My eyes show me a darken sky and Ms. Moon’s star children are dancing. I notice that I am laying down on something soft a quilt of some kind. It feels like cotton and I don’t want to leave it. But my mind is curious about my surroundings. I sit up and see that I am dressed in a long black skirt that sways this way and that if I was to walk in it. It fits me perfectly molding to me like my top which is a lavendar and has soft ruffles on the end of the sleeves. I am dressed the way women in my homeland would dress casually. On my feet are black sandals that show my pedicured fire red toes. My finger nails are the same color and are manicured. Hmm! nice I haven’t been able to get this for beyond three months due to the fact that I pay all bills first and then there’s nothing left over most of the time, but every once in a while there is. I see that I am in a field. Quite odd that’s where my dream decides to take me but I ‘ll go with it. A sea of green sways around me gently brushing my arms. I look farther and see large oak trees and open land that contains a river that is sparkling in the moon light. My eyes continue to wander until it settles on the classic piece of muscle, a 1970 GTO, screaming black rolls off its polished frame. A large hand slides down my arm and I turn around to see a man standing about 6′5 and classic, lean, solid muscle himself in a fitted white t-shirt and loose jeans and inky black hair and eyes a crystal blue. He looks like the character in the book I just finish reading. In fact he’s an exact replica. I start to jump from him and he grasps on to me tight. I turn around to see humor trinkling in his crystal eyes.
“What’s wrong?” He asks.
” Let go of me you pervert or I’ll neuter you” I say.
” Tracy, What’s wrong? I know you’re not angry ” He says.
” Who are you?” I ask.
He looks at me with concern and holds my face in his hands giving me eye to eye contact and answers.
” Sugar, it’s me Jason. Your husband we have been married for three years now” Jason said.
” What! Hell come a high water I’m only eighteen, right and I’m old fashion I’m waiting until I get marrried for my first time so you can stop lying and take me home . Or I will clepto your car and you will have a fight on your hands. I dont’ care if you do outweight by more than a hundred pounds or hold more muscle” I say.
He gives me a strange concerned look .
” Trace, you’re twenty-three and you waited until you we were married. We are legally married with one beautiful girl who look like a mirror image of you and me but especially you. Our gorgeous child name is Sonia who is one years old. We both want four more if you remember” Jason says.
I did want five children and I am older it seems so I might as well go with this flow.
” What’s my career?” I ask.
” You are a world renown writer” Jason says.
” Oh! we’ll cool. Where’s our daughter?” I ask.
” At my Mom’s house it seems that our mom’s got together to spend time with her so we would have some time with each other since the baby was born” Jason said while snuggling me.
” I’m done with college, right? ” I ask.
” You graduated early and got you Bachelors at twenty and Master’s at twenty-one” Jason said.
” Yes, so what do you do, how old are you, and how did we meet? I ask. I just keep asking him questions like I’m testing his knowledge about our history together. I’m feeling like I remembering all the things he’s saying because my gut tells me that I know him well.
” I am twenty-eight, have my own business that gross millions of dollars and I use to be a former agent for the government that’s how I met you. I was doing a case that involved a serial killer. You were his next victim” Jason said coldly.
” You’re thinking about him, aren’t you?” I ask.
” He almost took you away from me. He shot you in cold blood a second before I got to him by then I had put so many holes in him for that alone there wasn’t nothing of him left” Jason said coldly.
” What happen to me?” I ask. I want to know but I don’t want to know. Maybe I show just not remember.
” I held you until the ambulance came and my best men was there calling back up. They took you to the hospital and you was touch and go. You were in a coma for two months which when you woke up You couldn’t remember that night” Jason answered.
” How old were we?” I ask.
” You were twenty and I was twenty five and we were dating for a year. You were nineteen when we met” Jason said .
” I turned out alright” I say to calm him.
” Yeah. I almost lost you. The doctors said you may have side affects with memory, the short term part of it. You were worrying me so much right now when you looked at me like you coudn’t tell who I was” Jason said relaxing a little.
” Come on let’s lighten up the mood. The night is young and I’m hungry” I say.
” LONGHORNS , it is then” Jason replies.
” How did you know? I ask shocked that he could have know where I would most likely choose.
” We went there on our first date. You did a lot home cooking so I decided to go to a resturant that you may like and you did” Jason says.
” You told me it was your favorite.”
I smile at him and he gives me this boyish grind while he rolls up the quilt we were laying on. Jason throws it over his shoulder and with his free arm wraps it around my waist. We walk to the 1970 jet black GTO. Jason opens my car door while I get in and he shuts it and then gets into the car on his side throwing the quilt in the back seat. He starts up the car and we are on the road away from the peaceful meadow. The wind whips his hair around and my brunette curls are playing in my eyes.
” Can you hit the pedal?” I ask.
” Oh, yeah. Anything for you Trace” Jason says while driving through the deserted road at high speeds.
” Do we have a mini van?” I ask.
A burst of laughter escapes from his deep voice. ” Yes we do” Jason finishes chuckling.
” Good” I smile.
I look out the window to see that the bright sun is following us and looks like it wants to chase us. I smile at the sun becasue this time I have a partner in crime and I will win this race again. Flames whip and flash at the GTO that’s burning rubber and smoking the sun once more.
I turn back to smile at Jason who returns mine casually. Up ahead I can see the horizon fading telling me that this ride is about to end.
Thank you, Ismael for blogging so quickly and articulately!
My time at Harvard was fantastic and while at times it felt over my head on the policy and IP fronts, I learned so much about what it means to be an internet scholar, how to cross interdisciplinary boundaries, and when to “go meta.”
I know I am behind on writing up my thoughts on my own presentation from last week, but suffice it to say that I was reminded at how unique a story I have to tell and that the more I celebrate New Orleans and the people there rebuilding the city with their online actions and words, the better. I had not thought such a global and distinguished group of fellow PhD students would be as interested in my qualitative work, but I was wrong. They even recommended some quantitative tools in case I do want to go in that direction.
Most importantly, I was introduced [by Marcus Foth] to the term “action research” and I think it may be the way I want to frame my dissertation. I don’t know if this tactic will require me spending more time in NOLA, interviewing, etc., but I feel that any attempt to write about post-Katrina New Orleans and the self-organizing efforts are happening vis-a-vis the Internet requires me to think about how my work can both contribute to knowledge and successful change.
Dan Gillmor and Steve Schifferes were my “assigned” tutors, and their feedback was invaluable as was the entire 2-week experience.
The biggest challenge for most folks involves creating an essential question that engages the student in more than just finding facts and reporting someone else’s viewpoint. Being able to do research, find information, and a variety of perspectives on a topic are important skills for information literacy. However, that is only a starting point. The real learning happens when the student processes the gathered information and comes to a new understanding of the topic.
Mail services have been down since 3:50 A.M. The services are being switched to the failover server and should be back up shortly. No mail should have been lost during this time.
Instructors, please remember that I am available to come to your class to offer instruction on library resources and information literacy to your students. Instruction is customized according to your needs.
You can call or email me to set up a date and time. Online, evening and week-end classes are a possibility as well with advance scheduling.
USF recently revised its Use of Copyrighted Materials policy . Needless to say, respect of copyright and intellectual property is important and relevant to students, staff and faculty.
Two recent titles in the Lakeland Library collection can also help with copyright issues:
The complete copyright liability handbook for librarians and educators / Tomas A. Lipinski.
USF LIBRARY - Lakeland — Circulating Collection — KF3080 .L57 2006
Copyright law for librarians and educators : creative strategies and practical solutions / Kenneth D. Crews ; with contributions from Dwayne K. Buttler … [et al.].
USF LIBRARY - Lakeland — Circulating Collection — KF2995 .C74 2005-General Collection
The following questions were designed to be considered in the context of our Wednesday morning case.
Relate any experiences you may have had with groups that exist primarily online. In what ways were the dynamics of such groups similar and different from their face counterparts?
In your discipline, how “culturally accepatable” is it for group activities to be incorporated into the pedagogy?
Do you think that having students prepare materials that become an integral part of course content is or would be workable in your teaching? Explain how it might be implemented.
Please submit your responses to these questions by clicking the Comments link above.
“The first of the double approval shipments is on the shelves in CATS and available for review and selection until noon Friday, July 27. A second double shipment is enroute and I anticipate it will be available for review the week of July 30. This week’s double shipment represents titles profiled by YBP [...]
The following message was distributed by Larry Heilos, Associate Director of Research Services and Collections, regarding the process for placing course items on reserve. I’ve edited out some extraneous information that is applicable only to the collection development librarians:
“Effective… July 13, purchase orders for all Tampa faculty reserve book requests that are not the [...]
Sun streams in through my bedroom window and it appears that I am the only one at home which is quite unusual because I am usually never by myself at home. There’s always a family member there inside the house that we rent with me. I look around my room to find that that everything is in its natural place and order except for the occasional romance novels lying around on my bed. It looks as if I had just finished reading. I scan the sky through my window and take a quick look at myself and find that I am dressed in baggy black jeans and a tomato red fitted shirt. In the window I can see that my hair is up in a neat curly wrap . Some of my brunette curls are going on their own paths by sticking out on the sides rebelliously. It doesn’t bother me though. I see clothes on our clothes line outside my window and decide to go out there and get them. Once I step out the back door and close it securely I turn around and find to my chargin no clothes are on the line. It seems that they’ve diappeared in a matter of seconds. That’s peculiar and annoying. I decided to go in displeased that there could be a clepto running ramped in our neighborhood which is not unsual for my neighborhood is invested with drugs and sometimes guns. However, most of the people are good folk who trying to work such as myself and mom the legal way with legit jobs. I notice that the clouds are accumulating fast and a sea of darkness has blanketed the sky resembling dark cotton floating above the earth. I turn the knob and find it lock! I know that I didn’t lock myself out. Now I am irate about the strange ocurrence. First the clothes now the door Knob. Enough is enough. Before I know it the cloud has descended upon the earth and a river flows from the sky in heavy drops and rapid cold slaps that drenches me to my toes. I open my eyes to see that the yard is flooding with the water that Mother Nature decided to bath the earth with or dump on the earth in a fit of displeasure. At this point I don’t know which would be the better choice since I am out here in it. I love the rain but I admantly prefer not to be drenched with it. I am feeling chilled and the wind is picking up and is viciously slapping rain into my face which doesn’t aid me in my quest to get inside the house. My hands are slipping off the door knob and I’ve already made up my mind to open it. I am already soaked at this point all I need to do is get in before the weather turns more violent then what is displayed at this moment. I look around the alomst flooded area and see that there’s nothing that can help me get in not even an open window because no ones home to watch it. So, everything is shut up to me. I had only walked a few feet from my position at the door and I could feel my shoes sink into the sand that covers some of the yard. I pull my feet out of the beds my feet had been embedded in and decide to return to my position that seems to be much safer then anything beyond. Lighting is slashing a stream of white through the sky and its companion thunder is right along for the ride roaring and making the ground tremble beneath my feet on the worn out rug soaked in front of the backdoor. I grab the knob one last time and it finally turns allowing me entrance into the house. Once I get in I lock the regular door then the burglar bar door behind me. I take off my shoes at the entrance to keep from creating a mess I know I would have to clean up later. I walk to the window to see the outside at the same time I am trying to untangle my hair that is slowly curling unmercifully into knots. When I get to the window the most peculiar and unsettling view awaits me. The sun is shining outside like the storm or unrepented rain never happened and the clothes I saw on the line that had disappeared when I went out to get them are hanging out there. It is dry and the scene looks as if the recent events had never happened. I turn around and shake my head. I AM NOT GOING OUT THERE AGAIN. I turn from the window. While I walk away from the window the dream fades out gradually and the scene disappears almost silently.
Last July 18, the RIAA revealed that it would send 408 more “pre-litigation” notices to 23 Universities previously not targeted by the organization. According to the press release, the agency will be extending its grace period which allows the students to settle out of court for $3,000, since some of the recipients could be in summer vacation and unreachable until they return to classes in the Fall semester.
As expected, the comments against the RIAA campaign against University students continue.
At the beginning of the week I found out that Harvard Square was turning itself into Hogwarts Square in honor of the release of the 7th Harry Potter book. Since I am still in the midst of book 5, I knew I would not be hurrying to get a copy, but 1000s of people in Cambridge, MA certainly took to the streets in what I can only compare to a New Year’s celebration and rock concert all wrapped up as one!
Yesterday we had the honor of visiting the MIT Media Lab. I’m not really a Second Life person [I think many of you know I live by the slogan “I don’t play games”], so I was thrilled when we were given the option to checkout their Lifelong Kindergarten lab and then head over to the One Laptop Per Child office.
While we are a group of 30+ PhD students from all over the world, check out the difficulty we had opening up the machine! And for a more detailed description of the project, check out this CBS video.
Looks like the University of Kansas decided to adopt a “one strike and you’re out” policy. Anyone caught downloading copyrighted information will permanently loose their network access.
Violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is against the law. If you are caught downloading copyrighted material, you will lose your ResNet privileges forever. No second notices, no excuses, no refunds. One violation and your ResNet internet access is gone for as long as you reside on campus.
For those of you who do not know, I work for a radio station in the Tampa/St. Petersburg/Sarasota Market. I have been a desk jockey for the station since the start of the summer. In recent weeks, I have been “voice checking” (recording copy for evaluation by my supervisors), working on my inflection and pacing. Wednesday afternoon, I was doing a VC in the production room adjacent to the Master Control Room. I was reading promos for some of our national broadcasts and out-of-date copy regarding our last fund drive.
We have a complex digital system, where the control boards can all be controlled remotely; I had been told that it is not uncommon for someone to mess with a coworker by re-arranging their board remotely during work like voice checks. So, when the lights on the board flashed, I assumed someone was playing tricks on me. Several minutes later, I notice several people hovering over the Master Control Board. At once, they all looked up and me and, in slow motion, raised their hands to their throats to make the left-to-right slice of the “kill it” signal. I looked at them, puzzled, and muted all the channels on my board.
A software malfunction had caused stereo channels in the two rooms to cross, and my voice was going out over the air, live. I was talking over classical music, reading completely unrelated copy several times. I don’t know if I’ve ever been so humiliated. People were quite upset with me until they realized I had done nothing wrong. I continued to do VCs with the caveat that a single blinking light would send me straight home.
Also, some of my fellow program participants have been blogging the sessions quite articulately: Daithi and Ismael, both of which appear on the SDP2007 newsfeed.
Finally, check out what the Potter fans among us have to look forward to in Harvard [aka Hogwarts] Square tomorrow night!
Present your reactions to Elluminate. Also, share how you might use Elluminate.
Now that Grandon has shared some ideas with us about using cases, can we hear from those of you who have used cases? Also, anyone who thinks cases won’t work in their setting?
Note: Please refer to the post titled “Instructions to submit comments to a blog post” (or click here) on this blog to learn how to submit a comment to a post. After reading the directions, return to this post and submit your comments to the discussion here.
Following are instructions to submit comments to a blog post:
Under the title of the blog post, click the Comments link.
You will be taken to a new page that has the post, other comments (if any), and the option to “Leave a Reply”
Enter your name and email address in the “Leave a Reply” section
Enter your reply/comment in the big open box at the bottom of the “Leave a Reply” section
You may also choose to have a notification sent to you when comments are sent to the post by checking the notification box below the “Submit Comment” button
Click the “Submit Comment” button when you are done
Revisit the blog periodically to check for responses to your comment or to follow the discussion
Please do not submit comments to this post unless they relate to having problems with commenting. We have noticed some comments to this post that should have been submitted to the post above. Please submit all comments to discussion posts within that post.
Do let us know if you have any problems submitting comments. Email Neil Gomes at: ngomes(at)cte.usf.edu
In my day to day work that I do with students, the majority of my work is based off of building personal relationships with my students. My primary teaching topics center around building relationships and observing student actions and reactions. As a distance educator, I have had to change how I view what the classroom is and how I interact with my course materials as well as the students that I work with. The form of synchronous technology that I find myself most comfortable with is that of the virtual classroom setting. I enjoy having the opportunity to synchronously teach my students and have the opportunity to interact with them on several levels. In my presentations, I can still convey the points of my lectures without providing my students with strict reading opportunities. I can interact with my students through verbally answering questions and polling them on the materials being covered. Being a visual and auditory learner, I can appreciate having both learning methods available in order to teach. I also see myself enjoying working with e-mail and LMS tools. These tools also provide the opportunity for direct interaction with students, though of a more asynchronous means. Both of these tools provide the opportunity for interaction and development, however my students will have to come and seek me out as much as they choose.
The more challenging forms of synchronous education for me exists with type of distance education tools that do not provide a formal learning setting. I am challenged by considering utilizing correspondence materials and CD-ROMs as there are few if any opportunities to interact with the students taking the course. While the materials are still available, I struggle with how much can be truly taught through asynchronous means with the topics that I cover with students.
All in all, I think that I would have to creatively think about how I would interact with my students in our distance education setting and how I can challenge them to interact with each other and other individuals as necessary. While I am most comfortable utilizing the majority of the tools that the Virtual Classroom uses, I think the challenge will be engaging the students and feeling a sense of connection between my teaching and their learning. While I appreciate the multitude of technologies available, I am challenged to step outside of my teaching toolbox and utilize other tools to help my students grow.
In high school, they all used to laugh at me because I dug this instrument. The theremin is one of my all time favorite sounds. www.clickforlessons.com had a link to this video on their blog. I feel slightly vindicated:
We do not dream all the time. Do we? Many of us either wake up in the morning telling friends their dreams. Some wake up in the morning with no memory of their dream. Others wake up in the morning believing that they do not dream at all. It is very hard determine whether dreams are continuous every night we sleep or if it just simply depends on the person.
I wake up sometimes knowing that I have dreamed something through the night, then other times I wake up fresh feeling that I have not dreamed at all. How do I know if I dreamed if I cannot recall any memory of it? I believe that dreams depend on what mood you are in when you go to bed. Sometimes I dream stories which were linked to what I was busy doing before bed. I had a bad argument with my sister, for example. I dreamed of her killing me through the night. At daybreak, I was so relieved to realize it was a dream.
So do we all dream every night? We may never know. We do know we dream ever know and then whether we can recall the specific details of it or not. I personally believe that some nights are just quiet, I did not dream anything, and I wake up fresh at daybreak.
For those of you who do not know, I work for a radio station in the Tampa/St. Petersburg/Sarasota Market. I have been a desk jockey for the station since the start of the summer. In recent weeks, I have been “voice checking” (recording copy for evaluation by my supervisors), working on my inflection and pacing. Wednesday afternoon, I was doing a VC in the production room adjacent to the Master Control Room. I was reading promos for some of our national broadcasts and out-of-date copy regarding our last fund drive.