The greatest teaching
/The greatest teaching is not teaching what you know. The greatest teaching is teaching what you’re learning. -John Maxwell
ideas that challenge / comfort / inspire
Learn to Expect
/Learn to expect, not to doubt. In so doing you bring everything into the realm of possibility. This does not mean that by believing you are necessarily going to get everything you want or think you want. Perhaps that would not be good for you. When you put your trust in God, He guides your mind so that you do not want things that are not good for you or that are inharmonious with God’s will. But it does definitely mean that when you learn to believe, then that which has seemingly been impossible moves into the area of the possible. Every great thing at last becomes for you a possibility.
Norman Vincent Peale, The Power of Positive Thinking
still on the journey
/What am I here to do? I am still on that journey because it changes. -Alice Walker
Articles of interest about journalism, fakes, social media & more - March 15
/***COVID 19
Why We Can’t Make Vaccine Doses Any Faster
***JOURNALISM
When writing about race, abuse follows. Especially for journalists of color and women
How Yahoo News reached 1 million followers on TikTok in 1 year
Journalists face record levels of persecution globally
News deserts and weak ethics laws allow corruption to run rampant in SC
***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM
Most local papers are gasping for life, and if they die it will be their readers who lose the most
Less than a third of the world’s top editors at major outlets are women
America rebalances its post-Trump news diet
BuzzFeed Announces Deep Cuts To HuffPost Staff After Acquisition
Donald Trump Loses Libel Suit Against N.Y. Times
***FREE SPEECH
Des Moines reporter's acquittal lauded as victory for press freedom
How the Russian government accidentally blocked its own websites
***WRITING & READING
Rod Serling talks to college students about the craft of writing
***FAKES, FRAUDS & SCAMS
How to stop robocalls: Every way we know to block the annoying scam phone calls
I went down the ‘rabbit hole’ to debunk misinformation – here’s what I learned
***DEEP FAKES
Pa. woman created ‘deepfake’ videos to force rivals off daughter’s cheerleading squad: police
Slick Tom Cruise Deepfakes Signal That Near Flawless Forgeries May Be Here
***COVID MISINFORMATION
YouTube removed 30,000 videos with COVID misinformation
QAnon groups switches focus to attacks on coronavirus vaccines
***SOCIAL MEDIA
Hootsuite's Social Media Image
He got Facebook hooked on AI. Now he can't fix its misinformation addiction
How Different Are Americans’ Facebook Feeds?
Instagram led users to Covid misinformation amid pandemic – report
Texas Wants to Ban Facebook and Twitter ... From Banning
***PRIVACY & SECURITY
Microsoft Confident Exchange Hack Is State-Sponsored Operation
Here's what we know so far about the massive Microsoft Exchange hack
***LANGUAGE
Meet the people fighting to keep a language alive online
***BOOKS & LITERATURE
50 Very Bad Book Covers for Literary Classics
Want to borrow that e-book from the library? Sorry, Amazon won’t let you.
***POETRY
Why kids need poetry in their lives, and how to spark their interest in it
Margaret Atwood pens poetry for new songs about violence against women
How can I be useful to you?
/I used to ask my patients, "How can I help you? " But that kind of question makes them Humpty Dumpty, waiting around on the pavement to be put back together again. And it makes me the kings horses and the kings men, ultimately powerless to fix another person. I’ve changed my question. Now I say, "How can I be useful to you?" How can I support you as you take responsibility for yourself?
Auschwitz survivor Edith Eva Eger in her book The Choice
Articles of Interest about higher ed - March 14
/***COVID-19
How worried should we be about COVID variants?
Does it matter which one I get? Comparing the three COVID-19 vaccines
How America’s Vaccine System Makes People With Health Problems Fight for a Place in Line ($)
***HIGHER ED & COVID
UC Davis offers students money to not travel during spring break
Here’s how colleges are working to reduce outbreaks
Duke University orders students to stay-in-place until March 21 following uptick in COVID-19 cases
San Diego State University plans to offer in-person commencement this spring
***HIGHER ED & POLITICS
Biden's Covid relief won't shield many public colleges from pandemic's blow
***LAYOFFS & CUTS
Layoffs at Ithaca College are forcing people out of academia (and out of town)
Michigan’s Kettering University will end 5 programs
University of Tennessee Health Science Center lays off 70
***COLLEGE FINANCES
COVID-19 pandemic worsens financial distress for private liberal arts colleges
Chegg CEO: ‘25% of colleges could go out of business’
U.S. Colleges’ Mind-Blowing Cost Of Tuition (infographic)
***HIGHER ED
Hackers Target University of Texas at El Paso
Southern New Hampshire Acquires Coding Boot Camp Kenzie Academ
Colleges continue losing undergraduate enrollment this spring, even as graduate enrollment climbs
***ACCREDITATION
Colleges Are Fleeing a Troubled Accreditor. Can They Find a New One?
Wheeling University placed on probation by Higher Learning Commission
***HIGHER ED IN COURT
Supreme Court keeps ex-students' lawsuit alive in college speech zone case
Federal Court Dismisses Tuition Refund Lawsuits in Rhode Island
Former Berkeley law student sues UC over immigration error that cost him ‘dream job’
DePaul sued over facial recognition tech used for online test proctoring
***TEACHING
Coursera IPO filing reveals a company successfully monetizing MOOCs
Schools Are Abandoning Invasive Proctoring Software After Student Backlash
***ACADEMIC LIFE
Faculty and Staff Often Don’t Trust One Another. How Do We Fix That?
New Nonpartisan Faculty Group Will Promote and Defend Free Speech, Academic Freedom
***ADMINISTRATORS
Calls increase for Oregon State president to resign over handling of sexual harassment claims
University of Scranton’s President dies from ALS complications
A new president takes the reins at University of Dallas
***CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS
College of the Ozarks says its athletics program is ending its relationship with the NAIA
Anti-LGBTQ sign at Calvin University sparks students speaking out, silent sit-in protest
Cornel West returns to Union Theological Seminary after Harvard tenure dispute
California Baptist women's basketball team has perfect record but won't make NCAA Tournament
Samford University trustees elect Beck Taylor as new president
Science and Creationism in Serious Colleges ($)
Wesley Theological Seminary wants to tap into the school's most valuable asset — its land
***RESEARCH
Re-engineering Scholarly Journal Publishing
Tips about dealing with the scientific literature
Separating out Predatory publishers from the Legitimate ones
The Unstoppable Momentum of Outdated Science
***STUDENT LIFE
Pandemic spurs increase in depression among college students
NLRB withdraws rules to quash graduate students’ right to organize as employees ($)
AP study: Nearly 90% of esports scholarships going to men
University of Tampa students revolt to throw their own graduation
Student suspensions are shaking up the University of Vermont campus
Is This the End of the Romance Between Chinese Students and American Colleges?
College Students Are Still Paying for Services, Buildings That Remain Off Limits
The Lost Year: What the Pandemic Cost Teenagers
***SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ASSAULT
Eight ways colleges, like LSU, shield sexual assaults from the public
Biden directs fresh review of Title IX rule on campus sexual assault
***RACIAL ISSUES ON CAMPUS
UT Austin finds no racist intent behind 'Eyes of Texas' alma mater that football players protested
Three Alabama professors on leave over racially insensitive Halloween pictures
Georgetown law professor under fire for comments about Black students' performance
The important thing
/The important thing is not to stop questioning. -Albert Einstein (born March 14, 1879)
Welcome to another fantastic day
/Welcome to another fantastic day of opportunity and chance to drink in life! Make sure you get your daily recommended allowance.
The Prose and Poetry of Change
/The principal prose skill is finding your own voice. It is discovering how to be present in the experience of listening. It is listening deeply and experiencing just as deeply. There are prose elements to leading and living.
But similarly, there are poetry elements. Poetry is what illuminates your life. Poetry is what fills the small silences. Poetry is what brings you to meaning. Poetry is what touches the small fibers of who you are.
If you live a life of pure prose, you will live a linear and an effective but not an illuminus life. But if you can some how merge poetry and prose, you have the potential as a person and as a professional to be remarkable.
Roger Fransecky
Articles of interest about religion - March 10
/***THE VIRUS
Why it's so hard to sign up for vaccinations online
Vaccine-skeptical Trump country poses challenge to immunization push
Fully vaccinated people can gather without masks, CDC says
Employees at Texas Mexican restaurant says customers threatened to call ICE on them for mask mandate
***RELIGION & THE VIRUS
Atheists are more likely to get vaccinated, survey finds
COVID-19 one year later: The way it has changed worshiping our faiths
Christian Groups Resist Johnson & Johnson Vaccine For Using Abortion-Derived Cells
New surveys connect the dots between politics, race, religion and vaccination
***RELIGION
The Wasting of the Evangelical Mind (opinion)
Why Christians Who Speak Jesus’ Language Can’t Agree on Their Name
An evangelical scientist on reconciling her religion and the realities of climate change ($)
***RELIGION AND POLITICS
In America, evangelicalism has become as much a political as a religious identity
Trump Prophet Enraged His Followers by Apologizing. Now He’s Shutting Down His Ministry
***RELIGION & THE LAW
The Supreme Court’s new decision about evangelical preachers on campus, explained
***DENOMINATIONS
Appeals court decision allows sex abuse lawsuit against Southern Baptist Paul Pressler to proceed
United Methodist conservatives detail plans for a breakaway
***CATHOLIC
A deaf priest is now serving as chaplain at Gallaudet University
In Pope Francis, Biden Has A Potential Ally — Who Shares The Same Catholic Detractors
Narrowing Enrollment Pipeline Pressures Roman Catholic Colleges
***RELIGIOUS SCANDAL
New Orleans deacon/ lawyer arrested and charged with allegations of sexual battery with a juvenile
Ravi Zacharias’s Ministry Plans Name Change, Calls for More Victims to Come Forward
***RELIGION & LGBTQ ISSUES
LGBTQ rights bill ignites debate over religious liberty
Major Evangelical Adoption Agency Will Now Serve Gay Parents Nationwide
***CHRISTIAN CELEBRITIES
Bible teacher Beth Moore, splitting with Lifeway, says, 'I am no longer a Southern Baptist'
We suffer more often
/We suffer more often in imagination than in reality. -Semeca
The Self and beyond
/We must help the individual to discover how commitments may be made without surrendering individuality. We must help him to understand and resist any impulse he may have to flee the responsibility of individual choice by mindless submission to a Cause or Movement.
In short, he must recognize the hazard of having no commitments beyond the self and the hazard of commitments that imperil the self.
John Gardner, Self-Renewal
Articles of interest about journalism, social media, conspiracy theories & more - March 7
/***COVID-19
There's No Point in Vaccine Shopping
One Year Into the Pandemic, How Are Health Reporters Doing?
What Do Vaccine Efficacy Numbers Actually Mean?
Hospitals Struggle To Steer Clear Of Counterfeit Masks
To selfie or not to selfie? Why the joy of getting vaccinated is drawing backlash
***JOURNALISM
Most women journalists in history haven’t been ‘notable’ enough for Wikipedia. We’re changing that.
In pandemic, rural papers show how journalists are essential workers
News deserts and weak ethics laws allow corruption to run rampant in SC
Want to know if your news organization reflects your community? Do a source audit. Here’s how.
Newsrooms Revisit Old Stories To Offer A 'Fresh Start'
***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM
Sinclair Broadcast Group Announces Cuts 5% Of Workforce Due To Impact Of Covid-19
The Newsstands of the Future Will Have No Newspapers
***STUDENT JOURNALISM
What's the best advice you've ever received in journalism?
Why Small Towns Need Student Journalists
How student journalists can find mentorship without working in physical newsrooms
***WRITING & READING
How to avoid jargon when writing about a technical product
Publishing’s New Power Club is reckoning with race
Microsoft Word will soon let you transform your documents into PowerPoint presentations
***PLAGIARISM
Monash University academic article retracted over plagiarism of a student’s work
Iowa State student paper Editorial Board member fired for plagiarism
***VACCINE MISINFORMATION
The media plays a crucial role in battling vaccine misinformation. But here’s what not to do. ($)
Twitter cracks down on Covid vaccine misinformation
***DEEP FAKES
Here’s How Worried You Should Be About Those Tom Cruise Deepfakes
Deepfake videos of Tom Cruise show the technology's threat to society is very real
***CONSPIRACY THEORIES
How the party of Lincoln became the party of Alex Jones
Experts In Cult Deprogramming Step In To Help Believers In Conspiracy Theories
As fractures emerge among Proud Boys, experts warn of a shift toward extremist violence
***QANON
Fox News host Tucker Carlson calls QAnon followers 'gentle' patriots
Support for QAnon is hard to measure — and polls may overestimate it
This Small Town Shows How QAnon Is Quietly Going Mainstream
Disinformation experts aren’t happy about the trailer for HBO’s QAnon series
QAnon and conspiracy theories are taking hold in churches. Pastors are fighting back
***SOCIAL MEDIA
Twitter is testing an 'undo' option after sending tweets
Facebook launches BARS, a TikTok-like app for creating and sharing raps
The Empty Religions of Instagram: How did influencers become our moral authorities? ($)
Sleep problems associated with smartphone addiction
How social media and video conferencing is changing sign language
Doomscrolling can steal hours of your time -- here's how to take it back
Turntable.fm is back from the dead — and now there are two
***CLUBHOUSE
Addicted to Clubhouse? These apps will make it even better
Clubhouse gives people who missed TikTok a chance to become influencers
Clubhouse Is Recording Your Conversations. That’s Not Even Its Worst Privacy Problem
***SECURITY
How to poison the data that Big Tech uses to surveil you
Chinese Hacking Spree Hit an ‘Astronomical’ Number of Victims
More than 20,000 US organizations compromised through Microsoft flaw
This dangerous ransomware is using a new trick to encrypt your network
***PRIVACY
How to stop your emails from being tracked
Judge in Google case disturbed that even ‘incognito’ users are tracked
China Wants Your Data — And May Already Have It
TikTok Consumer Privacy Class Settlement Includes $92M Payout
***STUDENT MEDIA
Student Journalist Sues College, Alleging First Amendment Violation
Reflections on a year of reporting on college journalism education
***LANGUAGE
The language of 'Minari' feels to me like coming home
***LITERATURE
Is it Fair Use to Reproduce Out-of-Print Seuss?
How Dr. Seuss Responded to Critics Who Called Out His Racism
***POETRY
Black Spirituals as Poetry and Resistance ($)
Four Poets Reflect on the Role of Poetry In Challenging Times
NBA star Zion Williamson Gives Flowers To His Teacher And Explains His Love For Poetry
People of a particular sort
/We might think that God wanted simple obedience to a set of rules: whereas he really wants people of a particular sort. –CS Lewis
Articles of interest about higher ed - March 6
/*** COVID-19
Illinois family grieving loss attributed to ‘COVID psychosis’
Experts explain what you should and shouldn't do if you're fully vaccinated
How to Deal with Crushing Vaccine FOMO
***HIGHER ED & COVID
Colleges That Require Virus-Screening Tech Struggle to Say Whether It Works ($)
At least two Southeast Texas colleges will still require masks on campus
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley apologizes after undocumented migrants refused vaccine
The Cost of Insuring Colleges Continues to Rise. And Covid’s Not the Reason. ($)
COVID-19 vaccines given to hundreds of University of Illinois employees who weren’t yet eligible, including coaches and instructors
***HIGHER ED & POLITICS
Accreditor may lose access to federal money after approving college without students rebuked
Colorado group aims to give colleges, universities a voice
***LAYOFFS & FURLOUGHS
Group protests Marquette layoffs, calls for worker reinstatement
***COLLEGE FINANCES
Becker College in jeopardy of closing
Why Haven’t More Colleges Closed?
***HIGHER ED
A New Report on the Future of Higher Education
A ‘gobsmacking number’ of students in need aren’t applying to college. Are we missing 'an entire generation'?
***HUMANITIES
I was a liberal arts major. Education is about more than jobs
***HIGHER ED IN COURT
Morehouse student denied access to program because of HIV status, lawsuit says
Auburn University professors suing over management of Econ department
UT Austin student suing school over spring 2020 tuition
Lawsuit alleges employment discrimination at the University of Cincinnati
***TEACHING
Okay, let me just share my screen… ah, nope. okay, you’re looking at my savings account
3 Lessons From Teaching A Course On UX Design
***ACADEMIC LIFE
Workaholic academics need to stop taking pride in their burnout
John Carroll University fundamentally alters tenure -- to the point that professors say it and academic freedom no longer exist
U of Florida suspends professors blamed in student's suicide
Ferris State professor fired following investigation after tweeting racial slurs
***ADMINISTRATORS
Lawrence University names first Black president
President Marjorie Hass to depart Rhodes College
Big Ten Presidents try to prevent public from seeing emails about return-to-school & COVID
Northwestern University President to step down next year
A College President Worried About the Risks of Dorm Isolation. So He Moved In
College president back and forth with paper over whereabouts of CFO
St. Bonaventure's 21st president, dies of COVID
Second interim president named at Guilford College to replace recently named first interim president
Scientist named president of University of Chicago
***CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS
Mass top court says Gordon College professor not a 'minister'
Virginia GOP rules out statewide convention at single venue after visit to Liberty University
These Christian Colleges Are Taking On Today’s Hot-Button Social Issues
Bob Jones University drops mask requirement in classrooms
President of The Master’s University and Seminary resigns
Rally to Support Southwest Baptist University Professors Draws Crowd in Front of School
***RESEARCH
What happened when a group of sleuths flagged more than 30 papers with errors?
Science journals rush to publish pandemic research but many have weak analysis, unsupported claims, & meaningless insight
There are no resources to inform researchers about the publication culture of a research group before joining
JAMA journal retracts, replaces paper linking nonionizing radiation to ADHD
Meet the postdoc who says he’s been trying to retract his own paper since 2016
***STUDENT LIFE
Will Universities take away the flexibility they have given to disabled students when the move back in person?
Many students are hesitant to discuss controversial topics in the classroom during Fall 2020 semester
VCU student found dead, fraternity suspended
'I felt immeasurably stuck': High school seniors face college acceptances, rejections alone
Study finds no link between gender and physics course performance
***SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ASSAULT
Independent investigation finds that LSU routinely mishandled allegations of sexual misconduct
'Institutional betrayal': Law firm faults OSU's Alexander for Title IX issues at LSU
Campus assault victims in limbo as Biden seeks to undo Trump reforms
Lawsuit says University of Nebraska-Lincoln did not act to stop a professor from sexually harassing student
***RACIAL ISSUES ON CAMPUS
Statue by Nazi-era artist removed from Bay Area college campus
Emails reveal Texas alumni threatening to stop donations unless song with racist ties is played at football games
Penalizing Black hair in the name of academic success is undeniably racist, unfounded, and against the law
Predominantly white colleges tackle racism, diversity, equity and inclusion
The Willingness to be Misunderstood
/Invention requires a long-term willingness to be misunderstood. You do something that you genuinely believe in, that you have conviction about, but for a long period of time, well-meaning people may criticize that effort … if you really have conviction that they’re not right, you need to have that long-term willingness to be misunderstood. It’s a key part of invention.
Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder
Getting closer to the truth
/We have a natural tendency to look for instances that confirm our story and our vision of the world. We can get closer to the truth by negative instances, not by verification. –Nissim Taleb
Method over Goals
/Little by little, preoccupation with method, technique and procedure gains a subtle dominance over the whole process of goal seeking. How it is done becomes more important than whether it is done. Means triumph over ends. Form triumphs over spirit.
Method is enthroned. Men become prisoners of their procedures, and organizations that were designed to achieve some goal become obstacles in the path to that goal.
A concern for “how to do it” is healthy and necessary. The fact that it often leads to an empty worship of method is just one of the dangers with which we have to live. Every human activity, no matter how ennobling or constructive or healthy, involves hazards. The flower of competence carries the seeds of rigidity just as the flower of virtue carries the seeds of complacency. “There is a road to hell,” said John Bunyan, “even from the gates of heaven.”
John Gardner, Self-Renewal
Solving problems
/We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. -Albert Einstein