Minimizing physical stress caused by extensive computer use

As we get closer to the end of the semester, many students and faculty will be spending more and more time sitting in front of computers. To minimize the physical stress that could be caused by extensive computer use, follow these guidelines provided by University Health Services:

• Take at least a 5-minute break every 30 minutes, or at the end of each page.
• Gently move your neck, shoulders and hands through their range of motion every 10-15 minutes.
• Strike the keys lightly and hold the mouse lightly.
• Focus on a distant object periodically to relax your eyes. Blink often.
• Keep hands and wrists warm to reduce injury and increase circulation.
• Break up computer work with other work - proof-reading a hard copy or writing.

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RefWorks for building bibliographies

Rutgers has a site license for RefWorks, a web-based research management tool that allows you to:

• Import references from many electronic databases and catalogs
• Include citations in your paper
• Build a bibliography using a variety of citation styles including APA, MLA, Chicago, and Turabian
• Create a bibliography in a choice of formats

Rutgers student, faculty, and staff are eligible to use RefWorks. To get started, go to the Rutgers Refworks Account Creation page and enter your NetID and password.

NOVEMBER is: National Novel Writing Month

National Writing Month's goal is to collect 175 page (~50,000 word) novels by midnight, November 30. Click here to get started.

Invitation to present your special use of technology in academia

Every year, OIRT's Technology Showcase brings together faculty and staff from around the university to share novel uses of technology in academia.

Do you use technology to organize your research in a novel way? Do your students grasp your material better because of the way you present it using a specific technology? We'd love to hear about it and have you share your experiences with other faculty and staff at the university.

In past years, we've had faculty talk about their use of a variety of technologies including, but certainly not limited to:

- Google Earth for showing GIS data
- Second Life for language acquisition
- Sakai for coursework, student organization, and research projects
- Podcasting for complex course content that bears repeating
- Voicethread as a rich feedback mechanism for student assignment submissions

This year's Technology Showcase is on December 18th from 11am-5pm. OIRT is looking for faculty and staff to present their own special uses of technology in academia. Note that if you are selected, we'd ask you to be available at the event for at least half of the day.

Send us an e-mail at oirt@rutgers.edu if you have something to contribute to our ongoing conversation about how we can all better use technology in academia! Please include your name, department, a brief description of the technology you'd like to present, and your availability on the day of the event.