I had the distinct pleasure today to give an impromptu and rather impassioned presentation to Jess Rigelhaupt’s Freshman Seminar about their participation in the Domain of One’s Own project. My tact for this presentation was to start by talking about Facebook and how it was similar to a Roach Motel. But, as is often the case with my 70s and 80s popular culture allusions, none of the students really knew the reference. So, in order to counteract their pop culture ignorance I quickly jumped on the internet and brought up the 1978 commercial featuring the classic “Roaches check in, but they don’t check out” tagline. I often use this quote to frame the way Facebook, and other third party services, make it next to impossible to truly control your own data. I understand it isn’t a perfect analogy, but I just love calling Facebook a Roach Motel to a room full of students who live there 🙂 A Domain of One’s Own is on like Donkey Kong!
Watch the bava blog trailer!
about
bavatuesdays.com is an ongoing conversation about media of all kinds ...
Testimonials:
Generations from now, they won't call it the Internet anymore. They'll just say, "I logged on to the Jim Groom this morning.
-Joe McMahon
Everything Jim Groom touches is gold. He's like King Midas, but with the Internet.
-Serena Epstein
My understanding is that an essential requirement of the internet is to do whatever Jim Groom asks of you while you're online.
-James D. Calder
@jimgroom is the Billy Martin of edtech.
-Luke Waltzer
My 3yr old son is VERY intrigued by @jimgroom's avatar. "Is he a superhero?" "Well, yes, son, to many he is."
-Clint Lalonde
Jim Groom is a fiery man.
-Antonella Dalla Torre
“Reverend” Jim “The Bava” Groom, alias “Snake Pliskin” is a charlatan and a fraud, a self-confessed “used car salesman” clawing his way into the glamour of the education technology keynote circuit via the efforts of his oppressed minions at the University of Mary Washington’s DTLT and beyond. The monster behind educational time-sink ds106 and still recovering from his bid for hipster stardom with “Edupunk”, Jim spends his days using his dwindling credibility to sell cheap webhosting to gullible undergraduates and getting banned from YouTube for gross piracy.
I am Jim Groom
Find out more about me here.
Recent comments
- Reverend on Thank God for Mental Illness
- Reverend on FIAB: Fix it Again, Bava
- Reverend on FIAB: Fix it Again, Bava
- Grant on FIAB: Fix it Again, Bava
- Tim Owens on FIAB: Fix it Again, Bava
- FIAB: Fix it Again, Bava | bavatuesdays on Is that a PS4 or a plane taking off in your living room?
- Eric Likness on Thank God for Mental Illness
- Jim Groom on We Want Your VHS!
- Kathy Payne on We Want Your VHS!
- Jim Groom on Alta Via 2 Post Mortem
- Taylor Jadin on Partying Like it’s 2009
- Alan Levine on Alta Via 2 Post Mortem
- Alta Via 2 Post Mortem | bavatuesdays on Alta Via Day 1 or, If You Really Loved Me You Would Bring Me Edelweiss
- Alta Via 2 Post Mortem | bavatuesdays on Alta Via 2, Day 5: Happy Trails
- Alta Via 2 Post Mortem | bavatuesdays on Alta Via Day 4 Or, IWDRM Or, 666 the Trail of the Beast
-
Recent Posts
- FIAB: Fix it Again, Bava
- Thank God for Mental Illness
- Alta Via 2 Post Mortem
- Partying Like it’s 2009
- Reclaim Roadshow Headed for Philly in May
- Migration Policy Update: No Free Lunch, Hippies!
- Lifebits, the Next Corner of Cyberspace?
- Reclaim Arcade in the Free-Lance Star
- The bava an A-Lister at Long Lost
- bavaserver To-do List
browse the bavarchive
some favorites
- Alan Levine
- Andy Rush
- Audrey Watters
- Bonnie Stewart
- Brian Lamb
- Bryan Alexander
- Chris Lott
- Clint LaLonde
- Cole Camplese
- Darcy Norman
- David Kernohan
- David Wiley
- Gardner Campbell
- GNA Garcia
- Grant Potter
- Jeffrey Keefer
- Jon Beasley-Murray
- Jon Udell
- Kate Bowles
- Kin Lane
- Laura Blankenship
- Leslie Madsen-Brooks
- Lisa M Lane
- Martha Burtis
- Martin Hawksey
- Martin Weller
- Mike Caulfield
- Mikhail Gershovich
- Mountebank
- Paul Bond
- Scott Leslie
- Serena Epstein
- Shannon Hauser
- Stephen Downes
- The OLDaily
- Tim Owens
- Tom Woodward
- Tony Hirst
Even I didn’t get the reference. Damn you’re old.
In defense of my generation, I totally get the reference…..Tim was obviously too busy building Heath Kits instead of watching TV while he was young.
I remember that commercial. It’s Hotel California for insects!
@Ben,
Youw ere always better than Tim, you always have a job at DTLT, whereas Tim has just gone on double secret probation 😉
@Nicole,
“You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave!” That is another Facebook analogy homerun, you rule!
Damn! I got the idea but only because I used the roach motel for cucarachas!! Didn’t know there was a tag line from an ad!
However, the analogy with facebook is perversely beautiful.
@Antonio,
“The Facebook Cucarachas” —this is how I will affectionately refer to all UMW students from here on out 🙂
Oh, sure, the Facebook Cucarachas! Could be a new TV series.
But, Nicole struck some powerful remembrance, yes… Hotel California. Sure, but I never worried about its lyrics. Of course, at the time I didn’t understand a word. Then you Jim wrote the quote and boom. Now it’s the time to check. Oh, all the roads bring (if somewhat circularly) to Rome.