69 lines
8.5 KiB
Markdown
69 lines
8.5 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: 'Teaching Carnival 3.2'
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date: '2009-02-24T07:33:03-05:00'
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permalink: /teaching-carnival-32/
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tags:
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- blogging
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- teaching
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---
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I’m deep in the thick of the best semester I’ve had in several years, so it’s taken some doing to pry me away from teaching in order to see what teaching-related stuff is going on out there in the blogosphere. Having spent some time poking around, though, I’ve found a bunch of exciting stuff for this fortnight’s only one day late Teaching Carnival! Before we start, a few reminders about [the nature of the ride](http://teachingcarnival.blogspot.com/2009/01/tc30-definitions-instructions.html), a warning to [keep your arms and legs inside the car at all times](http://ghw.wordherders.net/archives/004742.html), and a big thank you to [our guide last time](http://www.jbj.wordherders.net/2009/02/10/teaching-carnival-31/). Now, off we go!
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Lots of folks other than me are having good semesters, and are doing some cool stuff:
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- Collin Brooke [updates us on his experiment with his graduate course](http://www.collinvsblog.net/2009/02/party-like-its-19992000.html).
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- David Silver took his class on what sounds like [a yummy field trip to North Beach](http://silverinsf.blogspot.com/2009/02/north-beach-project.html).
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- Scott Eric Kaufman builds on his [“how to teach film responsibly in a comp class”](http://acephalous.typepad.com/acephalous/2009/01/dark-knight-scene-analysis.html) essay (also linked in the last TC) by posting more of [his teaching notes on film](http://acephalous.typepad.com/acephalous/2009/02/little-bit-more-on-teaching-the-dark-knight.html) (also [a bit more](http://acephalous.typepad.com/acephalous/2009/02/batman-begins-works-because-christopher-nolan-decided-to-spend-the-first-hour-and-twenty-minutes-denying-the-audience-what-it.html)), as well as thinking about teaching [comics](http://acephalous.typepad.com/acephalous/2009/02/like-what-i-did-with-the-dark-knight-only-this-time-about-the-fourth-issue-of-watchmenin-making-comics-scott-mccloud-argue.html) (of which there’s [also a bit more](http://acephalous.typepad.com/acephalous/2009/02/more-on-watchmen-dave-gibbons-layout-and-john-higgins-ink-in-the-age-of-mechanical-reproduction.html)).
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- Chuck Tryon’s [graduate course on teaching with technology](http://fsuenglish.blogspot.com/) is producing some fascinating posts.
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- The Undergraduate Historian [discusses the research essay](http://historystudent.wordpress.com/2009/01/10/writing-history-research/).
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- Lanette Cadle and her class are working on a [basic writing wikibook](http://www.techsophist.net/Techsophist/Blog/Entries/2009/2/6_Basic_Writing_wikibook.html).
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- Michael Arnzen’s students produced [some impressive collages](http://blogs.setonhill.edu/MikeArnzen/praxis/collage_and_analysis_in_the_english.html).
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Many of us are nonetheless faced with the semester’s frustrations:
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- Sisyphus, for instance, struggles with [ambivalence](http://academiccog.blogspot.com/2009/02/sometimes-you-must-destroy-program-to.html).
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- <strike>Professor Unexpected</strike> Terminal Degree faces [thoughtless language](http://www.terminaldegree.net/2009/02/r-word.html) amongst her students, and [finds a great way to deal with it](http://www.terminaldegree.net/2009/02/r-word-part-2.html), but then hits the trifecta: [absences, tears, and plagiarism](http://www.terminaldegree.net/2009/02/teaching-frustrations-and-rambling-post.html).
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- Dr. Virago wonders whether [some dissertation directors have too much power](http://quodshe.blogspot.com/2009/01/when-dissertation-directors-have-too.html).
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- Dr. No, however, dares to ask [that question](http://acadamnit.blogspot.com/2009/02/meeeeemories.html).
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- Flavia is tickled [by a comment in her course evaluations](http://feruleandfescue.blogspot.com/2009/01/demonized.html).
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- And ScienceWoman [reminds her students that she’s human](http://scienceblogs.com/sciencewoman/2009/02/an_open_letter_to_my_students.php).
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Lots of us are similarly thinking about the relationship between our lives and our jobs:
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- Dr. Crazy, for instance, [ponders the relationship between identity and academic life](http://reassignedtime.blogspot.com/2009/02/identity-and-academic-life.html).
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- Julie Meloni points out the value of [staying politically neutral](http://www.academicsandbox.com/blog/?p=43) in the classroom.
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- Mike Edwards ponders the [quotidian nature](http://www.vitia.org/wordpress/2009/02/16/kitchen-tables/) of heroism.
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And we’re not the only ones:
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- David Silver’s [twitter assignment](http://silverinsf.blogspot.com/2009/02/twitter-assignment.html) leads to a great discussion of the value of asking students to do public, internet-based work under their own names, with key input from the students themselves.
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Many of us are pondering the future of the profession, our fields, or our institutions:
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- Horace [ponders the MLA’s Teagle Report](http://delightandinstruct.blogspot.com/2009/02/now-you-tell-me-or-how-to-design.html) and its recommendations for the future of the English major.
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- (At the risk of over-blowing my own horn, I’ll point out that I [did too](/media-studies-and-literary-studies/), but a bit more, um, against the grain.)
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- Dave Parry argues the case for the [elimination of tenure](http://academhack.outsidethetext.com/home/2009/tenure-round-1-the-issues/).
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- Steve Krause considers [the library website of the future](http://stevendkrause.com/2009/02/17/the-library-web-site-of-the-future-and-the-espresso-book-machine/).
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- Annie Em gets the wake-up call from [the new epistemology](http://annieem.wordpress.com/2009/02/15/good-pedagogy-aka-good-teachin/).
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- Alex Reid answers the question, [what do you do with a degree in English?](http://www.alex-reid.net/2009/02/what-do-you-do-with-an-english-degree.html)
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- And JBJ altruistically [offers to stretch outside his field](http://www.jbj.wordherders.net/2009/02/17/an-offer-to-uconn/), for the good of the institution.
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Others of us are less sanguine about things, though:
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- Mills Kelly worries about the relationship between [good teaching and the cash nexus](http://edwired.org/?p=459).
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- And it will not shock you to hear that lots of us are thinking about the grade inflation and student effort, including [Timothy Burke](http://weblogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/?p=724), [Robert Farley](http://lefarkins.blogspot.com/2009/02/aye.html), [Scott Eric Kaufman](http://acephalous.typepad.com/acephalous/2009/02/where-i-am-i-dont-know-ill-never-know-in-the-silence-you-dont-know-you-must-go-on-i-cant-go-on.html), [Dr. N](http://learningaboutpolitics.blogspot.com/2009/02/students-feel-entitled-to-high-grades_22.html), [Hube](http://colossus.mu.nu/archives/283228.php), and [Jonathan](http://thicketandthorp.wordpress.com/2009/02/20/on-student-expectations-and-grades-and-other-things/).
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- Analepsis uses the issue as [a teachable moment](http://analepsis.wordpress.com/2009/02/21/b-is-for-breathing/).
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- Silvia ponders the disconnect between faculty expectations and [student perceptions of responsibility](http://antioppressive.wordpress.com/2009/02/18/%e2%80%9cnobody-told-me-im-responsible-for-my-own-learning%e2%80%9d/) for their own learning.
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- Dave Mazella thinks about [teaching p\*rn](http://long18th.wordpress.com/2009/02/19/gordon-ramsay-and-teaching-prn/), and returns to consider [student resistance](http://long18th.wordpress.com/2009/02/21/the-resistance-to-learning/).
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- Dean Dad considers the effects of [student fears of failure](http://suburbdad.blogspot.com/2009/02/error-and-failure.html).
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Finally, this episode of Teaching Carnival could not be complete without a section devoted to the Facebook TOS dust-up of February 2009:
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- Rana presents [an excellent analysis](http://palimpsest.typepad.com/frogsandravens/2009/02/the-great-facebook-rights-grab-of-2009.html) of the issue.
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- Amanda French [compares the new Facebook TOS](http://amandafrench.net/2009/02/16/facebook-terms-of-service-compared/) (now the old-new Facebook TOS, I guess, sort of like New Coke, so I guess we’re all drinking the Classic Facebook TOS now!) with the terms of a number of other social media sites.
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- Chuck uses the occasion to think about [public media 2.0](http://www.chutry.wordherders.net/wp/?p=2095).
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- And several of us invent [our own new TOS](/my-new-tos/).
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That’s it for this carnival! Tune in, well, 13 days from now for Teaching Carnival 3.3, hosted by the probably more responsible and on top of things [Alan Benson](http://bomphiologia.livejournal.com/), and remember, tag posts of yours or other folks with “teaching-carnival” on Delicious or Technorati if you’d like them included.
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