The Nightgown of the Sullen Moon blog is at it again with this post that includes a propaganda video about the “Japanese Relocation” in the US during WW II. For a little context, this is a post for an Asian American Literature class being taught by Professor Scanlon at UMW. Have I failed to mention how much I learn from all of the unbelievable stuff linked to in the tubular community of UMW Blogs?
Watch this video, then tell me if you know of a better primary source to frame the complex issues surrounding a nationalized rhetoric of freedom and its problematic relationship to democracy, citizenship, and homeland security –not only in regards to the defining event of the “Greatest Generation,” but more importantly to our national embroilment today? Moreover, if you know of such a resource, let me know if it can be as easily and freely accessed as this one.
I completely get what you’re saying but I had to go a different direction for a number of reasons. Hip-hop is huge but it didn’t originate in this decade. It’s been around since the 80s and I don’t see the Black Album as anything new. Jay-Z raps about women and cars in Dirt Off Your Shoulder so it came off as pretty generic to me. I just have little faith in current American music and see England producing the stuff that will stand the test of time, not just contemporary hits. Thanks for the comment!
I have been referring a lot lately to the session you and D’Arcy did at the Open Education Conference, which laid out a convincing rationale how free tools like WordPress can foster a dynamic and user-friendly infrastructure with next to no capital expenditure on technology whatsoever. Usually, people just nod kindly and then move on to thinking about whatever clunky and expensive platform that they think they should be using.
Let’s just take this example and break it down a little bit:
* it is available on the open web, providing a compelling and necessary resource on an under-studied and little understood subject.
* It is eminently reusable and easy to “localize” — note here how you recontextualized this resources within your own learning.
* The entire framework is highly interactive, and the personal touches of the weblog framework pretty much demolishes the “depersonalization of learning” critique which is applied (quite fairly) to mainstream elearning.
* No foundation grant required to get set up. Seems to me the sustainability model here is well supported on the platform side.
And how much money have you spent on technology? And what is the breakdown of your time spent fiddling with technical stuff versus the time you spend reading, learning, commenting and connecting? (I know you are obsessed, and have a superhuman amount of energy, but bear with me.) How would that breakdown compare to a WebCT systems admin of helpdesk worker?
So I keep staying stuff like this everywhere I go, I never hear anyone even attempt a counterargument, yet the funding and the institutional weight keeps reinforcing some fundamentally flawed approaches. Honestly, I get pissed off thinking about it.
Brian,
Did I ever tell you how much I love you?
I would try to reply to this, but you lay out the case so beautifully that I’ll leave it alone and let it shine.
Thanks for the awesome comment.