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Students Programming for the Future

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley January 2007 Issue December 11, 2007 (1040 words) Students Programming for the Future Twenty-five years ago history was made. The Commodore 64, the first home computer to sell more than a million units, shipped just in time for the Christmas season of 1982. A year earlier, I had received what might still be the most important gift I have every received: a Commodore VIC-20. Thanks to Apple, Atari, Commodore, and a dozen smaller computer manufacturers, the late 1970s and early 1980s were an amazing time in computing history. By 1993, Commodore was bankrupt, Atari was sold off in pieces, and Apple was struggling to compete against IBM and a legion of “PC clones.” I am extremely glad I grew up during the personal computer revolution. A generation earlier, I might have built crystal radios and box cameras. Instead, I was learning to manipulate bits and bytes to produce sounds and images. I was thrilled the first time my VIC-20 played a “song” I had

Box o' Hopes and Dreams

If I have to think of what things have changed my life, the answer is simple: computers. I have owned quite a few. If I had kept them, I would have an interesting museum of old technologies. Commodore VIC-20 My first computer at home was a Commodore VIC-20. It was an odd computer, soon replaced by Commodore with the C64 — the best selling computer model of all time. (More than 3 million of the original C64 were sold!) I have a real fondness for the early years of the home computer: Atari, Commodore, Apple, Tandy, Texas Instruments, and many others were competing to get technology into the home. They were all more interesting than the modern Apple Mac and IBM PC to me. Magazines like BYTE, PC World, PC Magazine, Compute, InCider, A+, and dozens of others included program code. You could enter BASIC, machine code, Pascal, or C programs and then change them to see how things worked. Today? The complexity of software no longer makes it possible to include code in a book. Games take do

I Was Wrong… sort of

I posted a response to Geoffrey Sirc's "Box Logic" ( Writing New Media , 2004) that might have been my reaction to his essay, but I also think I didn't quite understand the essay. Hearing Prof. Sirc speak on November 27, 2007, I realized his theories were not far from my own, at least within creative writing, which might have been why I didn't sense any "revelation" in the essay. At the same time, the links between art theory and composition that escaped my comprehension when reading were much much clearer during the visual and oral presentation. However, I also don't complete agree these approaches help in a college composition course meant to teach academic norms. This leads to an interesting question: why would I be thrilled by his presentation, but utterly flummoxed by a text? Why did the text leave me confused and disappointed, while hearing Prof. Sirc was fascinating? I think it is important to admit -- Sirc's ideas are interesting.

Online Feedback in Writing Courses

How do I respond to student writing using online technologies? I tend to make extensive use of Microsoft Word's "track changes" and "reviewing" modes. The real challenge for me as an instructor is to not make every edit for a student. My primary concern, and research seems to support this, is that students have been inculcated with the notion that you make the suggested corrections, no more or no less, and that is what constitutes "revising" a paper. Online, this habit becomes even easier... cut-and-paste or simply "accept change" and the revising is "done" in the view of many students. When I first started student teaching, in the late 1980s, I fell into the trap of making too many comments on papers. Now, I try to minimize how often I correct mistakes students need to discover. I also do not make as many suggestions as I did years ago. Online tools have made editing and leaving short comments much easier. For all the dang

Evaluating Web Sites

What makes a Web site readable? As the Internet moved from the ASCII texts of the USENET and FTP repositories towards HTML, no one really cared about appearance. The notion was that content was everything — and most content files were journal articles and scientific research. The early notion of specifying fonts on the World Wide Web was a major shift from the original notion of the Web. You can look at changes from HTML pre-1.0 to our current standards and the shift towards visual content is obvious. The reality is that there was no stopping the drift towards a visual medium. Given basic HTML 2.0, designers resorted to complex tables-within-tables to mimim familiar print designs. From the earliest handwritten manuscripts, artists have known how words are placed on a page (or screen) affects how they are read. No one was about to settle for no control over a Web site's appearance. Temptation to experiment can lead to innovation, but on the Web it also helps to k

Collections

Assignment: find images of interest to you and collect them. I do not collect much of anything. I do not know of any "scene" nor do I have any particular focused interest at the moment. Maintaining my Web sites is now about maintaining content, not creativity or discovery. (They are academic tools, not hobbies.) I seldom leave my house, except to travel between the home and the university campus. I do not have any hobbies, which would merely distract me from writing assignments. I have no desire to gather random things without purpose, and the "purpose" of completing an assignment was painful enough with the Flikr slideshow I was asked to produce earlier in the semester. Without my wife's assistance, the idea of looking at pictures would have been too daunting. When I have "nothing to do," I do whatever I am asked to do by my family or employer. I have a list of stories and projects at all times, though, giving me guidance when I wonder wha

Geoffrey Sirc: Box-Logic

Responding to Geoffrey Sirc's "Box Logic" ( Writing New Media , 2004): 1) What should we be teaching as composition? (p. 110) I do not spend much time on Web design (HTML, CSS) because those technologies will change within a year or two. Rhetorical thought, however, is a skill that can be applied for both analysis of existing material or synthesis of new. Thinking strategically is a portable skill. 2) I truly despise the "creativity" of making blocks of text non-columnar (113). It is painful to read as it is, so why make it any more difficult? If this were poetry, I would be forgiving — poetry is condensed meaning. This is not poetry. It is a mockery of poetry and creativity to have a scholarly article make pretense of creativity. Bluntly, the blocks serve no purpose in this text. They do not move me emotionally, they merely annoy me as a reader of a dense text. If you want to be poetic be poetic, but this is not even prosaic. It's silliness. 3) I a

Practical Technology Skills

This blog is a revision to a column I wrote for Direct Media publications. Normally, I wouldn't repost something I wrote for hire, and I certainly don't wish to anger one of my publishers. However, since this blog is primarily accessed by one of my graduate seminars, I think the publisher will appreciate that I am extending my thoughts for educational purposes. I'm also more than willing to encourage businesses to visit the Direct Media home page . Page numbers seemed to be a half-inch lower on each successive page. I stared at the mid-term paper, handed in to me by a junior at the university, and thought back to my fights with dot-matrix printers. When I was an undergrad, my Epson FX/80 printer jammed often and would sometimes rip pages after the sprockets slipped out of alignment with the punched holes of the perforated paper. Surely the undergraduate author of this paper suffered the curse of a similarly possessed printer, I told myself. “I guess when I changed the ma

Computer Skills Our Students Need

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley December 2007 Issue November 11, 2007 Computer Skills Our Students Need Page numbers seemed to be a half-inch lower on each successive page. I stared at the mid-term paper, handed in to me by a junior at the university, and thought back to my fights with dot-matrix printers. When I was an undergrad, my Epson FX/80 printer jammed often and would sometimes rip pages after the sprockets slipped out of alignment with the punched holes of the perforated paper. Surely the undergraduate author of this paper suffered the curse of a similarly possessed printer, I told myself. “I guess when I changed the margins I forgot to retype the page numbers. At least I remembered to use five spaces to indent each paragraph.” Sure enough, changing Microsoft Word’s options to enable viewing of “non-printing characters” revealed a document littered with extra spaces, manually numbered pages, and the occasional extra “hard return” used to maintain double-spaced text.

Digital Writing Ideas

Online composition and participation are always a requirement in the courses I teach. When I began teaching at Fresno State as a graduate student in 2004, I was one of the few instructors who required students use Blackboard on a weekly basis. I believe there are several reasons to use tools like Blackboard / WebVista: Students can read and respond to the thoughts of their classmates. I have a record of how writing (and thinking) improve during a semester Peer editing can occur online, in small groups. Students less vocal in class discussions tend to participate more online. Normally, I post a " Weekly Response Question/Topic " based on class discussions during the week. Students can then extend the in-class discussion online. Those who were unable to speak up during the class have time to reflect and post their thoughts, too. By requiring every student to post at least 50 to 100 words a week, they soon engage each other in discussion. I always use threaded discussions

Podcasts and Internet Radio

You must read Podcasting News if you are interested in podcasts! The New York Times has NYTimes Podcasts covering almost every area of interest. For anyone and everyone, podcast.net is a directory of professional and amateur podcasts. Unfortunately, many podcasts come and go too quickly and the directory links to some ghost sites. For October 30, 2007, we were instructed: In your blog: listen to some podcasts and analyze different aspects of the production quality of these podcasts; then, reflect on ways that you could use writing to create podcasts or coursecasts; brainstorm some ideas for creating your own podcast: an interview, presentation... I am a fan of Internet Radio, podcasting, and pretty much all things resembling "radio" in any form. For November 6, we have been asked to create a podcast of some form, and I certainly don't see a problem creating a theatrical production of some sort. Podcasting has the convenience that most Web tools lack. A podcast

Communities Online

For October 16, 2007... Blog post: Add a YackPack plugin to your PBwiki (click on plug-ins) and try it out. Sign-up for tappedin.org (http://ti2.sri.com/tappedin/index.jsp) and explore its features for online chat (see how it was used at Hillcrest High School: http://www.slideshare.net/sbgaddy/hillcrest-high-school-21st-century-project-student-products). Reflect on how you might use tappenin.org or other discussion sites (WebCT/Vista, Moodle, Drupal) or tools (IM’ing, etc.) or virtual/game sites (Second City, etc.) for online discussion. I gave up trying plug-ins with OS X and Safari, which I think might happen in many educational settings. I just don't have the energy to manually link and setup so many items, even though I have done so with images and other elements in PBwki. As with Google Docs and other "Web 2.0" items not supporting Apple's browser at this time, I generally won't sacrifice my system to another browser. (FireFox is the only major alternativ

Falling a Week Behind - Excuses

I know excuses are inexcusable, and being even a week or two off schedule bothers me. But, the last few weeks have been miserable. New Glasses . I've never worn prescription glasses before, but I ended up needing them to deal with some strange color separations and "starburst" effects I was seeing. The glasses ended up being incorrect the first time I tried them, so the optometrist had to repair them. I lost a week of computer use while struggling to see. Even now, I'm not used to the glasses. Family Things . Let's just say that my wife's family will not be visiting from California. But, until Mother Nature's wrath was felt we had been rushing to accommodate visitors. My Best (Feline) Friend Died . He was 16, and had been with me for a lot of years. Losing him was tough and both my wife and me; she even took time off work to care for him. Not sure how any of this fits with pedagogy, but it goes to show that even the most obsessive student can get s

Changing Holidays

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley November 2007 Issue October 14, 2007 Changing Holidays The holidays are changing, and I don’t just mean the fact that the Toyland section opened in mid-October at my favorite warehouse store. Another major change is the loss of Christmas cards. Charlie Brown used to wait at the mailbox for even one card. Today, he’d be waiting for an electronic greeting, which offers slightly more warmth than a “video fireplace” and some virtual eggnog. Every major greeting card company offers e-cards, often through portals like Yahoo or MSN. Programs like The Print Shop and Print Explosion also offer an e-card design option, where your customized card design is sent via e-mail to a recipient.       I suppose we’re saving thousands of trees with e-cards, and some of us are finally getting cards to people before the new year begins, but you can’t cover a door with e-cards or stand them on a shelf to remind yourself of all the wonderful people in your life. So

Considering Place

Ivanhoe, California I am from Ivanhoe, California , and believe growing up in a small, Hispanic, farming community has influenced most of my decisions. Before viewing my slide show, I think you should know about the place I call home. Population (year 2000): 4,474 Median resident age: 24.9 years California median age: 33.3 years Ivanhoe median household income in 2005: $29,700 California median household income in 2005: $53,629 Ivanhoe median house/condo in 2000: $76,900 Ivanhoe median house/condo in 2005: $159,100 California median house/condo in 2005: $477,700 The ethnic composition of Ivanhoe also shaped my views on social issues: Races in Ivanhoe Hispanic 76.2% Other race 40.4% White Non-Hispanic 21.8% Two or more races 9.5% American Indian 2.0% As you can tell, it is not what people imagine of California. My wife and I uploaded some of our photos of the area around Ivanhoe, which I have marked as a slideshow on Flickr . Somewhere in storage I have photos of Ivanho

My Views...

I am a skeptic when it comes to technology in the classroom. From accounts like those found in The Flickering Mind: Saving Education from the False Promise of Technology , by Todd Oppenheimer, to the works of Larry Cuban, one finds a series of issues with technology that keep repeating every generation — as if technology and the excitement that always follows it will translate into better-educated students. Oppenheimer is an award-winning San Francisco journalist who toured the country to study how computers were used in the classroom. He began as an optimistic believer in technology and ended the work on a skeptical note, almost a "back-to-basics" philosophy based on everything from the price of technology to the lack of technical support and training teachers generally receive. Gene I Maeroff's work, A Classroom of One: How Online Learning Is Changing Our Schools and Colleges , is authored by one of the leading experts on education. Maeroff has written 11 books in 3

My Views and a Bibliography Pt. 2

Selected Bibliography My views on the implementation of online writing curricula are also informed by the following texts and articles: Anson, Chris M. "Distant Voices: Teaching and Writing in a Culture of Technology." College English 61.3 (1999): 261-80. Applebome, Peter. "The on-Line Revolution Is Not the End of Civilization as We Know It. But Almost." New York Times 4 April 1999 1999, sec. Education Supplement: 26-28, 35-37. Armstrong, Alison, and Charles Casement. The Child and the Machine : How Computers Put Our Children's Education at Risk . Updated ed. Carlton North, Vic.: Scribe Publications, 2001. Beniger, James. The Control Revolution: Technological and Economic Origins of the Information Society Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1986. Berlin, James A. Rhetorics, Poetics, and Cultures : Refiguring College English Studies . Lauer Series in Rhetoric and Composition. West Lafayette, Ind.: Parlor Press, 2003. Callister, Nicholas C. Burbul

Mapping and Me

For a graduate course in curriculum, we have been asked to experiment with "mind mapping" software. As my previous post reflects, I've never been comfortable with such maps personally, though I realize many people find the exercises useful. I'm clearly in a minority. It is important that teachers understand any potential tool, whether or not they are comfortable, because students are not homogeneous in learning style. I love outlining... most people do not. I also like flowcharts, graphs, and charts. Order, lots of order, works to my advantage, even when my artistic output isn't "organized" in familiar ways. Background As an example of how to integrate new technologies for composition across the curriculum, I am proposing a series of units relating to radio. As radio has shifted to the Internet and podcasting, radio theatre has remained a part of the tradition, from rebroadcasts of classic "Old Time Radio" programs to original plays. Mappi

Mind Maps and Other Organizers

The thoughts for this week are in response to: In your blog: how might you digital note-taking tools (see links on the wiki) to have your students take notes/engage in prewriting activities? Create a digital map using Inspiration (use a free trial download: http://www.inspiration.com) about your potential final project topic; reflect on how you could use digital mapping for helping students exploring relationships between different topics/images. I have to admit that I need more time to experiment with Inspiration 8, as well as other tools, because I am fairly set in my own note taking ways. Until I gather my thoughts a bit more, I can at least explain my own habits and my personal views on software tools. Before I start, I'll make a pitch: If you use a Mac, the Omni Group makes some of the best organizational tools I have used. ( http://www.omnigroup.com/ ) I like the fact Omni applications do not “feel” like PC software ported to the Mac — these are OS X applications from to

Confessions of an (Internet) Radio Junkie

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley October 2007 Issue September 16, 2007 Confessions of an (Internet) Radio Junkie Video didn’t kill the radio star, even though MTV was launched with a video making that very claim. Radio changed, and so did MTV. One still plays music, the other promotes unrealistic reality shows. More importantly, I can now listen to more radio programs than ever before, even if my tastes are unusual… and they are. There is a place where radio is king, and I don’t mean in the car when commuting to work. I know this place well, because it is where I listen to KCRW, KGO, KCBS, and hundreds of stations with no call letters. This is a place without the Federal Communications Commission, which means I hear songs uncensored. There are stations where disc jockeys still choose the music and introduce each track with a bit of background trivia. I am an Internet radio junkie. Terrestrial radio stations, those familiar AM and FM broadcasters, first moved to the Internet d