Poet Ponders the Digital

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley December 2009 Issue October 22, 2009 Software to Help the Writer Within Winter tends to drive me inside. I don’t mind the occasional cold winter day, but weeks of dense morning fog and damp drizzle are best enjoyed from a window. I find I write more during the winter months, sitting at my desk with mug (after mug) of hot tea with honey. Apparently, I am not the only writer motivated by the shift in seasons. Each November is National Novel Writing Month , which celebrated its tenth anniversary this year. Known as “ NaNoWriMo ” (say it aloud, with a long “Oh” sound) by participants, what started as a challenge among friends in the Bay Area has become an international happening. The official Web site (http://www.nanowrimo.org/) includes the history and rules for this great start to the writing season. The Web is why NaNoWriMo has exploded in popularity. This is a non-profit, no entry-fee, event that allows everyone to potentially “win” — if you can...

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley November 2009 Issue September 27, 2009 Beyond the Valley: Are We There Yet? The Virtual Valley was supposed to bring us all together. Our physical location was supposed to matter less than with whom we connected online. Yet, there seem to be limits to our online social networks. Researchers have studied online communities for almost three decades, often assuming virtual communities were going to liberate us from traditional barriers. This year we saw evidence that barriers persist online. Eszter Hargittai, a sociologist at Northwestern University, calls this the “Whose Space?” phenomenon. Users, however, being less politically correct than academics, have rechristened MySpace as “MyGhetto,”  “GangstaSpace” and “MyHood.” According to Hargittai’s data, Hispanics are twice as likely to use MySpace as Facebook. There is also a high correlation between educational level and which social sites someone uses. Of those using a social site, 86 perce...

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley October 2009 Issue August 26, 2009 Facebook Fling and Twitter Toss: The Risks of Social Computing to Your Computer There was a time the greatest risk to a laptop at a coffee shop was the menu. Everyone knows that coffee and keyboards do not mix. Only a few short years ago, you took a computer to a coffee shop, bookstore, or all-night diner to work. The laptop was for business or school and your greatest worry was locating a free power outlet. Other than the iced mochas I love, tripping on the power cord was the only serious risk to my laptop. Along came wireless networks and the “Social Web” of Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. Now, the greatest risk to laptops seems to be rage. According to an August report on CNet, a technology news Web site, computer technicians suddenly find they have to explain to laptop users that warranties don’t cover damage caused by computing while angry. Techs have started to refer to the incidents by a series of hum...

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 ...

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley August 2009 Issue June 30, 2009 Keeping Track of Everything in Your Life Books, DVDs, recipes, birds we’ve seen, and our family trees. My wife and I maintain all sorts of lists and databases to organize our lives. For some lists, a simple spreadsheet or “flat file” database suffices. In other cases, you need a complex “relational” database that can perform all kinds of magic. Choosing the right tool for the task is based on your needs. Using Spreadsheets for Lists A spreadsheet is similar to a columnar book, featuring a giant table into which you can enter text or numeric data. Modern spreadsheets are very good at managing lists and basic tables of data. However, there are limits. For example, the version of Microsoft Excel I use can only store 65,535 rows of data and each row is limited to 256 columns. More importantly, Excel seems to dislike more than 100,000 “populated” cells of data. Though originally developed to analyze numeric data,...