Switching to Blogger…

This blog will now be continued at Mary Alice in IT Wonderland using Blogger. Once I used up all my free WordPress space, I decided to jump back to my trusty Blogger! I followed this instructions and exported my WordPress blog to Blogger.

I began the WordPress blog as an assignment for class (I had to use a blog program I’ve never used before) and just kept it going – now I’m back to Blogger for good!

I also came to the conclusion that I’m not a fan of WordPress and here are a few reasons why:

1. I began blogging with Blogger years ago, so I think I may be partial. I’ve had a private blog on here for years and I’ve loved it!
2. The space issue. I didn’t realize there was a space limit with WordPress. What’s that all about?! Another check for Blogger!
3. Embedding code. I couldn’t do that on WordPress. For example, the Mendeley widget I have on the right-hand side of this blog was not allowed on WordPress. Another check for Blogger!

So here’s my new IT blog! Goodbye, WordPress!

Vote for Street Deli!

Please take a moment and vote for my sister’s food truck, Street Deli, for the Food Network’s The Great Food Truck Race!

If you can, please vote everyday until September 12!! I love my big sister so much and want this for her so badly! She’s so AWESOME and so totally deserves it!

Don’t worry, I’ll remind you every day!

New iPad 2

Thanks to the grant we got this past spring semester, the Grief Outreach Initiative now has two new awesome iPad 2s! I’ve been playing with them a little bit… hehe…

One thing I did not realize is how it works to have multiple iPads on your iTunes account. Talk about confusing! I have my personal first generation iPad – and now these two new iPads – and am trying to figure out the best way to configure and maintain the accounts. If anyone has any advice, please let me know! My husband said I may be better off using an entire new computer. If anyone has any advice, please let me know! My husband said I may be better off using an entire new computer.

I’m super excited about these iPads! We’re going to experiment with them this fall semester. Some grief mentors used them last semester and we spent a lot of time identifying apps that mentors can/have used with children. Then, we’re going to work on developing apps specifically designed for our students and children. I’ll keep you updated!

Happy Birthday to My Love!

Happy Birthday to my love!

I made my special strawberry cake for my special birthday boy!

Mendeley 1.0

The new version of Mendeley 1.0 is now here! Update today!

Also check out Mendeley mentioned in the Chronicle of Higher Education!

Linking Mendeley to the UT Library…

How cool is this?! Mendeley has a feature that allows users to link the Mendeley library with their other libraries, for example university libraries!

For UT faculty and students: Add the UT Libraries openURL link (http://linkserv.lib.utk.edu:9003/sfx) to connect our library with the Mendeley library! Check out this website for more instructions and let me know if you have any questions!

Just another reason why Mendeley is so cool – and many thanks to the UT Library for the access!

More Mendeley…

I really enjoyed talking about Mendeley with the class I visited last night! They asked some really great questions and pointed out some majorly important things I had not noticed. I’ve already been talking with the Mendeley folks about them and getting feedback. Some of the main issues included:

Editing citation styles – our field (Education) uses APA and citations do not generate correctly (or at all?) when inserted into MS Word documents. For example, in APA, all words in the title of a document must be lowercase (with some exceptions). The cite while you write does not automatically reformat to this. Furthermore, some of us in class last night had the ability to edit citations (like including page numbers) but some of us could not. I am now wondering if that is a MS Office issue after reading this information.

Annotations lost when copying PDF to group - Students are having some unfortunate experiences with the annotating feature. They will annotate their PDFs but once they move an annotated document to a group, it clears all the annotations. This is a design feature that Mendeley did on purpose, it is not a bug, however they are working on providing more options with this feature for the future.

Renaming PDFs – Is there a way to rename PDFs in Mendeley? I don’t think so.

Editing document information - There was mention of information not syncing when document information is edited. For example, the change will be visible on the desktop but not on the web version. Not sure what’s going on here!

Like I said, I had a great time with the class last night and it made me realize how very important these sessions are to students using Mendeley and to Mendeley developers. No one person can detect all the kinks or roadblocks with a program. Furthermore, students use programs in such different ways stemming from discipline, experience, personal preference, etc. so it’s great to hear how others utilize technology.

One overwhelming aspect of being a part of the Mendeley Advisor program is keeping up with all the updates! I applaud Mendeley for constantly updating and enhancing the program and will strive to always stay updated. Also, Mendeley is working on an Advisor’s FAQ which I think will be really helpful and awesome!

For more information about Mendeley, visit their website or contact me! I am looking at the calendar trying to decide when to offer Mendeley demos for the fall semester.