Canned Goods

moving day

Just announcing my move to rikhunter.com, so please update your links and feedreaders.  I've been working on a wordpress blog off and on for the last couple months as I was also learning mediawiki for the writingtechnology.net project.  Eventually, I'll shut down this TypePad blog.  The exporting of my posts, comments, and links all worked; however, my WP blog is pulling all images from here. So I'll have to break those linkages and/or copy images over first and that will take some addtional time.  Hope you like the new digs.

To explain a bit, I liked TypePad for what it is and where I was at when I set up shop here, but I've been feeling limited by the design features for $8.95/mth.  For around that, I can do what I want at dreamhost, including my WP and MediaWiki sites.  Being forced into learning mediawiki is what pushed me to move, and I'm glad it happened.

Go Vote!

NetFlix on Mac and Firefox

We watch a few netflix streaming movies a month, but it's always been a drag to have to watch it only on a PC and in IE.  Besides, K.'s laptop screen is smaller and darker than my MacBook.  So, for all you Intel Mac people, you can "opt-in" for the beta by going to the netflix blog.  You'll also have to download and install MS's Silverlight (like Flash).  I installed it for the Olympics, but it asked me to do it again, though it didn't seem to be  new version.  Oh well.  It works, and that's what matters when you won't ever add a movie to your queue but you are willing to simply hit 'play.'

Are pencils better than pixels?

Here in my neighborhood in Madison, and maybe all of Madison, we use a number 2 pencil and a scantron sheet to vote.  I'm guessing it's pretty accurate -- if they use the same machines they used on my 7th grade U.S. History exam.  Mr. Moselle wasn't pleased.  If you vote on the digital machine, you may have heard about all the vote flipping stories from 2004 onward and the recent concerns that, in four years, these manufacturers ad programmers can't get what's essentially an ATM machine to work correctly.  Touch virtual button, get $$.  Touch virtual button, get vote. Honestly, an ATM has never flipped a selection on me.  If I could find one the turned $20s into $100s, though, I sure wouldn't write about here. ;P  But seriously, when you watch the video below, does it really make sense that we're dealing with a calibration problem when voting for, in this case, a straight republican ticket gets you a vote for Ralph Nader?   That wouldn't seem to be connected to calibration.  Your finger wasn't just in another section of the screen, but it was also selecting a category with set attributes.

There are voting machines and software used in WI, but the gov. signed into law that "the source code would be placed into escrow with the elections board. It would be analyzed in the case of a recount, but not open to the public."  It's not public, but it's something.

grad student conference travel = $$$$

I know that some programs and departments are better able to support student travel to present at conferences.  For instance, as an MA student funding was pooled from the English department, Grad School, and Arts & Sciences.  What this meant was that my first 4Cs (NYC 2004) was completely cost-free.  I was very fortunate.  Things are quite a bit different at the UW, and with a recession, it may get worse.  Last year, students capped out, I believe, at around, well, it was sad.

I'm thinking about funding right now because the UW Vilas Travel Grant award apps are coming due. I was lucky enough to get one last year (and it makes you ineligible for department support).  Getting one a second time is simply possible.  It covered most of my airfare and lodging in NOLA.  However, Cs this year will be even more expensive.

I write about this because I think CCCC has started to consider what a burden this conference is for some.  We can talk about access all we want, but choosing high-priced cities doesn't make much sense to me.  Of course, I have a lot to learn about organizing a national conference, but it looks like organizers are thinking about cities that are more economical. 

Something to always keep in mind is that a trip to Cs can nearly be an entire month's income for grad students who may also struggle to make ends meet in the summer months.  This means that out of 9 months of income, a grad student may only have 8 months worth after Cs.  And we know that grad students are also presenting at more than one con a year.  I know several that are doing 3 this academic year (Watson, Cs, and probably Computers and Writing).  Try living on 7 months worth of your income.

Let's see some estimates for Cs this year (from Madison):

Airfare - $300-400
Lodging - $50-80/night w/ 2-4 students sharing a room: $400
Taxis/Shuttles - $20-40
Food: $30-40/day: $150
Total: roughly $1080

I don't want to do the math for a student traveling alone.

The solution?  4Cs is in Louisville in 2010 -- I think that was a great decision.  Maybe organizers are choosing from the cheapest of the top 50 cities by population and the cost of living index.  Sticking to cities coming in under 100 on th ecomposite index seems to be the trend.  If this is the case, thanks!!!

Where's the Rhetoric and Composition (or Computers and Writing) wiki?

For the last few years, I've been watching and waiting for a Wikipedia-like professional resource to be developed in our field by techno-wizard folk (basically, lots of people with code-literacy beyond my own).  I couldn't wait any longer.  I tried it here, first, knowing that it wasn't exactly the best way to facilitate crowdsourcing.  So Web 1.0.  Lame.

Earlier this fall, however, I needed to practice setting up Mediawiki for our Engage project, so I did it first on my new (and work in progress) site.  For C&W people, I hoping we can get a resource building that supplements, consolidates, and links resources already out there, as well as creating the new resources we need (especially for those just entering or familiarizing themselves with C&W).

If this kind of resource already exists, well, it slipped by me, and I'm willing to work over there. If not, feel free to register and help out on my site, for now.  Maybe there will be a call to starting a new wiki somewhere else which is supported both technically and financially by the field.

Visit and contribute to the computers and writing resources.

Teaching with technology, Facebook clauses, and Copyright

A couple of the issues facing teachers using web-based writing technologies (which they might not be thinking about) are student data and student IP when using third-party apps.  Who hasn't used Blogger? But who has read the click-thru agreement to see who owns the information students save on Blogger servers?  Do you have a Facebook clause telling students they shouldn't be using their real names on your publicly viewable course website or their blogs?  Raise your hand if you've ever had a student used their name for part of their Blogger blog.  And what about telling them not to post other info that might come back to bite them in the @$$ when they apply for jobs after graduation?  Have you thought about who owns the data you and your students generate on your hosted site?

These were some of the issues I discussed with one representative from DoIT and one from Legal Services yesterday morning. It's a conversation I've been wanting to have for a long time, but, heck, I'm just a TA, why has it come down to me?  In part, it's because I'm always talking to folks looking for better technological solutions for the teaching I do.  But mostly, this is the result of the Engage project I'm working on with Scot and Annette (they would have been there, too, but they had to teach during this time) which asks students to write publicly.  Yet, other folks get paid for these sorts of things, and I don't.  I've got a dissertation to write, ya know.

Anyway, the fact that many, many instructors on campuses across the U.S. are using third-party apps and hosting isn't news to anyone reading this blog or legal services on your campus.

From the legal side, they're aware of this use.  3rd-party apps are convenient, usually designed better or include design features not available thru the campus options. For me, they enable students to write in public, anonymously, and (simulate) technological and social experiences happening every day on the Web. But what are the risks, and what risks have instructors thought about? Could you be sued? Did you know that you probably are not protected/covered by the University if you are sued? 

Basically, legal isn't aware of what exactly we're doing, and they are concerned. And the purpose of this meeting was to discuss what instructors are doing and thinking and what, if any, policies and education should be established to support instructors.

A couple posibilities (feel free to sugget others).

Legal, in conjnction with DoIT:

• reads click-through agreements of popular hosts, e.g., Blogger, WetPaint wikis, and Google groups, and generates a hierarchical list of hosts that make few or no IP claims on student work
• sets policies/best practices for protecting students data and identities
• creates a way to educate instructors about using third-party apps

As far as the third bullet goes, my suggestion is to train grad students to train everyone else.  This was part of the mission of Technology Fellows in the English department.  Each year a group of grad students was selected to learn more about teaching with technology and then disseminate this knowledge throughout the department to professors and TAs.  It worked, somewhat.  But the need to educate instructors on an institutional level might call for an interdisciplinary Tech Fellows program and revitalize a victim of budget cuts when couched in legal terms.

Watson pics

I only took two cameras with me to Watson -- my Diana+ (still need to send out the film) and my phone (with its tiny 640x480 images).

The Nokia is one of those freebies, and one thing I learned was zooming in = oatmeal.  Sometime interesting oatmeal.

 

 

 

 

 

A grainy version of Bill Clinton's balls. (Not as good as Scot's)

 

 

 

Scot and . . . Darth Vader? No, it can't be.  Darth Vader is ... Elvis.

Thanks to Scot for the Colonel pic.  He's the man . . . Scot, not the Colonel.

Watson wrap up

Just some quick notes:

• loved the downtown -- architecture, effort towards artiness, the wax colonel (pic to come).
• liked to weather
• liked the digital installations
• liked the egg and bacon wrap at the union-like building
• loved the Starbucks on Saturday a.m.
• loved sitting around on Saturday and talking about the conference with folks
• loved one panel
• liked taking the afternoons off to see the sites
• don't get 8am panels before plenary sessions
• thought the conference hosts did a fine job
• glad I didn't eat here . . .

failblog.org

WatsonCon revision

So, I'll be presenting at Watson this Friday morning, but I won't be presenting on what I proposed, exactly, well, at all.  It's still about my WoWWiki dissertation research, but it won't be about activity theory or post-process pedagogy:

Writing WoWWiki: Towards a New Media, Post-Process, Teaching “About” Writing Pedagogy

Transferring writing technologies of the Web to the classroom requires an accounting of the activity systems wherein these writing processes are “played out” (Russell,1999).

Instead, it's now about the tension I've found between writers on WoWWiki with a notion of authorship and invention as a private and individual act and a notion of authorship as social and collaborative.  I'm asking what role does the dominant Western conception of authorship, as we understand it today, play in the era of Web 2.0 and more specifically -- for my purposes -- the collaborative (wiki) model of textual production?
 Looking at the program, I definitely fit better with the panel listed after mine (happening at the same time) and from the first draft of the program I hated that I was going to miss attending that session. 

I've never done the bait and switch before, and I feel guilty about it because, first, I proposed one thing and doing another, and also I know I always read the program to plan what I want to see.  So, all apologies if you get burned by me!

Ultimately, it's the way things go when you are in the middle of a research project and not trying to go into it looking for what you want and rather hoping to find interesting patterns.  And, then there's the issue of not having to submit a finished paper to get into our conferences.  A blessing, on one hand, and a potential nightmare of the other.  It's something, I think particularly common to being a grad student.

Anyway, I look forward to meeting anyone coming to my panel.