If you are unable to view the images in this newsletter, click here. unCommon News (October, 2014) A crowd-powered newsletter for a writing-centered community Dear Friends, Welcome new readers! Bienvenido Spain! Välkommen Sweden! Willkommen Germany! During September, an average of 5,629 people visited Writing Commons each day. Our global readership continues to increase, particularly in Spain, Sweden, and Germany. Please visit The Aaron…
2015 Digital Writing Tools for Global Citizens Program for January 16, 2015 Time Presenter Short Bio Presentation Title 8:00-8:15 Introduction 8:15-9:00 Chris Anson Director, Campus Writing and Speaking Program, North Carolina State University Digital Tools, Global Audiences, & the Future of Writing StudiesGroup Discussion 9:00-9:15 Break 9:15-10:00 Valerie Ross Director, Critical Writing Program, University of…
unCommon News A crowd-powered newsletter for a writing-centered community February, 2014 Dear Friends, We hope all’s well with you and your classes. This month we are delighted to announce the winner of the Aaron Swartz Award for 2013: Congratulations, Andrea Scott, Assistant Professor at Pitzer College, whose article “Formulating a Thesis” was published in April 2013. We are honored to…
For those of interested in open education and alternative publishing methods for faculty, please see the January newsletter for Writing Commons (below). Extending the argument I made in Open Textbook Publishing, this note reports our total count for online readers: 1,277,591 users! users for 2013. Also, please vote for the Aaron Swartz Award for Best Webtext for…
In recent blogs and a brief article in Academe, Open Textbook Publishing, I argued that faculty are wise to embrace their power as authors in the digital age, that they no longer need to rely on publishers: Thanks to inexpensive or free publishing tools and the ubiquitous nature of the web, the faculty can assume…
As writing in the twenty-first century increasingly takes place in digital spaces, where keystrokes are seamlessly translated into oceans of bytes, Writing Studies finds itself with a vast resource of data not previously imagined, explored, or applied: Big Data. As an open and informal round-table style event founded in curiosity, we would like to invite…
with Zachary Dixon Recently, through the Brookings Institute, Darrell West and Joshua Blieberg wrote about the promise that “big data” holds to improve the feedback loop and the quality of student writing assessment. Equally important was West and Bleiberg’s recognition that “[r]eal world demonstrations of how big data would fit into the classroom environment have…
Thanks to Aaron Barlow, Faculty Editor, and Academe for publishing this account of the early history of Writing Commons: “Open Textbook Publishing.” Academe. (Sept/Oct 2013): 40-43 < http://www.aaup.org/article/open-textbook-publishing#.UkXER1Oi9GY> Since this essay was printed, Writing Commons has continued to evolve. During September, traffic at Writing Commons hit new highs: over 194,870 users—i.e., 6495 visitors/day—visited 577,902 pages. Overall, the server logged 5,553,512 hits. It’s amazing to…