Yikes!

Wow, time really does fly... I just looked around and realized that there are only 9 days before I fly to Austin TX for the SXSWedu conference, where I'm presenting on a panel (with colleagues and friends Emily Lewis and Justin Schwamm) titled "Building Learning Community with Purpose and Joy".

While Emily, Justin and I are all involved in different projects in the humanities/classics (The Pericles Group, Tres Columnae, and Dungeons & Discourse, respectively), we share a common direction and focus: we recognize that "business as usual" factory-model public education is not what our students need. We are committed to building authentic community in our classrooms, and in our schools, as the sine qua non of truly powerful and lasting education. And we believe that such authentic community necessarily rests more on engagement, play, and a deep and robust sense of joyfulness, and less on models of command-and-control (the residue of decades of authoritarian traditions) or mercantilist self-interest (the option touted as the new justification for education - but which misses the essential point of education just as widely).

I've got a lot to do in these nine days to prepare for the conference (in addition to all the usual work in my  two jobs!) - but I'm looking forward to it. There are going to be so many great presentations at SXSWedu, I hope I'll find a little time somewhere in there to just get out and see Austin!

Tech Fest 2013!

Background for my non-MCLA readers: each May, after final grades are submitted and students have moved out of the dorms - but before faculty scoot off to their summer responsibilities - the College's Center for Academic Technology hosts a day-long conference/professional development event known as TechFest. It's a chance for faculty to see, try, and think about some of the most interesting, most current, and most relevant tech-related possibilities for teaching and research.

In past years, TechFest has been where MCLA faculty have learned about using in-class technologies like clickers or Extrons, general tools like email or ePortfolios, and project-oriented software like Powerpoint or Prezi. The event has built a positive reputation among faculty, many of whom have told me that they look forward to the new and engaging ideas they experience here at the end of a long semester.

There's so much happening in the world of #edtech these days, you might imagine that it can be overwhelming to pick a unified theme for an event like this! At present, my AT colleague and I are doing the preliminary planning and prep work for this year's event. And among the multitude of new and exciting things happening - DH, MOOCs, edugaming, tablets, analytics ... - we've chosen a theme that will serve as the unifying framework for the conference and (hopefully!) for our work in the academic year ahead.

"Meet the MCLA Student", our provisional theme, is both descriptive and hortatory: not only an informational blurb of the TechFest theme, but a call to action. One of the many reasons I am intensely glad that I keep teaching every semester is that I continually hear directly from my students. And students are telling me things that we as faculty really need to be hearing about what it means to be enrolled in our small public college today:

• how MCLA students actually react to $150 "required" textbooks, and what they really think of the "innovative" option to rent ebooks. (Hint: the scare quotes are intentional.)
• why assuming that our students are "digital natives" is both inaccurate and counterproductive.
• that students expect us to provide course materials electronically for serious reasons - not as a method to make it easier to skip classes.
• that the design of online course content can make or break its accessibility in a world of mobile access: pasting a MS Word syllabus into an LMS, or "dumping" Powerpoints, doesn't suffice.
• how faculty have the power to make simple changes that will make an enormous difference to them.

A task I'm looking forward to: interviewing some MCLA students on-camera to capture a montage of student voices that will kick off the event. Stay tuned - I'll be updating here periodically as the date approaches!

Oldies But Goodies

Just bumped into this old favorite of mine from xkcd. One of these days I'll find an appropriate place in one of my philosophy courses to use it - maybe the next time I teach a seminar on personal identity.

This one's a no-brainer [ugh, what a horrible pun, given that I'm playing #TvsZ] - but today's protip for my MCLA colleagues: drive safely! 

The classically-minded among us are of course well aware of the potential danger of any entity called "Nemo" (or its Greek equivalent) - just ask Polyphemus...

"ὦ φίλοι, Οὖτίς με κτείνει δόλῳ οὐδὲ βίηφιν."

(http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg002.perseus-grc1:9.360)

#TvsZ v 2.0 ...

...or, Rick Grimes ain't got nothin' on us!

In November 2012, a group of intrepid humans, interested in education, gaming, social networking, and other related issues, spread the word of an apocalypse in the Twitterverse ... and thus was born Twitter vs. Zombies, a fun, frantic mashup of game, virtual flashmob, emergent social space, and so-called "micro-MOOC".

Last night, version 2 began at 8pm EST (but it's not too late to join the fun!). It's shaping up to be just as neat as the first, with many of the original participants, plus a gaggle of students (who are actually the motivators of this second iteration). The original #TvsZ was the occasion of some really cool, creative work - visual, literary, and even musical... this time 'round is likely to be even better.

Now if you see me munching on some brains later this week, at least you'll know why...

THATCamp Games 2013!

I loved it so much last year that I'm back for more: 19-21 April at Case Western Reserve University, THATCamp Games 2013!

Are you familiar with the "unconference" format? Basically, take your typical academic conference ... and toss it out the window. The unconference is about authentic and engaged collaboration among peers. No one reads a paper, or from some godawful Powerpoint; the workshops aren't even pre-set - we decide together what topics make sense, and then we discuss/hack/brainstorm/critique/play.

It's more or less the best format I've yet seen to invigorate a bunch of smart, creative colleagues to share ideas. Plus, it's a whole weekend devoted to games... :-)

Instant Scholarly Community

Conversations with colleagues foment enthusiasm and inspiration for scholarship.

This has been true ever since there've been conversations, colleagues, and scholarship. But it's hitting home, for me, that the model on which I imprinted, in the earliest stages of my professional academic life - the one where conversations like that happen at the occasional or periodic conference (maybe at the hotel bar...) - isn't the only place, or even the primary place, I find these inspirational professional connections.

Case in point: I just spent a solid hour at my favorite coffee shop just off campus here at MCLA, getting fired up by sharing questions and ideas about the nature of digital pedagogy, the shifting roles of professor and student, grades and assessment, openness in evaluation. This rapid-fire conversation wasted no time: I maxed out my words-per-minute typing abilities keeping up with conversations, and there were plenty of threads I missed. I collaborated with colleagues - grad students and profs - at Stanford, GSU, ktl.

Oh, and by the way: this conversation happened on Twitter, parceled out 140 characters at a time.

I think I'm starting to discover a theme in my musings here so far. I keep circling back to the realization that many of my colleagues evaluate online and digital resources, spaces, and experiences as a newly-fledged and volatile environment - and as such, an environment which isn't ready to support serious scholarly life. Interesting? Oh yes yes. Useful pedagogically? Sure, why not? The kids (and administrators!) will love the novelty of assigned readings on their iPads. An ancillary measure of scholarship, even? Maaaybe... after all, didn't So-and-so get recognized for doing some website project?

Not so many of us, however, are ready to accept that there's scholarly work and community that exist primarily and fundamentally in the digital space. We've spent so long with the notion of the digital as the "add-on piece". We start with our physical textbooks, and also convert articles to *.pdf. We evaluate face-to-face participation, and also devote 5% of the participation grade to the online discussions. We meet our colleagues at the APA, and also sign up for those email lists...

I have the growing suspicion that the next 10 years will see a critical mass of academics treating the digital as a primary space for scholarship. I have no idea what will happen then; but I'm glad I'll be around to see it.