Digital Humanities

Thanks to a random Google search on "Renaissance blogs" (for two great ones, check out my links on the side), I stumbled upon Blackwell's new "Digital Humanities" volume. A massive tome of a text. First glances prove it holds up to its astounding mass. I'm especially excited by its smart historicization of "New Media" studies.

PhD comics

The folks at PhD comics have outdone themselves with a recent comic published on July 25. See for yourself:
When in doubt, cling to a sense of humor.

New TV Show

The Discovery Science Channel (in Ann Arbor, channel 42) recently came out with a great new series called "Download: The True History of the Internet". The show does a smart, entertaining job of asking you to think about the internet as a social phenomenon, especially in this web 2.0 moment. From an instructional standpoint, this series has fabulous potential to get the digital generation in college classrooms to reflect on their "everyday" experiences as remarkable, significant experiences. Aside from scheduling it on my DVR and finding a couple of brief clips online, I can't quite figure out how to access copies of the series to bring into the classroom, but, at this point, I'm hoping students with cable access will have enough interest to watch it on their own.

Teaching with Blogs, Part II

I've spoken earlier about using blogs in the classroom and getting students accustomed to the idea of the blog as a writing/publishing technology. The same people that produced the helpful video on wikis, have come out with one on blogs that does just that. The folks at Commoncraft have in just three short minutes offered a breakdown of what a blog is and why it's important to the way we give and receive information.