emergence and education

AlexReid's Blog (11)

No map for these territories

I got No Maps for These Territories from Netflix this weekend. It's a biography of William Gibson. You can see part of it on YouTube. It is really interesting and provides a great insight into Gibson's work. Continue

Added by AlexReid on July 28, 2008 at 3:09pm — 1 Comment

Sick this weekend

I've been quite sick this weekend and totally laid out. As such you can see I haven't been much involved. I hope to get back on track over the next few days. Continue

Added by AlexReid on July 13, 2008 at 4:08pm — 1 Comment

Continuing our diamond age discussion

So I've posted a new question in our discussion about the Drummers and I've responded to some of our ongoing discussions and questions about the book reviews. Tomorrow I'll probably get started reading our next novel. Also I'll open up a discussion of the Katherine Hayles article I've asked you to read. Continue

Added by AlexReid on July 9, 2008 at 3:29pm — No Comments

Back from a long weekend

So I hope we all enjoyed the long weekend, our one vacation in this intensive course. I polished off Diamond Age, and I'm looking forward to discussing it all with you. Starting tomorrow I'm going to start assuming you're mostly finished with the novel, so beware of spoilers at that point! Meanwhile I'm enjoying our discussion of literacy. Also I've posted a sample book review. You can find a link to it in the book review discussion we are having. Continue

Added by AlexReid on July 8, 2008 at 2:35pm — No Comments

Pushing on with Diamond Age

I'm into the second half of the novel now. It's interesting to read it in the context of thinking about my own kids' education and reading experiences. When I read it last, it was before my kids were in school. I'm really interested to see how you will respond to the philosophy articulated through the text. Continue

Added by AlexReid on July 3, 2008 at 8:22pm — No Comments

Back on the job.

Alright. I'm back from the gym and kids' activities and back on the job. This morning I woke up around 5:30 and spent about 2.5 hours doing various things on the course: responding on the forum and in the wiki and creating new wiki pages for the assignments. Later today I'll get back into the Sponsler essay discussion, wrap up Neuromancer and get us pointed toward The Diamond Age. I'm about half-way through Stephenson's book. Continue

Added by AlexReid on July 3, 2008 at 12:25pm — No Comments

First day of class

I will be carting my kids around to various activities in the morning, but I will be online in the afternoon and in the evening as well. My IM is profalexreid, so if you're having problems I can hopefully provide real time support. Continue

Added by AlexReid on June 30, 2008 at 10:01pm — No Comments

Reading Diamond Age

It's been about five years since I last read this novel. I've read most of Stephenson's novels and taught two others in the past. I've taught Snow Crash several times, as recently as last year. I also taught Cryptonomicon the last time I taught this course. However, I thought you might find this particular novel especially relevant as it deals thematically with questions of literacy and education. In any case, I've only just started rereading it. I'll also be interested in your th… Continue

Added by AlexReid on June 28, 2008 at 2:00pm — No Comments

Using this as a reading blog

I'm going to use this blog in the way I'm recommending you use yours. I'd like to see you post every day or two about what your doing in the course and what you're thinking about. So I just finished re-reading Neuromancer. I'm trying to think about what the text means now, 25 years after it's publication. I first read it when I was an undergrad I think, about 20 years ago, before the Internet really existed. So I wonder how it feels to be reading it for the first time now. I'm also work… Continue

Added by AlexReid on June 24, 2008 at 1:12pm — 2 Comments