Prismatic neural network multicolor brain picture

Back To School Sessions

Although it may seem like the beginning of the 2017-2018 year is a long way off, we’ve already been hard at work planning sessions for the Swarthmore College community.  Whether it’s getting acquainted with your new Windows 10 machine (if … Continue reading Back To School Sessions

How Swarthmore Uses Lynda.com

Over roughly four years, Swarthmore has used Lynda.com videos to expand our knowledge.  A quick glance through the courses completed suggests that folks use Lynda for class-related activity the most (great!) — but peeking at the long tail of courses shows that we are well-rounded and might even have fun, too (see: Ethical Hacking, YouTube for Musicians, Understanding Patents, Insights from a  Professional Songwriter, and Learn Instagram: The Basics. Let’s take a look at the historical data.  In our first year (2013-2014 — the one where we wore wigs and glasses to look like the logo), we had 739 users, 14,142 … Continue reading How Swarthmore Uses Lynda.com

Sneak Peek: Lynda Insights

Since late summer 2013, Swarthmore users have had access to the entire library of Lynda.com videos (found at lynda.swarthmore.edu).  During that time, we’ve had 1284 users watch 47,272 videos for a total of 3397 hours.  Are you missing out? At the time of this post, there are 5755 courses totalling 212,653 video tutorials available, on topics ranging from Gmail to mindfulness to Amazon Web Services to how to play rock guitar.  But what courses and video are most popular? Looking at the 2016-2017 school year, the top five courses are: Premiere Pro CC Essential Training (2015) Revit Structure 2016 Essential Training Java … Continue reading Sneak Peek: Lynda Insights

Why Things Stick

Figuratively, that is.  I’d have to spend some more time learning why things literally stick to offer you a proper answer.   From a young age, learning has been a passion of mine.  As it turns out, there are several reasons for that, and Swarthmore’s Ann Renninger and Diane Anderson have devoted quite a bit of time to researching and publishing why we learn better when we’re actively engaged in what we’re learning.  Think about something you love doing.  I’ll bet you could tell me a lot about it.  In fact, I’ll bet you could still tell me a lot … Continue reading Why Things Stick