Eddie Kingston on mental health and professional wrestling.
Grafton Tanner on how algorithms change how we view older media.
Tressie McMillan Cottom on the politics of how a certain senator dresses in congress.
Worth Reading: Spring Break Edition
I spent a lot of time over spring break clearing out bookmarks and saved articles from Instapaper. Normally I post this list when I get to ten, but here are twenty articles worth reading:
- The New York Times on a swatter that finally got caught after years of swatting.
- A podcast about the app Yik Yak, which is totally dead near me but has fascinating, good and bad, uses elsewhere.
- Some of the family members of Sandy Hook victims have been terrorized by the solipsistic, egomaniac, "Truther" movement.
- This interview with Arsene Wenger is fascinating.
- I am sharing these writing tips with my students this semester.
- Roqayah Chamseddine has become one of the most important voices in my daily social media life on a variety of issues, but particularly the connection between mainstream feminism and the right wing ideals of Hilary Clinton and other neoliberals. Over two essays, Rejecting Bourgeois Feminism, and The Problem With Bourgeois Feminist Defenses of Hilary Clinton she strongly criticizes "white feminists" for their allegiance to destructive liberal ideas. I used to have a lot of respect for at least one of the people Chamseddine mentions and it is sad to see, and they certainly aren't the only ones, how so many have fallen to liberalism* and its destructive ideas of war mongering, union bashing, and shilling for Wall Street. *Plus attacking women for being "crazy," and "hysterical" as seen in the linked articles. How liberal of them.
- I always love interviews with Junot Diaz and this one is no exception.
- 51 years after his assassination, Jacobin looks at the legacy of Malcolm X. I teach his essay Coming To An Awareness of Language every semester and it is always one of the most popular with students.
- An excerpt from Liza Featherstone's upcoming book about the faux feminism of Hilary Clinton.
- Nicole M. Aschoff on a feminism without capitalism.
- FAIR's excellent tribute to Ben Bagdikian. Reading his book The Media Monopoly as a teenager absolutely changed the direction of my life; I will be forever grateful to him.
- Black Agenda Report on Miriam Makeba.
- Liliana Segura on Hilary Clinton's indefensible stance on the death penalty. Bernie Sanders' support of drones is not much better.
- On the "goddamned exploitative farce" that is academic publishing.
- Evan Narcisse on the politics of Black Panther.
- Grant Wahl on the incredible story of Leicester City.
Weekly Reader
- A wonderful excerpt from a new book of Italo Calvino's letters chronicling his awesome feelings about abortion.
- Black Agenda Report on Joy Ann Reid and Melissa Harris Perry, two of the worst Democrat propagandists on television, and their attacks on Edward Snowden.
- Sana Saeed, a great discovery on Twitter recently, on how we converse about religious spaces for Muslims in America.
- A cool article in New York Times about Jason Everman, who was kicked out of both Nirvana and Soundgarden before joining Special Forces. I always wondered what happened to him.
- Boston Globe on my favorite poet Edna St. Vincent Millay.
ThatCamp Philly: Digital Literacy
After running a discussion on working with students who have low technology skills at the first ThatCamp Philly, I ended up on a panel discussing general digital literacy. There was a very productive discussion by attendees, which included friends like Rebecca Goldman and Janine Utell.
- 55% of households in Philadelphia lack internet access.
- 550, 000 individuals in Philadelphia are considered low literate.
- A lot of questioning of the "digital natives" myth.
- Students often do not realize they need to know technology to take an online class.
- Digital literacy issues often combine with *literacy* issues.
- Many employers do not have paper applications. Now what? Jobs do not have time/resources to train.
- I have had students cite from Yahoo Answers.
- An idea to survey students' technology skills.
- Revolving door of adjuncts means repeated training.
- All humanities classes should have lab component.
- Everyone keeps talking about digital natives!
- How do we get expectations to line up?
- Generational differences in how technology is used could be part of this...Rachel gives example of Using Google Street Maps in class and students being blown away by it.
- Jazmin does work with a library "tech van" to teach citizens how to use email, Office, etc
- Students don't know how to do research for transferring to colleges...
- Often digital literacy can be connected to *literacy* issues...
- 550,000 adults in Philadelphia are "low literate" (half the population of adults!!!)
- Connecting service learning to literacy and digital literacy
- Jobs don't want paper applications
- You have to have baseline of programmatic literacy or you're just not going to get the job
- A lot of our returning students are not tech savy
- Computers can be used to create literacy
- Surveys for what they use on desktop and phone
- Add what browser you use to survey
- Students often form web searches as questions!
- Discussion of relationships with libraries
- Freshman Comp students required at multiple schools to attend a library session...
- Issues with adjuncts not being "invested" in programs to add this stuff...
- Yahoo Answers can be solved with better understanding of credible sources...take a day to discuss them specifically...
- Yahoo Answers is not New York Times is not Science
- Rebecca: Why do they need scholarly sources!?!
- Research project as a treasure hunt!
- Grammar, syntax, protocols, of digital literacy
- Discussion of what is required for K-12 programs...
- Students frightened by changing thesis as research goes on
- Rebecca: Students come to her already written paper and looking for sources afterwards...
- Have empirical library days in Comp II and/or Lit classes
- Another call for digital literacy across the curriculum
- Having, besides the four papers, allowing students do pick and choose platforms for assignments (150 points)
- By presentation day, must have sources that need to be DEFENDED
- A big change these days is students don't have to learn how to code/wysiwyg
- List of approved sources for papers (make using these part of rubric)
- Rebecca: students have to do background research first before expert research
- search involves failure!!!
Weekly Reader
Weekly Reader
Weekly Reader
- From Fibreculture, Caroline McCaw on the art of Second Life and Axel Bruns looks at used based “produsage.”
Due to some monetary constraints I was unable to attend ELO 08, but Scott Rettberg posted his presentation over at Grand Text Auto. More on that soon.
Barrett Hathcock’s essay on the Internet from The Quarterly Conversation.
Catching up on fiction from The New Yorker: Bolano, Diaz, Eugenides, and a previously untranslated story by Nabokov.
Seamus Heaney’s 1985 review of Mr. Palomar from the New York Times.
Daniel Green’s review of the intriguing Lost Books Of The Odyssey.
The New Yorker had a big piece last week on Keith Olbermann.
Meanwhile, on Twitter…
The New Republic pays tribute to de Beauvoir.
Terra Nova covers a promising MMO called Lila Dreams.
Greg Palast on the preemptive theft of the 2008 election. Speaking of, maybe I should just sleep in anyway.
My new desktop background (Kind of big and exciting casting spoilers for the finale of Doctor Who)
Kristin Hersh has a new website.
And…
Margaret Atwood won a big literary award in Spain.
A member of the old New York hardcore band Ultra Violence gets a mention in The New Yorker too.