Shameless Self-Promotion: Literature and the Web Now Available for Pre-Order
By RR | May 9, 2008
It was a big thrill for me to discover that our book, Literature and the Web: Reading and Responding with New Technologies (Heinemann 2008) is now available for order on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Its presence online seems a little weird, given that I am still writing the index, but there it is nevertheless.
If you have taken my methods courses (ENG 310 and 311, ED 331) over the past couple of years, you might recognize some of the applications discussed in the book–blogs, podcasts, social networks, RSS aggregators, MOOs/MUDS, Second Life, digital text archives, and more. You might even see yourself in its pages. The goal of the book is to align the goals that many literature teachers profess–teaching students to enter the story world, read the text closely, situate the text in historical and sociocultural ways, and respond in personally meaningful ways–with a range of new Web applications. The book also provides resources for teachers with little or no access to technology and a wealth of Web resources. My co-author Allen Webb and I are very hopeful that it will be a highly useful guide for pre-service and in-service English teachers alike.
Topics: News | 3 Comments »
Streaming Video Grant, Part Two
By RR | May 8, 2008
Three years ago, I received a small grant from the GVSU FTLC for the purpose of enhancing my course(s) with technology. I used the funding to purchase a media desktop, two mini-dv camcorders and accessories, and some low-end video editing software (Nero and Roxio). The secondary English education faculty have been using this equipment to videotape English teacher assistants in the field. The TAs use their recorded performances to reflect on their strengths and weaknesses. Overall, it’s been a successful addition to the course (ED 331), though I always felt that capturing video, editing, and burning DVDs was a big hassle. Sometimes, as in this past semester, certain brands of DVDs don’t play in all players, so some students weren’t able to view them.
This fall, I applied for the same grant again, and this time, I’m using the money to buy a new hard drive camcorder (either Sony or Canon–advice?), some high-end editing software (Adobe Premier Pro 1.5 or Sony Vegas), and some streaming server space at DivShare. The goal is to eliminate two time-consuming processes: capturing video in real time (that is, a 40 minute performance takes 40 minutes to capture) and burning the DVD, which can take up to two hours, depending on the length of the video.
Instead, I’ll be able to move the data from the data from the camcorder like any file–no real time capture necessary–and upload the files (after edits) to a streaming server–no burning necessary. Most of my students have broadband access, so this should be a good solution. DivShare also seems like a good service, allowing you to password protect videos and plug them directly into your Wordpress blog.
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Facebook Kills Yearbook (Good Riddance)
By RR | May 8, 2008
If the trend described in this recent Talk of the Nation continues, English teachers of the future will have something to be grateful for: they’ll no longer have to advise the school yearbook. Yearbooks are apparently on the way out, becoming redundant and a little stale thanks to social networks like Facebook and MySpace.
This makes sense to me. In essence, Yearbooks try to preserve transitory high school relationships and experiences. Think of a typical yearbook autograph, loaded with nostalgia references, inside jokes, and promises to stay in touch. (”I’ll never forgot Mr. So and So’s geometry class with you! Stay sweet!”) Now, social networks let high school friends carry on their relationships beyond their high school years, even encouraging users to look up their old classmates. Who needs the yearbook when Facebook can supply you with updated pictures, information, and more about your former buddies?
This is good news, I think, since supervising the yearbook is one of the most thankless tasks a teacher can take on. The job usually falls to English teachers, who are already burdened with grading deadlines. These teachers receive very little credit for the countless hours they spend rounding up class photos, designing pages, and hounding students for copy. Too frequently, in fact, they are criticized for missing a detail or letting a typo slide by (”Why didn’t my son’s hockey team get an entire page?”).
Of course, smart job seekers will agree to take on yearbook, or the newspaper for that matter. But if you are asked to take on this Herculean venture, you might just say, “Nah . . . it’s all on Facebook anyway.”
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You Know You’re Getting Old When . . .
By RR | May 1, 2008
On this week-long break between semesters, I’ve had a little bit of leisure time. I stopped by the library the other day for some books for Aidan (Dora the Explorer) and some music for me. While I was browsing, I saw a video game I couldn’t resist: X Men III: The Official Game. It’s been a long time since I played a first-person shooter–to give you an idea, my last real vice was Half-Life (the first one). In fact, the only game I currently play is Age of Empires III, a real-time strategy game. I justify picking up the X Men game as part of my scholarly interest in the serious gaming movement.
In any case, the X Men game lets you play as Wolverine, Night Crawler, and Iceman. Night Crawler is by far the coolest. I was playing a mission the other night where NC has to teleport frequently, jumping from spot to spot and enemy to enemy to achieve his goals. It was captivating, even engrossing until I began getting a little dizzy. All the jumping around on screen must have upset my 37-year-old inner ear. I had to sit down and take a break. Pretty pathetic.
There’s even a term for this: simulator sickness. Ah well.
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Mac v. Windows: The Saga Continues
By RR | April 17, 2008
I’ve been debating over whether (and when) to switch to a Macbook Pro. I’ve suffered three major crashes on my Dell laptop within the last year and have grown pretty weary of bringing it in to the helpful people at GVSU IT. I bet they are also sick of working on the laptop of that guy from the English department. You know, the one who is running Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and Second Life on his Dell laptop.
I have come to a decision: I am not going to buy a Windows machine again. It looks like I may be sticking it out with my current laptop (GVSU IT is adding more RAM and a new keyboard for me), but I am balking at the notion of investing in another uninspired, crash-prone Windows computer in the future. As it turns out, my latest crash resulted from Windows downloading an update. And from what I have heard, Windows Vista is far worse than XP.
Part of my decision to go Mac–at least eventually–is based on the superior service Mac seems to provide. The other night, I chatted for a good half-an-hour with a Mac person, asking a lot of technical questions about the Macbook Pro. The service was, well, exquisite: friendly, informative, and prompt. I felt a little giddy afterwards.
Another part is simple: design matters. Why the PC clones can’t come up with a minimalistic, clean-looking design as aesthetically pleasing as the Macbook Pro is beyond me.
I’m also overdue to learn the MAC OS, since Macs are increasingly popular in middle and high schools. What I hope all this means is that sometime in the future, perhaps two years down the road when I’m due for a new machine at GVSU, or perhaps sooner when my home laptop (also a Dell) dies, I’ll be looking for a Macbook Pro, not a Windows clone.
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Starving for the Feed? Try Google Reader’s Public Feature
By RR | April 15, 2008
Several students have noticed that the course bundle feeds I’ve put together at Feedbite haven’t been updating. I explored this a little today, and I think the problem is with Feedbite, as opposed to Edublogs, which has its own set of issues. Not insignificantly, Feedbite also crashed at the end of last semester.
To fix the mess, I decided to export the Feedbite bundles to Google Reader. This was pretty simple–I looked under “manage subscriptions” and was able to import an opml file from Feedbite. Google Reader nicely arranged these in a folder for me. Then, under the “tags” category, I selected “public” for the folder, clicked on “public page,” and saw that I could get a feed of the entire folder. If you would like to resubscribe, just right-click on the link(s) below and paste into Google Reader.
Now that I know how to create bundles with Google Reader, it’s farewell to Feedbite. I hardly knew ye.
Topics: Courses | No Comments »
Weekend with Mac-y
By RR | April 13, 2008
So, my Dell D620 laptop is on the fritz again, with a couple of results: 1) I’m not doing the grading I should be doing and 2) I have time to blog more. The good people at GVSU IT gave me a Macbook for a weekend loaner.
I have to admit, this is a beatiful machine–all rounded corners and silver surfaces, without a lot of extra stuff. I was also pleased that my regular two-button mouse works with the Macbook. I’m still figuring out how Mac works exactly. Right now, I don’t quite get the “taskbar” on the left, but I am improving. I still can’t do some VERY basic things, like get this window (MAC-dow?) the right size and find the backspace key. But the overall experience is pretty cool.
What about all my PC software? I have Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash, Acrobat, and a bunch of other costly stuff (okay, a few games too) that won’t run with MAC OS. But I know that it is possible to run both MAC OS and WIN XP on a Mac, thanks to a cool company called Parallels. So, I could spend most of my time in MAC (or XP) and switch whenever it was necessary. Sounds like a bit of a pain, but intriguing nevertheless.
Still thinking about making the switch. Advice from people who have used both?
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Don’t Have Office 2003? No Problem
By RR | April 11, 2008
GVSU Information Technology just added a really cool feature: remote access to lab computers. Here’s what this means: if you are a GVSU student (or faculty member) and don’t have Office 2003 or other software that GVSU labs support, you can go to the homepage, click on the link, follow the instructions, and use that software from home.
I just tried it with Word 2003 and it works beautifully. And it’s convenient, too, now that my computer is hospitalized again. The one catch is that you need a broadband connection at home. But if I’m right, about 75 percent of GVSU students have one. Kudos to GVSU IT for this really great addition. Now, let’s talk about getting some really COOL software for remote access (the newest Photoshop perhaps? Adobe Premier? Sony Vegas?).
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Possible Corruption
By RR | April 10, 2008
My laptop (a Dell D620) has crashed again. Right now, it’s sitting on my desk with the following error message: “The image urlmon.dll is possibly corrupt. The header checksum does not match the computed checksum.” Not sure exactly what this means, but it’s the second time in less than a month that the laptop has suffered a major malfunction (and the third time within the last nine months or so). I have taken to backing up my data religiously. Even so, I lost a day or two of writing this time around–at least until the GVSU tech help retrieves it for me.
I have also needed to replace the keyboard, battery, and power cord. The touchpad has never worked correctly.
What’s amazing is the way the temporary loss of my laptop paralyzes me: I feel like my mind is less focused and that I can’t get my work done properly. My laptop–as faulty as it has been–has become a sort of appendage. So, here’s hoping it’s salvaged–or replaced–sometime soon.
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Faculty on Facebook
By RR | March 19, 2008
For the last few weeks, I’ve been neglecting this blog in order to work on a short video entitled “Faculty on Facebook: Social Networking, Ethics, and the Academy.” The video is part of my presentation for an upcoming conference at GVSU. I’ve been working with a slew of programs (see below) but having a ton of fun. About halfway through the project, I start using Sony Vegas (as per the suggestion of Michael Wesch), which allowed me to do a few more effects, though the learning curve was a little steep. In any case, here is the YouTube version of the video, which looks a little fuzzy. You can also download a higher quality version here.
Update:After much obsessing, I fixed a formatting error this morning and have now uploaded the improved version to Youtube. Basically, some of my screen captures were taken and rendered in 16:9 ratio format and not 4:3, so there were black bars running on the sides of the video. Lesson learned.
Topics: Multimedia | 1 Comment »