Jim's Blogs

The Hope of "Collaboration by Difference"

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 07:13:24 -0800

I have had Cathy Davidson's "Collaboration by Difference" blog post bookmarked for a few days now because it offered me so much to think about.

Accidents, Collisions, and Crashes

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 10:54:47 -0800

Reading Greg Ulmer's recent ruminations on the Internet Accident, I was reminded of Volkswagen's extremely disturbing car accident commercials. Ulmer's discussion of the accident draws on Paul Virilio's work:

Mapping Home

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 10:17:15 -0700

The CWRL, the Lab I work and teach in, is collecting new media assignments from instructors in an effort to share all the innovative stuff happening in our classrooms. I thought I'd share my assignment: "Mapping Home." It uses Google Maps (a tool that is easy to access and easy to use) to get students thinking about borders, landmarks, and cartography.

Harlot: A revealing look at the arts of persuasion

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 07:26:30 -0700

A new e-journal/magazine has popped up on a couple of listservs, as I thought some HASTAC-ers would be interesting. It's called Harlot. Here's a description:

"Harlot is a digital magazine and web forum dedica

Down with Nuance? Dealing with Speed

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 16:55:24 -0700

Last week, on a different blog, I mused about how teachers and critics can/should deal with speed. By speed, I mean this: given a cultural moment where texts move instantaneously, how are we to deal with nuance and recontextualization

Rivers Cuomo and Distributed Composition

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 14:41:09 -0700

Previously, on one of my other blogs, I wrote about Rivers Cuomo's collaborative song writing project, and I thought HASTAC scholars would be interested in how this project taps into the collaborative ethic of the Web.

Anthologics and Inventing Electracy

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 15:48:08 -0700

Following up on Cathy's course description, I thought I'd post information about the courses I'm teaching this semester and next.

A new way to comment on Microsoft Word Documents

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:51:43 -0700

Thanks to a tip from someone over at the Blogora, I've started testing out a new tool called Annotate (check out their website for a 30 day trial). Annotate is an add-in for Microsoft Word 2007 (a version for Word 2003 is forthcoming) that gives you many more options for commenting on student work. There are a lot of stock comments for things like comma splices or transitions.

Pencil - Animation Made easy

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 15:06:45 -0700

Via Earth Wide Moth, here's a neat, open-source animation tool called Pencil. For those teaching new media, this tool might provide an interesting way to provide students with another mode in which to write.

Citing Wikipedia

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 08:09:59 -0800

Every once in a while, I'll read a newspaper article that says "According to Wikipedia..." I'm always struck by the ridiculousness of this. No one should be citing Wikipedia. People (students, journalists, anyone) should be citing the sources that Wikipedia provides as footnotes. Well, the American Journalism Review has a piece asking editors' their feelings about citing Wikipedia, and I think it could be a great starting point for teachers and students talking about research and citation. Here's an excerpt from the article:

Voicethread

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 10:16:08 -0800

Voicethread (thanks to Earth Wide Moth for the link) is an unbelievable way to annotate images with text and sound. This would be a very cool assignment. Check out this example to see how it works (click the play button to hear audio, click the images in the toolbar to navigate to other images):

Surprise! You're on YouTube

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 11:44:28 -0800

Matt Barton points us to another instance of teachers getting "YouTube'd." This is something every teacher should probably be aware of.

Concentration Strategies for Students

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 07:09:20 -0700

43 Folders has an interesting post about concentration strategies for students. They link to this post from the University of Kent. This resource might be something to pass along to students, especially those in their first year.

Technologies for the Unwired Classroom

Sun, 19 Aug 2007 13:56:27 -0700

On Thursday, August 23rd, the CWRL is hosting a workshop called "Technologies for the Unwired Classroom." While we in the Lab often match pedagogy with technologies in interesting ways, we are lucky enough to teach in rooms that have about 25 computers in them. This workshop will be for instructors who teach in rooms that either have no computers or have only one computer as part of an instructor media console.

Woo, John, and I will be putting on the workshop, but we wanted to post some thoughts here to see if anyone had any suggestions or additions. Our plan is to show off some web-based technologies that could be used in "un-wired" writing classes and then to brainstorm with the instructors. What we'd really like to drive home is that the pedagogy should push the technology - not the other way around. In other words, we'd like to ask instructors what their goals are for their course and then help them brainstorm some possible technologies that might help them meet those goals more effectively. Below are a few of the things we'll be presenting, but the list could obviously go on forever. The workshop is only 90 minutes long, so we've whittled down our list quite a bit. We'd like to ask folks to please post comments with some other ideas you might have. We'll be showing this blog post to Workshop participants.

Re -imagining Blogging Pedagogy

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 08:15:30 -0700

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is sponsoring a Digital Media and Learning Competition, and I'm thinking that Blogging Pedagogy should apply for some monies. There is $2 million available, and there are two types of Awards: Innovation and Knowledge-Networking. I'm thinking that BP could apply for a Knowledge-Networking award. Here is a description of what they're looking for:

The field of digital media and learning has already produced a number of brilliant ideas that deserve wider dissemination, circulation, discussion, translation, application, articulation, and customization. Not every inventor/developer is a good knowledge-networker. Knowledge-networking takes good ideas and circulates them widely, taking full advantage of the Web's potential for collaborative thinking. It enables communication in which many can contribute, shape, and share.

Picking a Major...in High School

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 07:03:48 -0700

The NY Times has this story about students being forced to pick a major as a freshman in high school. I find this disturbing:

Here in Englewood, every eighth-grader already works with a guidance counselor to formulate a six-year academic career plan that stretches through the first year of college. Elementary-school classrooms are named Harvard, Yale and Rutgers. The district’s 1,063 high school students attend classes in Gothic-style buildings on a 40-acre campus named for Dwight Morrow, a former senator and diplomat whose daughter, Anne, married Charles Lindbergh.

Mapping Arguments

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 08:40:00 -0700

ddd sent me this story from the New York Times about the proliferation of mapping tools. I've been working on some assignments using Google's new My Maps function and Flickr's geotagging.

There are probably infinite ways these tools can be used in writing classrooms, but the assignment I worked up involves having students map a border that shapes their own life. This assignment was inspired by the book that first-year writing students at UT will be reading this year, The Devil's Highway - a book that explores U.S./Mexico immigration policies. I've worked up an example map that explores a border in my own life (that border is I-35, the highway that divides "East Austin" from Austin) - I plan to use this as an example for students. You can see that map here.

Google's "My Maps" is really easy to use. All you need is a Google Account, and you can point and click your way to a pretty detailed map. You can embed video, images, and audio in maps, and you can draw shapes, insert markers, and draw lines. Very, very easy. I'm currently developing a workshop on mapping assignments for our CWRL orientation, so I'd love to hear about any ideas people have.

Clinamen has moved, update your RSS readers

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 11:24:40 -0700

Hi, all.

Clinamen has moved to: http://www.clinamen.us

Because I am no longer at the University of Texas (I have taken a position at Wayne State University), this space will soon cease to be. I am hoping to move this content over to the new Clinamen...but I'm not 100% sure that will happen.

Anyway, update your RSS readers.

Infinite Summer: Is Infinite Jest a New Media Object?

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:56:30 -0700

Right after putting up something thoughts about Infinite Jest and infrastructures¹, I got to thinking about whether Infinite Jest is a "new media object."²

---

1. Brown, James. "Infinite Summer: Infrastructures and/of Uncertainty." 27 Jul 2009, 10:55am CST, Clinamen, http://locus.cwrl.utexas.edu/jbrown/node/281

2. In The Language of New Media, Lev Manovich theorizes "new media objects."^a For Manovich, such objects can be pieces of art, web pages, video games, or numerous other technological objects. Manovich's project in TLoNM is to theorize the design principles of such objects - the emerging language that we are using to build new media objects. One portion of Manovich's discussion seems to be applicable when it comes to Infinite Jest:

Infinite Summer: Infrastructures and/of Uncertainty

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 08:55:44 -0700

I am now 339 pages into Infinite Jest (well ahead of schedule!), and I've got lots to say. For the time being, I'd like to float an idea that I've been kicking around for a while now. As I read some of my favorite contemporary authors - most or all of which could probably fit comfortably under the "postmodern" umbrella - I see a repeating focus on infrastructure. Here are just a few that come to mind:

--In Didion's Play It As It Lays, Maria deals with the trauma of having an abortion by compulsively driving California highways.

--In Wallace's The Broom of the System, Lenore's place of work is plagued by crossed phone lines. Her grandmother (a devoted reader and, one might argue, "follower" of Wittgenstein) ends up in the tunnels and presumably is the one mucking things up and crossing the wires.

Infinite Summer

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 18:50:21 -0700

I joined what is probably one of the biggest reading groups in history a couple of weeks ago: Infinite Summer. The task? Read David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest over the course of three months. A lot of bloggers are going to be posting responses, and we're on a strict reading schedule. (This means I have to be careful about spoilers too. I don't want to mess anything up for any other Infinite Summer-ers.)

In case you didn't already know this (it's probably safe to assume that most readers of this blog are familiar with the book), IJ is a TOME. 1,079 pages including footnotes. It sits on people's bookshelves and nags. For many, it is nothing more than a reminder of something that they never quite got around to. This (along with, I'd imagine, Wallace's recent suicide) is why Infinite Summer happened. A whole bunch of people are ready to check this off the list.

"Just the shoreline receding"

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:36:19 -0700

I have been reading some of Debbie's posts about leaving one home and starting a new one (though, for her, the new home is an old one too). I'll be leaving Austin soon, and I've been pre-missing (did I make that word up?) Austin for a while now. J and I have been working our way through a "bucket list" of sorts.

Part of my bucket list involves seeing as much live music as possible, and thanks to my good friend Doug I got to see Okkervil River's taping of Austin City Limits last night.

Scholê vs. Dromos

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:13:02 -0700

I’m currently at work on an essay that works through some ideas that emerged awhile back and that addresses the same question I took on during my CCCC presentation. I thought I'd post a chunk of that essay here, and I'd love some feedback from readers.

Verbal ticks

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 09:53:51 -0700

Early in my graduate career, a professor pointed out one of my verbal ticks. When I wasn't sure about my evidence for a particular claim, I would use the word "seems." I would say something like: "This seems to indicate that..."

This was good to know, and I now keep an eye out for it. I don't just remove "seems" from my sentences. I revisit those sentences and try to figure out why I'm unsure of that argument at that moment.

My newest tick is "certainly." I use this one when I want to say something like "I recognize things are complicated, but I'm going to state things very clearly anyway." So, I'll say something like: "Certainly, Wikipedia takes account of credentials in certain ways, but..."

Again, this tick seems to indicate a lack of confidence. As my dissertation director has pointed out, I use the word "certainly" at the precise moment that things are far from certain. I'm currently excising the word "certainly" from much of my dissertation.

Attribution in a Pro-Am Collaboration: Dejan Kovacevic gets an assist from a reader

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:31:45 -0700

This blog is baseball heavy these days. You can tell it's April

Dejan Kovacevic is the Pirates beat reporter for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and he is very good at his job. In fact, he recently won an AP award for his reporting.

One of Dejan's strengths is his ability to relate to readers. He runs a weekly Q&A, and he addresses fan concerns on his blog as well. But today's game story is a bit troubling.

Dejan mentions in today's blog post that he used information from a fan email in his story on the Pirates 11-1 loss to the Braves:

Everyone who writes for any publication, online or otherwise, will talk about how much they value their readers, and I am no different. Except for one thing, maybe: I can offer proof.

Baseball in 150 words or less

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 07:08:12 -0700

Can you explain baseball to a 6-year-old in 150 words or less? Slate needs your help. It's not entirely clear if these 150 words would be only focused on the rules of the game...interpret this prompt however you see fit.

I'll post my effort here when I'm finished with it.

Dissertations and Baseball

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:03:51 -0700

Some days you don't like your dissertation (actually, this goes for just about any kind of writing...) You read it, and you think: "What the hell am I even talking about?" No one is immune.

See, a dissertation is like a baseball season. It's long, and your feelings about it at any given moment are not indicative of how you will feel at the end of it. Some days you feel great about it. Some days you hate it. Both of these extremes are based on limited data sets. Both of these feelings are essentially wrong.

So, yesterday when my Pirates won their home opener, I was pretty happy. Zach Duke pitched a gem, and Freddy Sanchez was knocking the ball all over the yard. But I also knew that it was one game out of 162. Duke will return to earth...as will the rest of the team. Getting too high or low is a mistake. Likewise, yesterday when I disliked my dissertation, I chalked it up to a bad day. I set it aside.

CFP: "Open Source Culture and Aesthetics"

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:55:09 -0800

A new CFP from Criticism via Jeff Pruchnic:

SPECIAL ISSUE: "Open Source Culture and Aesthetics"

"You are so funny..."

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 08:13:57 -0700

A recent Facebook exchange got me thinking about a cynicism feedback loop and political rhetoric.

Last week, I posted a Washington Post story to Facebook about support for the public option. The story quoted some poll numbers that indicated that a majority of Americans support the public option. A friend of mine from college commented on this post, and the following change ensued:

CFP: Futures of Digital Studies 2010

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:14:24 -0700

The University of Florida Digital Ensemble is hosting a conference, Futures of Digital Studies, this February that looks to be a great place to showcase a variety of work in new media and digital studies:

The CWRL (er, DWRL) gets a facelift

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 09:29:19 -0700

The Digital Writing and Research Lab at the University of Texas (formerly known as the CWRL and also the entity that so graciously provides server space for The Blogora) has gotten a wonderful facelift. Check out the new website and also check out the new version of Blogging Pedagogy.

Full Disclosure to be Required for Bloggers

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 06:15:19 -0700

More evidence that the Internet is not a regulation free zone:

For nearly three decades, the Federal Trade Commission’s rules regarding the relationships between advertisers and product reviewers and endorsers were deemed adequate. Then came the age of blogging and social media.

The Dumb Network

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 15:25:25 -0700

Good news. The FCC is expected to announce the beginning of its formal rulemaking process for net neutrality regulation.

The FCC's process is a great model of "open source" government. And it's going to be an interesting conversation when the FCC issues its Notice of Inquiry. Network providers don't like net neutrality, as it prevents them from determining how fast various packets of information travel across their networks. But advocates of net neutrality insist that a healthy Internet requires a "neutral" network.

A True Search for Common Ground

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:22:09 -0700

To bridge the two blog posts of the evening...

The Speech and "Common Ground"

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:18:30 -0700

Tonight's speech attempted to frame health care as a moral question. This seems to be the fundamental sticking point in the debate, does it not? Is health care a right or a privilege?

There seemed to be true common ground when the president spoke of making it illegal for insurance companies to discontinue care for "pre-existing conditions." But what was most disconcerting was something that Nate Silver pointed out in his live blog of the speech:

Brooke's Lingua Fracta: New Media is not just for the techies

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 08:55:17 -0700

I have been away from the Blogora for too long, and it's time to get back into the swing of things. How about a post that begs you to see new media scholarship as something relevant to your life? Sound good? Good.

Single Payer vs. National Health Care

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:11:51 -0700

Nate Silver does it again:

"When someone confuses these two things, you can be pretty sure they're just...well, confused. Just like this woman or these people. Nobody would ever, not in a million bajillion infinity years, ever mix these things up on purpose! Just send 'em over here and we'll get 'em straighted out!"