Posts from — May 2007

Do Computer Pros Work Less Than Others?:
Among eight broad professional occupations tracked by the government, only one category–consisting of educators, trainers and librarians–average fewer hours at work each week.
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that’s bull, he educators that i know work more hours on average than 40, usually 50 or 60. I wonder how they are measuring this.

Welcome to a worldwide learning network — OER Commons:
OER Commons is a teaching and learning network of shared materials, from K-12 through college, from algebra to zoology, open to everyone.

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great resources…

Welcome | DrupalEd:
The goal of this space is to collect and share resources and best practices related to using Drupal in educational environments. For developers working on the DrupalEd distribution, join us at groups.drupal.org/drupaled.

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yay! drupaled… i used and customized this for a class that i taught a few years ago.

Seeing No Progress, Some Schools Drop Laptops – New York Times:
So the Liverpool Central School District, just outside Syracuse, has decided to phase out laptops starting this fall, joining a handful of other schools around the country that adopted one-to-one computing programs and are now abandoning them as educationally empty — and worse.

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This is an interesting move. Let’s follow the logic… Can’t make the kids behave, Can’t make the network more secure, or faster, take away their access to the network. So, failure in administration of technology and failure to model and disseminate ethics, rules, and mores makes things “educationally empty — and worse.” Balderdash.

The Other Here » Blog Archive » New York Metaverse Meetups and Video of Daniel Huebner on Second Life at How They Got Game Workshop #1:
The first one is a mixed-reality music concert called Virtualive that’s 1/2 at the Canal Room and 1/2 in SL coming up on the 10th. Massive props to Adam Broitman from Morpheus Media for thinking it up and seeing it through to reality (shortly).

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another interesting metaverse meetup…

AlterNet: Higher Education Conformity:
Is a college degree really a sign of competence? Or is it chiefly a signal to employers that you’ve mastered the ability to obey and conform?

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i suspect that all to frequently it is the latter.

Dear Friends and Colleagues,
(apologies for cross-posting)
We are very pleased to announce that Issue 2(1) of Studies in Language and Capitalism is now online.
SLC is a peer-reviewed online journal that seeks to promote and freely distribute interdisciplinary critical inquiries into the language and meaning of contemporary capitalism, and the links between economic, social and linguistic change in the world around us.
Though language is foregrounded in our title, SLC is equally interested in presenting research that addresses the role semiosis in general plays in making capitalism meaningful. Further, SLC will not limit itself to the economic field. We are also interested in publishing work that examines the ramifications of capitalism in fields such as culture, the mass media, education, politics (both national and international), public and civil society, and in relation to structured social inequalities on the basis of nationality, ‘race’, religion, gender and sexuality.
We are now taking submissions for the next issue.

http://www.languageandcapitalism.info/
Articles

Niamh Hennessy
The Janus-Face of Language: Reification in the Work of Habermas and the Bakhtin Circle (p.1)

Isabela Ietcu-Fairclough
Populism and the Romanian ‘Orange Revolution’: A Discourse-Analytical Perspective on the Presidential Election of December 2004 (p.31)

Camelia Suleiman and Daniel C. O’Connell
Bill Clinton on the Middle East: Perspective in Media Interviews (p.75)

Lisa Perks
The Nouveau Reach: Ideologies of Class and Consumerism in Reality-Based Television (p.101)

Christof Demont-Heinrich
The Ideological Construction of the Juggernaut of English: A Critical Analysis of American Prestige Press Coverage of the Globalisation of Language (p.119)

Commentary
Kanchhedia Chamaar
A Resolutely Uncivilized Colonial Bumps into Postcolonialism (p.145)

Andrew Sola
The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to War-Profiteering in Iraq (p.155)

John E Richardson, Loughborough University, UK
Ian Roderick, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada
Katie Weir, Queensland University of Technology, Australia

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This is the second issue of the first volume, the editors are doing great work.

The 3rd Living Knowledge conference

‘Communities building knowledge: innovation through citizens’ science and university engagement’

will take place in Paris from 30 August 30 till 1 September 2007.
The conference will provide a forum where information on community based
research, carried out in both community and academic settings, on new forms
of partnerships between research and civil society and on new modes of
innovation, can be shared and developed. It aims at disseminating and
exchanging information on community based and participatory research, on
citizens’ science and cooperative innovation.

Registration for the conference is open now!
<http://www.livingknowledge.org/lk3> www.livingknowledge.org/lk3.

You can also submit a proposal for a contribution (workshop or presentation)
within on of the five conference theme’s. At the conference website you will
find an overview of topics that can be addressed in the theme’s. The
(extended) deadline to submit a proposal is April 30.
Proposals can be submitted online at the conference website
<http://www.livingknowledge.org/lk3> www.livingknowledge.org/lk3.

Conference themes:
* University engagement with communities
* Citizens’ science and social movements
* Research policy – from local to global
* Innovation and citizens – added values for communities
* Participatory processes in science and technology

For additional information about the conference you can contact
<mailto:citizens-research-LK3@sciencescitoyennes.org>
citizens-research-LK3@sciencescitoyennes.org

I kindly request you to forward this announcement to your colleagues
and in your networks.

The conference organisation committee and the Living Knowledge
Network hope to meet you in Paris this summer.

Caspar de Bok

——————
3rd Living Knowledge conference

Communities building knowledge:
innovation through citizens’ science and university engagement

Paris (Fr): August 30 – September 1, 2007

website: <http://www.livingknowledge.org/lk3>
http://www.livingknowledge.org/lk3
email: <mailto:citizens-research-LK3@sciencescitoyennes.org>
citizens-research-LK3@sciencescitoyennes.org

The 3rd Living Knowledge conference

For immediate release

Virginia Tech Launches April 16 Archive
http://www.april16archive.org/

BLACKSBURG, Va., April 30, 2007 – Virginia Tech’s Center for Digital Discourse
and Culture (CDDC) is pleased to announce the launch of the April 16 Archive
(www.april16archive.org). This new online archive assists artists, humanists,
social scientists, and all other scholars who seek, today and in the future, to
develop a better understanding of the violent events of April 16, 2007 at
Virginia Tech. It is also available to the general public of the Commonwealth
of Virginia, the United States of America, and the world at large as we come to
terms with a local, national, and global event that will have ramifications for
years to come. This archive works actively to deploy electronic media for the
collection, interpretation, preservation, and display of stories and digital
objects related to the tragedy of April 16, 2007 and its many effects as text,
image, and sound. Developed in cooperation with George Mason University’s
Center for History and New Media (CHNM), this project is receiving technical,
curatorial and administrative support from Virginia Tech students, faculty, and
staff.

The archive will preserve a diverse record of the events surrounding April 16,
2007 by collecting first-hand observations, photographic images, sound
recordings, media reports, personal writings, official statements, individual
blog postings, and any other documents that can be stored as digital files. In
addition to local reactions, the archive welcomes responses from across the
globe in any language. Through this archive, we aim to leave a positive legacy
for the larger community and contribute to a collective process of healing,
especially as those affected by this tragedy tell their stories in their own
words. The larger trend exemplified by this project is the “digital memory
bank.” Memory banks are being used to preserve the richness of the present as
it transitions to the past, thereby ensuring that the collected records can be
both readily accessible and carefully preserved for future access.

The April 16 Archive welcomes contributions from the Virginia Tech community, as
well as from anyone around the world who wants to share words of support or
reflection following the events of April 16, 2007. The attacks happened in
Blacksburg, Virginia, but they were experienced around the world through mass
media and community ties. The accounts of that day from any site across the
globe are, therefore, very important to the April 16 Archive as it documents
the full impact of this tragic event. For more information, visit
www.april16archive.org or contact admin@april16archive.org. For media
inquiries, contact Brent Jesiek, Manager of the CDDC, at (540) 231-7614 or
cddc@vt.edu.

Established in 1998, Virginia Tech’s Center for Digital Discourse and Culture is
one of the world’s first university based digital points-of-publication for new
forms of scholarly communication, academic research, and cultural analysis.
Virginia Tech’s College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences (CLAHS) as well as
the Institute of Distance and Distributed Learning (IDDL) actively support the
Center for Digital Discourse and Culture. The CDDC is also working with
Virginia Tech’s newly established Institute for Society, Culture, and the
Environment (ISCE) to develop new scholarly initiatives, such as the April 16
Archive, tied into the practices of rhetoric, representation and the public
humanities.

This story is also posted on the April 16 Archive website:
http://www.april16archive.org/news/