Week 1

Seminar Outline

 * Discussion of danah boyd's Controlling Your Experience
 * Introduction to DooO Web host
 * Installing WP
 * Register Your Blog

Readings
Read Chapters 1, 2, and 3 of The Digital Scholar by Martin Weller. As you're reading consider these questions and prompts (in addition to any you might have) which you can respond to on your blog or during discussion next week:

Chapter One
“digital scholarship broadens this focus somewhat, since in a digital, networked, open world people become less defined by the institution to which they belong and more by the network and online identity they establish” (p.4) Weller argues that it is best to hold a broad definition of digital scholar as “someone who employs digital, networked and open approaches to demonstrate specialism in a field” (p.4). To what degree and in what ways do you practice digital scholarship? What evidence can you bring to bear? To what degree are you comfortable having and establishing an online identity? What do you feel are advantages/concerns of having/establishing an online identity? Weller describes many of the traditional ways in which academics think about, engage with and construct scholarship. To what degree and in what ways, if any, have you moved beyond ‘business as usual’ model towards transformative practice (digital, networked and open, p.6-9)? What might be one example of your ‘open scholarship’ and the processes you have engaged with? In what ways, if any, could you argue that it is an emergent form?

Chapter Two
When one participates in open education and scholarship Weller suggested, “the general philosophy of the blogosphere and those who spend significant time online is to be generally open in terms of disclosure and sharing content (p. 23). How would you describe your philosophy of and participation with digital scholarship? In what ways, if any, does the above philosophy translate into your pedagogy, scholarship and teaching statement? Weller suggests, “the open education movement is still in its relative infancy and so if it hasn’t seen the widespread disruption to higher education some had hoped for, we shouldn’t be too surprised” (p. 24-28). Change is slow. Carefully reflect on your own pedagogy and technology habits. What evidence do you have? In what ways, if any, have you taken risks to engage with digital, networked, open approach to learning, teaching, and scholarship?

Chapter Three
Within your discipline – what might you identify as support for Weller’s two key elements that drive change (p. 29)? In this chapter, Weller closes his Ownership and Identity section with “The parallel with education may be that it is less the content (in the form of lectures or teaching material) that is significant, but the life experience” (p. 34). Thinking about the idea of ‘strong emotional attachment to the physical object’ and his closing quote how might you respond to his position? How closely does this align with your own experiences? How might yours be different? Weller provides us with some useful information in thinking about boundary wars that have occurred in the music and newspaper industry (pgs. 34-39). In what ways, if any, have you engaged, blurred, and undermined the component functions/boundaries between a traditional higher education model to a more digital, networked, and open model? What evidence do you have related to your own learning, pedagogy and scholarship?

Technology Investigation
By this point your domain should be created and you should have access to your control panel. Go ahead and  install Wordpress to use as a blog for this cohort. When you are done, make sure you let us know where your blog is.

Use your blog to respond to the reading and comment on the reflections of others (which can all be found here ).

As you begin to work with your new domain and Web host, you may want to become familiar with some fundamental concepts underpinning this new space


 * First, you'll need to decide how you'll be parceling out your space on the host. Read about Subdomains versus Subfolders and learn different strategies for cordoning off different parts of your site(s).


 * Depending upon how you set up those spaces, you may find need to redirect one part of your domain to another. Read more about Redirecting a Site.


 * Once you've set up an application on your host (we recommend WordPress, but you're welcome to experiment with any open source Web application you like) to manage your new space, you'll want to think more about the organization of content on your site. This is a HUGE topic, but we've put together some basics about Web Content Organizational Strategies.


 * Above all your domain is YOURS, which means we think you need to be able to take complete control over your presentation of your identity. Read more about Privacy and your new site.


 * Finally, when you become Internet Famous, you may eventually decide you need more than one domain! That's fine. We can only pay for one of your domains, but your welcome to add more to your space. Read more about Addon Domains.