Tips, tutorials, and commentary on pedagogy, productivity, and technology in higher education.

Author Archives: George H. Williams

5 Suggestions Concerning Disability, Accommodation, and the College Classroom

March 15, 2010 in Pedagogy by George H. Williams

Many of our students will come to the classroom with a disability of one kind or another. In this post, I suggest 5 ways in which we can better meet the needs of these students.

Open Thread Wednesday!

March 10, 2010 in Open Thread by George H. Williams

What’s on your mind? How’s your semester going? Do you need advice or feedback? Do you have advice or feedback to share?

Digital Natives? Naive!

March 9, 2010 in Pedagogy by George H. Williams

We're seeing increasing levels of skepticism about the idea that the generation who came of age surrounded by digital tools are fundamentally different than older generations in the way they think, learn, communicate, and express themselves.

5 Easy Speech-to-Text Solutions

March 3, 2010 in Productivity, Products by George H. Williams

My recent post about using Amazon Mechanical Turk for the transcription of digital audio has left me thinking about other options for doing the same task. In this post I provide an overview of 5 different digital tools for having spoken words transcribed into written text.

Open Thread Wednesday!

March 3, 2010 in Open Thread by George H. Williams

What’s on your mind? How’s your semester going? Do you need advice or feedback? Do you have advice or feedback to share?

The Ethics of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk

March 1, 2010 in Products, Reviews by George H. Williams

Last week, I described my experiences using Amazon's Mechanical Turk service to transcribe audio recordings of oral histories I've collected. This week, I consider whether "Turkers," as they're sometimes called, are being exploited.

How to keep track of all those keys

February 25, 2010 in Life, Pedagogy, Productivity by George H. Williams

Sometimes it's the simplest tools that make the biggest difference. For example, last semester I started using a couple of carabiners to organize all my keys into 2 sets that are easy to carry and easy to access. Doesn't sound like that big of a deal, right? Let me explain.

Open Thread Wednesday!

February 24, 2010 in Open Thread by George H. Williams

What’s on your mind? How’s your semester going? Do you need advice or feedback? Do you have advice or feedback to share?

The Reliability, Efficiency, and Affordability of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk

February 22, 2010 in Products, Reviews by George H. Williams

Recently I had reason to get some audio transcribed using Amazon.com's Mechanical Turk service. The results have been impressive, and in this post I describe my experience and consider other possible applications

Open Thread Wednesday!

February 17, 2010 in Open Thread by George H. Williams

What’s on your mind? How’s your semester going? Do you need advice or feedback? Do you have advice or feedback to share?

University Presses Embrace Electronic Publishing?

February 15, 2010 in Products by George H. Williams

It seems that the "e-book revolution," such as it is, has come to academic publishing. What implications does this development have for publishers, authors, and readers?

Scheduling 101: The Ideal Academic App

February 11, 2010 in Productivity, ProfHacker 101 by George H. Williams

Today I'd like to brainstorm with ProfHacker readers about what the ideal academic scheduling service or app might look like. I've taken the various comments that ProfHacker readers have shared over the last few months and combined them with some ideas of my own. So consider this an open letter of sorts.