Deal Breaker

breaking deals a chronic disease

transforming our brokenness into oneness,
being one with another is a goal that can
only be achieved by a knotted rope,
connecting all who wish to participate.

creating a community of individuals,
being a deal breaker advances our understanding
of the oneness we seek to foster
despite the interruptions it causes.

living separate lives in a vacuum,
being lost and abandoned from the many,
hurts those with compassion to interact
all the more, all the time.

What is in a name?

Härligt att vara i skog och natur dagtid, men på natten skulle jag aldrig våga.

I doubt my mom knew when she rejected my dad's idea to officially name me Steffen Kurt Otto Guenzel. That is my name. Both middle names are passed on from my grand-dads. She called the names old-fashioned. And I am glad for it. Anyway, I created a couple of years ago my acronym: SKOG. Be assured, I did not know what SKOG stands for but I thought that a little Scandinavian touch would fit my almost blond hair and blue eyes. Then one day I entered the acronym in the search engine at www.urbandictionary.com Who knew that it would produce ten definitions?

1. The active verb for skogging.

skogging is a skateboarding technique requiring both legs to pedal one's skateboard. the word is a mixture of skateboarding and jogging, thus...skogging!

I will refrain from listing the other nine explanations since they are a bit embarrassing and instead marvel in the line below the beautiful image that includes the word skog. So for now and ever, I think of it as the acronym that my mom did not think I should have to suffer from in my later life. A very wise woman indeed.

Ute has appeared in several poems ...

A very good friend and colleague suddenly died in April of 2006. Ute is on my mind a lot and I miss her quite often. While cleaning out another section of the closet I came across the copy of an email that was forwarded to me. Below appears a poem by Hank Lazer who writes poetry and realized one day (April 19, 2006) that Ute has been on his mind as well.

DYING

that which calls
me out of
myself as a

small child after
a bout with
polio she would

insist i can
do it myself
dying is not

as i saw
with my father
something one can

do easily five
light blue eggs
in the nest

after the final
chorus i said
let him live

*

Research Project 002

Hypatia Dejavyu of the Info Island Archipelago talks about library reference questions in Second Life on the opening day of ASIST (American Society for Information Science and Technology) Island, October 27, 2008.

Why So Little Hype About Hybrid Classrooms?: Reflections on Connect Composition Plus in the College Composition Classroom

At the beginning of the twenty-first century we see technology and education merging. Some critics warn that the push for online education becomes now a central concern of education since the learner outcomes often do not measure up to achievements in the classroom. Nevertheless, while on the one hand, online education offers litter the internet and online degrees gradually become accepted educational programs in the mainstream, on the other hand, many students are not much exposed to technology in the classroom or at home due to social status or traditional world views of teachers and adults around them. But the world develops steadily to create a major digital network that connects people and economies in ways unforeseen. At this junction hybrid classrooms provide an opportunity for all students to learn to communicate in this virtual environment. Hybrid course refers to classes that are composed of a carefully balanced blend of both traditional instruction and online learning activities. This balance allows for a more meaningful connection of students to the instructor as well as amongst themselves and enriches the classroom by enabling every student to learn and collaborate.

Initially, "E-Learning" products and classroom instruction including computers and internet access set out to meet this challenge but most pedagogies and technological innovations have fallen short. In the past, software products did very little to engage students in the learning process by demanding only individual mechanical responses. So-called e-books only presented the print content on a digital screen and did not allow for much interaction on the page. Furthermore, several studies have shown that students prefer the print book to the e-copy if available. Without a doubt, the new "E-learning 3.0" is gradually playing a more prominent role in how we acquire and process information. In the future, the learning process as such will not just be limited to learning at school or in college with print media; instead, learning transforms into an activity that accompanies people during their day-to-day routines both consciously and unconsciously. In a world of computer networks and instant wireless connectivity students need to learn to actively participate in the democratic processes of exchanging ideas, collaborating on projects, and developing solutions to problems facing us locally and globally. With all the gadgets and technological innovations this lifelong learning morphs into a digital lifestyle which threatens to render one-on-one human interaction obsolete. And here innovative "E-Learning" applications play an increasingly important role: to help those students with limited computer skills to catch up while allowing simultaneously all students to communicate with each other in a collaborative learning environment that demonstrates how we can use technology to supplement our communication as citizens of the world.
According to WPA guidelines, one of the outcomes of the First Year Writing program is for students to develop into active communicants across campus and in every day life situations. First year students in the composition classroom need to learn to master communication skills in both print and in digital media that empower them to be prepared in both areas. In my paper I will examine student interaction and communication in the classroom of the FYE program at the University of Alabama. Especially, the research will focus on how the newly developed software application Connect Composition Plus enhances and complements the hybrid classroom greatly by providing a virtual platform to collaborate and interact within the group while allowing individual students to customize their online contents and providing feedback to student comments on their writing drafts and learning progress. Developed by McGraw-Hill, the writing handbook and peer-review software application proved in preliminary class-testing to be an interactive and search-able product that fosters the forming of learner relationships. Within learning groups students plan their own revision schedules for drafting their papers and communicate about the progress of their drafts. During the fall semester, I will class test the software in three sections of freshman writing. Besides personal observations and notes on the usability of CC+, student feedback solicited through an anonymous survey on our hybrid classroom activities will help to determine how the new software application actually complements our in class discussions and assists students in navigating the increasingly digital world around us.