The Kept-Up Academic Librarian

Chegg Shifts From Textbook Rentals To A One-Stop Hub For College Students

When it launched in 2007, Chegg quickly became known as the Netflix (NFLX) for textbooks. After a review of the business, Rosensweig found that Chegg was six months away from going broke. His aim is to turn Chegg into a digital hub providing everything a college student needs, from homework help to discounts on dorm room decorations, and “to save them time, save them money, and make them smarter.” Read more at:
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-31/chegg-a-college-hub-dot-togas-not-included

Study Finds That Texting Students Learn Less In Class

Maybe it's no surprise that college students send and receive text messages during classes, and that it's a distraction from the lessons at hand. But a new study, to be published in the National Communication Association's journal, Communication Education, also links excessive texting to impaired focus and lesson retention. The students who frequently texted during class were less likely to sustain attention to their instructor. Multitasking doesn't prevent learning, but it has an impact on optimal retention. Read more at:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/tribu/sc-fam-0501-education-texting-distraction-20120501,0,4792077.story

Twitter Hijacking Leads To Strange Message To Campus Community

No, Towson University is not suggesting anyone try a new weight loss plan. The university's TowsonUNews Twitter account was hijacked late last week, leaving some 6,121 people wondering why Towson was suggesting via Twitter that they try this new weight-loss diet. Towson media specialist Gay Pinder sheepishly acknowledged Monday morning, that, yes, she clicked on one of those "people are saying nasty things about you, click here to find out what" links late last week. That's why the notices showed up on so many people's Twitter feeds. Read more at:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/baltimore-insider-blog/bs-ae-towson-weight-20120423,0,6033917.story

New Services Help Colleges Monitor Their Athletes' Tweets

The business plan of Varsity Monitor is simple. Major universities like North Carolina, Nebraska and Oklahoma pay $7,000 to $10,000 a year and Varsity Monitor keeps an online eye on their athletes. Among the services the company and others like it provide is a computer application that searches social media sites that athletes frequent, looking for obscenities, offensive commentary or words like “free,” which could indicate that a player has accepted a gift in violation of N.C.A.A. rules. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/31/sports/universities-track-athletes-online-raising-legal-concerns.html?ref=technology

Coding Education Is Happening Outside Of Traditional Higher Ed

The market for night classes and online instruction in programming and Web construction, as well as foriPhone apps that teach, is booming. Those jumping on board say they are preparing for a future in which the Internet is the foundation for entertainment, education and nearly everything else. Knowing how the digital pieces fit together, they say, will be crucial to ensuring that they are not left in the dark ages. at the center of the recent frenzy in this field is Codecademy. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/28/technology/for-an-edge-on-the-internet-computer-code-gains-a-following.html?pagewanted=1&ref=education

BigFuture Will Help Prospective Students Navigate The College Search Process

The College Board, the nonprofit association of colleges and universities that oversees the SAT and Advanced Placement program,  has introduced a new college planning Web site that it hopes will help a wide range of students, including first-generation college students who may not know much about the college admissions process. BigFuture, which was introduced last Tuesday, includes a  college search tool revamped from the organization’s previous planning site, as well as a scholarship searchtool and a customizable action plan for students about to embark on journeys through the college admissions process. Read more at:
http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/26/college-board-bigfuture-web-site/?src=recg

Social Media Contributing To A Less Rowdy Spring Break

Ah, Spring Break, with its copious debauchery, its spontaneous bouts of breast-baring, Jager bombing and après-binge vomit. But today’s spring breakers — at least some of them — say they have been tamed, in part, not by parents or colleges or the fed-up cities they invade, but by the hand-held gizmos they hold dearest and the fear of being betrayed by an unsavory, unsanctioned photo or video popping up on Facebook or YouTube. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/16/us/spring-break-gets-tamer-as-world-watches-online.html?_r=1&hpw

MOOCs Have The Potential To Democratize Higher Education

The big names have been a big draw. Since Udacity, the for-profit startup running the course, opened registration on Jan. 23, more than 90,000 students have enrolled in the search-engine course and another taught by Mr. Thrun, who led the development of Google’s self-driving car. Welcome to the brave new world of Massive Open Online Courses — known as MOOCs — a tool for democratizing higher education. While the vast potential of free online courses has excited theoretical interest for decades, in the past few months hundreds of thousands of motivated students around the world who lack access to elite universities have been embracing them as a path toward sophisticated skills and high-paying jobs, without paying tuition or collecting a college degree. And in what some see as a threat to traditional institutions, several of these courses now come with an informal credential (though that, in most cases, will not be free). Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/05/education/moocs-large-courses-open-to-all-topple-campus-walls.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha26

This Is Why IHEs Were Buying Up XXX Domains

The University of Hawaii is demanding the operator of a pornographic web site stop using the school's name or face legal action. The web site, called universityofhawaii.xxx, claims to feature what it describes as "hot nude Hawaiian college girls."  It is full of graphic pictures of men and women having sex on beaches and at other tropical locations. It's a very different look from the University of Hawaii's legitimate web site. If the site doesn't pull the UH references, the university may go after its webmaster using a number of state and federal laws and also will try to recover its legal costs. Read more at:
http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/16690588/exclusive-uh-threatens-porn-website-with-legal-action-for-using-its-name

Students Start Website To Share Tuition Increase And Debt Stories

And so Student Voices was born. So far, 350 students have answered this question on the campus website: "How have increased tuition fees impacted you and your family?" Their stories tell of family sacrifice, dreams of success, parents and students working multiple jobs to pay for school, the realities of budget cuts. Ghanadan wants to use students' stories to lobby for a Prop. 13-like cap on tuition. Corrigan wants them to teach lawmakers the same lesson he learned years ago when students thought he made light of a $100 increase in dorm rent. Read more at: 
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/10/BAPG1N5A7U.DTL#ixzz1mHJN4RwL