What a bunch of weather babies!

I write this after being hazily and partly awoken at about 5:15 am or so this morning.  It turned out to be the Ypsilanti school district calling (automated, of course) announcing that school was canceled.  As I listen to the radio now, I am hearing that they’ve canceled classes in Ann Arbor and lots of other places in Washtenaw County, too.

So, winter is finally here, you’re thinking, right?  Barely, as far as I can tell.  It’s in the 20s– hardly even what would normally be called “cold” around here in January– and there is barely a dusting of snow.  Granted, there is some ice and such out there, but that’s what road salt is for.  But the forecast for the day is just for a typical winter day.

All I can think of is that it has taken only about a month or two of unseasonably warm winter weather for the whole state to turn into a bunch of weather babies.  I haven’t seen such an exhibition of weather weakness since I lived in Virginia.  Sheesh.

Howto: A Simple Paper CD Jacket

This is actually kinda cool: How to make a folded paper CD case. For Christmas, we gave the parents a DVD that had a little movie and some pictures of our trip to Europe last August, and I can tell you that one of the things that was an ENORMOUS pain in the ass was figuring out how to package it nicely. Besides being quite a bit cheaper than a plastic case, this seems to have a bit more of a personal touch. Anyway, a good tip.

Will Podcasting "Hit it" this year?

See this article from Open Culture, “Podcasts to Hit Inflection Point in ’07.” Will podcasting become the next big thing? Here’s what these folks say: “The answer boiled down to this: Podcasting stands poised to proliferate in ’07, much like the web did back in ’95 and ’96.”

Personally, I dunno about that. I’m trying to do more with podcasting in both of my classes this term (note to self: I need to record one for my online section of English 328). I’m using them in two different ways. I’m posting audio notes/lecture materials into the online “course shell” materials (this is the emuonline interface), and I’m posting more informal/weekly updates about stuff going on in the class on the class web sites/blogs. Those are “real podcasts” in that you can actually subscribe to them with something like iTunes.

I am going to try to get some students to do some of this stuff too, but that’s a slightly different issue because of the online nature of the class.

I really don’t know how many of my students are listening and paying attention to these things, to be honest. In the research I did for my article “Broadcast Composition,” the evidence I came up with in my very small and limited survey was that about half of the students listened to them, and about half didn’t. I guess I could go with either the glass being half-full or half-empty on that one.

But one thing I am starting to work with/planning to do is skipping ahead to do some more videocasting this term. Maybe that really is going to be the next big thing….

MIT "for free"/My online semester

I’ve been slightly MIA lately because of ongoing talk on EMUtalk.org, the new semester (more on that in a bit), other school things, and life in general. But this morning (via the NCTE Inbox column), I came across this article in the Christian Science Monitor, “How to go to M.I.T. for free.” Actually, this isn’t that new, though there are two things that struck me.

First off, this is an interestingly different approach to online education than EMU and most similar kinds of schools. Of course, M.I.T. can afford to give this stuff away because I believe the going rate for tuition per year is a gazillion dollars a year, and because these students don’t really need the online courses or online teaching materials. Which leads to the second thing…

In so many ways, the content is obviously not what an education is about. A big part of it is of course interaction:

A college education is “really the total package of students interacting with other students, forming networks, interacting with faculty, and that whole environment of being associated with the school,” says James Yager, a senior associate dean at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Fair enough. But an education from a place like M.I.T. is also a brand name.

Don’t get me wrong– I’m not trying to dis’ M.I.T. or similarly prestigious schools. But even if someone could work through all of these free online classes and learning tools and stuff and gain “an education,” they still wouldn’t gain a “credential.” And, without paying the gazillions of dollars in tuition, they wouldn’t get the piece of paper.

Of course, some of this is also on my mind because I am literally soaking in online teaching this term. I’m teaching an online version of English 328 (which I’ve taught plenty of times before) and English 516 (which I’ve never taught online).

The second one is the real experiment because it’s the first graduate course we’ve taught online in the writing program, and I think (maybe?) in the entire department. And to be honest, it’s off to a bit of a rocky start. I’m not as prepared as I would prefer, and I think I’m going to have to work at making clear expectations. This isn’t as much of a problem for English 328, I suppose in large part because I’m more prepared for this course, but also because I think more of the students in this class are experienced with the whole online class thing.

Anyway, we’ll see. I realize that online graduate courses aren’t a new thing everywhere, but it’s new for us.

Nothin’ but Star Wars…

Star WarsFour or five nights ago, we came across Revenge of the Sith (Episode 3– or is that 6?– of the Star Wars saga) on HBO. We all watched it and a good time was had by one and all. Then, Will decided that we need to watch the next three (or is that the first three?), which we have (all three, that is) on video. As I type this, the Ewoks are doing their stupid little song and dance routine at the end of Return of the Jedi. It’s been an interesting viewing experience since it’s been a while since I’ve seen all of these films. A few thoughts:

  • I still think the same thing that I’ve thought for years: The Empire Strikes Back is the best of the lot. Of course, I’m biased because this movie came out at a time (1980) where nothing was available on video (certainly not like now) and so me and my friends went and saw this in the theater like 25 times.
  • The original Star Wars— oh, excuse me, Episode 4, A New Hope– is a close second, and, if you want to be all sentimental about it, I suppose you could argue it’s the best one. It’s interesting the extent to which this is a “B” movie compared to the rest of them though.
  • Episode 3, Revenge of the Sith, is a darn good movie and a solid #3 in the series for me. It’s been a while since I’ve seen the first two episodes (that is, movies # 4 and #5), but I still feel comfortable in ranking Return of the Jedi if for no other reason the awful AWFUL Ewok song at the end of it all. I am certain that music will haunt my dreams tonight.
  • Thing #1 I hadn’t noticed before: besides the obvious improvements in special effects technology, the biggest difference for me between the first one and the last one is the light saber battles. While the fights in the newer ones are great, the big light saber “show down” in the original Star Wars is completely lame, as if they just handed the actors a couple of sticks and said “okay, don’t hurt each other out there.”
  • Thing #2 I hadn’t noticed before: R2D2 (who is really the star of the series since he’s the only “character” who witnesses the whole thing and who doesn’t have his memory erased– sorry C3PO) is the ultimate computer hacker. Plug him into anything and he gets the answer/the job done.
  • And, of course, I kept wanting to hear Bill Murray’s “Star Wars song,” and to see (maybe) The Star Wars Holiday Special. (Least you think this YouTube video is a goof, read this review of the 1978 TV show).

So, may the force be with you. Or whatever.

Two things I forgot to mention before that I’ll mention now:
First, Annette (who, truth be told, is almost as geeky as me and Will about these things) pointed out that the newer prequel movies come after the successes of movies full of really REALLY elaborate martial arts scenes like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. So they couldn’t very well just hand two actors sticks and say go at it.

Second, Will and I spend a fair amount of time correcting the inconsistencies between the original three and the new three prequels. For example, “Obi Wan wasn’t trained by Yoda! He was trained by Qui-Gon Jinn. Duh!” Annette loved this.

The "home office"

Home Office

Clancy says that this “home office” thing is a new meme, but I actually posted about what has got to be the fourth or fifth version of my current home set up on my unofficial blog way back in May. I guess that makes me an accidental trend-setter. BTW, Clancy, I would have posted to your site, but it didn’t like my login info and I gotta get on with some other work…

This current version of my home office is soon to be altered yet again since I am pretty sure I am soon going to hauling home most of my school office, where I currently keep most of my books, snowglobes, miscellaneous toys, etc. I don’t really know if I have the space, but I look at it like this: sooner or later, they are going to remodel the building that houses the English department at EMU, and I have a feeling that this is actually going to be sooner than later (it’s just a feeling, but still…). Besides that, this term I am teaching entirely online, and I am hoping to be on sabbatical for a term next year. So it’s probably time to move and revise the home office yet again.

But now it’s time to actually work.

Oh, for what it’s worth: The above picture has flickr notes, and it also shows a much MUCH cleaner home office than the one I am working in right now.