Author Archives: Paul Benzon

Hi everyone, Our two chapters of Davidson’s book for Monday give us provocative case studies of how educators might use new technologies to produce new, different kinds of learning, and to encourage their students to engage in that learning fully … Continue reading →

Hi everyone, Anne sent along this intriguing video about the role that glass might play in our future — it’s an, so we have to take it with a grain of salt, but it’s definitely appealing. Enjoy, and I’ll see … Continue reading →

Hi everyone, Jenn sent along this interesting article about the Internet Archive, an organization dedicated to preserving the history of the web that’s now expanding to books as well — an interesting combination of old and new media. Enjoy, and … Continue reading →

Our last article on digital social relations, Julian Dibbell’s “A Rape in Cyberspace”, takes us back from the present moment of Facebook, Twitter, and the blogosphere to an earlier, different kind of digital community, the text-based multi-user environment LambdaMOO. LambdaMoo is … Continue reading →

With Andrew Keen’s article, we move from the politics of friendship and social relations on the web that we discussed with Rosen to the politics of the web itself. Keen’s article is a sharp critique of the political assumptions of … Continue reading →

Hi everyone, In our discussions this week about the generational, technological, neurological, and cultural differences and similarities between digital natives and digital immigrants, I thought it was interesting to hear some of you guys acknowledge that you have digital immigrant … Continue reading →

Hi everyone, I hope you’re all doing as well as can be hoped coping with last night’s events on campus. I know that everyone has a lot on their mind right now, but I wanted to send this out so … Continue reading →

Hi everyone, I came across this story today about a McDonald’s marketing campaign on Twitter that took an interesting turn when it got into the hands of regular users: http://grist.org/list/mcdonalds-discovers-social-media-can-backfire-when-people-hate-you/ This seems worth thinking about in terms of some of … Continue reading →

In their essay “Your Brain Is Evolving Right Now,” Gary Small and Gigi Voran consider many of the same issues that came up in our discussion of Carr’s essay—questions of how immersion in a digital environment changes the ways in … Continue reading →

Henry Jenkins’ article “Worship at the Altar of Convergence” lays out many of the key questions of how we think, act, and interact within digital culture that we’ll be thinking about over the course of the semester. Like many of … Continue reading →