Resources for Teaching about the Earthquake in Haiti

Here are a few teaching resources that may be useful for faculty and staff when teaching about the earthquake in Haiti.  It’s just a few things I happen to have come across, so feel free to suggest others.

This page from IRIS (Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology) contains a number of resources for helping students understand what happened geologically.  There are downloadable PowerPoint presentations, videos and animations such as this one explaining why the quake didn’t produce a tsunami.

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My Most Popular Tweets of the Last Seven Days

Here are my top 10 Tweets of the last seven days that contain links shortened using ow.ly.

  1. RT @florencedesruol English was the first #OpenSource language. http://ow.ly/XmZO Intriguing article on both English & concept of OpenSource
  2. Nation’s Largest Labor Union Group Creates Online Degree Programs http://ow.ly/XYE5
  3. Watching Young at Heart on PBS. So funny! And inspiring. http://ow.ly/Xi2n
  4. Academic Tattoos-Scholars with tattoos relating to their academic research http://ow.ly/XYZ2
  5. Offensive on so many levels. Pat Robinson says quake in Haiti result of deal with the devil. http://ow.ly/WgJa
  6. Check out the Crazy Heart trailer and The Weary Kind theme song. http://ow.ly/Xx0d
  7. Democrats’ Senate supermajority may be at its end after Massachusetts’ special election, polls show http://ow.ly/Y2wb If Brown wins,…
  8. Call for Sessions: Technologies & Pedagogies for Teaching Language, Cultures, and International Relations http://ow.ly/VR3D
  9. California Law Encourages Digital Textbooks by 2020 http://ow.ly/XYGL
  10. Higher Ed Faculties Are Liberal Because Conservatives Don’t Seek Academic Careers, Study Finds http://ow.ly/XYOY

Scholars at Risk Academic Freedom Media Review

Academic Freedom Media Review
January 16 – 22, 2010

Compiled by Scholars at Risk
Controversial Visa Bans Lifted
Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, 1/21
Free speech within reason
Constantine Sandis, The Times Higher Eductaion, 1/21
Scheme aims to help rebuild Iraqi academy through UK partnerships
John Morgan, The Times Higher Education, 1/21
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Open Letter to DNC re: Health Care Reform. Listen to Jon Stewart

To the Democratic National Committee:
I can’t tell you how much reading something like this which appeared on the USA Today site makes me.

Critical condition. Life support. Code red.Any kind of medical cliche can be used to describe the state of President Obama's health care initiative.The election of Republican Scott Brown to the Senate gives the GOP the power to block a final health care bill, so the Obama White House and the Democrats are scrambling to figure out what they can do — if anything.
via Obama and health care: Critical condition

If you allow this single victory to derail legislation that should be a priority for the Democrats, then you will have proven yourself a truly failed leadership.  Let me refer you to the following clip from The Daily Show.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Mass Backwards
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Sincerely,
Michael Toler

MusicForRelief.org // Download to Donate for Haiti

In partnership with the United Nations Foundation, Habitat for Humanity and Dave Matthews Band’s BAMA Works Haitian relief effort, Music for Relief is working to provide immediate aid with food, water, and emergency medical supplies, and long-term sustainable housing solutions for the people affected by this catastrophic natural disaster.
via MusicForRelief.org // Download to Donate for Haiti.

Study Abroad as a Collective Priority and Technology

There’s an article in Peer Review, a publication of the AAC&U that caught my attention recently.  In “Transforming the Study Abroad Experience into a Collective PriorityRoss Lewin, Director of Study Abroad at the University of Connecticut advocates for a more holistic approach to the study abroad experience.  In recent years there has been a growing emphasis on including some sort of experience abroad in undergraduate education, in response to the challenges of the global age, but Lewis raises concerns that the way these experiences are too often conducted does little to equip students to better compete of function as responsible citizens in the global age. Indeed, too often study abroad is little more than a vacation in some friendly European capital or seaside town.  The solution, he argues, is to make the study abroad experience a collective priority.
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US Lifts Bans on Two Controversial Scholars

Tariq Ramadan


There’s been a major development in a story I’ve commented on many times in this blog and its predecessor, the refusal of entry to Tariq Ramadan, one of Europe’s leading scholars on Islam, and particularly it’s evolution due to the influence of Muslims in the West.

Six years after using the Patriot Act to revoke the visa of a prominent Muslim academic, the United States State Department reversed itself and said Wednesday that it would no longer bar the scholar from entering the United States.
The decision came in the form of an order signed by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.  —January 20, 2010, The New York Times

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Why Men Marry Men, According to Rush

Periodically some outrageous clip from Media Matters comes my way. I try to resist looking at them. Unless they are cushioned by the humor of The Daily Show or The Colbert Report, they just depress me. But every once in a while I can’t resist and I look at them. They are hilarious! That is until you realize these pundits are serious and people take them seriously.

Is he really serious? Someone who is a fan, tell me. Does he really think that families in which both spouses work they do so just to keep up with taxes and not the rising costs of gasoline, health care, groceries, education, utilities, bank fees and who knows what else? I’m single, so maybe I don’t understand at all. If your married and your spouse works, is it because of taxes? His final thought is that gay men are getting married for the same reason, the economics of it. If your gay, male and marred and reading this, is that why you’re married? If you can’t get married where you are but would like to, do you want to because you want to marry up?
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Why Scott Brown May Win and Why It Shouldn't Matter So Much

The Coakley campaign should never have taken victory in the Massachusetts special election for granted, as many believe they did, at least early on. It’s common that in off year elections the opposition party suffers. Though Massachusetts is said to be a solidly Democratic state, those lines don’t mean as much as they used to, and this is a year in which people are upset about the economy and fired up by a lot of opposition fear mongering on health care reform. It’s always the angry that turn out, especially on a cold, damp day like today. Coakley doesn’t inspire passion. Brown does.
I hope I’m wrong and I’ve voted, marking my vote for Coakley. But even if she’s defeated, it shouldn’t matter as much as pundits are saying it does. Democrats are TERRIBLE strategists. Jon Stewart put it so well last night.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Mass Backwards
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Still, there are a couple hours left, so GET OUT AND VOTE FOR MARTHA COAKLEY!

Special Election in Massachusetts Tomorrow!

There is a lot at stake tomorrow. Massachusetts voters, get out and vote and make the right choice for Martha Coakley! Find out where to go.