Day 1

I teach Humanities Computing at the University of Glasgow. Wait, no, I don't...the world of computers changes remarkably quickly. I teach Arts and Media Informatics which was deemed a better title by someone with more influence than I. Is it? We asked our students what course name would have attracted them more, and the votes were for something with "free beer" in the title. (I once tried to start a band with that name, figuring we would be guaranteed gigs in every college in the country, but my prospective band mates preferred a more credible title and, sadly, a better guitarist.)
So I teach everything the well-educated humanist should know about computers.
And today we are starting a new topic in the second year - Investigating Cyberspace. We look at identity and at notions of community, asking what they are and comparing real life with the virtual. Reviewing last year's readings I realised we did not mention blogs.
Blogs. Three years ago the Guardian and other papers seemed obsessed with he things - how they were going to change the face of journalism, empower the common man, and it all seemed a load of narcissistic nonsense. Stopped me reading the papers for a while.
Now, I realise I was right all the time (or course) but perhaps they had a point. Time to start reading some blogs, and, to do things properly, write one. It may never get further than this - we'll see.
(And yes, I did try reading blogs 3 years ago, and all I found reaffirmed my prejudices: will they still?)

The first lecture over..

Chat rooms seemed an easy place to start discussing notions of community on the web. Only one out of ten students admitted to ever having used a chat room, and she carefully pointed out it had been when she was about twelve years old, when chat rooms were first about.
The class age is roughly 18-25 and they all said chat rooms were for kids. If anyone. Old fashioned.
Can this be true, or is it reticence, or is it the terminology? Are they using what I think are chatrooms but they call something else?
Perhaps I'll find out in the workshops tomorrow.
But is this usual the world round?