I'm pretty pleased with my latest article, composed in memory of John Slatin, a mentor beyond measure. I learned a good deal about teaching and technology from John, but also about working with people and what it means to be a partner in something bigger than a single person. In memory and celebration, I offer "Yes and Yes-and: Time in the Compshop".

With apologies for the composed-on-the-plane-like production quality


Mix and Mash Literacy from Daniel Anderson on Vimeo.

I've been toying with an assignment based on writing about films with films. Here's my essay:


Is He Bona Fide? from Daniel Anderson on Vimeo.

Writing along with my litcasting class, I've been trying to reflect on some teaching of late. The tweak to the course I'm fidgeting with is shifting the portfolios toward an outside reader. They still pitch projects toward fellow students, but the hope is that by selecting readers from outside the class the reflections might take on a more personal or focused approach.

Right now, I'm not sure that the approach is playing out as I imagined, but I'm eager to hear from students and outside readers after all is said and done. In that spirit, I post a link to my mid-semester portfolio which is based in the main on the work of the class so far. I'm curious to know 1.) people's thoughts on the assignments and projects collected here, 2.) ideas about the outside reader approach to class portfolios, and 3.) any reactions to my portfolio so far.

We covered Billy Collins last night in my American literature class. We talked a lot about the false dichotomy between poems that are reasonably direct and easy to take in and notions of intellectual complexity and depth. I love Collins, for thumbing the eye of such pompousness.

One poem that gave us particular insights was "Workshop" which is easy on the brain, but also as rich as any I've found in language about language, poetry about poetry, and similar abstractions that open levels of meaning beyond the surface message of the text. It's also funny. Really funny.

Another great thing about these poems is they still get the idea that poetry can move on an emotional level. Ever since I heard Collins read it a couple of years ago, "The Lanyard" has been one of my favorites. Again, funny, but also touching.

It also turns out that there is a small YouTube cottage industry springing up around composing animations set to Collins's poems. My favorite has to be "The Country." The visuals really do give the work an extra kick. In some ways, I sense a connection here as well with ideas about the future of English Studies. There are, for instance, somewhat similar videos set to Wordsworth's poems, but they lack the freshness, and I would guess relevance in forward time that I feel in these Collins adaptations. "The child [may be] father to the man," but "The Country" is winning the "Favorited" competition big time.

How crazy is it that the new semester is starting and I haven't even posted anything reflecting (on) my summer teaching. Without further ado, I give you YouTube trailer film reviews by Susie Warden and Hannah Choe

and the mashup below by Jivan Achreja

Transforming the Teaching of Literature from Daniel Anderson on Vimeo.

I decided to do my Computers and Writing presentation this year as a Sophie book. Sophie worked well at bringing together a number of videos and images and also at allowing me to weave in snippets of text. Having the ability to use timelines to sequence the pieces was also very helpful. The Sophie book is currently over 100mb, so I'm not linking it here. Instead, I have just done a screen recording of the project. In addition to this one from vimeo, there is a 30.8 megabyte QuickTime file.

Our notions of what counts as literary shift constantly, a theme woven throughout much of the work that has happened in courses I've taught this semester. Sometimes as these shifts play out, it can be difficult to recognize the emerging forms among an evolving landscape formed around stalwarts like Shakespeare, Faulkner, Austin, Morrison. We need podcasts like this to help us make such identifications.

I'm starting to think about the upcoming Computers and Writing presentation. The last time around I wrote prose, which was a nice change of pace from the show and tell routine I've been doing at conferences for the last few years. I'm thinking some combination of reading prose and showing stuff, but haven't arrived at a decision yet. I might just do a video ala 2006 (below)