Blog Juice for Educational Technology

I just watched Voices from the New American Schoolhouse trailer at YouTube after hearing about it at Boing Boing. The clip concerns a radial experiment in education taking place in Fairhaven. It’s a school where kids (of all ages) make the rules and decide what they want to learn and when.

Of course, I’ve heard about projects like this before, and we can find parallels in the history of universities (such as those of Bologna). Somehow, though, I’m skeptical. If I were 12 and allowed to “make my own lesson plan,” it would consist entirely of videogames and the occasional SF flick.

The Chronicle of Higher Education actually has a good column on fair use entitled Digital Dissertation Dustup that looks at a dissertation which heavily uses traditionally copyrighted images and film clips as well as hypertext. I’ve cross-posted a longer entry on this at my blog, Techsophist. The situation in short was that Virginia Kuhn of University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee’s dissertation was in multimedia form, with generous use of clips and snips of different media, sometimes enbedded in other clips:

Although Ms. Kuhn lists detailed citations for all multimedia works in her thesis, she refused to ask permission to include them, because she insists that she should be able to cite them in the same way that print sources have long been cited. She says: “If you ask for permission, you’re screwed because you imply that you legally need it.”

Yes. Unfortunately there were some at the university that held up her dissertation’s approval fearing lawsuits from copyright holders. Later in the column (too much later) legal experts on copyright point out that what she did was clearly fair use and if challenged she would easily win. I concur with Kuhn’s stance and want to add that if we don’t avail ourselves of the fair use rights we have in academia, fair use will no longer be common use and research of any kind will become even more difficult and expensive than it already is.

Okay, I made up the part about illegal aliens. But, here’s a report that claims “Wal-mart lobbyists have successfully waged a war against a fair viewpoint on Wikipedia’s Wal-mart page.” Apparently, hundreds of anonymous users are taking it upon themselves to keep the Wal-Mart Wikipedia page free from those leftist wackos who try to smear Wal-Mart’s plutonium image of dedicated public service. (What are they thinking?) Anyway, it’s a really interesting dilemma here that I think cleary demarcates the point where it’s difficult (if not impossible) for Wikipedia to maintain a neutral point of view. My prediction is that in a few years (or months?) all pages with a strong corporate interest will suffer the “Propagandistic Wal-Mart Wiki Mis-Editing Syndrome,” (or “I buy everything I need from gas stations and garage sales” for short).

Well, looks like everyone’s second favorite social software is opening its pages to people who, like aren’t in school anymore. Seems like the Facebook crew is getting restless and looking to expand beyond the tower. Just think–pretty soon facebook junkies could get their fix in their cubicle, reliving those glory days of facebooking in the computer classroom (like OMG, why can’t that stupid prof buzz off??). And this will no doubt spur productivity. Oops–sorry, I’m shaky. Been ten minutes since I last facebooked. If you want your name written in the facebook of life, you gotta stay active and try to get random people to be friends with you and stuff.

The Georgia Tech Library is running the following notice

Because of recent problems with systematic downloading of IEEE and ASCE journal articles that resulted in the suspension of our access, the Library has implemented downloading limits. We will continue to monitor this situation. Please note that downloading entire collections of data or entire issues of a journal or conference is a violation of copyright law and a violation of Georgia Tech’s licenses with publishers.

Yet another reason why we need open content. Subscription prices are rising at a rapid pace. Every university I’ve been at has sent out “surveys” to find out which journals we “really” need because costs are outstripping budgets. Now we get “downloading limits” with no specifics about those limits. What if I’m interested in an entire special issue? Do these “downloading limits” mean I can only see one article per day? Per week? Per month? Soon to come, printing limits, time limits on how long one can read an article–already in use via NetLibrary, and perhaps even citation limits. Digital collections are great, but not when they come with high prices and restrictions. It appears the Georgia Tech Library is only borrowing the journals.

I’m sure that everyone has heard about Apple’s new BootCamp dual-boot system for Intel-based Macs by now. The reason I’ve been trying to learn more about it is that I’m naturally skeptical of the miracles I’ve been hearing about this product. I’ve been surfing for awhile trying to get the “lowdown” on Boot Camp, but all I can seem to find are pro-Mac reviews that seem more concerned about the benefits Boot Camp poses to formerly restricted Mac machines. Yeah, I’m sure Boot Camp is great if you’ve been restricted to Mac software and, suddenly, you can play Doom 3 and Quake IV on your iMac. What I’m trying to figure out, though, is whether it’s better to have a dedicated PC if you intend to run Windows software. I understand the dual-boot system, but I’m not so sure about the hardware question. I’ve heard a few reports that some Apple peripherals won’t work in Windows even with Boot Camp, for instance–but what about the other way round?

Links to official and unofficial information for the Lubbock conference are now available in a browser near you: http://computersandwriting2006.wordpress.com

The University of Texas Computer Writing and Research Lab (CWRL) has recently launched a new blog called Blogging Pedagogy.  We describe the mission of our blog as follows:

This is a blog about pedagogy and English studies. It is a space to share stories, successes, and failures. The hope is that a blog format will connect assignments with specific teaching styles and philosophies.

While our focus is on English studies, we also welcome more broad discussions about pedagogy in other fields.  In the future, we hope to add a weekly installment "Podcasting Pedagogy" in which we’ll talk to those throughout the field(s) of English studies about pedagogy. 

The deadline for the CFP below has been extended till June 15, 2006. Please e-mail the editors if you have any questions. Thank you.

Introduction to the Subject Area

Online communication technologies (OCTs) are continually changing how we think about both the workplace and business interactions. More and more employees perform their job duties outside of traditional workplaces. The ability to work online offers more flexibility and responsiveness, both of which are essential for business success in the new millennium. OCTs can also enhance knowledge management (KM) by facilitating information sharing across an organization. Simultaneously, managers, workers, and educators who manage and work online or train others face new challenges and problems. These challenges include issues of corporate and employee time management, technology training, effective online communication among employees and with clients, and others.

Anyone think a video game might be a small contributing factor here given what the mother said (in the title of my post)? Modesto Eight-Year-Old Steals Teacher’s Minivan:

An 8-year-old boy swiped his teacher’s car keys and took her minivan for a joyride, cruising safely home and into the record books as the city’s youngest auto thief, police said.

Since no one was hurt, it’s kind of funny. But scary since I have 6 1/2 year old (who, by the way, is not playing Grand Theft Auto yet, but he does like Unreal Tournament 2004).

And yes, I dugg this.

Please excuse any cross-postings, but please help me disseminate this as widely as possible!

May 3, 2006, is the deadline to be included in the printed GRN program and to submit your application for the 2006 CW/GRN Travel Grant Awards!

Remember, even if you checked the “GRN” box on the C&W Registration, you still need to follow the directions below to submit your abstract.

It’s not too late to be a part of this exciting event! We still need participants and discussion leaders! SIGN UP NOW!

The Graduate Research Network will take place on May 25, 2006, at the Computers and Writing Conference, hosted by Texas Tech University. We welcome anyone (graduate students or others) who wants an opportunity to talk about ideas, projects in gestation or in progress, or any stage in between. Attend the full day workshop, or attend the morning or afternoon session.

On April 26, I’ll be attending a meeting at the Institute for the Future of the Book devoted to discussing the state of digital textbooks in our field. I anticipate that at least 50% of the time I’m speaking, I’ll be promoting the fantastic work that Matt Barton is doing, a free Rhetoric and Composition Wikibook. I think it’s also important to discuss projects that didn’t make it (and why), like Commontext (can anyone think of others?). Oh, and I’m going to talk more about online anthologies/course packs that draw upon all the great, freely available, sometimes Creative Commons-licensed content on the web.

If you’d like to participate in the meeting from afar, they’ve set up a blog and, I’m sure, would value your comments.

Johndan points out that Brent Simmons lessons on writing feature requests and bug reports are useful, "fairly generalizable" rhetorical strategies.

One additional observation I’d like to make concerns feature requests, support requests, and bug reports for open source software. In my experience with offering support on drupal.org, so often people get the writer/reader part of the rhetorical triangle wrong when posting to open source project communities. They frequently assume the consumer position in a client/customer dynamic in their posts, often demanding assistance and venting their lack of customer satisfaction frustration at the community.

Undoubtedly, it’s a misunderstanding about how open source communities work–that and the fact that such people are drawing on their consumer experience, the most relevant rhetorical situation they have. Open source projects function as communities of collaborators. Everyone who participates is a volunteer working to satisfy their particular interests or needs, and sometimes this involves helping others. But there is never a guarantee that help will be forthcoming. It’s one of the tradeoffs of getting software for free.

So for anyone seeking support from an open source community, keep in mind that you are typically dealing with a non-profit style organization of volunteers who are giving away free product and services, not a company who owes you a guarantee. Sometimes the service is available; sometimes not. If it’s that not the level of service which you need, consider hiring an open source consultant from the project.