Jim Groom
Given that web-based education has been dominated by proprietary software companies through more generalized visions of the horror of the open web, this presentation will use clips from such NYC film classics as The Warriors, Escape from New York, 
C.H.U.D., Fort Apache, the Bronx, and several others to illustrate how the insidious process of corporate gentrification in educational technology is orchestrated through a logic of fear. What will be traced throughout this presentation are the shadowy contours of a global conspiracy against the socialist ideals at work in open source communities, which are increasingly being watered down by the iron fangs of capital. And believe you me, those protracted canines are ever-poised to pierce the neck of any attempt to re-imagine the digital landscape of education outside the profit motive we are slaves to. In effect, I will argue that there is a C.H.U.D. under every institutional sewer cap, and they’ll devour more than your puppies—they want your soul!
Dave Lester
I’m excited to return to NYC and CUNY to present ScholarPress Courseware, a WordPress plugin that enables you to manage a class with a WordPress blog, including a schedule, bibliography, assignments, and other course information. I’m shaking up the format of this talk a bit from what I normally give, so please attend even if you’ve heard me speak about it previously. No, I won’t have any lolcats, but perhaps some keyboard cats.. we’ll be cramming a lot of things into a short session.
I’ll briefly run through the basics of the plugin, including new features like Zotero integration, and WordPress MU support thanks to the hard work of Jeremy Boggs (who is also presenting at WCNYC). After covering the plugin’s essential features, I’ll give the reins to an audience volunteer who will be led through the process of setting up a course website using Courseware. This will give you an opportunity to see how the plugin works, and gain some ideas for your own course website.
The remaining session time will be used for lightning demos to present the audience’s own course website. My hope is that these demonstrations will give participants a broad understanding of how course blogs and websites are being organized by using WordPress; ScholarPress is just one of many options.
Lightning talks will be an opportunity to briefly demonstrate your course site to the group. Each presenter must be brief, so I’ll need everyone to respect whatever time limit we decide. If someone exceeds the time limit, I’ll “play them off” with the keyboard cat. Don’t be that guy.
To sign up for a lightning talk of your course website immediately following the presentation of the Courseware plugin, leave a comment on this blog post. I can’t guarantee that we’ll get to everyone’s demo, but we’ll try to fit in as many as possible.
See you on Saturday!
