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TAA (Texbook & Academic Authors Association)

TAA (Texbook & Academic Authors Association)

June 18, 2018

Dear WinkWorld Readers,

For years, my dear friend and colleague, Dr. Pam Sharpe, has told me to join TAA, and for years I have resisted joining any more professional organizations.  Now,  I am actively not paying all of the annual membership dues to various professional organizations, as I try to do less.  However, I couldn’t resist trying TAA and their annual conference in Santa Fé, NM last week–Better Late Than Never!  FYI: Pam’s 16th addition of Pass Key to the TOEFL iBT from Barron’s will be available by TESOL 2019.

TAA is inter-disciplinarian and provides a wealth of resources for academic writers. I am particularly interested in their information on the rapid changes in the publishing industry.  I also think that I  benefitted greatly from their sharing of the new approaches to all of the digital literacies.

As I write this little summary, I am reminded of all of the one-page summaries I used to write for my CSU graduate classes, after I returned from a conference.   Interesting that now I can share more broadly in case any of this information works in your own world.

Here are a few of the new interesting colleagues and a peak into their area of expertise.  

GeoPrimer: TAA, Enchantment, and Santa Fe
Presenter: Robert Christopherson, Author of Geosystems

TAA conference always begins with a GeoPrimer.  How many times have some of us been to a conference in a beautiful fascinating city, but we just never got outside of the hotel to explore? Guilty.  TAA sends one or two of their members to visit the host city to explore and learn of some of the local interesting sites.  The TAA colleagues shared their discoveries for only 15 minutes, and I learned so much more Santa Fé, NM.

I also noted that on the first day of the conference in the early a.m., TAA provided free headshots of the participants.  What a great way to get everyone out early to register for the conference together. 

The Critical Importance of Scholarly Discipline
Presenter: Kent Anderson, CEO of RedLink, past-President of the Society for Scholarly Publishing

I had never heard of Kent Anderson previously, but I will never forget his thought-provoking and disturbing look at the effects of algorithms on our world.  His data were complex and revealing, and I believe his bottom-line was:  Algorithms control us all now. Never trust an algorithm.  His answer to the intrusion of algorithms on the social and political context of the world: The intervention of good humans with values.

One surprising thing he told us: Of all of the social media, Snapchat is the only one which uses real humans with values to intervene and delete the fake news which comes through algorithms.

Hunks, Chunks, & Bites: Plan Writing Projects So You Actually Complete Them!
Presenter: Meggin McIntosh, Professor Emerita, University of Nevada, Reno

So where was Meggin when I needed her 30 years ago?  I walked into her presentation, assuming that she couldn’t tell me anything, which I didn’t already know.  Silly me.  And, she had such an engaging way of sharing her many resources. Check her out at Emphasis on Excellence of Reno, NV. Click on the HOME below for Meggin.

Home

Getting Started With Social Media
Presenter: Katie Linder, Director, Ecampus Research Unit, Oregon State University

Katie had a lot of information to share re: social media. I was particularly interested in her creation of podcasts. #YGT_podcast

Studies Weekly is new to me, but I had an interesting conversation with two of their lead people re: the new literacies for kids.  Le Putney, it was very affirming for our Visually Vygotsky ideas.

Claudia Sánchez from Texas Women’s University – She is using Spanish language proverbs, poems, etc. with children so as to inform the curriculum of the Teacher Education program.  If any of you are interested, I can help connect you.  It sounds like she does not yet have anyone collecting data on the program.  It so reminds me of some of the programs at the University of Arizona throughout the years.  I first learned how to incorporate the poesía, trabalenguas, canciónes, proverbios through Beto Guerrero, a.k.a., mi maestro–one of my all-time fav teachers.

Finally, pexels.com

There are many places to obtain photos and images online–all with various levels of acknowledgement and payment.  Pexels definitely has my attention, and I have used their images in this WinkWorld.

Thank you, Pexels.

However, the following image came from my dear friend, Norma Hughes of Benson AZ.  After she read the previous WinkWorld with a mention of the Cereus night-blooming cactus, she shared photos of her plant, which looked dead last week when I was there, and then suddenly burst with gorgeous blossoms during the night.

To view the archive of previous WinkWorld, click WinkWorld News.

 

2 Comments

  • Cathe Mccoy

    Joan, thanks for all the useful information. I have already checked into Meggin McIntosh’s website and pexels.com Appreciate you sharing the information.

    • Joan Wink

      Hi Cathe, so happy to hear that some of this information is useful for you, too! Hope all is good in your world.

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