ThatCamp Digital Pedagogy: Quelling Digital Panic In The College Classroom

The first session I attended at ThatCamp Digital Pedagogy was about quelling digital panic in the college classroom. Here are my notes:

• Almost every student has a smart phone.
• How do we engage student in classroom with so many distractions?
• Shared Google Docs are a possible solution, but I have had mixed results with them.
• How do we get students to buy into doing shared notes?
• What is role of learning disabilities in this panic?
• Google Doc for digital behaviour norms in classroom on first day of class? Cool idea!
• Texting/social media break midway through class?
• How do we teach digital citizenship?
• Have students research terms of service/privacy of social networks.
• I could do an entire semester of ENG101 on this...
• Shared class Tumblr.

Feminisms

At BCC this spring, we had a nice panel discussion about Feminism(s) with my colleague Erika Baldt and awesome new Dean Nichole Bennett-Bealer. It was a nice discussion that was very broad in its topics. At one point the topic of men and feminism came up. I have for many years openly proclaimed my discomfort with men labelling themselves as "feminists." There are many power/privilege issues with that label and I think men have a different role to play in this process. This got argued around the room, with some people really not understanding what I was getting at, which was no fault of their own as I think many of them had not ever consider the point.

I tried to point out that men need to take a more supportive role in this process that does not center them, but I am not sure if I was totally eloquent about it. What I was trying to say can be summarized by this fantastic quote I found on Tumblr (and had retumbled and could not find during the panel):

Men who want to be feminist allies do not need to be given a space in feminism.  They need to take the space that they have in society and make it feminist.  That’s what women had to do in the first place, and women have fought much too hard for what little space they have to be giving it to men.

Careers For Literature Majors

In February, I asked asked to speak at Stockton on a panel about career paths for Literature majors. I was thrilled to head down there and work with the Literature program and Career Center. I spoke on an hour long panel with other alumni from past 5-10 years, including a few people I had classes with, and had a great time speaking with current students and catching up with some faculty. Before the event I took a long walk around campus and ran into some other faculty and works I had not seen in a long time. I would love to do another one of these events in the future.

Stockton's Arts & Humanities program has their own Tumblr blog which also has a nice recap of the evening.  

Check out the nifty mug they gave me for participating in this event.  

Replacing Google Reader With Newsblur

With the coming demise of Google Reader, I have spent some time recently trying to find a good replacement for the RSS reader. Despite all of these idiotic proclamations that RSS is dead and apps like Youtube and Instagram not even offering easy access to it anymore, which is beyond frustrating, I am still an ardent user of RSS.

My usage of RSS has evolved over the years; previous to the past few years, I used RSS for almost all of my online reading. With the mainstream popularity of Twitter, I have been able to move a lot of my day to day reading to tweets. Apps like Flipboard let me read more frequently updating websites at my own leisure. These days my usage of RSS is for infrequently updates websites and for tracking various things, like certain Tumblr users I want to make sure I all their content.

After trying out a number of RSS readers including Net Vibes and even going back to the old Bloglines, which still exists, I have settled on Newsblur for my RSS reader. Newsblur is a modern app that works on the desktop, phone, and tablet. It syncs nicely and is constantly updating and getting better in both performance and appearance. Hoping that Newsblur will stick around, I even put down the $24 for a yearly premium account.

Cory Doctorow is also moving to Newsblur, which I take as a really good sign about its promise. Audrey Watters also has some good thoughts and goes through a long run down of various RSS readers.

Resource For Transgendered Students

I found this on Tumblr and I wish I could find where it originated, but this is a really good resource for transgender students who want to get in touch with their professors before a class begins to make sure they are called the correct name. Spread this far and wide.

Dear Prof. XXXX,
My name is XXX. I will be taking your XXX course this semester (XXX). I am writing because I have a unique situation that I feel as though you should be aware of. On your roster, my name appears as “XXX.” That is my full and legal name, however, I go by the name XXX. Please do not misunderstand that this is merely a matter of preference. I am a transgender individual, and therefore, being addressed as my proper name and use of (TYPE) pronouns is essential to my academic success at the XXXXX. I would greatly appreciate if you would kindly respect my name and use (TYPE) pronouns, starting with roll call on the first day so that there is less confusion for the other students. Please do not hesitate to e-mail me back if you have any questions or need me to clarify this further. Thank you in advance, and I am truly looking forward to the first day of class.
Respectfully,

XXXXX

NJCEA: Teaching With Technology

The first panel I attended at NJCEA was the Teaching With Technology one early in the day. Julie Cassidy was the first speaker. Cassidy spoke about requiring students to creat commonplace blogs for her classes. This is an idea I am going to try and implement into my courses this fall. Right now, I am thinking of using Tumblr for this. (see mine)

• According to Cassidy, blogs allow conversation to begin before class.
• Students are required to pull three quotes for each story/novel/etc
• An example of Dr. Cassidy’s classes.
• Blogs are low stakes, informal, writing, so lots of room for reflection.
• Cassidy has students use WordPress for the assignment. I’m leaning towards using Tumblr.
• The required quotes can be worked into prep for paper writing.

Next, Geoff Klock spoke about pacing and technology in the classroom.

• Klock uses film clips in class to break up discussion.
• Klock used to use Youtube in class, but he found the clips were too low quality. He now uses DVDShrink, which I have used in Windows before, and MPEGClipStream to pull clips. Is there a Linux version? DVDShrink doesn’t work too well in WINE.
• Klock also incorporates mp3′s of poems into discussion. I am going to start doing that later this summer.
• Klock argues that clips bring back interest. Clips refresh class discussion and bring full attention back.

Finally, Megan Titus spoke about student perceptions and blogging.

• Titus has used edublogs in the past, but they have spammed students.
• Blogs help teach ethical responsibility and community.
• Professional writing is increasingly online.
• Blogging increases opportunity to practice argumentation, citation, and ethics.
• Titus requires proposals, which are peer reviewed by students and Titus.