composing ecologies

by Bill Posted on September 21, 2007

Students in my Technologies and the Future of Writing module of Introduction to Writing Arts are designing their own information ecologies.

information ecologies

These ecologies are comprised of:

The main question they will be considering is: How can each of these writing spaces help form your information ecology? Through the process of composing these ecologies, students are considering: the meaning of “technology” in multiple (and often conflicting) contexts; identity; writing spaces; ownership; classification systems (tagging and folksonomies); information architecture; and writing in online environments. The topics are introduced and presented in such a way to provide a foundation for their times as Writing Arts majors and prepare them to compose their final portfolios.

Today, in a rowdy and raucous class, we set up our blogs:

They’ll be posting on the readings and their own professional, educational, and personal interests. Check ’em out and see what you think.

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(re)composing landscapes

by Bill Posted on September 21, 2007

Today, as part of International Day of Peace activities, Rowan University’s College of Fine Arts hosted an exhibition of Pinwheels for Peace (1 of 4 such exhibitions in Glassboro, NJ) on the lawn between Science and Westby Halls.

Pinwheels for Peace

This non-political organization aims to provide an alternative to the violent images that bombard children via TV, video games, and the movies. The organization web site says that it is their “hope that through the Pinwheels for Peace project, we can help the students make a public visual statement about their feelings about war/ peace/ tolerance/ cooperation/ harmony/ unity and, in some way, maybe, awaken the public and let them know what the next generation is thinking.”

I walked over to the exhibition with Sandy Tweedie, expecting to take a few pictures of it for an old friend who is an elementary school art teacher, and then be on my way to the Amish market in Mullica Hill. I didn’t expect there to be a table outfitted with markers and pastels so that passers-by could make their own. Some of the pinwheels were exceptional–amazing colors, wonderful patterns–and clearly took a lot of time and thought. On the other hand, my pinwheel (front and back):

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jing and screencast

by Bill Posted on September 8, 2007

Several weeks ago I downloaded a screen and video capture tool called Jing after reading about it on Jeff VanDrimmelen’s Educause blog. I thought I would use it to create instructional videos for my students who were having trouble following the school’s online instructions for connecting to the school servers from home. This weekend I finally had a chance to use it, and I am somewhat happy with the results. The sound and video quality are quite good, but I cannot find a way to shrink the size of the video that displays on the page. Hopefully future versions of Jing and Screencast (the application that hosts the videos) will have the feature.

Below is the Media Roll of the two videos I have created already. They are embedded in the page. If you click on a video, a new window will open a swf movie file.

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remembering katrina

by Bill Posted on August 29, 2007

Two years ago today and the days following my wife and I, as many did, watched with horror and rage as New Orleans flooded and thousands were left to try and survive. Several thousand residents took shelter in Austin, and Aimee and I did what we did to help: we went to Costco and bought at much as we could afford of the items we were told were in need: water, baby formula, diapers, and many others. I got my friend, Craig, an ER doctor in NYC, in contact with a doctor in Houston and he flew down and helped for a week:

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