Author Archives: insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

Dante didn’t descirbe this one…

…but I think this might be a lost layer of hell. I am speaking of grading AP exams down in Daytona Beach. Ethics disuade me from sharing any of the “jems” I have read over the past few days, but … Continue reading

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Bring on 2084?

I’m not sure how I feel about a recent Wired article on contemporary internet security issues. The rhetorical side of my brain sees a lot of metaphors flying around, with significant [disastrous] implications. But another part of my brain sees … Continue reading

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Smartest 4th Graders Ever….(Sorta)

As the NY Times reported yesterday, the 2005 NAEP scores are out–and Mass is kicking ass. Woo Hoo! Go home state!! WOO HOO!!!! (Shouldn’t academics get some of that sports-passion?). For 4th graders on reading evaluation, Mass has the toughest … Continue reading

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For the Love of Gill Sans

Argh. Since getting my MacBook, I rarely use a PC. The notable exception might be a two-screen PC in the English department’s multimedia lab when I am working on a large scale web project. Recently, I helped my wife with … Continue reading

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ZeFrank interview

Just found a Cecil Vortex interview with ZeFrank shortly before The Show ended February 2007. In addition to gems such as “morphological synthesis” (an inventive approach) and an interesting discussion of how audience provides generative boundaries benefitical to the creative … Continue reading

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Smashing Magazine and Networked Research

As we start planning out our Blogging as Composition syllabus (see also me and Wishydig and Mrxk), I’ve been thinking about what kind of research assignment we could have students work on. The obvious project to me is a two-phase … Continue reading

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Barabasi’s Linked

Just finished the first few chapters of Albert-Laszlo Barabasi’s Linked: How Everything is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means for Business, Science, and Everyday Life. Barabasi, a mathematician, details the development of network theory’s most popular maxim, “six … Continue reading

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I didn’t make this…

…but my students did. Here’s the winning project from my “Project Website” design challenge this past semester: a new Indiana Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster site. Six groups of students redesigned and coded the website of a local non-profit organization. … Continue reading

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Sorry so sloppy

But I’m in the middle of an (obvious) redesign, something inline with my homepage. The blogger templates use a pretty heavy amount of divs, so its a nice little rubix cube puzzle. Time to go play with margins and padding. … Continue reading

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Computers, Writing, & Productive Mess

Just got back from Detriot and Computers & Writing, our talk went well. Three of us presented on wiring classrooms together for massive forum discussions (80 students participating in one discussion on the history of the higher education in the … Continue reading

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