Poet Ponders the Digital

When I read academic job listing for "Digital Humanities" the skills range from HTML coding to video editing. Some list audio editing. The jobs are so varied that you cannot pinpoint what the phrase means. Is my doctorate in rhetoric, scientific and technical communication sufficient? Often it is not. Some posts suggest an MFA or Ph.D. in media production. Starting January 2016, I am going to be working towards completion of my MFA in Film and Digital Technology. This feels like a last-ditch effort to revive my academic career, while also giving me more credentials to support my creative writing. With or without an academic revival, I'll benefit greatly from the courses and the exercise of creating and editing digital works. One of the frustrations I've had on the job market is that nobody seems to know what the "Digital Humanities" are or how to prove you have the skills to teach the courses. My age and my experiences are a serious obstacle on this...

Lego Digital Designer (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley April 6, 2015 Deadline May 2015 Issue Building things provides me with hours of relaxation and a sense of accomplishment. As children, we appreciate the creativity expressed by Tinker Toys, K’nex, Lincoln Logs and LEGO bricks . As we age, we discover new building kits, from detailed plastic models to advanced robotics kits. Yet, for many of us nothing beats the plastic, stud-covered bricks. Though LEGO remains the undisputed king of plastic bricks, interesting kits are available from Best-Lock and Mega Bloks. And recently, I discovered the challenges of working with Nanoblocks from Japanese toy company Kawada. Nanoblocks are one-eighth the size of standard blocks. Following standard plans, the resulting models are incredibly small. The real joy of bricks, however, isn’t in following a plan designed by someone else. Completing a Taj Mahal or Empire State Building model feels like a huge accompl...

Math Mark (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley December 5, 2014 Deadline January 2015 Issue In 2013, California began phasing out the algebra requirement for eighth grade students. Math and science requirements have been reduced in Texas and several other states that followed California’s lead. This is the wrong path, especially for Central Valley schools that have extreme achievement gaps among socioeconomic groups. In 2013, some social advocates argued that the algebra and science graduation requirements disproportionately penalized poor and minority students. Instead of reducing our standards for middle and high school completion, our schools should have developed better math and science education in our elementary schools. I fear the choices made a year ago will lead to more economic isolation for the Central Valley and similar regions. Cutting math requirements might make graduation easier, but it also limits the future opportunities for our youn...

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley January 2, 2014 Deadline February 2014 Issue Rise of the Machines, Decline of the Workers Historians will compare the current economic shift to the Industrial Revolution, and that might understate the seismic change to our workforce. Our schools are not preparing students for the changes underway, a structural change in the workplace that rewards the “superstars” and leaves many others behind. Our private and public institutions are also failing to prepare, despite contributing to these changes. If you wonder why both the Occupy and Tea Party movements rose to prominence, you need only ask what unified them: a sense that our system is failing the middle class. How they protest and their solutions differ, but underlying the broad discontent lies a realization that economic imbalance is increasing. Although members of both groups believe that Wall Street was bailed out at the expense of Main Street, what many don’t realize is that the financial in...

Online education is an accommodation to life's realities. For years I denied that online education was in many ways inferior to physical campuses. But, now that I'm working at a research university, my views are evolving. There simply are things that online education cannot do. Denying the differences, the strengths and weaknesses of various "locations" of education, can lead us to become promoters of either online or physical campuses. We should instead admit the space in which an institution exists matters. I once argued that online degrees awarded by leading universities could improve a regional economy. Now, I admit that the most a handful of degrees can do is improve the lives of a fraction of residents. A quick tangent: most online degrees aren't from leading universities. I've taught in an online program at a regional university and online was not equivalent to the on-campus degree. I don't blame the instructors who did all they could to ma...

I tend to answer questions when asked, often without pausing long enough to consider the best wording — or even if I should answer. This semester, I'm teaching a course that uses Wikis to explore collaboration. The students are struggling with the Wiki format and some of the concepts. You'd be wrong if you thought users of Wikipedia understood how the system functions. I mentioned that installing and maintaining any content management system (CMS) was a good skill to have. A student then asked about job skills currently in demand. He was told by someone that some specific tools were in demand, while others were not. The tools and skills he was told are valuable are absolutely, positively not highly-valued based on a simple search of tech-focused job sites. And, of course, I said so. Sorry, but Visual Basic isn't going to land you at the top of the field. (There are still companies using VB for database applications, but C# is a better choice in my view.) And while ...

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley May 7, 2012 Deadline June 2012 Issue Telecommuting : Embracing the Possibilities My wife, Susan, works for a company located in the suburbs of Minneapolis. I work for a university located about 20 miles from Pittsburgh. For us, the promise of telecommuting has become a reality. We are able to live in the foothills we love, surrounded by trees and wildlife, working from the comfort of our home offices. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics website, only 3.3 percent of workers are able to telecommute. Some jobs do require a physical location for meeting with clients or working on physical products, but too many employers are overlooking the benefits of allowing workers to telecommute. When I was in college, my employer loaned me a DEC-VT102 terminal and paid for a high-speed network connection to my apartment. That was in 1988. I worked as a programmer, one of the few professions that could telecommute at the time. My employer was thrilled...

This story explains some of my doubts about online education. It is not online education that concerns me, but the poor oversight and administration that threatens to further erode confidence employers have in online degree programs. GAO report finds cheating, plagiarism and other violations in for-profit colleges’ online classes - Politics - The Boston Globe First, the obvious question: if the GAO is examining for-profit institutions now, how long before they investigate “non-profit” colleges and universities? I have plenty of questions about education in general, including higher education quality, regardless of the charter of the institutions or their settings. State, non-profit, or for-profit, any institution is only as good as its administration and faculty. Online, oversight is even more challenging than on-campus. It requires more time and energy because it is easy for students (and some faculty) to cut corners online. The GAO examined enrollment, cost, financial aid, cou...

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley September 26, 2011 Deadline November 2011 Issue Crafting a Résumé for the Digital Age Job hunting is tough enough without companies forcing applicants to use poorly designed online résumé submission databases. A reader emailed me asking why some companies rejected her résumé, despite great qualifications. Based on my experiences assisting students on the job market, I suggested the reader’s résumé might have the wrong margins for some online systems. Yes, the wrong margins can lead to rejection in today’s digital job hunt. Hiring committees tell me they receive 200, 300 and, in one case, 500 applications for job openings. My students want every edge they can get when applying for positions. I’ve had to learn a lot about the hiring process to help students craft résumés for this strange new reality. The university where I work uses an online career database. Many employers have turned to these systems. You might have used one already, via the...

I am set to join the faculty of a small private university this summer, as an assistant professor within the institution's School of Communications and Information Systems. I will share more information about this position and its duties in coming weeks. This blog post focuses on why I am accepting an academic appointment and how it might help me as a writer. The decision to accept and embrace a university position is not financial, political, ideological, or idealistic. The pay is, well, academic. I've never been a "classroom radical" with a political agenda. As for idealism, I'm generally considered a curmudgeonly cynic. No, this is a selfish choice made for a desire to improve myself. For the last six months, I have peen pondering if I should alter my career path. After considering a return to the corporate life, I have decided to remain focused on my first passion: writing. Currently, I am a freelance writer, often exploring the relationship between tech...

On March 1, 2011, I wrote about the difficult state of the academic job market in fields such as mine: "digital rhetoric" and "new media" studies. Even with a specialization in "special needs pedagogy" (disabled students), the market is challenging. There are several reasons for this and I want to share those before I share my personal update. Let me first point to a trend that has finally reached the university setting: "Software as a Service" (SaaS). For several years, and even before the rise of the Internet, companies and non-profits alike could pay to access software remotely. In fact, this was the original model of computing back in the ancient days of mainframe dominance. A company would "lease" time on a mainframe, housed at a data processing center. Universities would lease time on their mainframes, too. Often, smaller universities and local public schools would use a regional minicomputer or mainframe. Today, this is "the...

Last week, the university program from which I earned my doctorate hosted its annual "visit day" for potential doctoral students. I wanted to e-mail each of them, "Don't do it!" Not because it isn't a good experience (it wasn't) and not because you don't learn something (you will learn something, mainly about humanity). You should reconsider a doctorate in the "digital humanities" because the job market is saturated, driving down wages for the few jobs that do exist. I had a state college hiring committee tell me they could only offer $38,000 to $42,000 a year for a new professor. That's simply not enough money to justify selling a house and moving in my case: my wife is an engineer and technical writer with a great employer. Taking such a post would be impossible, financially. My wife's career and our overall security do come into play. Plus, we have already cut our expenses dramatically. Student loans must be paid, and they are ...

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley October 4, 2010 Deadline November 2010 Issue Building a Business via Social Networks Twitter , Facebook , LinkedIn and a myriad of social networking Internet technologies are reshaping how businesses develop and maintain customer relationships. Just as a Web presence became a standard marketing tool by the late 1990s, a “social network” identity is becoming an essential part of brand development. Writers, musicians and actors have to be good at self-promotion. Celebrity Twitter feeds are read by millions of loyal fans. Many celebrities also maintain blogs and public accounts on Facebook or MySpace. We can learn from the examples of celebrities, both what to do and what not to do with the power of social networking. One local mystery writer has turned social networking into an effective promotional tool. Marilyn Meredith, a Springville resident, writes a blog entry almost daily. These entries are on both the business and craft of writing. To se...

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley April 2010 Issue March 1, 2010 The New Job Hunt: Searches Begin Online My university students are predominantly juniors and seniors. The seniors are entering the job market anxiously, while the juniors are hoping to locate summer jobs and internships to build their résumés. For several years I have taught a professional writing class that includes a career development unit. Students prepare résumés and cover letters, usually for real jobs or internships they are pursuing. The course has changed dramatically over the last four years; the Internet is now the primary connection to employers. Let’s first consider how we locate career opportunities. The days of circling openings in the “Help Wanted” section of newspaper classified ads are history. Last year when I asked students to bring newspapers to class several asked where they could buy a paper. The campus bookstore carries only the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, not the local paper....

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley September 2009 Issue July 27, 2009 Facebook, YouTube and… You, Unemployed For the past few years, I have told my students to consider carefully what they post online. Like many educators and parents, I want my students to think about their online reputations. But, the rules are changing and we’re losing some control over our online selves. What others reveal about you is as important as anything you might post online. “Most of what I worry about, the job applicant didn’t actually post.” As a human resource specialist for a large, national service company, the woman I was talking to hires young men and women who enter the businesses and private homes of customers. These employees represent their employer and its tech-savvy image. Because I teach a professional development course for university juniors and seniors, I thought my warnings not to put too much personal information online was sufficient. I had overlooked that friends, those fun peopl...

I am currently dealing with three major projects: Completing my dissertation. Applying for 2010 positions Finishing home renovations. The middle task, quite literally sandwiched between the other two in my daily life, is one of the most difficult for any person. I tell my students that career changes -- including starting a career -- are always difficult. The likelihood of rejection, at least a few times, is quite high. It is emotionally draining to hunt for work. To be in the job market along with my students will be interesting. It should remind me of the challenges they face. Portfolios are common for my students. Many have studied fashion design, architecture, or landscape horticulture. They need to present evidence of their projects to prospective employers. I also have to present evidence of my work as a graduate student, teacher, and writer. The portfolio will be something of a shared experience, this year. I'm not yet sure if a digital portfolio will be ...

I attended Computers and Writing 2009, earlier this month and returned with mixed emotions. First, the negatives -- so I can end on the positives of the actual presentations and keynotes. As you can guess, the job market for writing teachers at all levels is weak. The reality is that a handful of instructors are losing their jobs; new jobs are definitely not on the horizon. Community colleges, four-year colleges, and full universities are all suffering from a lack of funds. Writing seems to be an easy target for cuts. In some cases, courses will migrate to online settings and in other instances graduate students will assume more teaching responsibilities. Technology, especially online courses and hybrids, are letting universities outsource general education. This is definitely a rough trend to confront. While it is good for the online companies, which offer packaged online courses overseen by part-time, freelancing instructors with graduate degrees, the end result is ...

I am completing an online portfolio, which is always a good process for self-evaluation as an instructor. See: http://www.tameri.com/csw Because I ask my students to create online personas and to work on various digital projects, this is a good way to keep myself grounded. It reminds me that the process is never easy, no matter how experienced one might be with the genres involved. My teaching philosophy took me two weeks to edit, and I'm still not pleased with the results. The sidebar and overall site design isn't what I had hoped to create, either. Something about it doesn't seem to convey who I am. At least I can sympathize with my students. Some of the university job listings ask applicants to describe the classes they might want to teach. I could list two or three dozen, easily. I am a proud generalist, with too many interests and a complete inability to focus on a specialty. That's not a bad thing, since I can be a "utility player" withi...