I know, as if the world needs another foray into this topic, but here goes. In the NY Times there's an interesting piece that follows the deliberations at Kentucky about how/if to open the campus in the fall. We're all in similar circumstances inasmuch as no one knows what the circumstances will be. We do... Continue Reading →
when every university change their motto to Ubi Sunt
In The Atlantic Graeme Wood ponders the risks as university administrators weight whether or not to return to some version of normal in the Fall. Of course it is hard to make an informed decision without information and we just don't have enough information about COVID-19 to really understand the risks. He concludes with the... Continue Reading →
exposing assemblages: ten years on
A decade ago I published an article in Enculturation titled "Exposing Assemblages: Unlikely Communities of Digital Scholarship, Video, and Social Networks." It concluded with this. Through the mapping of the social-material assemblages of scholarly video production, one can develop tactics for investigating and activating these thresholds, these relations of exteriority. From this perspective, one would... Continue Reading →
zoom, distance, and productivity theater
I'd be curious to know if other institutions are running surveys similar to the one UB has run. Since I can link to it here, I assume there are no state secrets within. It's a survey of students (there's another for faculty) after one week or so of this online existence. 20% of students say... Continue Reading →
Righting Writing Courses
Tomorrow I'm participating in a SUNY Writing Council webinar (at 2pm Eastern) on the challenges of teaching writing online, so here I'm working through some ideas of what I might say in my little 10-minute spiel. (If you are interested and want to know how to join, email me at Alex dot Reid at gmail... Continue Reading →
designing ethical experiences
Yesterday my grad class began its discussion of Liza Potts' Social Media in Disaster Response. It is an excellent and (sadly) timely book that examines how people work across a variety of social media platforms during periods of disaster. In particular, she looks at Hurricane Katrina, the London bombings in July 2005 and the Mumbai... Continue Reading →
the emergence (emergency) of electrate collective experiments
I've spent more than 15 years writing about digital rhetoric and pedagogy on this blog, so this seems oddly like business as usual. One of my pastimes is watching English football, and I read some blogs and listen to podcasts. Of course, there's nothing happening right now, but many of those folks are pressing on,... Continue Reading →
Sharing support materials for teaching writing online
As WAC director, I've been putting materials together internally on our CMS to aid instructors and faculty in this transition. Along the way I've been adding stuff into the site that I've seen shared by others. With that thought in mind, I've set up a page on this website where I am posting the support... Continue Reading →
Advice to students who unexpectedly enrolled in an online university
First of all, I understand how much this probably sucks. I've been a professor for 20+ years, but right now my son is a college freshman and my daughter was looking forward to enjoying a victory lap in her final semester as a college senior before heading off to a Phd program. Of course, there... Continue Reading →
