Where the Light Gets In

Kenyon’s Middle Path is a mile-long stretch of gravel running through the center of the college. Given time, almost everyone at Kenyon walks Middle Path; it’s not just an pedestrian artery, but arguably the heart of the campus, the place where we see each other, communicate, nurture relationships. We also joke that it’s a terrible … Continue reading Where the Light Gets In

Tyranny of the Meritocracy

Lani Guinier’s new book The Tyranny of the Meritocracy will be of interest to many in the connectivist circles where I run. We believe that individual knowledge is created in social contexts and through social interaction. We prize collaboration skills. We’ve heard it all, and buy it – that this is an increasingly connected age, … Continue reading Tyranny of the Meritocracy

You’ve got a friend in me

A friend of mine posted to Facebook today that he was having trouble with a WordPress install. WordPress refused to serve any post with a comment on it, preferring to issue an Error 500 instead. I’ve been mucking about with WordPress for, like, 7 whole months now, so of course I volunteered to take a … Continue reading You’ve got a friend in me

I’ve been told I was born to endure this kind of weather

I do want to go through some of the actual assignments for Unit 2, but this writeup is just about noticing things and taking photos of them. It’s also about learning what the little buttons on the Flickr app do. It got real cold in Ohio again. That’s frost on the inside of the Olin Library … Continue reading I’ve been told I was born to endure this kind of weather

Hamster Dance

posted in: Highlight Reel | 0

Cross-posted from my Storytelling blog, because I thought this was about making art and it turns out to be also about instructional technology. Kind of. Man, I’ve got to figure out “write once, publish everywhere”.   I bought myself an Intuos tablet some time ago at work, on the grounds that I would use it … Continue reading Hamster Dance

It’s always show time here at the edge of the stage

posted in: Highlight Reel | 0

Most of my experiments with web publication have been experiments with form. My late-and-unlamented blog on Blogger, my Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ presences, even my DS106 blog (which needs a daily create before it starts pining for the fjords) – all primarily attempts to understand tools through their constraints. So the act of planning the … Continue reading It’s always show time here at the edge of the stage

Every one of them words rang true

We had an exciting visit to Kenyon by David Rosenwasser and Jill Stephen, authors of Writing Analytically. (Dave and Jill are absolutely charming and wonderful workshop facilitators; if you’re having a campus conversation about writing you should look them up.) One of their techniques is to have students keep a commonplace book. As a classroom … Continue reading Every one of them words rang true

Everybody eats when they come to my house

I love to be in the kitchen. The kitchen is my playhouse. It’s a place where I can focus, where learning and doing emulsify, where this singular moment connects to long tradition. I expect I could find the path from the stove to the fridge to the sink with my eyes closed. OW! Well, I can … Continue reading Everybody eats when they come to my house

Five Golden Toques

I was watching YouShow Episode Zero this morning, and about 3 minutes in, my wife called out “What is that, Bob and Doug McKenzie teach the web?” Hmm… getting Photoshopped by their students is exactly the kind of thing my faculty are afraid of. I might be doing this wrong. Good thing it’s not graded. I … Continue reading Five Golden Toques