Not That Kind of Doctor - Technology to Try

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11/05/2024 Added

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Technology to Try - Not That Kind of Doctor with Nick Husbye and Guy Trainin www.youtube.com/@tltenotthatkindofdoctor

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[00:00:00.300]All right, so on today's episodes,
[00:00:03.030]we're taking a critical question that we hear often
[00:00:07.650]to what technology can you and do you want to use
[00:00:13.050]to really figure out the supports for the tenure process?
[00:00:17.400]So how do you document the research, the teaching,
[00:00:23.550]and the service that you do
[00:00:25.230]to make sure you're making progress?
[00:00:26.790]And we have our lovely workbook that can help you.
[00:00:32.940]Yes, which if you haven't downloaded yet, go download it.
[00:00:36.420]And when you're thinking about tenure and promotion
[00:00:39.600]and you're thinking about teaching, research,
[00:00:42.240]and service,
[00:00:43.620]you want to ensure
[00:00:45.270]that you're not just finding shiny new apps.
[00:00:48.120]We love a shiny new app, though, don't we?
[00:00:49.650]Yes, we do.
[00:00:51.420]However, it's not always about the shiny new apps.
[00:00:53.640]It's about the apps
[00:00:54.630]that you're going to actually be able to use
[00:00:57.180]to be productive,
[00:00:58.620]that are going to actually help you
[00:01:00.630]and be reliable over multiple years.
[00:01:03.630]And we've seen many generations of these apps,
[00:01:06.330]and we really talked, we did it ourselves,
[00:01:09.480]and we talked to a lot of faculty members
[00:01:11.370]that are doing the same.
[00:01:12.360]We supported them and mentored them throughout the process.
[00:01:15.180]So we have that wisdom of how do you pick that,
[00:01:18.390]what do you let go of,
[00:01:20.670]and how do you make progress with that?
[00:01:22.500]And by wisdom he means mistakes.
[00:01:24.420]We've made a lot of mistakes in terms of the technology
[00:01:27.930]that we've brought into our existing workflows.
[00:01:31.680]And so whether you are committed to your paper system,
[00:01:38.460]the trees love you,
[00:01:40.020]or you're looking for a new solution,
[00:01:43.230]we're gonna have something for you in this episode
[00:01:45.360]that fits into your existing workflows.
[00:01:48.030]I'm Nick Husbye.
[00:01:48.930]I'm an associate professor
[00:01:50.040]of elementary education K-6 here at UNL.
[00:01:53.430]I'm Guy Trainin,
[00:01:54.263]and I'm a full professor of education here at UNL.
[00:01:58.446]Are you ready to get organized?
[00:01:59.850]We are. Let's go.
[00:02:01.695](upbeat music)
[00:02:10.140]Okay, back into it.
[00:02:12.960]So what digital tools do you use
[00:02:17.820]as you think about tracking your progress
[00:02:20.460]and being able to report on it easily?
[00:02:23.130]Well, so for me, I want to take a step back
[00:02:26.850]and I wanna think about what are the kinds of work
[00:02:30.300]that I'm being asked to do.
[00:02:32.340]So if we're thinking about our job as professors,
[00:02:36.000]whether we're associates or assistants,
[00:02:38.640]we're thinking through those areas of teaching, research,
[00:02:42.360]and service.
[00:02:43.860]And it's important
[00:02:45.780]that we align our tools with the works that,
[00:02:50.010]with the work that we're doing
[00:02:51.150]in each of those spaces, right?
[00:02:53.250]So research is probably the easier space to begin
[00:02:58.590]because there's some pretty clear things
[00:03:02.460]to be talking about, right?
[00:03:03.810]So I always talk to grad students a lot
[00:03:06.570]about citation management systems.
[00:03:09.690]And there's a ton out there.
[00:03:11.040]And man, have I gone through them.
[00:03:14.586](Guy laughs) (Nick exhales deeply)
[00:03:16.140]And I'm still doing it out of a list
[00:03:18.990]that I created myself.
[00:03:20.550]Oh, you know, that just made my heart die a little bit.
[00:03:22.950]Yes, I do know that.
[00:03:24.515](Nick groans)
[00:03:25.950]So here's why.
[00:03:28.920]Guy. Yes.
[00:03:30.450]And audience.
[00:03:31.283]Here's why you need a citation management system.
[00:03:34.387]And I do. And I do.
[00:03:35.700]And you do. Yeah.
[00:03:36.540]So here's why you need a citation management system.
[00:03:38.850]Because when you're writing,
[00:03:42.000]or let's step back,
[00:03:43.020]let's just move back for a second.
[00:03:44.430]When you're reading,
[00:03:45.390]because reading feeds your writing,
[00:03:47.730]you are going to have annotations, you're gonna have notes,
[00:03:50.280]you're gonna have insights,
[00:03:51.300]you're gonna have epiphanies, hopefully.
[00:03:53.880]Yeah.
[00:03:54.713]That come out of reading those materials.
[00:03:57.030]And you want a space to capture them
[00:04:00.480]so that when you go to leverage those epiphanies
[00:04:03.270]in your writing- They're available.
[00:04:05.190]They're somewhere, they're captured somewhere.
[00:04:07.770]And a citation management system,
[00:04:10.890]a citation management software,
[00:04:12.960]a good one is going to allow you to digitally annotate
[00:04:19.920]that PDF of that article or that ebook, whatever it is,
[00:04:25.380]make your notes in some fields,
[00:04:27.900]and then upload it into your citation management database.
[00:04:32.670]Now the cool thing here is
[00:04:37.050]when you then go to write that paper,
[00:04:39.330]you use that citation management software
[00:04:42.210]to structure your citations,
[00:04:44.550]and then it creates your bibliography for you as you go.
[00:04:48.390]So you're not having to deal with like the list.
[00:04:52.170]Yes.
[00:04:53.280]And so what's nice about that
[00:04:55.500]is you then have this massive database of things
[00:05:00.060]that you're continually adding to,
[00:05:02.160]and it just makes your writing process easier.
[00:05:06.570]You don't have to keep going back to your citation list.
[00:05:13.080]Or frantically searching for references online.
[00:05:16.500]Right. This is a bad idea.
[00:05:17.333]Because how many times have you,
[00:05:19.260]I know I have suffered from this.
[00:05:21.420]I go to submit a paper.
[00:05:22.770]Yeah.
[00:05:24.300]Takes me an hour to remember
[00:05:25.590]what my sign-in credentials are for that journal.
[00:05:28.170]And then I go, "Oh, I don't have a citations page."
[00:05:31.320]And then I spend four hours,
[00:05:33.510]I used to do this in grad school, actually.
[00:05:36.900]Spent way too long trying to construct my citations page.
[00:05:41.460]And so this can be a long-term time saver
[00:05:46.800]because you build it and then it's available to you
[00:05:50.910]and you keep updating it as you go.
[00:05:53.220]So when you're looking at that software,
[00:05:54.840]because this is one example of a piece software,
[00:05:57.510]there are lots of other ways to support research.
[00:06:00.600]But when you're choosing which one,
[00:06:03.450]what are the things you're thinking about?
[00:06:05.730]So I'm thinking about my own workflow.
[00:06:08.160]And your workflow might be different from my workflow.
[00:06:11.550]And you want to pick a tool that's going to work for you.
[00:06:14.340]So I want something
[00:06:15.540]that's going to host across multiple devices.
[00:06:18.150]I want to be able to access PDFs on my iPad.
[00:06:21.900]Yeah.
[00:06:22.733]I want the PDFs that are on my iPad
[00:06:25.110]to be uploaded to my computer on the web.
[00:06:29.430]So that ability to store in multiple places,
[00:06:33.150]that ability to integrate,
[00:06:34.320]becomes really, really important for me.
[00:06:36.870]I need it to...
[00:06:38.160]I use Google Docs when I write because I collaborate a lot.
[00:06:41.670]Versus like, I'm sorry, Microsoft,
[00:06:44.820]but Collaborative Word, oof.
[00:06:47.940]Not where we wanna be right now.
[00:06:49.560]Oh, not where I wanna be ever.
[00:06:51.930]Ever.
[00:06:53.850]But I use Google Drive a lot to collaborate,
[00:06:56.640]so I need something that integrates with Google Drive.
[00:06:59.460]And so right now I'm using EndNote.
[00:07:01.980]I started with EndNote as a grad student
[00:07:05.280]because I kept taking so much time
[00:07:07.350]to pull together citations.
[00:07:08.490]And Carolyn Woven was like, "Why are you doing that?"
[00:07:11.760]And I was like, "What else should I do?"
[00:07:13.020]And she was like, "EndNote."
[00:07:15.090]And so I've done EndNote, I've done Papers,
[00:07:17.860]I've done Paperpile.
[00:07:21.570]I haven't done Mendeley.
[00:07:23.100]And then now I'm back to EndNote again,
[00:07:27.000]so you can switch systems if a tool changes,
[00:07:29.940]as sometimes they do. They do.
[00:07:31.410]Or disappears. That's also a thing.
[00:07:34.530]And you can switch them.
[00:07:36.120]Normally there's gonna be a little bit of pain,
[00:07:39.030]but it's minimally painful.
[00:07:41.550]But I try to find something that works
[00:07:44.610]with the way that I write.
[00:07:46.350]I want the opposite of a Tesla.
[00:07:48.510]Like I feel like a Tesla demands I drive
[00:07:51.570]in a particular way.
[00:07:52.950]Yeah, okay. I don't want that.
[00:07:54.390]I want an app that's going to be-
[00:07:56.640]Your speed.
[00:07:57.473]Hug my work processes, right?
[00:08:01.410]The speedometer is not on a screen facing forward
[00:08:04.440]in the middle of the dashboard.
[00:08:06.660]I don't want that, right?
[00:08:08.160]So I want a citation management,
[00:08:10.080]I want a citation management software
[00:08:11.910]that's going to hug my processes,
[00:08:13.920]but I have to be aware of what my process is.
[00:08:15.900]Yes.
[00:08:16.733]So the first thing is,
[00:08:18.090]and that's really good to think as a young scholar,
[00:08:21.030]whether you're a graduate student
[00:08:23.100]or just starting your way through academia,
[00:08:25.560]this is the time to think about it
[00:08:27.300]because you don't wanna wait like I have
[00:08:29.760]and now having to backfill.
[00:08:31.086]Oh, I'm gonna revise- A huge-
[00:08:32.400]I'm gonna revise this. Yes, okay.
[00:08:34.038]The time to start is now. Is now.
[00:08:36.120]Yes.
[00:08:37.110]Now. Yes.
[00:08:38.010]It's going to be painful. At the beginning.
[00:08:40.710]At the beginning,
[00:08:41.760]and you're gonna feel like,
[00:08:42.593]"Oh, this would be faster if I did it this other way,"
[00:08:44.040]because you've done it so long.
[00:08:45.420]Yes.
[00:08:46.253]But in the long term, it is going to save you more time.
[00:08:49.200]It's going to make your life more efficient.
[00:08:51.960]And it's one of the best gifts that you can give yourself
[00:08:55.230]is the additional time.
[00:08:58.008]Yeah.
[00:08:58.841]That you will fill with not having a hobby.
[00:09:00.510]But this is the other thing to notice.
[00:09:03.360]And that is, this is where you might experience time sink.
[00:09:06.900]So time sink in the beginning is perfectly fine.
[00:09:08.940]But if the system
[00:09:10.740]keeps taking a tremendous amount of your time,
[00:09:13.440]it's probably the wrong system.
[00:09:15.180]Yes, and at some point, like, give yourself a good,
[00:09:20.250]I like to give myself two solid months
[00:09:22.350]of trying a new system regularly.
[00:09:25.129]EndNote had a really high learning curve this next time
[00:09:28.260]from when I first started using it 12 years ago.
[00:09:31.800]About two months in,
[00:09:33.120]I felt like I knew where everything was
[00:09:35.010]and how it was working,
[00:09:35.850]but I did have to invest a lot of time.
[00:09:37.800]But we're in a much better,
[00:09:39.630]we're in a much better space now.
[00:09:41.100]We've gone to couples therapy, we've worked it out.
[00:09:43.230]We understand our roles.
[00:09:45.060]Things are fine. Yes.
[00:09:47.010]So that's one, you do wanna make sure,
[00:09:50.310]we always go back to it.
[00:09:51.600]It's so basic.
[00:09:52.500]It's really sad to remind people.
[00:09:54.540]But you do have to back up your information.
[00:09:57.900]And whatever files you have,
[00:09:59.940]you don't just want to have on your device, and that's it.
[00:10:03.390]You've gotta make sure you've got the cloud backup
[00:10:05.820]and probably a hard drive backup
[00:10:08.820]as a secondary source just to make sure you're safe.
[00:10:12.480]I'd flip that.
[00:10:14.370]Always have a hard drive backup
[00:10:17.250]because what do you do?
[00:10:18.420]Like, it's fine to have it in the cloud,
[00:10:20.070]but what do you do on a clear day?
[00:10:23.445](Guy chuckles) Literally, what do you do?
[00:10:25.710]Yeah. There's no cloud.
[00:10:27.480]Yeah. There's no cloud.
[00:10:29.580]And it happens every once in a while.
[00:10:30.990]And so invest in a nice UBC solid state drive.
[00:10:37.260]Yeah.
[00:10:39.270]And backup up to that
[00:10:40.230]and have regular scheduled backups because stuff happens.
[00:10:44.580]And then have a cloud.
[00:10:45.690]Think about the cloud as your backup of your backup.
[00:10:48.270]Yes.
[00:10:49.103]And the cloud, I mean, there are two ways to do the cloud.
[00:10:51.660]And often what we have is we have the cloud
[00:10:54.390]as part of our job,
[00:10:56.880]so it belongs to the university.
[00:10:58.920]Which means that if you decide one day to pack up and go,
[00:11:02.160]as we talked about in our previous episode,
[00:11:05.400]you will be cut off from that cloud.
[00:11:07.100]Oh yeah.
[00:11:07.933]We have seen that multiple times
[00:11:09.450]with collaborators we worked with.
[00:11:11.160]They have left the university,
[00:11:12.330]and suddenly the cloud is gone,
[00:11:14.100]and- Poof.
[00:11:15.000]all of these files are somewhere, but nobody's got access.
[00:11:18.210]So having a backup drive solves that problem
[00:11:22.440]and gives you constant access without having to go,
[00:11:25.657]"Oh wait, we were in the middle of research
[00:11:28.050]and now we're disconnected.
[00:11:29.850]Help us."
[00:11:30.683]And sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't.
[00:11:32.520]This solves that problem.
[00:11:33.600]So make sure you have a backup
[00:11:35.880]and then think about what other opportunities there are.
[00:11:41.370]Because you talked a little bit about Google.
[00:11:43.860]Google has Google Scholar, and you can create a profile.
[00:11:47.730]So there are lots of opportunities to create free profiles
[00:11:51.270]that give you visibility but also keep all of your stuff.
[00:11:53.850]That's always a good idea.
[00:11:56.100]Yeah, and you wanna be thinking about,
[00:11:59.670]whenever you're considering a new tool,
[00:12:02.160]think about what bells and whistles do you absolutely need.
[00:12:08.700]Yeah.
[00:12:09.533]What are the features that you're actually going to use
[00:12:12.090]and ignore all the rest of it
[00:12:14.280]because it might be nice to have,
[00:12:16.860]but at the end of the day,
[00:12:18.120]you're going to wanna use these tools very basically.
[00:12:21.360]Also, what are the,
[00:12:24.540]how do these software pieces get updated?
[00:12:27.330]So like EndNote gives you an update for free
[00:12:30.840]and then the next one you have to pay for.
[00:12:32.460]So keeping those kinds of things in mind
[00:12:35.070]because your technology is going to continue to age.
[00:12:37.950]You will remain forever youthful,
[00:12:39.870]but your technology will age,
[00:12:41.700]and your software is going to keep up
[00:12:44.250]with the newest technology,
[00:12:45.270]not that technology that you have.
[00:12:46.530]So keep that in mind.
[00:12:48.810]So, Nick, you've moved between institutions,
[00:12:51.630]so you've seen how it plays out as you move
[00:12:55.620]and as you enter new institutions.
[00:12:57.720]What are the biggest challenges to the move?
[00:12:59.700]And especially with technology in mind.
[00:13:02.250]I think the technology in mind,
[00:13:04.320]this brings me back to the summer
[00:13:06.960]where I was between Milwaukee and Nebraska.
[00:13:10.680]And this was less of a software issue.
[00:13:14.280]This was more of a hardware issue
[00:13:15.960]because oftentimes your university will give you a laptop
[00:13:19.680]as part of your job, right?
[00:13:20.970]Your work computer that you're supposed to do work on.
[00:13:24.840]And I no longer had a work computer.
[00:13:27.900]I didn't have a computer
[00:13:30.480]because, I don't know, I was stupid.
[00:13:33.292](Guy laughs)
[00:13:34.440]I had an iPad Pro. Yeah.
[00:13:37.080]Which is not enough.
[00:13:38.130]It's great. Which is not enough.
[00:13:39.750]Not enough. It was the first-
[00:13:40.761]It's not a computer.
[00:13:41.594]It was the first generation of the iPad Pro,
[00:13:44.100]and they were like,
[00:13:44.933]"Oh yeah, this can replace your computer."
[00:13:47.070]Dear viewer, it did not replace my computer.
[00:13:50.310]It has not replaced my computer.
[00:13:52.530]It's a good minimal production device.
[00:13:54.990]But the kinds of work that we were doing at that point
[00:13:59.130]was not sustainable on an iPad Pro.
[00:14:03.090]So there's that.
[00:14:05.700]Think through,
[00:14:07.980]if you're thinking about switching institutions,
[00:14:11.130]keep in mind technology,
[00:14:13.710]and even if you're moving into a new position,
[00:14:16.830]think through what are the ways
[00:14:18.540]that you're going to use your work computer,
[00:14:20.460]knowing that, in terms of university regulations,
[00:14:24.390]they pretty much have access.
[00:14:25.710]They can ask for that computer at any time.
[00:14:27.630]So it's your computer, but it's not really your computer.
[00:14:31.020]It's not.
[00:14:31.853]And more than they can ask you for access,
[00:14:34.440]they can actually not ask you for access-
[00:14:37.410]Right. And look into it.
[00:14:39.690]Most of work computers right now have the ability
[00:14:42.750]for remote access for somebody from IT
[00:14:45.960]if they need to recover something.
[00:14:47.580]Usually, in most institutions,
[00:14:49.860]they will ask you before they do it,
[00:14:51.720]but they don't actually have to.
[00:14:53.640]Right.
[00:14:54.473]And so you always wanna be aware of that.
[00:14:56.490]And there's the notion of, like,
[00:15:00.690]what is the purpose of this device?
[00:15:03.780]I think I would not go back to having just a work computer.
[00:15:09.870]For a while there I was like,
[00:15:10.867]"I'm just gonna have a work computer
[00:15:12.270]'cause worky, worky, worky.
[00:15:14.550]And I now have a personal device that I do personal things.
[00:15:21.060]I also do some work things. Yeah.
[00:15:22.980]But the majority of my work happens on my work computer,
[00:15:27.450]and personal stuff stays to my personal computer.
[00:15:32.160]So planning for that
[00:15:33.150]because institutions are going to have different policies.
[00:15:37.860]Additionally, the software that's available
[00:15:41.010]from institution to institution-
[00:15:42.570]Is very different. is very different.
[00:15:44.490]So here I had to pay for EndNote.
[00:15:48.000]Yep.
[00:15:48.833]Milwaukee, I wouldn't have had to have paid for EndNote.
[00:15:52.260]At St. Louis, I would've had a discounted rate for EndNote.
[00:15:55.230]So being aware of what kinds of software are available,
[00:16:00.210]both for free download as well as a fraction of the price,
[00:16:05.880]is really helpful.
[00:16:07.680]And if you're moving into a new position,
[00:16:11.100]thinking about how to allocate some of those startup funds
[00:16:14.370]to build those structures if you haven't already.
[00:16:17.370]And also, when an institution gives you access
[00:16:20.880]to specific software,
[00:16:22.020]they also give you access to the support for that software.
[00:16:24.930]So it's not just that you're getting that software,
[00:16:27.660]you're getting the support.
[00:16:29.760]And so the IT department will support you with that.
[00:16:32.310]Whereas if it's something you buy on your own
[00:16:34.500]and they don't provide,
[00:16:35.520]they will also not provide the support.
[00:16:38.220]So that creates again, another impetus
[00:16:41.280]for maybe having your own device
[00:16:43.290]and definitely thinking what is my institution giving me?
[00:16:47.850]Even if I have something like EndNote,
[00:16:50.220]if they're giving me something else
[00:16:51.840]that is easily transported and I can figure out,
[00:16:54.480]maybe it's worth considering, maybe it's not.
[00:16:57.930]And if you're having multiple devices,
[00:17:00.240]keeping in mind
[00:17:01.073]that because of the back and forth that you'll have,
[00:17:05.310]am I on my personal device?
[00:17:06.555]Am I my work device?
[00:17:08.520]What are the integration points?
[00:17:10.320]And we talked a little bit about that with the cloud.
[00:17:12.508]Yeah.
[00:17:13.341]And Google Drive does that for me
[00:17:16.320]in terms of if I want to work on an article,
[00:17:21.060]it's in Google Drive,
[00:17:23.370]I can access that from my work computer.
[00:17:25.249]Yeah.
[00:17:26.082]EndNote's on my work computer,
[00:17:27.270]it's also on my personal computer.
[00:17:29.640]And they all talk to each other.
[00:17:30.960]So thinking about what's your device management kind of plan
[00:17:37.020]is helpful as you're going into it
[00:17:39.450]because, yeah, not every institution's going to be the same.
[00:17:42.870]Yeah, they're definitely not going to be the same.
[00:17:44.940]They're not gonna be the same.
[00:17:45.773]We do know that for a fact.
[00:17:47.610]And you to also make decisions.
[00:17:51.960]So, for example,
[00:17:53.040]our institutions have some analysis software
[00:17:55.740]for qualitative inquiry that they support.
[00:17:59.130]And I have tried to use it multiple times,
[00:18:01.290]and eventually I went back to something that I know,
[00:18:04.380]I trust, and I can operate effectively.
[00:18:07.110]And so I have actually made a different decision.
[00:18:10.350]So I looked repeatedly at what our institution offers
[00:18:14.550]and eventually went a different way.
[00:18:16.590]And I'm happy about this.
[00:18:17.850]But then you have to have resources
[00:18:19.740]because then you've gotta pay for it and maintain it.
[00:18:23.160]There's not gonna be that support,
[00:18:24.630]there's not gonna be that training.
[00:18:25.980]So there's a decision-making tree
[00:18:30.120]about which one do I want to use?
[00:18:32.370]Behold the consequences of your actions, right?
[00:18:35.310]Like, you can choose to engage in a software
[00:18:37.890]that's not endorsed by the institution, right?
[00:18:42.330]Like, I use Transana a lot for qualitative work.
[00:18:46.230]And I don't know if David Woods sleeps,
[00:18:50.730]but you email that man a question about that software,
[00:18:54.690]and he gets back to you like that. (fingers snap)
[00:18:56.820]Yeah. It's ridiculous.
[00:18:58.230]I don't know if, like,
[00:18:59.550]does he just live perpetually in his email?
[00:19:02.880]But what that's allowed me to do is,
[00:19:06.240]even though it's not a software that UNL supports,
[00:19:12.240]it's given me a lot of confidence in terms of, like,
[00:19:15.720]oh, I can grow with this software.
[00:19:18.570]This is another software I've been using
[00:19:20.550]since I was a little itty-bitty grad student.
[00:19:24.300]Yeah. And it's just been so nice
[00:19:28.980]to have his support throughout like 12 years of that.
[00:19:33.810]But again, I've had to make sure that that support's there
[00:19:36.870]because UNL doesn't provide it.
[00:19:38.730]And that's something you learn along the way.
[00:19:41.130]And that brings me back to the opportunity.
[00:19:43.260]If you are a grad student,
[00:19:44.760]this is the time to figure out
[00:19:46.050]some of these workflow things.
[00:19:48.420]Now is the time, Guy. Now is the time.
[00:19:50.173]Even you. Even I can do that.
[00:19:52.620]But so many of us, (laughs)
[00:19:55.890]so many of us are using some things we've learned,
[00:19:59.610]some systems we've used in graduate school.
[00:20:01.950]So you use an analysis software,
[00:20:05.130]I've tried multiple qualitative analysis software,
[00:20:08.430]and I am back to where I started with AtlasAI
[00:20:11.820]because that has always worked for me.
[00:20:13.710]It made total sense to me and it still does.
[00:20:16.680]And everything else I've tried that we have here
[00:20:19.500]just did not work as excitingly.
[00:20:21.450]And I've tried about three different packages,
[00:20:23.640]so it's not like I haven't.
[00:20:25.230]And I think this really comes back
[00:20:27.030]to you gotta constantly be auditing,
[00:20:29.640]not constantly, but like once a year audit your system,
[00:20:33.030]audit your processes.
[00:20:34.320]What is it that you do and be aware of them.
[00:20:38.850]And is there potentially
[00:20:41.490]some other software package out there
[00:20:44.220]that is going to be more helpful, more useful,
[00:20:48.150]and try it out.
[00:20:51.210]'Cause sometimes programs just don't grow with you.
[00:20:55.470]So I've used Transana ever since graduate school.
[00:20:58.560]It's grown with me. Yeah.
[00:21:00.120]We've been really good partners.
[00:21:02.580]EndNote and I,
[00:21:03.953]EndNote didn't support Google Drive when it first came out
[00:21:07.110]and I used Google Drive a lot
[00:21:08.730]and that's one of the reasons why I left it.
[00:21:10.350]And now I'm back to it
[00:21:12.690]because it supports Google Drive again.
[00:21:15.180]So there's no, like,
[00:21:18.420]you don't have to dance with the one you came with.
[00:21:21.600]Yeah.
[00:21:22.433]But makes smart decisions
[00:21:23.880]because you can fall into like a productive procrastination.
[00:21:31.080]These tools are meant to keep you productive.
[00:21:33.840]Trying out all of the new apps,
[00:21:35.580]that feels like productivity but it's not actually.
[00:21:38.040]You always wanna be thinking about,
[00:21:39.600]how does this help me get something done more efficiently?
[00:21:42.960]That's the role of tech.
[00:21:44.820]And you need to try it and you need to give it time.
[00:21:47.250]For example, right now I'm trying
[00:21:49.680]the Microsoft Project Management piece of software.
[00:21:56.790]Right now the, (laughs)
[00:21:58.530]it's not going that great,
[00:22:00.180]but I'm giving it a serious try,
[00:22:04.170]seeing is this really helping my projects?
[00:22:07.620]Because I'm managing quite a few projects right now
[00:22:10.170]and sometimes it feels unwieldy,
[00:22:12.900]so having a way to organize them
[00:22:14.850]made a lot of sense to me at the time.
[00:22:16.980]I'm working with a graduate student.
[00:22:18.450]Together, we're trying to make it work
[00:22:20.700]and at the same time, we put a timeline on it.
[00:22:23.910]We said we're trying this for two months.
[00:22:26.400]If it's actually helping us,
[00:22:28.110]and there's a sense that we are benefiting
[00:22:31.410]from the timelines and everything it organizes, great.
[00:22:36.480]How much work is it taking?
[00:22:38.100]Is it sustainable?
[00:22:39.690]Is really, really important.
[00:22:40.817]That's the question.
[00:22:42.270]That's always the question.
[00:22:43.103]Because if I'm constantly spending 45 minutes,
[00:22:46.950]an hour a week on a piece of software
[00:22:49.410]is too much for me for management.
[00:22:51.630]If I'm working, it's fine.
[00:22:53.550]But if I am spending too much time,
[00:22:55.890]going back to the one thing we want the software
[00:22:58.350]to give us back is time.
[00:23:00.210]If it's doing the opposite, it's time to let go.
[00:23:03.030]Well, and you have to think like,
[00:23:05.520]not necessarily long game.
[00:23:07.170]But if you want it to give you back time,
[00:23:10.290]it's the 20/80 rule, right? Yeah.
[00:23:13.170]Like, 20% of effort's
[00:23:14.520]going to impact 80% of the effect, right?
[00:23:18.360]And if you put in the effort
[00:23:21.150]during that concentrated period of time,
[00:23:23.940]you'll have a good sense
[00:23:25.290]of whether or not it's gonna do that.
[00:23:26.670]And what I love about what you just said
[00:23:29.820]is you have very clear metrics
[00:23:32.370]for how successful that technology is going to be
[00:23:35.700]within the work that you do.
[00:23:38.400]And oftentimes, I feel like we might take on a software
[00:23:44.730]and think, "Oh, I'm just gonna use this software,"
[00:23:47.430]but have no ideas about how to judge
[00:23:52.320]whether or not it's actually helping us.
[00:23:56.760]Whether or not it's actually, like, going to save you time.
[00:24:03.990]So I know you, you like shiny new tech,
[00:24:07.320]you like shiny new apps.
[00:24:08.153]Yes, I do like shiny new apps.
[00:24:10.170]So talk to me about what is it you do
[00:24:14.070]when someone brings you a shiny new app and says, "Try me.
[00:24:19.500]I'm gonna fix you."
[00:24:21.294](Guy laughs)
[00:24:22.560]Which is a tall order.
[00:24:24.540]So I really think about,
[00:24:26.670]okay, so first you've gotta set that time.
[00:24:28.980]There's going to be, you talked about learning curve,
[00:24:33.030]whatever it is,
[00:24:33.870]there's going to be a little bit of pain at the beginning
[00:24:36.450]or a lot depending on what it is.
[00:24:39.240]The second thing is I've started looking actually more
[00:24:43.740]at how long has this company or this outfit had been around
[00:24:48.270]because I've done,
[00:24:50.010]I've had the AI email assistant very early.
[00:24:53.970]It was lovely. I loved that.
[00:24:56.370]But they- Past tense?
[00:24:58.010]Past tense. Oh sad.
[00:25:00.060]It was one of the original ones.
[00:25:02.400]And it worked great.
[00:25:04.320]Everybody loved her. (Nick laughs)
[00:25:07.470]It was- I loved her.
[00:25:09.240]Yes, because they called it, it was Amy Ingram.
[00:25:12.060]And so people thought it was real person for a while,
[00:25:14.430]even though it said very clearly, "I am an AI."
[00:25:19.440]And then they disappeared because they ran outta money.
[00:25:21.720]And I'm like, "I loved you, but now you're gone."
[00:25:24.120]So I tend to look at- You got ghosted by an AI.
[00:25:27.510]Yes, yes, I have.
[00:25:29.670]And so looking at what is the potential
[00:25:33.000]that this will stick in that is,
[00:25:34.800]it's worth investing the time
[00:25:36.180]because they will be with me six months from now
[00:25:38.580]is actually a really important thing.
[00:25:40.710]And the second thing is,
[00:25:42.000]is it transferable is really important to me early.
[00:25:45.180]That is does it talk to other systems?
[00:25:46.950]You talked about if it doesn't work with Google Docs,
[00:25:49.800]do I really want it?
[00:25:50.910]Does it work, in the case of an AI assistant,
[00:25:53.430]if you can't work with my email system, I'm out.
[00:25:57.240]This is not working for me.
[00:25:58.410]So really finding out those.
[00:26:00.210]And then, on the benefits side,
[00:26:01.680]really be very concrete about how much time do I wanna save?
[00:26:05.700]Where should it show up?
[00:26:07.170]So if I have a project meeting
[00:26:09.030]and I'm still not consulting my project management software,
[00:26:12.420]either my meeting is wrong or the software isn't working.
[00:26:16.320]And so maybe it's time to move on.
[00:26:19.080]I really need it to be more efficient than the past.
[00:26:22.020]That's sometimes hard.
[00:26:23.190]But it's like, am I making less mistakes,
[00:26:26.820]in the case of project management,
[00:26:28.350]this is the example in front of me.
[00:26:30.450]Am I forgetting less things that need to get done?
[00:26:33.480]Is it really keeping me on my toes
[00:26:35.760]and making sure my projects actually move faster
[00:26:38.400]and more efficiently without panic moments?
[00:26:40.800]That's great.
[00:26:41.633]But if it's not doing that, am I doing anything?
[00:26:44.160]And of course, does it improve workflow?
[00:26:46.770]In my case, I measure that by reduced anxiety on projects.
[00:26:51.540]That is, I know it's a,
[00:26:53.670]it's a personal metric,
[00:26:54.900]but it is an important metric when you're-
[00:26:56.260]I mean, look, it's something that you can give-
[00:26:57.093]When you're managing.
[00:26:58.710]Am I one to five today? Yes.
[00:27:00.510]Do I know what's happening?
[00:27:01.860]Do I know who's doing it? Yes.
[00:27:03.690]Do we have a check-in? Yeah.
[00:27:05.160]Can I just go into my software
[00:27:06.930]and find out exactly where we are?
[00:27:08.430]And if I do, this is great.
[00:27:10.200]If I still have to send an email,
[00:27:12.030]is the software really working?
[00:27:13.980]And I think we've touched on this a couple of times,
[00:27:15.960]but that notion of like trying the shiny new stuff out.
[00:27:19.920]Yeah.
[00:27:20.910]Being careful around, are they gonna run outta money?
[00:27:25.590]Yes. Right?
[00:27:26.423]Or are they gonna get bought out because they're a startup?
[00:27:28.680]'Cause sometimes startups, like this was Papers for me.
[00:27:31.470]Yeah.
[00:27:32.303]Beautiful citation software,
[00:27:34.020]gorgeous interface on a Mac device, iPad, delightful.
[00:27:39.120]And then they got sold
[00:27:41.070]and changed everything about that software.
[00:27:43.200]And that's why I ended up leaving
[00:27:45.630]because it just was not, it wasn't helpful.
[00:27:49.590]So being aware of that,
[00:27:50.550]like, it can be shiny and new,
[00:27:52.710]but be prepared to pivot if it's,
[00:27:55.560]if it is something that is,
[00:27:59.280]you know, newer or startup because it could go away.
[00:28:03.180]And just to remember that the goal,
[00:28:05.490]especially with the software we're talking about,
[00:28:07.620]the goal for us is to support you
[00:28:10.950]and for each one of us to support ourselves
[00:28:13.110]throughout our academic career.
[00:28:15.120]So it is really what kind of tech will support me
[00:28:18.840]in getting to tenure, in being able to report my annual,
[00:28:23.970]my annual accomplishments without a lot of extra work.
[00:28:27.450]So how does that go into that workflow?
[00:28:31.050]Because I remember in the first few years,
[00:28:33.240]at the end of the year, I needed to do an annual review,
[00:28:35.940]and I would literally go into my,
[00:28:41.400]my calendar app,
[00:28:42.690]and even before calendar apps, into my physical calendar,
[00:28:45.540]and look at every day to say, "What did I do last year?"
[00:28:48.930]Now that's 365 days,
[00:28:51.840]and so that's way too complicated and inefficient.
[00:28:57.120]You want to find the systems that make you efficient.
[00:28:59.700]Yeah, you want to find the systems
[00:29:00.840]that make you efficient.
[00:29:01.860]And you want to keep in mind
[00:29:04.890]that those systems aren't always gonna be the newest
[00:29:07.800]or the most expensive.
[00:29:08.820]So like annual review, I have a spreadsheet.
[00:29:10.800]Yeah, that works well.
[00:29:12.210]Part of my weekly meeting with myself
[00:29:13.740]is I fill in here's my teaching this week,
[00:29:16.410]here's my service this week, here's my research this week,
[00:29:18.420]here's what I got done.
[00:29:20.070]And then when that annual review comes up,
[00:29:22.560]I pop- It's there.
[00:29:23.460]I pull that spreadsheet, run an analysis,
[00:29:27.030]and that's kind of my turn in. Yeah.
[00:29:30.450]And so we've covered a lot of ground today
[00:29:33.510]in thinking about tech for academic documentation.
[00:29:37.260]Choose sustainable systems, back things up,
[00:29:40.830]and beware of quick or shiny new fixes.
[00:29:44.700]They might not be what you really want.
[00:29:48.720]And get a citation management system.
[00:29:50.460]Yes, I will get-
[00:29:51.293]For the love of all that is good in the world.
[00:29:55.020]Please. All right.
[00:29:56.580]You've been promising me for several episodes.
[00:29:58.350]Yes. Several seasons, actually.
[00:29:59.880]I'm actually on it.
[00:30:01.890]I'm working inside Zotero,
[00:30:03.570]so we will see how that plays out.
[00:30:04.780]Okay, I'll take that. I'll take that.
[00:30:07.260]All right, so, I think, yeah.
[00:30:12.510]So I will share on our Not That Kind of Blog lots of apps
[00:30:19.650]that I think are very, very useful,
[00:30:22.320]and you'll add some of yours,
[00:30:24.240]so you will be able to see what we're using
[00:30:26.580]because we talked about a few things.
[00:30:28.020]But really it is about the principle-
[00:30:31.050]Greater sense.
[00:30:31.883]and then choosing the right tools for you.
[00:30:34.980]But things to try.
[00:30:36.150]Things to try out and have some fun with.
[00:30:38.010]And hopefully on this episode
[00:30:42.180]you've been thinking through how you use your technology.
[00:30:45.420]So may you keep your backups current
[00:30:49.710]and your tenure files organized.
[00:30:52.410]And if you haven't done that yet,
[00:30:54.210]go download our workbook on the blog.
[00:30:57.720]See you next time.
[00:30:59.580]On "Not That Kind of Doctor."
[00:31:01.331](upbeat music)

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Not That Kind of Doctor - Technology to Try

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