Ben Zweig · NYU Local

How Technology At NYU Has Changed Since I Was A Freshman

May 16th, 2013 by Ben Zweig

The only thing I can recall about my tour of NYU was that the admissions center had iMacs. I don’t remember anything about the tour itself or the buildings or the meal plans or the dorms, but I sure do remember seeing those shiny kiosks seducing me to check my email. The keys were so perky.

Since then they’ve been replaced with new iMacs, but I still walk by the admissions center and stare at them, remember how I once believed they stood for innovation, the cutting edge of academia. Eh, a boy can dream.

It has been an absolute pleasure geeking out for all of you; thank you for letting me tell you why your digital lives are broken and how to fix them. Thank you for leaving nasty comments about why you still think Microsoft Word is the ultimate app (it’s not) and for all the PR spam about that one thing that I missed in my roundup.

Why Online Course Evaluations Do Not Work

May 9th, 2013 by Ben Zweig

Way back before dinosaurs roamed NYU, evaluations were handled with paper: Professors would leave class 15 minutes early, leaving students to complete course evaluations on a Scantron sheet. This was a special moment toward the end of the semester, about as exciting as fire drills and guest speakers. The underacheivers would scratch a few bubbles and peace out, most would stick around as long as the majority deemed an appropriate time investment, and a few would stay until the very last moment, eager to finally tell all. In some ways, this worked well.

One day, somebody realized that the University could eliminate tons and tons of paper simply by collecting results through a website (Actually, through websites, since each school uses a different one). In theory, this sounds great; why not save time, money and resources by taking advantage of technology?

Because it doesn’t work, that’s why.

Wreak Havoc In The Classroom By Remote Controlling Everything

May 1st, 2013 by Ben Zweig

It’s May, month of flowers and days spent gazing out the dirty windows of Silver, waiting for summer and/or falling debris. Don’t let yourself get distracted when there’s a gold mine of fun right in the classroom. Introduce a little anarchy and you can make the last few weeks of class a little more interesting, just like what we did in the computer lab.

These are our favorite ways to disrupt the peaceful learning environment. You shouldn’t do them, but you should.

@nyuniversity NYU Twitter

NYU’s New Official Twitter Is Alive And Well, But You Probably Didn’t Know That

April 26th, 2013 by Ben Zweig

In the fall, we criticized NYU for lagging behind on social media platforms (actually, we’ve been doing this for years). Despite Twitter’s explosive popularity as a marketing and communication platform for businesses, organizations and everything else that matters, NYU had not finalized a social media strategy until recently. Or at least not one that made sense of Twitter. The end of April will mark the one month anniversary of active tweeting from the University’s official handle @nyuuniversity, which has sat in dormancy since April 2009. Four years later, @nyuniversity peekabooed:

Cheer On NYU Visionaries At TEDxNYU’s 2013 Conference

April 25th, 2013 by Ben Zweig

Surely, by now, you have seen one of those 20-minute TED talks in class or (secretly) stayed home on a Saturday night to learn from Ken Jennings about Watson or this amazing lady who will change the way you sit and stand forever. These are the models for perfect lectures — equally captivating, interactive and full of fresh, innovative ideas for the curious soul.

On Saturday, May 4, NYU’s student-run TED organization will host their second annual TEDxNYU conference, giving students, faculty and University alumni a chance to come together and share all of the ways they’re more productive and passionate than you. Unlike the global TED events, this is all about our community — that is, the people you brush shoulders with everyday who are building the next big whatever.

To get a better sense of what you’ll see and hear, check out these recordings from the first conference.

The Absolute Best Kept Secret Of Productivity Revealed

April 16th, 2013 by Ben Zweig

NYU Local has covered plenty of productivity tools in the past, but we’ve been saving this one for the perfect moment. Since the author is finally nearing graduation, the opportunity to divulge all without risking four years of productive equality is finally here. Man, it feels good.

Our secret is text expansion, and once you perfect it your life will change forever. You’ll want to keep it a secret, afraid that you’ll lose your advantage in the job market, school, at the DJ booth, in the bedroom, at the zoo, etc. We speak in hyperbole all the time here at NYU Local, but please do not dismiss this one; we are serious as Black.

There are tons of programs and they all work similarly (and well). On Mac, aText and TypeIt4Me are bargains at $5; On Windows, try PhraseExpress. Whichever you chose, the process and features are one the same: Read more…

Startup Week Technology Technology Is So Awesome

At tech@NYU’s DemoDays, Innovation Shines, Confuses J. Sex

April 11th, 2013 by Ben Zweig

NYU’s Paulson Auditorium was packed Wednesday evening for tech@NYU’s DemoDays, Startup Week’s show-and-tell extravaganza for students at NYU and other In And Of The City universities. Presenting were the enlightened entrepeneurs of tomorrow, not to be overshadowed by guest speaker John Sexton, whose live dialogue about the state of entrepeneurship at NYU with angel investor David Tisch was so heated and eye-raising that we didn’t even have time to capture any GIFs of it.

NYU Startup Week Is Here, And It’s All About The Big Apple

April 8th, 2013 by Ben Zweig

Tech@NYU’s ever-popular Startup Week (#NYUSW) is back with an incredible lineup of speakers and activities for the curious entrepeneur. This year’s theme embraces the rich world of tech right here in NYC, highlighting entrepeneurs, investors and fellow students from the Big Apple. The event coincides nicely with last week’s announcement from junior investing firm Dorm Room Fund, which just onboarded several NYU stuents to invest in their peers’ projects. (Hint: Some of them will be at #NYUSW’s events. Best be networking.)

Here are some of the major events. Learn more at tech@NYU’s website.

Presentation Intervention Part Two: Don’t Forget About Mobile

April 5th, 2013 by Ben Zweig

In part one of Presentation Intervention, we covered several desktop alternatives to PowerPoint. Now, we’re turning to that other major computing platform: mobile. Your iPad or iPhone can make for a great editing tool, portable computer and remote control.

To use any of these iPad apps to present via projector, you’ll need a VGA, DVI or HDMI adapter for your iPad/iPad mini, depending on how dated the tech in your classroom is. If your class has an Apple TV — which it doesn’t —you can use AirPlay to project. If you’re presenting in a small setting, you can just use the iPad itself or one of those cute mini projectors. Here are our top picks:

Haiku Deck is an easy to use, free presentation app with some nice bells and whistles. Using the app is super simple — you don’t even need to find your own photos, since the app has a built in stock photo search. Simply add your stylized text, add some animations, and present. You can control the slide transitions using finger flicks. Read more…