tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-128518472024-03-16T02:07:48.436-05:00Ten Minutes a DayI used to aspire to 10 minutes a day; now I blog conference presentations and the occasional reflection.Kevin Brookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09587202724486827943noreply@blogger.comBlogger298125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12851847.post-23409540599195584082011-06-09T22:17:00.001-05:002011-06-09T22:20:16.547-05:00The ontology of composition vis-a-vis OLPC, XO, and SugarMy "blog" of late (two years?) has been a place for conference notes. This year at Computers and Writing, I retreated to the privacy of "Evernote" as I have cut back on laptop use, added an iPod, and am looking for a new and perhaps more effective way to organize my knowledge.
I am inspired to blog tonight, however, by Alex Reid's recent post on the ontology of composition and a latent desire Kevin Brookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09587202724486827943noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12851847.post-89948519857259597312010-05-23T09:29:00.000-05:002010-05-23T09:29:50.611-05:00Facebook, games, new mediaLindsay Sabatino, "Improving Writing Literacies through ... ". Fb claims people spend 55 minutes a day on Fb; Lindsay got resistance from reviewers who didn't think fb games should be considered games. Embrace and change the way we teach, engage with generation that plays fb games. Walks through Mafia Wars; nice analysis of the critical thinking skills needed.
General thoughts: Games are Kevin Brookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09587202724486827943noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12851847.post-82533719703507620402010-05-22T17:22:00.000-05:002010-05-22T17:23:32.479-05:00Matt Barton, Bob Samuels, Alex ReidMatt BartonInfluenced by Wayne Booth’s rhetoric of fiction, applied to games. Features of vws: 1. Connected set of objects and individuals. 2. Habitable environments3. Reasonably intelligible totality for external observers. 4. Field of activity for its members. Marie Laure Ryan. Castanova (sp?): most advanced form of communication. Maybe Burke’s pentad:Act: situation, obstacle, puzzle.Agent: Kevin Brookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09587202724486827943noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12851847.post-873691372823721172010-05-22T12:16:00.003-05:002010-05-22T13:13:40.036-05:00SL workshop on storytellingWebsite for presentation: http://www.machinimaguild.com/Luna McMillian (sp?) a recommended builder. Check out virtualmcluhan on Youtube.Kevin Brookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09587202724486827943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12851847.post-14560890830532779822010-05-22T07:46:00.003-05:002010-05-22T17:22:40.059-05:00Sugar X0Walter Bender, from Sugar Labs, provided an overview of Sugar. Great line about how the desktop metaphor was designed for 1970s workers, not children learning; our children have little in common with 1970s office workers. The homepage is colorful and iconic; the limited language on screen makes the operating system easier to translate. Each icon represents a learning activity. Showed the sugar Kevin Brookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09587202724486827943noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12851847.post-1858710729986904232010-05-21T15:16:00.002-05:002010-05-21T15:46:42.880-05:00My own sessionI presented first. I could have been worse. "The Electracy of Second Life: Thinking Through Second Life." Adam Pope: "i c wut u did thar: identity in WoW-related forums." Nice clear argument about the WoW forums as dynamic writing space, conventions that need to be learned, ethos building, etc.. Good example of a post that misunderstood the purpose of a thread, and the response that followed." Kevin Brookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09587202724486827943noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12851847.post-73046640400202046722010-05-21T13:11:00.002-05:002010-05-21T14:04:10.644-05:00Designing our Virtual, Networked, Web 3.0 LivesVicki Callahan, "Asynchronous Real-Time: The Temporality of Networked Aesthetics." Collaborative, distributed, authorship; historical art examples (Dante Hotel), no explicit narrative except what the visitors bring with them. Hershman (artist) took on second identity simultaneously. Citing Bourrioud (? Post production aesethtic) and Elizabeth Grosz "Thinking the New." Remixed one more time, Kevin Brookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09587202724486827943noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12851847.post-691823916501384462010-05-21T10:19:00.003-05:002010-05-21T11:28:49.749-05:00Second Life as Experiential Learning OpportunityTeam from Purdue Calumet talking about their student-driven approach to Second Life. Students earn experiential credit by coming into Second Life. Group has faced typical problems of funding, development, sustainability. Wanting to measure affective state of learning: accuracy of affective state detection by facial expressions is 70% accurate. Using single-source camera to gather data; doing Kevin Brookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09587202724486827943noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12851847.post-73470023165343332942010-05-21T08:45:00.002-05:002010-05-21T09:42:03.569-05:00First panel, CW 2010I attended a couple of workshops yesterday, but didn't get around to blogging. I've used my blog for conference notes more than anything else in the last couple of years--might as well keep up the tradition. Madeline Sorapure, "Seeing Writing: Interactive Text Visualization in Pedagogy and Research." She is continuing her research on data visualization. She started with Worlde, but showed us Kevin Brookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09587202724486827943noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12851847.post-63098794714897598742010-04-17T21:43:00.001-05:002010-04-17T21:45:06.029-05:00Human Cargo: A Journey Among Refugees Human Cargo: A Journey Among Refugees by Caroline MooreheadLooking forward to this book as it seems to seek out refugees shortly after they leave their home country and wind up in various places. Starts with the Liberians in Cairo; very interesting! View all my reviews >>Kevin Brookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09587202724486827943noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12851847.post-41007127030722848282009-12-13T11:13:00.002-06:002009-12-13T11:43:52.631-06:00One Peace at a TimeWent to a screening of One Peace at a Time last night; great "database" of innovative solutions currently being implemented to address problems like lack of clean water, lack of opportunity, lack of education, absence of peace in the world. Watch for it in a theater near you. One of the most interesting programs I learned about from One Peace was Kiva.org--microlending that any of us can Kevin Brookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09587202724486827943noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12851847.post-38158391304994408942009-10-24T14:53:00.002-05:002009-10-24T15:33:16.720-05:00Andy Mara, Martha Bartels, Matt Pullen: Institutional Policies of PlagiarismAndy: still teaching high literate practices in electrate world. Authentication: a way that we certify ownership. How do we authenticate in electronic cultures? Passwords? Electronic signatures? Identity theft = stealing words that authenticate people. What's wrong with teaching literate notions of property boundaries in an electronic world? They don't acknowledge the shift to digital, Kevin Brookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09587202724486827943noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12851847.post-9343378095998503582009-10-24T13:51:00.003-05:002009-10-24T14:41:26.194-05:00John Madden and Maureen Murphy: OLPC and Usability AssessmentJohn has been researching and using XO, including this article: http://www.tell.is.ritsumei.ac.jp/callejonline/journal/11-1/madden.htmlJohn has been running the laptop through its paces. Creates and share documents via email or mesh. Help document now available on wiki, and built into newer versions. Sees a great need for teacher training; notes the tension between the constructionist Kevin Brookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09587202724486827943noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12851847.post-24129870922555707292009-10-24T11:04:00.003-05:002009-10-24T13:50:59.400-05:00Abram Anders and Dan WeinsteinAbram:45% of employers research potential employees; computer-mediated careers are the standard, not the exception. Great ideas for encouraging students to own their real-estate, own the first page of Google, use Google Analytics, keep content fresh, etc. Dan has his presentation available: http://drop.io/B8cQyxEU (pw: gpacw). I am wondering if drop.io would be a good way to share class plans: Kevin Brookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09587202724486827943noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12851847.post-25641166295608771132009-10-24T10:12:00.002-05:002009-10-24T10:46:17.838-05:00GPACW 2009: Keith Dorwick's keyonteGPACW 2009 is starting with Keith Dorwick's keynote address, "Come Out, Come Out, Where Ever You Are! LGBTQ Teens and Twentysomethings' Self-Identification in MySpace and YouTube." Fascinating research project; Keith is collecting videos and analyzing them from various angles: coming out stories, homosocial rough-housing, and other topics. He is planning a book with a DVD that collects Kevin Brookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09587202724486827943noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12851847.post-36612942768324497752009-10-02T13:45:00.000-05:002009-10-02T13:47:24.751-05:00Planning an OLPC courseBook orders are due soon, so I need to commit to some materials for a graduate seminar formally titled "Rhetorics and Poetics of New Media;" the actual course focus will be the "rhetorics" and "poetics" of OLPC.I'm debating whether or not to assign some broad, background readings like Larry Cuban's Oversold and Underused: Computes in the Classroom, Banks' Race, Rhetoric, and Technology, even Kevin Brookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09587202724486827943noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12851847.post-20703207757193254582009-09-28T16:17:00.001-05:002009-09-28T16:19:35.062-05:00The long slow pace of MEmorialsI just had an interesting talk with Niles Haich, fellow MEmorialist. He showed me some new pages on his MEMorial, which links Teddy Roosevelt (existing monument) to the contemporary environmental movement (disaster-in-progress). His new pages include a teaching philosophy, in which he realizes that "speak softly and carry a big stick" is an appropriate image for his developing identity as Kevin Brookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09587202724486827943noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12851847.post-4603162090816850312009-09-22T09:38:00.003-05:002009-09-22T11:54:29.484-05:00Looking for Second Life help and community.I've been sitting on a parcel of land in SL since February. Sarah M (Valerie Danes) has done some wonderful building in that location for me: she built a "Virtual Peace Chapel" as a sanctuary, placed messages of peace, put up a bulletin board so visitors can leave their own message, and she scripted an interactive memorial for victims of stoning. She is still working on streaming some video. Kevin Brookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09587202724486827943noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12851847.post-88746553389674992082009-09-14T14:18:00.004-05:002009-09-14T14:57:18.518-05:00Online research presentation: Joseph A. KonstanAttending good presentation about online research. Presenter walking through the complications and frustrations of seeking participants online; also covering 3rd party storage complications like the use of Survey Monkey. SM data not encrypted, link not secured, etc.. Importance of this depends on research being done. Also good perspective on the technical features: how do you skip a question? Kevin Brookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09587202724486827943noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12851847.post-16592216614956640452009-09-06T15:27:00.004-05:002009-09-06T15:52:00.649-05:00Catching Up: Ethics of Aid and Mr. Mentality on MonumentalityNot much time for blogging, twitting, or status updating lately, but I did come across two "must blog" media events last week. 1. "The Ethics of Aid" on NPR's Speaking of Faith challenges all of us who think we might be doing good in Africa to think again. This caution, however, feels like a cliche at this point: of course everyone doing aid work in Africa needs to think carefully and ethically Kevin Brookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09587202724486827943noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12851847.post-82686850201702788692009-08-13T09:03:00.000-05:002009-08-13T09:04:41.331-05:00In the Hour of Signs by Jamal Mahjoub In the Hour of Signs by Jamal MahjoubFascinating weaving of tales from multiple points of view: the Sudanese temporary ousting of the British in 1885, followed by British re-capturing of Khartoum in 1898. Interesting echoes with Iraq invasion--the easy fall of the city, followed by disaster. Mahjoub really knows how to pull threads together with great lines like "he [Kadaro--a boy who grew to aKevin Brookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09587202724486827943noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12851847.post-32594512241350101142009-08-04T13:26:00.000-05:002009-08-04T13:27:45.200-05:00The Poured Fire On Us From the Sky They Poured Fire on Us from the Sky: The True Story of Three Lost Boys from Sudan by Alphonsion Deng My rating: 4 of 5 stars Interesting weaving of three stories; key moments told from three points of view. Many readers seem to prefer They Poured Fire to What is the What because readers don't seem to trust Dave Egger's narration, but What is the What covers a lot more ground: extensive stories Kevin Brookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09587202724486827943noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12851847.post-70190448509718944572009-08-04T13:17:00.000-05:002009-08-04T13:18:33.026-05:00A Long Way Gone A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael BeahMy rating: 4 of 5 starsCompelling narrative; would have appreciated a bit more political / historical contextualization. I'm interested in the discussion of authenticity and craft around books like this; some nice weaving of flashbacks into the book, especially after Beah got away from the fighting. View all my reviews >>Kevin Brookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09587202724486827943noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12851847.post-82308620861426792142009-08-01T09:55:00.003-05:002009-08-01T10:09:26.945-05:00A future article? Sudan's Story by any means possible?As I have been immersing myself in the memoirs, fiction, films, and work of the southern Sudanese, I'm always (by necessity, by training?) trying to craft an article, an argument, for a paper. For a long time I have been stuck: sure I could do a kind of bibliographic or survey article, which might be useful, but I don't see pieces like that getting published in the journals I read. Perhaps I amKevin Brookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09587202724486827943noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12851847.post-2120791553771252072009-07-13T09:03:00.000-05:002009-07-13T09:04:33.092-05:00The Uncertain Business of Doing Good in Africa The Uncertain Business of Doing Good: Outsiders in Africa by Larry Krotz My review rating: 4 of 5 starsTotal impulse buy of a book that apparently nobody else has read. University of Manitoba Press probably doesn't have a bit marketing arm. Krotz recounts various stories from his experiences working in Angola, Tanzania, and Kenya. I know woefully little about Angola, so Krotz has at least Kevin Brookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09587202724486827943noreply@blogger.com2