Two items from the latest teaching file: One just a screenshot from the class blog tonight. Facebook as a verb sums up why writing teachers want to participate in social software. From Webster's Open Dictionary:

facebook (verb) : 1.to search for another person through the online directory know[n] as facebook 2. to send a message through the online directory know as facebook I facebooked Lauren yesterday to see where she goes to college. Submitted by: Anonymous on Dec. 11, 2005 23:24

facebook (verb) : To add someone to your list of friends on the "facebook.com" website. Hey, I saw you facebooked me. (also a noun, as in "Look him up on facebook.") Submitted by: Selena from North Carolina on Dec. 11, 2005 12:03

Facebooking (verb) : it means to checking out your Facebook.com profile or your friend's Facebook.com profile. I was facebooking my friend's profiles. Submitted by: Joshua Wilson from Florida on Jan. 29, 2006 20:21

I don't think there is an analagous spacephrase for academics--conferencelunch me? memosmack me? comitteemeet me?

The second item is a reflection on our playlist assignment, focusing on the work of my Literature and New Media course. The playlists that we developed did well at delivering a narrative--the explicit goal for the assignments. Upon reflection, it is clear that composing the list enables students to refocus attention on music as a cultural and literary artifact. Technically, this proved to be an easy assignment to pull off, although linking to 30 second samples through iTunes is unsatisfying and I have gotten more out of the lists I have been able to play in their entirety. The lists themselves showed a good deal of creativity, ranging from memory trips based on reworking of songs from the first year in college, a musical narrative of the affair of Bill and Monica, and a playlist suicide note from Sylvia Plath. Some snippets from these lists and some observations are available in a podcast reflecting on the playlist assignment. (Beware the impossibly bad audio from the classroom discussion).