Teaching

Research / Teaching — No Comments
3
Oct 08

Dr. Vance Ricks to visit Technologies of Friendship

On Monday, October 6, We are pleased to welcome the first guest lecturer of the semester to Technologies of Friendship.  Vance Ricks, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Guilford College, will deliver the talk When Philosophers Met Friendship, which “gives an overview of some contemporary philosophical discussions of friendship and examines the contributions philosophers can make to our understanding of technologically mediated relationships.”

Dr. Ricks received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Stanford University, where he explored friendship and shared activity.  We’re very excited to have him lend his perspective to the class.  We’ve explored mediated relationships from a number of perspectives, and to have an expert in the field visit is truly a treat.

Because of this unique opportunity, I’d like to open the class up to visitors during Dr. Ricks’ talk and discussion.  If you’d like to come by, Technologies of Friendship meets Monday, October 6 at 6PM in Manning Hall 307.  Directions to Manning Hall are available on the SILS website.

Noticed / Research / Teaching — 1 Comment
22
Sep 08

Academic Productivity workshop – October 3

Abe Crystal and I are teaming up to bring an academic productivity workshop to UNC.  From 10-11:30 on the morning of Friday, October 3, we’re going to open the floor for ten-minute talks on productivity – particularly the tools and methods we use to get our work done.  I’m probably going to talk about literature searches and alerts, a favorite time-saver of mine.

While this event is SILS-centric, it is open to members of the community.  You can find out more information about the workshop over at the wiki – http://academicproductivity.pbwiki.com/.

Teaching / Thoughts — No Comments
16
Sep 08

Technologies of Friendship – Weeks 1 and 2

Last evening was the third meeting of my Technologies of Friendship class.  While I’ve been meaning to blog about the class each week, this post will have to serve as a catch-up.  We’re actually not that far behind – this was actually only the second teaching class due to Labor Day and the fact our class meets on Monday.

Our first teaching class was designed as an overview of the material.  We read three articles exploring the social impacts of the Internet, the issues surrounding computer-mediated-communication, and the management of relationships with mediating technology.  To accompany the lecture (slides here) we completed two exercises.  The first was a name generator exercise that invited students to reflect on the various types of connections they keep through technology.  The key component of the generator was comparing categories – i.e. why did some friends end up in multiple bins, exploring those stories.  The next exercise was a reflection on social capital and medium, students were asked to think about the types of support they derive from differing mediated relationships.

The second teaching class (lecture slides) began an exploration of historical perspectives.  Our readings explored the history of two communication technologies – the telegraph and the telephone.  We explored the invention, marketing, uses and social framing of the tools, as well as the tools’ evolution of use.  Accepted uses, cultural impacts and the role of gender in technology use were also explored.  We then compared this to the development and marketing of the Internet.  We will continue this theme next week, exploring some of the early tools of Internet communication.

If you wish to follow along, you can follow items we’re bookmarking, prompt readings for the class, and of course check the website on Monday nights for lecture notes and slides.

Teaching — 3 Comments
15
Aug 08

New course: Technologies of Friendship

I’ve completed a draft version of the syllabus to my new course, Technologies of Friendship. The course is on the books as a CMC course, but I couldn’t resist giving it a less formal name. If you’d like to check out the syllabus, it can be accessed from my new teaching portfolio page.

As I previously discussed, my goal is to make the class interactive, informative and somewhat practical. To that extent, I’ve lightened the reading load in favor of a number of reflective assignments. I hope to do a good bit of hands on/demoing/testing of technologies, as well as bring in a number of guests. I’ll be reflecting on the process here at Unit Structures over the next few months.

Here’s the course description from the syllabus:

The Internet is a place of communication, interaction and relational management. From Ray Tomlinson’s first email in 1971, to the iChats, Wall Posts and Twitters of today, we have consistently turned to this vast network to find one another for communication and collaboration. This course is an exploration of the tools and practices of technologically mediated relationships; that is, why and how do we use network tools to start, build and sustain interpersonal relationships.

The use of technology as a relational intermediary is as old as technology itself. From the earliest inscribed works to the electrified telegraph, technology has played in a role in allowing us to discover, remember and communicate with others. Technology provides us the goods, means and rationale for exchange, and it allows us to imagine the communities we inhabit. Arguably, the Internet is the most profound relational technology, but technology and social process have long been intertwined.

Utilizing interdisciplinary perspectives, we will explore the role networked communications tools play in the relational process. The course will be structured around four thematic areas. They are: Historical Perspectives, Theoretical Concepts, Internet Relationships and Group Dynamics. The first area, historical perspectives, will contextualize our analysis through the exploration of early communication tools and practice. This area will be followed by theoretical concepts, which explores theorization of computer-mediated communication. We will then explore Internet relationships; how we’re using modern technology to mediate our personal relationships. The course will conclude with an analysis of how the Internet enables “ridiculously easy group formation,” in the words of Clay Shirky.

Students who successfully complete this course will develop critical perspectives on networked communication and relational management, better preparing them to develop tools of participation, social support and group collaboration.

If you have any comments, feedback or ideas, please feel free to contribute them in the comment thread.

Teaching — 2 Comments
3
Jul 08

Notes on my Fall Class

This fall I’ll be teaching a new course – its title keeps evolving, but we’ll be looking at the technologies and processes we use to mediate relationships online. The course will be held Monday evenings, from 6-8:30 in Manning 307. Apparently there was a little confusion over the date/time, so I wanted to set the record straight.

Aside from the title, there are a number of other things evolving about the course. Originally, I had designed the course as a semi-structured seminar, with a significant amount of dense reading. Doing my literature review, I’m officially tired of dense reading. I’ve also been inspired by a number of other educators, so I’m re-positioning the course as a much more hands-on, experimental tour of tools and technologies. We’ll still be examining the same themes, just using some different means to accomplish the ends.

Who has inspired me? Without a question, spending time with David Silver was deeply influential. His course on digital literacies opened my eyes to new ways to teaching and learning. Howard Rehingold’s series of videos on attention have helped me rethink classroom interaction. Trebor Scholz’s documentation and sharing of his course has opened up new perspectives (I was also always impressed with Trebor’s PPT’s – those must have taken forever to assemble!). Obviously, the list goes on – but all of this great work has inspired me to try something new, to break out of the traditional model, and to experiment a little.

More notes as the course progresses.

Software / Teaching / Thoughts — 1 Comment
3
Jun 08

Summer 2008

You really know it’s summer when the blog posts start popping up, apologizing in advance for three months of radio silence. Let me join in the fray and apologize – this is going to be a busy summer for me, and unfortunately Unit Structures will suffer. I’m aiming to graduate in the spring of 2009, so this summer finds me writing and defending my proposal. I’ll be running dissertation research in the fall and winter, and hopefully finishing writing in the spring. This also means I’ll be going on the job market this fall – if you see anything interesting, feel free to send it over to me!

In addition to my proposal, I’ve got a few other projects I’m working on. I recently signed a contract with an academic publisher to produce a manuscript entitled “Research and Analysis of Online Social Networks.” This book will bring together many of the research threads I’ve been working on over the past four years. Thankfully, it is a short book, and I hope it will be ready in electronic form by late fall. I’ll also be conducting social networks research this summer. Jacob and I will be analyzing audience perception and cultural processes in OSN’s. We’ll be presenting preliminary findings at ASIST 2008. In another line of research, I’ll be running interviews later this summer, analyzing relationship management in OSN’s.

My summer work is being supported through my work with HASTAC and MacArthur’s Digital Media and Learning Competition. I’m having a wonderful time working with the DML team, and I’m looking forward to working with them on many future iterations of the DML program. Travel will be fairly limited this summer, but I’m looking forward to attending the CSST Research Institute, a NSF-supported program exploring socio-technical systems.

In addition to maintaining sanity and getting to the beach a few times, I’ve got a few goals for this summer. I’d like to do some writing for a popular publication or two – if anyone has advice or good connections, I’m all ears. I’m also hoping to keep productive on the software side of things – I want to build a few more little apps like Freedom, and new ClaimID features are keeping me very busy. I’m also open to consulting opportunities, etc.

With regards to Unit Structures, I’ll be shifting from long-form posts to more link-oriented stuff. I’ll update with interesting things that cross my radar. It will be a little different, a little more reflective. What about you? Do you change your blogging habits in the summer?

Research / Teaching — 5 Comments
21
May 08

New Manuscript: Integrating Web 2.0 Technologies in the Instructional Process

For the past two semesters, I’ve taught a course on Online Social Networks at UNC’s School of Information and Library Science. It has been a great experience, and I’ve had an incredible bunch of students. This course has also been an experiment, both in subject matter and instructional technologies. Using Facebook, Del.icio.us, YouTube and a wiki, we created courseware from Web 2.0 tools. Now that the course is over, I’ve had some time to reflect on the challenges, pros and cons of integrating these types of tools into instruction. Integrating Web 2.0 Technologies in the Instructional Process (download PDF) is an early manuscript documenting and reflecting on the process.

The manuscript is a case study of the integration; it combines a survey with analysis of some of the benefits, risks and challenges. I’ll be submitting the manuscript, but I wanted to post a draft here for other instructors. If you’re thinking about integrating Facebook into your course, or you’ve been paying attention to products like Blackboard Sync, this manuscript may be worth your time. This paper focuses on the contextual privacy issues of moving instruction into student spaces of sociality - a complex issue indeed.

I’d really appreciate feedback. This is an early draft, and I’ll be revising it a few more times before I submit. With regards to submitting, I’ve found a target publication, but if you know somewhere this paper might fit nicely, I’m all ears.

Back to my students. Over the course of the past two semesters, I’ve had the pleasure of working with about 40 students with interests all over the place. They’re working on incredible projects, like Monte’s VoiceThread and Daniel’s StartupWear and Macrophi. The students are also doing great work in Facebook, creating lots of apps (that I hope to link to some day when they let me) and groups/pages/etc for their jobs/internships. If you’re ever looking to hire someone with social networks knowledge and experience, I’ve got plenty of undergraduates and graduate students I can recommend!

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