Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are - Amy Cuddy

Amy Cuddy is a social psychologist on the faculty of the Harvard Business School. This talk "could" change your life, or then again... maybe not.  I'm not positive I would bet my life on it, but it does seem to have some merit.  Take a look at it, try it out, and see if it works for you.  

"Why you should listen

Amy Cuddy wasn’t supposed to become a successful scientist. In fact, she wasn’t even supposed to finish her undergraduate degree. Early in her college career, Cuddy suffered a severe head injury in a car accident, and doctors said she would struggle to fully regain her mental capacity and finish her undergraduate degree.
But she proved them wrong. Today, Cuddy is a professor and researcher at Harvard Business School, where she studies how nonverbal behavior and snap judgments affect people from the classroom to the boardroom. And her training as a classical dancer (another skill she regained after her injury) is evident in her fascinating work on "power posing" -- how your body position influences others and even your own brain."

http://www.ted.com/speakers/amy_cuddy



 Click here for a transcript.

Dual Monitors - Vanity or Productivity Booster?

For quite some time, I noticed that some people that I considered very "techie" had two or even more than two monitors.  To be honest I felt that it was just a bit ostentatious. Then for some reason (I can't remember exactly how right now), I came into possession of two LCD monitors.  I decided to use both of them since I had the desk space.  I must say that I have fallen in love with using two monitors and I apologize to all those anonymous folks that I thought were just being vain.  Two monitors is truly a productivity booster.  At one time I would have thought that having two windows open at the same time on one monitor was great, but that was before I started using the two monitors. There are a number of circumstances when it is especially useful to have two monitors.  One such circumstance is when you are trying to follow some complicated instructions.  Open the file containing the instructions, slide it to one monitor and use the other monitor to follow the instructions.  Another circumstance might be when you have two instances of the same program open.  I regularly use BOTH Chrome and Firefox as browsers.  Chrome is set to be on my extended monitor, Firefox on the other.  Works GREAT! 

Getting Organized for a New School Term

The beginning of a new semester is the time to get organized.  While I still do make use of the ever-present yellow Post-It Notes of various sizes (the physical variety), I have found that one big disadvantage of them is that they are only in one place.  More and more all of us are using a tablet, a smart phone, and... oh yeah... the PC to keep track of what we need to do.  One GREAT cross-platform FREE software is Evernote.  I recommend giving it a whirl.  I have upgraded to the Premium version, but could probably get along just fine with the free version. 

Here are some things that you can do with it. 

Find a Tweet, or get an email that you would like to save?  Are you on your phone and not at your desk?  Your Evernote account comes with an email address, so you can simply forward whatever you have to Evernote.  I have a neat app on my iPhone called CamScanner.  It turns a camera shot into a PDF which I can then email.  One way to use this for business is to scan those restaurant receipts, turn them into PDF's, and email to Evernote.  You can then organize them according to the consulting project in Evernote. 

Another nice feature of Evernote is that the notes that you save (which can contain pictures, text, audio, or video) can be organized into Notebooks.  Notebooks can be organized into Stacks.  You might have a "Stack" for Class Notes.  Under that Stack, you have a Notebook for each class that you are currently taking.  Notes can have Tags, which can be searched for.  For example, use the Tag "Assignment" for class assignments. 

For an extensive list of the ways to use Evernote, try THIS article from Lifehacker.com.

End of the Semester !

I have graded all of the projects, I have calculated all the grades, I have hung up the stockings by the chimney with care. I won't be back on campus until January 4th, so if you need to get in touch with me, please send me an email. I check email a lot.

I wish a very very Merry Christmas to all of you...family and friends should be your focus over the next week. I will be cooking a turkey, so my house will be filled with those GREAT smells.

Numeracy

"Numeracy is the ability to reason with numbers and other mathematical concepts. To be numerically literate, a person has to be comfortable with logic and reasoning. Some of the areas that are involved in numeracy include: basic numbers, orders of magnitude, geometry, algebra, probability and statistics." Quoted from Wikipedia HERE. I have become more and more concerned about this lack of ability in my students. Because of my concern, I "googled" the term and found a number of interesting items. I am posting some of those links below.

An essay by Lynn Arthur Steen of St. Olaf College - below is a quote from the essay.

Numeracy is to mathematics as literacy is to language. Each represents a distinctive means of communication that is indispensable to civilized life. Nevertheless, if persistent news reports are to be believed, both numeracy and literacy are in serious decline in contemporary U.S. society.

Despite great differences in structure and form, both mathematical language and natural language are powerful tools for description, communication, and representation. Numeracy is especially important for a nation expecting to compete in a global economy fueled by information technology. Whereas natural language is redundant, ambiguous, and concrete, mathematical language is concise, precise, and abstract. Full expression of our thoughts and visions requires the richness of both natural and mathematical language. Like yin and yang, numeracy and literacy are the entwined complements of human communication.

The National Numeracy Network:

About NNN
Our organization offers its members a network of individuals, institutions, and corporations united by the common goal of quantitative literacy for all citizens. Through national meetings, faculty workshops, research initiatives, and information sharing, the National Numeracy Network aims to strengthen the capacity of our country in the quantitative areas of business, industry, education, and research across all disciplines.

It looks as if there are a lot of resources out there. I am wondering how I can help my students develop skills in this area.

Wordle - Word Clouds

Wordle is a web application which will take text which you provide and will turn it into a "Word Cloud".  This makes very nice graphics for a wide variety of applications.  Look for it HERE.    You can see examples of Word Clouds that have been developed by going to the Public Gallery.  http://www.wordle.net/gallery

My YouTube Channel

I had some questions about how to get to my YouTube Videos.  If you are interested you can follow this link:
http://www.youtube.com/user/DrNBereman

Right now the videos are focused on HRM 666, a class on staffing and in particular on the more technical / statistical portions of that class.

YouTube Video Picked Up by the Open University of the Netherlands

The Open Universiteit Nederland (Open University) has asked my permission to use my YouTube Video on HR Planning - Markov Analysis.  They will be publishing it for educational purposes on a secured password protected network, the intranet site for a course on Selection.  I have given my permission.

Tegrity Recordings

There is a cool program that is integrated into Blackboard called "Tegrity". I just finished recording a 10 minute segment ... a voice over for a PPT slideshow explaining to my HRM 666 students more about the final project requirement that I just uploaded to Blackboard. I am hoping that this will provide my students with information that will help them. We will see.

Tegrity is VERY easy to use and I am going to try to use it more often. Right now I prepare and upload the same sort of thing to YouTube and I have worried about making information TOO public. I'm really torn on whether to make the public or private. Any feedback that you would like to provide would be appreciated.

ANKI - resource for students

I have found what I think might be a tremendous tool for teachers and students. It is called "Anki" and is available at the following URL. http://ichi2.net/anki/

I am going to experiment with using this for HRM 666 this coming Fall (2009) and am going to recommend that students use it that are preparing to participate in the HR Games. I am going to make every effort to use this blog more frequently and hope that you might follow it. Thanks!