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Outside the interface

By ~LS~ On February 25, 2012 · Add Comment · In Politics, Technology, The Web and tagged Tagged With: Interface Value, Marc Prensky, Rhetoric, Technoculture, Technology, Twitch speed

Today I opened something somewhere and got another nag message from Google about its new privacy policy. The nag message invited me to “dismiss” it, a language choice that reflects a mildly amusing and disturbing political and interpersonal frame that we’ve developed with internet computing. Perhaps my amusement about being nagged over privacy derives from my almost-divorced status, but that is neither here nor there.

I’m not going to waste time knifing through the current policy change. The short version: it will consolidate the privacy options for multiple Google services into one statement to accept or reject with one click of a button, all for the sake of clarity and simplicity. Bundled privacy, in other words. I’ll get back to Google first, but I want to talk about the issue of interface. This will be a branching, circuitous route, so bear with me.

Sherry Turkle’s [...]

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Where’s Neil Postman when you need him?

By ~LS~ On January 22, 2011 · 2 Comments · In Pedagogy, Rhetoric, Technology, The Web and tagged Tagged With: Books, Computer, Generations, Media Ecology, Pedagogy, Rhetoric, Technoculture, Technology

I’m contemplating teaching Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death in my Introduction to Humanities class this semester, particularly Chapter 4 (“The Typographic Mind”). I don’t feel like scanning the chapter and I couldn’t find a pdf or doc online to use. Then it occurred to me that my students in all likelihood won’t read anything anyway, so why waste time scanning a document in the first place. I began to look for Sparknotes. I know, I’m bankrupt as an educator. At least I opted not to show the seventh grade history teacher’s youtube version of the Renaissance. I should get props for that.

Anyway, in my surfing, I ran into an amusing exchange on a forum. I don’t think the people involved were amused. I was, though, but in a depressing and ironic way. The exchange is started by a desperate student trying to locate a free copy of the [...]

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Pecha Kucha in Public Speaking

By ~LS~ On October 23, 2010 · Add Comment · In Pedagogy, Rhetoric, Technology and tagged Tagged With: For Wordies, Pedagogy, Rhetoric, Speech, Teaching, Teaching Activities

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Public speaking activity – first week of class

By ~LS~ On August 19, 2010 · Add Comment · In Pedagogy, Rhetoric and tagged Tagged With: Rhetoric, Speech, Teaching, Teaching Activities

I’ve twice used the following activity to open the semester and both times it was quite successful. I discovered the general idea by surfing around and I wish I could remember the site so I could acknowledge the creator whose idea I extended.

I have students search the web for public speaking classes, seminars, and workshops. Their task is to find the cheapest possible public speaking lessons but the caveat is that the courses cannot be from a college or university type program (such as continuing ed, University of Phoenix, whatever). Once they find a class, they need to identify the cost, hours to complete, assignments, topics covered, credentials of the instructor, and whether or not there’s an opportunity for practice and evaluation.

During class, we then review the courses they’ve discovered. There are a handful under a thousand dollars but usually the cost at least that much per person. [...]

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Eggsperts and the production of knowledge

By ~LS~ On February 21, 2010 · 2 Comments · In Pedagogy, The Web and tagged Tagged With: Information Literacy, Public Speaking, Rhetoric, Speech, Teaching Activities, Teaching Speech, Technoculture

My students got me. For the first time in a long time, they actually got me. It took me a few days to realize this. I think it is a good sign that things are going well this semester. Let me explain what happened and then I will say how I was “got.”

I turned my quest about how to peel a hard-boiled egg into a homework assignment for public speaking. I gave the students the list of the sources that I consulted and told them to determine the best way to peel an egg from those sources. The point of the assignment was to learn to think critically about internet sources and their credibility. We talked primarily about two things: you can’t stop at the first hits you get from a Google search and you can’t take a site’s credibility at surface level. Standard stuff.

A colleague who [...]

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Tea party protest signs and some other stuff

By ~LS~ On September 17, 2009 · 3 Comments · In Politics, Race and Racism and tagged Tagged With: News Media, Obama, Political Humor, Race, Rhetoric

We’ve all seen the tea bag party’s stupid, misspelled protest signs these days. No surprise there. We all immediately recognize the painful hypocrisy of those misspelled signs that demand we make English America’s “offical” language. We all also recognize by now the anti-anti-war protester of a few years ago who called us all “morans,” which some thoughtful person has turned into a motivational poster. The illiteracy of the tea baggers party is just depressing — it just underscores that these people are victims taken advantage of by astroturfing corporate interests. So depressing. Now, to be fair, the left has its fair share of misspelled posters. My fave: “Will sombody please give Bush a blowjob so we can impeach him.” Misspelling aside, the sentiment is funny. Anyway, these tea party folks are working against their own interests, which makes [...]

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Outside the interface

Where’s Neil Postman when you need him?

Pecha Kucha in Public Speaking

Public speaking activity – first week of class

Eggsperts and the production of knowledge

Tea party protest signs and some other stuff

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Outside the interface

Where’s Neil Postman when you need him?

Pecha Kucha in Public Speaking

Public speaking activity – first week of class

Eggsperts and the production of knowledge

Tea party protest signs and some other stuff

Categories

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Meta

Catch me if you can!