Information Archives
I've been spending Wednesday mornings in the library this summer working on my Freaks and Geeks project in the company of other academics working on their own projects. One of…
Freaks and Geeks and Strategic Clusters
I have two major projects that I'm working on this summer. One is related to the television show Freaks and Geeks which I love and use in my Analyzing Television…
Prometheus or Misogyny on a Blog
I haven't paid any attention to this blog for about a year and a half. That's what being a department chair does to you. I was inspired yesterday to write…
Apple vs. The FBI
I've been reading a lot about the controversy surrounding the court order compelling Apple to help the FBI break into the phone used by one of the San Bernardino killers,…
Disruptive Innovation in Education
I went to a conference sponsored by UBTech a few weeks ago. It was advertised as a "national summit on technology and leadership in higher education" and had a tag…
HCF Redux
Three episodes into Halt and Catch Fire and I still can't make up my mind about whether it is an interesting show or not. I really want to like this…
HCF
I just watched the pilot episode of AMC's new show, Halt and Catch Fire, which airs in Mad Men's Sunday 10pm slot. I was pretty intrigued by the slew of…
Social Media Round Up
Now that the craziness of the start of the semester has begun to slow down, I thought I'd do a quick hit on a variety of social media topics that…
When is Failure Really Failure?
If you are involved in higher education in any way, you have heard about Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). I first heard of them back in the Fall of 2011…
Whistle-blowers
Two whistle-blowers are in the news today: Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden. Manning is the Army soldier who was convicted yesterday of 17 of the 22 counts against him. He…
Unconventional Play
My aunt sent me a link to a Forbes Magazine online article about Words With Friends, Zynga's Scrabble rip-off. (An aside: I got sidetracked by the fact that Zynga's business…
Gamification and Education
A trending buzzword in today's digital culture is gamification. According to most sources on the Internet, the term was coined in 2004 by Nick Pelling, a UK-based business consultant who…
Software Controls Users
I'm often surprised that some of the most valuable lessons I learned back in the late 1980's have not become standard practice in software development. Back then, I worked for…
A Possible Return
I have been away for an entire academic year. It was my intention this year to find time to regularly write entries about various technology and society issues. But it…
Communicating for Change
The university where I work, like most universities, is facing significant challenges from multiple fronts. To meet these challenges, we're finding that we need to change the way we do…
The Olympics, Technology and “Reality”
The 2012 Summer Olympics are nearly over. I haven't watched them much, mostly because I can't stand the way they are covered by NBC and its affiliates, especially in prime…
Health Care, RFIDs and Politics
Quite a lot of people hate "Obamacare" which is otherwise known as the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act. And there are indeed things to hate about the law. For example,…
Email: Buried Alive
I became the chair of my department a little over a year ago and within a few months, I found myself completely overwhelmed by email. Emails started to get buried…
Prometheus or Misogyny on a Space Ship
I went to see Prometheus last week with some good friends. I had been eagerly anticipating the film, both because it has a great cast and because I LOVED the…
Interaction Design
I'm reading an interesting book by Janet Murray called Inventing the Medium: Principles of Interaction Design as a Cultural Practice. She is articulating things that I've thought for a long…
