Revving up Google Scholar

Revving Up Google Scholar: More than 100 colleges and universities have made arrangements with Google that will give people using the Google Scholar search engine on their campuses more direct access to library materials there. (The Chronicle)

Going online for scholarship...and profit?

Going online for scholarship...and profit?

Dartmouth Law Review Goes Online: The Dartmouth College Undergraduate Journal of Law has become the first undergraduate law review to be included in a popular online legal library. The database, HeinOnline, already offers access to about 900 law journals, including many graduate-school titles. Having articles online might be a useful source of revenue to Dartmouth's undergraduate law group: Students will receive 15 percent of the royalties when someone views one of their essays. (The Dartmouth)

Online Scholarly Searches

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that Software Sorts Scholarly Searches: First Google, now Grokker? For the past year, students at Stanford University have been testing a program that sorts search results from a number of sources, including many academic databases that aren't available on the public Internet. Grokker's creators hope that the software catches on with students working on term papers -- but the service may have to fight for business with Google Scholar, the popular search engine's digitization project for research databases.

(San Jose Business Journal)For more on Google Scholar, see an article from The Chronicle by Jeffrey R. Young.

IPods and podcasting

On Campus, the Debate Over iPods Continues: Campus officials who have
been tracking Duke University's iPod giveaway haven't gotten any easy
answers about whether the devices are ready for the classroom: Duke's
experiment seems to have achieved mixed results. But a handful of
institutions, including Duke and Drexel Universities, remain committed
to the devices -- even if they are, as one professor says, "glorified tape recorders."
(The Christian Science Monitor) For more on the academic value of iPods,
see an article from the Chronicle by Brock Read.

FYI -- the April 13-19 issue of The Village Voice: Academic blogs

Blogging is slowly catching on in academe, according to Geeta Dayal, a freelance writer who explains,
"For some in the academy, blogging offers an escape valve, a forum for free expression that's not bound to the constraints of their fields."

A few academic writers create anonymous blogs, so they can avoid fear of reprisal from others in the academy. Others see blogging as a way to exchange ideas more quickly than is possible through traditional routes. Legal scholars have been particularly quick to embrace the medium, she says.

"The raging 'blawgosphere' -- blogs by law-school profs, students, and grads -- is one of the most organized and lively pockets of online academic discourse," she says. Some scholars are even studying blogs, holding conferences and writing papers on the subject, she says.

Blogging's not for everyone, however. Ms. Dayal quotes an associate professor of journalism at New York University and writer of a media blog called PressThink. She quotes him saying: "It's really for those who want to enter into public debate somehow, and despite all the blather you hear about 'public intellectuals,' there are very few academics who want to do that."

The article, "PH.Dotcom," is online at http://www.villagevoice.com/arts/0515,edsuppdayal,62903,12.html
An accompanying article, "A Brief Guide to Blogodemia," is also available at http://www.villagevoice.com/arts/0515,edsuppblogside,62961,12.html

NewsUniversity Announces First Workshops

It’s official! News University launches today.

Have you found NewsU yet?

It offers tightly focused, interactive courses for journalists at all levels of experience and in all types of media. And you recognize NewsU as a project of The Poynter Institute funded by the Knight Foundation.

No matter whether you know us well or not, it’s time to take another look at NewsU. Today they officially unveil the site with a new design and new courses, including:

• The complete collection of writing tools. From Poynter’s Roy Clark's "Writer's Workbench: 50 Tools to Use."
• Lousy Listeners," a must for managers who want to improve their listening skills. From Poynter’s Jill Geisler.
• 
  "Math for Journalists," how to work with figures. Debbie Wolfe, technology trainer, St. Petersburg Times.
• 
  "Freedom of Information," helping you use FOI laws to write stronger stories. From SPJ
• "Journalists and Trauma" explains traumatic stress in victims and helps you cover tragedies. the Dart Center
• 
  Lessons from the 2005 ASNE "Community Service Photojournalism" winners. With Poynter’s Kenny Irby.
• 
  "Covering Water Quality," an online training module from the Society of Environmental Journalists.
• 
  Plus, "Be a Reporter" game, a fun way to test your journalistic skills. And there's "Beat Basics & Beyond," "Cleaning Your Copy" and favorites such as "The Lead Lab" and "The Interview" with Poynter’s Chip Scanlan.

Writing and reporting techniques. Insights into visual journalism. Courses on ethics and values. Skills for newsroom leaders. Check out their courses.

UMass Online Journalism Certificate

Taking Online Ccourses Through UMassOnline's Certificate Program in Online Journalism:

You don't need to be enrolled at UMass to take our online courses. Several of our students are scattered all over the world. There are no hurdles to admission, nor are any previous courses required. The Certificate carries undergraduate credit. The single required course is Journal 300. You can start with it if you like.

You might get a good background on journalism from Journal 225, Readings in Journalism. But the choice is yours and should be based on the particular interests you bring to the Certificate.

We will be listing 11 courses during the two upcoming Summer Sessions. Session I starts June 6 and runs through July 14. Session II starts July 18 and runs through August 24.

Below is the list of courses we'll be offering. In April I'll send another message with course descriptions and faculty biographies.

Summer Session I -- 2005
Journal 300 Newswriting and Reporting
Journal 391T Travel Writing
Journal 393 Wired Reporting, Using the Web as a Research Tool
Journal 397J International Perspectives on Global News
Journal 397W Intro to Web Journalism
Journal 491S Sports Stories Summer Session II 2005
Journal 225 Readings in Journalism
Journal 392S News Analysis
Journal 393S Covering the Cutting Edge in Science and Technology
Journal 397A Writing About The Arts
Journal 397U Interviewing Skills for Journalists

We've begun with a variety of courses with an emphasis on practical aspects of our discipline. So far, student feedback has been excellent. All of the Certificate courses are available exclusively online, and taught by veteran professors, journalists, and PR practitioners. These are the same people who teach our courses on campus. As you know from the catalog, classes cost $240 per credit hour plus a $45 registration fee; a 3-credit course is $765. By comparison, on campus courses work out to about $500 per credit hour, making the online program a real bargain.

Certificate requirements
Current course offerings
Online registration instructions

We will be teaching courses year round, and Certificate credits may be transferable to a bachelor's degree with a special concentration in journalism.