#TvsZ 6.0 is in its final hours, but I can’t help stepping away just to record a few–sadly few!–of the many amazing media artifacts that players have created in the past few days. Here’s a sample, and there’s much much more. What a wealth of imagination, creativity, collective learning to use new tools, networked knowhow, and sheer fun! Enjoy.... Read More | Share it now!
When cows can fly: In the heat of the #TvsZ 6.0 moment
#TvsZ 6.0: A giant game of Twitter Red Rover
This weekend, I’ve been playing #TvsZ 6.0 with friends and students. The game is both like and unlike previous iterations. I have loved every version I’ve played so far, but this one may be my favorite.... Read More | Share it now!
Public scholarship and undergraduate teaching
“Certainly those determining acts of her life were not ideally beautiful. They were the mixed result of young and noble impulse struggling amidst the conditions of an imperfect social state, in which great feelings will often take the aspect of error, and great faith the aspect of illusion. For there is no creature whose inward being is so strong that it is not greatly determined by what lies outside it. …But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive, for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts, and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life and rest in unvisited tombs.” (George Eliot)
I’ve been participating–with varying degrees of engagement, though with unflagging enthusiasm–in #connected courses this fall. As with so many other MOOCs and mooc-like online learning experiences, I find myself most engaged by the small conversations that happen around the edges of the organized course content. This is why I like Twitter, I think. I like to dip my toe in the endless stream, to be aware of what people are talking about, to engage, to meet others, to browse some of the blogs I would never otherwise encounter. I am, I suspect, a fox by practice even if a hedgehog by conviction, to abuse Isaiah Berlin’s immortal metaphor.... Read More | Share it now!
How do I keep the research/conversations going during the semester?
This is a perennial question for me, and one I have never “solved” adequately. Some semesters I get more of my own research done than others, but I always find that I feel unsatisfied with my ability to remain connected to my larger academic discourse community during the semester.... Read More | Share it now!
Connected Homework & the shock of getting a reply to a “study” tweet
I am really excited for Monday’s Connected Courses webinar on “Social Capital” and the value of a “personal learning network.” The resources are already helpful, but I am looking forward to hearing how other faculty members have actually mentored students through this process.... Read More | Share it now!
Attention Mindfulness Journal
A friend recently asked for the “attention journal” assignment I am using in my introduction to digital scholarship course (WSP101 on this blog). I’ve pasted the assignment in below. This post is a description of what I want to accomplish by the assignment and how I am conceptualizing it. I’d love your feedback and comments!... Read More | Share it now!
Connecting to “Connected Courses”
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="321"] By Silver Spoon (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons[/caption]I am happy to participate in this fall’s Connected Courses cMOOC. As a recent member of FemTechNet, I am an advocate and believer in opening my courses to the world. This fall, I will be teaching an introductory course for potential future “Whittier Scholars.” Whittier Scholars are students who design their own majors, building intentionally interdisciplinary study programs by putting together courses from across Whittier’s divisional offerings, enriching their experience with study abroad and/or off campus experiences, and all leading to/driven by their own research project.... Read More | Share it now!
Digital Skills for Designing Your Own Major
Here is a syllabus I am trying out for the first time. The course is an introductory course for students who plan to self-design their own interdisciplinary majors:... Read More | Share it now!
Reflections on Playing TvsZ
Games that build community
I’ve been playing the latest installment of Jesse Stommel and Pete Rorabaugh’s Twitter tag game Twitter vs Zombies this weekend. (Quick shout out to my hubby: sorry for ignoring you last night.) Follow the #TvsZ hashtag now through Sunday night to see the game play, or sign up at to participate. It has been fun to play, though I became a zombie within the first couple hours :(.... Read More | Share it now!