Google Plus - World Domination

Here is a very interesting article about Google Plus and its very rapid rise in usage.  The author says that:

Google Plus’s Ganesha-like arms can handle all of your company’s communications--if you let it. My buddy Andy Wilson, for example, runs an e-discovery company called Logik. He has swapped out everything with Google Plus. Instead of Yammer, employees post to their “work” circle. Instead of Skype, employees use Google Hangouts for cross-coast meetings and calls. Instead of Eventbrite, they use Google Plus events. Now, while Andy’s certainly an early adopter of this strategy, he didn’t do this for his health, either--he did it because it worked better for his company and saved them money.

I feel a little behind the curve on this one because I only recently participated in my first Google Hangout.  The potential downside that I see to this is that you have to have a gmail account to play. 

Critical Thinking

I just received my copy of "Critical Thinking: Concepts and Tools" from CriticalThinking.Org.  The book (well really a booklet) provides an outline of how to think critically.  In other words, how to reason.  There is a quote near the end of the book that I particularly like:  "Education in the critical faculty is the only education of which it can be truly said that it makes good citizens." (William Graham Sumner, 1906).  I think that having citizens skilled in critical thinking would make the political process much easier to bear. 

The MINI Cooper Horn Section

Some of you may know that I drive a Mini Cooper S.  It is a fun car to drive and surprisingly roomy (at least for me).  Please enjoy the video below.

The BEAM

How cool is this? I can imagine students coming to class in one of these. To read the complete article
go HERE.

Learning about jobs

Sometimes students come to me asking for advice about writing their resume. One of the things that I frequently notice on their first draft is that they have not done a very good job of describing what they do on their current or past jobs. I think that it is because they are not familiar with how human resource professionals describe jobs. Understanding job content is the starting point for almost everything that HR accomplishes. I thought that it might be beneficial to provide you with some links to VERY useful job-related web sites. The first of these websites is O*Net Online. Take some time to cruise over there and learn about jobs and what people do in those jobs. The second resource is the Occupational Outlook Handbook. If you haven't yet found what you want to do with the rest of your life, this is a valuable resource as well. The last resource is the online version of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles. While not as elegantly designed as the previous websites, I find this one the MOST useful in actually writing job descriptions. As an example of what is available in the DOT, I decided to search for my job as a University Professor. In part that job description is as follows:

Conducts college or university courses for undergraduate or graduate students: Teaches one or more subjects, such as economics, chemistry, law, or medicine, within prescribed curriculum. Prepares and delivers lectures to students. Compiles bibliographies of specialized materials for outside reading assignments. Stimulates class discussions. Compiles, administers, and grades examinations, or assigns this work to others. Directs research of other teachers or graduate students working for advanced academic degrees. Conducts research in particular field of knowledge and publishes findings in professional journals. Performs related duties, such as advising students on academic and vocational curricula, and acting as adviser to student organizations. Serves on faculty committee providing professional consulting services to government and industry.

Actually this is pretty accurate! I strongly encourage anyone who is looking for a job or is going to be writing job descriptions, to bookmark these URLs.