My Most Recent Reads - July 2016

July appeared to be a decent month for reading with twenty-one books under my belt.  Not bad considered I've been reading and writing so much to wrap up my course work.  There were a lot of great books to talk about but unfortunately, many of those I am reviewing so I may have to come back to them.  Regardless, there are definitely a few others that are worth talking about this month.


Interactive Open Educational Resources: A Guide to Finding, Choosing, and Using What's Out There to Transform College Teaching by John Shank

Overall, this book is a good introduction into the world of open educational resources and their implementation. it focuses on interactive open educational resources, which are free materials the require a bit more engagement from students.  It's  definitely a book geared towards instructors or instructional designers that have yet to really engage with OER as there are many sections that those familiar with OER will likely skim over.  But where it's most useful is the guidelines, instructions, implementation and evaluation considerations it walks readers through to actually using iOER.  It also has an abundance of resources that the readers will benefit from.  It's definitely for the neophyte but even the seasoned OER person will find some good uses by looking through it.


The Smarter Screen: Surprising Ways to Influence and Improve Online Behavior by Shlomo Benartzi


Benartzi's insights about usage and experience in the online world and what it means for how and why we interact (or don't interact) is quite insightful.  He emphasizes the different decisions that designers make in constructing websites and apps that could enhance our user experience.  Sometimes, they are as simple as where to place action buttons, other times, they emphasize how to reduce confusion and elicit clearer understanding by visitors.  In total, the book calls upon a variety of research of the last two decades to help us shape a virtual landscape that helps us rather than hinders us.  As an educator, I found there's much within this book to explore and make me think differently about online courses or even any kind of online content that I use or develop for students or faculty.  


Blackballed: The Black and White Politics of Race on America's Campuses by Lawrence Ross


As I continued my exploration into the depths of higher education, this book will be an important piece.  Ross delves deep into the racial politics on campus at a time when many different campuses are coming up against a generation of students who are calling out institutional racism with the resources to capture them and generate national conversations.  Ross captures some of the complicated histories that many institutions and college campuses must grapple with and negotiate as more diverse populations arrive on campuses and refuse to be ignored or devalued.  One of his most interesting discussions is around campus fraternities and the ways in which they directly and indirectly instill silence and isolation for African American students.  It's a timely book that can help campus leaders consider how to improve their campuses and become more welcoming to populations that have historically been outright denied or exiled on campus.


Monthly reads for 2016 (and you can always look at all of my books that I've read on GoodReads)


BOOKS

  • Interactive Open Educational Resources: A Guide to Finding, Choosing, and Using What's Out There to Transform College Teaching by John Shank

AUDIOBOOKS

  • Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom by Lisa Delpit
  • Heroes of the Frontier by Dave Eggers 
  • Space at the Table: Conversations Between an Evangelical Theologian and His Gay Son by Brad & Drew Harper
  • The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction by Neil Gaiman
  • Highly Illogical Behavior by John Corey Whaley
  • Citizen Kane: A Filmmaker's Journey by Harlan Lebo
  • The Smarter Screen: Surprising Ways to Influence and Improve Online Behavior by Shlomo Benartzi
  • Little Rice: Smartphones, Xiaomi, and The Chinese Dream by Clay Shirky
  • The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yōko Ogawa
  • White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg
  • Blackballed: The Black and White Politics of Race on America's Campuses by Lawrence Ross

GRAPHIC NOVELS

  • Snowden by Ted Rall
  • Nightmare Escape (Dream Jumper, Book 1) by Greg Grunberg
  • Fieldhouse by Scott Novosel
  • Star Wars: Kanan, Vol. 2: First Blood by GReg Weisman
  • Star Wars: Obi-Wan and Anakin by Charles Soule
  • We Stand On Guard by Brian K. Vaughan
  • Outcast, Volume 3: This Little Light by Robert Kirkman
  • Monster Junkies (The Monsterjunkies #1) by Erik Daniel Shein 
  • Malice in Ovenland: Vol. 1 by Micheline Hess


What about you reader?  What book recommendations do you have for me?

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