Kairosnews

The fifth in a series of 10-minute videos about the adventures and frustrations of an ordinary (but rather hirsute) General Practitioner. In this one, Dr Hairy is advised to try a bit of straight talking with one of his patients - with hilarious results! The first of three parts.

To view it on my site, go to http://www.edwardpicot.com/drhairy/franktalking1.mov ; or you can see it on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifwCH31cRCw ; or it should be on DVblog (http://dvblog.org) in the next couple of weeks.

- Edward Picot
http://edwardpicot.com - personal website
http://hyperex.co.uk - The Hyperliterature Exchange

From the Chronicle,

In a survey of 375 randomly selected students at Abilene Christian University, those who were more active on the social network were likelier to return for their sophomore year. On average, returning sophomores had 27 more friends and 59 more wall posts than did students who didn't return.

So all that time in class that student are using Facebook, well, that's increasing the likelihood that they will stay at our university? Maybe we need to have Facebook time in class for freshmen :-)

I've been thinking a lot about David Porter's post, Nowhere Near Critical Mass, and OER sustainability. David makes a strong point,

. . . my belief was that it would take actual teachers, instructors and students who could demonstrate success in an OER context to bring consolidation and sustainability to the goals of the open movement. Further, it seemed that little real effort was occurring on the inclusion or promotion of teachers and teaching, and that OpenEd conferences continued to be conversations within an insular community of theorists and advocates – not the stuff of implementation, nor a demonstration of broad impact.

I don't want to try to speak about OER in general, but when it comes to open textbook production, I agree with David. For the open textbook movement to become successful, it needs to go outside the innovators who began it, the activists who are part of the community. Regular teachers will need to be involved, and open textbook adoption and publishing will have to become a common element of an academic and teaching life.

The problem is that the OER community so far only has a successful ideal, that freely available textbook resources would be a great thing, but not a successful publishing model that works well for most teachers who might want to be authors. I agree, and I would imagine a majority of teachers would agree as well with the ultimate goal of providing universally free educational materials. But that's not enough. Teachers have many other important initiatives competing for their attention, with more than enough regular work to keep them busy. If OER wants teachers to create open textbook materials, there must be more than intrinsic rewards. Other than paying teachers (I'm purposely avoiding commercial models that involve payment), the way to do it is to make open textbook production valued in tenure and promotion.

So far, most open textbook production is a form of vanity publishing. If tenure and promotion committees don't value that in scholarship, why would they for textbook writing that would be judged less valuable, even in a fair critique? Moreover, publishing to the web in an online repository or on a wiki creates further complications because of the genres. The field of composition has discussed extensively how difficult it is for scholars to get credit for the digital media work that they do (for an early discussion of this, see Krause's Where Do I List This on My CV? Considering the Values of Self-Published Web Sites). While technology and digital publishing specialists who are building careers around such innovation can may successfully argue for open textbook publishing of this type, the average teacher is likely ill-equipped and unwilling to take the risk that the work they do will count for nothing.

Now one model that solves these problems is what we are doing at Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. WS is an edited collection of peer-reviewed essays written by teachers for students. Teachers submit a proposal, some are selected for full manuscript development and given some developmental feedback, those are reviewed by two members of our editorial board who offer extensive feedback, then once (if) accepted, a chapter goes into copy editing where editors and the author work together on producing the polished, finished product. The volume is published as a book, and PDF versions are available online for free download under CC licenses.

The advantage? An edited collection that is a peer-reviewed book is a recognizable genre to tenure and promotion committees. Teachers know how to argue for this and only need to make the case that writing for student audiences is of value. In many non-research one institutions, it could count as a publication credit. Plus, I would also note that peer review in process of development improves the quality of the finished text. These post-publication reviews of open textbook materials on the web that some projects are doing are great "book reviews" to help teachers in adoption, but they don't influence the quality of the final project. Peer review as part of production is an important part of open source, and it should be part of open textbook publication, too. This is why of the many open textbook projects on the web, I believe that Wikibooks and similar wiki commons-based-peer-production projects are likely to result in better quality textbook materials. Only the problem with them is getting recognizable credit for an author's contribution that a tenure and review committee can see, not to mention the negative ethos of the wiki genre in academia.

I don't believe that WS's model is the only one, but I do believe the OER community has to take a serious look at how to create production models that teachers can participate in and easily receive credit for at their institutions. I will also follow up this post at a later date with some more of the benefits of the WS publication model.

I just read that Craigslist has, at least temporarily, suspended its highly profitable adult services postings. Now users trying to access those links will find a censored notification. Unfortunately for Craigslist's founders, that is precisely the part of the site that was drawing a huge amount of revenue. While I'm certainly not opposed to this action, it is hard to fight the impression that it's one more step towards fencing in the wild wild web.

I'd thought I'd throw out some characteristics of my son's generation rather than wait for ten years or so to see how they represent themselves in a Pew and American Life study. He's almost eleven years old. His is the generation that was born into Web 2.0 and other advanced digital technology. I know this isn't true for all kids his age (and it may be more true for boys--I don't know), but it's fun to imagine:

1. Many of them would rather take videos than still pictures.
2. They either have themselves, or have a friend close in age, who has put up a video on YouTube.
3. They either have themselves, or have a friend close in age, who has been in a YouTube video.
4. They have their own computer, or at least one that is shared with siblings and not the adults in the family.
5. They share websites and videos they find on the Internet.
6. They have email accounts and send and receive email on occassion.
7. They have played an MMORPG designed for kids along with other kids in their school. My son and friends at school, boys and girls alike, play Wizard 101.
8. They have mobile phones and have sent and/or received text messages.
9. Some are used to watching television and/or movies without commerical interruptions, and they will prefer the use of a DVD, Blueray, DVR, Tivo, or Netflix on demand to avoid commercials.
10. They have more than one game system, at least a DS and a console unit.
11. Cable television is not their sole, primary form of digital entertainment. Video games and the Internet have a strong, competing role for their attrention.
12. Mp3 players are the primary music listening device that they own.
13. Radio is something they listen to in the car when there are no CDs, the DS is not with them, and they forgot the mp3 player. It's the electronic media of last resort.
14. Superheroes are something one sees in movies or cartoon series, not in comics (my son is the exception; he reads Marvel comics).
15. Fantasy and science fiction--in video and in print--are often their primary genre of choice.
16. The boys read video game reviews on the Internet and in magazines and discuss them with the enthusiasm adult males read sports and talk about sports.
17. Thanks to Rock Band and Guitar Hero, the music their parents--and even younger grandparents--grew up with can be "cool" to like and to listen to.

Assistant Professor of Creative Writing:

Position Description. Reporting to the Chair of the Department of Writing and Linguistics, the Assistant Professor of Creative Writing position requires teaching, service, and research responsibilities and a terminal degree. The successful candidate will teach 3 courses per semester with primary assignment in multi-genre and single-genre Creative Writing courses. The position is a 9-month, tenure-track appointment, and the salary is competitive and commensurate with qualifications and experience.
 
Required Qualifications:
•                      M.F.A. or Ph.D. with creative dissertation by August 1, 2011
•                      Publication in nationally recognized journals or presses
•                      Experience teaching multiple creative writing genres
•                      Experience teaching with technology
•                      Evidence of excellence in teaching
 
Preferred Qualifications:
•                      Poetry as primary genre
•                      Publications in multiple creative writing genres
•                      Book publication with nationally recognized press
•                      At least one year of full-time experience teaching creative writing
•                      Experience developing and teaching online courses and programs
•                      Evidence of interest in active involvement with students, such as advising majors, advising creative writing club, and judging student competitions
 
 
Postmark deadline for receipt of applications is October 15, 2010. The position starting date is August 1, 2011. A complete application consists of a letter addressing the qualifications cited above; a curriculum vitae; and three letters of professional reference. Additional documentation may be requested. Georgia Southern University seeks to recruit individuals who are committed to working in diverse academic and professional communities. Applications and nominations should be sent to:
          Professor Eric Nelson, Search Chair, Search 59262
                             Department of Writing and Linguistics
                             Georgia Southern University
                             P. O. Box 8026
                             Statesboro GA 30460-8026
          Electronic mail: enelson@georgiasouthern.edu
          Telephone: 912-478-0739
 

More information about the institution is available through http://www.georgiasouthern.edu or http://class.georgiasouthern.edu/writling/. Georgia Southern University seeks individuals who are committed to excellence in teaching, scholarship, and professional service within the University and beyond. Finalists will be required to submit to a background investigation. Georgia is an Open Records state. Georgia Southern University is an AA/EO institution. Individuals who need reasonable accommodations under the ADA to participate in the search process should contact the Associate Provost.

All,   As the 2011 conference chair, I am pleased to share with you the call for proposals for the 14th annual conference of the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing. Like previous ATTW conferences, the 2011 conference will be held on the Wednesday immediately preceding the start of the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) in Atlanta, GA. That date is Wednesday, April 6th.   The theme for the 2011 conference is Networks of Technical Communication. The CFP is available at http://www4.ncsu.edu/~jswarts/ATTW_2011.html . I hope you find the theme as compelling as I do and that you will consider submitting a proposal by October 8, 2010.    If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at jswarts [at] ncsu [dot] edu.   Sincerely,   Jason Swarts 

There's a story up at studentpirgs.org about rising textbook costs and some news laws designed to fight it. Their calculations show that "textbook wholesale prices have risen more than four times the rate of inflation over the last two decades" and that new laws will force publishers to reveal their textbook prices to faculty. The article also points to open-source textbooks and the very popular textbook rental companies springing up all over the place. The commercial textbook publishers better get on that subscription-based electronic book bandwagon soon if they want to keep their high rises on the Avenue of the Americas.

The BBC has a story about a computer programming class at the National Museum for Computing in Bletchley where students are using PDP-8 computers, machines built by DEC during the 1960's.

Here's a silly idea. I propose we collect donations and scour Goodwill stores for some old IBM 5150 first generation PC's for a computer lab with Wordstar and retro gaming. I bet we could find someone that would love to host it at St. Cloud University.

That would actually be an interesting project, though, wouldn't it? To try composing in Wordstar in a comp classroom? The main problems would be (a) there would be no way for students to print out their papers (could we even purchase the necessary paper assuming we could find a working printer to attach?), (b) a computer classroom without people using Facebook would be very weird, and (c) students would get confused over how to hook their USB flash drives up to save their papers ;-)

The open access series Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing seeks chapter proposals for its third volume. We are interested in a wide range of topics relevant for first-year composition, but especially in accessible discussions of rhetoric. Possible topics include but are not limited to the following:

• rhetorical appeals, especially ethos
• rhetorical fallacies
• inductive and deductive arguments
• strategies for addressing different audiences

We are not interested in "general introductions to rhetoric" kinds of chapters.

The deadline for proposals is September 1st. To submit a proposal, please visit http://writingspaces.org/authors/submit-proposal. If you have questions, please contact the series editos Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky at http://writingspaces.org/contact

Writing Spaces is published in partnership with Parlor Press and the WAC Clearinghouse.

 
From Vooks to ebooks, from the iPad to the Google settlement, and from print-on-demand to new styles of writing, this article attempts to analyse the effects of the digital revolution on the publishing industry, and to make some educated guesses about how things may develop in the next few years.

"An alternative to the Big Publishing model is already with us, and despite the odd viral phenomenon it consists in the main of very large numbers of small-scale products reaching small audiences, rather than small numbers of very high-profile products reaching huge audiences. This alternative model is enabled by digital technology, and it replaces high production values and market-minded editorial controls with the principle that people's desire to publish themselves and to look at each other's efforts is itself a profit motor."

To read the whole article, go to http://www.hyperex.co.uk/reviewdigitalpublishing.php or http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?review_id=406 .

- Edward Picot
personal website - http://edwardpicot.com

I've been reading about Fred Brooks' new book The Design of Design: Essays from a Computer Scientist. Of course, I've had Brooks' earlier book, The Mythican Man-Month, on my reading list for many years now. I assume you know the basic premise there about how adding extra engineers to a project doesn't necessarily result in a speedier development cycle. Wired has an interview up with Brooks about his book. There aren't a lot of insights there, but it's interesting to see that Brooks now sees the benefit of encapsulation and how much faster hardware has accelerated compared to software.

Anyway, has anyone read the new book? I'd love to hear your opinion.

 

The Wall Street Journal of August 20,2010 carries a story about start up Inkling's introduction of "four full-length interactive college textbooks . . . designed specifically for Apple's iPad."  The texts, from McGraw-Hill (no releated info was found on their site about this), are best sellers in economics, psychology, marketing and biology. An introductory offer has chapters selling, beginning Monday, August 23, for $2.99 and the books for $69.99. Prices will go up to $3.99 a chapter and to $79.99 for whole books after the introductory period lapses.

What makes this a leap is the books will no longer be just static digitial versions of text-books, but they will allow for 3-D views, manipulation of images, page swiping with the trouch screen and more. Deals have also been struck with education publishers Cengage and John Wiley & Sons. Maybe you do need that iPad after all?

I thought some of you might find these apps interesting. They are for special needs children, particularly (it seems) autistic children. These apps facilitate visual communication and help parents to help children visualize their everyday routine activities, goal/reward systems, and social situations.

Years ago in a diversity seminar, a staff member who was leading the seminar said that when things (anything: buildings, cars, computers, etc.) are designed for accessibility, everyone benefits. Literally: wheelchair ramps are used by moms with strollers (hello!), power-assist doors are used by people who are carrying a lot of boxes or bags, and so forth. I'm sure my children, students, etc. could put these programs to good use.

The Wired Campus newsletter from the Chronicle of Higher Education asks, seeming yet again, "Should Colleges do More to Teach Students about Plagiarism?" My answers is, maybe the this is the wrong question. Most of the plagiarism we encounter is improperly cited work, which may or may not be an attempt to deceive. With regard to the article itself, more likely to be informative, or at least of interest, is the ensuing discussion the article prompts.

For More: http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Should-Colleges-Do-More-to/26250/?sid=wc&u...

I want to try to think of as many possible "Top IP Developments of 2010" as possible while 2010 is still going on, so that I'll have a lot of topics to assign for the CCCC IP Annual. (Most people want to be assigned a topic.)

There's Viacom v. YouTube...anything else you can think of right now?

"It was too hot. She was struck by an unusual heaving. A sense of irritation gathered round the doors and windows. Margaret reached the small side-entrance. The porter's answer to the bell. The keen sharp pressure of the knife. She went across and up. Click of machinery."

Continuing the abridged version of Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South - abridged on the principle of leaving out all the important bits. In this section Margaret, supposedly on the lookout for a water-bed, conceives a sudden and all-consuming passion for clogs.

http://edwardpicot.com/and/

- Edward Picot

http://edwardpicot.com - personal website
http://hyperex.co.uk - The Hyperliterature Exchange

Great news for open access publishing. Kairos has received a $50,000 grant from the NEH Office of Digital Humanities for their project, Building a Better Back-End: Editor, Author, & Reader Tools for Scholarly Multimedia. The grant will provide funding to hire an open source programmer to develop the Open Journal System (OJS) to manage the type of multimedia scholarship publishing that Kairos does.

 

Please excuse any cross-posting.

On the heels of the successful publication of the first volume, and with the second volume entering the production stage soon, the editors of Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing are happy to announce the call for proposals for volume 3. The deadline has now been extended until September 1.

Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing is an open textbook series for composition seeking proposals for essays for our 3rd volume. Each Writing Spaces book contains peer-reviewed collections of essays all composed by teachers for students, with each chapter freely available for download from our website under a Creative Commons license.

For more information about the call for proposals, including submission format, contact information of the editors, and other instructions, please visit http://writingspaces.org/authors/cfps

Also, please help us spread the word of this call among any friends and colleagues who are not reading Kairosnews, but might be interested in submitting a chapter proposal.

There's a story at Slashdot about a bit of sabotage played out by a handyman seeking revenge on a school caretaker. The UK Press is calling it a child porn plot, and it amounts to the handyman sneaking illegal images onto the victim's computer and then reporting it to cops. Although he was eventually cleared, the caretaker was still subject all all manner of harassment and ostracizication by his peers.

Something to think about it if one of your colleagues is accused of something like this--it could well be a setup.