Steven D. Krause

I know it’s Christmas and all of that, but around here, the big celebration night is Christmas eve, so really, this is the night after Christmas (as I indicated on yesterday’s post). I’ve been doing “family fun” all day long, so I don’t feel too bad about doing a bit of work tonight.

Anyway, one of the things I have to do is plan for three different classes for winter 2005, two of which are completely new preps and one of which is kind of a new one. One of the “completely new” is a class called “Writing in the Professional World,” which is a class that focuses on writing things like memos, letters, reports, and the like. One of the many experiments I’m going to attempt in this class is using WebCT. You would think that someone like me– teaching with things like email and web sites for about 10 years now– would have used WebCT or BlackBoard or something like that by this point. But I haven’t had a reason or an opportunity yet. This semester and for this class (just this class), I decided to take the plunge.

So far, the results have been less than, er, excellent.

For starters, the server isn’t responding right now. I don’t want to be too critical about this because it is Christmas day, but there’s no reason why the server should be down at all, in my opinion. And it bugs me because I was going to monkey around on it a bit tonight.

But okay, I’ll let that slide.

The main problem I have with WebCT so far is it doesn’t strike me as all that “user friendly.” It has some features that would be hard for me to pull off on my own (a grade book, a chat feature, the ability for students to log into their own accounts, etc.), but the process of uploading and manipulating files seems to me to be pretty cumbersome and not any easier or more difficult than learning some simple HTML, a bit about an HTML editing software, and the means of uploading it to a server.

The other thing I worry about is some of the technical issues in making the software work for many of my average (less than techno-savvy) students. Long story short, there are some issues with WebCT and javascript that requires students to install MS Windows Service Pack 2 (which is notoriously horrible) and installing some Sun javascript software, and doing all this before they can use WebCT. None of this is particularly difficult, but it is just the kind of complication that might make this a problem for students, and which, in turn, might make it a problem for me.

Well, we’ll see. I’ll give it a chance.

So, what did you get for Christmas? I got one of these:

Actually, I got a number of other things as well, but this was about the most unpredictable item. My in-laws bought this for me on a trip they took this past summer to (duh) Venice.

And I do appreciate it, too. For several years now, I’ve been collecting cheap little snow globes. I tend to pick them up on my travels because a) they are inevitably cheap (I don’t think I ever spent more than $8 or $10 for one– more like $4), and b) they can sometimes represent a bit of a challenge to find in tourist knick-knack stores. Fun stuff.

… I bring you this blog entry of Star Wars music. More specifically, it’s music about Chewbacca. If that doesn’t say Christmas, well, I just don’t know what does.

Say, here’s a question for you:

How do you know that you’re a complete and total writerly/computerly/blogger-ly geekazoid? Easy. You’re watching CSPAN2’s coverage of the panel talk “Literary Blogs and Their Influence.”

Actually, this isn’t as sad/pathetic as it sounds. I mean, it’s not like I said to myself “hey, Christmas Eve– time for CSPAN!” Rather, it was essentially an accident. I am currently visiting my in-laws in Florida, and, per their family tradition, we had a meal highlighted by German foods and Glee Wein, opened presents, and they (that is, my wife, her parents, and my son) all were exhausted and went to bed. So I found myself doing a little light channel surfing, and whammo, here I am.

Frankly, the discussion on the panel was kind of boring. I watched about a half-hour of it and called it a day. But the folks who were talking on the panel all have interesting blogs themselves (links to which appear on the page I link to here), especially in the theme of my talk at the CCCCs.

Here’s a web-cam shot of the construction site of the new EMU student center, which is less than a mile from where we live.

Here’s a picture looking out of the back of the in-laws house in Florida I just took.

Both of these looks have their advantages and disadvantages. I like the idea of a “white Christmas” of course; but it also has never bothered me to be in a warm place in the winter, either.

While sorting through a variety of different things on the web, I came across this fine entry from jill/txt about how “blogging makes writing easier.” I don’t know, maybe. I think I write more as a result of blogging, but at the same time, I think I also procrastinate a whole lot more. I mean, in the time I have spent blogging in the last year, I probably could have written a novel. Or an academic book Or a textbook. Or two.

On the other hand, I didn’t write those things, and there’s no evidence that I would have had I not blogged. So at least I wrote something….

Update:
Via Clancy Radcliff’s blog, I came across this article from the December 15 New York Times, “A New Forum (Blogging) Inspires the Old (Books).” Now the article is in archive form, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay for it when I can go to the library and get it for free…. Anyway, the point of the article is about the connection between blog publishing and “real” publishing, which ought to tie into my CCCCs SIG thing too.

Put this in the column of humorous articles on grammar and punctuation: Josh Greenman has an article in Slate proposing the adoption of the sarcasm point (which looks like this: ¡).To quote Greenman:

I’m serious¡ See, there are people who are relentlessly sincere. So, what are they supposed to do when they’re trying to sound a bit bitter? Suppose you’re IM’ing that oft-earnest friend you have, and he writes: “I need to go to church tomorrow and confess the jealousy in my heart.” You forget– have you ever heard him say nice things about God or do the opposite? “Wait… do you really?” “Sorry. I mean, I need to go to church tomorrow¡ To confess my jealousy¡ And the fact that I just renewed my subscription to Maxim¡” “Oh. Me too. Only as a Jew, I must do these things in synagogue¡”

A lot of my students could certainly use this; I’m sure it would clear up all sorts of confusing writing problems¡

It’s interesting what a wireless connection and some bad weather (well, for Florida, “bad weather,” meaning it’s warm but cloudy and not beachable) will do for random ‘net surfing. Came across this article in Slate while looking for one about grammar, “Not a Turkey in the Bunch: Christmas feasts from the top-five food magazines,” by Sara Dickerman. A fun article and concept: for five nights in a row, Dickerman made “the meal” as described in five different cooking magazines. Sounds like they had fun, although I sure hope Slate picked up the grocery bill– not to mention the diet clinic and gym plan it would take to get back to normal after all this.

For those who are fans of the “Christmas season, Hemingway style,” see this classic 1927 New Yorker story by James Thurber titled “A Visit from Saint Nicholas (In the Ernest Hemingway Manner).” Pretty funny.

BTW, I came across this on Johndan’s “datacloud” site.

I’m writing this from my in-laws in Florida, wirelessly. It’s just not my network.

I actually brought my wireless router with me, but I for one reason or another can’t get the thing to work on my father-in-law’s computer. He has a cable modem a bit different than mine and a somewhat older computer, and I could have easily screwed something up with my router before I left town. I think I managed to change the administrator name and password to something I don’t remember anymore. Smart, huh?

Anyway, while walking around this housing complex/development with the in-laws, we ran into the neighbors who have WiFi. “Sure, jump on to mine if you want.” Which I have done. It’s a weak signal, and I’m not sure it would actually work inside the house (of course, with this kinda weather, why do I want to work inside, anyway?), but at least it works. Sorta.

Update:
I AM THE MASTER OF MY DOMAIN!

Or, more accurately, I got the router to work. I looked online, found out there was a “reset button” (who knew?) hit that, and whammo, I’m online. Cool; now I have a chance to surf the web (and, more importantly, get some school work done) by the pool. And I’ll post some Florida holiday picts, too.