new reviews in cyberculture studies (july 2009)

each month, RCCS Reviews pumps out free, full-length reviews of books about contemporary media and culture. books of the month for july 2009 are:


Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Videogames
Author: Mia Consalvo
Publisher: MIT Press, 2007
Review 1: Bryan G. Behrenshausen
Review 2: Tanner Higgin
Review 3: Ray Vichot
Author Response: Mia Consalvo

Digitizing Race: Visual Cultures of the Internet
Author: Lisa Nakamura
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press, 2007
Review 1: Yuya Kiuchi
Review 2: Nicholas Knouf
Review 3: Koen Leurs
Review 4: Andrea L. Volpe
Author Response: Lisa Nakamura

Evocative Objects: Things We Think With
Editor: Sherry Turkle
Publisher: MIT Press, 2007
Review 1: Chris Foster
Review 2: Gloria Gannaway
Review 3: Linda Levitt
Review 4: Albin Wallace

enjoy. there's a bit more where that came from.

when wikipedia meets the library: a case study from the university of san francisco

tomorrow evening i'm giving a talk at san francisco public library. i'll be discussing some assignments i use to get college students to create, share, and collaborate. it's free! you should go!

if things go as planned, i'll be discussing this:




and then this:





and finally this:









update: here's a photograph from my perspective. thank you sfpl!

yer invited! when wikipedia meets the library: a case study from the university of san francisco

free and public talk at san francisco public library! this wednesday evening!


the san francisco public library herb caen magazines and newspapers center presents When Wikipedia Meets the Library: A Case Study from the University of San Francisco. more info at the SFPL magazines and newspapers center blog.

see you there.

my summer reading list

every year, roy christopher collects and compiles cool summer reading lists. here's my contribution to this year's list.

my summer reading list

1. michael pollan's second nature: a gardener's education (new york: grove press, 1991)

i dig michael pollan. reading pollan gives me ideas for both my garden and my classroom. this book comes highly recommended by USF colleague, friend, and homesteader melinda stone.


2. erik davis' the visionary state: a journey through california's spiritual landscape (san francisco, california: chronicle books, 2006) - with stunning photographs by michael rauner.

this book is about california, sacred and profane buildings, shamans, pranksters, psychedelic visionaries, the prayer wheel in berkeley, the chapel of the chimes in oakland, and the alan watts library in druid heights, something i first learned about in arthur magazine.


3. mary appelhof's worms eat my garbage: how to set up and maintain a worm composting system (kalamazoo, michigan: flower press, 1982)

i want to be able to gather our food wastes, walk them outside, and feed them to worms. in return, i want and expect, with time, rich compost for our garden. this book will help.


4. karl linn's building commons and community (oakland, california: new village press, 2007) - published under creative commons

i'm tired of reading books about building community online. i want to read a book about building community offline - with help from community gardens, public exhibits, and neighborhood commons.


what's your summer reading list look like?

yer invited: work day / class day / feast day in the garden

yer invited!

USF's garden project is delighted to announce our first WORK DAY / CLASS DAY / FEAST DAY of the summer! please join us this sunday, june 14th and welcome our newest garden project member justin valone.


where: USF's campus garden

when: sunday, june 14th, 10 am - 2 pm

who: members of the USF campus community and friends

what: we will gather to weed, water, and help plant the southwest plot (formerly known as the fava bean plot). also, our new teacher justin valone will teach us some gardening skills and how to harvest.

what to bring: bring any food scraps (no meat, no bread) for our compost pile; bring a plate and fork for our garden-picked lunch; and bring a canvas or plastic bag to take some garden goodness back home with you.

see you there.

new reviews in cyberculture studies (june 2009)

each month, RCCS Reviews pumps out free, full-length reviews of books about contemporary media and culture. books of the month for june 2009 are:


Digital Shock: Confronting the New Reality
Author: Herve Fischer (Translated by Rhonda Mullins)
Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2006
Review 1: Jamie Switzer

Internet Inquiry: Conversations about Methods
Editor: Annette N. Markham, Nancy K. Baym
Publisher: Sage, 2008
Review 1: Anne Beaulieu
Review 2: Yana Breindl
Review 3: Luca Tateo

Las Metáforas de Internet
Author: Edgar Gómez Cruz
Publisher: Editorial Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, 2007
Review 1: María Lourdes De Panbehchi
Review 2: Javier Gómez Murcia (en Espanol)
Author Response: Edgar Gómez Cruz

enjoy. there's a bit more where that came from.

getting started with twitter in 14 easy steps

on monday, june 1, from 10 am to noon, i'll be leading a workshop called getting started with twitter. the workshop is part of USF's center for instruction & technology and is for USF faculty, staff, and librarians.

this blog post serves as a rough outline for what we'll most likely be covering. comments and feedback encouraged.

getting started with twitter

intro: who are we?

basic twitter

1. creating a profile

2. following other people

3. tweeting

4. replying

5. RTing

advanced twitter

6. linking (with tinyurl)

7. favoriting

8. DMing

9. searching twitter

10. finding yourself (or the @yourname link)

enhanced twitter

11. tweetdeck, tweetie, and apps like that

12. integrating twitter with facebook

twitter tips

13. thinking about thin and thick tweets

14. already existing information optimally uploaded, or aeiou

wrap-up: collective brainstorming session about how each of us may use twitter in our academic (or not so academic) lives.

update: here's a photograph of today's workshop participants!

congratulations class of 2009!

to the class of 2009 - celebrate your accomplishments, find a place where you can make a difference, and make us proud.

last class of eating san francisco

for our last class, the students and i in eating san francisco prepared a final feast. the assignment was for each of us to prepare a dish that was a) delicious and b) made from local, seasonal ingredients.

after a semester of delicious meals - in north beach, the mission, the castro, chinatown, and cole valley - this meal, the one we made collectively, was by far the most delicious.


(to learn more about what was served, roll your mouse over the annotated version on flickr.)

in addition to cooking a delicious meal, my students made media documenting their culinary creations. here's what they made:

Marco Abellera, Locally Prepared Dish
Chris Begley, Locally made Fruit n Nut Couscous for the last ESF of the year
Sam Blackburn, ESF's Final Feast. Best Meal of the Year!
Jessica Elkus, Napoleons!
Teresa Garcia, ESF: Pollan and me (and ESF: Final class banquet)
Jessie Hill, Localvore
Michael Kao, Local food
Stephanie Luu, ESF-Cooking Your Own Local Food
Kelli McCloskey, Cook A Delicious Meal For The Fiesta!
Austin O'Kane, Local, Organic and Everything a Meal Should Be…
Laura Plantholt, Cooking with Seasonal, Regional Food (and flickr set a delicious seasonal, regional dish)
Joel Weston, Turkey and Papas
Ashley Williamson, Strawberry Shortcake!
Ali Winston, ESF: The Last Supper


wow, ESFers, what a class, thank you. let's keep eating san francisco.

first and last class of digital media production

back in late january, during the first day of class for digital media production, i wrote in chalk all of the tools and platforms we'd be using spring semester. under the names of the tools and platforms, i made two - and sometimes three - columns based on things like use vs don't use, know it vs don't know it, and read vs write. then i asked students to get out of their seats, approach the blackboard, and record, in chalk, their start-of-the-semester levels of knowledge and experience of each of these digital media platforms.


fifteen weeks later, on the last day of class last thursday, i re-wrote in chalk the names of the tools and platforms. i put an X through yelp and video because we ended up not covering them. for about an hour and a half, the students and i discussed each of the tools and shared our likes and dislikes. we collectively brainstormed and agreed upon appropriate questions and statements for each of the tools and platforms. for example, do you plan to keep using twitter? yes or no. each time we agreed upon a question, i asked the students to get out of their seats, approach the blackboard, and record, in chalk, their positions. when we were finished, the blackboard looked like this:


thanks, DMP, for an excellent and prolific semester.

an academic miracle

next week, classes finish. then finals. then graduation. and then an academic miracle - the seasons change - and spring becomes summer. i love summer.

5 ways my students use twitter

this semester, all of my students (12 students in digital media production; 17 in eating san francisco) are using twitter.

i require them to do two things on twitter. first, for each of them to follow everyone else in the class. second, once they have completed a class project (a video, a blog post, a flickr set), they must tweet about it and include a link to it. other than that, they are free to use twitter, or not use twitter, in any way they choose.

over the semester, my students have come up with some really creative and collaborative uses of twitter. i'm impressed.

here's 5 ways my students use twitter

1. to announce and link to a blog post about one's role and contributions to the campus newspaper.


2. to set up - and say thanks for - interviews with people for class projects.


3. to negotiate dinner reservation times for class field trip.


4. to announce and publicize events taking place on campus.


5. to share readings and resources relevant to last night's class discussion.


and


(my students also, from time to time, use twitter in completely inane ways; maybe one day i'll blahg about that.)

last project and final feast assignments

last project and final feast for eating san francisco

last night, we made our way to zazie in cole valley for dinner and to mcdonalds on haight for dessert.



1. working solo or collaboratively with others, create and share a story about our evening. your story must involve zazie, mcdonalds, and michael pollan's omnivore's dilemma. make sure you use pollan in a significant way. as always, your project must rest upon a platform that a) supports multimedia, b) is open to the public, and c) allows visitors the opportunity to comment on your work. when finished, and no later than class on wednesday, thick tweet your project.

2. for our last class on wednesday, make sure you have read pollan's omnivore's dilemma and be ready to discuss it.

3. also, working solo or collaboratively with others, prepare a delicious dish for wednesday's class. your delicious dish must be made from local, seasonal ingredients. if you don't know what that means, find out. also, when preparing your meal, consider shopping for local, seasonal ingredients at USF's farmer's market on sunday. document the process. as always, your project must rest upon a platform that a) supports multimedia, b) is open to the public, and c) allows visitors the opportunity to comment on your work. when finished, and no later than next friday (may 8 15) at 5 pm, thick tweet your project.

student made media about a field trip to chinatown

last week, eating san francisco took a rare saturday field trip and found ourselves in chinatown. students were assigned to make media about their experiences.


here's what they made:

Marco Abellera, China Town - Eating San Francisco
Chris Begley and Ali Winston, Saturday Morning in Chinatown
Sam Blackburn, ESF Does Dim Sum! (plus flickr set)
Teresa Garcia, ESF Chinatown Project
Jessie Hill, Phoenix Talons and a Little Bit of Heart
Michael Kao, Chinatown
Stephanie Luu, Eating San Francisco-Dim Sum
Kelli McCloskey, Chintatown Project
Nick Minnott, Tin How Temple/ Chinatown/ Chicken Feet
Austin O'Kane, Dim Sum Experience
Katie Olson, Adventures through Chinatown
Laura Plantholt, Dim Sum for Dim Dummies
Joel Weston, Just a Tourist
Ashley Williamson, Good Fortune in Chinatown

chinatown project

chinatown project assignment for eating san francisco

yesterday, we field tripped to chinatown. the chinatown crüe arranged for a tour of the tin how temple, dim sum brunch at new asia, and a brief visit at the golden gate fortune cookie factory.


1. working solo or collaboratively with others, create and share a story.

2. your story must involve food.

3. your story must involve chinatown.

4. your story must teach us at least one thing about food. teach us something interesting, something fascinating.

5. be creative.

6. as always, your project must rest upon a platform that a) supports multimedia, b) is open to the public, and c) allows visitors the opportunity to comment on your work.

7. when finished, and no later than class on wednesday, thick tweet your project.

homework for tuesday's class

homework for tuesday's class in digital media production

tuesday's class will be a wikipedia workshop day. if you have a laptop, bring it to class. if you don't have one, try to borrow one from your roommate or friend.

also, prior to class, please:

1. create an account on wikipedia. you may use your name, your full name, or a pseudonym.

2. start an account on google docs. this requires having a google account.

3. watch common craft's google docs in plain english.

4. learn how to use google docs.

5. cut and paste the section or subsection of USF's wikipedia page you are working on to google docs. save it and be ready to edit and add to it in class on tuesday.

6. in class on tuesday, using zotero, wikipedia, and google docs, we will individually and collectively work on USF's wikipedia page.

a talk about the future

tomorrow i'll be giving a talk as part of the communication and the future conference at cal state east bay. if things go as planned, i hope to cover four things.

exhibit a: twitter assignment

exhibit b: cook a delicious meal assignment

exhibit c: a community garden on campus


exhibit d: jerusalem artichokes


update: a photograph of the audience:

zotero project

zotero project assignment for digital media production

1. visit, download, and familiarize yourself with zotero.

2. take some time with some of the site's learning tools, including the quick start guide and the video demo on the front page.

3. add to zotero the library/print resources you found from last week's assignment.

4. find and add to zotero between 5-10 online resources that will help you with your section of USF's wikipedia page.

5. discover at least one interesting feature of zotero and be ready to share it with the rest of class on thursday.

hint: take some time with zotero - it's more powerful and more useful than you may first think.

rule: if you have no work to demo, do not come to class.

the earth's journey - a USF dance performance for earth day

on wednesday, april 22 and friday, april 24, a number of USF students will be performing a dance called "the earth's journey" in recognition and celebration of earth day.

the dance performances are as follows:

wednesday, april 22, 6:30 pm in the dance studio in koret center.

friday, april 24, 9:30 am in the dance studio in koret center. (please note that this performance will begin in the dance studio and then move out to other parts of campus. therefore, make sure you are in the dance studio by 9:30 am.)

for students enrolled in digital media production or eating san francisco, please try your best to attend one or both of the performances, document it, and share publicly your findings and reactions through a flickr set, blog post, and/or video.

educating minds and hearts (and bellies!) to change the world - a saturday talk for recently admitted students

this afternoon, i'm giving a talk to recently admitted students to USF. with luck, my talk will correspond roughly to some of the pictures and projects below.







update: pics of the admitted students!