School's Back and 411 is in.

While sitting in class I started working on my research paper for my final assignment. I decided to run with the project I've been burning to complete, podcasts for learning at ACAD. I have a feeling it might be considered a bit of a case study, but we'll see what it turns out to be. I have been having "stairwell discussions" with the instrumental people (the techs and faculty of course) of the college and they're all quite keen to be involved. I went to the effort of creating a mock-up that I felt would kick start the support wheels, mind you I didn't send it out to many people. Alan thought the section I had imagined for him was off. He went on to say that he wouldn't actually answer any questions, but would raise some. After that comment we had a great talk about educational philosophy. The conversation got started through my request for a signature to enroll in 411. While Dunning signed me past the holds of the college I mentioned that I was accepted to present a workshop at the iPED09 conference in Coventry as a result of my 311 class. Lack of funding prevented my ability to attend, but that's a longer story that would digress from my point today.

I figure I'll wait to send out the real version of my podcasting newsletter once I get enough content to support the concept. I will go forward with publishing the podcasts even if the college doesn't officially support them and decides not to put them on their iTunes U page. I wonder.... {follows a thought into another application} ....yes, the official ACAD page is not up yet. There's a link through a newsletter to students, etc. that gives a sneak peak at it, but the public, including potential students, sees no presence. The "secret" version I saw is a make corporate face that I am not even remotely impressed by. I am glad that the school has finally made an effort to get caught up with the rest of the internet savvy schools, but there is nothing that has any tie to actual course content or instruction. I hope that the site goes up and some actual art + design pod/vodcasts make their way out into the world.

"MIT I love your example. Let us all hope that the rest of the world will catch on."

The ACADSA office was fun today. There are a group of students who are petitioning for the president of ACAD to resign immediately. They have a web presence, buttons, pamphlets and the strangest petition I've ever seen. The signatures are all on individual sheets of paper; very wasteful. I checked their blog and found that they don't seem to have everything sorted out quite right. They're telling students not to eat at ACAD and to go to SAIT instead?!? The food services at the college are all run by the Students' Association, and are actually an asset of the student body. Weird. I'm sure this will be a fun ride to be a part of.

Back to 411....

Wired for War and Social Media on TED.

Concepts of ethics and morality were discussed and the personality of the class started to appear. Seems that artistic practice is very rooted in the larger social questions of humanity, and that to fail to address them is to play ignorant when you're actually aware.... irony. I'll spend the next week getting some ground work done on my final project and will hopefully make a solid presentation to the class. I'm very excited to see where the conversation goes this semester.

my private beckons