Showing how the different agencies are responsible for reviewing the speech and checking the facts was also included, and I wish there were more details about that. Of course, President Obama makes a few appearances, clearly directing the whole process and providing feedback to those working late into the night. We might include this video in our 2012 update of our State of the Union assignment (here’s the current one), but with all the writing and rewriting featured, it seems like it could be great for students learning about the writing process, too.

Each morning on my way to work I listen to NPR. It seems most days, there is at least one news story about oil, sanctions, and Iran. Yesterday, I stumbled across this great data set from The Guardian‘s Datablog that breaks down the whos, whats, and wheres of Iran’s oil exports. I found it very helpful and even discovered that Canada has the third largest proven oil reserve in the world. (Did you know that?) I also love bits like this from The Guardian‘s Datablog because you can download the data sets. So, whether you’re a stats lover or a student trying to understand all the fuss over Iran’s oil, check it out!

What do you think? Are you teaching more with activities? Does it work?

It’s quite a challenging quiz, and we think it will make a great assignment this fall to get students focused on the issues rather than the hype.  What do you think? After taking the quiz, did it match you with your favorite candidate? What other good quizzes have you seen?

A few weeks ago at SPSA in New Orleans, I heard about a really great website, the Online Portal of Social Science Education in Methodology or OPOSSEM. At their workshop, site contributors Scott Huffmon, Professor at Winthrop University, and  Christopher Lawrence, Visiting Assistant Professor at Virginia Tech, provided a demo of the site and explained that it was developed to enable the sharing of resources for teaching research methods classes (primarily statistics). The site is hosted by McMaster University Libraries and supported by an NSF grant with co-PI’s Shane Nordyke, Jan Box-Steffensmeier, Michelle Dion, Bill Jacoby, and Phil Schrodt.

On the site, data-loving professors have posted syllabi, data sets, assignment ideas, and lecture notes. There is also an open-source, wiki-based textbook in the works that looks like it can easily serve as the primary text for an introductory methods course. The resources are freely available for everyone through a Creative Commons license. However, you must become an approved member to contribute content to the site or rate resources. Check it out!

Mary Jane and Zara will be tweeting from the panels and finding great stuff to feature in future blog posts, while Maureen will be at the Soomo Publishing booth getting courses set up and providing demos. For those of you attending the conference, we have set up a handy reference page about TLC and the D.C. area here. And make sure to stop by the booth and say hi!

Once logged in, professors can click on the Notebook link in the top-right corner and then see all the students who have signed up for their class. If you don’t see their name, then they have not registered and it might not be a bad idea to shoot them an email, remind them in class, or direct them to email us at support@soomopublishing for help.

Once inside the Notebook, professors can also hover over a check mark (short answer) or numerical value (multiple choice) to see the time of submission.

 You can also click into a student’s assignment and click “add comment / grade.” Here, professors can offer feedback to students or tips on how they might improve their work on Soomo assignments.

If you have any questions about using the Notebook, feel free to email us at poliscidesk@soomopublishing.com.

For those of you who missed last night’s State of the Union address, here’s an interesting “enhanced” version from whitehouse.gov. It features a split screen that displays President Obama on the left side and additional information graphics on the right side.