Five Minute Room Rescue

I have to admit it, I procrastinate on pretty much everything. Or at least, I used to, until I found a method to stop procrastinating, or at least reduce it. I read about it in Fast Company magazine. You can read the article here, or you can just let me paraphrase it for you. It's called the Five Minute Room Rescue. It is initially recommend for when you have a room you want to clean. You set your timer for five minutes and clean as much as you can in five minutes. That's it, just five minutes and you're done. But what you'll be amazed at is how much you can get accomplished in that five minutes. Then, you'll want to continue until you finish the room.

This same concept can be applied to anything, even school work. You have an assignment due soon and you don't want to get started on it. Just do it for five minutes. You'll then realize that it perhaps isn't as hard as you thought and keep working on it. Maybe you won't finish it, but you'll get a great jump on it so that when you go to work on it again you'll have an easier time. The hardest part is just doing that first five minutes, but if you can just convince yourself that all you have to do is five minutes of work, you'll find it a lot easier.

So the next time you want to put something off, just convince yourself to give it five minutes. You'll be surprised how well it works.

New Amazon Kindle Will Not Succeed with College Students

New Amazon Kindle Will Not Succeed with College Students
By: Chris Tsiropoulos

Today, Amazon has announced that they will hold a press conference at Pace University in New York on Wednesday, and the rumour mill suggests that Amazon will unveil a larger version of the Kindle to target college students. With the textbook market at about 8.6 billion dollars annually in the United States alone, Amazon sees a perfect opportunity to capture market share with their new device. However, as a college student, I am not convinced that this device will benefit me financially or physically from carrying all those books.

Let’s face it: the Amazon Kindle is ugly. Period. Although the latest Kindle 2 looks incrementally better than the original, it is definitely not a beautiful device that you want to show off to your friends, as say you would with the iPhone. Also, it seems as though most people who are buying Kindle’s are older people. Now, as college students, we tend to create our own popular trends as opposed to embracing technology meant for our parents.

Also, we must consider the price. According to Amazon.com, the latest Kindle 2 sells for 359$ USD, and with shipping and taxes it is fair to round this number up to 400$. With a bigger, textbook-reading Kindle, I think it is safe to say that it will cost more than 400$, although Amazon may subsidizes this price to give incentive to students to buy their product. However, I seriously cannot see students buying this product because of the astronomical price for a one dimensional product.

The only good thing about the Kindle is that is has a data connection, and this connection is built into the price of the Kindle. However, for 400$ it is not worth it for a student to buy this product. Doing a quick search on Apple.com, it costs 950$ for a new 13 inch white Macbook with the student discount, and during back to school season Apple throws in a new iPod Touch with every laptop purchase for students. If I were in the market for the Kindle, I would seriously consider buying a Macbook (950$), selling the iPod on eBay (roughly 200$), and factoring in the price for an Amazon Kindle ($400), I would be paying $350 more for a Macbook that is unquestionably not a one dimensional product like the Kindle is, and I can still read books from this computer.

Most college students already have a laptop computer and increasingly more students are buying trendy smartphones. These two devices are able to become e-readers with the proper software, and students already own these devices. Personally, I could not rationalize buying a Kindle, just to save money on textbooks. According to ZDNet, instead of buying a textbook for 100$ in the book store, Amazon will charge 35$ to buy it on the Kindle. The Kindle could pay itself off in one year of buying textbooks from it alone! This may be true, although Amazon has underestimated the usefulness of a physical textbook that students use.

Personally, my textbooks take a beating over the academic year. I like to highlight, write in the margins, and underline content in my textbooks to engage and understand the material. How do I highlight, write in, and underline content on the Kindle? Definitely can’t do that. Also, I can sell my books and get 30-50% of the money I spend on them back in my wallet. How do I resell an e-book? Definitely can’t do that. Also, there are some students out there (like our friend Dan Kalmar), who do not buy books at all and still get through their studies. Did Amazon take all of these factors into consideration?

Now I could be wrong about this new Kindle, but when I go to the library I know that it is normal to read from two sources: a laptop and books. I would not want to be “that guy” in the library that pulls out his thin, ugly, over-priced device to read from. I would rather pay the premium and buy the Macbook to read from, among other things. But how would I get my e-book? Apple should push iTunes as a textbook marketplace for students, where students could pay for and download e-books to their computer. Most students have a computer with iTunes already installed on it, so it would be much more realistic for a student like me to buy an e-book for $35 through iTunes versus buying a new Kindle at 400$ to spend $35 each time I download a book.

Update: The new Amazon Kindle DX will go on sale for $489. Madness!

Does anyone agree with me? Leave your opinion in the comments.

How I Got Through My Final Year With No Books

Yes, you read the title correctly. My final year of university I didn't purchase a single book. Not one. Why did I do it? Well firstly because I pay for my own school, so the idea of saving a considerable amount of money sounded pretty good to me. I also didn't really feel like I needed to buy any of them. I also just kinda wanted to see if I could do it. And I did.

Every year, I've always purchased all of my books and I've wondered why I did. I've always mostly studied from my notes or even Googled a concept that I didn't understand to get more information on it. Last year, I took it down a notch and bought all of my books but one, and all of the books I bought were used. This year, I took it to another level. I didn't buy one single book. And it feels great. The biggest questions people ask are 1) What were your marks like and 2) How did you do it?

1) My marks weren't bad. Any shortcomings were a result of laziness on my part and I believe had no direct relation to having no textbooks.

2) I did it through two ways: going to class and taking good notes. I've always been a firm believer in going to class. You can learn things just simply through sitting there and if you actively participate you can learn even more. From there, I took great notes. I've always much preferred to study from my notes rather than a textbook. With a textbook, you're reading material that the professor didn't cover and that wasn't on the exam. For me, I found that no professor put anything on the final exam that they didn't talk about in class. So since my class notes were just what the professor talked about, I was set. From there, if I needed to get information on a chapter because I missed a class, I could simply ask a classmate for a note or borrow the textbook from the library. That's another major thing that people forget: a lot of your textbooks are in the library. While you might not want to have to fight to get the book the day before the exam, it can be good if you only need to look up a few things.

I'm certainly not suggesting that everyone try what I did. I'm certain a lot of people cannot buy no books and get the marks I did. Also, with some professors, they'll test you on everything even if they didn't talk about it in class. In this case, buying the textbook would probably be a good idea. All I'm saying is that make sure all the books you are buying are needed. Often people don't even realize that they don't really study from the textbook until they really think about it. All I'm saying: think about it.

Turnitin.com: A Necessary Evil?

Turnitin.com: A Necessary Evil?
By: Chris Tsiropoulos

Turnitin.com (or Turnitin) is essentially a database that has indexed all books, the public internet, student papers and notes. Turnitin sells licenses to universities and high schools (and now businesses) to use their service which essentially checks if the student has plagiarized the work they are submitting. Most students are obligated to use this service as instructed by their teacher or professor, stating that an electronic copy must be submitted to Turnitin and a paper copy must be submitted as well. However, I think students should question Turnitin.com and understand what the main interests of this service are.

Students submit their work to Turnitin without even questioning the authority. I have submitted numerous papers to Turnitin, and I must admit that the submittion process is very smooth. Turnitin makes you feel like you are contributing to the greater good, that "Hey I know I'm not cheating, and I don't want someone else to cheat off my work, so I'll hand it to you guys and you can take care of that.Thanks!" Now, that's how some people feel, while others are terrified of Turnitin because they have copy-and-pasted too many sentences from Wikipedia, but that's another story. After I submit something to Turnitin, I always ask myself why I am doing this. I'm essentially uploading my work to an online service, and they are making profits from my work, and I am not reimbursed at all. The best part about this situation, is that I am obligated to do it. In most classes, a professor will give you a mark of zero if you have not submitted your paper to Turnitin.com.

So students upload papers to Turnitin, Turnitin checks if they have plagiarized, and then sends the results to the teacher or professor. As a student, I am obligated to submit my original work to Turnitin, which is a third-party company not connected to any academic institution, which then creates a massive database and sells their service to most academic institutions. I submit my paper to make sure it's not plagiarized, the university buys the license to use this service, and Turnitin generates profits. I don't think this is fair to the student. If I have to submit my paper to Turnitin.com, I am essentially guilty-until-proven-innocent. All papers are plagiarized, and until they have been scanned by Turnitin.com, you will not receive a grade for the paper submitted. This logic doesn't seem right.

Don't get me wrong, I think idea behind Turnitin.com is genuine. I mean, who is going to catch all the student plagiarizers out there? Someone has to do it! I agree with this. However, Turnitin.com has two major shortcomings: it is a for profit business and students have no choice but to submit their work to the service. The credibility of a service which makes money from papers that students must submit, and then sells their service to academic institutions must be questioned. I think this for-profit structure is the biggest shortcoming of Turnitin because they are providing this service to make money, not to "ensure academic integrity among students." If Turnitin was a social enterprise, their business would be credible in the eyes of students. If I knew that Turnitin generated enough profits to run their organization and then donate their profits back into the education system, I wouldn't mind submitting my paper to this service at all. Seriously.

I wanted to find out if anyone else has questioned the credibility and intent of Turnitin.com and according to it's nemesis, Wikipedia, there are many. Two students at McGill University decided not to submit their papers to Turnitin.com and after winning a ruling from the Senate Committee of Student Grievances their papers were graded without the use of Turnitin.com. I also found it interesting that at Ryerson University, it is entirely up to the students whether they want to submit their work to Turnitin.com or not. Also, the some of the best universities in the world such as Yale, Harvard, Princeton and Stanford have instituted a campus-wide ban on the use of Turnitin.com. If these credible institutions are banning the use of Turnitin.com, I think that others will follow their lead and begin to phase out Turnitin.com or give the students choice when it comes to submitting their work.

What is the ultimate solution? I don't really know. I think that if Turnitin.com was a not-for-profit business, students would not have a problem with it. I do believe that students must be given a choice and not simply mandated by their professors to submit their work to this service. I am all for academic integrity among students, but there must be a better solution out there.

If you have a solution to solving academic integrity among students or want to give us your thoughts on Turnitin.com, leave it in the comments.

How to Present Part 2

A few weeks ago I wrote some tips on public speaking. I told you that it doesn't have to be something that you fear if you follow some guidelines on things that you should do, and sometimes more importantly, not do. Today I'm going to continue this talk on how to give a presentation, specifically a Powerpoint presentation.

Ease up on the effects:
Cool animations can be good, when they're minimal. As far as effects go, stick with the maxim “less is more”. If you have way too many distracting ones, it'll be cool at the start, but then it'll be just that: distracting. I much prefer to have just the simple “fade” effect because it's subtle and won't be distracting when it's done over and over.

Don't look at the slideshow:
Face your audience when you talk. It seems like it should go without saying, but I guess I do need to say it based on how many times people do it. If you can't remember the information on the slide then have your laptop in front of you with the information that is being played behind you. That way at least you are looking forward at your audience and aren't talking with your back to them.

Don't show your sources unless asked:
Nothing ruins the end of a presentation more than saying “Here's where I got my data.” If they ask you to do it at the end, then do it. If they just want you to have it in there somewhere, then say “According to [insert source]...” that way the source is there without ruining the ending. Use the ending to sum up your argument and finish strong. It's the last thing they'll remember, don't ruin it.

Don't address them or thank them:
Don't start off by saying “Professor [Name] and class mates, today I'll be talking about...” and certainly don't end by thanking them for listening or saying that you hoped they learnt something. As I said before make sure you end strong and listing your sources then thanking them for listening is the best way to ruin your presentation.

Presenting doesn't have to be a difficult or scary experience. Make sure that you know what you're saying and say it like you mean it. Make sure that your information is strong so that you don't have to worry about trying to make it look better with distracting effects that will do nothing more than take away from your presentation. Thank you for reading this post. I hope you learnt something. See, didn't that just ruin it?

Is Class Necessary?

Self paced? For many who are independent learners, professor to student contact may not be necessary. With the amount of information in the 700 page text books and the online posted lecture notes, universities are making the need for class attendance unnecessary. For those who can skim a book and retain the information and who can read the lectures notes themselves, rather than the professor reading to them just like a "reading buddy" would, class is not required to pass or attain respectable marks. Many universities also offer online courses with no professor relations, which proves that classes may not be necessary at all. With machines and technology taking over the production line, will the future of technology abolish professors? Is it possible for universities to be strictly online and self paced? Only time will tell....

Home School vs. Real School: Not Mutually Exclusive

People often think that you either have to be physically at a school to learn or you're home schooled; there's no alternative. My opinion: that's not even remotely true. Since for many of you the days of potentially being home schooled are far over, you believe that doing work at home means catching up on reading or doing projects, but it should be much more than that. Jim Rohn once said, “Formal education will make you a living; self education will make you a fortune” and it couldn't be more true. If you want to truly excel in the world, you're going to have to be independent and try to learn the things that aren't being taught by your professors and the textbooks that will be valuable to you in the future.

If you're in a job interview, don't expect your potential employer to ask you to draw the graph that appears on page 153 of your Economics textbook, but do expect them to ask them your opinion on the housing crisis. A website called Academic Earth is being deemed as the “Hulu for education” by Tech Crunch and after checking it out, I have to agree. They have videos from some of the top lectures and speakers from around the world. There are hundreds of resources out there that will help you learn about things in your field of study, and outside if you choose to broaden your horizons. Watching videos from FORA or from the TED conference won't just enlighten you on technology, but also on many other issues that may change the way you think.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I believe it's more what you learn outside of the classroom than what you learn inside of it. I'm not knocking what you are learning inside of the classroom, though. That stuff is important too. But don't forget that home time shouldn't just be about working on your given school assignments. Maybe it's time to reconsider some home schooling.