Thomson Workshop
Whew…the final thing to catch up with on reporting out from traveling in Fall 2006. Thomson-Wadsworth, the textbook company I have signed a contract with to write a researcher for FYC, asked my co-author and I to present at a workshop they hosted in Las Vegas (some pics). The “Keeping up with the Jetsons” presentation basically introduced the folks to various Web2.0 technologies and discussed how they might be used in both their own and their students’ lives. Isn’t it cool to see writing teachers writing... This trip, in collaboration …
...Continued
| February 01 2007 | CommentsPosted in
I accidently got myself ellected to the executive board
So this past weekend, 1/26-28/07, I flew down to Corpus Christi to meet with the newly elected board members of the Science Fiction Research Association (SFRA). And I’ll be honest, I’m still asking myself how the hell I got myself elected to the executive board, as secretary non-the-less? Yeah…I worked hardest this weekend in the sense I was tip-tapping at mini-me the entire time we met. However, I’m really excited about what we discussed, some new plans we’ve made, and the line up of conferences for the next couple years: …
...Continued | February 01 2007 | CommentsPosted in SFRA
NMC 2006 Regional—Trinity University, San Antonio TX
I have to admit, as much as I love the New Media Consortium (nmc), I was a little frustrated with the 2006 regional conference. One of their tracks was on the future of scholarship. As a two year college faculty member, I find that various new media make scholarly activities more doable with a high teaching load. I am especially excited by the ways that blogs and internet journals might change how we think about and publish our research. In my mind, it can become more process oriented. Instead …
...Continued | January 29 2007 | CommentsPosted in nmc
TYCA-West 2007: only an overview
So, I’m trying to get caught up with some reporting out on conferences from last semester. Blogging about them at least allows me to reflect some and gives me a space to go back to as a reminder. So…the things that stick out from the 2006 conference of the Two-Year College Association (TYCA) branch of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) West region include: I was very excited to learn that our colleagues at the Community College of Southern Nevada also revised their …
...Continued | January 26 2007 | CommentsPosted in TYCA-West
Blogging about Conferences
When I got approved for funding to attend the NMC conference (thanks Alan for leaving a little money hanging around when you left!), I also agreed to somehow document my experiences as a way to give back to the institution (the Maricopa Community College District) in this instance. When attending the online 2006 Technology, Colleges, and Community conference I found a file by the Learning Times folks about how to blog about your attendance at a conference. Whereas I didn’t bring a digital camera or audio recorder (as per their suggestion), …
...Continued | June 10 2006 | CommentsPosted in nmc
It seems you are only as good as your metadata
Isn’t this a great line? Someone in the audience at the OKI session I went to made this statement. What I love about this is how it related to theories of learning. If we believe that people learn by making connections to other stuff in their experiences, then we are truly only as good as are ability to make, and connect to, our own metadata. In other words, this statement supports my recent revisioning of my eng102 (second semester first year composition) course that has a lot of meta-reflective assignments about …
...Continued | June 10 2006 | CommentsPosted in nmc
Bare Bones
Tangibles I Gained from the NMC conferenceInteractive Posters—This one woman who was talking about student access to planning, designing, and printing large posters for course projects had made her poster interactive by building handouts into the poster itself. I love that idea! Programs/software/tech tools to try out: VUE—visual understanding environment (mind mapping): http://vue.tccs.tufts.edu/ MediaBASE—multimodal discourse tool: http://pages.emerson.edu/faculty/E/Eric_Gordon/html/mediabase.html) XMAS (Cross-Media Annotation System): http://icampus.mit.edu/projects/xmas.shtml iPod as audio recorder play with wikis more (playing back the various versions of a document’s construction) TeamSpot: http://tidebreak.com/prodteamspot.shtml Online Syllabus Generator: http://www.clt.odu.edu/sgen/sg_help.php Pachyderm …
...Continued | June 10 2006 | CommentsPosted in nmc
Plug and Play as Interface
—on some level, this has nothing to do w/NMC Brilliant technology folks have come up with a method to interface (OKI, OSID, and Pachyderm?? Still not quite sure…http://www.okiproject.org/) different repositories, with different coding schemes, to allow faculty and students to access a variety of material when searching. What I find fascinating about this discussion (of what I can follow) is that the reason they can interface with the different repositories and their different content through a plug and play method (that is the metaphor for how the interfacing technology works). …
...Continued | June 10 2006 | CommentsPosted in nmc
Teaching w/Tech Certificates
The first session I attended conference was about the Houston Community College system’s construction of a Teaching with Technology Certificate program (http://www.hccs.edu/system/InsDev/IT/ICRC/technology/certification.htm). Cool Stuff! They have a two tiered program (with a portfolio requirement in the second tier) that has faculty learning both technologies and pedagogy for teaching with technology. Now, I’ll admit, I think they had a little more “how does this technology work” classes instead of a more focus on pedagogy. However, I also know that many of my colleagues demand the “how do I do this?” element …
...Continued | June 10 2006 | CommentsPosted in nmc
Social Play…kissing hands and shaking babies
One of my “gifts” is my social nature! I have no problem walking into a room without knowing anyone and walking out with numerous new friends and colleagues. Although I did have a pile of colleagues who were attending this conference, it was also smashing to meet new people. I loved that I got a pile of business cards of people who wanted me to send information, or that I’m requesting information from them. I guess this posting is just to say that although my institution “gets” the information that I …
...Continued | June 10 2006 | CommentsPosted in nmc