for applications is February 28, 2017.
Academia.edu: Facebook for Academics
Library of Celsus, Wayne Noffsinger
© Catherine Jenkins 2017
Academia.edu is a social media platform allowing academics to post papers and other academic information in a mission to share and accelerate research dissemination. Launched in 2008, it has grown to over 47-million users, with over 2-million research interests, and over 17-million posted papers. The platform allows users to post abstracts or papers, as well as follow academics of interest to their area of research. Each month, Academia.edu attracts over 36-million unique visitors, and a recent study by PLOS ONE indicated that papers posted on the site garner a 69% increase in citations over five years. Researchers can search by a scholar’s name, article title, or subject area to find work most pertinent to their interests. The site also maintains a blog, and a job board.
The platform allows users to monitor analytics for their profiles and individual papers, making it clear which papers are generating the most interest. Academia.edu has been reported on, generally positively, in popular journals including Nature, Wired, The Washington Post, The Economist, Fortune, Bloomberg, Forbes, and Scientific American. One concern about posting research material online is the prospect of copyright infringement. Academia.edu has a clear copyright statement, threatening to disable or terminate user accounts of repeat offenders; however, the onus is on the researcher whose intellectual property has been infringed upon to report such violations. In 2013, academic press Elsevier demanded that Academia.edu remove over 2800 article authors had posted, citing copyright violation. Another potential concern is that because researchers post their own papers, they may not have received peer review.
Although I’ve had an account with Academia.edu since 2011, with a modest 38 followers, I’ve been cautious about uploading much content. My conference abstracts are there, but not the full papers. I uploaded a book chapter several years after hard copy publication, and once it was contractually permissible. Occasionally, people have requested copies of full papers, and I’ve always asked why they want them.
I appreciate the site’s analytics, which allow me to see which of my posted conference abstracts are garnering the most interest, and might be worth developing into longer papers. It’s also fun to review which countries are popping up. Apparently, I have a global academic reach! Although the majority of views have been Canadian or American, I’ve also had several hits from the UK and Australia, as well as numerous countries in Europe and Asia—and even one from Vatican City! Although Academia.edu is sometimes compared with LinkedIn, I’ve found it more useful than my (now defunct) LinkedIn account. Unlike on Facebook, you won’t find any cute cat pictures, but Academia.edu is a simple and viable way to share research and see who’s doing what.
Contractually Limited Assistant Professorship: U of T Job Opportunity
Brock Macdonald, Director of the Academic Writing Centre at the University of Toronto, has posted an ad for two faculty appointments: Writing Instruction and English Language Learning.
CMN 300 Assignment
Last term I created a successful assignment for CMN 300 (Communication in the Computer Industry) that may have general applicability. Essentially, I asked students to work in groups to create an oral proposal, presented to the class, to recommend a change to Ryerson’s Digital Media Experience Lab.
The inspiration came from a short talk to Procom faculty in August by one of Ryerson’s computer science undergrads, who explained that the lab appealed particularly to students in his department. The groups produced very creative solutions, and they did a great job creating professional PowerPoints and communicating enthusiasm for their hypothetical projects. The written summaries linked to the presentations were less impressive, but the content was essential for assessing the persuasive elements.
File: CMN 300 Proposal