student web texts

Student Web Zines and Other Online Student Anthologies
13 Feb

Developing a Facebook/Myspace Bibliography

in bibliographies, blog & cms, composition, educational software & courseware, eportfolios, literacy and access, social networks & collaboration, student web texts, web design & usability

Hi Folks:

I'm working with a group who is trying to look objectively at Facebook, Myspace and other social networks to find if there are meaningful lessons about their popularity which we could incorporate into electronic portfolio design for use in higher education. It might well turn out that these spaces are popular with students mainly because their "teachers" aren't there, but we're hopeful that there are some more objective lessons to take away.

The first step in our project is to engage in a fairly complete literature survey. We're working on a bibliography, but I didn't want to pass up your collective knowledge -- does anyone know of scholarly work done/being done on Facebook and Myspace specifically that we should not miss?

25 Dec

Permit me to brag about some of my students....

in blog & cms, new media, student web texts

For the past few weeks, a reporter from the Pittspurgh Post-Gazette has been working on an article on weblogs in higher education. I was delighted to see some of my favorite anecdotes about my students' blogging made their way into the article.

Freedom of speech redefined by blogs: Words travel faster, stay around longer in the blogosphere (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Jessica Prokop thought the textbook for her class at Seton Hill University was biased and that its author "seems like a bitter man." In the annals of student rants, nothing extraordinary there.

Except she didn't just blurt out those words in her journalism class. She blogged them. Soon, the author himself was responding all the way from England, pledging to re-examine an upcoming edition given her critique.

Junior Mike Rubino got a more extreme lesson about free speech in the blogosphere. His "10 reasons why Seton Hill doesn't need a football team," including a claim that "jocks" would bring more drugs, alcohol and fights to campus, irked arriving players who found his Internet posting months later.

"I even got calls to my room," he said. "They talked to my roommate, thinking it was me, saying things like they're going to kick my butt."

23 Sep

Onward, Wiki Soldiers: Let's Liberate Composition

in fyc, higher education, student web texts, wikis

It begun when I read RIP-OFF 101, a report detailing how the textbook industry is inflating the costs of college textbooks by a variety of means, most of them devious. It goes beyond the "new edition" that differs only in pagination. It's a national scandal. I don't want to be associated with it. I find it embarrassing. I want it to go away. Let me add my voice to those of students demanding that the the $70 composition textbook remain on the shelf. We don't need them that badly and never did. Thankfully, there is something we can do about it. Find out how.

15 Sep

the next\text project: what happens when textbooks go digital?

in assessment, bibliographies, composition, distance ed & elearning, educational software & courseware, eportfolios, epublishing & ejournals, fyc, higher education, k-12, new media, new technologies, online classrooms, open content, rss, social networks & collaboration, student web texts, virtual communities, wikis

Dear Kairos Readers,

The Institute for the Future of the Book is pleased to announce the launch of next\text, a new project designed to encourage the creation of born-digital learning materials that will enhance, expand, and ultimately replace the printed textbook.

There are two stages to the next\text project. The first is a curated website showcasing significant projects currently in the field. The aim is to draw attention to a broad range of experiments that identify ways in which digital media and networks are expanding the potential of textbooks, redefining the role of teacher and student, and converging to create new ecologies for educational institutions. These areas include, but are in no way limited to: "expanded" multimedia textbooks; "open-source" textbooks continually improved by teachers and students; dynamic, networked textbooks with live or regularly updating components; collaborative work spaces; and multi-user games.