I guess it's about time I reported on my experience using Ning in my English 403/503 class (Digital Rhetoric). We've been using it to make social networking sites, and some of them are really coming along. Check it out! I'm going to make a presentation at GPACW about the project, but you can see for yourself. I believe Kairosnews readers might be particularly interested in Freeware Chronicles, Comics Scholarship, and Fan Fiction Unlimited, though I like them all. Of course, these students could use some extra members, so pass the word along if you would. :P

I've been working on a chapter for Charlie and Pavel's collection and came across 5 Great Alternatives To Google Docs You Should Consider by David Pierce. I hadn't heard hardly anything about these before reading the article, and one is even made by Adobe (Buzzword). One called Zoho even gives you a personal wiki!

Hi, all. I'm posting this CFP for a conference being hosted (by me, presumably) here at St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, MN. This is a fantastic group of folks who love tech and are very supportive and graduate-student friendly. I think it's going to be lots of fun, too! (We do have a Space Aliens in town, you know).

Click here for the website. The deadline for submissions has been extended to Sep. 13th. Click here for the PDF version of the CFP, but mind the extended deadline above.

Hi, everyone. I want to ask your advice about choosing a textbook or two for my English 403/503 class called "Computers & English." I want to teach it as an intro to new media type course with a focus on doing projects rather than theoretical readings. I don't really want it to have a pedagogical focus; it should be more focused on writing with some new media stuff like blogs and wikis. I also thought about doing a Flash movie or maybe an interactive project of some sort (PPT or Flash, maybe?).

I know this isn't "ready for primetime" by any stretch of the imagination, but if you missed C&W or for whatever reason wanted to see the video I prepared, here's the link.

Looks like California may be the first state to really start hammering on open source digital textbooks, which the Governator thinks might cut spending by $350 million. Hilarious that this is happening in the Hollywood state. :)

I know many of you have been keeping tabs on Wolphram|Alpha, the "long-term project to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable by anyone." Well, looks like Google has responded with their own tool called Google Squared. You can read up on Google Squared on the official Google Blog, but here's the scoop:

I was reading Boing Boing today and found a link to Educational Origami, a blgo and wiki about Information and Communication Technologies in the classroom. Much of it seems focused on Bloom, learning styles, and various kind of charts that break people into groups like "leaders" and "risk takers." It was founded by Andrew Churches, a "Curriculum Manager Computer Studies and ICT PD Cluster co-director" and "ICT enthusiast." Anyway, nice to see folks really jumping on wikis.