News on the Digital Divide

From the press release reporting on a University of Minnesota study of Internet use among high school students:

First-of-its-kind study at the University of Minnesota uncovers the educational benefits of social networking sites

Study also finds that low-income students, contrary to recent studies, are in many ways just as technologically savvy as their counterparts

(But a brief Baltimore Sun article on broadband subscription is less optimistic.)

Narcissistic Text Analysis

Here’s a word-frequency cloud of my dissertation courtesy of Wordle.net.

Tools of the Trade

Love, love, loooove Chicago's Threadless Tee's. Like this one in particular:


http://www.threadless.com/product/805/Tools_Of_The_Trade

Podcast Interview

I was interviewed by Craig Roth, Service Director for Collaboration and Content Strategies for Burton Group, about technology and writing processes. Check it out:

Content Authoring and Enterprise 2.0

I can see the handwriting on the... hand

There are several Flickr groups dedicated to writing on one's body(and wrists!) temporarily or permanently. I'm always interested in notes, scribblings, lists, and temporary texts, though I've never been one to write on my hands. Here's an interesting product for those so inclined...



[via BoingBoing]

texting the video

I'm geeked about this video:



From BoingBoing Gadget,

Digital filmmaker Dennis Liu has produced a video for the The Bird and the Bee's lovely single "Again and Again," in which the lyrics, melody and vocals unspool in surprising ways across his Mac's desktop in a beautiful visual harmony... ending in an artfully delightful pimping of the band in question that makes buying the track on iTunes almost hypnotically compulsory.

What amazes me is the seductive familiarity of the applications streaming across the screen. How it highlights the "you can do it"-ness of new media, plays with the many creation/editing/publishing tools we have, literally at our fingertips. I dig how it includes dialog boxes and mundane widgets like calendars, virtual post-its, and clocks along with text/image/video editing software. I like that includes drop-down menus, audio visualizations and screen savers. I like, I like, I like! (I'm also a sucker for the twee pop.)

Passive vs. Active Research

I spend a lot of time thinking about how the presence of computers (& Internet access) can and ought to change classroom practices. I had not thought about how the Internet might change comedic invention. Reading this Newsweek interview with my favorite comic Eddie Izzard changed that:

You mentioned Wikipedia. Has technology made you a better or a different comic than you otherwise would have been?
I think a different comic. I never used to research anything. I used to let research come to me. I used to sit there watching telly, and a program about sharks came on and then I'd know about sharks. Now you can say, "Sharks, how do they work?" Then you go online and find out that they haven't evolved in 2 million years—which means they're very happy where they are just killing and killing. Also I can do gigs and just advertise on the Internet. In fact most of this tour was just put out on the Internet first.

Non sequitur

I just got a catalog for Levenger. As someone with a penchant for office supplies, I enjoyed perusing the pages of fancy pens, desk accessories, and their analog-cool note cards-organization system (the FranklinCovey'esque descendant of the hipster pda). But it was their pads of specialized paper -- or more specifically, their argument for its benefits -- that was blog-worthy. Seems interruption (1, 2, 3, 4) is being invoked to shill paper.

Why Levenger paper may help you think better

How tempting it is online to switch from email to spreadsheet to Internet to document, each time interrupting your flow of thought. Paper, on the other hand, has a way of grounding you, even as your thoughts race across the page. Focusing on the paper in front of you—especially well-designed, high-quality stock—can give you more time to stay with your thoughts.

Try the paper method for at least some of your note-taking and see what—and how—you think. It may lead you in new direction.

The paper is cool; it's the argument I don't buy.

Cory Doctorow on Interruptive Media

The Pleasures of Uninterrupted Communication

I love communicating too much to be interrupted. Whether I'm writing an essay or a novel, composing an email, or chattering with someone by voice, the last thing I want is to be given a jolt of useless adrenaline every time something new lands in my queue... The mature information worker is someone who can manage his queues effectively.

Would that I were so disciplined. But he's right. Effective information work does take some personal habits and intervention in default settings. In addition to shutting down auto-alerts, I like non-distracting streaming audio that helps the time pass as I write -- mostly innocuous techno.

Here's a link to Clay Spinuzzi's nice summary of work on fragmentation.

[via BoingBoing]

w00t!

It's official. Gaming lexicon is becoming mainstream.

Merriam-Webster's word of '07: 'w00t' [M-W, NYT]

I've been using it in IMs for a while now, and if faculty are using it, it sure ain't street anymore.