Social Scientists Wade Into the Tweet
Stream, an
articlein the September 30, 2011
issue of Science, is
a stimulating read (subscription required. Republished by University of Vermont here). The author shared recent studies that mined Twitter data for
insights into human behavior.
Peter
Dodds and colleagues from the University of Vermont, for
example, applied a novel method to analyze years of tweets from around the
world. The Twitter data suggest a global decay in mood, a decrease in “average
happiness” level, which they determined by comparing the relative usage of common words associated with positive or negative
moods. Their results indicate that the world is not as happy today as it
was in 2009!
In my last 2 posts here and here, I introduced how discussion boards can be used in the classroom
and reviewed some of their advantages.
Now, let’s move on to their disadvantages.
Disadvantage
#1: It’s not REALLY a discussion
Here are some sample
responses from a discussion board where I asked students to define “job success” (click for full image):
In my last post, I introduced discussion boards and how you might effectively incorporate them into your classes. In this, post, I will discuss their advantages.
Advantage #1: Students love them (especially the introverts)
When I ask students what they like most about my classes, they almost always mention the discussion boards. Introverted students especially love them because their voices are finally heard. In discussion boards, it’s not the loudest person who wins, it’s the most insightful.
The SIOP Exchange crew would like to thank the blog's recent guest
blogger and LEading Edge Consortium speaker, Anna Clark, for her time Thursday, August 30. Clark answered
questions and comments from several SIOP members on the topic of environmental sustainability in the workplace as part of the
SIOP Electronic Communications Committee's "Guest Blogger" series.
If you would like to read the questions and answers, view Clark's post here. If you would like to learn more about environmental sustainability at work, including a full presentation by Anna Clark, register for the SIOP Leading Edge Consortium. You can get a full agenda, list of speakers and presentations, and other information on the LEC homepage.
The committee plans to invite more live blogging guests in the coming
months to be available for questions and comments from readers on
various topics important to the I-O community. Stay tuned for more guest
posts!
As a sustainability practitioner, I am glad to facilitate a
discussion today about the value of I-O psychology in embedding sustainability
into organizations, particularly mainstream companies. Based on my six-year practice in
sustainability consulting, and my combined 18 years of experience in management
consulting and communications, I recognize a great need for organizational
development expertise in this arena.
Leadership is the key determinant of whether sustainability becomes
rooted as a core value in any given organization. For sustainability to flourish, it must be
embedded into human resources. Even projects based on good intentions and
credible tools will flounder without engaging influencers and managers at all
levels in the process. The upcoming SIOP
Leading Edge Consortium on
environmental sustainability is a rare opportunity to explore the human element
in all the depth it deserves. As we
exchange ideas for how to use I-O psychology to create a culture of
sustainability, it is helpful to also consider the ways that a burgeoning green
ethos can be acted up and expressed to maximize bottom-line or “triple-bottom
line” benefits.
The news stories in this column have been gathered through the use of a Google News Feed. They are neither filtered nor endorsed by SIOP but aggregated automatically using specific search terms.
