Blogging about the Future of Social Work, Education, and Technology
December 30, 2014 Leave a comment
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,800 times in 2014. If it were a cable car, it would take about 47 trips to carry that many people.
June 3, 2012 1 Comment
There has been a lot of talk it seems lately surrounding academic research and the need to get out of the silo and share/collaborate with others about research. I agree with much of the sentiment but I wonder if this culture will ever change. To be honest, as one embarking on an academic career, the publication cycle worries me!!! My research interests center on technology and the notion that technology today changes faster than my 2 year old changes her mind, means that by the time my research makes it to the masses it could already be outdated.
For example, I conducted a small project over a year ago and submitted it for publication. I have yet to hear back on whether it is being considered or if it has even been sent out for peer review. The typical turn around time for journals is 6 months or more. I had a book review that took nearly a year to get published. I mainly agree with the sentiment surrounding the need to share research because I see a lot of benefit in it. However, the culture of publish or perish needs to change in order for academics to initiate the collaboration. Moving ahead in my career, I already plan to share my research via my blog and other social media platforms. I will also continue to write (and hopefully publish) in order to fulfill the academic requirement. There will just have to be some small differences in content to get around the issue of copyright….WHICH is a whole other issue that really upsets me when it comes to publishing. I will save that rant for another time 😀
December 17, 2011 3 Comments
It’s nearly midnight and I can’t sleep. It’s one of those nights where I suddenly woke up after only being asleep for probably 15 minutes and I just can’t go back to sleep. The more I stay in bed the more my mind starts racing about a multitude of ideas. I get up to begin to journal and even blog some of these ideas but as I begin to write them down I realize that either the idea has already been done before or it just wasn’t that great of an idea to begin with. Is it just doubt creeping in? Perhaps fear? By this time I have usually deleted my idea and now the main point of the idea is gone, as well as the excitement of the idea or the motivation behind the idea.
So I come here to ask; How do you get a really great idea off the ground? How do you tell if it is a really good idea? I ask this mostly for my own introspection but also because I think input on ideas is critical. My wife would say that I’m an IDEA GUY, meaning I always come up with these grand ideas. She is so good to sit back and offer a listening ear knowing that I usually never follow through. I can’t help the idea part, I think it’s a family trait, but then again maybe the no follow through is too 😀
Perhaps what I really need is a pen and paper beside my bed to document these ideas and simply go back to sleep. Then in the morning or a day later I can go back to see what I wrote. At least it might be kind of funny or maybe, just maybe, I will come up with a really great idea!
August 22, 2011 Leave a comment
I’ve been meaning to come back and post here about being a dad since I have a section for it on my blog, but time always seems to escape me. The summer is nearly over and as kids, and myself, head back to school I can’t help but reflect on this summer. Traveling all day to go to two different family reunions which were on opposite sides of the country didn’t leave me with the time to blog like I thought it would. Now, taking just a moment, I realize that I am glad I didn’t take the time to blog because I was having so much fun with my family. Time on the beach or at the swimming pool and even just the boring times was all totally worth it. This summer was also the real first taste as to many of the reasons why I want to be a professor. Summers off….well sort of.
Actually, I think I worked more this summer than I did last, but it sure didn’t feel like. Being able to have the flexibility to travel and see family is one of the most important things in my career. Of course I am interested in creating positive social change and helping to educate a brilliant and capable social work force to be employed by an amazing nonprofit sector. But, I have to admit that the other perks are nice as well. This summer I got to see my daughter interact with her many cousins and eat a whole piece of pizza by herself. She had her first ice cream cone, which she again ate by herself, and I just can’t imagine not being there. So even though I may grumble about work or completing this PhD, I am incredibly grateful for the opportunities that it brings.
Thanks for letting me ramble a bit 😀
August 9, 2011 Leave a comment
It has been a long time but I have finally returned from vacation. Soon I will get into a regular routine of blogging again about education, online learning, social work, nonprofit stuff, and social media. I’m sorry if you have missed me and hopefully you will continue to read my blog and find it useful. I’m excited to get back into the swing of things now that I have had a chance for some good R&R.
June 18, 2011 3 Comments
I recently starting writing some articles for Technorati and my first one was just published. You can check it out here: Great Ideas for Father’s Day. It was a late night post, as evidenced by some minor spelling mistakes, but the nature of the article was timely enough to get it published I guess. Anyways, have a go at reading it if you like. Thanks.
June 10, 2011 1 Comment
From time to time I do blog about my experiences as a new dad who primarily stays at home to watch and care for my lovely daughter. Right now I wanted to share just a small insight that I had and my wife has taken to new heights. Like many people, we are on a tight budget and trying to save any money we can while still living the kind of lifestyle we would like to. Now we don’t spend extravagant amounts of money are take amazing vacations. In fact, a great night out for us is typically a run to Five Guys or Chipotle and then a movie from Redbox. Saving money is pretty hard, but we have discovered a new method to help us save money. GIFT CARDS!
I know you are probably thinking, “Gift Cards? How does that save you money?” Well, we discovered that Kroger Grocery stores gives you extra fuel points when you buy gift cards. We use those fuel points to save money on gas, and when gas is around $3.50 a gallon, we can use all the savings possible. I mentioned this idea to my wife and she has taken off with it. She figures we are going to go out to eat anyways, we might as well use a gift card and get the fuel points. GENIUS!!! There are some limitations so you have to check the rules etc. But last week we filled up both our cars and a gas can for less than $70. We saved around 10 cents a gallon. Okay, so it’s not a ton of money, but the idea is that we are spending that money anyways, so if can scrimp or save a bit whenever we can, then think of how much money we can save in the long run.
I wondered if there were any other ideas for saving money that you have found easy and useful? Feel free to comment and let us know.
April 7, 2011 Leave a comment
Well this was not the blog post I was going to write today, but something interesting has happened in the last several days that I decided to blog about. A close friend of mine that I grew up with and went to school with recently started a blog on his 4 month old son’s experience with Leukemia. His son just had surgery today to remove some of the cancer and is now going to be spending the next 6 months in the pediatric care center of the hospital while he undergoes chemo. Now you might be wondering what this has to do with the internet or technology and how it enhances our relationships. Well I have been incredibly impressed with how far our technologies have come to enable deep connections with friends and family no matter where they are at. My friend and his family are on the west coast and myself out east. Yet because of Facebook and their blog, I am able to stay updated on what is happening. I wasn’t even aware that his son was having any challenges. I know what a great friend I am right? But the fact is that life is so busy that often times the friendships that sustained us during our childhood, through college, or at various times of our life sometimes fade. I haven’t talked with this friend face-to-face in over 4 years. I wish it wasn’t this way, but life happens.
So as I read this blog on what is happening with my friend’s son, I am incredibly grateful for the technology that enables this to happen. I know that this time in his life will be incredibly challenging and their isn’t really much I can do based on where I am at. However, because of technology he is aware that I am aware of his challenges and more importantly that I care about what is happening. Research has supported that individuals are more healthy and generally happier when they have meaningful relationships in their lives. A meaningful relationship is open to interpretation in my mind. I am also reminded of a talk at the TED conference by Stefana Broadbent which you can view below:
There are people who will always critique technology and cite the enormity of problems with privacy and other issues. But imagine how much good we can do, how much fun we can have, and most importantly how we can maintain dear friendships. Thanks for bearing with me as I feel like I just needed to write this out. Perhaps it’s because I’m a new dad, or perhaps it’s because I’m a social worker, and perhaps it’s because I just can’t fathom the road that my friend, his family, and their little boy have ahead of them. It’s all of those things and many more I’m sure.
March 19, 2011 1 Comment
I’ve been thinking a bit lately about all the jobs I have been performing, multitasking, and why I feel like I’m not accomplishing anything. I am a dad/husband, Ph.D. Candidate, adjunct professor, faculty field liaison, administrative support person, consultant, and I perform various duties at my church. Do I have too much on my plate? Actually, I think I do, but I feel like I can’t take anything off. So basically they all suffer just a little bit. I hate this and wish that I had more time, or maybe better time management skills 🙂
There is a professor at Stanford University who has been looking at students who profess to be excellent multi-taskers. What he has found is that while they multitask, they don’t perform any of their tasks very well at all. I can totally see how he would come to this conclusion after struggling the past year to balance my scholarly activities with other life events. So what do I plan to do. I think I am going to go on a DIET. This summer I plan on reducing the number of jobs I perform by quitting some of those jobs. I will miss the money, but to ensure my future income, I have to focus on finishing some things now. Hopefully it will produce some positive outcomes.
So my question for you is; What do you do when you feel overwhelmed and how to finish those things that seem to keep piling up? Leave a comment if you wish. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend.
March 4, 2011 Leave a comment
I have decided to list my blog on Technorati in hopes of gaining more exposure. I think it’s fairly easy to get listed once you have signed up for an account, which is free and then simply start a new blog claim. They will give you a claim token that looks something like WKE9R6F7TGFS along with a notice that it can take a bit of time for it to actually be listed. So I will update this post once I have fully been listed. Finger’s crossed.
JimmySW 