Switched

OK, so I switched this blog to the new, beta version of blogger. What this means is that the next time you log into Blogger you will be prompted to switch as well. Of course let me know if there are any kinks.

I am not really going to play with things like embedding Google calendar or anything over the break, but if anyone wants to... go for it -- or just mess with the settings or template -- you should be able to do that as an admin. (And the three people who actually read this regularly all have admin privileges.)

Theoretically, we could change the privacy setting on this so that only members of the department (or only graduate students, for that matter) could read. I wonder if that would make it a more viable forum.

Blog project?

Anyone want a blog project? If we switch the blog over to the new Blogger (beta version) -- which I keep getting prompted to do (is that just me?) when I log into blogger, then maybe someone could figure out how to embed the new Google calendar into the blog? Or I suppose I could just do this myself, but it's exam time coming soon....

British University Hiring

This is a great article about the interview/hiring practices at a UK University. It will probably be more interesting to those who know about the job search process here, but it's still worth reading. One of the comments, by "SP," is worth reading, too.

Department calendar

I'm working Rachel, Sarah, and Michael on an interactive calendar for the department. We're currently using Google Calendar, and you can see what we have so far here.

This is nice for looking at and will hopefully help us organize our schedules a bit more. But the eventual goal is to have as many people in the department as would like be authorized to add and edit events on the calendar. That way a person that organizes something can just go in and set it up on the calendar without having to ask one of the four of us to do so. Let me know if you want to be added to the list of editors. It will work best if you have a gmail account.

The calendar also has an RSS feed that you can use in any reader. You can find the link here.

Let me know what you think so far. What sort of uses can we put this to?

Wiki in the classroom

I stumbled on this example of someone using a wiki in her Brit Lit class. I'm not in love with the interface, but I think the idea of listing relevant topics and having students write pieces about them creates a cool repository of material for the class.

MLA report on tenure standards

Insidehighered.com has an article about the report of the MLA panel on tenure. This MLA page has links to the full report, but I have been unable to download it yet. I think this is a must-read for all of us -- though who knows how and to what extent it will be acted upon.

Teaching Carnival

The new teaching carnival is here.