Something to keep in mind as we move forward.

I think this consumer vs. producer distinction is helpful in most circumstances, most notably in our overall push toward advocating media fluencies. As we begin to engage ourselves and our constituents with more complex technologies, this is an argument for building up our own abilities to code. At the same time, we should resist the easy binary and recognize that even producers spend much of their time consuming, and that the smartest producers rarely start from scratch.

The next major version of the Moodle learning management system is nearing its beta release. Curious to see what Moodle 2.0 would offer, I set up a few instances of the development build for testing. I am enthusiastic about the new version based upon what I’ve see, but also anxious. Many of the changes represent a major step forward in the future of the LMS, but upgrading to Moodle 2.0 will be a challenging task for Occidental and many other institutions. I have decided to write briefly about the challenges and opportunities Moodle 2.0 may offer for institutions hoping to upgrade later this year.

Moodle 2.0 will have a very different look and feel. Version 2.0 changes how themes and templates work, allowing for more flexibility. However, custom themes for previous version of Moodle will have to be completely redesigned to work for v. 2.0. Many of the icons used in previous versions of Moodle have also changed, which could...

Décalages, an online peer-reviewed journal focused on Louis Althusser, debuted last week, as the first Occidental College Scholar (OxyScholar) journal. This first issue is the result of months of hard work by Warren Montag, Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Oxy, and an international editorial collective dedicated to the study of Althusser’s works.

According to the journal’s objective, Décalages aims to “establish a global community of those working on Althusser. Every essay submitted will be carefully peer-reviewed not with the aim of imposing a single interpretation of Althusser, but precisely to strengthen the diversity of views and encourage discussion and debate.”

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The Digital Media and Learning Hub hosted the First Annual Digital Media and Learning conference in San Diego this weekend. The conference, themed to emphasize "diversifying participation," brought together over four hundred participants interested in the relationship between technology, teaching, and learning across a spectrum of educational environments. With over sixty panels and workshops, this event featured not only the dozens of researchers who have been working on this MacArthur-funded enterprise over the past five years, but also graduate students, technologists, educators at many different levels, activists, and performers. As I understand it, this event was meant to kick off the second phase of the broad Digital Media and Learning project, moving from the focused efforts stimulated...