Interesting Conversation with Facebook
By RR | June 17, 2009
Yesterday, my co-author Allen Webb and I talked to Julie Prescott from Facebook. Julie is fairly new to the company (recent grad) and is working on researching academic uses of Facebook. As these things sometimes go, Julie’s mom knows Allen and his work, so our names were recommended. In any case, it was really enjoyable and compelling to talk to someone on the inside. Our conversation ranged over a number of topics, but I think came up with some great ideas. A few highlights:
- It would be great if Facebook had an academic space or channel that remained separate from the main interface. The academic space would look a bit like the group feature, but would also incorporate third-party educational applications and remain at least partially disconnected, with events not reported in the news feed or on individual profile pages.
- A number of really cool things could happen in the academic space on Facebook. It would be really cool, for instance, if educators could discover other educators teaching similar content, and then invite them to join cross-class and even cross-country conversations. Teachers and professors could invite authors and experts into their academic space; all could participate in threaded discussions, note writing, document sharing, video, audio, and image sharing, and more.
- Third party developers could build some cool apps for this space, too. Allen and I imagined an application that automatically linked teachers/students to other teacher/students using the same text. You might just enter the ISBN of your text, for instance, and instantly see that it was being taught in five different schools in five different countries. We also thought that a homework application would be helpful. Students struggling in any topic (e.g., the quadratic formula) could enter that query and be connected instantly with other students (or teachers) studying the same topic. To some extent, Facebook users are already using it to do homework, so this would be a natural extension.
- A really killer idea by Allen would be for Facebook to provide small mini-grants to teachers/professors who want to use Facebook in interesting new ways. The grant would be small (say $1000) and require very little paper work, but could push teachers who are naturally hesitant about social networking into using Facebook. Let’s face it, most teachers are pretty gun shy about social networking, given the media scare over cyber-bullying and sexual predation. Facebook would stand to gain by offering these small grants. Teachers could have something to show to colleagues to boot.
All in all, a very productive conversation. Thanks, Julie!
Categories: News, Web 2.0 | Tags: Facebook | 1 Comment »
Twitter: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow?
By RR | June 16, 2009
I have been thinking a lot about Twitter recently: it is hardly possible to avoid all of the media hype on the microblogging service these days. I particularly enjoy it when otherwise fusty mainstream newscasters mention their twitter handle in a routine broadcast (ooh, yes, I do want to follow Dan Rather!). Still, with all of the hype, I am trying to see the real value of Twitter, particularly in an academic setting.
One possibility is using Twitter as a research tool: I have found some surprisingly rich information via tweets containing urls. Following a given topic on Twitter might be yet another way to gain content. Of course, there’s no real way of filtering out the garbage, either. One potential solution is the hashtag: teachers or professors can use a hashtag to group interesting content for their students. Students can do the same. I’m thinking about using a hashtag system for my Vampire Literature course this fall. So, whenever I or my students discover a relevant link, we could tweet it for the rest of the class. Like so:
Excited about new Buffy movie that may be coming out . http://bit.ly/NWhGf #vamplit.
The RSS yielded by the hashtag can be incorporated on the course web site or into an RSS reader such as Google Reader. I’ve been working on getting this to fly with Ning with limited success. Of course, students could also search the #vamplit hashtag on Twitter (or a third-party app like Tweetdeck), though this kind of gets away from the “information comes to you” idea.
Presumably, I could pass along course announcements through Twitter, though again, students would have to follow either my main account, thereby receiving updates like “Rozemar is eating Oreos again,” or I would have to create an alternative account, as in “Professor Rozema wants everyone to bring a laptop today.” Seems just a bit artificial to me. My colleague Sean Lancaster has made a similar observation.
Sean pointed me to a list of 50 Ways to Use Twitter in the College Classroom, some of which may be worth pursuing. To be honest, many of the suggestions seem like straw grasping–using Twitter for its own sake and not because it works better than more traditional methods (Practice Brevity reads one such suggestion).
I’ve also been reading the Hubspot State of the Twittersphere 2009 Report. It is longer than 140 characters. And it points to some trends that reinforce a pessimistic view of Twitter’s longevity. Of the Twitter users in the study,
- 55.50% are not following anyone
- 54.88% have never tweeted
- 52.71% have no followers
Granted, many blogs have never been used or have been abandoned shortly after startup. But unlike Twitter, at least, there are direct connections between traditional academic concerns and blogging–namely, writing with purpose, researching a topic, collaborative authorship, writing for an audience, and more. Twitter has to come up with some sort of killer app that will make it more appealing to academic settings, I think. Channels might be a good way to start, allowing users to select which followers receive which tweets. Easier inclusion of images and hotlinks (maybe a WYSIWYG editor) would also be a bonus.
Bah humbug, Twitter. Or maybe I’m just mad because @rozemar only has 17 followers.
Update: I have been following the tag #iranelection the last few days–and that has been pretty amazing. As mainstream media are blacked out in Iran, Twitter users are keeping the rest of the world informed, often at their own peril.
Categories: Courses, News | Tags: twitter | 1 Comment »
Google to Own Orphans
By RR | June 15, 2009
No, Google isn’t getting that big: the title of this post refers to the recent Google Books settlement. According to the settlement, Google is going to have exclusive rights to resell so-called orphan books–books that are out-of-print but still under copyright. Since no publishers companies can technically claim these books, Google is going to offer them for download for a fee. So take one of my favorite out-of-print books still under copyright–A Street in Bronzeville by Gwendolyn Brooks. One of Brooks’ earliest collections, the book was originally published in 1945 by Harper Publishing. It looks like a second edition of the collection was also published in 1945, perhaps to correct errors or with additional poems.
In any case, no other editions were ever published, and the work remains under copyright until 95 years after its original publication, or 2035. That’s a bit of a wait. Under the terms of the settlement, Google would be able to make this orphan text available for download. Great, right? Here’s the kicker: Google alone will own the rights to the orphans. If I want the Brooks’ collection (and I don’t have the $300 or so for a first edition), I have to pay whatever Google decides is appropriate. That sounds a bit like a monopoly in the making. All the more reason to repeat my recommendation for would-be law students: go into copyright and/or intellectual property. You’ll make a killing.
And lastly, a poem from Bronzeville that I remember fondly:
The Old Marrieds
But in the crowding darkness not a word did they say.
Though the pretty-coated birds had piped so lightly all the day.
And he had seen the lovers in the little side streets.
And she had heard the morning stories clogged with sweets.
It was quite a time for loving. It was midnight. It was May.
But in the crowding darknesss not a word did they say.
Categories: News | Tags: Google | No Comments »
Duncan Offers More of the Same from the Department of Education
By RR | June 11, 2009
On the way home the other day, I caught an NPR Talk of the Nation interview with the new Education Secretary, Arne Duncan. Initially, I thought I was listening to a conservative politician talking about public education: I heard the same old talking points about accountability, charter schools, data collection, alternative teacher certification, and teacher merit pay. Then, much to my disappointment, I realized that it was Arne Duncan speaking. At one point in the program, he said that No Child Left Behind just needed to be fixed rather than scrapped altogether. That almost made me turn off the radio.
Despite his pretty impressive Chicago credentials, Duncan sounded much like every other politician (liberal and conservative) on key educational issues. You start to recognize all the feel-good points that most politicians trot out whenever education is mentioned. There were at least some good points made: I liked his emphasis on early childhood education, teacher recruitment, and greater access to higher education, though these points seemed a little lost among the standard fare. Maybe I am too used to Alfie Kohn, Jonathan Kozol, and other education radicals. Sure would be nice to hear someone mention decreasing class size, emphasizing learning over grading, getting rid of standardized tests, giving schools local control to develop highly contextualized and relevant curricula, ensuring equity of funding across the board, supporting English language learners and special education students, and more.
But hey–at least increasing teacher salary is on the agenda!
Categories: 10, News | Tags: duncan | 2 Comments »
Find it Fast with Everything
By RR | June 2, 2009
When it comes to file organization, I am a little obsessed: I have a labyrinth structure of folders and subfolders, all of which follow certain classification rules. Still, I lose files from time to time, particularly after downloading them from the web. I had relied on the built-in search engine Windows provides to find these missing files, but I have recently discovering Everything, a lightning-quick search tool. Trust me, it hums.
Better still, it does not slow down your processor or constantly index your files. It just sits there, waiting to find your files in a flash. You can even export your search results to a text file, though I’m not sure why you would want to. Not sure how Everything does what it does, but it is a very cool tool.
Categories: News | Tags: Everything | No Comments »
Long, Dark Summer
By RR | May 24, 2009
Since the end of April when winter semester concluded, I have been researching the civil war in Sierra Leone. The purpose of my research is to establish some background knowledge for the new book I hope to write–a narrative about Josephine and her family’s flight from Liberia and Sierra Leone. Josephine was born in the middle of the war–in 1992–just as it spilled over from Liberia to Sierra Leone. She lost both of her parents (missing) and was taken in by her aunt, Matilda. It’s a fascinating story with a happy ending, and I hope it will make an interesting book.
So far, I’ve read a handful of books on the war in Sierra Leone, including Greg Campbell’s Blood Diamonds, In the Land of the Magic Soldiers by Daniel Bergner, Conflict and Collusion in Sierra Leone by David Keen, A Mother’s Saga by kamorah Kabbah, A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, and a couple of others. All interesting, all informative, and all deeply disturbing.
I’ve also been using Twitter (through Tweetdeck) to learn a bit more about Sierra Leone. In addition to sources like the BBC and the Sierra Leone Web, Twitter has provided me with a surprising amount of information. I search Twitter for tweets that mention “Sierra Leone.” Someone tweeted an MSNBC article citing a World Health Organization report that found life expectancy for Sierra Leonean men to be the lowest in the world at only 39. Never thought of using Twitter for research purposes, but there you go.
Categories: News | Tags: sierra leone | 1 Comment »
Google Reader Makes Bundling a Breeze
By RR | May 22, 2009
So, this is new, or at least new to me. If you use RSS regularly with your students, you’ll discover that it is a bit of a pain to add all of their RSS feeds individually. I used to use a service called Feedbite to create bundles of feeds; when that went defunct, I switched over to RSSMix.
This wasn’t a bad solution, but going outside of Google Reader was inconvenient. Google Reader now lets you create bundles with ease. Just click the “Browse for Stuff” in the left-hand column and then select “create a bundle.” Drag and drop your URLS from your subscriptions, and then share them with your Google contacts. Easy!
Next time I use Google Reader to read blogs from a course, I’ll know what to do. And you can add your own favorite bundles, too, to read multiple feeds in a single location.
Categories: News | Tags: google reader | No Comments »
All Quiet on the Tech Front?
By RR | May 21, 2009
I have been struck lately at how little is happening in the Web world. Sure, there is cloud computing, the movement toward doing all computing online. And there are all sorts of interesting 2.0 services that remain popular and influential, including Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Wikispaces, Wordpress, Google Educational Apps, and more. But nothing radically new or different seems to be emerging these days. Perhaps we have hit some sort of plateau, or perhaps I am not finding the right sources of information. My own aversion to super-fancy mobile devices (and the entire 3G network phenomenon) no doubt limits my exploration of mobile-related applications. I remain a laptop-centric Web user: I only rarely text on my cell, and I have no Web access on it (it’s a $9.99 Verizon model).
In any case, it’s interesting to wonder what’s coming next: a more user-friendly three-dimensional virtual world? A real semantic Web (as opposed to the largely theoretical discussions of the semantic Web?) Radical copyright changes that make everything available online? Or the loss of net neutrality, making those of us who hog bandwidth pay higher rates than people who simply check their email? We’ll see.
Categories: News | Tags: future | No Comments »
Toni Morrison Challenged in Shelby
By RR | May 17, 2009
Just when you think it can’t happen here: a text is being challenged by a group of conservative parents in Shelby, Michigan. The text in question is Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon , and the teacher is a recent GVSU graduate, Jane Glerum. The name sounded familiar to me, and I remember now that Jane and her class also used my online role-playing game Thoughtcrime a few years ago. Here’s a bit from a news article about the case:
Provocative’ book comes under fire in Shelby
By John Cavanagh
Herald-Journal WriterSHELBY — A book with “provocative” content used in the Shelby High School Advanced Placement English class has come under fire.
“Song of Solomon” by Toni Morrison has been used by the AP English class for three years, Superintendent Dana McGrew said. It is being evaluated by the Shelby curriculum committee.
“Basically, there’s a bunch of different things that some people object to it,” McGrew said.
The book is included in the library catalogs at Hesperia, Pentwater, and Mason County. The Shelby Area District Library also has the book in its catalog, but it had been checked out and had one person on the waiting list Monday. The book also is in the Shelby High School Library catalog. Hart Area District Library’s Web site did not show the book in its catalog.
According to McGrew, the book contains sexual, racial and violent content. The book is not required reading in the elective class, and McGrew did not know why people are objecting to it now.
“If they object to the book, they don’t have to read it,” McGrew said. “They can read a different one.”
Complete article
This is not a case of a teacher picking a book out of the blue and discovering, too late, that the community objects to it. This Morrison has been recommended by the College Board as part of the Advanced Placement curriculum and is widely taught throughout the country. If you would like to sign your name in support of Jane Glerum and those who would retain the novel, please see the following petition.
Update 5-20-09: Last night, the Shelby school board voted 4-3 to reinstate the novel. More coverage here.
Categories: News | Tags: censorship | No Comments »
More Sabbatical Musings: Stepping Away and Into Technology
By RR | May 14, 2009
I have made a decision regarding my upcoming sabbatical proposal. What I am really interested in doing, I think, is telling the story of a family who fled Liberia and Sierra Leone in the late 1990s at the height of the messy, diamond-fueled, multi-country conflict. My church has been working with the family since about 2005, and I have grown very close to them. They have an amazing story to tell–actually, three distinct amazing stories, since the family was split and later reunited. My sabbatical proposal will be to research (with IRB approval) their story and work on writing it. Doing so is going to raise all kinds of interesting questions about the psychology of survival, the role of storytelling in refugee communities, the best means of telling their narrative, and hosts of others (like how to get it published). I look forward to the challenge.
This might seem like quite a turn from my usual subject matter. And in some ways, it is. I won’t be writing and reading specifically about Twitter, Facebook, or whatever else comes up. I hope to keep up with everything, but my focus, I think, is going to be on storytelling. Along the way, of course, I will be using all kinds of new technologies: I am already discovering that my research methods have shifted substantially even since my dissertation days. One big difference, for example, is that the research data I gather (videos, timelines, recordings) will likely be published online, and not secreted away in some drawer somewhere. I will also rely on social networking tools to collaborate with a range of people on the project.
I am also already wishing that the Google Books full-text database was a reality for clipping content from select sources. Anybody else horrified by the idea of retyping passages? I want to cut and paste.
Categories: News | Tags: sabbatical | 1 Comment »