Inappropriate Work-related Facebook Checkups
An insurance company, Manulife, has withdrawn a woman’s long-term sick leave benefits associated with a diagnosis of major depression after viewing pictures of her on Facebook: She said her insurance agent described several pictures Blanchard posted on the popular social networking site, including ones showing her having a good time at a Chippendales bar show, at her birthday party and on a sun holiday — evidence that she is no longer depressed, Manulif

Text Messaging as a Part of College Entrance Exams
A recent article in the Telegraph details an addition to the GCSE English exam: a section on text messaging worth 10% of students’ final exam grades.  The GCSE is a standardized educational exam for 15- and 16-year-olds commonly used in most of the United Kingdom.  The GCSE in particular is used as a college qualification exam and comes in a variety of subjects. I

Illinois Graduate Students on Strike
The students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are on strike today, following up on the promises of their union (the Graduate Employees’ Organization [GEO]), a local union of the American Federation of Teachers.  The terms of the strike are a bit surprising.  It’s not about wages, job security, notification of when contracts are to be expired, or anything that I would normally associated with a strik

Each Instructional Technology Has Its Place
There has been a recent flurry of discussion about the use of PowerPoint in college classrooms, and by extension, corporate training rooms.  As far as I can tell, it started with this post from a college student discussing her frustration at instructors who use PowerPoint, with echoes on Speaker Confessions and even on Slashdot.  Speaker Confessions is certainly the most amusing, primarily

Uh-oh, I Hit Reply All!: The Perils of Sexy E-mail
In a reminder to us all about the ease with which information can be sent in e-mail to unintended recipients, the sexually explicit conversation between two employees at Cornell University was “accidentally” sent campus-wide, Guest of a Guest reports and Inside Higher Ed confirms. Please note that the Guest of a Guest link includes the full conversation thread, and may not be appropriate for viewing at work.  I