academia

Universities UK is appealing to the prime minister to remove overseas students from the net migration count, ahead of a possible backlash against the sector arising from the next batch of immigration figures.

Since we launched in 2009, we’ve written a lot about email here at ProfHacker. No doubt that’s a reflection of just how much email is involved in our day-to-day work. And whether you love or hate email, whether you use your inbox as a task manger or strive for Inbox Zero, the stuff’s got to be managed somehow.

Those who prefer a desktop client for managing their email might consider giving Postbox (available for Windows and Mac; alas, there’s no Linux version available or planned) a look. After hearing about it for quite a while, I recently decided to give it a try, and so far, I really like it. (I was actually a little surprised that it hasn’t received much mention here, though it did make Ryan’s list in the 2011 Holiday Gift Guide.)

Here’s what I’m really liking about it:

• It has a nice interface, with some options for customization.
• It plays well with GMail, including labels and keyboard shortcuts. (There are, however, some differences between Postbox and GMail’s web interface to be aware of. Also, if there’s a way to create a GMail label in Postbox, I haven’t found it yet.) Of course, it’s also possible to use Postbox with non-GMail accounts.
• It integrates with several social media services.
• It can open detected dates in Google Calendar quickly and easily.
• It can send attachments via Dropbox, and (for Mac users) getting message content into Evernote is simple.
• It’s extensible via a variety of add-ons. I’m currently using Lightning and Provider for Google Calendar, which allow me to display multiple Google Calendars within the application. I’m also using Send Later 3, which does just what its name suggests it does.

You may have noticed, if you click the link, that Send Later 3 is actually an add-on for Mozilla Thunderbird. Postbox is a relative. That doesn’t however, mean that all Thunderbird add-ons will work—so don’t expect it.

Also, unlike Thunderbird, Postbox is not free. It ordinarily sells for $29.95, though as of May 13, 2012, it’s on sale for $19.95. A lot of people, understandably, will find that a steep price to pay for an email client when there are free options available. Fortunately, Postbox provides a 30-day trial period (the trial version is fully functional), so interested users can take the time to be sure the application will really work well for them before making the investment.

Have you tried Postbox? Do you have some thoughts to share about it? Let us know in the comments.

[Creative Commons licensed Flickr photo by stephoto]

Earlier this week, the fine folks at the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH)–friends of ProfHacker, all–announced a new initiative, the Digital Humanities Winter Institute (DHWI). DHWI will run from Monday, 7 January through Friday, 11 January 2013. The event will be a companion to the Digital Humanities Summer Institute (DHSI), which takes place at the University of Victoria annually. Julie provided a great report from this “Academic Summer Camp”  in 2010.

Like its cousin, DHWI is a week-long, training opportunity on different topics in the digital humanities. Each participant will take a week-long course on a single topic, getting intensive training from experts in the field. The courses are broken up into differing skill levels: Core Courses, Intermediate Courses, and Advanced Courses.

If you’re new to the field of the digital humanities, you would most likely want to start with one of the core courses: project development or humanities programming. While I’ve previously told you about the 12 basic principles of project management, a week with MITH’s Jenn Guiliano is going to be much, much better than a blog post in helping you write your first grant proposal and manage your project budget. And I can’t think of many people that I’d rather get started with programming–both the general concepts and actually deploying a small-scale web application–than Wayne Graham and Jeremy Boggs of the University of Virginia’s Scholars’ Lab.

But while these Core courses would be great introductions to work in the digital humanities, don’t let the names “Intermediate” and “Advanced” courses scare you. Doing “Large Scale Text Analysis with R” might sound intimidating, but no programming experience is required to get started. (You are encouraged to be comfortable with the command line, but ProfHacker has you covered with our Guide to the Command Line series.) There are no stated prerequisites for the other Advanced course, “Publishing and Using Linked Open Data.” The Intermediate courses–”Data Curation for Digital Humanists,” “Exploring Image Analyses,” and “Teaching through Multimedia”–similarly appear open to ProfHackers of all skill levels.

Registration for the DHWI is already open and discounted rates are available for students and for those who register prior to 1 September.

Of course, there’s a lot more than the digital humanities that you might want to learn in a week’s time. If you could pick one skill related to your work in the academy to hone in seven days, what would it be? Let us know in the comments!

Lead Image: Snow Camping at Lake Easton State Park / Todd Nappen / CC BY 2.0

by LAFAYETTE JOURNAL & COURIER

Leveraging its high-powered cloud computing system, campus leaders said Friday they will start offering for-credit courses to the world. The announcement comes a week after Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology said they started a nonprofit company to offer free courses by its faculty. Stanford, Princeton and other universities also have formed a similar company that is boosted by millions in venture capital. Purdue officials hope its online attempt, called PurdueHUB-U, will not only become a force in advanced distance education, but turn into a money maker as students from other countries seek learning opportunity from Purdue’s renowned faculty.

http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20120512/NEWS06/120512007

by Susan Lamb, Pipe Dream Binghampton University

Online education is dialing up to be a significant factor in the futures of colleges and universities across the country, including Binghamton University. Administrators are continuing to explore ways to integrate technology and the classroom. Recently, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology committed $60 million to offer free online courses from both universities. Binghamton’s department of Continuing Education & Outreach (CEO) reported that at BU, about 44 percent of total student enrollment of 7,230 during the 2011 summer and winter sessions was associated with distance learning courses. Between 2003 and 2011, summer and winter sessions have served 12,986 students through 666 distance learning courses.

http://www.bupipedream.com/news/10395/2012-increases-bus-online-education-enrollment/

by Michael Geist, Toronto Star

William Gibson, the American-Canadian science fiction writer who coined the term cyberspace, is well-known for having stated “the future is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed.” The quote succinctly points to the gradual dissemination of new technologies that start with first adopters but can take years to spread more widely. To borrow from Gibson, in recent weeks it has become increasingly clear that the future of education is here, though it is not evenly distributed. The emerging model flips the current approach of expensive textbooks, closed research, and limited access to classroom-based learning on its head, instead featuring open course materials, open access to scholarly research, and Internet-based courses that can simultaneously accommodate thousands of students. The concern is that other countries are becoming first adopters, while Canada lags behind.

http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1177735–is-canada-lagging-behind-in-online-education

The STFC's achievements offer a template for extracting the full value from UK research, suggests Keith Mason

Scandals are hardly in short supply here, but the public and media were still shocked by the revelations that emerged during the national Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in Beijing two months ago.

Growing levels of performance management are threatening to destroy collegiate relationships between academics and administrators, a study has claimed.

Biologist risks 'gross misconduct' over comments on Queen Mary restructuring. John Morgan writes

Humanities and social sciences must cultivate new fields to win Euro cash. Elizabeth Gibney reports

Weekly transmissions from the blogosphere

Affordability underpins the bad press about London Met, says Malcolm Gillies

Technology posts go unfilled as academy restates the value of liberal arts degrees. Jon Marcus writes

Embrace internationalism - loosen up that mother tongue, scholar suggests. Matthew Reisz writes

Canterbury recovery continues apace 15 months after Christchurch quake. Rachel Williams writes

Cardiff's Lifetime Scholarship resembles Hunger Games, body claims. David Matthews reports

The market, not academic freedom, is what our leaders have in mind when they seek to resist political interference, John Holmwood argues

Elite league's v-cs say Madrid's 25% cut to science will cause long-term harm. Elizabeth Gibney writes

Capital funding