"The process of composing texts in a world full of new media technologies requires us to reconfigure teaching and learning in remarkably innovative and, perhaps, ungrammatical ways."

In "Re-Inventing the Possibilities: Academic Literacy & New Media" (Fibreculture Journal, issue 10, 2007), Cheryl Ball and Ryan Moeller present a webtext that both discusses and "demonstrates the possibilities of using new media to teach students critical literacy skills applicable to the 21st century." The authors express their perspectives as "converging narratives," sometimes speaking individually, sometimes together, and providing the reader visual cues in the text. The paper is available at http://journal.fibreculture.org/issue10/ball_moeller/index.html.

Fibreculture Journal [ISSN 1449-1443] is a peer-reviewed international journal that "explores the issues and ideas of concern and interest to both the Fibreculture network and wider social formations." For more information, contact: Dr. Andrew Murphie, School of Media and Communications, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052 Australia; email: a.murphie@unsw.edu.au; Web: http://journal.fibreculture.org/.

NEW MODELS OF SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION

"In the past, it was useful to equate scholarly communication with the publication of monographs and journals, a process that could be clearly distinguished from other communication practices employed by scholars. The substantial expense, organized effort, and prolonged production and distribution process all readily distinguished communication involving tangible publications. These historic distinctions are now substantially blurred. As most forms of communication become untethered from the production of physical artifacts, some of the terminology of scholarly communication has been stretched to adapt. At the same time, publishing itself has become a term of much fuzziness." In "Talk About Talking About New Models of Scholarly Communication" (Journal of Electronic Publishing, vol. 11, no. 1, Winter 2008), Karla L. Hahn considers some "dangers" that could impede creation of new scholarly communication systems, including:

"Too many believe that change can wait."

"Focusing on the publishing market can become myopic."

"Scholarly communication cannot be considered somehow distinct from the research process."

Hahn, Director of the Office of Scholarly Communications at the Association of Research Libraries, argues that greater dialogue is needed between scholars and researchers and the library community that supports them. She proposes questions to get the conversation started. Some include:

"Who has access to the scholarly communication system and scholarly publications?"

"What do quality and value mean in the Internet age?"

"What is the right balance between the market and the gift economy that underpins all research and scholarly publishing?"

"What are appropriate roles of research institutions in supporting change in scholarly communication and providing publishing infrastructure and dissemination capabilities?"

The paper is available at http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.3336451.0011.108.

The Journal of Electronic Publishing [ISSN 1080-2711] is "a forum for research and discussion about contemporary publishing practices, and the impact of those practices upon users. . . . [C]ontributors and readers are publishers, scholars, librarians, journalists,students, technologists, attorneys, retailers, and others with an interest in the methods and means of contemporary publishing." For more information, contact: University of Michigan Library, Scholarly Publishing Office, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1104 USA; email: jep-info@umich.edu; Web: http://www.journalofelectronicpublishing.org/.

SCIENCE BLOGGING

On January 20, 2008, the second annual North Carolina Science Blogging Conference was held in Research Triangle Park, NC. Over two hundred scientists, educators, and journalists from the U.S., Canada, and Sweden attended. The conference was a day of discussions, readings, and demonstrations about science and blogging. A variety of issues and perspectives on science communication were addressed, including science literacy, how science students are using blogs, science in classrooms and in homes, debunking pseudoscience, using blogs as tools for presenting scientific research, writing about science, and health and medicine.

Although the conference is over, the conversations raised at the event continue online. You can view the conference information and resources at http://wiki.scienceblogging.com/scienceblogging/. The site also includes a listing of links to many science bloggers sites: http://wiki.scienceblogging.com/scienceblogging/show/Science+Blogs.

LEARNING TRENDS IN LEARNING TRENDS

To celebrate its 500th issue, the editor of Learning Trends newsletter invited readers to share their thoughts about how the delivery of training and education has changed over the past ten years and what trends they see as a result of new technologies and pedagogies. The issue is available at http://www.masieweb.com/p7/LearningTRENDS-500.pdf.

Elliot Masie's Learning Trends is published by The Masie Center. Current issues are available at http://trends.masie.com/. Subscription information is available at http://trends.masie.com/.

For more information, contact: 95 Washington St., PO Box 397, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 USA; tel: 518-350-2200; email: emasie@masie.com; Web: http://www.masie.com/.

EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES IN 2008

Each year since 2001, MIT's Technology Review has published a list of ten emerging technologies -- those "most likely to alter industries, fields of research, and even the way we live." Some in the area of information technology include:

-- Modeling Surprise

"Definition: Surprise modeling combines data mining and machine learning to help people do a better job of anticipating and coping with unusual events."

"Impact: Although research in the field is preliminary, surprise modeling could aid decision makers in a wide range of domains, such as traffic management, preventive medicine, military planning, politics, business, and finance."

-- Offline Web Applications

"Definition: Offline Web applications, developed using Web technologies such as HTML and Flash, can take advantage of the resources of a user's computer as well as those of the Internet."

"Impact: Developers can quickly and cheaply build full-fledged desktop applications that are usable in a broad range of devices and operating systems."

-- Reality Mining

"Definition: Personal reality mining infers human relationships and behavior by applying data-mining algorithms to information collected by cell-phone sensors that can measure location, physical activity, and more."

"Impact: Models generated by analyzing data from both individuals and groups could enable automated security settings, smart personal assistants, and monitoring of personal and community health."

The complete article is available at http://www.technologyreview.com/specialreports/specialreport.aspx?id=25.

Technology Review [ISSN 1099-274X] is published six times a year by Technology Review, Inc., a Massachusetts Institute of Technology enterprise. For more information, contact Technology Review, One Main Street, 7th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02142 USA; tel: 617-475-8000; fax: 617-475-8042; Web: http://www.technologyreview.com/.

ACCESSIBLE TECHNOLOGY GUIDE

"Accessible Technology: A Guide for Educators," Published by Microsoft, "provides information about accessibility and accessible technology resources to help educators worldwide ensure that all students have equal access to learning with technology." The document includes accessibility fact sheets, tutorials, demo, videos, and other training materials that may be used for non-profit educational and training purposes. The 48-page guide is in MS Word format and can be downloaded at http://www.microsoft.com/enable/education/default.aspx.

For more on the accessibility of Microsoft products, the company maintains a website at http://www.microsoft.com/enable/ with demos and tutorials.

Information Technology Services at UNC-Chapel Hill

Teaching and Learning

TL Infobits - February, 2008

ACADEMIC LITERACY AND NEW MEDIA

NEW MODELS OF SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION

SCIENCE BLOGGING

LEARNING TRENDS IN LEARNING TRENDS

EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES IN 2008

ACCESSIBLE TECHNOLOGY GUIDE

Recommended Reading

Resources

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