Geauxbama!
Andy and I cast our votes last week, so tomorrow we can go about our teaching schedules and not have to rush the polls or wait in any lines. I’m so excited that this election is finally coming to an end. I just hope by tomorrow night we know, for sure, who won.
Tonight Frontline on PBS is showing “The Choice: 2008,” its wonderful examination of the rich personal and political biographies of John McCain and Barack Obama. We’re watching it on tv right now, but it’s also available online here and on iTunes and YouTube.
new social media in my life
Sites I’ve joined over the past few months:
Blip.fm–like Twitter, but with music. I love how it gives you “props” and also stores everything you’ve played. I’ve also found many wonderful mashups and covers, such as this bluegrassy one of Blu Cantrell’s “hit em up style”
Pandora radio–for when I don’t want to hear a specific song and just need some background music. I used to rely on radio stations I found in iTunes, but they seem to repeat the same playlists over and over. Pandora gives you more control over what you want to hear and finds similar sounding artists.
Second Life–the Director of our Nakatani Teaching and Learning Center is all about getting UW-Stout a presence in SecondLife, so I’ve been to a few information sessions to see what it’s all about. Thankfully, for people like me who can barely get my avatar to walk or sit, there are two sub-groups: one for beginners to get comfortable using SL, and the other for experienced in order to start students using our space. My avatar’s name is PhDaisy Quandry for anyone interested in looking me up.
Twitter [again]–I established a separate account for teaching. As I mentioned a month or so ago, I’ll be presenting a paper on teaching with Twitter at 4Cs this March. So far, I’m not requiring students to follow people or build a community outside of our class, which is what I find most appealing in my own Twitter use. But I have asked them to maintain their Twitterstream as an informal, public journal focused on documenting their semester-long experiences with technology and literacy, both in my class and others. I’ve been learning a lot from my students, especially how attached they are to their laptops, as well as their lives as freshman. I know more now about what other required classes they’re taking and frequently hear them talk about going home on the weekends, which is nothing like my college experience [I lived at home all 4 years, in New Orleans mind you, so who wanted to leave that?!] I can’t wait to read more over the next month–While it was clear students were struggling to learn the course management software in September, I think this push to be critical of their web use is something they’ll take with them the rest of their 4 years here.
And to keep me more connected than ever before, I recently purchased an iPod Touch. Hands down, it’s the best thing I’ve bought in a long time. Were I not trapped in my T-Mobile contract for another couple years, I’m sure I would be an iPhone owner too, although I do wonder if my constant social media use & updating would run the battery down! One of the best parts about it is that is has a built in speaker so you don’t even have to wear the headphones, say, while you’re sitting in your office and grading papers. 
NaBloPoMo
In an effort to keep up the blogging efforts I started last night, I figured November would be good a month as any to participate in National Blog Posting Month. The FAQ is quite detailed, but I’m excited to try and live up to the challenge! With all of the dissertation writing I still need to do, blogging is bound to get my juices flowing, right?
With that said, I recently read an amazing Katrina-related book that I know I will include on a syllabus in the very near future. [In fact, I just wrote about "place writing" for the Katrina Media blog, so I know this book would be a great companion to the Rose text.]
It’s fiction, but it is the most authentic representation of New Orleanians, both transplants and locals from the Lower Nine, that I’ve ever read. I love the Ricky and G-Man books by Poppy Z Brite, but Tom Piazza’s City of Refuge is set right before, during, and after the storm. Having that focus offered him the chance to explain, through his characters’ voices, why some people stayed, where so many people ended up, and why still so many are desperate to return to New Orleans.
I know of several people who still doubt my reasons and passion for the place I call home, but perhaps after reading this very well-written fictional account they’ll be more willing to empathize.
the power of blogging continues
With my hectic schedule and lower back pain, I haven’t blogged much lately; however, I have continued to update my Twitterstream, primarily from my phone and new I-pod touch. These have been short posts pointing to links I’ve found interesting or sharing my observations in a small Wisconsin town.
But this past week I noticed a couple blog posts that I knew I wanted to write about in a text box that didn’t limit me to 140 characters. These two posts, on a meta-level, discuss 1) the impact blogging has on literacy and the future of our country as well as 2) the freedom blogging offers that social media sites like Twitter cannot. Both articles give nods to the multitasking we networked citizens do, online and off, but they’ve reminded me that, in the words of Doc Searls, blogging “is something you do as an independent human being.”
Just as my dissertation argues that NOLA blogs are examples of authentic, personal, and public writing, Palfrey’s and Searls’ posts echo this celebration of voice. Palfrey writes, “To ignore online public discourse and the possibilities for engagement, by young people and old, would be to squander one of the great opportunities of our age.” I’m sure some might argue with me, but like Doc, I don’t think what happens on Facebook or Twitter is discourse. It’s just too brief. While the speed of information and response is awesome, the most interesting people I follow are those that also maintain blogs where I can really learn more about their lives and their takes on current events, pedagogy, research, etc. Again quoting Doc, “Blogging at its best is free speech working in open spaces,” which is a perfect segue into the “How blogs are building a friendlier world” video below:
If you know me at all, you know how ideal this video is for my research into embodied writing and trauma; moreover, I’m so happy to hear Mena Trott describe blogs as “records of who you are” because that’s the description I’ve been looking for. As someone who also doesn’t have a lot of family records, her speech has urged me to return wholeheartedly to blogging and to use it to build an infinite archive of who I am.
teaching update
Wow. I haven’t blogged here in over a month, with that last post consisting only of embedded videos! I have written a couple posts over on the Katrina Media site, though, so check those out when you have a chance.
Things have been very busy here, such is the life of a still dissertating new Assistant Professor, yet I’ve been loving every minute of it.
Being at a teaching school means I’m observed three times each semester [for the first couple years, I think], and I’ve already received 2 out of 3 evaluations. My main concern this semester has not been the 4/4 load, but the return to teaching face-to-face and 5 days a week after almost 2 years of solid online teaching or a Tues/Thurs schedule. As a result, I’ve been concerned with using all of the allotted class time. I’m not sure why, but our twice a week classes meet for 85 minutes rather than the typical 75. To keep the students engaged and take advantage of being on a laptop campus, I’ve integrated many in-class discussion board posts, online research, group work, as well as reading quizzes and watching of short videos on either YouTube, Blip.tv, or TED.com.
I have three sections of ENG 101, so I’ve focused the course to explore the themes of public writing and social media. As stated in my syllabus, “all assignments challenge students to understand knowledge and information as existing within a broader situational and cultural context.” Their first project was an Annotated Bibliography focused on defining Web 2.0, and now their second project is a Rhetorical Analysis of a Website related to their major/chosen profession. Based on the drafts I’ve read so far, this has been an ideal assignment for students at a polytechnic school. Pushing them to find websites in their chosen field, some of which include golf enterprise management, apparel design, construction, packaging, and vocational rehab, is asking them to be proactive in learning then writing about their chosen career path.
I just hope the students are enjoying this as much as I am!
The Future of the Internet redux
Compare and Contrast:
Trouble the Water
Who knows when I’ll ever get to see this [considering my new Wisconsin town has yet to get Burn After Reading], but I know I’ll look as hard as I can to find it. May even drive to Milwaukee since this schedule says filmmakers will be there in November.
As Loki writes, “It is fortunate that Katrina hit us in an era when technology has made documentation like this possible. Camera phones and video cameras have allowed a much more intimate view of the disaster than any prior era could offer. This is an opportunity to be on the inside for a moment, to put yourself in the shoes of one of us.”
rhetoric, defined
I can’t think of a better way to introduce rhetoric to my class next semester.
Old Media, New Media, and My Post-Katrina Blues
Cross-posted at Katrina: An Unnatural Disaster:
Last week I was interviewed by the communications staff here at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. They contacted me, saying they had heard about my research into the post-Katrina blogosphere, and the result of our conversation is this press release, which was sent out to 50 local and regional reporters. I guess you could say that my new media efforts are about to make waves through the old media channels.
On a more serious note, the blog post that accompanied this news story has reminded me of my ever-conflicted feelings of trauma and loss. It features a picture of me that they describe as follows: “Pignetti is shown here in a February 2006 photo as she sits on the front steps of her childhood home in New Orleans, which was devastated during Hurricane Katrina.”
Anyone viewing the picture can clearly see that it was taken on a sunny day, with my house gleaming white. The only visible indication of Hurricane Katrina’s wrath is the spray paint on the front door. Because of this, I felt I should immediately share a link to pictures of the house’s interior, which truly shows the damage 10-feet of water can do.
The urgency with which I left that comment proves that I still wrestle with feelings of being misunderstood. After all, I was living in Tampa in August of 2005 and didn’t have to physically endure anything other than frustration at not having any precise information about which levees breached and what that even meant. Yet, three years later, I am still traumatized by what happened to my house, on my street, and to my city. I experience survivor’s guilt on a daily basis, with my feelings of doubt only increasing with the passage of time, making me wonder, how am I justified in feeling as sad as I do?
For instance, when I meet people face-to-face for the first time, I still proudly proclaim that I’m from New Orleans, but often only respond with, “We lost everything” to their question of “How’d you make out after Katrina hit?” Why is that all I say? I certainly am annoyed if no one bothers to ask, so why, when given the chance, do I truncate my story to a three-word response?
I think it is because I figure that if I respond, “I couldn’t find my parents for almost a week,” they will think that my mother and father were like the people they saw stranded either at the Superdome or Convention Center. I am convinced that when they find out my parents are better off than most “victims” due to their relocation to a second home we already owned in Picayune, Mississippi, any sympathy they had for us will diminish.
Writer and scholar Louise DeSalvo states the following in her book Writing as a Way of Healing, and I believe it explains my situation as a transplanted New Orleanian exactly:
Often…trauma remains undisclosed because, though people would like to discuss it, they can’t or won’t because they fear punishment, embarrassment, or disapproval or because they can’t find an appropriate audience. So, many people actively stop themselves from telling their stories; they inhibit the need to tell their traumatic narratives.
But, to quote Loki’s most recent post, “that is one of the reasons why I blog.”
By directing my writing to an invisible, nonjudgmental audience, I have used this blog to cultivate a more emotional persona and, as a result, have embarked on a journey of healing. When I find an image of a now-destroyed familiar place or a news story that disturbs me to the point of again unleashing the sorrow of that week of national and man-made disaster, I know I can blog about it. Not only will I feel better as a result, others will recognize that I am not OK that New Orleans is nowhere close to being recovered, and that the world should not deny us its sympathy.
You're No One If You're Not On Twitter
I’ll be presenting a paper on teaching with Twitter at 4Cs next year, so, in order to get my “data,” this Monday I will present my students with their task of creating accounts on the popular microblogging site.
I was nervous over the summer when the Fail Whale kept rearing his power-blue head, but it seems like things have stabilized since then. As my previous post indicated, though, I am hesitant to require students to visit sites outside of the already confusing course management software, but because the writing shared on Twitter comes in spurts of 140 characters or less, I think it is a great opportunity to experiment and meet my students where they are in terms of technology use—relying heavily upon text messaging and social networking sites. Ideally, my rationale for this project [which will be their final exam] is that asking students to post to their own timeline will teach them valuable lessons in audience, linking, community, and active reading. At the end of the semester, they will have to rely and reflect upon their short posts in order to compose a technology literacy autobiography. Hopefully they will see from their timestamped posts that they’ve evolved as producers and consumers over the semester, that their life on the screen is not necessarily an alternative life but a space for growth.
Now to put that into directions that are easy to understand…perhaps this video will help? 
Facebook does not a digital native make.
All students at UW-Stout are given a laptop and (seemingly) no preliminary briefing on the course management software, which means it’s up to individual instructors to talk them through menus and screenshots. That’s fine by me b/c I like to limit the technology I ask students to use their first semester; however, I have been surprised that the so-called savvy they apparently have from Facebook doesn’t cross over into the classroom. There is a true disconnect, most likely because social networking sites spoonfeed their users with code, widgets, tabs, and drop-down menus while I’m asking them to compose and reflect.
For instance, they all tags photos and shares links in FB. But asking students to insert links into their discussion board posts [not just the URL, but actually highlighting the word, clicking on the link icon, pasting the link there, etc.] and getting them to understand the value of tags on social bookmarking sites like delicious has elicited more confused looks than I ever expected.
Still, it’s all about practice these first couple of weeks (believe me I’m still struggling with my own crossover from Blackboard to DesireToLearn), so it will be exciting to read their tech literacy journals [which I may ask them to log at Twitter, but more on that later] at the end of the semester to see what progress they’ve made.
What The F**K is Social Media?
quite simply put…
the storm of the century
Things have escalated beyond imagination:
“The footprint of Katrina was about 400 miles when it hit. Gustav currently has a footprint of 900 miles and continues to grow.”
Video of the mayor’s official press conference is here.
My parents are staying in Picayune, Mississippi, for the time being. I’ve gotten in touch with nearly all my NOLA friends and they’re all leaving or have already left. Not sure about the few who just flew into town for Southern Decadence, but it looks like the rest of those scheduled events have been canceled so I would think that if they’ve got their plane ticket, they should be getting out asap.
Several NOLAbloggers have turned to twitter to set up their alerts so we [at least the people already following them, I'm not sure how many will use hashtags] know how to find out how they are and where they will be for the next few days. What’s most fascinating to me is that here’s even a GustavAlerts twitterstream to follow now as well as an all-encompassing Gustav Information Center & Social Network.
View my page on Gustav Information Center
I hate that I’m watching this from afar again because I feel so helpless, but all I can do is pray. Everyone’s much more prepared this time, which is great, but I really hope that this storm doesn’t ruin all the rebuilding efforts I’ve seen my friends spend so much time, money, and energy on over the past couple years.
More updates as they come.
the truth about a thoroughly unnatural disaster
Re-posting this from FoodMusicJustic.com:
Levees.org has just posted “The Katrina Myth” to YouTube.
The more people who visit this video,watch it, rate it, and comment on it, the higher it goes in the YouTube ratings.
If you are a YouTube member, rate it with a high rating (five stars) and make a comment (any comment, it doesn’t really matter.)
Also, please send this message to your friends and colleagues.
Time is of the essence.
Because of the third anniversary and Gustav, New Orleans is in the spotlight.
If attention is ever going to be paid to the levee problem, now is the time.
Katrina Media
As today is the 3rd anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, I’m honored to have been asked to reflect on my own experiences over at the Open Society Institute’s Katrina: An Unnatural Disaster blog.
Some information about the site is as follows:
Katrina: An Unnatural Disaster was named the best nonprofit website of the year in the 12th Annual Webby Awards. OSI was chosen from nearly 10,000 entries from across the United States and more than 60 countries.
Katrina: An Unnatural Disaster features the Katrina Media Fellows’ investigative reporting on the Hurricane’s continuing devastation across the Gulf Coast. The site combines never-before-seen video, photography, print, and radio with previously published work to spark a national discussion on race, poverty, and government neglect.
So far just my biographical post is up, but a longer narrative should go up today.
I hope you explore other parts of the site too because there is a lot of informative and revealing text and video.
go away Gustav!
Time to get nervous.
I’ve already been on the phone with several NOLA friends who are ready to get outta dodge, although today the maps showed a slight westerly turn:
Still, a lot of people are on edge, and with the 3-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina tomorrow, this new storm is taking me back to my very first Katrina-related blog post where I quoted a lighthearted musician: “I’ll be here tomorrow, I’m not leaving,” said trombonist Eddie “Doc” Lewis. “I’ve been through typhoons, monsoons, tornadoes, hurricanes and every other phoon, soon or storm. I’m not worried.”
Well, things have certainly changed since then, as documented in this NYTimes article “No, We’re Not Nervous. Are We?”: “In Broadmoor, David Brouillette, a musician, was making plans to leave should the storm threaten. ‘A little freaking out,’ he said, ‘in a town where nobody really freaks out about anything, is O.K.’”
rising tide 3
Last year I was honeymooning in Australia, this year I’m in Wisconsin starting a new job and still unpacking the new house.
I hate missing this, especially since my dissertation focuses on this fabulous group of passionate placebloggers, but I’ve already promised myself I won’t miss Mardi Gras next year and I won’t miss Rising Tide 4 either!
The schedule looks great, and if you’re in NOLA, you should definitely go. Those who can’t make it, go remind yourselves of how social networking saved New Orleans by reading this article by the same name.
Paris 4 Prez?
BTW before the spoof came out I totally called it being one that used images of The Golden Girls!
SOLD!
Andy and Daisy SOLD ,
A year ago my Andy and I were on a plane to Australia to elope, today we’re 2 days shy of celebrating our 1st wedding anniversary and the happiness continues! We’ve moved to the cutest Wisconsin town, we closed on our 1st home a couple days ago, and the writing/researching/teaching is flourishing!
amusing (and accurate)
I created this post over at The Lazy Bloggers Post Generator:
Darling I just had a terrible scare when I thought I have not updated this since people stopped clapping and Tinkerbell died… You would not believe how insane my life has become. Apologies to my regular readers! Even the little blue ones!.
I am overwhelmed with an awfully big adventure, personal projects, just generally being a companion to my husband. My day seems to be a litany of stuff and giggles from the first cockadoodledoo from the rooster to midnight. I am plotting and planning. I need a nap.
I absolutely, positively promise you will see me writing more to you in the future. Promise! This is for my ever faithful, devoted public…
social media literacy and pedagogy
As much as I enjoy the trendy books out there on the internet and collaborative software, Howard Rheingold is the only author of such texts that I know of who also actively considers social media’s impact upon teaching.
Whether it’s his video letting his students see his point of view when looking out into their laptop classroom, his detailed syllabus for a Virtual Communities/Social Media course, or his book chapter on “Using Participatory Media and Public Voice to Encourage Civic Engagement,”I find that all of his work helps me to articulate my own approach to discussing and teaching [freshman in particular] students to recognize and critique the technologies that bombard their lives.
This recent video is brilliant because Seesmic users can leave comments [I may create an account tonight or at least as soon as I get the coveted FlipVideo] AND it’s a widget with tabs that take you to Michael Wesch’s famous video and to a list of links pf all the theoretical readings Rheingold mentions. See for yourself and thank you Howard!
product placement
Yesterday I received my first shipment from drugstore.com. While the locals in Wisconsin probably think the weather lately has been hot & humid, it’s been “perfectly perfect in every way” for me. Considering I grew up in NOLA and lived in Tampa for the past 5 years, 86-degree weather is nothing to me! We haven’t even run our air conditioner b/c it cools off so nicely at night.
With that said, I’ve noticed that due to the lack of humidity, I’m needing to moisturize a lot more. I still have my wonderful Nivea Nourishing Care Lotion that I bought in Australia last summer, but my face has been longing for something new. I happened to see Brooke Shields mention that she can’t live without Weleda’s Skinfood, so I went online to search for it.
All the time I was packing for our move I remembered Clancy’s “use what you have” post from last summer, and I do think that with this new whole body cream, I won’t have the need for any other lotions.
While on drugstore.com too I made sure to add Booth’s Green Apple Micro Dermabrasion Scrub to my shopping cart. A friend let me try it in April and I’ve been looking for it at local Walgreen’s ever since. I never was able to, so buying it online was my only option. Again, it works so well, I plan to use it til the tube runs dry.
Maybe I’ve been watching too much of the Style Network, but I want to stick to this decluttered bathroom and streamlined beauty supply cabinet when we move into our house next month!
midnight run to Menomonie, WI
This summer is flying by and I can’t believe it! Here’s a quick time line of events:
In late May, we visited our new hometown of Menomonie, Wisconsin, and checked out several houses. Put in an offer, but was rejected.
In early June, I visited friends in Orlando and was extremely disappointed with the Sex and The City movie!
In mid June, I returned to Daytona for my 2nd year of scoring thousands of AP English Language exams. I had a wonderful roommate and learned a lot once again about holistic grading. Meanwhile, hubby’s parents were checking out an apt for us.
Literally the day I returned from Daytona we called moving companies and, long story short, we realized it would be easier and cheaper to move before the 4th of July than after.
We packed day and night for 7 days straight.
Hubby left Tampa with the car on the 26th and I flew up with the cat on the 30th.
We’ve been here only a week and already have another offer on the same house as before. This time I think we’re going to get it, so watch this space for news and pics tomorrow!
Sorry for the staccato post, but I just got the internet installed today and there’s tons to catch up on! Big hugs and even bigger apologies to those in FL we didn’t get to say goodbye to, but I’ll be back in the fall for my dissertation defense…
stroke of insight
This video of Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor speaking is absolutely amazing. [BTW all of the TED talks are great]
I appreciate her honest emotion so much, particularly b/c it helps me understand my best friend Sarah’s recent stroke [chronicled here on NOLA.com] and once again feel completely optimistic that she will recover 100%!