Reading from #adjunct, #EdBlogNet, etc blogs…featuring @PlashingVole on public #media #education

…and more from the PF blogrolls including (but hardly limited to) Dave Greene on How AFT blew it, Rich Moser on The Green Party and the 2016 Election, Bryan Alexander on How students choose majors during recessions and Steven Krause on Twitter, tenure and what students don't know (nor the general public either). All domestic...

The vole's Bye Bye Beeb takes it global, addresses #ShockDoctrine too in case anyone has been sleeping through the international news and still doesn't realize all the assaults on public education or anything smacking of the public good are happening everywhere. 

The Plashing Vole writes:

Keeping calm, regrouping

A good chunk of today went to making the best of an inadvertent ending, but the effort also folded into shaping/ reorganization for Connected Courses  (more here). Instead of "developing networked, open courses that embody the principles of connected learning and the values of the open web," I want to develop my motley collection of blogs, social media, curation/aggregation pages, whatever, into an open information network that incorporates the principles of connected learning and the values of the open web ~ not a course but still for learning.

Intending to delete a duplicated back-up blog on Tumblr, I instead deleted my main account along with associated blogs ~ adjunct, local, personal, special interest~ some more active than others. From the now extinct dashboard, I managed Precarity Dispatches, Adjunct Stories, COCAL Updates and recently re-purposed Equity in Diversity (still finding its way). The last two are gone for good, as explained elsewhere.

Panic beckoned until I remembered that 1-2 (not sure which) had originated on and still be on another account (tl;dr) ... if I could remember the account name, which email address created under and find the password, all of  which I eventually managed. Since this was more like an emergency restart to keep on going than a "new beginning," could I call it an "old beginning"?

The inventory is uneven, incomplete ~ in progress. Nor are all either exclusively "precarity centric" or with an advocacy focus but all are interest related. 

digital bouquet: florilegium #adjunct/orium

In medieval Latin  a florilegium (plural florilegia) was a compilation of excerpts from other writings. The word is from the Latin flos (flower) and legere (to gather): literally a gathering of flowers, or passages collected from a larger work, each illustrating specific topic or themes. "The florilegium is one of the earliest recorded examples of remix culture — a Medieval textual Tumblr" ~ Brainpickings ~  and "a metaphor for networked knowledge and combinatorial creativity"

Florilegium © Robert Amesbury

A fine name indeed for  miscellany posts of snippets from a variety of links. The genre frees me from the obligation to comment but does not prevent me from doing so. It also frees me from organizing the digital bouquet. A time saver. I'm always on the lookout for easy to assemble (but still interesting) models for posts. 

Adjunct outsourcing: remains a topic of interest, although spilled pixels alone seem unlikely to change either admin or EduStaff's wicked, wicked ways: Discussions continue on recent IHE outsourcing article with 36 comments on article and more elsewhere. One IHE comment pointed readers this 2013 Cronker. Don't laugh too much, at least not in total disbelief. According to Topsy, 229 tweets, although follow up conversations sans tags would not be fully tracked. There was at least one public G+ thread ~ still ongoing and probably the best one. 

While it's still morning…misc blogkeeping, #adjunct petitions

…because afternoon is matinee time. This may be the last one in the pre COCAL XI series.  I'd as soon not run video posts back to back and, besides, have made some blog page changes, enhancement bordering on clutter. Instead of one over sized blogroll, there are now three. The details are below. I also added translation tool since not all out visitors are Anglophone...and I intend to add more non-Anglophone material.

Now that contributors are prominently featured on the masthead, they can expect more reminding to contribute. +Ana Maria Fores Tamayo, I'm looking at you.

There is still more to do. Numbers tell me that visitors come for the features as much as for the posts. The blog-as-hub offers one stop shopping for social media followers and social media averse alike. There may more of the latter than the FB-centric realize. The FB social model serves them ill or not at all. Email subscription is a somewhat like an automated email newsletter.

On other blogs in the network, Uniting for Equity in Diversity has two new pages: petitions (to collect them in one place for easy signing and sharing) and for resources for helping child refugees. Curated news collections (academic freedom, organizing) are scheduled on Precarity Dispatches but may have to wait for archiving Joe Berry's most recent emailing to COCAL Updates. That depends on how the day falls out, and whether the trolls stay under bridges where they belong. But the precarious faculty blog is just as much about the newsreel, videos, feeds and other blogs (besides mine) to find there. Any network worth its digital salt is a node in and connects with other networks.

#Adjunct Reading Room: blogs & posts of note

…there always more than just a few don't miss posts out there. Often I do miss them though or, if I catch them, don't get back to read more attentively (which skimming on the fly is not). Today's post (started two days ago!) reviews several recent blog posts and blogs I read regularly. Posts like this will help me keep up and remind you about blogs you might want to add to your own list. Give them a visit.  And yes, a real life adjunct Reading Room would look far shabbier than this image. A contest and online photo-stream forays come to mind,

Don't overlook less mainstream sources of insightful commentary on academia and academic labor -- and in our own voices -- by limiting your reading to higher ed media and adjunct stories. Even cast your digital reading net beyond the Ivory Silo™ to include K12 bloggers. Advertising and other funding are factors too. Who influences editorial content? Follow the money and affiliations. You may not agree with independents, but at least they are less likely to be wearing a collar.

This is not to say don't read read mainstream higher ed media. Do read them -- just not to the exclusion of other sources or as a substitute for developing your own. The wider you cast that net, the better.

Blog Posts

A new social network for academic action

This social network website, UC Walkout, is a place for gathering materials about the UC Walkout on Set.24th, and beyond. You are invited to join and post your own photos, videos, blog posts, etc.  Moderator's Note: I will moderate posts generously and for appropriateness only, and welcome all political positions on this crisis; my goal is to make information available in support of informed discussion. Dr A's blog post: 'Blurb From TIME's Coverage' Blogs with posts like this one are just one of the many features / resources at UC WalkOut Link: Blurb From TIME's Coverage About UC WalkOut Documents and Photos from the UC Walkout Blogs Discussions Photos Videos