This has been an exceptionally hectic week, including both my trip to the National Communication Association conference in San Francisco, where I presented, and the usual pre-Thanksgiving shuffle of student assignments and meetings on campus. So, in lieu of an original blog post this week, I’ll give you a roundup of some recent stuff that I haven’t previously posted here.
“Control in the Classroom” at the University of Venus
I recently wrote a guest blog post for the University of Venus blog at Inside Higher Ed. In it, I describe my early teaching failures and how I’ve attempted to grow from them by trying to become a more open, (somewhat) less structured teacher.
Once the adrenaline wore off after about four class sessions, I realized that those sighs coming from the students weren’t due to the enlightenment they felt upon entering into my instructional presence. They were groans of pain as they massaged their hands after trying to take notes on my speed-lecturing. There may have also been groans of boredom.
Check out the full post here.
City and Regional Magazines Go Digital
I’ve been curious about city and regional magazines since grad school, and even did my dissertation on Texas Monthly. I took the opportunity in a recent MediaShift post to explore what these magazines are doing in the digital realm. I especially loved learning more about the history of Honolulu Magazine, which has its roots in the early history of Hawaii and the desire to present the islands as “civilized.” Sounds like a future research study to me!
Read the whole post at MediaShift here.
Make Magazine and Technological Utopianism Research Presentation
At NCA, I presented a paper I’m working on that addresses technological utopianism in Make magazine and at the Maker Faire event. I used a Prezi at a conference for the first time. I don’t know how much is intelligible from the Prezi alone, and would also say that I’m still learning how to make the most of Prezi! But here’s the presentation for your perusal. I hope to publish the paper in a journal very soon and will post here when I do.