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100 Great Blog Posts for Lost Law School Grads

August 24th, 2010

Making the transition from law school into the real working world of law can be a difficult shift for many students. If you’re a recent college graduate who isn’t sure what to use your degree to do, how to get a job or where to begin tackling your student debt, you’re not alone. These posts can help guide you through those first few months and years after graduation, providing advice, information and motivation to even the most lost of law school grads and pointing the way to the legal career they worked so hard to get.

Career

Get helpful advice on starting your law career from these posts.

  1. Co-op spotlight: Work terms helped this UTS grad transition from school to the real world: Ever considered working while in school? It could help you land a position on graduation.
  2. Judicial Clerkships and Why Recent Law Graduates Should Consider Them: Looking for a way to get your foot in the door? This post explains why judicial clerkships could be one way to do it.
  3. Mentors can help students launch careers in law: If you’re feeling lost as a new lawyer, consider finding a mentor to help you with your career.
  4. Law School Grades More Important to Career than Elite School, Researchers Say: Didn’t get into a top tier school? This post explains why you shouldn’t worry– grades are more important to success.
  5. Some Thoughts on Law School: This lawyer shares her experience with the legal field and offers advice to students in this post.
  6. For law graduates, a public-service detour on road to success: Public service may not be where you want to end up, but this post explains why it can be a great place to start out a career.
  7. Some Law School Grads Don’t Go the Firm Route: A law firm isn’t the only place new law grads can work. Check out this post for some inspiration on taking an alternative route.
  8. Economy Causing More Law School Grads to Take Public Sector Jobs: Read through this article to gain an understanding of why pursuing a public service job might be the right move in this economy.
  9. Feast or Famine for Law School Grads: This post will open your eyes to the realities of what you owe for your education and what you’ll need to do to turn it into a good investment.
  10. Good and Bad News for Law School Grads: In this post you’ll learn about some of the good things happening in the legal field right now and some of the things that will make it pretty hard to find a job.
  11. 100 Best Career Posts for Recent College Grads: Check out these links for some helpful reading that can help you launch your law school career.
  12. Alternative Careers for Law Grads: Think outside the box and consider one of these careers to use your law degree.

Unemployment

Many new law school grads are facing unemployment as competition for positions is intense. If you still haven’t found a job post-graduation, check out these posts for tips and help.

  1. Jobless grads thrown a bone, manipulated: Even if it is manipulative, finding work at your alma mater could be good if you need to make ends meet.
  2. But Career Services Says There Are Jobs…: Find out why career statistics might be misleading.
  3. Columbia Law School Reports Increase Of Firms Participating In Early Interview Program: Not all news about finding work after graduation is bad, as this post shows.
  4. Be Kind to That Unemployed Lawyer: If your family is giving you a hard time about finding a job, let them read this article.
  5. Law Schools Try To Help Graduates Get Work: Find out how your law school could help you find a job.
  6. Unemployed law school grad goes on hunger strike: Learn how one student is going to the extreme to protest not being able to find a job.
  7. Temping is refuge on rough road for law school grads: If you’ve explored other options, this post explains why temping could be one source of work you don’t want to overlook.
  8. Lawyers In Limbo: Some Recent Law School Grads Still Looking For Jobs: Read this article to understand that you’re not alone in your search for work after law school.
  9. Even Law School Grads Feeling Effects of the Economy: What You Should Know: Find out all the important information you need to know about looking for work as a lawyer in this economy.
  10. How Working for No Pay Can Actually Pay Off: This post will teach you some of the benefits of taking on unpaid internships.
  11. Make the Most of Unemployment: Don’t waste your time when you’re not working, learn from this post how to turn unemployment into a chance for self-improvement.
  12. The Dark Side of the Legal Job Market: This post will teach you about some of the realities of finding a job after graduation that your law school might not have made clear.

Finding Your Passion

If you’re still trying to figure out what you want to do with your life after law school, check out these posts for guidance.

  1. Finding Your Passion Takes Faith and Sacrifice: Learn why finding your passion isn’t a simple process– it takes time and effort.
  2. Must Know Tips for Landing Your Dream Job: If you want to get the job you’ve always hoped for, check out this post for tips.
  3. Finding Your Niche Starts with Identifying Your Passion: This post will teach you how to find your passion and figure out what you really want to do with your degree.
  4. 10 Questions to Help You Find Your Passion: Answer these ten questions to pinpoint your interests in the legal field.
  5. Choosing a Practice Area: If you’ve yet to choose a practice area, read through this post for guidance.
  6. How To Build Your Tribe – Finding "Your People": Find out where you belong in the working world with help from this blog post.
  7. The Short but Powerful Guide to Finding Your Passion: This post is to-the-point when it comes to helping you find your passion for work in life.
  8. Passion: It might not seem like it, but passion is an important part of working as a lawyer, as this post explains.
  9. Creative Law Practice: Love Your Clients, Love Yourself: Learn why loving your clients and what you do can make for an amazing work experience.
  10. The Emerging Professional: Finding Your Passion: As a new lawyer, it can take time to find where you fit in in the workplace. This post offers some guidance.
  11. How to Doggedly Pursue Your Dreams in the Face of Naysayers: People out there might tell you that you can’t do what you want to do, but this post explains how to ignore them and meet your goals anyway.

Paying Off Loans

Most law students have tens of thousands of dollars in debt when they graduate. Learn how to start paying off your law school debts from these posts.

  1. 5 Smart and effective tips to pay off student loans: This post will teach you some of the best ways to tackle your law school debt.
  2. 29 Ways to Minimize Your Law School Loan Debt: You might not be able to eliminate it right off the bat, but this post will show you how to cut down your debt quickly.
  3. Law School Expands Loan Repayment Assistance for Graduates: Find out how your school might be able to help you with your loans from this post.
  4. Student Loan Repayment Options: Here you can read about what your options are when it comes to repaying your loans.
  5. Law School Debt: How Much is Too Much?: Do you feel crushed by your debt? This post addresses when the debt just might be too much to be worth it.
  6. Student Loan Debt Outpaces Credit Card Debt: This post will show you that you’re not alone in your problems with school debt.
  7. How one man recovered from student loan disaster — and you can, too: Think you’ll never work your way out of debt? This man did and you can do it as well.
  8. 7 Ways to Repay Student Loans: Learn the basics of repaying loans from this post.
  9. Student Loan Consolidation, Key to Saving Money: Find out why loan consolidation might be right for you.
  10. How to manage student loan debt: Check out this post for guidance on keeping up with your mounting law school debts.
  11. The Hard Truth About Law School Debt: This post takes a no-nonsense approach to addressing school loans.
  12. Supreme Court Tackles Student Loan Debt: With so many students crippled by school debt the government is taking notice. Read more about it here.
  13. Yes! You can pay off law school loans on a county salary: Read through this post to learn how it is possible to pay off your loans working as a public servant.

Passing the Bar

Studying for the bar isn’t ever going to be fun, but these posts can at least help reduce your anxiety and help you better prepare for the test.

  1. Share This With Any Friend Who Has Trouble Passing the Bar Exam: If you’re nervous about passing the bar, read this post.
  2. One Person’s Guide to Passing the Bar with Minimal Effort: Follow this person’s schedule for bar exam studying and preparation.
  3. Top 20 Reasons You Know You’re Studying for the Bar: Need a laugh after hours of studying? Read through this post.
  4. Bar Exam Horror Stories (A Round-Up From Years Gone By): Even your worst bar exam experience likely won’t be as bad as these horror stories.
  5. How to Eat Right While Studying for the Bar Exam: Make sure you’re getting the right nutrients when studying with help from this post.
  6. Your Family and Friends CAN help you pass the bar exam!: Find out how those you care about can help you ace your bar exam.
  7. How to Survive Bar Exam Days: Think you’re not going to make it through the bar exam? This post can help to guide you.
  8. 100 Words for my Friends Taking the Bar Exam: Short and to-the-point, this post offers a pep talk to all law school grads taking the bar.
  9. How To Study For The Multistate Bar Exam, The MBE, Or Multiple Choice: If you’re taking a multistate bar, look to this post for helpful advice.
  10. A Little More Bar Exam Help: Find some help studying and preparing for the bar here.
  11. Bar Exam Tips and Secrets: Need some insider advice on the bar? This post can help.

Working at a Law Firm

Nervous about working at a law firm? Learn how to get hired and what to expect from these posts.

  1. Making yourself irreplaceable at the law firm: This post will teach you how to hang onto that job at a law firm once you’ve gotten it.
  2. Stupid Mistakes New Grads Make (How Not to Suck at Work): Don’t make these amateur mistakes at your new job.
  3. Why You Should Work In a Law Firm (Hint: it’s not only for the money): Here you’ll learn what advantages there are to working in a law firm, besides a steady paycheck.
  4. Working for a Law Firm vs. In House: Not sure where you want to end up? This post breaks down the differences.
  5. Advice for New Law Grads Who Want to Open a Solo Practice: If you’re thinking of opening a solo practice, look to this post for some advice.
  6. Can’t find work? Start your own firm: Here you’ll find a post that advocates just starting your own business if you can’t find a job.
  7. Start a Solo Law Practice for Under $3,000: Think you need big bucks to start a law firm? This post proves otherwise.
  8. What Not To Wear To Work At A Law Firm: Find out just what you shouldn’t be wearing to work if you’re employed at a law firm.
  9. You know you work at a law firm when…: Check out this post for some law firm humor.
  10. 10 Challenges to Working in a Small Law Firm or Solo Practice: Challenges aren’t always a bad thing, but you can find out ways in which you might struggle as a new grad in a small practice or on your own.

Legal Field

These posts touch on issues relevant to the legal field at large, both at present and in the future.

  1. In Defense of Going to Law School: Many people have been critical of law schools, but this young lawyer stands up for going to law school.
  2. Google exec tells law school grads to be innovative in legal profession: Find out why innovation is essential for young lawyers.
  3. Why Every Law Student Should Blog: See what advantages there are to blogging for those new to the profession.
  4. 5 Myths Regarding the Practice of Law: Is law what you thought it would be? Maybe not as this post shows.
  5. The Future of the Legal Profession is Client-Centric: Learn why your legal practice should focus on clients from this post.
  6. The Future "Middle Class" of the Legal Profession: See what unbundled services have to offer clients looking for a middle road.
  7. Mad Law: How to Deal with Crazy Lawyers: During your career you’re bound to meet a few crazy lawyers. Learn to deal with them now by reading this post.
  8. Is a 2,500-year-old Greek harming young lawyers?: Find out why Socrates could be tainting your legal education.
  9. New Lawyers: Social Media Isn’t the Cure: Many young lawyers are into social media marketing but this post explains how it’s not the perfect answer for everything.
  10. Future of the Legal Profession: Two Different Points of View: Hear from two different points of view on what the legal profession has in store in the coming decades.

Life After Law School

Life does go on, though probably a little differently, after law school. Learn how to deal with the life changes here.

  1. Samantha Power Encourages Law School Grads to Master Uncertainty: Life after law school can be pretty scary, but this speaker urges students to hang in there and use it to their advantage.
  2. The Real World: Life after Law School: Here, you can learn what life will be life once you’re done with studying, testing and homework.
  3. 7 Mindset Changes to Make After College: Learn how to change how you think about life, work and everything after school from this post.
  4. 180 Money Saving Tips to Turn Your Financial Life Around 180 Degrees: Not used to scrimping and saving? This post will show you how to make good on your financial resolutions.
  5. Relationships in Law School: From dating other students to managing existing relationships, this post will help you deal with love in law school and beyond.
  6. Moving Back Home With Your Parents is a Good Career Move: Find out why living with your parents can be good for you financially and otherwise from this post.
  7. 25 Best Cities for College Graduates: This post offers insights into where the best career opportunities might lie for new grads.
  8. Is There Life After Graduate School?: Your life might change, but here you’ll learn about what it’ll be like not being a student any longer.
  9. 21 Incredibly Practical Tips To Survive The "Real World": Dreading the thought of entering the real world? This post offers some helpful tips to get you started.
  10. Study: Life After Law School Gets Tougher: It might not be pretty but this post shows you that life after law school isn’t going to be smooth sailing all the time.

Job Search Help

If you’re struggling to find a job or just frustrated with the process, check out these posts for help and guidance.

  1. Job Search Strategies: writing sample issues: If you’re working for your own firm or just looking for work, this post offers one way to garner interest.
  2. Job Search Tips for the Unemployed Law Graduate: Here you’ll find a great collection of job search tips just for law students.
  3. You’re About to Graduate; Now What? Tips on Preparing for Your Job Search: Learn how to get ready for the stresses of searching for a job in this post.
  4. Law Review and Your Job Prospects: Learn why being on Law Review could up your chances for getting a job post graduation from this post.
  5. How To Prepare For A Law Firm Interview: If you’re planning on working for a law firm, get advice on how to interview well in this post.
  6. Bad Interview and Resume Blunders: Tales from the Trenches: Take the lessons of this post to heart and use them to fix your own interviews and resumes.
  7. Preparing for the Clerkship Interview: Hoping to get a clerkship position? Use this advice to prepare for the interview.
  8. What to Wear to an Interview: Make sure you’re dressed appropriately for your interview with some help from this post.
  9. How to Find Your First Job As an Attorney: This post offers some insights into what you’ll need to do to get your first job working as a lawyer.
  10. Resume tips for attorneys: Get resume advice geared towards those in the legal profession here.
  11. Job Search Tips for New Graduates: These general tips will help you tackle the sometimes overwhelming process of searching for a job after graduation.

100 Incredible Desk Hacks for the Clever Web Worker

August 23rd, 2010

Working on the web offers incredible freedom for most people, allowing you to work at home on your own hours. Of course, that means you’ll have to create your own perfect working — or homeworking — environment with organization, productivity, design, and beyond. Here are 100 ways you can improve the way you work on the web.

Organization

Don’t let things get out of control in your home office: use these organization hacks.

  1. Take notes on your computer: Avoid using cluttered paper notes by taking notes on your computer.
  2. Scan your documents: Rid yourself of paperwork clutter by scanning your home office documents.
  3. Get rid of old pens: Throw away pens that don’t work well or don’t have caps.
  4. Sign up for online bills and statements: Reduce the paper in your office by signing up for online billing.
  5. Bind and clamp cords: Get your office cords organized by making them retractable, binding them, or clamping them.
  6. Create a recycling system: Start recycling to make your office more environmentally friendly.
  7. Keep only essential items: You should only keep important items like your computer and phone on your desktop.
  8. Banish paper: Remove paper to keep your office more tidy.
  9. Turn down schwag: Leave pens, stickers, postcards, and other schwag at the conference.
  10. Use a filing cabinet: Use a file cabinet consistently to keep things clean.
  11. Create an in/out tray: Take care of mail and bills with trails.
  12. Use organizational items: Pen holders, boxes, trays, and more can keep you organized.
  13. Avoid eating at your desk: You may end up leaving dishes if you eat at your desk.

Ergonomics

Protect your health as you work online with the help of these ergonomics hacks.

  1. Be sure you can reach items: Set your desk up so that you can reach important items easily.
  2. Rest your hands: Give your hands a break on a regular basis, especially when you feel tingling, numbness, pain, or cramping.
  3. Adjust your chair to the desk: Raise your desk to 29 1/2 inches off the ground and adjust your chair accordingly.
  4. Rest your elbows: The weight of your arms should be supported by armrests instead of your shoulders.
  5. Sit upright: Avoid slouching by sitting upright with your head above your shoulders.
  6. Go hands-free: Use a speaker phone or headset if you use your phone regularly.
  7. Alter your posture: Change your posture occasionally.
  8. Take regular breaks: Use an app that will remind you to take regular rest breaks.
  9. Keep your air well ventilated: Be sure that your office is well ventilated to avoid feeling stagnant.
  10. Recline your chair: Reduce vertebrae pressure with a reclined posture.
  11. Use a footrest: If your feet don’t touch the ground, use a footrest to support them.
  12. Use your laptop at a safe level: Avoid straining your neck by setting your laptop at a level that’s easy to see.
  13. Sit far away from your computer monitor: You should sit between 18 and 28 inches from your computer monitor.
  14. Protect your eyes: Give your eyes a break every now and then to take care of them.
  15. Use your whole arm with a mouse: Instead of using just your forearm, be sure to use your whole arm.
  16. Use a wrist rest: Support your wrists with the help of a wrist rest on your keyboard.
  17. Reduce strain with an external keyboard and mouse: An external keyboard and mouse can improve your speed, accuracy, and reduce strain.
  18. Position light sources away from your screen: Eliminate glare by keeping light sources pointed away from them.

Productivity

These hacks will help you perfect the skill of time management.

  1. Use a timer: Set a time for a few minutes and work straight through to focus.
  2. Make a sensible to do list: Create a to do list that is realistic.
  3. Batch tasks together: Do phone calls, invoices, and accounting all at once.
  4. Get up and dressed: Get up at the same time each day and get dressed and ready.
  5. Make phone calls in batches: If you need to make multiple calls, do them one after another to reduce distractions.
  6. Remember rewards: Create a fun reward for yourself when you meet your goals.
  7. Find your peak hours: Find your most energetic times during the day to get work done.
  8. Beat the clock: Give yourself a deadline for getting assignments done.
  9. Use shortcut keys: Make your work even faster with shortcut keys.
  10. Set up multiple monitors: Find added productivity by using multiple monitors.
  11. Give yourself accountability: Promise to have things done by a certain day so you’ll get the work done knowing people are counting on you.
  12. Create a schedule: If you stick to a routine, you can get more done.
  13. Create lists: Write down your goals for a specific period of time and get it done.
  14. Prioritize your work: Be sure to prioritize the tasks you need to take care of.
  15. Block off communication: Turn off your email, phone, and close the door, and force yourself to work for a certain period of time.
  16. Cut down on multitasking: Multitasking can make you distracted and less productive.
  17. Answer emails every day: Try to answer emails within a day.
  18. Automate whenever possible: Use automation tools on your computer to get things done faster.
  19. Know when to stop playing: Reclaim your productivity by disciplining your recreational vices.
  20. Work during gaps: While waiting in lines or commutes, take care of whatever work you can do.

Office Design

Create your best home office using these design hacks.

  1. Add color: Paint your office, hang artwork, and more to make your office more lively.
  2. Get a comfy chair: Make sure that your chair is comfortable enough to spend several hours of your day in.
  3. Keep your home office out of the way: Be sure that you have the least amount of distractions possible.
  4. Install shelving: Be sure to create lots of shelving for storage space.
  5. Use stimulating colors: Know what colors can do to you and paint or decorate accordingly.
  6. Hang a wall clock: Use your clock to rest your eyes from the screen every now and then.
  7. Decorate your walls: Use art and decorations to encourage creativity.
  8. Group your equipment into stations: Put equipment and tools into different centers of operation.
  9. Think modular: Modular storage pieces can be functional and flexible solutions for your office.
  10. Set a comfortable temperature: Stay productive with the help of a comfortable ambient temperature.
  11. Go portable: Use cordless phones and laptops so that you can work outside of your home office if necessary.
  12. Mount your monitor: Reclaim desk real estate by mounting your monitor to the wall.
  13. Create a separate sitting area: If you have the space for it, set up a chair that allows you to sit and take a break away from your desk.
  14. Get personal: Add family photos, artwork, and more.
  15. Add houseplants: Houseplants can offer color and oxygen for your office.
  16. Be sure there’s light: Brighten up your office by ensuring there’s plenty of light around.
  17. Use wall space: Utilize the space above your desktop to hold equipment and supplies.
  18. Use good lighting: Maximize daylight, add lamps, and other lighting to make things look good and improve your visibility.
  19. Maintain a clean office: Straighten up at the end of each day to keep things clean.
  20. Keep healthy snacks handy: Make your snacks easy to get to.
  21. Cut out excess: Identify things you don’t need and get rid of them to enjoy fewer distractions.

Stress

These hacks will help you reduce the stress of web work.

  1. Block out noise: Use earplugs, headphones, or white noise to keep your noise level stress free.
  2. Talk about it: Pick up the phone or head out for lunch to talk about what’s going on.
  3. Cut interruptions: Be sure that your interruptions are limited so that you can focus without stress.
  4. Keep your environment quiet: Increased volume can have an impact on stress and productivity.
  5. Avoid being a perfectionist: Remember that you’re not perfect and you shouldn’t expect to do everything perfectly.
  6. Slow down: Make time management about getting things done when they need to be, not necessarily at warp speed.
  7. Turn off your computer: Set specific hours when you have to stop working and enjoy life at home.
  8. Take a break: Manage your time efficiently so you’ll be able to take plenty of time out.
  9. Create a peaceful space: Keep your office organized and clear of clutter to reduce stress.

Fitness & Health

Make use of these hacks to stay healthy while you’re working online.

  1. Eat standing up: Burn calories while you eat by doing it standing up.
  2. Sit on a balance ball: Burn calories just by sitting on a balance ball instead of a chair.
  3. Drink lots of fluids: Avoid becoming dehydrated and unproductive by drinking lots of water.
  4. Get up and move regularly: Set a timer that reminds you to move on a regular basis.
  5. Walk around outside: Take a walk during lunchtime.
  6. Stick to your schedule: Be disciplined and organized to stay on top of fitness.
  7. Walk to your furthest bathroom: Instead of using the closest bathroom, walk up or down your stairs or use the one farthest from where you are.
  8. Use resistance bands: Keep resistance bands or small hand weights at your desk.
  9. Wear a pedometer: Track the number of steps you take every day and try to add on to them until you’ve reached 10,000 steps or more.
  10. Walk around on the phone: Each time you take a call, get up and walk around.
  11. Do quick yoga: Just a few minutes of yoga a day, at your desk or otherwise, can improve your health.
  12. Work your abs at your desk: Try doing ab exercises while you’re sitting at your desk.
  13. Take a walk each day: Get your day started well with a walk every day.
  14. Do chair squats: Strengthen your legs and hips by doing squats at your chair.

DIY Desks

If you’d like to physically hack your desk, try these ideas.

  1. Build a custom desk: Turn an Ikea coffee table into a desk with this hack.
  2. Put flowers everywhere: Make it look as if flowers are coming out of your desk using this hack.
  3. Create an integrated desk: Hack your desk to have a handy place for everything.
  4. Gaming desk: This hack features a see-through desktop PC.
  5. Treadmill desk: If you’re trying to get in shape, you can create your own treadmill desk hack.

10 Real-Life Science Lessons from “The Big Bang Theory”

August 17th, 2010

"The Big Bang Theory" has, over the past three years, become one of the biggest sitcoms on the air. (The series’ latest appearance at Comic-Con was another rousing success.) But while most people watch the show for the antics of Sheldon and Leonard, the writers make sure plenty of care goes into the scientific talk that tends to pass most people by. Granted, the show isn’t a college-level science class, but you’re still going to come away smarter than when you went in, which is something most other sitcoms can’t promise. As proof, here are ten scientific tidbits offered up on the show. If anyone asks, just pretend you knew them already.

  1. Giant Ants, Sadly, Can Never Exist: Raj and Howard chat in "The Wheaton Recurrence" about how giant ants would be a cool new method of transportation, but as is often case, Sheldon punctures their balloon by telling them that the mutant beasts would be physically unable to survive. This is because of something called the square-cube law, which (very simply) states that making a tiny object that much bigger would put impossible strains on its physical structure. The new animal’s dimensions wouldn’t be able to cope with its density. Giant ants would be cool, if slightly terrifying, but they’re the stuff of pure fantasy.
  2. Teleportation Is Problematic: One day, apropos of nothing, Sheldon begins expounding on the physical and existential problems of teleportation. His main complaint is that the idea isn’t about disassembly and reassembly of an object, but the destruction of something followed by the creation of an identical copy. One of the issues he touches on is the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, which deals with the problems in accurately mapping every possible scientific aspect of a human body for successful reproduction in another location. Plus, again, you pretty much have to kill the old guy and build a new one, which raises a number of thorny metaphysical problems.

  3. Always Watch Your Formulas: Another example of the square-cube law came into play in "The Staircase Implementation," in which we learn how the elevator in the guys’ apartment was destroyed. The short version is that Leonard used hydrazine, a rocket propellant, as fuel for a model, but when he scaled the amount down, he forgot to reduce the catalyst, turning his potential fuel into something much more explosive and deadly. Sheldon tossed the mix down the elevator shaft, causing an explosion that wrecked the works. Let that be a lesson: When making rocket fuel, always double-check your math. Or, better yet, don’t make rocket fuel.
  4. Monopoles Are Hard to Find: In the second-season finale "The Monopolar Expedition," Sheldon wins a grant to go to the Arctic and search for magnetic monopoles to try and win a Nobel Prize. What’s the big deal? Well, they’re theoretical, so finding one would be cause for a whole lot more recognition than just a Nobel. A magnetic monopole is a hypothetical particle with only one magnetic pole. Every other magnet has two, north and south, but if you cut that magnet in half, you don’t wind up with a pair of monopoles; you just get two smaller magnets, each still with a north end and a south end. For more than you ever wanted to know about monopoles (and more than I can comfortably explain), go here. Some researchers claim to have found monopoles, but it’s still uncertain.
  5. Dark Matter Is Also Hard to Find: In an episode titled "The Pirate Solution," Sheldon and Raj work on the problem of dark matter. For the unscientific out there, dark matter is posited to fill the galaxy and pull on stars and other objects. The problem started to make itself known when it was observed that galactic rotation curves for stars didn’t slow down as you move away from the center of the galaxy. The problem that Sheldon and Raj were working on dealt with finding ways to see, measure, and prove the existence and methods of dark matter.
  6. Earth Finds Meteors, Not the Other Way Around: "The Adhesive Duck Deficiency" found the gang camping out to watch the Leonid meteor shower. Raj makes an illuminating point when he says that even though it appears that the meteors "arrive" at Earth, it’s actually Earth moving on its orbit into the meteor’s path. It can be tempting, even in a highly scientific era, to think of Earth as the center of all happenings, but the fun truth is that the Leonid shower (and others) happen when Earth’s orbit and the path of a meteor brush together. When the Temple-Tuttle Comet makes its way near Earth’s orbit in November, we can see the dazzling results.
  7. Interstellar Travel Is Going to Take Some Work: Stan Lee showed up in "The Excelsior Acquisition." Lee’s pretty much a lock for a guest appearance on anything involving geeks, thanks to his lengthy career as a creator, writer, and chief at Marvel Comics. Sheldon’s goal was to ask Lee how the Silver Surfer can travel between the stars, a geeky question with very real scientific ramifications. Even assuming the Silver Surfer can travel at the speed of light, the nearest stars to Earth are about 4 light-years away. In other words, a round trip at the fastest possible physical speed would still take close to a decade, never mind the amount of time that would pass on Earth while you’re in transit. For more on this and other physically perplexing issues that superheroes tend to just shrug off, read up.
  8. There Are Odds for Aliens: "The Hofstadter Isotope" finds the gang talking about the Drake Equation. They’re using it in a comedic context to appraise their chances of meeting and talking with women at a bar (probably less given their hermitic pedigrees), but the real equation is about calculating the potential number of alien civilizations in the galaxy. The formula accounts for everything from the rate of star formation in the Milky Way to the number of potentially life-supporting planets and the likely fraction of civilizations capable of broadcasting signs of their existence into space. Who knew there was math for this?
  9. It’s Not Flying, It’s Falling With Style: The third-season finale, "The Lunar Excitation," involved a plot in which the guys wanted to bounce a laser beam off the moon. This brings up an interesting point about orbits. The Moon is constantly being pulled toward the Earth, and both are falling into the Sun. Yet it happens at such a rate and direction that the fall becomes an orbit. The same thing’s evident among astronauts on the space shuttle: They appear to be floating, but they’re actually moving incredibly fast around the Earth, constantly falling "over the edge" as it were and therefore able to cheat the gravity that’s yanking on them almost as strongly as it pulls on those of us down on the ground.
  10. Lesson: Last season’s "The Plimpton Situation" was all about pulsars, to which most viewers likely said: what? A pulsar is, very basically, a neutron star that emits (via "pulses") radio emissions that result from particle acceleration. Neutron stars are themselves the remnants of stars left over after gravitational collapse. They’re extremely dense — an average neutron star is about the size of a city but packs more than three times of the mass of the Sun into its density — and can be used kind of like signposts throughout the galaxy. Of course, it’s not necessary to know all that (or remember it now) to enjoy the episode. But it’s nice to know that, on some level, someone’s doing the math.

40 Best Adult Education Blogs

August 15th, 2010

From on-the-job training programs to GED courses to going back to school to earn a higher degree, adults are deciding to continue their education for fun or to improve their career prospects after years in the workforce. Thanks to part-time programs, cooperative bosses, and/or online colleges that allow for more flexibility and independent study, it’s easier for adults to juggle work, family and school commitments, but if you’re still a little trepidatious about what to expect and how you’ll benefit from continuing ed, check out these adult education blogs.

Lifelong Education

These lifelong education blogs explain what you can learn from different types of courses or seminars.

  1. Deb’s Continuing Education Blog: Deb Peterson’s blog is a great resource for adults just curiuos about the educational opportunities available to their unique needs. Recommended posts: Improve Your Business Writing and Who Are Non-Traditional Students?
  2. Continuing Education Blog: Visit this blog to find out about open and online universities, learning for fun, and evening classes, and to learn about adult education in Great Britain in general. Recommended posts: Love Learning and Evening University

Personal Stories

Get first-hand testimonials from adults who are going back to school, even as they work part- or full-time, raise children, and continue to work, too.

  1. Older Non-Trad Student: This mom of three is taking classes full-time at the University of Tennessee. Recommended posts: Going to School With Your Children and Create Your Own Niche
  2. College Campus Mama: This mama is headed back to college as she works from home, too. Recommended posts: I’m Very Proud of Myself and New Year, New Semester
  3. Back 2 School Moms: Read posts from moms who have chosen to go back to school, on topics relevant for all non-traditional students. Recommended posts: Online College Courses For Military Dependents and Create A Personal Study Space For Success
  4. Wired Pursuits: Lee Erickson left the business world to pursue a Ph.D. in Information, Science, and Technology from Penn State. Recommended posts: In pursuit of a PhD: Year 1 – lessons learned and Holy crap. What’s going on in education today?
  5. The Secret Life of an Unknown Housewife: This woman dropped out of university after two years but is now pursuing a B.A. at Open University. Recommended posts: Am I weird – I loved my exam??!! and Exam Results are in & Secret Housewife is smiling!!!
  6. My Life as a Mature Age Student: This wife and mom is also a student, and she catalogs her experiences here. Recommended posts: Under Pressure and Mama’s brand new plan
  7. Reaching Lifelong Goals as a Nontraditional Student: Mike Dicianna is a fifty-something student at Oregon State pursuing a history degree.Recommended posts: Non Trad on Campus Summer Term and Why Returning to College After Age 30 (Age 40, 50, Etc.) Might Be Just The Right Choice For You
  8. Ramblings of a Middle-Aged College Student: If you think it’s impossible to work full-time, go to school full-time, and still have time for hobbies and fun, read this blog. Recommended posts: Dead Day Party and Initiation and Friday, July 16, 2010
  9. Memoirs of a Non-Traditional Student: This Maine resident "of advanced age" is working on a bachelor’s degree with two minors and has ambitions to be a freelance writer. Recommended posts: Academic Success Skills for Non-Traditional Students: Critical Thinking and Non-traditional students and financial aid scams
  10. Student Mum: This literature student and blogger from the UK also has teen and pre-teen kids. Recommended posts: Books, and keeping track of them and Timing and Some Tips
  11. A Good (Enough) Woman: This blogger juggles work as a community college professor and as a PhD student. Recommended posts: Nose to the Grindstone and Comp Tailz
  12. College Mummy: This 29-year-old mom from England is going back to school to become a teacher, something she’s always wanted to do. Recommended posts: Paperwork Mountain and Here We Go

News

Follow adult ed news here.

  1. Support Adult Basic Ed Arizona: Learn about the fight to promote GEDs, funding and basic education for adults in Arizona. Recommended posts: To students of Adult Basic Education: "What’s happening with the proposal to eliminate funding for Adult Education in Arizona?" and GED Achievement Campaign Q & As
  2. Rick Osborn’s Continuing Education Blog: This past president of the Association for Continuing Higher Education blogs about continuing higher education, distance learning and adult education. Recommended posts: More on for-profits and More pressures on community colleges

Back-to-School and Higher Degrees

If you already have a bachelor’s degree but are considering a graduate degree to improve your career prospects, look here.

  1. Colorado State University ContinuingEducation: CSU’s blog explains the different ways you can pursue a higher degree even after you’ve been in the workforce for a long time. Recommended posts: One Course After Another – Until She Reaches Her Goal and Back to School While Working for One
  2. Corporate and Community Education @ Spartanburg Community College: Even if you’re not planning on attending this school in South Caroline, you can learn about business sponsorship, training fairs, and more. Recommended posts: The Future’s 15 Most Wanted Workers and 10 Jobs That Will Get a Raise in 2010
  3. Linfield College Online Education Blog: This school’s website has great information about adults going back to school, and visit the blog to get tips on career development and educational opportunities. Recommended posts: How to Gain College Credit for Work and Other Life Experience and How to Approach Your Employer about Going Back to School
  4. Continuing Education: David R. Wetzel’s blog covers all sorts of continuing ed and adult ed topics, but has a particularly valuable archive for adults curious about what it will be like to go back to school. Recommended posts: Ice Breakers in Adult Education and 6 Sources of Free Money for Continuing Education.

Business, Training and Career Development

Find out what options are there for you in terms of on-the-job training or career development education.

  1. Education 3.0: Nontraditional and traditional students can read about career advancement through education, student demographics, and the changing face of education. Recommended posts: What We Don’t Know Is a Lot and Graduation Rates, Getting to the Finish
  2. Association for Career and Technical Education Policy Watch Blog: Find news stories related to vocational studies and more. Recommended posts: CTE Policy Watch Blog $10 Billion for Education Jobs Passes Congress and New Economy Needs More Specialized Skills

Tips and Advice

Find suggestions for starting your adult ed journey here.

  1. The Non-Traditional Student Blog: All adult students who are returning to school after a break are welcome on this site. Recommended posts: Fear and the Nontraditional Student and Must-have supplies for the adult college student
  2. University of Winnipeg Division of Continuing Education Blog: Get tips and insight into what it’s like to be a continuing ed-pursing adult. Recommended posts: A course in gaming? Are you serious? and Looking for a Job? A Career?

Discipline Specific

These blogs cover continuing education in certain disciplines.

  1. Psych Continuing Ed Public Blog: Find out what’s going on in the world of continuing ed psychology. Recommended posts: OPA Review Article about home study courses and The APA ethics code and continuing education
  2. Insurance Continuing Education: Get tools, program information and more about professional development and continuing ed in insurance, real estate and financial services. Recommended posts: Online Continuing Education on the Rise and Learning Opportunities: What Do You Want to Learn?
  3. AccountingWeb: The Continuing Education blog for AccountingWeb features training, program development news, and more. Recommended posts: Educators Develop Tool to Help Fellow Auditors and Be an Expert: Your Time to Shine

Literacy and GED Blogs

Become a better reader or earn your GED with the support of these blogs.

  1. Gear Up for National Adult Education and Family Literacy Week 2010: Learn about the public campaign to support adult literacy. Recommended posts: Raising Awareness of Adult ESL and Gear Up for National Adult Education and Family Literacy Week 2010
  2. Race to GED: Though this blog is location and school specific, you can still read up on what it might be like to attend GED or ESL classes. Recommended posts: GED Success Story and New Year’s Resolutions
  3. D.C. LEARNs: This is a D.C.-area literacy and advocacy blog. Recommended posts: Our Adult Education Students Should Not Be Abandoned and How Many DC Residents are Illiterate?: A Simple Question with a Complex Answer
  4. AlphaPlus Blog: Read about "learning outside the lines," or literacy, job training and distance education for adults. Recommended posts: The Apprentice and Two great new resources about adult literacyÉ
  5. National Center for Family Literacy: Get news and information about literacy at all levels. Recommended posts: New PSA Campaign Encourages High School Dropouts to Pursue Their GED and Professional Development Survey

Online Education and Technology

Find out what it’s like to take online courses, which could save you time and money, from these blogs.

  1. Adult Education and Technology: Learn about the latest updates for the adult education classroom. Recommended posts: ABC’s of Investing in Adult Literacy Education and Three Funding Opportunities.
  2. Online Learning Update: Editor Ray Schroeder blogs from the University of Illinois, Springfield, and welcomes posts about quality online learning, research, and more. Recommended posts: Adoption to Institutionalization of Online Learning in Universities: Needs for Further Research and How do Students Measure Service Quality in Online Learning? A Case Study Regarding an Internet-based University
  3. Stamats Higher Education Marketing Blog: Read posts about adult education, online education trends, and more. Recommended posts: Reinventing Your Adult School Programs and Online Engagement is Not About Technology
  4. OnlineColleges.net: This blog also features an entire library of open education courses that you can try out, just for personal enrichment or to help you decide if you’re ready to go back to school. Recommended posts: Signs You Need to Take Your Education Online and How to Maintain a Social Life While Attending an Online College
  5. Online Education Blog: While this blog carries some K-12 posts, it’s also a great site for researching the types of career-oriented online programs in healthcare, for military-friendly individuals, and more. Recommended posts: UC: The Next Online Degree Program? and So You Want to Get Your Degree Online? How to Choose the Best Fit!

Open Education Blog

Here you’ll find information about what it’s like to take online classes.

  1. iterating toward openness: Read up on open ed research, culture and higher education here. Recommended posts: Openness, Radicalism, and Tolerance and Educational and Cost Effectiveness: OER vs Traditional Textbooks
  2. Cathy Anderson on Education, Technology and Open Education: Find out what may be ahead for you if you go back to school or pursue continuing education. Recommended posts: Using Mobile/handheld devices for learning and Open Courseware, social networking, thoughts on the future of education
  3. Open Education: This blog promotes free education for all, even non-traditional students. Recommended posts: Taped Lectures: Better Than the Real Thing? and Personalizing Learning – The Important Role of Technology

100 Fascinating Psychology Lectures Online

August 9th, 2010

The way the human mind works isn’t something that we always understand, but psychologists have been trying for centuries to unravel some of the mysteries that lie behind why we think and act in the ways that we do. In these highly informative lectures, students can get an online education in some of the biggest issues in psychology and human behavior, from what makes us happy to how we deal with trauma, and just about everything in between.

Field at Large

Gain a greater understanding of where the field of psychology stands today and where those working in it hope it will move in the future from these lectures.

  1. Martin Seligman on Positive Psychology: In this video from TED, Seligman talks about the future of psychology and the importance of focusing not just on disease but the healthy mind as well.
  2. The Trouble With Psychiatry: Professor at the Tufts School of Medicine, Daniel Carlat, talks about some of the deeply troubling problems that lie at the heart of current psychiatric practices.
  3. Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in the US: Learn about the startling rise in mental illness in the US and the ways in which psychiatric drugs may be facilitating this rise.
  4. A Child Psychiatrist Explores Her Mother’s Suicide: Nancy Rappaport discusses her own painful experiences dealing with suicide as a child in this moving lecture.
  5. New Windows on the Brain: Magnetic Resonance Imaging: In this lecture, you’ll learn how technologies like the MRI are improving doctors’ abilities to diagnose conditions like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
  6. Intellect or Instinct: Contemporary View of the Death Drive: Described by Freud as a drive in all things to restore an earlier state of things, this lecture takes a look back at how this theory can be applied in modern psychology to address self-destructive or aggressive behavior.
  7. Psychology Comes of Age: Learn more about the history of psychology and how it got to be where it is today in this lecture.
  8. Psychology Through History: In this lecture, you’ll get a chance to see how psychology has changed throughout the ages.
  9. History of Intelligence Testing: Want to better understand how the IQ test was created? Take a listen to this lecture.
  10. The Science of Psychology: Through this lecture, you’ll get a chance to learn more about the science and biology that underlies psychology.

Learning and Development

In these lectures, you’ll be able to learn how humans grow, develop and change and what it takes to make that happen in a healthy, normal way.

  1. Beyond Decoding: Word Knowledge and Reading Skill: This lecture will teach you about how humans learn how to read and the cognitive processes that make it possible.
  2. Play Is More than Fun: Play isn’t just fun and games, as this lecture will show you. It makes for smarter, happier individuals at any age.
  3. Coping with Learning Problems: Misunderstood Minds: If you’d like to learn more about childhood learning problems, take a look at this lecture featuring several experts on the subject.
  4. Touchpoints Three to Six: Your Child’s Development: Learn how a child should be developing emotionally and behaviorally in their early years from this lecture.
  5. Normal Adolescent Development and Behaviors: Figure out which strange behaviors from teens are normal and which can be signs of illness or behavioral problems with help from this lecture.
  6. Sigmund Freud on Development: Whether you’re a fan of Freud or not, you can learn about his ideas, many of which had a big impact on modern psychology, from this lecture.
  7. Intelligence: How Do We Know You Are Smart?: What is it that defines intelligence? This lecture will address just that issue and explains the difference between intelligence and knowledge.

Society and Influence

Here you’ll find several lectures on the influence society has over the actions and beliefs of individuals as well as the ways in which human behaviors drive society.

  1. Life Lessons from an Ad Man: Learn how advertising can change your perceptions and even your enjoyment of a product from this lecture.
  2. Opinion Makers: Lies My Pollster Told Me: Here, you’ll get insights into how polls work to sway public opinion rather than record it.
  3. Psychology of Surveys: Measuring Public Opinion: This lecture will help you better understand how surveys work or don’t work to record public opinion.
  4. So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood: If you think young girls are being sexualized too soon by media images, listen to this lecture for research that backs up that line of thinking.
  5. Behavioral Finance: The Influence of Psychology: In this lecture, you’ll learn why people make the financial decisions you do and how logic isn’t always the driving force behind them.
  6. How Human Psychology Drives the Economy: Check out this lecture for insights into how changes in human thinking can change markets worldwide.
  7. Attitudes and Behaviors: How Can We Be Controlled?: This MIT lecture will show you the basics of how opinion and behavior can be influenced and controlled by outside sources.

Biology

Give these lectures a try to gain a better understanding of the biological factors that underlie how we think and act.

  1. Al Seckel Says Our Brains are Mis-Wired: Learn how the ways our brains and eyes are wired allows them to be fooled.
  2. Structural Plasticity in the Adult Brain: Given at Princeton, this lecture will teach you about the mechanisms by which the adult brain can adapt and change.
  3. Steven Pinker Chalks It Up to the Blank Slate: In this lecture, you can hear Pinker’s assertion that the mind isn’t just a blank slate and that we’re all born with some innate traits.
  4. Brains, Beliefs and Beyond: Want to understand the biological foundations of morality? This lecture from Michael Gazzaniga can help you unravel some of the mysteries of the brain.
  5. Helen Fisher Studies the Brain in Love: In this lecture, you’ll learn how our brains are hardwired for love and how they change when we are enamored or have had our hearts broken.
  6. Evolution of Our Moral Intuitions: Marc Hauser argues in this lecture that morality may be hardwired into our brains.
  7. Biology of Mood: Molecules on Your Mind: More and more children are being medicated with drugs like Ritalin, but learn in this lecture how they can affect the brain and cause depression later in life if a child doesn’t truly need them.
  8. The Psychology of Blink: Based on the best-selling book by Malcolm Gladwell, this lecture explains how the brain works to make split second decisions.
  9. Sleep: Where Biology and Psychology Meet: Learn both the physical and mental reasons behind our need for sleep and rest in this lecture.
  10. Your Body Affects Your Thoughts: Check out this lecture from Missouri State to see how your physical well-being has a big impact on how you feel mentally.
  11. The Brain: Between the Ears, Behind the Eyes: This lecture will teach you some of the basics of brain biology.

Identity

The study of the self and the struggle to define identity is an integral part to understanding human behavior. Give these lectures a try to better understand your feeling of self and how we define who we are.

  1. Who Are You? The Psychology of the Self: In this lecture from MIT, you’ll learn the basics of the psychological studies and theories related to self identity.
  2. Humanistic Psychology on Personality: Check out this lecture for insights into how a humanistic approach to psychology views personality.
  3. Identity Across Space and Time and the Soul Theory: You likely aren’t the same person today you were ten years ago– few are. Learn how identity changes over time through this lecture from Yale.
  4. Personal Identity: What Matters: Do you have certain traits that you feel define you? This lecture deals with what matters most in defining who we are.
  5. Disability and Identity: Learn how having a disability could change how you define yourself as an individual.
  6. Consciousness: What Does It Mean to Be You?: Take a look at the conscious mind and what it means to see yourself as an individual from a psychological standpoint in this lecture.

Social Interaction

These lectures provide you with a chance to learn more about human interactions and social life.

  1. How Stereotypes Affect Us: Social psychologist Claude Steele discusses how widely held stereotypes can influence how we act, even if we’re not aware of it.
  2. Communication and Conflict in Couples and Families: In this series of lectures, students can better understand how intimate dynamics in families and couples work.
  3. Steven Pinker on Language and Thought: Steven Pinker talks about how the words we choose to express our thoughts might let on more than we think to our real feelings.
  4. How the Internet Enables Intimacy: Stefana Broadbent talks about how new technologies aren’t necessarily pushing us apart but allow for greater intimacy and connection.
  5. Daniel Goleman on Compassion: In this lecture, you’ll learn more about human compassion and why we are so reluctant to practice it.
  6. Games People Play: Game Theory in Everyday Life: Learn how game theory applies to common social, economic and political interactions in this video.
  7. Intercultural Communication and Media: Think you know another culture? This lecture may prove otherwise, as Lynn Gregory explains how the media can change your perceptions of others.
  8. On Apology: Senior Psychiatrist Aaron Lazare explains why a simple apology can have a big effect.
  9. The Psychology of Drinking and Dancing: Most of us enjoy drinking and dancing, but why? This lecture addresses that and other issues.

Morality

It’s hard to explain just why you feel something is right or wrong– most of us just know. These lectures address that phenomenon and its origins in these lectures.

  1. George Price and the Search for the Origins of Kindness: Because it has no lasting biological benefit, the question of why humans behave altruistically has puzzled scientists for decades. In this lecture, you’ll get a look into the depths of human kindness and despair alike.
  2. Jonathan Haidt on the Moral Roots of Liberals and Conservatives: In this lecture, you’ll learn the five basic moral principles that form the basis of our political decisions.
  3. Philip Zimbardo Shows How People Become Monsters or Heroes: Ever wonder what causes such seemingly nice people to turn into cold-blooded monsters? This lecture explores the psychology of evil and what allows this shift to take place.
  4. Learning to See in the Dark: The Roots of Ethical Resistance: What goes into our ethics and morals? This lecture interweaves biology and psychology to explain our beliefs about right and wrong and ourselves.
  5. Biological Foundations of Morality: What Is Virtue?: Listen to this lecture to gain insights into what brain biology might have to do with virtue and morality.
  6. Automatic Controlled Processes in Moral Judgment: What controls our moral judgments? Harvard psychologist Joshua Greene theorizes it’s a combination of emotion and intuition with control and reasoning in this lecture.
  7. When Our Moral Compass Goes South: This lecture from Marc Hauser takes a different approach, positing that moral judgments are based on abstract principles rather than emotion.
  8. Our Buggy Moral Code: Why do we think that things we know to be wrong are ok to do sometimes? This lecture addresses the irrationality of our moral beliefs.
  9. Exploring the Mind of a Killer: Learn what makes killers tick in this fascinating lecture from neuroscientist Jim Fallon.
  10. Cognitive Neuroscience of Callous and Unemotional Traits: In this lecture, you’ll learn how the brain can determine the levels of psychopathy in individuals.

Decision Making

What information and processes we use to make out decisions is a fascinating subject of discussion, and one that is addressed in a myriad of ways in these lectures.

  1. A Monkey Economy as Irrational as Ours: Look into the foundations of human irrationality with this lecture on the way our primate relatives make decisions.
  2. The Art of Choosing: This lecture will teach you about how we make choices and how we feel about those choices that we make.
  3. The Upside of Irrationality: Irrationality doesn’t have to be all bad, as this lecture from behavioral economist Dan Ariely shows.
  4. Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error: Have you ever thought about why we so love to be right and so despise being wrong? This lecture addresses how humans deal with error, for better or worse.
  5. The Paradox of Choice: In this lecture, you’ll learn why having more choices doesn’t always lead to more happiness.
  6. Are We In Control of Our Own Decisions?: Learn why we’re not as rational as we think we’re being when we make decisions in this fun and illuminating lecture.
  7. Rethinking Free Will: Robert Kane addresses the long-standing debate of whether or not free will exists with societal expectations and morality all playing a role.
  8. Neuroscience of Human Will: Take a scientific approach to studying free will in this lecture from psychology professor Patrick Haggard.
  9. Tony Robbins Asks Why We Do What We Do: Motivational speaker Tony Robbins explains the invisible forces that push us to do what we do in this lecture.
  10. Emotional Hijacking and How We Decide: This lecture will show you how emotion can sometimes override reason when it comes to making decisions.
  11. Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness: Are politicians on shaky moral ground when they develop policies that encourage people to make certain decisions about their health and finances? This lecture discusses that topic and more.

Happiness and Motivation

Find out just what makes us happy through the expert discussions in these lectures.

  1. Dan Gilbert on Our Mistaken Expectations: This lecture will show you how unrealistic expectations can hijack happiness.
  2. Philip Zimbardo Prescribes a Healthy Take on Time: In this lecture, Zimbardo explains why slowing down can help you stay happier and healthier.
  3. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on Flow: Discover more about what helps individuals find their flow and enjoy greater happiness, creativity and fulfillment.
  4. Positive Psychology: Praising Others, Changing the Self: Here, you’ll find discussions of studies on the positive side of human psychology, related to moral elevation, admiration and awe.
  5. Plug Into Your Hard-Wired Happiness: Break out of your mindset and embrace happiness with tips from this lecture.
  6. Don’t Eat the Marshmallow Yet: This lecture will show you how delayed gratification can help attain future success.
  7. Why Are We Happy?: How can we feel happy even if things don’t go as we planned? This lecture explains the mechanisms behind it.
  8. A Positive Attitude Creates Altitude: You are what you think, at least that’s what this lecture on the impact of attitude states.
  9. Positive Psychology: The Science of Happiness: Take a look at this lecture to better understand the mechanisms by and the conditions under which humans are happiest.
  10. Motivation and Emotion: Learn what roles motivation and emotion play in human behavior with this lecture from MIT.
  11. The Riddle of Experience vs. Memory: This lecture from Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman will explain how we experience and remember experiences, and the happiness that comes with them, differently.

Unhappiness and Mental Illness

Not everything can always be hunky-dory. These lectures address what happens to the human mind when things go wrong.

  1. Remembering Trauma: Here, you can learn more about how repressed memories may not be a real phenomena and the lasting physical and mental impact of tragedy.
  2. Terror Dream: The Post-9/11 American Psyche: Learn more about the collective psychological response to the events of 9/11 from this lecture.
  3. Psychotropic Drugs and Children: Drugs to prevent anxiety and ADHD may be doing more harm than good in children, as you’ll learn from this lecture.
  4. Electroshock Therapy: In this lecture, you can hear surgeon Sherwin Nuland talk about the use of electroshock therapy to treat severe depression.
  5. Depression and Anxiety: This lecture will teach you some of the causes and potential symptoms of these conditions.
  6. The Psychology of Pain: Check out this lecture to better understand how the mind deals with pain.
  7. What Happens When Things Go Wrong: Mental Illness: In this Yale lecture, you’ll be able to study the effects of mental illness on the behavior and well-being of individuals.
  8. Defining Mental Illness: Are Suicide Bombers Insane?: Does a will to die indicate an underlying mental illness? This lecture discusses this interesting and potentially provocative topic.

Human Quirks

In these lectures, you’ll discover some things that make human psychology so unique, for better or for worse.

  1. The Uniqueness of Humans: Check out this lecture to see how some of the actions humans consider normal are strange to the rest of the animal kingdom.
  2. Impact of the Highly Improbable: Take a look at random, improbable events and how human thinking makes them seem less so in this lecture.
  3. The Pattern Behind Self-Deception: It might seem counter-productive to deceive yourself, but this lecture will show how we are almost hard-wired to believe these things and how these beliefs can get us into trouble.
  4. The Hidden Brain: Learn what an impact your unconscious mind might be having over your conscious actions in this lecture from Washington Post writer Shankar Vedantam.
  5. How Positive Thinking Undermines America: You might think positive thinking is a good thing, but this lecture will show you that it can actually lead to more depression, despair and unhappiness.
  6. Rodger Kamenetz: History of Last Night’s Dream: What do dreams mean? While we might never know precisely how they work or what they mean, this lecture poses some theories as to what goes on in our dream worlds while we sleep.

Technology

Learn what impact technology is having on our brains and behaviors in these lectures.

  1. What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains: Find out how all that surfing and Googling is influencing your brain from this lecture.
  2. Whither Psychoanalysis in Digital Culture?: Learn what role psychoanalysis has to play in our modern, digital culture in this intriguing discussion by Shelly Turkle.
  3. Transrobotism: Human-Robot Bonds: What happens when a robot elicits an emotional response and connection from a human? This panel discussion addresses the emotional and psychological impact of relationships with AI.
  4. Ceaseless Society: Is 24/7 Good for Us?: In this lecture, you’ll get a hard look at the way our constant access to goods and information is affecting our minds, bodies and spirits.

Top 20 Movies for Philosophy Students

August 5th, 2010

There are plenty of jokes made at the expense of philosophy students. (My favorite goes: "The Italian word for philosophy major is ‘barista.’") But the truth is that studying philosophy is one of the most rewarding and eye-opening ways there is to get a better understanding of the human condition. A lot of people spend years avoiding the questions that philosophy students tackle head-on, which gives students an intellectual bravery that’s increasingly rare. If you’re a college student with a passion for philosophy — or if you’re just an enthusiastic newcomer to the field — these movies provide the perfect starting point for explorations of morality, reality, justice, and the nature of life.

The Big Picture

These films deal with the big questions about existence.

  1. Fight Club: Eleven-year-old spoiler alert: The movie’s main character (Edward Norton) and the charismatic Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) are one and the same. David Fincher’s film, based on Chuck Palahniuk’s novel, is a bracing attack on consumerism as well as an indictment of the dangers of groupthink of any kind. What’s more, it’s a fantastic exploration of action and human nature.
  2. Being There: "Life is a state of mind," according to one of the characters in Being There. Peter Sellers is fantastic as a simple gardener named Chance who’s grown up in a sheltered home and knows almost nothing of the outside world. His comic, subdued adventures culminate in a stirring image that seems to defy explanation and underscores just how much our worlds are constructed by choice.
  3. The Razor’s Edge: An interesting chance to see Bill Murray do dramatic work, this 1984 drama is adapted from W. Somerset Maugham’s novel about a man who returns from war and becomes determined to find a better, more transcendent meaning of life.
  4. The Trial: Orson Welles’ film is based on Franz Kafka’s novel, and it revolves around a man persecuted by an unfeeling governmental body for a crime that’s never explained. Not a masterpiece, but still a great starting point for philosophical discussions of what it means to create and live in a just society.
  5. I Heart Huckabees: David O. Russell’s 2004 film is the breeziest treatise on ontology ever made, as well as one of the funniest. Billed as "an existential comedy," the film follows two men (Jason Schwartzman and Mark Wahlberg) as they go about very different ways of trying to understand the mysteries of the universe.

Nature of Reality and Identity

Pretty self-explanatory: These movies are all about how you define "you."

  1. The Matrix: The movie that launched a thousand pot-fueled conversations about reality, The Matrix offers plenty of intriguing questions for philosophy students to chew on. For instance, if what we perceive as reality is nothing but electrical signals in the brain, how do we know that reality isn’t being faked for us?
  2. eXistenZ: David Cronenberg’s movies often deal with identity (The Fly and Dead Ringers come to mind), and eXistenZ is no exception. The story deals with how people interact with each other via video games and virtual constructs, and the questions of reality and nature are even more applicable in the age of social media.
  3. Open Your Eyes: This Spanish film (titled Abre los ojos) from Alejandro Amenabar was met with such acclaim that it was remade for American audiences by Cameron Crowe as Vanilla Sky, but the original remains the best. A young man who becomes disfigured in an accident finds his world slowly coming undone as hallucinations and other twists make it tough to determine what’s real. A great movie for starting discussions about perception and truth.
  4. Inception: One of the smartest action flicks in recent years, Inception takes place almost entirely within the subconscious minds of its main characters. The story is loaded with twists and what-if moments that are great fodder for those interested in epistemology, the study of knowledge.
  5. Waking Life: Richard Linklater’s rambling film about a man caught in a lucid dream winds its way through a number of philosophical fields, including determinism, free will, and existentialism. It’s like having a 100-minute discussion with your smartest friends.
  6. Memento: Another Christopher Nolan film, and his best. This unique film centers on a man who cannot make new memories and is forced to keep notes and tattoos so he knows who and where he is. In addition to the basic questions about identity, the film also broaches more complicated subjects, like a person’s willingness to erase their identity for a cause.
  7. Solaris: Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1972 sci-fi film is very deliberately paced (a slowness that was repeated in Steven Soderbergh’s 2002 remake with George Clooney), but that gives it room to breathe and to thoroughly explore some interesting psychological and philosophical problems. The inhabitants of a space station discover that the planet they’re orbiting can read their minds and create copies of their loved ones, copies that soon become self-aware. A great film for examining issues of identity.

The Soul

Is the soul embodied, or the body ensouled?

  1. Blade Runner: There have been multiple versions of this sci-fi classic released on home media, so be sure to get a later cut. Ridley Scott’s film is a cerebral thriller about humans, androids, and what it means to be a thinking, living creature. Perfect fodder for term papers.
  2. Being John Malkovich: Writer Charlie Kaufman’s dazzling screenplay takes place in a world where a run-down office building holds a portal into the mind of John Malkovich, allowing strangers to inhabit his body and literally become someone else. When Malkovich himself goes through the portal, though, things get even weirder. One of the smartest comedies in recent memory, and a brilliant discourse on the nature of the soul.

Morality

"Conscience do cost." These movies examine theories of justice and human interaction.

  1. Crimes and Misdemeanors: One of Woody Allen’s most subdued and accessible films, Crimes and Misdemeanors is a compelling tale about the dark moral choices people can make, raising the issue of just how great the divide is between control and destruction.
  2. Why We Fight: Taking its title from U.S. propaganda films released during World War II, this 2005 documentary from Eugene Jarecki is a harrowing look at the nation’s military-industrial complex, which has only grown more massive and dangerous since President Eisenhower warned of its potential evils in his farewell address. It’s a fascinating examination of the moral quandaries of military power.
  3. The Cider House Rules: The title refers to an antiquated list of rules posted in a work house built for migrant apple pickers. The rules, feared by the illiterate workers, turn out to be clueless warnings that have no bearing on their lives. A must-see for philosophy students eager to investigate how moral codes change over time.
  4. Munich: Steven Spielberg’s drama revolves around the murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics and Israel’s subsequent retaliation via a top-secret group of covert assassins. It’s historical fiction that asks important questions about what constitutes justice and how people can be destroyed by their quest for vengeance.
  5. The Green Mile: Based on Stephen King’s novel, parts of the story aren’t exactly subtle — a character with the power to heal the sick has the initials J.C. — but The Green Mile makes up for minor flaws with a heartrending story about murder, retribution, and atonement.
  6. The Seventh Seal: Ingmar Bergman’s classic drama gets a lot of mileage from its high-concept premise in which a knight returning from the Crusades plays a chess game with Death personified, with his life and freedom tied to his winning the game. The film becomes a meditation on faith and spirituality that’s simple in its allegories and fantastically detailed in its executions. There’s a reason it’s been parodied endlessly since its 1957 release; some classics are born that way.

5 Fictional Languages That People Actually Learn

August 1st, 2010

There’s something about sci-fi or fantasy works that inspires passion and obsession in certain types of people. They don’t just want to read a book or watch a movie; they want to bring the story to life by applying it to their everyday lives. Case in point: Languages used in these works by alien or ancient civilizations have become so popular that you can actually learn to speak them (assuming that you have someone around who also speaks them to understand you; otherwise you’re just a college student speaking Klingon to the mirror). The languages below mostly come from popular fiction, so if you’ve ever wanted to get closer to the characters in your favorite story, here’s your chance to at least sound like them.

  1. Klingon: Klingons have been causing trouble for the peace-loving denizens of the Star Trek universe since the original television series’ brief run in the 1960s. However, it wasn’t until the 1984 film Star Trek III: The Search for Spock that the alien race was given a significant and permanent redesign that included a language and alphabet to go with their new visual style. The language was developed by Marc Okrand, a linguist whose studies included obscure and dead languages. He was hired by Paramount Pictures to create the language and coach the actors in how to speak it, and in 1985 he published what’s probably the best resource for people who want to learn to speak Klingon: The Klingon Dictionary. The book discusses the alphabet, syntax, basic grammar and translation, and how to speak certain "popular" Klingon phrases, including "Surrender or die!" Okrand also put out Conversational Klingon, an audiobook co-narrated by Michael Dorn (who played the Klingon Worf on "Star Trek: The Next Generation") that helps students of the language hear how the words are meant to sound. In 1992, the Klingon Language Institute was born. Don’t let the dated website fool you: The KLI is deadly serious when it comes to learning how to talk like a Klingon warrior. The site has writing and speaking guides for newcomers, as well as information about how to subscribe to the group’s services and get (one assumes) access to even more Klingon-based language tools. This is the granddaddy of all made-up languages, and it’s a great place to start if you want to learn a fictional tongue.

  2. Elvish: It should come as no surprise that the language spoken be the Elves of The Lord of the Rings can actually be studied and learned; author J.R.R. Tolkien was a philologist, meaning he knew his way around linguistics and language construction. He didn’t just interpret gibberish statements for his characters or back-translate their sentences. He actually created hordes of languages for his works, and plunging into the appendices after Lord of the Rings or tackling The Silmarillion, his history of the fictional realm of Middle-Earth, will give you an appreciation of just how detailed the languages are. There are actually multiple kinds of Elvish, most notably Quenya and Sindarin. I can’t even begin to unpack in this space the fictional history Tolkien created for his different races and their evolving tongues. Suffice it to say that you really should take a look at his printed works, or spend a few hours on Wikipedia getting a sense of the work he put in. Thankfully, there are a growing number of resources, both print and online, available for those who want to dig in and learn a complicated but elegant constructed language. The English to Elvish Dictionary is a good start, and The Languages of Tolkien’s Middle-Earth and A Gateway to Sindarin are also fantastic references. To get you in the mood, here’s the man himself reading a poem in Elvish verse:

  3. Na’vi: James Cameron’s Avatar is the highest-grossing movie ever, both domestically and around the world. Even adjusted for inflation, it’s still in the top 20 of all time. You don’t become that popular without creating some die-hard fans, as the often-named Avatards can attest. The alien race in Cameron’s sci-fi action is known as the Na’vi, indigenous to the planet Pandora. The Na’vi also had a language constructed for the film by Paul Frommer, who holds a doctorate in linguistics. Cameron’s goal was to create a real language that was also easy enough to pick up that the human characters in the film could conceivably learn it, and while Frommer came up with an entire language, the movie only displayed a vocabulary of about 1,000 Na’vi words. Since the movie’s release at the end of 2009, fans have rallied to build resources to learn Na’vi and go deeper into the movie’s world. Learn Na’vi is a popular forum for devotees of the alien tongue, and Frommer’s also written a blog post that acts as a primer for newcomers. You should also check out Avatar: A Confidential Report on the Biological and Social History of Pandora for more "history" of Cameron’s world. Here’s a tutorial to get you started:

  4. Nadsat: Stanley Kubrick’s film version of A Clockwork Orange is a classic, but it was novelist Anthony Burgess who laid the groundwork with his dystopian tale laced with slang and invented language. The book is narrated by Alex, who describes his world and adventures with constructed words that readers figure out using the context of the sentence. Burgess’ invented argot is called Nadsat, a form of English influenced by Russian that Burgess, a linguist, came up with for the novel. The language modifies some words and invents others out of whole cloth, and the unique slang gives Burgess’ novel a timeless feel that would have been corrupted by using lingo that was fresh when the book was published in 1962. This online translator is a fun way to see what everyday words become in Nadsat, and this dictionary and lexicon are similarly helpful.
  5. Esperanto: This one didn’t come from a movie or book, but it’s one of the most popular fictional languages of all time. I say "fictional" not because it’s tied to imaginary characters but because it was artificially constructed with the intent to provide a common means of communication among people from different countries. Dr. L.L. Zamenhof invented the language around 1880 as a means to unite the Russian Empire. The first book instructing people in the use of the language hit shelves in 1887, and the language enjoyed modest but marked acceptance around the world as time went on. The bad news is that the language hasn’t been adopted as an official communication means by any nation or group, but the good news is that there are copious resources available for those interested in learning a new tongue. This is a great list of print and online outlets for anyone looking to brush up on their Esperanto, and there are multiple videos online to help you out, as well:

10 Amazing Ways Avatars Are Being Used In Education

July 28th, 2010

As overcrowded classrooms, crunched school district budgets, and online, open learning become more prominent in lower and higher education — for better or worse — teachers and students are feeling stretched in many directions. While the hoped for result in democratic learning is that we’ll all be more connected, the truth is that we’re also losing valuable face time and struggling to find new ways to bring the world back to students. Avatars are being used to help these challenges, by helping younger students contextualize history lessons, giving teachers more direct training before they even meet students, and more. Here are 10 amazing ways avatars are being used in education.

  1. Training teachers: One of the more popular ways that avatars are being used in education is for teacher training. As part of a new research program at the University of Central Florida, specially designed avatars realistically imitate different types of students to help teachers practice classroom management and relate to their students. The training teachers stand in front of a projection screen, on which they see avatars that are being controlled — or acted out — by actual university students trained to behave a certain way. Other noises or outbursts like laughing or obnoxious sound effects are thrown in, too, to keep the trainee on his or her toes.
  2. Vokis: Vokis are speaking avatars, and teachers in all subjects, but especially language classes, are using them by recording their own voices to match their digital avatar. Using more animated avatars helps students who feel disconnected from class discussions or who are more audio learners rather than visual learners process material and relate to the lesson more personally. Language teachers have been using vokis to help students with pronunciation and conversation, too, letting them voice-over their avatars.
  3. Customized "tour" guides: Either with vokis or regular avatars, teachers can create virtual "tours," led by an avatar guide. The guide could be a digital representation of the teacher or of a completely different person. History teachers may take their students on a virtual tour of another country or The Oregon Trail, while art teachers can design their own tour of a virtual museum or gallery.
  4. Connecting via online learning: Professors of online courses or teachers who use online tools like blogs and forums to connect with students can use avatars to make the Internet experience more personal and direct. Instead of reading all of the course material, avatars create the opportunity for virtual lectures and more interaction.
  5. SecondLife: The virtual reality environment SecondLife has been used in higher education and for younger students for years, but its potential for experiential learning, role playing and online education is still impressive. Those who promote SecondLife as an education tool applaud its ability to promote active discussion and participation and help students apply concepts in a concrete, realistic way.
  6. Bringing historical figures to life: Some teachers are even designing avatars to look like historical figures like Mark Twain or Albert Einstein, bringing important lessons to life for students. By animating important figures that students traditionally only read about in heavy textbooks, teachers are able to personalize and contextualize the subject, too.
  7. Giving remote learners a campus feel: For several years now, Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society and Harvard Law School’s CyberOne program provide open access, online courses and learning materials for the public. Unlike conventional open courseware, however, these platforms use avatars and virtual reality to help learners feel like they are actually sitting in a classroom at Harvard. By mimicking the layout of campus and classrooms, students feel more engaged and enthusiastic, even if they’re learning independently at home.
  8. Personalized avatars for students: Avatars aren’t just substitute teachers or guest speakers. Students are also getting to create their own avatars which they can "take" with them as they explore websites and virtual reality games online. These avatars allow students to cross the portal into the online world so that they’re getting hands-on experience instead of just passively listening to a one-way lecture.
  9. Solving problems and gaining real-world experience through virtual games: This New York Times article reports on high school students acting as mayors, business professionals and engineers trying to clean up the oil spill, all by controlling their avatars. Through SecondLife and other labs, these students get to interact with each other and other students with different backgrounds, teaching them how to practically collaborate with all kinds of people in real-life situations, or even crises. In this way, students aren’t just learning about history or science, they’re gaining professional skills to help them in the business world, even before they enter college.
  10. Teacher assistants: In overcrowded classrooms, teachers need all the help they can get, but their schools don’t always have the budget for assistants. Avatars, though, are being introduced to help teachers praise students working independently and just provide general positive feedback to help students’ self-esteem as they learn. As students work on the computer, they can design an avatar — or the teacher can design one for them — to stick with them as they try to solve problems and look for positive reinforcement from a teacher figure. So far, these avatars are already being used in special needs and traditional classrooms.

50 Useful Resources for Students With an iPad

July 27th, 2010

One of Apple’s newest toys is being recognized for its application in educational settings. With thousands of apps, incredible portability and ease of use, the iPad makes a great solution for college students looking for a mobile device to use at school. Here’s a collection of articles, apps, and more that will help students make the most of the iPad.

Should You Get an iPad?

If you’re considering an iPad for school, explore your options with these posts.

  1. College Students Talk Pros and Cons of the Apple iPad: You’ll see the pros and cons of the Apple iPad in this post.
  2. Who Would Buy the iPad? College Students: Read this article about why college students should snap up the iPad.
  3. iPad Problems: This post discusses iPad users’ biggest complaints.
  4. Apple’s iPad Perfect for College Students: Carly Hart writes about why college students should be targeted for the iPad.
  5. Can the iPad Go to College?: Read Write Web thinks about whether college students should consider buying an iPad instead of a netbook or notebook.
  6. Common Concerns About the iPad’s Use in Education: Consider some of the problems with the iPad in education through this post.
  7. Why Apple’s iPad is a Great Tool for Students: Take a look at apps, convenience, and more to see why Apple’s iPad is great for students.
  8. Apple iPad Student Discount: This post thinks that there might be a back to school discount for the iPad.
  9. An iPad Should be Mandatory in Medical School: Check out this article to see why the iPad could revolutionize how medical students learn.
  10. First Look at the iPad for eLearning: Read this post to find out about the iPad for eLearning.
  11. Apple iPad Could be an A+ for Schools: This post explains why the Apple iPad can be great for schools.
  12. Pros and Cons of the iPad in Education: See the real-world pluses and minuses of the iPad from a college student’s perspective.

Guides

Read these posts to find iPad education guides and more.

  1. Apple iPad: The Definitive Guide (So Far): Engadget offers an in-depth iPad guide.
  2. Super Duper Guide to iPad: This guide will tell you everything you need to know about the iPad.
  3. Your Guide to Watching Videos on the iPad: Gizmodo has a guide to watching videos-educational or not-on the iPad.
  4. 10 Hottest iPad Accessories: These are some of the best accessories you can buy for the iPad.
  5. The Ultimate Guide to e-Learning via the iPad: Find apps, implementations, and more for the iPad in this guide.

Uses

Consider the iPad’s educational uses with these posts.

  1. Should You Really Get Your College Books on Your iPad?: Find out why the iPad might be great for college books.
  2. iPad for School: Read this post to see some of the many things you can do with the iPad at school.
  3. Apple iPad and iBookstore: This post explains why the iPad could be a great marriage for colleges and the publishing industry.
  4. iPad for Education Revisited: This blog takes a look at how you can use the iPad for education.
  5. The iPad Will Change Education Forever: Steve Cheney explains why the iPad is revolutionary for education.
  6. iPad for Education: Early Impressions: Here are some of the ways the iPad can be used for education.
  7. Should You Buy College Books on the iPad?: This article considers whether or not you should buy college books on the iPad.

Apps

These are just a handful of the great educational apps available on the iPad.

  1. Geo Walk HD: Explore facts and areas using Geo Walk HD.
  2. Outliner for iPad: Organize your thoughts, make a to-do list, and more with Outliner.
  3. iThesaurus: Access more than 140,000 different words on the iPad on iThesaurus.
  4. iBooks: Find literature classics, educational materials, and more on iBooks.
  5. Flash My Brain: Make or download cards that can be flashed for studying.
  6. TED: The TED app has inspirational talks for education and more.
  7. Pages: Pages offers a very powerful word processing app for a mobile device.
  8. Rate My Professors: Make sure you’re picking the best professors with the help of Rate My Professors.
  9. College Guide for iPad: The College Guide has information for over 3,000 colleges and universities.
  10. Numbers: Numbers offers spreadsheet functionality for the iPad.
  11. Gametender iPad Edition: This app offers many different drinking games to play at college parties.
  12. Instapaper: Instapaper allows you to save articles offline to read later.
  13. Dictionary: You’ll find an inventory of almost 1 million words with the Dictionary app.
  14. iSource APA: Plug in your source information, and this app will spit out an entry for your bibliography.
  15. Evernote: Evernote for the iPad can help you keep your notes and tasks together.
  16. WolframAlpha: This search engine app caters to researchers and can be great for campus research teams.
  17. iSource MLA: Get help with the common MLA citation using this app.
  18. iStudiezPro: Use this organizer to get reminders of when work is due and take a look at all of your current projects.

App Collections

Find great collections of educational iPad apps here.

  1. iPad Apps for Education: Katie Stansberry takes a look at some excellent apps for education.
  2. Gizmodo’s Essential iPad Apps: These are the best of the iPad apps for education and more.
  3. Educational Apps for the iPad, iTouch and iPhone: Here you’ll see a great variety of apps for the iPad and beyond.
  4. Top iPad Apps for College Students: These are the top 10 apps of mostly free apps that are good for the college environment.
  5. Five iPad Apps to Consider on Your First Day of Ownership: Although not specifically for education, these apps are great for any iPad owner.
  6. Top iPad Apps for College Students: This post discusses free and paid iPad apps for college students.
  7. 10 Best iPad Apps for College Students: These are US News & World Report’s top picks for college iPad apps.
  8. 8 Must Have iPad Apps for College Students: These apps offer help with everything from studying to partying.

100 Great Gmail Hacks for Email Addicts

July 25th, 2010

If you’re a Gmail user, you know that it’s a powerful email tool, even if you’re just using it for basic functions. However, there are so many options and hacks that you can take advantage of to take your email to the next level that it can be worth your while to learn a little bit more about what Gmail is really capable of doing. Read on to learn about 100 ways to hack Gmail for the better.

Shortcuts

Take these shortcuts to work in Gmail faster.

  1. Keyboard Shortcuts: These shortcuts will help you avoid having to use your mouse in Gmail.
  2. Use Quick Links: Quick Links can bookmark anything in Gmail to set up quick access.
  3. See shortcuts: Type "?" to get a shortcut popup.
  4. Set up custom shortcuts: You can set up custom keyboard shortcuts through Gmail’s settings.
  5. Use EOM: Type "EOM" or (EOM) in the subject line of a subject-only message, and Gmail won’t ask you if you want to add text to the body.
  6. Shift-click: You can select multiple messages using Shift-click.

Moving & Identity

Move over to Gmail and manage your identity using these hacks.

  1. Change your Gmail email ID: This hack will help you find a solution for changing your Gmail ID.
  2. Change your From and Reply to address: Tweak these settings to show the address you want.
  3. Import your email: You can import mail and contacts from other email providers, and even have messages forwarded.

Automation

These hacks will help make Gmail work for you.

  1. Set up repetitive emails: Set up AutoHotKey HotStrings to take care of repetitive email quickly.
  2. Check your POP3 More Often: With this hack, you’ll be able to have Gmail check your POP3 accounts often.
  3. Set Gmail as your default: Go into your settings to use Gmail for Mail To links.
  4. Save notes in your drafts: Keep notes handy by saving them in your drafts.
  5. Look at the title of your web browser: You can see the number of the new emails you have by looking at the title of your web browser.

Tools

These tools can ramp up your Gmail experience.

  1. Resizeable Textarea: This extension will allow you to change your text area without resizing your browser window.
  2. Better Gmail: Better Gmail adds features like hierarchical labels, unread messages, and more.
  3. GMAIL Backup Tool: Backup your Gmail with these tools.
  4. dragdropupload: With this add-on, you can drag and drop files directly to your Gmail.
  5. GTDInbox for Gmail: Use this extension to use Getting Things Done productivity.
  6. Greasemonkey: Make use of these Gmail scripts to make everything Gmail easier.

Composing

Put these hacks to work when writing emails.

  1. Drag and drop: You can drag and drop attachments instead of using the attach button.
  2. Change your default font and styling: This hack will allow you to change the default appearance of your emails.
  3. Add an HTML Signature: With this hack, you’ll be able to add an HTML signature to your email.
  4. Forward all: You can forward an entire conversation in a single email.
  5. Insert images: Share screenshots and other images with this hack.
  6. Create a mail merge: Use this hack for a mail merge in Gmail.
  7. Quote selected text: In a long thread, just pull out the text you really want to respond to.
  8. Use canned responses: Gmail has a new feature that allows you to save email templates and insert them right into your email.
  9. Quickly address Gmail users: Send an email to another Gmail user just by entering their username.
  10. Go offline: Take Gmail offline with Labs.
  11. Send email from your phone: Gmail has a free IMAP sync with your phone’s email client.

Time Savers

With these hacks, you’ll save time in Gmail.

  1. Preview attachments: Make sure you actually need to download a file by previewing them first.
  2. See which emails are sent to you: With personal level indicators, you can find out if an email was sent to you directly.
  3. Right click to read: Preview any email just by right clicking on it.
  4. Mark unread from here: Mark messages unread from a certain point using this feature.
  5. Convert to HTML: You can convert PDF, Word and more to HTML just by sending them as an attachment.
  6. Download all of your attachments: Use this hack to download every attachment from Gmail.
  7. Add multiple attachments to an email: Hold down your Ctrl key or Shift to add a group of attachments to your email.

Storage

These hacks will help you use Gmail as storage.

  1. Scan your manuals: Create PDFs of your manuals and email them to yourself.
  2. Mail yourself disallowed files: Certain files are not allowed to be mailed, but you can save them in your drafts folder.
  3. Backup your messages: You can forward email to a different address just in case.
  4. Use Gmail for MP3 or Storage: Here you’ll find out how to use GMail to store your MP3 files and play them.

Organization

You can keep Gmail well organized with these hacks.

  1. Clean up by moving emails: Clean your inbox using Move to like folders.
  2. Create aliases: You can create an infinite number of + aliases for Gmail.
  3. Merge contacts: Use this hack to merge all of your duplicate email contacts.
  4. Prefix labels: Use unique characters to bring labels up to the top of alphabetized lists.
  5. Use Superstars: Choose between several star icons to flag your messages.
  6. Sort by unread: Type "in:inbox is:unread" to filter all unread messages.
  7. Create filters: Filter emails so you don’t have to move them to folders later.
  8. Archive: Tidy up your inbox and put old email into storage using archiving.
  9. Use stars: Indicate special emails with the help of stars.
  10. Manage all your email accounts: Use Gmail to manage all of your accounts at once.
  11. Use labels: Scan your inbox quickly using labels.

Communication

These hacks take Gmail communication to the next level.

  1. Share who you are: Add your picture to your profile on Gmail so your contacts know what you look like.
  2. Reply by chat: Check to see if your email buddy is online and try to reply by chat instead of through email.
  3. Send SMS text messages: You can send text SMS messages using Gmail.
  4. Set a status message: Let your contacts know what you’re up to by sharing a status message.
  5. Use video chat: With Gmail’s voice and video chat, you can have face to face conversations, or even just use audio.

Search & Quick Finding

Find exactly what you want, fast, using these Gmail hacks.

  1. Gmail Contact View: Click a contact’s name, and you’ll see all of the emails between you and that person.
  2. Gmail Search Bookmarks: Search your email using bookmarks.
  3. Use advanced search: These operators perform special actions in Gmail search.

Integration

These Gmail hacks bring in other services and tools.

  1. Move from Outlook to Gmail: You can switch from Outlook to Gmail with this tip.
  2. Get web clips: Get news headlines and blog posts at the top of your inbox using Web Clips.
  3. Add Google Calendar: Put Google Calendar right in your email with the Calendar gadget.
  4. Bookmark your emails: Each email in Gmail has a url that can be bookmarked like a webpage.
  5. Gmail IMAP from Thunderbird: Find out how to use Gmail’s free IMAP support.
  6. Add email to your to do list: Gmail’s task manager can add a Gmail message to your Tasks.
  7. Add Google Docs: See your recently accessed Docs right in Gmail.
  8. Remember the Milk: Connect RTM to Gmail and never forget anything.
  9. Enable previews: Enable previews to look at YouTube, Flickr, and more right in your email.
  10. Enable multiple inboxes: Supercharge your email with multiple inboxes.
  11. Forgotten attachment detector: With the forgotten attachment detector, you’ll be able to avoid sending emails with missing attachments.
  12. Delete large attachments: Identify emails with the biggest attachments to make space in your inbox.

Security & Spam

Check out these hacks to lock down your inbox.

  1. Always use https: Help protect your Gmail from getting hacked by changing your browser connection to always use https.
  2. Use a language filter: Cut down on spam in your inbox with the help of a language filter.
  3. Stay up to date: Use Gmail account recovery so you can go back if you need it.
  4. Gmail icon generator: Generate an image of your email address, and you can cut down on spam exposure.
  5. Check for dual logins: Find out if your account is open at other locations.
  6. Backup with Google Groups: Use Google Groups to create a backup for your Gmail.
  7. Show headers: Click on Show original to see the address code in your email.
  8. Mute conversations: If you’ve found yourself in a mailing list discussion you don’t care about, use the ‘m’ key to stop seeing any follow-ups unless it’s directly addressed to you.
  9. Log out: Make sure that you log out whenever you’re done checking emails.
  10. Sign out remotely: If you forgot to sign out of a public computer, check out "Details" next to your last account activity and choose to sign out of all other sessions.
  11. Check your filters: Make sure that there aren’t any filters or forwards that you didn’t set up.
  12. Be careful of attachments: Be wary of unexpected attachments.
  13. Use Gmail as a backup: Set up an automatic BCC of all incoming and outgoing emails to copy to Gmail, and you’ll have an easily searchable backup available.
  14. Check your access: Scroll down to the very bottom to see your last account activity and make sure no one else is checking out your inbox.
  15. Never send it to spam: Separate legitimate emails out of spam with this option.
  16. Check your junk folder: With this hack, you can make sure you’re not missing important messages in your junk folder.
  17. Use aliases for spammy sites: If you need to use your addresses for shopping sites, create an alias.
  18. Create a safe senders list: Here you can create a list of trusted senders.
  19. Avoid using your browser: Access Gmail through IMAP or POP for the best security.
  20. Report emails as spam: Teach Gmail how to block similar messages by reporting emails.

Fun & Magic

These hacks seem like magic.

  1. Spice things up with themes: Personalize your inbox using a variety of different options for themes.
  2. Undo a sent email: You’ll be able to recall messages immediately with the help of this Gmail help.
  3. Add your location: Enable your Gmail to let recipients know where you’re sending mail from.
  4. Track your messages: Using Google Analytics, you can track your Gmail messages.
  5. Access through HTML: When Gmail’s down, you can try to get to it through the Plain HTML version.
  6. Increase your undo time limit: You can select 5, 10, or 20 seconds as your time limit to undo sent mail.

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