Category: Uncategorized
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Signs of life in public education: a way forward through peer observation
Despite all of the dreary pronouncements of American schools failing too many kids, and the endless stories of “deadbeat” teachers who don’t care and won’t leave their comfort zone despite contractual inducements and the best data-driven reasons (like this one), I am not overly discouraged. Why not? Because in my own school, a colleague, all…
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What exactly is a computer "nerd"?
review of: Kendall, L. (2000). “‘Oh No! I’m A Nerd!’ Hegemonic Masculinity on an Online Forum.” Gender & Society, Vol. 14 No. 2, April 2000 256-274. Kendall conducted a two-year study as participant-observer of a “Mud” (“Multi-user dungeon,” an “online forum” or text-based chat room that also operated “primarily as a social meeting space” [257]).…
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How Computer Sciences became a male "clubhouse"
review of Chapters 1-3 of Margolis, J. and Fisher, A. (2002) Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing. Cambridge, Massachusetts. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2002. The authors undertake to find out the reasons for the “gendering” of computer sciences. They use interviews with the undergraduates of Carnegie Mellon’s Computer Sciences (CS) programs to learn what made CS…
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What MMOG's have to teach in the way of "new literacies"
One of the great articles my CUC course in Ed. Technology had me reading last week was one by MMOG champion Constance Steinkuehler (2007). “Massively Mulitplayer Online Gaming as a Constellation of Literacy Practices.” E-Learning, vol. 4, no. 3, 2007. http://www.wwwords.co.uk/ELEA Though it wasn’t her main focus, I found the exposition of “new literacies” I…
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I'm- I'm- I'm impressed with IM'ing
review of: Lewis, C., & Fabos, B. (2005). “Instant messaging, literacies, and social identities.” Reading Research Quarterly, 40(4), 470–501. The authors look at Instant Messaging (IM) as a distinct literary form with implications on the literacy and social development of its users. They conducted a study of actual IM-ers, exploring their composition strategies, their use of…
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"Network Literacy," according to Meg Ormiston
The following are notes from Ms. Ormiston’s workshop at the 34th Annual Reading Conference at Concordia University Chicago. She opens up with a provocative statement: “Every single day, I grow professionally.” To the attendee, most likely a public school teacher or librarian doing officially-sanctioned professional growth, this sounds rather suspicious, if not profligate. But then…
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To close the "digital divide," let's have some bold efforts, please
This spirited discussion of the almost-total digital desert in rural places in Mississippi–places where still no broadband internet is available–brings up some interesting points, and the notion that maybe a “Civil Rights” movement is called for. First, the findings: “With far too little internet access in communities of color, hundreds of thousands are effectively prevented from…
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Some reasons kids love social networks–translatable to schools?
review of: Boyd, D. (2007) “Why youth (heart) social network sites: The role of networked publics in teenage social life.” In D. Buckingham (Ed.), MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Learning, Identity. The author undertakes to find out how socially-mediated communication (the sort that happens in online social networks like MySpace and Facebook) are affecting the normal…
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Arne said what?
Thanks to Anthony Cody, who alerted me a recent post to some surprising speech from Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. According to this story in the Raleigh News & Observer, Duncan told a group of educators there that they should avoid teaching to the test.[emphases added] “We want to give every child a chance to…
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Sometimes I feel like a textile mill worker, circa 1910
Difficult work: a fabric mill …like a laborer in the deafeningly loud, particulate air-filled factory in the photo at right: I am trying to do an impossible job at high efficiency, and losing hope in the process. In the last ten years, every teacher in my typical English department has had five classes a day…
The Wikiness 