the dump

A place to keep track of info, links, and my thoughts on composition and rhetoric, teaching and learning, and life in general, while I work on my PhD at the University of South Florida.

I think my next creative non-fic piece will consider the pigeon.  It has to be about nature and I've always enjoyed the pigeon as an animal.

posted by: akjon78 at 05:25 | link | comments |

OK I Can't Help Commenting on The Passion

No I probably will not see Mel Gibson's film. I don't need to see the gore, but I was reading reviews of it, trying to get a sense of the movie and accidently stumble across the most ridiculous, close-minded thing I have read in a long time at letgodbetrue. It is an amusing if inaccurate rant that has much in common with the Tuesday/Thursday preachers that insist on hanging out around Cooper Hall, calling all the women at USF whores.  Of course the name of the site seems to question the existence of that which they claim to believe in, but why should we worry about these little hang ups.  The real question I have about this review is did the reviewer even see the film? It seems like he probably wouldn't since according to his words it would be a sin.  After reading something like this I realize what a screwed up world we live in.

posted by: akjon78 at 01:18 | link | comments |

Damnit

I was just going back through my email from NDLTD on those reviews, seeing if there were any links to the proposals that they wanted to review, when I found an attached email that had changed the due date from Feb 29th to Feb 19th.  I was planning on working on those today, but I still had to get the links from Doc Mox.  I feel like kicking the wall I'm so mad at myself for missing that date change.

On a totally different note though, I just found out that my sister and I are going to Boston not New York over Spring break. I'm a little disappointed, but I'm sure Boston will be neat as well.

 

posted by: akjon78 at 22:16 | link | comments |

Work, Work, Work

I'm having the worse time trying to figure out what I want to work on.  I've got grading to do, and I need to work on an article for Computers and Comp.  I also need to be reviewing some proposals for NDLTD, but I'd much rather be doing anything else.  I just saw that thing on motime's homepage about the poet Nick Carbo blogging here at secretasianman. Pretty cool.  Daisy and I are still trying to get our book idea underway and now I've got a kind of gag gift joke book idea from a creative non-fic piece I did.  I need to focus on one thing instead of on everything.

posted by: akjon78 at 21:42 | link | comments (1) |

Another Creative Non-fic Piece

I'm trying to work on another piece for creative non-fiction, but it isn't going well.  Basically, it's a listing essay and I've decided to try and write it like a student bestiary, but its too long at the moment.  Our word count is between 250-500 words.  Tough.  I need to get into and out of it a lot faster, but still make it sound right. 

The book Daisy and I continue plug away on, but we keep tweaking it and changing this and changing that.  I hope will have it in shape within the next couple of weeks.  I'm also trying to work out an article for Computers and Comp, but while all this is going on I have a ton of papers to grade that I just don't want to deal with.  Not that they're good or bad, I just don't want to look at them.  I hate grading.

posted by: akjon78 at 21:08 | link | comments |

New at Motime

For those of you not blogging at motime, I thought I'd let you in on the newest community building feature here, instant messaging.  I'll interested to see how this affects the motime community or if little will change.

posted by: akjon78 at 23:55 | link | comments (1) |

Thanks to Jill and Klastrup's Cataclysms

I was checking out Jill's blog and saw this link to blog articles at Kastrup's Cataclysms.  Thought it might prove useful so thanks to both of you for pointing 'em out and listing them.

posted by: akjon78 at 01:13 | link | comments (1) |

Spring Break

I'm really excited I just got my ticket to visit my sister in Baltimore for Spring Break. I can't wait. I've never been to the Eastern seaboard.

posted by: akjon78 at 01:05 | link | comments |

New Book Title Idea

So since our idea has changed I've been trying to think of a title that better reflects what we're trying to do and have come up with...dum...dum...dum...Mind the Gap: A Series of Empirical Studies Examining the Space Between Technology and the Classroom. I've been trying to think of something fun, but that had a certain amount of real world and yet metaphorical application. I've got a headache so I apologise if the writing today is a bit wacked. Anyways this book is quickly trying to take over what little life I have at the moment, but I will push forward. We have to get the call for chapters together for friday because a visiting scholar, Johndan Johnson-Eilola. Check out his blog Datacloud. His e-portfolio is pretty dull though.

posted by: akjon78 at 02:27 | link | comments (1) |

A New Article Leads to Some New Articles

I haven't been through these yet, but I want to post to this short blogging article on blogging and education, which also has some links in its works cited.

posted by: akjon78 at 21:02 | link | comments |

Changing Ideas

Ok, book idea has changed a little after talking to Dr. Mox and Terry from Comment and most importantly co-editor Daisy.  We’ve decided to focus the book around empirical research in new media in the writing classroom.  All right what’s cool about this idea?  There isn’t a lot of research put together on what is actually happening to students in these new rhetorical situations.  Are these really new situations or restatements of old ideas?  All these studies need to be strongly triangulated if qualitative.  Perhaps we could put like two studies back to back on each subject.  I still want to look at this from a networking perspective.  What happens to old blogs when student’s move on.  Should teachers be open to students continuing to blog at own spaces between semesters? Genre analysis: Are blogs more personal at differing ages?  Got to make this sound exciting.    Idea for own chapter “False Communities: Does the Blog Roll On?”  Can something that starts out as required become something that lasts and continues?  Technology used without purpose creates a false classroom.  Must decide what is the pedagogical implications of the technology.  What does it mean to require blogging?  How can any sort of community be maintained?  Follow blogs from semester to semester.  Watch a set of students randomly chosen in different classes that are blogging.  Watch to see if they maintain blogs, maintain contact with other students, etc.  What does it mean if the instructor isn’t blogging?  Does this hurt community building?  Can the community last outside the classroom?

 

Now what do we need?  A new title: Nothing Can Stop It! Technology in and out of the Classroom, A series of Empirical Studies Examining the Issues. This is probably no, but I love the idea of the cover of the book being people running from a blob like substance and then a few facing and embracing it.  Like some 50’s b-movie poster.  This is kind of appropriate to since that decade thought technology was mostly a good thing.  Connections and references that’s what we’ve got to do.

 

posted by: akjon78 at 05:07 | link | comments (6) |

Call For Papers

Computers and Composition Online, hosted by Bowling Green State
University at http://www.bgsu.edu/cconline , is calling for web texts
for our next issue, which will appear Spring 2004. Web text themes and
topics can address the status of technology and
English/literacy/literary and cultural studies, new tools and formats
for teaching and learning (blogs, course management tools, electronic
portfolios, digital video and other rich media), the politics of online
communication and representation (race, gender, class, sexuality), and
current issues and trends, including teacher training and faculty/GTA
development, electronic theses and dissertations, information literacy,
WAC/ECAC, distance learning, and the digital divide. Journal sections
include Theory into Practice, The Virtual Classroom, Professional
Development, and Print to Screen, all accessible from
http://www.bgsu.edu/cconline/home.htm

We also welcome reviews of books, software, and web sites, and encourage
submissions that address not only where we have been or where we are at,
but also where we are going in the areas of technological literacy
within academic as well as professional writing and communication
contexts. In addition to our features and reviews, C&C Online will begin
hosting a blog at http://www.candconline.org

I think I may try and do something about blogging for this. I have till April 1, 2004, which gives me a definite due date.  I guess I'd better start.

posted by: akjon78 at 01:29 | link | comments |

Back to thoughts on Visual Positioning

Visually blogs tend towards a conservative design, mainly because a blog’s primary concern is with attracting readers. Readability then is the most important design concept when constructing a blog. Typically, blogs consist of a title, gutters on either both sides of a central column or on the right or the left side of the central column. The central column is for the primary text. The gutters are storage areas for links, archiving, images, RSS feeds, blog rolls, content agreement, etc. A blog does not have to be visually attractive or visually compelling, but depending upon the visual design the reader is placed into a particular position that informs the reader about the content and tone of the blog.

I think I'll definitely use Wycoski and probably some of those sort of online design guides to demonstrate the visual nature of blogging.

posted by: akjon78 at 00:34 | link | comments (1) |

New Web Space

I'm working on building my on space own the web, not connected to Dr. Mox. I'm playing around with the homepage and am interested in comments.

annekjones.org

posted by: akjon78 at 01:39 | link | comments (1) |

It's Weird Where You Wind Up

I've been trying to read more of these research blogs I keep finding, sort of as research for the whole book idea Daisy and I are working on and found myself mentioned in an entry in Torill Mortensen's blog about an entry I posted a while back. This interconnectedness gets curiouser and curiouser. The more you find the more you find this ever growing circle of people interested in similar ideas no matter where in the world.

Oh, I finished up another draft on that proposal for NDLTD's conference on the multi-user blog Dr. Moxley and I are putting together for etdguide.org. It'll be pretty cool once things are up and going.

posted by: akjon78 at 23:49 | link | comments (2) |

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