Arresting the President

You just HAVE to love Vermont. As a "transplant" (I am so NOT a "flatlander), I cannot help but appreciate the intrinsic beauty of this state. From the leaves to the snow to maple syrup to the (mostly) respectful and courteous drivers to the politics.

From the inside looking out, it is stunning to think that people assume Vermont is "left-leaning" -- we have a republican governor for heaven's sake and even if we are the land that spawned Howard Dean, and the first Civil Union law, and Jim Jeffords going Independent and Bernie Sanders and Patrick Leahy...ok...ok....I guess all I can say is that we have a republican governor!

We have town meetings each year and frankly people in Vermont don't embrace change -- simple local votes such as consolidating towns/villages in order to save money over the long term run amok against the all important "local control". I guess that Vermonters just don't like to allow unfettered policy -- checks and balances...that's where it is at. Which explains Bernie Sanders and Patrick Leahy and Jim Jeffords, and our republican governor and our more democrat than republican (for now) make up of the state legislature.

It may also have something to do with our own home-grown effort to have Vermont secede from the union. More on THAT at Vermont Commons! This state is independent in its thinking and frankly just down-right quirky!

Gotta LOVE IT!

So I'll get to the point...today's news supports that independent and quirky nature around our town meeting (happening in March). Where if you have enough signatures you can make any vote come to the floor. True grassroots at its most rootsy and grassy!

As we all know our esteemed President and Vice President have visited all the states in our nation save one. Vermont. (Probably a combo of voting record, Sen. Leahy blocking all sorts of appointments, Sen. Sanders just on principle alone, and the legacy of Sen. Jeffords.) As the clock runs down for the current regime in Washington, there is speculation that Bush/Cheney may make a last ditch pass through in the state. It would seem individuals in Brattleboro have decided that it's time to take preventative measures! CNN and AP are running stories about the fact that a group of individuals in Brattleboro are in the process of collecting signatures to add a new proposal to Town Meeting:

"Shall the Selectboard instruct the Town Attorney to draft indictments against President Bush and Vice President Cheney for crimes against our Constitution, and publish said indictment for consideration by other municipalities? And shall it be the law of the Town of Brattleboro that the Brattleboro Police, pursuant to the above-mentioned indictments, arrest and detain George Bush and Richard Cheney in Brattleboro if they are not duly impeached, and extradite them to other authorities that may reasonably contend to prosecute them."

iBrattleboro has a post from Kurt Daims that is well worth the read.

Radical thought...in a democracy the PEOPLE should have the POWER to make change. Weird.

Mental health breaks and revving back up

So I resurface! While I don't think I'm completely recovered yet from the completion of the dissertation and the end of semester frenzy, I have been able to do the most delicious things ... I've read THREE trashy novels, played some great new games with my daughter, logged numerous hours playing mindless computer games, begun a REAL puzzle...and slept....slept...slept!

It's a wonderful thing!

Working non-stop and crazy for four years does take a lot out of you, for sure!

But, the clock does keep ticking and in a very few short days the Iowa Caucus happens and well, it is clear that I must complete the Presidential Candidate Social Media Analysis BEFORE that.

Only three more to go, given the drop off of Tom Tancredo a few weeks ago. So Richardson, Romney and Thompson left and then I'll monitor the results and see how the sites and their social media fare as we wind down (or would that be up?) to the conventions.

Here we go!!

On Ph.D's, Breaks, Burnout and Finals Week

Quick...why did I stop posting as of November 15th?

1. I completed my dissertation and defense call on the 16th -- now I'm a Doctor!
2. We had Thanksgiving Break
3. I am realizing just how far behind I am in grading because of #1 above.
4. We are wrapping up the fall semester -- classes end on the 14th and final grades are due on the 20th.

Um....

I expect I'll be NOT posting again for a few more weeks...so what comes then?

1. Complete the Presidential Candidate Social Media analysis in time for the primary season
2. Start posting results from my dissertation research on Teaching Technology to College Students
3. Write about my new course -- Technology: A Disruptive Force

Can't wait? Sorry...

Journalism Online and Blogging and Social Networking OH MY!

Quick reflections on the state of journalism online that I've picked up over the past few days.

First on a News Weekly that GETS IT. And by gets it I mean a local paper that is capitalizing on the opportunities the web has to offer -- not running away from it. Seven Days, our local alternative weekly has relaunched their site this week. They are incorporating some great social media tools -- but they have also created a user interface that makes sense for the WEB -- not a "let's make it look like a newspaper online". Check it out! While it is a little too "Myspacian" for me, I can see where they are taking it and I am sure it will evolve to be less busy over time. The Top 10 is nice as is the integrated RSS -- and if you click you'll see some tag clouds going on.

Second, on an interesting "experiment". Hmmm...check out BeatBlogging.org, a collaboration of 13 different news organizations...

Beatblogging.org is a collaboration between 13 news organizations from around the country and NewAssignment.Net, to figure out how journalists can use social networks to improve beat reporting.

Um...seems to me they should check out this other item that is posted at another blog I follow called Invisible Inkling on how a group of school students has created a news blog for a local community and are beating the pants off of the news folks.

And then there is this new gem "instant journalist" highlighted by the folks over at commoncraft.

Those media beat blogging journalists better "figure it out" fast. Perhaps they should look at Seven Days too!

Do you SEE me? Reflection on Tent City at Champlain College

Walking from the cafeteria back to my office there were students laying around...litterally! One stretched out by the entrance to the bookstore, and one outside of Hauke Lounge. I stopped and spoke to the student outside of Hauke and she said:

"This is hard. Being ignored. It's hurtful that the students just walk by and don't do anything."

Wow.

Champlain College Students Raise Money for COTS during TENT CITY

Not in my backyard takes on new meaning when right outside my office window a "homeless" tent city has sprung up. Monday it began and today, Wednesday, there are clothes hanging up outside my window, cardboard everywhere, sleeping bags, tents, a central fire pit with chairs and bags.

$400 raised so far for COTS, 50+ students involved.

Here's a YouTube!



Kudos to these students who simulate homelessness to not just raise awareness but to learn and appreciate what the poor in our state and around the world go through. Here in Vermont as the temperature dips down, and we are seeing some of the highest heating prices in years, there a major challenges.

Check out the YouTube video to keep up to date on our students' progress!

Live Blogging from iDMAa Day 3: Curriculum Challenges in Art

There are three sessions going on at the same time -- and all of them sounded great, but not easily applicable to my marketing and e-business world.

So why did I select this one? Because the curricular focus of this session is something I can relate to the broader curricular issues.

The topics include:

Reshaping still-image foundations for digital media (Blaise Tobia from Drexel University)

Their focus is how to adapt the basic photography course for digital media majors. So they had to move from film to digital, make screen based viewing primary and link that to value of printing and more history of photography (which happened because they do not need to teach the film processing and print darkroom prtoocols). However, they kept black and white, minimal manipulation, start with a low-tech film based project, using throw-away film cameras and assign fewer more indepth projects requiriing multi-image solutions.

So why keep photography? Um...DUH!! I so agree with our presentor that it continues to be vital to any work! Prof. Tobia went on to describe in detail why each piece from design to history is approached in the course.

This is a good example of how technology and program needs require that foundational courses adapt and change to be able to respond to the unique needs of specialized fields. So the art-based photography can be adapted to assist the digital creative to strengthen their work. In this continuing message of convergance -- this is a GREAT example of that.

Getting non-digital creative students an online presence (Peyton Rowe, Virginia Commonwealth University)

This professor has a wide range of non-technical students and is required to teach them Web Site Design. What did she do in her class?

Used group projects, made the content fun, students listen to real clients (client project), and when all else fails make it all about them (created portfolios), used lynda.com, made them learn a basic level of HTML, used what they knew already with illustrator and photoshop.

While it was all good, following the class, no one has an online portfolio! So what's the solution?

• Instant portfolio site
• Where are they anyway? Social Networking? Virb, Storylink
• That's where she will go...use social networking tools!

This one was great -- fits right into my research in teaching technology and has the same issues that I have with Marketing and PR majors in my classes!

Facilitating Collaborative Digital Photgraphy Critque Online (Selila Honig from Corcoran College and Heather Tillberg-Webb from Elizabethtown College)

Brought two classes together from different schools to allow for critique using Flickr! Honig spoke about critique in art is clearly a tough process and she has developed a series of questions: What do you see (line, color, shape, texture), how does it make you feel, what do you think it means, what formal aspects interfere or add to what you think it means. Tillberg-Webb spoke about bringing the two classes together. And the challenges. She created groups on Flickr and provided discussion areas for the students to talk about the critique.

What went wrong?

1. Students had a lack of intrinsic motivation and a lack of interest in new media
2. The logistical issues included class meets only once a week in different buildings and there was a lack of access to digital lab

Very interesting challenges that I face EVERY DAY! That assumption that students will WANT to engage in this way is baffling!

A tri-course design unit for a digital media visualization concentration (James Wroneki, East Tennesee State Univesity)

The goal for this professor was to get students to create a portfolio over time based on three courses the students have taken over time. The design of the course was teacher facilitated, student centered, project based and profolio oriented. Which keeps the students motivated and engaged. The portfolio class then ties it all together to provide them with guidance to utilize what they have learned to create their projects. They have to do project briefs. Here's the structure:

1. Class 1 -- Visual Thinking: There is a specific design challenge to design an innovative inventive or inspirationa idea for their portfolio.
2. Class 2 -- Principles of Visualization: More technical with programs such as Maya
3. Class 3 -- Model Design: Create their models, textures and render cameras

Professors advise and co-lead students through their project planning and curriculum design process, there is a Midterm review and there is a 1/3 component of their final senior portfolios as the grade.

This allows students to connect their course content to the portfolio to get ready for the work world.

Overall this session provided some good insight into the work that is going on all over the country in getting students to show their work, to understand what they need to know to highlight what they have learned and how to collaborate. Nice stuff!

Live Blogging iDMAa Day 3: The International Perspective (India)

This second part of the morning session featured K. Hariharan director of the L.V. Prasad Film and TV Acadamy and a filmmaker from India.

His topic: The Digital Challenge for Media Artists

He began with information about India and the complexity of Indian media and education. The challenges of pirated works have made "real" or "original" work a premium. There is much going on around the growth of Film. India media have moved to digital quickly with what seems little challenge. Film and TV have moved to AVID easily.

And yet...

The creative communicators -- the digital artists -- are struggling.

The average indian can read and speak at least three languages -- and computer programming is just another one. So the challenge here is that India is an oral and audio based tradition. The visual media artist struggles. and while India is the world's largest producer of films, they do not do any animation. They need content. The digital domain is acquisition, processing and transmission, and is not sequential in India. There is no process -- it is disorganized -- they produce inexpensive film with high technology and yet, the narration is fragmented. The same film can be different from theater to theater because they will edit freely and move things and take things out. Digital technology is seen only as a visual effects tool -- NOT artistic or creative.

So how do you educate individuals in Film who think they can all edit and make movies? There is a lack of role models -- so the teacher becomes the role model. Have to explain theory with clarity and must prove that you are credible. In order to teach here, the faculty have to show them how to create the film by example, then they have to show both what is good and what is bad about that film.

It is clear that there are barriers to working with digital film in India -- it seems that the issue from what I can understand is the Indian culture emphasizes the technical skill to get things done, but the ability to creatively approach a story is a bigger challenge, even though the tradition for the culture is one of story telling. There is a disconnect.

According to Hariharan, Indians do not have a perspective to start -- things flow. The animation programs from the U.S. want people to start with how long, or the depth...it is not the way someone from India would approach developing a film.

Very interesting window for me into the culture for India from the filmmakers perspective.

Live Blogging from iDMAa Day 3: The International Perspective

Bright and early this morning (8:30 a.m.) we are kicking off with a session with a focus on the international perspective. Featuring Lars Qvortrup with the Royal School of Library and Information Science in Copenhagen, who is the author of the Hypercomplex Society (pdf link) (a book I will be utilizing in my Technology: A Disruptive Force course in the spring).

His presentation was on Digital Art, Hypercomplexity and Creative Knowledge.

Hypercomplexity is about how the human being as the center of the universe is changing. He used great examples from art. Moving from the view of God, to the view of the human being, to a the view of more than one point of observation.

The challenge of hypercomplexity it would seem is that because there are multiple points of view, each individual has to find a reference point and is continually questioning their point of view in comparison to others. Which means there needs to be a way to manage the complexity -- putting yourself into the roles of others and continually adapting to change. Therefore complexity applied to complexity. Studies are done because the more you know the more you know that you don't know! Not to come to completion!

In my language? There are no guarantees. Change happens. Be prepared to realize that you don't know anything and that you won't ever know it all and that is ok.

What does this have to do with Digital Media?

Consider the screen as a point of view or "privileged" point of view. We sit and we watch in front of the screen. But if you consider virtual reality (like Second Life) we move within the screen and beyond the screen. We are also changing our perspective by being within the virtual world. We move from spectator to a spect-actor: One who watches AND acts. (This is very similar to the schematic discussion from yesterday).

The example is in the field of digital art -- interactive art. Rather than stand and just look and appreciate the art, you begin to interact with the art -- depending on the vision of the artist. Again, a change of your point of view. The art is no longer a static piece, you become a part of the art and both an observer as well as an actor. And then, you may not just interact with something in the virtual world, but you interact with yourself!

Um...WOW!

The impact here is that you can no longer keep the act of practice (technology, science ) and the act of interpretation (art and humanities) seperate -- in higher ed that is the equivalent of merging the democratic and republican parties into one! And yet, it's been a theme of this converence. Convergence. Creating interdisciplinary curriculum to prepare our students for this new way of thinking. Students should take courses in programming, art, and business if they are to be able to be successful in the marketplace.

It's beginning to happen. I wonder if our universities and if our potential students are ready for it.

End of day Blogging from iDMAa Day 2: Making Connections

Only a few more sessions to go, but I wanted to take a little space to highlight some amazing things at the conference the past few days.

First, I never did write about the F.U.E.L. showcase from last night. Unfortunately it's being taken down this evening, but the breadth and depth of work was truly amazing -- even for me. I'm not a big performance art or installation piece appreciator, but as Jeff said, it would "expand my mind" and well...it did.

All I can say is the student work really was beyond anything I had ever seen. Wish I had pictures. Sorry...

Tonight we went over to LaSalle University -- what a nice campus, even though I only saw a little bit. But what I did see was amazing. They have an art gallery that was amazing. It was all amazing.... AMAZING!! (ok...ok...I know). From there it was dinner for ... guess what... AMAZING food! There was an awards presentation too.

Overall AMAZING stuff (ok...I'll stop...really!) but what was truly __________ (insert AMAZING) was the opportunity I have had especially tonight to meet with and chat with colleagues from all over the country. I've met and spoken with Kurt Kratchman, the CSO of schematic, Joel Kline, the Director of the Digital Communications program at Lebanon Valley College (I was told to pronounce it Leb-nin), Jeff Ritchie also of LVC, Brigid Maher from American University's School of Communication, and Sharon Ross a professor of Television Studies at Columbia College in Chicago. I've spoken with others, but these were the cards I collected.

What makes this so good (or AMAZING??)? It's the work that is being done, the similar issues we face and the focus everyone has on improving their craft and helping our students to be successful.

So a big thanks to Jeff Rutenbeck who told me one day a few months ago that I "just had to go to this conference". I don't get out much (that will change soon with the dissertation finishing up) and this was good to get to.