Technology
Notes from the Interblags
Hey, let’s get back to some cool stuff I read online recently: • I really like this post from Tenured Radical, which is largely about facebook, faculty meetings, and school starting. In particular, this line is spot-on: If I can say I learned anything it was that faculty really ought not to complain about their [...]
Using Google Docs for student surveys and quizzes
If you’re interested in using Google Docs to create surveys or quizzes, I thought I’d post some helpful information here, since I’m sharing it with some colleagues as well. Here’s a (very un-edited) screencast of me explaining how to use Google Docs to create forms for quizzes and surveys, and below that are some typed [...]
As the term starts rolling along
As the term begins, I thought I’d write a quick post with some useful links. • Composition instructors know it can be difficult to teach using a handbook. How do we approach the text as a useful resource for students? All too often it’s easy to assign pages from a handbook for students to read, [...]
textbooks on ipad
In my technical writing course this fall, we’re using the iBooks version of Mike Markel’s Technical Communication (Amazon for the print version) — a book I’ve taught with before, and one that I really enjoy. I anticipate some problems with the iBooks version on the iPad, though. Of course, it’s going to be awesome to [...]
6 days with the iPad: has it revolutionized your life?
I bought an iPad pretty much on a whim (after months of considering it) at Best Buy last week, so I’ve been carrying it around for six days now. Initial thoughts: It’s kinda awesome, but does it add much to my work and play, at least in comparison to the cost? Well, at times. Overall, [...]
Apple’s new iPad
So on Wednesday, Apple unveiled their much anticipated iPad. Yes, there are a variety of limitations (the name, flash incompatibility, sticking with AT&T’s 3G network, no stylus, limited ability to multitask), but there are so many things about this device that seem right. In many ways, it’s a glorified iPhone, larger and without the ability [...]
Wysocki et al (2004): Writing New Media
Writing New Media: Theory and Applications for Expanding the Teaching of Composition by Geoffrey Sirc My rating: 5 of 5 stars In this fine collection, Wysocki, Johnson-Eilola, Cynthia L. Selfe, and Sirc provide a chapter or two each arguing about an aspect of new media and composition studies, and then a section offering classroom activities [...]
Wednesday will be like Christmas
A few weeks ago I blogged about new ereading devices. Since then Plastic Logic has unveiled the QUE reader, which looks pretty cool. I was anticipating a flexible screen since I heard of Plastic Logic a few years ago, but that was a no-go. I’m most excited though, for Apple’s upcoming unveiling on Wednesday. My [...]
Johnson-Eilola (1997): Nostalgic Angels
Nostalgic Angels: Rearticulating Hypertext Writing by Johndan Johnson-Eilola My rating: 5 of 5 stars While the examples Johnson-Eilola uses in Nostalgic Angels to discuss hypertext are dated (e.g., the 1990s program HyperCard), his arguments seem to be just as salient today. Throughout the book, Johnson-Eilola complicates notions of hypertext, especial those claims that hypertext are [...]
Warnick (2007): Rhetoric Online
Rhetoric Online: Persuasion and Politics on the World Wide Web by Barbara Warnick My rating: 4 of 5 stars Warnick’s Rhetoric Online is a helpful contribution to the study of persuasion in political discourse online. Warnick argues persuasively that scholars of rhetoric need to focus on online communication as rhetoric and that the medium affects [...]
