Slashdot linked to this New York Times article about the Waldorf school in Silicon Valley. It is a school that rejects the idea that students learn better or should learn at all with computers. Personally, I think that a measured approach to technology in K-12 is better than an all-in approach. The Waldorf school apparently takes an all-out approach. You might find the comments on Slashdot interesting here: A Silicon Valley School That Doesnt Use Computers – Slashdot.
Spotted on Slashdot: A Silicon Valley School That Doesnt Use Computers
October 23, 2011
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Pedagogy, Technology | Tagged: classroom, k-12, Pedagogy, postaday2011, Technology | 
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Posted by Jason W Ellis
Gas Prices on the Rise, Getting the Corolla in Shape
April 22, 2011Y and I haven’t needed to buy gas in a few weeks. Unfortunately now that we need a fill-up, gas prices around Kent are up to $3.79 to $3.85. We used Giant Eagle fuel perks to fill up our car and two gas cans. We also drove 55 mph back home, much to the consternation of the dangerously speedy Akron traffic. Also, I just reconnected my Scan Gauge 2 to track my Corolla’s fuel economy.
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Posted by Jason W Ellis
Understanding the Human Brain Does Not Preclude Philosophical Considerations of Its Work
February 2, 2011In the past, I was invited to consider the possibility that there are some domains of knowledge in the humanities that the sciences cannot scrutinize, because I admittedly sounded at the time like I had switched back from English and cultural studies to the sciences. It was in part my thinking about this that I wanted to post the link to the Feynman video yesterday about the pleasure of finding things out [here].
I believe that it can go both ways. The humanities, today perhaps more than ever, needs and relies on science and technology as the driving force behind the social and culture. Science, likewise, needs the social and culture to provide some of its research questions, its inspirations, and its debate regarding research and technological applications. I do also believe that science can peer into the workings of the humanities, the social, and the human animal just as the humanities can investigate the sciences, its methods, its meanings, and its implementations of power.
The humanities however is not specifically tasked with testing and modeling all domains of knowledge, but the sciences include everything, including the humanities, as worthy of inquiry. Science is supposed to figure things out, break things down, and provide reproducible findings. Nevertheless, I do not think that the sciences can erase the importance of the humanities and the work that we do. I found this quote today in Michael O’Shea’s The Brain: A Very Short Introduction that I think is extremely appropriate. He writes, “Some future scientist may proclaim that he or she has attained a complete understanding of the brain. But it seems improbably that the rest of the world then would simply stop regarding thinking, dreaming, poetry, and the beauty of a sunset as somewhat puzzling manifestations of the brain in action and the cause of some modest philosophical reflection” (O’Shea 123-124). It is important to know how the brain works for a variety of reasons including its importance to the work in the humanities, but simply knowing every facet of its operation and development will not take away from the questions and speculations that humanities professors, students, and everyone contemplates with their brains. Knowing the brain does not discount the things that we all use our brains for including humanities work. If anything, I believe that knowing the brain and using the humanities to better understand the brain will only expand our understanding and wonder about ourselves.
Leave a Comment » | Personal, Research, Science, The Brain | Tagged: brain, cognitivescience, humananimal, humanities, postaday2011, Science, Technology | Permalink
Posted by Jason W Ellis
Notes from Taiwan, Massive Computer Markets in Jhongli and Taipei
January 9, 2011Taiwan has BestBuy-like computer and electronic stores, but the real interesting stuff at low prices with some room to bargain with clerks is at the computer market places like NOVA. There are Nova stores around the country, including Jhongli, but we visited the one in Taipei near the train station.
Nova and the other computer market places are multi-story buildings with elevators and escalators to ferry people to each floor crammed full of vendor stalls selling computer goods. Each stall is like a Ginstar computer for those of you from Atlanta, Georgia. They have price lists printed out or posted above the stall, and you talk with the clerks about what is available and how low they can offer it to you. As you go around asking about prices, you can use the information that you gather as leverage to get a better price somewhere else. Failing that, you may be able to get some free stuff thrown in for the original price.
All of the markets were very confusing to me, because I had trouble keeping track of places and prices since I can’t read the Chinese names for each business. The labyrinthine setup of the floors doesn’t help matters either. However, these places are fun to visit, and you can certainly get a good deal there. Also, you will find some clerks unfriendly and others exceedingly nice–it just depends on the person you meet, so don’t hesitate to keep looking around and talking to different clerks.
1 Comment | Personal | Tagged: computers, market, notesfromtaiwn, postaday2011, taiwan, Technology | Permalink
Posted by Jason W Ellis
Notes from Taiwan, Wireless Phone and Internet Ubiquity
January 8, 2011One of the technological advantages that Taiwan has over the United States is wireless ubiquity, choice, and affordability.
The relatively small area of Taiwan allows for greater wireless signal saturation than in the United States, because it requires less infrastructural development on the part of wireless telecommunications companies. Also, there are more wireless companies here, which creates a more competitive marketplace than in the United States.
Wireless ubiquity of coverage, choice of carrier and hardware, and affordability of voice and data plans are all possible here, because there is more competition by carriers and technology manufacturers than in the United States. First, phones are not locked to carriers, but carriers may offer deals on phones if you sign an extended (usually 2 year) contract with them. Second, phone plans are less expensive here than in the States for comparable services, and carriers offer lower cost plans than carriers do in the States. This flexibility of contract plans allows many Taiwanese to have more than one phone number, because they will sign up with multiple carriers in order to get the latest phone at a good price. I believe this is part of what fuels the Taiwanese appetite for the iPhone 4. When you look around on the train or subway, it seems like every other person is playing with an iPhone 4. However, the Taiwanese are not limited to Apple technology lust. Technology integration into the daily lives of Taiwanese, especially younger people, seems to be to a higher degree than what I have seen in the States. All Taiwanese people are not super-hackers or techno-geeks, but they do appear to have a more integrated lifestyle with the latest technology trends. This augments or is augmented by the prevalence of technology made by a variety of companies in Taiwan and Asia in general. Considering wireless phone technology, there are more makers, especially Japanese manufacturers, in the market here than in the States. In fact, looking at the multitude of wireless stores–branch or independently owned–I have found the most amazing looking phones with numerous microcomputing and televisual technologies that just don’t show up in the States.
Wireless data access is also a big deal in Taiwan. Several of Y’s friends have tiny USB dongles for connecting to wireless data networks. Y’s friend Amy has the coolest thing that I have seen here for getting online: a tiny, battery powered wireless data router. It has its own sim card, it connects to the wireless data network, and it provides access to the Internet like any wireless router. I used this several times to check email and browse the web on my iPhone 3GS while we were hanging out with Amy.
Wired Internet, especially ADSL, is still the primary way folks here get online. You don’t see many wireless networks walking around Taipei and Jhongli, which makes me wonder if many wireless routers here are configured to not broadcast by default or if folks prefer to plug into their broadband modems. Y’s dad had a wired network until I switched him over to a wireless one so that Y and I could use our iPhones and iPads in the house.
Wireless and wired Internet connection costs are very inexpensive here compared to back in the States. Again, competition drives costs lower since there is great supply and demand remains unchanged.
If you like to get online for a cheap price with mobile freedom, Taiwan is the place to be.
1 Comment | Personal, Technology | Tagged: mobile, notesfromtaiwan, postaday2011, taiwan, Technology, wireless | Permalink
Posted by Jason W Ellis
Masaya Japan Bound, and Reflecting on Long-Distance Friendships
March 24, 2010
My buddy Masaya, who started the PhD program at KSU at the same time that I did, just left Kent for a new job in Japan. He’s planning on finishing his dissertation from home. It is uncertain if Yufang and I will see Masaya again in Kent, but we are planning on visiting him in Japan when we go to Taiwan in the near future to visit her parents (and I get to meet the parents for the first time!).
It seems that we’ve reached that point in the PhD program that those friends we began with will be leaving soon. It probably won’t be long before more of our friends here will be moving away for jobs, too.
The same is true for professors we have grown to count as friends: Masood and Jenny Raja will be leaving for Texas in July.
I guess this is my experience of academia (others’ mileage may vary)–always moving on and always building new friendships. This has happened for me at Georgia Tech, the University of Liverpool, and now at Kent State University. In each case, I’ve kept in touch with friends by email and Facebook, but it feels nearly impossible to stay in touch as well as I would like due to the work that I need to do now (and it is always now that work needs to be done). Will there be a point where I will feel caught up enough to maintain those friendships that are important to me? It’s hard to imagine a radical reconfiguration of my work and personal schedules to really make it possible. Perhaps now, I am better at in-person relationships–that is, good at maintaining friendships when there is a geographical proximity to friends and as distance grows and other means of communicating such as email or the phone are required. The fact is that I have trouble engaging technology to support long-distance friendships even though I am heavily engaged with technology on a daily basis. I realize that some folks are really great at keeping in touch online, and I am very thankful for their efforts. I will have to give it a lot of thought about how to be one of those folks who are experts at maintaining friendships regardless of distance.
To Masaya: Borrowing in part from Garisson Keillor, “Be well, do good work, and keep in touch [even if I forget to sometimes].”
Last night at Applebee’s: Dave, Seth, Masaya, me, and Yufang.
Leave a Comment » | Kent State, Personal | Tagged: friends, kentstate, Technology | Permalink
Posted by Jason W Ellis
CFP: Gender, Bodies, and Technology Conference at Virginia Tech
September 5, 2009I saw this CFP for an interesting conference in my SFRA inbox today. Proposals are due in just over a week, so send them something if you’re able to make the conference. Thanks, Neil!
“Gender, Bodies and Technology”
http://www.cpe.vt.edu/gbt/Proposals are invited for an Interdisciplinary Conference
April 22-24, 2010
Roanoke, Virginia
Sponsored by the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at Virginia TechProposal Deadline: September 15, 2009
We invite proposals from scholars in the humanities, social and natural sciences, visual and performing arts, engineering and technology for papers, panels, new media art and performance pieces that explore: the technological production of gendered and racialized bodies, historical and contemporary feminist appropriations of technology in aesthetics and representations of embodiment, and the gendered implications of technology in contexts ranging from classrooms to workplaces to the Internet. We construe technology broadly to include material culture and the apparatus of daily life, such as writing, books and the built environment.
Specific topics might include, but are not limited to:
-Technological production and control of classed, racialized, aged and gendered bodies
-Work, healthcare, education and activities of daily life as produced through technologies
-Performance, new media and other creative expressions as sites for engaging/enacting/destabilizing conventions of embodiment and technology
-Biopolitics and medical engineering of reproduction, sexual identity and gender
-Personal narrative and oral history as sources of embodied theorizing
-Surveillance, containment, in/security and militarization
-Identity and technological design, production and use; gender, race, age, class and sexuality in SET (sciences, engineering and technology) fields
-New media art and feminist aesthetics
-Technologies of development and sustainability; eco-feminism
-Activism, participatory decision-making and issues of technological citizenshipAs an assemblage of people and technologies we see the conference itself as enacting the conference theme. We welcome innovative uses of technology and creative session formats, including performance and interactive presentations, as well as traditional paper presentations. Using the form attached, please submit a proposal of up to 300 words for each individual presentation, including not only the scholarship you will engage but also the format that you wish to use. For panels, include an abstract for each presentation. Please specify in your proposal any special requirements for technology or space that you anticipate. Proposals will be reviewed by Virginia Tech Women’s and Gender Studies faculty/affiliates with appropriate expertise and notification of the outcome will be made no later than October 15, 2009.
Proposals should be submitted via our website at http://www.cpe.vt.edu/gbt/. If that is not possible, or if you have questions, please contact:
Sharon Elber
GBT Conference Co-Planner
STS/Women’s and Gender Studies (0227)
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA 24061
selber@vt.edu
Leave a Comment » | cfp, Conference, Science, Technology | Tagged: bodies, cfp, gender, Technology | Permalink
Posted by Jason W Ellis
SLSA 2008, On the Road Again
November 12, 2008I’m driving down to Charlotte, North Carolina for the annual Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts conference. This is the second time that I’ve presented at SLSA. My presentation last year was on “Subversive Subjectivity in Battlestar Galactica,” and this year I’m presenting on the political efficacy of “transsexual technologies.” There are several concurrent panels during my session’s time slot on Saturday, so I’m wondering what the turnout will be like, and what reception my paper will receive. I’ll post about the conference, time permitting, from Charlotte. However, I have two papers to write while I’m there in addition to attending sessions, so my updates may have to wait until I return to Kent.
Leave a Comment » | Conference | Tagged: Conference, slsa, Technology, transsexual | Permalink
Posted by Jason W Ellis
Why Is the Digital Future Only Found in Books?
October 23, 2008Awhile back, Mack Hassler and I were talking about online personas and the differences between created personas in traditional print culture and the new electronic media. Mack pointed out that the real interesting personae come through print culture and he named examples including Swift, Greg Egan, Philip K. Dick, and David Foster Wallace (think “Lyndon”)–all of whom employ internal controversies and different voices. Philip K. Dick is an interesting example particularly if you consider his last published novel, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer (1982). It strikes me how much his supposedly strong female protagonist, Angel Archer, is like the author. After reading Sutin’s biography of Dick, Divine Invasions (2005), there are unmistakable parallels between Archer and Dick, and I draw the conclusion that Archer is a voice for the author–a persona of her creator–PKD.
What does that have to do with the divide between print and computer media cultures? There’s something to be said about the complexity and the richness of layers, all of which are probably tempered and strengthened by the publication process including acceptance and editing, present in print media–novels and short stories–that facilitates strong persona creation unequaled by electronic media as yet. We all create online personae through email, social networking, or blogging (among other personal broadcast technologies). Those who interact with us electronically do so via cyberspace, that shared consensual hallucination, and we meet with only what we bring us–our words and stray bits of data including images, sounds, videos, and our reputation. It is these things that others use to create an image or avatar of ourselves in their minds in order to make sense of our interactions–that’s just what our brains do with the available data at hand. However, as Mack observed and I agree, the new media has permitted a proliferation of persona creation, but it is by-and-large thinned out in comparison to what we find in print media.
This then leads to my personal conundrum. Mack said to me, “You’re serious about print, but you’re not serious.” I am heavily invested in computer technology. I built a PC specifically for online gaming–not that my grad student responsibilities allow me any time for that–and I recently decided to invest in Apple due to the economic downturn, which netted me their latest and greatest machined aluminum MacBook with a solid-state hard drive. Despite the hardware underpinnings of my digital life via email, Facebook, and my blog, I rarely read or encounter stories online. Yes, I read a lot online, probably more than I should considering my other duties, but the one thing that I don’t read online are SF stories. The stories, the SF, that creates, imagines, and interfaces with the future is largely nonexistent on the medium that those stories take as its object of interest. If I want to read about cyberspace, I don’t look online, I turn to pulp, paper, and the book for that imaginative immersion.
Where does that leave us in regard to the new media and books? Considering my recent conversation with Stephen R. Donaldson, there is change in the wind, but obviously no one has the one answer to what that change may encompass. I’m curious to hear the thoughts of Robert H. Jackson next Tuesday when he presents on the future of books at the Kent State Library. I know he won’t have all (if any) the answers, but perhaps the face-to-face interaction will be illuminating in ways that online persona interaction is not.
3 Comments | Kent State, Research, Science Fiction | Tagged: books, digital, future, persona, pkd, Technology | Permalink
Posted by Jason W Ellis
Paul Newman’s Contact With Science Fiction Criticism
September 27, 2008I just read on the New York Times that Paul Newman passed away. He was one of my favorite actors, most notably as Butch Cassidy in George Roy Hill’s 1969, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and as Reg Dunlop in the best Hockey movie ever, released the year that I was born, Slap Shot (1977). Of course, Newman’s accomplishments as an actor go far beyond those two memorable roles, and one role in particular stands out in my mind, because it was the one that, in a way, served as my point of entry into Science Fiction discourse.
At Georgia Tech, I chose the Senior Thesis option to complete my B.S. in Science, Technology, and Culture, instead of the Senior Seminar. The thesis option was better for me, because I wanted my work to serve as my graduate school writing sample. Professor, and Chair of the School of Literature, Communication, and Culture, Kenneth Knoespel, Professor Lisa Yaszek, and Professor Doug Davis (at Gordon College) guided me in my research. The paper that I produced, “Networks of Science, Technology, and Science Fiction During the American Cold War,” went a long way on my initial steps on the SF studies path (that sounds very Tao). Elements of my thesis made appearances at Georgia Tech’s Monstrous Bodies Symposium, and my first SFRA conference in White Plains, New York. So, what does that have to do with Paul Newman? The epigraph that I chose for that paper was delivered by Paul Newman, portraying General Leslie R. Groves in the film about the first two atomic bombs, Fat Man and Little Boy. In the film, he said to J. Robert Oppenheimer (Dwight Schultz), “Sometimes, just standing here, I keep wondering–Are we working on them, or are they working on us? Give them dignity doctor, then we can start talking about who can do what and what they mean.” What better way to begin a paper on the interaction between technology and culture during the Cold War? Those lines represent the central question to which my thesis was responding.
I’m not familiar with Paul Newman acting in any SF films, but he certainly had many connections to SF through his fellow actors, as evidenced above by working with Dwight Schultz of Star Trek: The Next Generation fame. However, the Guardian says that he began working in television on Tales of Tomorrow in 1952. It would have been interesting to see Newman in a Science Fiction film, and who knows, I might even draft him in a story that’s yet to be written.
5 Comments | Georgia Tech, News, Personal, Science Fiction | Tagged: butchcassidy, coldwar, networks, paulnewman, slapshot, Technology | Permalink
Posted by Jason W Ellis
