Academic Evolution

Scholarly Communications must be Mobile

Continuing my series on how scholarly communications must transform, I will argue here that scholarship must fit itself to mobile communications in order to be taken seriously in the future.

Of course traditional scholarship must be made available on hand-held devices, but more importantly, the full range of scholarly practices -- research, laboratory work, field work, presentations of findings, and publishing itself -- will all transform themselves in order to conform with the social and intellectual practices of ubiquitous, networked, interactive communication that mobile devices are enabling. The future of scholarship is literally in our hands, and the phone is ringing.

Is Academia ready for Second Life?

I've been reading Tom Boellstorff's Coming of Age in Second Life, an anthropologist's look at the most popular of the virtual worlds. I now know what AFK means ("away from keyboard") and a lot of other things, too, about this complex online environment and its cultures and mores.

I've spent a number of hours exploring Second Life, flying my avatar across digital landscapes that materialize as my bandwidth catches up. I've strolled through the arcades, been a bit puzzled by the Halloween party feeling of all the tricked out avatars and people typing to each other. I even used some of my free Linden dollars (the currency there) to buy a necklace for my avatar. I don't wear necklaces in real life, so this was stepping out a bit for me. I have been reluctant to engage in this demi-monde. Once, I landed on an idyllic little spot and strolled through a lovely house beside a stream. A woman avatar typed/shouted at me to get out. This was her land. What was I doing there? I didn't know. A bit embarrassed, and frustrated at not being able to figure how to create objects and buildings (that obviously so many have become so adept at), I left Second Life. I haven't been back for a long time.

The Ultimate PowerPoint Replacement: Prezi

I've heard a lot of arguments about how PowerPoint is the end of civilization as we know it. I use it a lot, and with being able to share presentations on sites like Slideshare, what gives? Well, you owe it to yourself to check out a most creative and enjoyable new mode of presentation called "Prezi." It's a little more work than learning PowerPoint, but even after just an hour of tinkering, I can already tell this is going to be a tool that will help me conceptualize the information better and employ media more interestingly. Here's a quick look at one that I put together. This is a screencast that I talk through (thanks, ScreenJelly) but you might do better to access this Prezi presentation directly so you can try out the navigation tools yourself, or go ahead and check out others' more developed examples at the Prezi Showcase).

Everybody Should Play with Technology and New Media

Image by Kurt Christensen via Flickr

I spend a lot of my time looking into and trying out new media, technology, and software. I used to think this was just a personal inclination; now I think that regularly experimenting with the tools of the digital age is core to literacy today. In fact, I'll take it a step further. I will go so far as to say that anyone in education (at any level) or anyone devoted to intellectual pursuits (in any sector) owe it to themselves and all they work with to be actively trying out the new tools.

I didn't say that everyone should be adopting every gadget or media trend that comes along. Not at all. It isn't that you have to blog, tweet, text message, or be all hooked up in social media networks. But you darn well ought to know what hundreds of millions of people are doing with them and be checking these out--preferably actively. Why? Well, using those new technologies and media tends to answer that question. Their utility and value are somewhat self apparent, or we would not be witnessing the viral adoption of facebook, microblogging, etc. But there are plenty of die-hards out there who now make a point of resisting (and often mocking) new media.