Doctor Daisy » DoctorDaisyUSF posts

back to school; back to blogging

Daisy — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 18:22:28 +0000

In case you haven’t noticed, ever since I started my job at UW-Stout in 2008 I’ve hardly blogged. The dissertation [on blogs of all things] consumed me and even though I defended in March, formatted in April, skipped the Tampa graduation in May, and finally received the diploma in the mail in July, I took the summer off from anything over 140-characters.

Sure, I traveled to NYC, TX, and Italy, and could write volumes on those trips. I even taught a summer course and scored thousands of AP essay exams in June, but I just couldn’t bring myself back to reading blogs until a few weeks ago.

Now, though, I have some fresh new research and publication ideas, which I will post on later this week, so beware: I’m totally throwing myself back in to blogging!

It helps that every course I’m teaching this Fall has a technology emphasis:

ENGL 101 is using the textbook New New Media and while these students aren’t required to blog, we will be relying on Twitter [in class only] to generate questions and reactions of assigned readings. 1 section of the 3 is dedicated to a Learning Community called the Google Generation, and I’m excited to see how these students connect our reading and writing to that assigned in the Information and Communication Technologies course they go to immediately after mine.
ENGL 495 is a brand new 2-semester capstone course. I have 1 very diligent student, and this semester we’re focusing on research methods with the final project being a proposal and pilot study. I’m having him purchase Research Confidential and Internet Inquiry as well as read a bunch of PDFs that either discuss methodology or put mixed methods into practice.
ENGL 745 is a brand new graduate course in our brand new Master of Science in Technical and Professional Communication program. Students are reading Socialnomics as well as 40+ journal articles/book chapters [including some from Always On, The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It, and Convergence Culture], all with the goal of “interpreting the ways emerging media and digital technologies affect writing, rhetoric, literacy, and the discipline of technical and professional communication.” If anyone has any suggestions for more tech comm-y texts that I should include, please let me know!Aside from academic posts, I can tell you already that I’m also going to share my opinions on various TV shows since I’ve become quite the fangirl. Between watching stuff online, via Netflix, and now with cable at home, I’ve got quite the list of favorites. To close this post, I’ll share 2 swoontastic pics of my man, Don Draper. Please note, I don’t have a crush on Jon Hamm. It is only Don Draper that makes me weak in the knees.

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wordle

Daisy — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 01:57:20 +0000

I’m going to experiment with colors and word layout settings, but here’s my first go at pasting my 150-page dissertation into Wordle

And since my dissertation is on blogs, here the Wordle of what’s here at DaisyPignetti.com

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Twitter on paper

Daisy — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 00:05:47 +0000

BTW if you follow me on Twitter you know that I’m in the final push of formatting the dissertation according to grad school standards. As soon as I’m done I plan to compose thoughts longer than 140-characters and update this blog with details about my defense experience, feedback I received, and ideas for future projects.

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heading to #cccc10?

Daisy — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 04:31:52 +0000

Join this diigo group beforehand and start bookmarking those interesting finds!

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Google Map Time Machine

Daisy — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 03:52:11 +0000

Does anyone know when Google Maps updates its street views?

It’s becoming common practice for those impacted by disaster to use Google Maps to either organize efforts or search for views of homes/neighborhoods, but I was surprised when tinkering around with Street View to see my now razed home still showing up.

Some background:

As I blogged in September 2005, the site Scipionus.com allowed me to type in my address and find this information:

My parents chose to move permanently to Mississippi instead of rebuild and when I went home over Christmas they saw the house had finally been demolished. Here’s a pic of my brother who visited NOLA in January:

While I’m all about the Internet providing more accurate and authentic information than traditional media, I have to say that, especially during this time of finalizing the dissertation, it was comforting to see my home still there…

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the brilliance of @stephenfry

Daisy — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:37:56 +0000

on Twitter, poetry, agony columns, texting, profanity, and an open society

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MVP Media

Daisy — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 23:43:22 +0000

Has Drew gotten any sleep since Sunday?

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they do NOLA proud

Daisy — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:27:38 +0000

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Krewe of Drew!

Daisy — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 18:03:11 +0000

Check out the baby Bacchus football!

And, finally, the pre-game chant is revealed!

WIN! AGAIN! WIN! AGAIN! WIN! AGAIN! WIN! AGAIN! WIN! AGAIN! WIN! AGAIN! WIN! AGAIN! WIN! AGAIN!

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this is the turnaround moment

Daisy — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:08:08 +0000

Thank you, Drew and Sean!

And thank you, Cokie Roberts!

NOLA’s future is bright and I couldn’t be happier! Just wish I didn’t have to wait til JazzFest to get down there to celebrate…

Speaking of which, other than Twitter, which I can scroll through pretty quickly, I plan to be offline a lot for the next few weeks. There are dissertation deadlines to meet and with only about 20 pages left to write up, I’m not stopping now!

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