Convergence Culture Review

Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide by Dr. Henry Jenkins was a surprisingly fun read.  From grassroots politics vs. big-moneyed campaigns to transmedia storytelling and consumer participation, this book covers everything. I'm really excited about future possibilities.  Everything from Obama's grassroots campaign led by tech savvy volunteers to Joss Whedon's reaction of Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog to the writer's strike is affected by the convergence culture.  Yet, as often happens with books addressing trends in technology, this book published in 2006 is already out of date as it does not address media so monumental as Twitter and its instant effect on news.  See today's NPR story about Twitter: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103221268

PBCC - Web 2.0

The SLC now has a Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1349720750

CEA Conference 2009

March 26-28, I attended the College English Association Conference, which was my first conference as a presenter. The theme of this year's conference was Design, and over 600 presenters explored this topic.  Various speakers presented their pedagogy, specific assignments and strategies, methods for optimizing classroom and online spaces, and their experiences - both negative and positive - in adopting the newest trends in education.  I presented alongside three PBCC professors on a panel addressing Design and the Community College Classroom.  We presented at 8 am on the first day of the conference, so attendance was low, but the audience was enthusiastic and interested in our topics.  My presentation focused on the English Writing Lab's use of AskOnline with Comp I and II.  I specifically focused on the college’s increased offerings of alternative methods of instruction, the need for online academic assistance, the opportunities and challenges presented by online tutoring, the necessity of extensive planning before adopting new technology, the reason for choosing the program AskOnline, PBCC’s use of the program by various SLC labs since 2005, our current usage, and our tentative plans for future use of the program.