Joe Moxley, pioneer of online composition textbooks and all-round technovangelist has released a new beast--Writingblog.org, which is already boasting some 489 student and teacher blogs and will undoubtedly top a 1000 in the next few weeks. Moxley has plans to bring blogging to the entire university by recommending (or requiring) their use in all first-year composition courses. This is surely an exciting time to be a computers and comp at the University of South Florida. In the course of a few weeks USF Composition has gone from 0 to hero in terms of computer technology and online writing.
A quick glance at these blogs reveals a myriad of interests and skill levels. We see critiques of the technology (some positive, some negative), autobiographical snippets, composition and general education discussions, computer programming issues, and even philosophical/religious meditations! Some posts are zany indeed; there's already been blogs confessing to illegal activities and the ramifacations of letting students think they can "blog about anything." Apparently some people have been drinking the blog water..!
Never one to shy away from where other compositionists fear to tread, Moxley is keeping his own personal and work-related thoughts on this blog. As the site's subtitle implies, Moxley has moxie.
that's awesome!
Good time to be at USF.
However, haven't you convinced Moxley to use open source software yet? :)
Moxley and Open Source
Heheh, that'd be the day. Moxley is 100% committed to Microsoft; it's "the future" etc. While he admires my work with php/mysql, he runs his own server with M$ software and prefers to work with .asp and .net ware. His great new baby is sharepoint, which he seems to think will be bigger than windows.
I'm not going to knock the man too much. A Microsoft devotee is much better than an all-around luddite. Plus, apparently it's pretty easy to get grants out of M$ for testing out their software in the classroom. Plus, no one can deny that the M$ products aren't cool; it's just that open source stuff is so much cooler!
re: Moxley and open source
oh, i agree. i was just wondering when *you* were going to convert him :)
question: isn't openwiki open source? ;)
Moxley
He's already found a wiki running off .asp and .net. It's a pretty cool system.
I just started learning PHP and MYSQL last night (bought one of those 800 page books with which you can shield your face from grenades). Hopefully, soon I'll be able to get my wikis up to par.