WH is growing before our eyes. I started a page on facebook for WH. Today we went from 2 members to 27 in 3 hours. Where else but on a community networking sight can this type of interest build so rapidly?
WH is such an important space/vision---now we'll be able to get the word out even faster about courses, events, fundraising, ideas for courses.
The best part, is we will get to see student participation outside of the classroom. interest beyond the required semester hours. Thinking, connecting with the material, reflecting throughout the day.
As Facebook says,
RUWriters House is smiling.
Collaboration.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Doing the Math.
Fractals: A geometric pattern that is repeated (iterated) at ever smaller (or larger) scales to produce (self similar) irregular shapes and surfaces that cannot be represented by classical (Euclidian) geometry.
Absolutely beautiful from far away and up close. WH is quickly becoming fractalesque. The surface, the product is an articulation of the collective vision of WH, and a vision of the individuals who together, and only together, can equal the whole. We each foreground our specialization, which infuses each of those areas with the best possible product, and yet we each look into the areas where we overlap with another. Spaces where two minds, three, many many minds create together. And this is happening backstage if you will. Imagine if we could get the students doing this too.
"Simple" projects wind up requiring collaboration between IT, design, professors, admins, etc. Today was one of those days where we just shared ideas and knowledge. Creating new spaces for student collaboration, new energy for writing and creativity in academia takes endless sharing of knowledge, a sign of the age we live in.
I find it perfect that we are enacting the vision that we have for our students as well. The poet in me finds it beautiful, and for the science minded...remember that it is mathematically inevitable.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Developing a WH online community
one project i am undertaking is gathering some online attention through online community sites. i have set up spaces through blogspot, ning.com, myspace.com, and facebook.com. The goal is to branch out to students and to the academic fields of rhet/comp/english/writing programs/communication/arts/technology/multimedia...
through conversations with students, we could predict that the site most visited will be facebook. It has the largest community of student visitors. The "Rutgers Network" alone has 52, 000 or so people on it (students, alum, faculty, etc.). However, it was brought to my attention that students may not choose to become "friends" with Writers House since they would be concerned that content from their pages would somehow become grounds for judgement/punishment on a university level. In other words, they fear being punished for shenanigans or talk of shenanigans. Thus it was suggested that I start a Writers House Group. Students are more likely to join a group than befriend a possible informant.
Because networks are organized around academic institutions, this space opens us to the potential of linking with other institutions who may be enacting visionary spaces such as ours.
However, this raises the question, are there faculty out there creating accounts on facebook (or other community spaces), and looking for Writers House-esque ideas? Or, are we still limited to journal publication to get the word out to Academia?
I plan to obtain student feedback, and observe trends in membership as well as participation on each of these community sites, especially facebook.
I also hope to analyse the relationship between members and multimedia content.
through conversations with students, we could predict that the site most visited will be facebook. It has the largest community of student visitors. The "Rutgers Network" alone has 52, 000 or so people on it (students, alum, faculty, etc.). However, it was brought to my attention that students may not choose to become "friends" with Writers House since they would be concerned that content from their pages would somehow become grounds for judgement/punishment on a university level. In other words, they fear being punished for shenanigans or talk of shenanigans. Thus it was suggested that I start a Writers House Group. Students are more likely to join a group than befriend a possible informant.
Because networks are organized around academic institutions, this space opens us to the potential of linking with other institutions who may be enacting visionary spaces such as ours.
However, this raises the question, are there faculty out there creating accounts on facebook (or other community spaces), and looking for Writers House-esque ideas? Or, are we still limited to journal publication to get the word out to Academia?
I plan to obtain student feedback, and observe trends in membership as well as participation on each of these community sites, especially facebook.
I also hope to analyse the relationship between members and multimedia content.
community addresses
www.myspace/ruwritershouse
http://ruwritershouse.ning.com/
http://ruwh.blogspot.com
http://rutgers.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1061316347
http://ruwritershouse.ning.com/
http://ruwh.blogspot.com
http://rutgers.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1061316347
Monday, December 10, 2007
The Blogger
who: rhea ramey
position: writers house hub person
blog function: a space to share my processes, ideas, advances, quesitons, projects, links, etc. The Rutgers Writers house is a visionary space, it needs constant attention, and constant forward movement. I hope to contribute to that progress.
Eventually, i would like to situate this program in the timeline of writing pedagogy and consider how Writers House compares and contrasts with previous models.
position: writers house hub person
blog function: a space to share my processes, ideas, advances, quesitons, projects, links, etc. The Rutgers Writers house is a visionary space, it needs constant attention, and constant forward movement. I hope to contribute to that progress.
Eventually, i would like to situate this program in the timeline of writing pedagogy and consider how Writers House compares and contrasts with previous models.
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