Social Networks � How They Can Impact Your Scholarship, Internship, or Job Opportunities.

The Good News.

Technology has had a huge effect on recruitment - for candidates, recruitment professionals and employers alike. What this means for organizations is that sourcing talent through the internet is becoming progressively more important. Not only are employers and their agencies increasingly adopting online-only recruitment policies, but more and more are using social networking platforms such as Facebook and Linkedin to hunt for candidates. According to a study by CareerBuilder.com, one of the largest online job sites in the US, one in every five employers uses social networks to research information about job candidates.

Social media has entered the mainstream as a recruitment strategy; and many highly-recognized firms are connecting with applicants through their own profiles or pages on these sites. As an example, check out Ernst & Young Careers page in Facebook. They have a team dedicated to recruiting on Facebook, where applicants can ask questions, find information regarding contests, jobs, internships, links to related information, and discussion boards.

Online networks can become a lifeline for job or internship seekers. US unemployment hit a new 14-year high in October and according to online job advertising firm Monster, recruitment activity on the Web plunged to its lowest level in nearly three years. The economic crisis hitting firms across the globe has created a spike in usage of professional networks such as LinkedIn, the top professional Web network. Professional networking should be a top priority during unstable economic times.

While making it well worth jobseekers� time and effort to have a presence online, it�s really only effective for those that take the time to develop their profile. Virtually anything in a profile shows up on a search, so students and employees should list educational background, awards, current and previous employment, current responsibilities, user groups, professional associations they belong to, expertise, and other information companies might seek. Tap into social media sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook to create or expand positive online content about you.

The Bad News.

What you put on Facebook, MySpace, Hi5, or other social networks (or what your friends put there) could have a negative impact on your scholarship. According to Social Media and College Admissions, about one in five college admissions offices are searching social networking sites and using search engines (Google and Yahoo) to conduct background checks on potential students before awarding scholarships. Facebook and MySpace are the most commonly searched sites. The report, put out by the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, expect presence of admissions offices on social networking sites to increase.

Recent surveys find that a growing number of job searches are being derailed by "digital dirt." The Internet is rife with inaccuracies, posturing, gossip and material presented out of context. All of which can wreak havoc on someone's digital footprint. Social networking Web sites can be mined with unintended or embarrassing anecdotes, and general Web searches sometimes reveal inconsistencies or resume inflation. This can, and has, eliminated candidates for internships and jobs.

There are a number of methods being used to collect information and create a virtual profile of you, such as searching and utilizing government records, free people searches, search engines, social network search engines, and paid searches. A number of companies (and college admissions offices) are also using facial recognition software. Think you�re safe by setting your profile to private? Or using an alias? Your personal information is still accessible to parents, professors, police, or employers. Even if your profile is private, there's little to stop your online contacts from copying and sharing your information or pictures with others, and tagging them. Removing possible incriminating pictures or information when it�s time to look for that scholarship or job may be more difficult than you think. So it's a good rule of thumb to avoid posting pictures or confessions that would humiliate you or a friend if they reached the wider world, because they very well could.

My suggestion � Google yourself; do an image search; log in to your social network and do a search. Do this regularly. (For more detailed information on searches, and tips for managing your digital footprint see What the Web knows about you.) Create a profile on a professional network, and link to professors, colleagues, and friends. Create or expand positive, professional online content on other social network sites. Search for companies with an online presence in Facebook or MySpace, and join. Make yourself highly visible, with a positive and professional image.

Reading and Action Meet in the Brain

A new brain-imaging study is shedding light on what it means to "get lost" in a good book � suggesting that readers create vivid mental simulations of the sounds, sights, tastes and movements described in a textual narrative while simultaneously activating brain regions used to process similar experiences in real life.

"Psychologists and neuroscientists are increasingly coming to the conclusion that when we read a story and really understand it, we create a mental simulation of the events described by the story," said Jeffrey M. Zacks . . . .

The study, forthcoming in the journal Psychological Science, is one of a series in which Zacks and colleagues use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to track real-time brain activity as study participants read and process individual words and short stories.

. . .[F]indings demonstrate that reading is by no means a passive exercise. Rather, readers mentally simulate each new situation encountered in a narrative. Details about actions and sensations are captured from the text and integrated with personal knowledge from past experiences. These data are then run through mental simulations using brain regions that closely mirror those involved when people perform, imagine or observe similar real-world activities. . . .

Changes in characters' locations (e.g., "went through the front door into the kitchen") were associated with increases in regions in the temporal lobes that are selectively activated when people view pictures of spatial scenes.

Urban Institute Audio Webcast: Children, the Recession, and the Economic Recovery Plan

Feb. 19, 9am-10:30 E.T. Register for live audio webcast here:

As the economy ails, policymakers, program managers, and service providers will be under extraordinary pressure to get the biggest bang for each buck. Be part of the discussion as experts tackle such questions as

- What happens to children and families during recessions?
- What must federal, state, and local officials do to speedily implement the recovery package and coordinate programs effectively?
- Are service providers ready?
- How will budget-strained states handle a funding infusion?
- Can new and expanded activities jump start change in early childhood programs and other children's initiatives?
- Will the recovery plan's short-term boost take the pressure off Congress to make permanent investments and reforms?
- How should legislators and laypeople measure success?

Panelists:
- Derek Douglas, director, New York governor's Washington office
- Olivia Golden (moderator), institute fellow, Urban Institute; former assistant secretary for children and families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
- Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president, DHE Consulting LLC; director of domestic and economic policy, 2008 John McCain presidential campaign; former director, Congressional Budget Office
- Joan Lombardi, research professor, Public Policy Institute, Georgetown University; first director, Child Care Bureau, Department of Health and Human Services
- Matthew Stagner, executive director, Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago

God and Agency in the Mind

Interesting article on why religion may be a byproduct of the way our brain attributes agency to objects and persons, starting very early in childhood:

So how does the brain conjure up gods? One of the key factors, says Bloom, is the fact that our brains have separate cognitive systems for dealing with living things - things with minds, or at least volition - and inanimate objects.

This separation happens very early in life. Bloom and colleagues have shown that babies as young as five months make a distinction between inanimate objects and people. Shown a box moving in a stop-start way, babies show surprise. But a person moving in the same way elicits no surprise. To babies, objects ought to obey the laws of physics and move in a predictable way. People, on the other hand, have their own intentions and goals, and move however they choose.

Bloom says the two systems are autonomous, leaving us with two viewpoints on the world: one that deals with minds, and one that handles physical aspects of the world. He calls this innate assumption that mind and matter are distinct "common-sense dualism". The body is for physical processes, like eating and moving, while the mind carries our consciousness in a separate - and separable - package. "We very naturally accept you can leave your body in a dream, or in astral projection or some sort of magic," Bloom says. "These are universal views."

There is plenty of evidence that thinking about disembodied minds comes naturally. People readily form relationships with non-existent others: roughly half of all 4-year-olds have had an imaginary friend, and adults often form and maintain relationships with dead relatives, fictional characters and fantasy partners. As Barrett points out, this is an evolutionarily useful skill. Without it we would be unable to maintain large social hierarchies and alliances or anticipate what an unseen enemy might be planning. "Requiring a body around to think about its mind would be a great liability," he says.

This leads to beliefs that the world is constructed "for" agents with minds:

Again, experiments on young children reveal this default state of the mind. Children as young as three readily attribute design and purpose to inanimate objects. When Deborah Kelemen of the University of Arizona in Tucson asked 7 and 8-year-old children questions about inanimate objects and animals, she found that most believed they were created for a specific purpose. Pointy rocks are there for animals to scratch themselves on. Birds exist "to make nice music", while rivers exist so boats have something to float on. "It was extraordinary to hear children saying that things like mountains and clouds were 'for' a purpose and appearing highly resistant to any counter-suggestion," says Kelemen.

The Psychology of Education

On the need for an individualistic educational psychology emphasizing on the central role of the learnerEducation and psychology are related in more than just one way and the psychology of education could be related to educational principles in psychology or how education as a discipline is taught within psychology as a subject and how these two disciplines merge. Psychological education would be completely focused on learning methods as structured or imparted according to psychological and individual needs of the students. Education would differ according to culture, values, attitudes, social systems, mindset and all these factors are important in the study of education in psychology.Educational psychology is the application of psychological objectives within educational systems and psychological education as I distinguish here is application of educational objectives in psychological processes. The first focus of using psychology in education is more general and the second approach of using education in psychology is more individualistic. However as far as present study of educational approach to psychology is concerned, there is no difference between individualistic educational psychology and general educational psychology and all interrelationships between psychology and education are considered within the broad discipline of educational psychology.However a distinction between the more general educational psychology and more specific psychological or individualistic education could help in understanding the nuances of individualistic study and give a subjective dimension to the study of psychology in education. This could also help in making learning systems more student based and according to the needs of culture, society, individual or personal factors. This sort of study with a focus on personal/psychological aspects of learning is not just about social objectives and objectives within educational systems but also about personal goals and objectives and the psychological processes involved in learning. There has to be a clearer demarcation between education in psychology as a general study and individualistic education in psychology as a more specific and subjective discipline.There could be two ways in which this branch of knowledge could evolve - either by strengthening psychological education or individualistic approach to the psychology of education or by having two distinct branches of general educational psychology and individualistic educational psychology.As in client centered approach to psychology, a psychology of education should also include further research that would highlight the need for individualistic dimensions in learning. Learning psychology is the use of psychological theories for example that of Jean Piaget and Kohler in the study of learning techniques, especially among children. This focus on personality patterns brings out the central role of understanding psychology in educational systems.Educational psychology studies both the personal approaches to education as in giftedness, disability, learning theories applied to children and adults, and the more general objective approaches to learning as the role of schools as social or cultural systems.
The Future of Educational Technology and Education 3.0
I quickly discovered that using improved tools would translate into improved craftsmanship. Woodworking is a great metaphor for shaping and molding students. Tracking a student means having the ability to target education toward weaknesses and strengths. Current educational curriculum and individual assessment is arbitrary at best. Further, imagine that every student can access all the knowledge of humankind freely at any moment in time. Imagine the curriculum being automatically targeted to the user through an intuitive educational platform that knows every strength and each unique weakness. New technology will not only allow us to receive an education, but also develop an education. To make this a reality we will need a standardized platform from which to develop a student's unique education. Learning will become a reciprocal experience between the teacher, the student and the machine.The student will be the user, gathering resources, skills and knowledge in an efficient and measured sequence. The machine will do the work of data gathering and analysis, which will assist the teacher and student in refining the curriculum. In our current educational paradigm, the teacher is in charge of arbitrarily constructing curriculum. Education 3.0
Source by ezinearticles.com

Poor Kids Need Vitamins: Only Priveliged Kids (Who Don't Need Them) Take them

Interesting study finds that it's privileged kids who don't need vitamins who take them. Poor kids, who have poor diets and might actually benefit are the ones who don't. The investigator had hypothesized that poor families might use vitamins to buffer poor nutrition but found, not surprisingly, that poor kids rarely took vitamins.

There is apparently little research on this, but Richard Rothstein et. al. report on a double-blind study showing that providing vitamin supplements to poor children directly resulted in increased test scores.

But, of course, giving poor kids vitamins in the morning (maybe yummy ones) is not only too difficult to do on a regular basis, it's not really important enough to study very carefully.

Pedagogy. Remember. It's all about pedagogy. That's what we do.

We now return to our regular programming.

International Student Connections

When the Facebook Group �Scholarships for International Students� was created, I didn�t know what to expect, or if there would be any interest. Surprisingly, the first member joined in less than one hour, in the middle of the night, before I could even post a welcoming message! In less than two weeks, we had over 100 members. The day after the SIS group was created, it became apparent there was also a need for a sister site, Internships for International Students, as internship opportunities are as limited as scholarships and financial aid for international students. In making connections with students, I realized the focus of this group had to be broadened to include the complete international student experience. We live in a highly interdependent and interconnected world; there is power in diversity, and benefit in working together. There are tremendous opportunities for enabling change, and recognizing possibilities and potential! I truly believe we need a better system for positive exchange between students, businesses, and educational organizations to foster a better understanding of globalization and its future impact on society. With that in mind, we have decided to make a change in our organization name, our mission, and our website. Our name: International Student Connections. Our Mission: International Student Connections focuses on enhancing the student experience. ISC creates a system for positive exchange between students, businesses, and educational organizations to foster a better understanding of globalization and its future impact on society. Our goals: Internship and Employment Opportunities; Scholarships; Travel Opportunities; Service and Beyond; Cultural Education and Exchange. Change takes time; and people to believe in it, with a dedicated commitment to making it happen.