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Links/Readings on Web 2.0 Stuff

A couple miscellaneous readings I’ll probably need to think about for English 516 for the winter:

  • There’s this article from the Sunday NYT, “2006, Brought to You by You,” which is about a whole bunch of different Web 2.0 phenomenon and a pretty good introduction to one of the latests twists in the ‘net typified by things like YouTube, MySpace, and other sites with “user generated content.”
  • I came across a web site this morning called Open Culture, which appears to be a blog with lots of cool links to, well, “open culture” sorts of things. I came across it after following a link about free sites for learning foreign languages with your iPod.

Again, just something to start making me for next year– really, next term, but I’m going to say “next year” to make me feel like I’ve actually got more time to work with.

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Christmas Greetings/Sexually Explicit Cards/Christmas Letters/ Pepper Nuts

I was talking with my friend Mary T. today and she mentioned that I must be pretty busy with that pesky teaching/job thing because I haven’t been posting here much lately. You’re darn tootin’ I’ve been busy! You can read about some of it at the official blog and also at EMUtalk.org, which is the community blog that I started this year because of the faculty strike. But the short version is this has probably been one of the busiest semesters in my academic life, simultaneously and at different times horrible and wonderful.

Actually, the whole year– official and unofficial– has been like that for us around here.

Anyway, to get to some things in the order they appear in the subject line here:

They are tasty though….


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Wow, where has Steve been? Makin' Movies (and other things….)

Just in case you’re wondering: it’s been pretty crazy-busy around here lately. But in a good way. Among other things:

  • I had the pleasure of hosting a panel discussion with some of our recent MA graduates about PhD studies in composition and rhetoric last week. It was really cool and, I am happy to say, we were able to use some nice and new video equipment to record it. Soon I’ll slap it up on the writing.emich.edu web site. Not exactly an “exciting action” shoot, but some really good discussion points.
  • I also had the pleasure of hosting (well, sorta) the bi-annual EMU First Year Writing Program Celebration of Student Writing. As always, that was a great event. It was the first time we had it in the new student center and its ballroom, which is a very fine space indeed. For the time-being, be sure to check out this link. But at some point in the near future, you will be able to view “The Celebration of Student Writing: The Movie,” a project I (along with Linda Adler-Kassner and my still photography colleague Steve Benninghoff) filmed/shot while this was going on. Quite the day; I showed up at about 7:45 am, left to go walk the dog and take my son to school, and then I was there from about 9:15 am until about 6:30 pm or so. A long and tired day, but a load of fun.

    I have a lot of things to say about these video experiences, but for the time-being, let me just say that I find iMovie absolutely addictive. Better than almost any video game I’ve ever played.
  • And then there has been a lot of interesting developments as of late with the on-going struggle between the EMU-AAUP faculty union and the administration. There’s lots of discussion on EMUtalk.org; the short version is I am cautiously optimistic about the chances of actually settling this mess and moving on in a positive way.

And then there is the general chaos of the end of the term. It’s funny; I’ve been doing this work for years and years, but it seems to me that every semester, I never quite figure out what works best for my schedule until the semester is almost over. Oh well….

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Online writing assessment tools might not be evil

Another one of those things to think about for my teaching: “Students, teachers give high scores to online writing assessments,” which comes from some sort of southern Connecticut newspaper group– the Hartford Advocate? The Hartford Courant? I’m not sure…

Anyway, here’s a passage from the opening:

In Connecticut, schools in Bristol, Glastonbury, Windsor, New Fairfield, Killingly and Stonington received state grants last year to try the technology. East Haven also has a pilot program.

The online assessment tools, which are accessed by subscription, analyze a student’s writing sample to point out potential problems in organization, grammar, sentence complexity and other issues.

The technology doesn’t replace teachers, however, because computers cannot provide subjective feedback on skills such as analysis, creativity and interpretation.

However, many educators say the programs are a helpful tool that offer the kind of individual attention often not available in crowded classrooms.

Now, every time some sort of electronic grading tool is brought up among a bunch of composition teachers, especially in places like the WPA-L electronic mailing list, people go freakin’ nuts. And certainly I understand that it isn’t really possible to separate “content” and “mechanics” easily, that these tools can be easily misused, and they generally don’t work as well as the makers of the software often claim.

But if these tools are being used like this, if they are being used to help students deal with “mechanics,” and if they can help ease the workload of grading papers (and let’s face it, the worst part of teaching is grading), well, why not?

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Weirdest Spam Subject Line (so far)

Like everyone else, I get a lot of spam. I have admired the creativity in subject lines and such. But this one today takes the cake:

Subject: filmmaker Ken Burns

Go figure! Ken Burns becomes the subject for a stock tip email!

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Reconstruction's special issue on blogging

Via Collin’s blog, I found out about Reconstruction, 6.4 (2006), a special issue of the journal on blogging. I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but I am sure that I will soon enough.

Actually, I haven’t had much time to read much of anything or do anything as of late. Or so it seems. There are two reasons for this. First, I am easily distracted. I had intended to get up and exercise this morning (someone ought to use the treadmill we have!), but I was almost immediately distracted by an email a friend of mine sent me about the Tuscan Milk phenomenon. I blogged about it on my unofficial blog, but I suppose I could have written about it as an “internets trend” here, too.

Second, life/work keeps interrupting me. For example, in my role as the accidental WPA, I am going to a previously unplanned meeting this morning with some of the folks in the new EMU Student Center, where we will be having our annual (well, once a semester– would that be bi-annual?) semester “Celebration of Student Writing.” This is the first time we’ve had this event, which attracts around 1000-1500 people, in the new student center, and it appears that there are some, um, “new rules” that have to be sorted out.

Anyway, I guess what I need to do is stop being distracted by my computer and just exercise, dammit, and I think I need to build in research/scholarship time into my schedule and stick to it. Dammit.

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The best damn gallon of milk ever

I came across this via my friend Chris, who sent it around in an email. I have no idea how he got it. In any event, apparently it’s possible to buy Tuscan Milk from the gourmet food section of amazon.com. Now, while we’re kind of picky about our milk around here (I avoid milk products with bovine growth hormone), It’s never even occurred to me to mail-order milk.

It seems like a lot of people commenting on amazon.com about Tuscan Milk feel pretty much the same way, and, as a result, there are many over-the-top funny reviews here on this amazon.com page for the milk. I agree with my friend Chris; the second one is especially funny.

After doing a Google search on this, I realize that this Tuscan Milk thing has sort of spun out of control. See, for example:

Ah, that crazy internets….

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"Inanimate Alice"

Who says that hypertext stories are all like “difficult listening music” and made only for adults? From my wife (who found it in a mailing list that discusses children’s literature) comes “Inanimate Alice.” I’ve only seen/experienced the first one on China, but I am looking forward to playing with the other installments soon. Definitely a good thing to include for English 516 and/or English 444.

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Thanksgiving blogging, part 2: the pictures




Thanksgiving, CF, 2006

Originally uploaded by steven_d_krause.

I already posted about the first part of this year’s Thanksgiving gala; here are some pictures and more about the second part:

  • Friday for lunch was with Troy and Lisa at Rudy’s Tacos in Waterloo, which was great because it was a groovy place in a sort of weird industrial part of town that I had never heard of before.
  • After that, we made a run to Cedar Falls for a stop at Soho Sushi and Deli. This was mainly Troy’s idea, but we were all interested in seeing what this combo looked like. Well, it was quite the busy place, but it looked to us that everyone there was taking advantage of the “deli” part of things, and the sushi bar looked pretty lame. After that walk-through, we went across the street to Cup of Joe coffee.

  • Because this is a year in which the Krause kids spend Christmas with the in-laws, we did some gift exchange and present opening on the Friday after T-Day. The theme for gifts for the kids was books, which was good. For the adults, we had a “white elephant” style gift exchange, something I’m too lazy to explain but which only involved good gifts (not some sort of “re-gifting” and/or junk around the house). I was a skeptic, but it turned out to be kind of fun.

That was about it. Now it’s just the mad dash to Christmas and beyond.