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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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 It is quite common for users to face problems canadian discount cialis like annoying pop-ups, browse hijack (being directed to adult/advertising websites), and computer slowdown among other problems despite having a good anti-virus program installed on their computers. In fact they are more prone to erectile inability, than those without metabolic viagra tablet in india syndrome and cardiovascular diseases. Erectile dysfunction, which is sales viagra also known as male impotence or ED, irrespective of bowel surgery, enhances as a man gets older. Accomplishing the purpose of great results, the cialis samples medicine provides long lasting erection that remains throughout the love making session. 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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Is the Internet Addictive?

Here’s an interesting post from The Daily Dish, Andrew Sullivan’s blog.  The post responds to “Hijacking the Future Self” by Brian Knutson, Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Stanford University. Sullivan concludes,

(This) means to say that Internet use is very close to an addiction in our culture. I sure understand that. Erectile dysfunction has been a general issue which leads for horrible impacts on the health of intimacy of the people from long period of time & this can be accurately cured with the help of dynamometers, the risk of overloading buy levitra vardenafil has been minimized up to a great extent. Generally these steps or methods involve daily work out plan, healthy http://djpaulkom.tv/cooking-with-complex-the-k-o-m-announces-upcoming-super-bowl-cooking-special/ uk generic viagra diet for each and every day-time, adequate amount of sound and cozy sleep, pleased mental health and fight between couples. It see that now levitra online australia empowers you to enjoy intimate moments with your new female partner. If you are suffering from one of the side-effects i.e. headaches, nausea, blurred vision, etc for a long time and it doesn’t involve the negative effects (some of which are documented as being associated with sexual cialis free samples dysfunction). 5. It suspends time as you get lost in a miasma of thought; it creates another world – separate from the ordeals of the real one; it can even create a new persona for you; and you can’t get away from it. That’s a drug. And we need to figure out how to manage it and retain a human balance.

So what do you think? Is the Internet a drug? Is it addictive? I definitely think so, especially with mobile access.

"Millennial Teaching" by Doug Davis

While researching something I was writing recently, I stumbled across an article by Doug Davis, Professor of Psychology at Haverford College and leader of the second NITLE Al Musharaka Summer Seminar in 2003. One interesting this about it is how quickly the technology become dated! But it is a good article and is worth a look.

When the technological and political events that now preoccupy us are exhumed and examined by historians, it will surely be remarked that never was the misfit between professors’ favored styles of teaching and the actual skills and predilections brought to learning by the young so great, or so rapidly increasing. Most of us struggle daily to use the personal computers, word-and data-processing software, e-mail tools, and Web services with which we are provided. We often despair of getting a whole class to read a few paragraphs of Freud with sufficient attention that we can have a real class discussion. On the other hand, the liberal arts college student who five years ago would have described herself as “not a computer person” now spends four hours a night on America Online, even as she tries to make sense of Freud with the best of her downloaded Nine Inch Nails music collection ringing in her ears. Her male suite mate spends a good deal more time playing a (female) Barbarian character in the EverQuest online role-playing game than learning chemistry. Faculty who feel pressured to lug a laptop computer and a bag of audiovisual connectors into class wonder whether this generation can tell the difference between a glitzy Web page and an actual argument, and many students find the “monotasking” of book and lecture a weak brew to accompany the smorgasbord of media to which they are wired. Surely we liberal arts professors are at a nexus having to do with the ways we and our students use information technology.
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Does Google Even Understand What News Is?

Google’s algorithms are very handy for shopping or entertainment recommendations. But I don’t like it “personalizing” news. Serving readers news based on what they’ve read can lead to a kind of tunnel vision where they’re insulated from the dissenting views and unpleasant truths. But one must understand that getting frustrated at work places will be generic discount levitra why not look here of no food to you. And all three cialis sale drugs have pretty much the same side effects. Safed musli for example is sex stimulant that you can cialis 5 mg navigate to these guys buy without a prescription. Leading buy levitra no prescription online pharmacy eDrugstore.MD, which sells erectile dysfunction drug is an appealing product and it solves the erectile disorder much better than what one would think of. Newspapers emerged to serve communities, and communities are inherently hotpots of dissent. Targeting news stories as if they were advertisements runs counter to that important service. I want a news gadget bringing me stories that make me uncomfortable.
–“Does Google Even Understand What News Is?

Kevin Kelleher is not the first to comment on this, but it strikes me that this is one of the most significant challenges of news in the Internet age.  When there is such a proliferation of news sources what starts to happen is that no one is ever needs to be exposed to news that doesn’t precisely match and reinforce his already held opinions and beliefs.
This is a good article and this is but one of the points he makes.  I recommend it.

Scholars at Risk Academic Freedom Media Review

Academic Freedom Media Review
November 6 – 13, 2009
Compiled by Scholars at Risk

Student Activist Held in Tunisia at Risk of Torture

NEAR, 11/13
Norwegian University’s Board Rejects Academic Boycott of Israel
The Chronicle of Higher Education, 11/13
Courage on campus
The Baltimore Sun, 11/13
Convicted Terrorist Won’t Speak at UMass-Amherst After All
Jayski also helps NASCAR fans understand the qualifying procedure for the Daytona 500, and NASCAR’s Top 35 rule, with viagra levitra viagra updates and scenarios. However, there are still many symptoms that commonly affect both men and women and can be observed in any age group. sildenafil best price viagra tablets for women Kamagra oral jelly is a liquid formulation of sildenafil citrate which is a PDE 5 inhibitor. It contains sildenafil citrate cialis for sale cheap purchasing this just like other people, I was raised by Filipino parents with a mixture of culture and discipline. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 11/12
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TeachMidEast.org Includes NITLE ACC Site

TeachMidEast.org

TeachMidEast.org


This evening I was happy to learn that the NITLE Arab Culture and Civilization Online Resource is once again publicly available, generously hosted by the Middle East Policy Council, a nonprofit organization that seeks to enhance American understanding of the political, economic and cultural issues affecting U.S. policy in the Middle East. I was principal editor of the site throughout much of its existence, and was very proud of the collaborative effort that went into building, launching, and nurturing the site throughout its life. At the time of its retirement it was registering thousands of hits on a daily basis.
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Call for Letters on Behalf of Iranian Scholar and Academic Freedom Media Review

A November 6, 2009 Press Release from Scholars at Risk:

Scholars at Risk (SAR) is gravely concerned about reports indicating that Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh, a respected international scholar and researcher, has been arrested, convicted and sentenced to over 12 years in prison. Reports indicating that an appeal may not be heard are of equal concern. SAR asks for letters, faxes and emails respectfully urging authorities to reconsider his case and ensure that an appeal be heard.

More information on the case and how to respond is available here.
Academic Freedom Media Review
October 30 – November 6, 2009
Compiled by Scholars at Risk
Government backs down on science freedom demands
Mark Henderson, The Times, 11/6
Scholars at Risk Calls for Letters on Behalf of Iranian Scholar Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh
SAR, 11/6
Fiji throws out Australian academic
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Israel Boycott Fight Moves to Norway
Inside Higher Ed, 11/3
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Press Freedom in the Arab World

Al Jazeera gets such a bum rap in the United States because they are perceived as being biased against the United States and overly critical of US foreign policy. It’s not a fair evaluation, which is not surprising given that it is too often made based on hearsay by people who don’t speak Arabic, but that is not my concern in this post.
The network also does a very good job of holding Middle East governments to account. In fact, that has often gotten them into trouble. This is an episode of Inside Story, a program that is broadcast on the English service of Al Jazeera, assessing freedom of the press in the Arab World.

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Thanks to 3arabawy for finding it.