Author Archives: Dr. Thomas Johnson | ict-design.org

In school, we have so many rubrics for projects and assignments, but I thought it was time for some more practical rubrics for life, so here are two that you may need to compare yourself against.

Friend rubric:

Relationship rubric:

The most important elements of education are widely debated, but some of the key factors that are typically considered include:

1. Access to quality resources: This includes access to quality materials and technology, knowledgeable teachers, and well-designed educational programs.
2. Active learning: Effective education is often hands-on and interactive, engaging students in active learning and problem-solving activities.
3. Personalized instruction: Education that is tailored to the individual needs and strengths of students is often more effective than one-size-fits-all instruction.
4. Development of critical thinking skills: Education that encourages students to analyze, evaluate, and form their own opinions and ideas is crucial for developing critical thinking skills.
5. Encouragement of creativity and innovation: Education that fosters creativity and innovation is important for preparing students for success in an ever-changing world.
6. A supportive learning environment: A safe, supportive, and inclusive learning environment that values diversity and promotes respect and understanding is essential for student success.
7. Preparation for life beyond the classroom: Education that prepares students for success in college, the workplace, and in their personal lives is crucial for their overall development and well-being.

Ultimately, the most important elements of education will vary based on the needs and goals of individual students and communities. However, the elements listed above are widely recognized as key components of a quality education.

Are you planning to take more schooling, like a Master’s degree or a PhD, or are you already enrolled?  If either of these is the case, I highly recommend you invest in ALL of these tools and I will explain why.

1. Dropbox or Google Drive Both are FREE! – First thing you do not want to do is lose any or all of your documents, readings, discussion posts and replies, or assignments.  In order to do this, you should create an online area where your files can be stored.  This means that you create an account, download a small program and move your files to this folder.  Many people are worried that this means the files will look different or they won’t be able to reach them if the internet is down – Wrong!  The files look and act exactly the same.  They are housed on your computer and BACKED UP on the internet in “the cloud”.  This means that if your computer or flash drive breaks down, which they often do, you do not need to worry because you can download the program on another computer and login.  All your files will download to that device, open, and react exactly like you are used to them doing.  Just remember to write your login and password where you will remember it.  
2. Mendeley FREE for 2GB of cloud space! (Costs after that, but you won’t likely use it all) – Time to organize your documents and retrieve or search through them easily.
   -Did I mention it was DRAG and DROP?
   -Did I mention it auto-generates your citations and bibliographies with a plug-in in Word?

   WATCH VIDEOS or Get guide here: https://www.mendeley.com/guides

   [Read my more detailed directions about Mendeley at the bottom of this article]

3. Perrla for APA or MLA ($34.95 USD) – 
   

   Perrla

   Perrla will generate citations in APA and MLA, but use it to set the proper margins, headers, title pages, spacing, and so much more.  They auto set tables and figures in APA proper formatting.  When you read the APA (and I am sure the MLA, but I haven’t read it) manual you find these details are very tedious and time-consuming to apply.  Perrla guides you through 200+ citation types and explains every detail along the way – if you want to know more about what is happening with your Mendeley citations or how to do those weird, super esoteric ones.  

4. SPSS (Approx. $90 USD) – You’re going to need to do some data crunching and analysis, even if you think, “No, I will just do a qualitative dissertation or thesis.”  Nonetheless, you will probably end up doing some predictive analytics after you gather all of your interview and case study material.  SPSS is one of the most widely used statistics softwares.  It is relatively cheap, is relatively simple to use (when you know what you are doing – Watch some Youtube videos about the specific types of analysis you plan to do and type “SPSS” in the search), and it is versatile.  
5. Atlas.ti (Approx $99 USD – with Student ID) – If you are going to delve into qualitative research, this is the cheaper way to go and still has almost all the functionality of Nvivo.  It allows you to analyze and find patterns in documents, recordings, PDFs, quotes, and memos.  From there you can code, organize, develop nodes, and visually represent your data in many unassuming forms.  
6. Evernote FREE! – Get started with this early! Use it to embed and tag articles, websites, clippings and even import text through Livescribe pen scanning ($69.95+).  Search through every item you have collected to realize information you have accumulated for your comprehensive exams and your dissertations.  It is an excellent and necessary way to stay organized.
7. Free Natural Reader (PC) or Speech (MAC) Both are FREE! – When you are ready to turn in an assignment or submit a discussion post, you need to review it.  The best way to do this is to hear it out loud.  On a PC, there is no software built-in so the Natural Reader is an awesome download you need to get.  Macs have an advantage in this area because they have this built-in.  Go to the APPLE (in the top left corner), go to SYSTEM PREFERENCES, a dialogue box will appear, go to SPEECH, check “Speak selected text when the key is pressed”, SET KEY (I would choose OPTION + S) – Highlight some text and try out either of these options to hear it read back to you.  You will notice mistakes so much easier.
8. Harzing’s Publish or Perish FREE! – If you need to find the seminal articles written around a 
   

   Harzing’s Publish or Perish

   subject, this is the software for you.  Search for any subject and voilà, you have found the most cited, the highest ranked, the number of citations of the article per year, and more.  Download this into Windows or a parallel system that enables Windows on a Mac, like Parallels ($79.99 USD).  

9. Windows and Microsoft Word for Windows – The reason I recommend using the Windows environment for post-graduate work is because many of the products listed above work naturally in this operating system.  I also enjoy that Microsoft Word on PC allows for click editing of words to bold, italicize, underline and change other attributes without moving your cursor all the way to the menu bar across the top.  Plus, if you opt not to buy Perrla, which I highly recommend that you do, Word on a PC has more up-to-date APA and MLA citations.

Bookmark these sites:

1. Crossref – If you are using APA 6, you need to find DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers).  This website allows you to reverse look up journal articles and sites to find if there is one available.
2. Thesaurus.com – You are going to need to use ‘the other word’ often.  When writing a paper, Microsoft Word has a bult in thesaurus, but Thesaurus.com offers, furnishes, grants, and presents more and better options.
3. Smartthinking – I hope your school offers this services free of charge.  They have online tutoring, essay submission and editing, APA editing, math help and so much more.  It is awesome but I just examined the pricing – not so cheap.  It depends upon what you need, so have a look.  Well worth it for major essay editing help.
4. Turnitin – Again, I hope that your University uses this service.  To make sure that you are not plagiarizing, this site locates all the information that turns up from other sources.  Remember, as a rule, your essays should not have more than 20% of other people’s work.  After submitting an assignment, Turnitin highlights areas and determines where it has come from.  Your profs may use it.  You should too!

If you have other software, hardware, websites, or tricks that you use, please tell me in the comments.  Finally, remember to thank me in your Dedication. Good luck with everything.

Mendeley details:

1. Create an account
2. Download the desktop version – install
   • Drag and Drop your downloaded PDF articles into the Mendeley interface
   • IMPORTANT – Double check newly imported article’s details are correct – 80% – 90% reliable – be especially careful that the DOI didn’t get truncated because of a forward slash: /
     • (This will add completely different details for articles with the other DOI number)
     • If you lose the article because of incorrect DOI auto-fill – search “Recently Added”
   • Ensure correct “Type” is chosen (e.g. Journal Article, Thesis, Book)
     • For chapters of a book, select “Book Section”
   • IMPORTANT – “Sync” often (2 GB of free space in cloud – paid for extra space: ability to install Mendeley on multiple computers and keep up-to-date)
   • Create Folders with terms that are useful (e.g. Dissertations, Recommendations, Case studies) – drag and drop articles into folder
   • Add notes where applicable to articles
   • TIME SAVER – Have notes tab open and click through “My library” articles to quickly see notes you have written
   • RECOMMENDATION – Use Stars to delineate articles that are 3 years or newer for easy reference
     • In “My Library” “All Documents”, click “Year” header to sort column
     • Star all documents that are within the 3 year date range – deselect others
   • RECOMMENDATION – Use Green / Grey dots to delineate which articles have been cited in dissertation or paper
   • TIME SAVER – With article open and selected, click “Contents” to jump to areas in articles
   • Search to get an overview of where this query can be found in every article
     • Double click an article to open it in a new tab
3. Download the Mendeley plug-in for Microsoft Word – install
   • Find Mendeley auto-references under “References” tab
     • Click to insert –> Type name of first author of document
     • If needed, type into reference in paper to edit –> Select “Keep Manual Edit”
   • Insert Bibliography into paper (Note – this auto-updates upon insertion of new reference)
4. Yay!!