Sunday, May 24, 2009
Simplaris Blogcast Test
I am just testing out the Simplaris/Facebook blogcasting app to see what I think of it.
News Flashes
May Seminar was completed. I am transformed, without a doubt. I wonder if my colleagues will recognize me. Serious intellectual chaff got burned off, as did my need to perform certain masculinities. For now, at least.
My brain is still reeling from usability. Kept on thinking about MEELS on the way to DFW from LBB. Is it obsession or synaptic burn, I don't know. Thinking about grant writing and/or budget writing formats as genres and usability testing. How I got here from Isocrates I will never know.
I honestly suspect that Prigogine [props to FK] is right on here--keep up the disturbance/pressure for a while and a new order will emerge in a non-linear jump. Or something like that.
Tired brain, but it feels good to not be used much.
Learned a lot about pacing, about working with others, and what not to do. It was great being in the midst of other very smart and very hard working people.
I am still curious why few people write or research information marketing. Hmm. Too tacky or market sender. FK said I should check out the book Joyce edited, Market Matters.
I don't even know if this blog is even relevant any more, technologically or practically speaking--especially considering all of the emergent technologies. I certainly am sure that this mode of using blogger feels outdated.
I really want to figure out some master method of organizing my data and thoughts, and i am not very sure how to do it. I think it may be in databases, but I'm not very clear.
I am starting to see myself and the work I do with language in a very different light, but the light is opaque. It is not transparent.
I'd like to expand my understanding of usability and go into greater depth with it as a research methodology. This could be stockholm syndrome, but it feels more like the approach is actually clear and orderly. I do so enjoy this, you know.
My fashion was clearly disastrous, but that was probably due to my perpetual inclination to resist the academic uniform of slacks and long sleeved shirts with collars. I just do not care for that. My inner 14 year old resisting.
I am curious to see what could happen if there was a usability test done with graduate students and Kindles. That could be an interesting experiment to run at TTU. Or maybe not, we'll see.
I am considering pickiing up a Kindle and working with that process for my writing. From there, I could drag and drop into a database of author, title, etc., or pop into end note or zotero. But I'm not sure. I'm not sure what to do. Brain must relax for a while longer, you know.
I saw this awful ad in a computer magazine for workplace surveillance. Three kinds of employees were represented, and each was guilty of a specific crime. The white guy was guilty of looking at porn, the woman of shopping, and the man of color for sharing internet secrets. Do you see an escalation in severity of crimes here? Struck me as obscenely different. That may be me.
For Zdenek's class I'm looking at exploring macular degeneration resources online. Just a consideration, and I need to see what is there. Similarly, I wonder how the Kindle works for people with macular degeneration. That could be a usability and accessability study there as well.
My brain is still reeling from usability. Kept on thinking about MEELS on the way to DFW from LBB. Is it obsession or synaptic burn, I don't know. Thinking about grant writing and/or budget writing formats as genres and usability testing. How I got here from Isocrates I will never know.
I honestly suspect that Prigogine [props to FK] is right on here--keep up the disturbance/pressure for a while and a new order will emerge in a non-linear jump. Or something like that.
Tired brain, but it feels good to not be used much.
Learned a lot about pacing, about working with others, and what not to do. It was great being in the midst of other very smart and very hard working people.
I am still curious why few people write or research information marketing. Hmm. Too tacky or market sender. FK said I should check out the book Joyce edited, Market Matters.
I don't even know if this blog is even relevant any more, technologically or practically speaking--especially considering all of the emergent technologies. I certainly am sure that this mode of using blogger feels outdated.
I really want to figure out some master method of organizing my data and thoughts, and i am not very sure how to do it. I think it may be in databases, but I'm not very clear.
I am starting to see myself and the work I do with language in a very different light, but the light is opaque. It is not transparent.
I'd like to expand my understanding of usability and go into greater depth with it as a research methodology. This could be stockholm syndrome, but it feels more like the approach is actually clear and orderly. I do so enjoy this, you know.
My fashion was clearly disastrous, but that was probably due to my perpetual inclination to resist the academic uniform of slacks and long sleeved shirts with collars. I just do not care for that. My inner 14 year old resisting.
I am curious to see what could happen if there was a usability test done with graduate students and Kindles. That could be an interesting experiment to run at TTU. Or maybe not, we'll see.
I am considering pickiing up a Kindle and working with that process for my writing. From there, I could drag and drop into a database of author, title, etc., or pop into end note or zotero. But I'm not sure. I'm not sure what to do. Brain must relax for a while longer, you know.
I saw this awful ad in a computer magazine for workplace surveillance. Three kinds of employees were represented, and each was guilty of a specific crime. The white guy was guilty of looking at porn, the woman of shopping, and the man of color for sharing internet secrets. Do you see an escalation in severity of crimes here? Struck me as obscenely different. That may be me.
For Zdenek's class I'm looking at exploring macular degeneration resources online. Just a consideration, and I need to see what is there. Similarly, I wonder how the Kindle works for people with macular degeneration. That could be a usability and accessability study there as well.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
May Seminar Notes
It is Sunday after one week at the Seminar.
I've taken a lot of notes. Here are some of them.
There are many ideas; most are not attributed--instead, I regard them as the result of the May Seminar community/context.
At this point, it seems like the May Seminar is a giant Invention experience.
If you see one of yours and you need attribution, let me know and I'll adjust it.
From Joyce's presentation Monday:
2.5 years to finish coursework
3.25 years to quals
4-5 years to defense
Dissertations as braintrust of the program
Question: How do you document doctoral culture?
Still's Lunch Presentation
Term: perpetual intermediate @ 77%
Comp journals generally dislike Talk Aloud because it distracts the writer
During presentations, Joyce repeatedly emphasized/critiqued framing
What are the theoretical frameworks for your work?
In presentations, focus on one aspect so that the scope of the question is manageable
Text/data mining enables making specific cognitive connections
DJ Process:
download articles; rd/take notes; spreadsheet ideas (author/yr/label/notes); write
Still paraphrased: "You must understand how people work if you want to improve/abet their flow."
Snake on the Wall: Each time you're interrupted, put a post it up on the wall.
Terms/Ideas:
Deficiency trope
Likert (sp?) scale
content mapping
DEAR as writing process?
Data driven sites
intersections of rhetoric and data mining
Rhizomic structure
textual coding
using data mining tools to discover rhetorical cognitive commonplaces
knowledge telling vs. Knowledge transforming (Schriver)
Correlations between expertise in multiple fields (expertise transfers?)
Embodied Knowledge (Rickly)
Relational thinking
Lived experience research
Single sourcing
Structured Markup
Writing as a technology
axes of history & theory
Grant experts in TTU program:
Rich, Angela, Fred
NCAT
established national standards in use of tech in classrooms
potential source of cash for ed/tech grant money
Tech is compelling; adaptability is vital.
fk:
two kinds of diss: empirical & interpretative
empir comes out of science
interp comes out of lit
Stuart Selber reference
two kinds of empirical:
qualitative & quant
Must be clear on your approach w/your committee
transformation comes from ideas
using social tech makes you rethink everything
questions drive everything
When you write, Prime Directive: Keep Reader Reading
anticipation/expectation to find an answer to a question s/he finds important
w/out the question, there can be no anticipated answer; reader has no reason to keep reading
disturbed knowledge: take a trope and put a new spin on it
resolving the tension of the spun trope, and how it will be done, keeps the reader engaged (want to know who did it in a mystery)
TENSION BETWEEN DISTURBED KNOWLEDGE AND SHARED KNOWLEDGE
the difference between the two generates/facilitates tension
You must know the literature of the field in order to know the reader, what they know, what they don't know, and what they want to know.
To do this, you must manage the field's knowledge
read TOCs of all major journals
read first couple paras of each article (at least)
THIS orients you to landscape so you can set up tension
doing this with ticTOCS tool seems like a good approach to daily/weekly scholarly reading
fk: all scholarly writing is an argument; principal claim must be relevant to field and contestable
if the claim is not potentially refutable, there is no tension
fk:
*can a well secured position in the field be supported & strengthened
*can a well secured position in the field be challenged
*can a gap in field's general or specific knowledge be filled
*can a paradigmatic assumption be challenged (revising a structure of knowledge)
Schriver:
if going into business, learn to listen. Academics often feel need to prove/demonstrate knowledge and talk clients to death to prove own knowledge instead of hearing/listening for what potential clients want.
*fees in field MA 50-125/hr; PhD 100-500/hr (don't do less than 100-250)
*avoid mission creep
*under promise and over deliver
*be willing to revise & repackage
*use Gannt (sp?) or Pert (?) chart to list expenses [practice it if you've never done it before]
*avoid interrogators & people who send you around the company
"If I can't visualize it, I won't read about it."
Lots of consulting work with gov't
We need research on:
work habits of high-achieving professionals
difference in individual processes
value added by excellence is not well understood? (unclear notes on this line)
Expert does right content, level of details, org & channels
Situated nature of expertise
group expertise
social & org influences on expertise
Risk: in-depth knowledge may numb you to others' needs
QUALS:
When reading/structuring for quals, consider categories of
lit review
taxonomy
methods
theory
QUALS is an invitation to contextualize your choices; explain why the methods are appropriate/why you selected it; what the limitations are.
Passing quals: "I am qualified to write a dissertation."
be able to evaluate trends in your field
(parentheticals are academic chest beating)
Dr. Baak
Conceptualize ideas as Venn diagrams
make your Venn diagrams into text
"People tend to subhead when they are insecure"
"I don't think any of us are wowed by opacity."
Merit is already established--don't see critique of quals as judgment of you
Be methodical in your reading, and have a system of taking notes
Be methodical in your approach; limit the number of thread you pursue (focus)
reigning in self is the big challenge
CONTROL YOUR INTERESTS
Remember that your readers are experienced AND they have to do it quickly. Zdenek.
highlight changes that you made in the doc AND leave the Ts comments in doc
MAKE IT EASIER FOR THEM
Lv Prof's questions in the text--and review them: that is what they are thinking about.
During quals, cite and refer to proposal rather than quoting from it
preparing for quals: set up reading times & reading themes (for several weeks)
read for ideas
what Zdenek looks for [my notes could be inaccurate]:
S answer question?>
scholarly in tone, use of cites, well org'd, well supported
is S ready to tackle diss
does S have enough background knowledge to handle diss
do answers anticipate full-blown proposal
has S worked out pre-proposal
has S made intellectual progress
has S articulated the gap
is the gap convincing?
does S have grasp of diss's rationale (so what?)
does S have an even better grasp of methods & attendant issues/probs
quals are a stage in the conversation--not all or 0
margin comments are a warning--don't ignore; be sure to address them
Web Tools
NetVicbes
ticToc
Jing
Zotero
WetPaint.com
Viddler
Seesmic
During presentations, be sure you do not go "here's a cool, one time experience."
include: theory, methods, and rigor
Remember: while we may reference TTU profs/courses during May seminar, DON'T do it at prof conferences
Dragga:
henri bergson major theory/critical lens
set up binary tensions between ethics & legality
Dragga presentation near-quote "Abstractions don't have power to elicit the vital feeling of a moral calling"
legal is often equated with ethical
Rickly:
situate the research of what we believe
cognitive dissonance: outside comfort zone
Mentioned/Recommended readings
Bereiter & Scardamalia (1983) Surpassing Ourselves [B&S's text? or another's?]
Berger, Arthur Media Research Theories
Bergson, Henri Creative Evolution
Bergson, Henri Two Sources of Morality & Religion
Bloom's Taxonomy Book/Article title?
Cho, Schunn, Charney 2006 (comp?) Book/Article title?
Codone, Lackey, Grady 2004 (topic? title?)
Dragga Praiseworthy Grading
Fife & O'neil (comp?) Book/Article title?
Hayes 1989 (properly focused practice? sustained practice?)
Hayhoe editorial in TC 2005 (topic?)
Huot 2002: study; students write for a grade (comp?) Book/Article title?
Johnson-Eilola 1996 "Relocating the Value of Work"
Kuhn: structure of scientific revolutions
Landow 3rd Ed (vocab for cognitive expectations)
Lawrence & Lightfoot (2009) on expertise
Lipson, Carol & R. Binkley Pre-Greek Rhetoric
Manovich, Lev. Language of New Media
Meiring, Dorian Stark (sp?) (research to read. cell phone/dev countries?)
Molich (sp?) everything--usability big boy
Negroponte: Being Digital
Nielsen everything--usability big boy
Papert, Seymour--Mindstorms
St. Amant, Kirk. Multiple articles on cell pphone role in developing countries
UNKNOWN Supercrunchers (database driven culture) {props to Glenn}
I've taken a lot of notes. Here are some of them.
There are many ideas; most are not attributed--instead, I regard them as the result of the May Seminar community/context.
At this point, it seems like the May Seminar is a giant Invention experience.
If you see one of yours and you need attribution, let me know and I'll adjust it.
From Joyce's presentation Monday:
2.5 years to finish coursework
3.25 years to quals
4-5 years to defense
Dissertations as braintrust of the program
Question: How do you document doctoral culture?
Still's Lunch Presentation
Term: perpetual intermediate @ 77%
Comp journals generally dislike Talk Aloud because it distracts the writer
During presentations, Joyce repeatedly emphasized/critiqued framing
What are the theoretical frameworks for your work?
In presentations, focus on one aspect so that the scope of the question is manageable
Text/data mining enables making specific cognitive connections
DJ Process:
download articles; rd/take notes; spreadsheet ideas (author/yr/label/notes); write
Still paraphrased: "You must understand how people work if you want to improve/abet their flow."
Snake on the Wall: Each time you're interrupted, put a post it up on the wall.
Terms/Ideas:
Deficiency trope
Likert (sp?) scale
content mapping
DEAR as writing process?
Data driven sites
intersections of rhetoric and data mining
Rhizomic structure
textual coding
using data mining tools to discover rhetorical cognitive commonplaces
knowledge telling vs. Knowledge transforming (Schriver)
Correlations between expertise in multiple fields (expertise transfers?)
Embodied Knowledge (Rickly)
Relational thinking
Lived experience research
Single sourcing
Structured Markup
Writing as a technology
axes of history & theory
Grant experts in TTU program:
Rich, Angela, Fred
NCAT
established national standards in use of tech in classrooms
potential source of cash for ed/tech grant money
Tech is compelling; adaptability is vital.
fk:
two kinds of diss: empirical & interpretative
empir comes out of science
interp comes out of lit
Stuart Selber reference
two kinds of empirical:
qualitative & quant
Must be clear on your approach w/your committee
transformation comes from ideas
using social tech makes you rethink everything
questions drive everything
When you write, Prime Directive: Keep Reader Reading
anticipation/expectation to find an answer to a question s/he finds important
w/out the question, there can be no anticipated answer; reader has no reason to keep reading
disturbed knowledge: take a trope and put a new spin on it
resolving the tension of the spun trope, and how it will be done, keeps the reader engaged (want to know who did it in a mystery)
TENSION BETWEEN DISTURBED KNOWLEDGE AND SHARED KNOWLEDGE
the difference between the two generates/facilitates tension
You must know the literature of the field in order to know the reader, what they know, what they don't know, and what they want to know.
To do this, you must manage the field's knowledge
read TOCs of all major journals
read first couple paras of each article (at least)
THIS orients you to landscape so you can set up tension
doing this with ticTOCS tool seems like a good approach to daily/weekly scholarly reading
fk: all scholarly writing is an argument; principal claim must be relevant to field and contestable
if the claim is not potentially refutable, there is no tension
fk:
*can a well secured position in the field be supported & strengthened
*can a well secured position in the field be challenged
*can a gap in field's general or specific knowledge be filled
*can a paradigmatic assumption be challenged (revising a structure of knowledge)
Schriver:
if going into business, learn to listen. Academics often feel need to prove/demonstrate knowledge and talk clients to death to prove own knowledge instead of hearing/listening for what potential clients want.
*fees in field MA 50-125/hr; PhD 100-500/hr (don't do less than 100-250)
*avoid mission creep
*under promise and over deliver
*be willing to revise & repackage
*use Gannt (sp?) or Pert (?) chart to list expenses [practice it if you've never done it before]
*avoid interrogators & people who send you around the company
"If I can't visualize it, I won't read about it."
Lots of consulting work with gov't
We need research on:
work habits of high-achieving professionals
difference in individual processes
value added by excellence is not well understood? (unclear notes on this line)
Expert does right content, level of details, org & channels
Situated nature of expertise
group expertise
social & org influences on expertise
Risk: in-depth knowledge may numb you to others' needs
QUALS:
When reading/structuring for quals, consider categories of
lit review
taxonomy
methods
theory
QUALS is an invitation to contextualize your choices; explain why the methods are appropriate/why you selected it; what the limitations are.
Passing quals: "I am qualified to write a dissertation."
be able to evaluate trends in your field
(parentheticals are academic chest beating)
Dr. Baak
Conceptualize ideas as Venn diagrams
make your Venn diagrams into text
"People tend to subhead when they are insecure"
"I don't think any of us are wowed by opacity."
Merit is already established--don't see critique of quals as judgment of you
Be methodical in your reading, and have a system of taking notes
Be methodical in your approach; limit the number of thread you pursue (focus)
reigning in self is the big challenge
CONTROL YOUR INTERESTS
Remember that your readers are experienced AND they have to do it quickly. Zdenek.
highlight changes that you made in the doc AND leave the Ts comments in doc
MAKE IT EASIER FOR THEM
Lv Prof's questions in the text--and review them: that is what they are thinking about.
During quals, cite and refer to proposal rather than quoting from it
preparing for quals: set up reading times & reading themes (for several weeks)
read for ideas
what Zdenek looks for [my notes could be inaccurate]:
S answer question?>
scholarly in tone, use of cites, well org'd, well supported
is S ready to tackle diss
does S have enough background knowledge to handle diss
do answers anticipate full-blown proposal
has S worked out pre-proposal
has S made intellectual progress
has S articulated the gap
is the gap convincing?
does S have grasp of diss's rationale (so what?)
does S have an even better grasp of methods & attendant issues/probs
quals are a stage in the conversation--not all or 0
margin comments are a warning--don't ignore; be sure to address them
Web Tools
NetVicbes
ticToc
Jing
Zotero
WetPaint.com
Viddler
Seesmic
During presentations, be sure you do not go "here's a cool, one time experience."
include: theory, methods, and rigor
Remember: while we may reference TTU profs/courses during May seminar, DON'T do it at prof conferences
Dragga:
henri bergson major theory/critical lens
set up binary tensions between ethics & legality
Dragga presentation near-quote "Abstractions don't have power to elicit the vital feeling of a moral calling"
legal is often equated with ethical
Rickly:
situate the research of what we believe
cognitive dissonance: outside comfort zone
Mentioned/Recommended readings
Bereiter & Scardamalia (1983) Surpassing Ourselves [B&S's text? or another's?]
Berger, Arthur Media Research Theories
Bergson, Henri Creative Evolution
Bergson, Henri Two Sources of Morality & Religion
Bloom's Taxonomy Book/Article title?
Cho, Schunn, Charney 2006 (comp?) Book/Article title?
Codone, Lackey, Grady 2004 (topic? title?)
Dragga Praiseworthy Grading
Fife & O'neil (comp?) Book/Article title?
Hayes 1989 (properly focused practice? sustained practice?)
Hayhoe editorial in TC 2005 (topic?)
Huot 2002: study; students write for a grade (comp?) Book/Article title?
Johnson-Eilola 1996 "Relocating the Value of Work"
Kuhn: structure of scientific revolutions
Landow 3rd Ed (vocab for cognitive expectations)
Lawrence & Lightfoot (2009) on expertise
Lipson, Carol & R. Binkley Pre-Greek Rhetoric
Manovich, Lev. Language of New Media
Meiring, Dorian Stark (sp?) (research to read. cell phone/dev countries?)
Molich (sp?) everything--usability big boy
Negroponte: Being Digital
Nielsen everything--usability big boy
Papert, Seymour--Mindstorms
St. Amant, Kirk. Multiple articles on cell pphone role in developing countries
UNKNOWN Supercrunchers (database driven culture) {props to Glenn}
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