Chris Shamburg

School Year 08-09

September 10, 2008 on 9:15 am | In research, school, teaching | No Comments

The school year is beginning, and I’ve got some exciting graduate courses–Introduction to Authoring Tools, Technology in the English Language Arts, and Research in Educational Technology.

I’ve been doing a lot of research and reading for the Authoring Tools course, especially in DIY ethic and philosophy, so I’m excited to be teaching it now. This research has taken me to some diverse yet connected places–the Whole Earth Catalog from the 1960s, Buckminster Fuller, the Arts and Crafts Movement, new ways to edit and remix YouTube videos (see my DIY delicious links). There’s a powerful theme running through all of these ideas that I’m going to try to articulate.

The Technology in the ELA course is like coming home. I wrote my NETS: Units for the English Language Arts from material I used as the textbook for that course, so it’s very rewarding to see it used for the class.

My research students are brainstorming some interesting project ideas now–podcasting, crowdsourcing, assessment in learner-centered classrooms, and the mindsets of new literacies are just a few of the topics.

Over the summer I submitted the manuscript of my next book, tentatively titled Student-Powered Podcasting to ISTE. I also wrote a chapter on Podcasting for a book on DIY media, edited by my new literacies heroes Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel, and a chapter for a wiki on New Literacies (http://www.newlits.org/). The other contributors to the wiki are very impressive, and I’m honored to be included with them.

Thanks for emails and comments asking me about updates to the blog…I’ll try to a better blogger.