Poet Ponders the Digital

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley March 28, 2011 Deadline May 2011 Issue A Web of Tech Problems: Finding Answers Online Computer hardware and software once came with stacks of manuals. I remember the massive slipcases containing manuals for DOS, WordPerfect and my programming tools. The original CorelDRAW manuals were in the most impressive box on my desk. In addition to the manuals that accompanied products, the early 1980s were a glorious time for computer-related magazines. Once a year, most of the major publications would publish indices of that year’s issues. I learned that with patience and a good index I could locate the answer to almost any tech question in either a book or magazine. Today, finding answers is no longer so simple. I cannot recall the last application I purchased that included a full-length printed manual. Most software titles I now purchase are downloaded from the Internet and the only manuals are the online help systems. The quality of the online hel...

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 February 28, 2011 Deadline April 2011 Issue Crawling the Crafters’ Web Beading, quilting, knitting and various other crafting hobbies occupy, literally, a fair amount of space in our household. My wife enjoys assembling bracelets and necklaces, creating jewelry that easily matches items we’ve seen in stores and at craft fairs. Handmade items are given and received as gifts in both of our families; my mother and sister-in-law both quilt and sew. One thing I’ve learned about crafters is that they respect the handmade projects of other crafters. It is a community with a passion for supporting each other, too. These artisans are small business owners, too, selling their crafts. There is no better way to show your support for arts and crafts than buying items made by the men and women at local craft fairs. My wife and I visit craft fairs several times a year. During the winter months, there are fewer such markets. But fog, rain and even snow do not s...

When I have attended meetings or conferences and the topic was online courses, a great deal of attention is paid to the "target audience" for online education. The assumption is that online courses are ideal for certain groups: Workers seeking to complete a degree. Rural residents unable to relocate or travel to a campus. Disabled students requiring accommodations. Non-traditional students (meaning everything from older to unusually young). These might be ideal "targets" if a university operates as nothing but a business, but even private institutions have a responsibility to deliver the best, most meaningful educational experience to all qualified students. I would argue the pressure on for-profit institutions is actually greater because there is a skepticism in academia towards the profit motive. And what we ignore when we think of "target audiences" is that the descriptions do not reflect the personalities of the students. Online courses, from hybrids t...

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley January 24, 2011 Deadline March 2011 Issue Archives Aren’t Backups: Storing Data for the Future Do you remember WordStar? Lotus 1-2-3? Harvard Graphics? If you’ve been using computers as long as I have, you created documents, spreadsheets and graphics in too many applications to remember. Yes, I have 25-year-old data. I have copied those files from floppies to Iomega Zip disks , from Zip disks to CDs , and most recently from CDs to a trio of external hard drives. Each time I upgrade computers, I migrate data to whatever happens to be the leading archival format. I migrate data every two to four years. That is important, because media do fail. However, what has enabled me to use old documents is a habit of storing data in two or three formats. In my “Documents” directory, I have created folders named “Archives of…” to store data in neutral formats. Recently, I wanted to use an old image created in a DOS-based application. I tried several applic...

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley December 27, 2010 Deadline February 2011 Issue Science at Home: DIY Labs and More Model rockets, a microscope, a telescope, motorized kits and various computers enabled my explorations of science and technology while growing up in the 1970s and 80s. During the 1990s, the popular television shows “Beakman’s World” and “Bill Nye the Science Guy ” built on the tradition of “Mr. Wizard.” These programs showed young people they didn’t have to wait for school science fairs to do something fantastic. The science projects were decidedly low-tech, using items like cardboard tubes and plastic soda bottles. Today’s amateur scientists can assemble a do-it-yourself lab rivaling any television show, a lab more like “C.S.I.” than the simple lab table of Mr. Wizard. And, as with any hobby, there are online communities dedicated to home science labs. Many of the participants in these groups are active in the homeschooling movement. Also, many of the people invol...

Selected Bibliography Some texts either specifically or indirectly on the history of education and education theory (pedagogy) that have influenced me. The list is exported from my Bookends database, so there might be some formatting errors. I am trying to clean up my database, but I have several thousand books in the system (and on my shelves). 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. Corbett, Edward P. J., Nancy Myers, and Gary Tate. The Writing Teacher's Sourcebook . 4th ed., New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. 0195123778 (alk. paper) Cuban, Larry. The Blackboard and the Bottom Line : Why Schools Can't Be Businesses . Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2004. ---. How Scholars T...