All News

Some educators at a White House gathering said they were hesitant at first to bring new technology into their classrooms. Austin's Eanes school district librarian Carolyn Foote said her attitude has always been, "Why not?" Foote said the "aha moment" where she understood the importance of iPads was while working with a disabled student. He didn't have the fine motor skills to turn the pages of books, but he could flip through pages on an iPad. It gave the student a level of independence he never had before, and Foote wanted to share that independence with all students.

When Stefanie Roberts froze up on the first question of the Speed Interviewing event in February, the irony wasn't lost on her.

The question? "What makes you an effective communicator, and what can you do to improve your communication?"

Roberts, who started at the iSchool in January, recovered, gave her answer and, more importantly, received constructive feedback. Then, feeling more poised, she moved on to another table where a different interviewer threw another question at her. Within an hour, she had fielded 12 questions from 12 different people.

For Jane Garner, a crushing disappointment could not have come at a better time.

It was the summer of 1964, and the recent University of Texas graduate was in Washington training to become a Peace Corps librarian in Chile. At the end of the summer, Garner was told her perfectionist nature would 'cause too much trouble.' She was effectively kicked out of the Peace Corps.

In the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings, when most Americans were checking Twitter for updates on the manhunt, Boston College professor Jerry Kane was checking Twitter to analyze the network itself.

At a research colloquium hosted by the School of Information on Tuesday, Kane spoke about what social media technology has done to modern human relationships.