Digital Sextant

So I teach a class that’s VERY popular and has pretty limited seats –18 according to the schedule.  I usually allow three or four students to add the class, but since it’s a seminar-style course, more than that would make the conversation and experience pretty different and difficult.  Not to mention the extra grading for […]

The Longman Anthology of Detective Fiction edited by Deane Mansfield-Kelley and Lois A Marchino I’m using this book in my Literary Genres: Detective Fiction class this semester, so I skimmed it to determine which readings to assign, and now I’ve been reading it thoroughly as the class works their way through it. Lots of good […]

Today is the first meeting of my detective fiction class. Here’s the OED word of the day. Coincidence? I think not. clueful, adj. DRAFT ENTRY Mar. 2006 Brit. /kluf()l/, U.S. /kluf()l/ [< CLUE n. + -FUL suffix, in sense 2 after CLUELESS adj.] 1. Full of clues; informative, revealing. rare. 1921 B. RUCK Sweet Stranger […]

In an essay about the rise of zombies in popular media, the author takes a pot shot at “brain dead” English classes, and uses me as a counter-example (someone not brain dead?). Peter Wood writes, for the National Association of Scholars: Perhaps the central question for the National Association of Scholars is whether the proliferation […]

Reviewing the daily spam filter report, I see an email with the subject “Ready for your free rolex?” from “porn.com.” Now come on. I think that’s a parody of spam. I was looking at the design of my main site, curragh-labs.org, and wondering whether it needs a re-vamp. It’s fairly simple and I still like […]

My zombie course got a mention in the “15 Strangest Courses” in America article at OnlineColleges.net  Here’s what they say: Here’s one I’d have to consider signing up for, the history of zombies in popular media. Lest you think it’s just about zombie movies, it should be emphasized that the course also covers the history […]

The next podcast from my Writing and Rhetoric 2 class.  In this one, I explain the idea of “convergence” as I understand its relationship to electracy, our coursework, and the Lawrence Weschler book we’re using as our guide. Podcast below the break.

My Writing and Rhetoric 2: Online! students are working their way through Lawrence Weschler’s Everything That Rises: A Book of Convergences. One of the readings was a chapter called “Helen Levitt: Ilium Off the Bowery,” in which Weschler writes: …we learn that one of the methods by which she accomplished such uncanny capture was through […]

I crossed the finish line, flags waving and emails sent. I’ll upload the grades on Friday, but all the grading is done. I generally enjoy writing comments and responding to student project, but I really dislike grading. As I teach more, I’ve wavered quite a bit in what I think about grading, but I tend […]

I finished my ICW grading and emailed the students.  Only my New Media grading stands between me and the end of the semester.  And I’ll finish that tomorrow!

My ICW students received an email that included this line just moments ago: As of this email, I have finished grading all the assignments for the class, and your final SCORE is online.

The Columbia Chronicle had a commentary about the attendance policy on campus.  In part, they say: Missing class is detrimental to a student’s understanding of course material, his grades on any quizzes or due assignments and their overall course performance. In effect, missing class is its own punishment and shouldn’t be augmented by the threat […]

Jenny and I watched Chalk via Netflix’s “Watch It Now” feature. It’s a convincingly-made mockumentary about four or five teachers in a high school, one of whom is brand new and has no formal training as a teacher. It touches key nerves and, for the first bit especially, comes off as very real. The students […]