Arianna Huffington, right, has some mobile fun with a Columbia College Chicago student following her student-only conversation with us Wednesday, prior to her official speech. Huffington is the proprietor of Huffington Post, one of the biggest media brands on the Internet. (The photo’s by Columbia’s PR staff, but if they sue a student for the use of it, I’ll have something great to blog about)

Spring term finally started here at Columbia, and I’m back in the grind. When I have a lot of stuff to do, things mysteriously get done. I don’t know how it happens.

Two recent publishable items of mine: 1. I liveblogged Arianna Huffington’s conversation and Q&A with students Wednesday. It appeared on my Twitter feed, twitter.com/greenletters. (A transcript of it appears after the jump.) 2. I wrote tech commentaries on the iPad Thursday evening for two dailies in Ohio and The Columbia Chronicle.

Check the Chronicle’s Arts and Culture section to read my student-centric piece starting Monday morning. I’ll post a text version (and maybe PDFs) of what appeared in the dailies as soon as I can. I hear they were published Saturday.

Liveblog of Arianna’s talk:

Hope y’all don’t get annoyed; I’m liveblogging Ariana Huffington’s speech at Columbia College Chicago tonight. Cred: brandonsmith.com/about 6:19 PM Jan 27th from web

I had signed up to go on my own, then dropped into this mobile journalism class. The prof writes for huffpo. #huffccc is the hashtag. 6:22 PM Jan 27th from web

Everyone in the class is staring down at their phones. “i’d rather do that than interact w/ other humans” -another student #huffccc 6:41 PM Jan 27th from txt

Moderating is Lynn Sweet, Sun-Times DC bureau chief. Either her love for Columbia or our execs’ clout got her here on SOTU night. #huffccc 7:04 PM Jan 27th from txt

Ari Huff repudiated mobile devices and always-connected mentality. Oops. #huffccc 7:06 PM Jan 27th from txt

Ari- Private enterprise is the best system, but it only works when people care for eachother. #huffccc 7:10 PM Jan 27th from txt

Sweet casually dismissed someone’s question in the q and a. Ari tried to answer it after. Wonder what this does to crowd’s bravery. #huffccc 7:12 PM Jan 27th from txt

Ari gave us students her e-mail and an open invite to submit to huffpost. Sweeet! #huffccc 7:14 PM Jan 27th from txt

What’s going on with the american right? Ari says it’s summed up by jd wentworth trying to paint john mccain as too moderate. #huffccc 7:18 PM Jan 27th from txt

Five minutes, ari: talk to us about the ipad, howard zinn AND the future of capitalism. #huffccc 7:29 PM Jan 27th from txt

Ari: why would the times announce the pay wall a year in advance? That’s forever online. It doesn’t show confidence. #huffccc 7:36 PM Jan 27th from txt

She implied huffpost won’t ever charge. #huffccc 7:36 PM Jan 27th from txt

2nd try. Ari: Wall Street’s not chivalrous. (Adding value to society as well as individuals.) iPad probably does that. #huffccc 7:46 PM Jan 27th from web

Thanks for enduring my liveblog of Ariana Huffington’s talk to students of Columbia College Chicago. Adults next; I have laundry to do. 7:52 PM Jan 27th from web