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It’s MOOAs, Not MOOCs, That Will Transform Higher Education

The administration at my small school is very productive and effective. I don’t see it showing the kind of bloat that my colleagues at other schools lament. My interest in this satirical piece is cultural, rather than personal.

So if we could find a way to put administration online, to create Massive Online Open Administrations [...]

Business | Cyberculture | Ethics | Media | Rhetoric | Technology

Defend the Open Web: Keep DRM Out of W3C Standards

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The DRM proposals at the W3C exist for a simple reason: they are an attempt to appease Hollywood, which has been angry about the Internet for almost as long as the Web has existed, and has always demanded that it be given elaborate technical infrastructure to control how its audience’s computers function. The perception is [...]

Academia | Cyberculture | Essays | Humanities | Journalism | Modding | Rhetoric | Social_Software | Writing

The Blessay

My own pedagogical term for this is “richly-linked blog post” — emphasizing the value of hyperlinking to sources, evidence, definitions, counterpoints, etc. (Thanks for the link, John S.)

Sorry, I don’t have a better name for it, but I feel it needs a succinct name so we can identify and discuss it. It’s not a [...]

Business | Culture | Essays | Ethics | History | Psychology | Rhetoric | Sociology

Diamonds Are Bullsh*t

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I did propose with a diamond ring, for which I paid a substantial portion of my income, but since I was in grad school at the time, my income was very modest.

The next time you look at a diamond, consider this. Nearly every American marriage begins with a diamond because a bunch of rich [...]

Culture | Current_Events | Ethics | Journalism | Media | Rhetoric

CNN Reports On The Promising Future of the Steubenville Rapists, Who Are Very Good Students

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Excellent analysis of the emotional impact when TV journalism shows gripping footage of convicted rapists breaking down in tears while the victim, whose identity is protected by privacy laws, remains anonymous and invisible.

It is unlikely that Candy Crowley and Poppy Harlow are committed rape apologists; more likely they simply wanted a showy, emotional angle [...]

Business | Cyberculture | Design | Ethics | Media | Rhetoric

Fired for Making a Game: The Inside Story of I Get This Call Every Day

He knows that if he’d instead posted a song or a poem or a comedy routine on YouTube, the bosses would have watched that, and might have understood what he was trying to say to them. If he’d created something that told the same story through a more traditional form than a game, he’d probably [...]

Amusing | Culture | Current_Events | Essays | Language | Modding | PopCult | Rhetoric | Writing

Chillax, Wikipedia, and bridezilla are not puns: Against adjoinages

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So if recessionista and fembot are not really puns, what are they? They’re neolexic portmanteaus, in which root words are brutally slammed together with cavalier lack of wit. “Neolexic portmanteau” is a mouthful, so instead we shall choose a simpler handle. Sherry-manteau, catastrounity, misceg-formation, piss-poortmanteau, and poor-man’s-toes all proffer themselves as alternatives, but they are [...]

Academia | Business | Cyberculture | Education | Rhetoric | Social_Software | Technology

Don’t hide your online self when applying for college or career

Great advice.

[I]t is common to hear students applying for college or a job say before doing so, they plan to take down their online profiles or change their name to something unidentifiable. Innovative educators know this is not the best strategy. Instead our job is to support young people in creating a responsible digital [...]

Culture | Ethics | Humanities | Language | Rhetoric

Loaded Words: How Language Shapes The Gun Debate

Here’s a great article I’m asking all my journalism students and all my lit-crit students to read.

Words do more than just describe the world. They literally define it. They shape and frame it.

“Most people don’t understand this,” says linguist George Lakoff of the University of California, Berkeley. “Most people think that words just [...]

Aesthetics | Culture | Current_Events | Design | Government | Media | Modding | Rhetoric

Kate Upton and Ryan Gosling Explain the Sequester

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Apparently these are two famous and physically attractive celebrities who are popular enough that lots of people will wade through lots of words in order to look at pictures of them doing things that celebrities do. Which presumably does not usually include talking about the federal budget.

Kate Upton and Ryan Gosling Explain the [...]