City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works
Publications and Research CUNY Graduate Center
2011
Beyond Friending: BuddyPress and the Social, Networked, Open- Source Classroom
Matthew K. Gold CUNY Graduate Center
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2011 Beyond Friending BuddyPress and the Social, Networked, Open-Source Classroom Matthew K. Gold
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This Book Chapter or Section is brought to you by CUNY Academic Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Publications and Research by an authorized administrator of CUNY Academic Works. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Learning Through Digital Media Experiments in Technology and Pedagogy
Edited by R. Trebor Scholz The Politics of Digital Culture Series Learning Through Digital Media Experiments in Technology and Pedagogy
Edited by R. Trebor Scholz
The Institute for Distributed Creativity (iDC) The Institute for Distributed Creativity publishes materials related to The New School’s About This Publication biennial conference series The Politics of Digital Culture, providing a space for connec- tions among the arts, design, and the social sciences.
The Internet as Playground and Factory (2009) MobilityShifts: An International Future of Learning Summit (2011) The Internet as Soapbox and Barricade (2013) www.newschool.edu/digitalculture
This publication is the product of a collaboration that started in the fall of Editor of the Book Series The Politics of Digital Culture: R. Trebor Scholz 2010 when a total of eighty New School faculty, librarians, students, and staff Advisory Board: Ute Meta Bauer, Megan Boler, Gabriella Coleman, Cathy Davidson, came together to think about teaching and learning with digital media. These Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Elizabeth Losh, Margaret Morse, Kavita Philip, McKenzie Wark conversations, leading up to the MobilityShifts Summit, inspired this collec-
Copy Editor: Angela Carr tion of essays, which was rigorously peer-reviewed. Print Design: Jena Sher 1 Peer Review: MediaCommons The Open Peer Review process took place on MediaCommons, an all-elec- Publisher: The Institute for Distributed Creativity tronic scholarly publishing network focused on the field of Media Studies www.distributedcreativity.org developed in partnership with the Institute for the Future of the Book and The New School, 65 West 11th Street, New York, NY 10011 the NYU Libraries. We received 155 comments by dozens of reviewers. The authors started the review process by reflecting on each other’s texts, followed This project is supported by a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur by invited scholars, and finally, an intensive social media campaign helped to Foundation and The New School. solicit commentary from the public at large.
ISBN 978-0-615-451448-0 The New School is a leading institution when it comes to incorporating cross- disciplinary digital learning into the curriculum. It offered its first Media Learning Through Digital Media is released under a Creative Commons NoDerivs, Non- Studies degree program already in 1975. Learning Through Digital Media re- Commercial, Attribution, ShareAlike License. Every effort was made to find all copy- affirms this commitment to interdisciplinary innovation. right holders of the images in this publication. Screen shots of websites are released under an educational fair use license. 1 See
Download the free PDF or eBook (Kindle, iPad), purchase the printed book on Amazon.com or Lulu.com, or visit the publication’s website at www.learningthroughdigitalmedia.net
The publisher has paid close attention to the correctness of URLs of websites men- tioned in this book but cannot be responsible for these websites remaining operational.
Cover Image: Luis Camnitzer (Uruguayan, born 1937), The Instrument and Its Work, 1976. Wood, glass, and metal, 30 x 25.5 x 5 cm, Collection Reto Ehrbar, Zurich, Photo by David Allison, © 2010 Luis Camnitzer. Contents 149 16. Teaching with Google Docs, or, How to Teach in a Digital Media Lab without Losing Students’ Attention Abigail De Kosnik 157 17. Using Twitter—But Not in the Classroom David Parry 167 18. Voice, Performance and Transience: Learning Through Seesmic Holly Willis 175 19. Teaching and Learning with Video Annotations Jonah Bossewitch and Michael D. Preston 185 20. YouTube Pedagogy: Finding Communities of Practice in a viii Introduction: Learning Through Digital Media R. Trebor Scholz Distributed Learning World Elizabeth Losh 195 21. Community Media in the Digital Age Colin Rhinesmith 1 01. Delicious: Renovating the Mnemonic Architectures of Bookmarking 203 22. The Virtual Cutting Room Martin Lucas Shannon Mattern 213 23. Learning with Handbrake: A Ripping Story Kevin Hamilton 11 02. Follow, Heart, Reblog, Crush: Teaching Writing with Tumblr 221 24. Mind-Mapping Inside and Outside of the Classroom Adriana Valdez Young D.E. Wittkower 17 03. Blogging Course Texts: Enhancing Our Traditional Use of 231 25. Crowdmapping the Classroom with Ushahidi Kenneth Rogers Textual Materials Alex Halavais 241 26. Book Sprints and Booki: Re-Imagining How Textbooks 27 04. Socializing Blogs, a Guide for Beginners Tiffany Holmes are Produced Adam Hyde 35 05. When Teaching Becomes an Interaction Design Task: Networking 249 27. Productivity in the Age of Social Media: Freedom the Classroom with Collaborative Blogs Mushon Zer-Aviv and Anti-Social Fred Stutzman 47 06. Children of the Screen: Teaching Spanish with Commentpress 257 28. Would You Like to Teach My Avatar? Learning in Second Life Sol B. Gaitán Patrick Lichty 57 07. Facebook as a Functional Tool & Critical Resource 267 29. Media Production with Arduino Jonah Brucker-Cohen Mark Lipton 273 30. A Path towards Global Reach: The Pool 69 08. Beyond Friending: BuddyPress and the Social, Networked, Craig Dietrich with Jon Ippolito Open-Source Classroom Matthew K. Gold 285 31. Ethnographic Research and Digital Media Laura Forlano 81 09. An Argument for the Web in the Equally Messy Realities 295 32. Sharing Research and Building Knowledge through Zotero of Life, Democracy, and Teaching Vanalyne Green Mark Sample 89 10. Copy Your Homework: Free Culture and Fair Use with 305 33. The Wicked Problem of Pedagogy, An Afterword Wikimedia Commons Michael Mandiberg Elizabeth Ellsworth 99 11. How I Used Wikis to Get My Students to Do Their Readings Ulises A. Mejias 313 A Digital Learning Tool Kit 109 12. Google Wave: Pedagogical Success, Technological Failure? 319 Acknowledgements Kathleen Fitzpatrick 320 Praise for Learning Through Digital Media 117 13. Learning on Mobile Platforms Jessica Irish 322 Advisory Board 125 14. Mobile Learning Tools: A Teachable Moment in the Age of the App 325 Biographies David Carroll 137 15. Teaching and Learning with Omeka: Discomfort, Play, and Creating Public, Online, Digital Collections Jeffrey W. McClurken Beyond Friending 69 BuddyPress and the Social, Networked, Open-Source Classroom
Matthew K. Gold
In the spring of 2007, I asked students in the “Introduction to English Studies” course that I was teaching at Temple University to use blogs to discuss the novels we were reading for class. During a unit on Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, one of my students wrote a post titled “Chaos and Imagination”1 that speculated upon the autobiographical roots of Ellison’s text (Cummings). Soon after the post was published, a comment appeared from an unexpected contributor: a producer from Radio Open Source,2 Chris Lydon’s nationally syndicated public radio show, asked my student to contribute a question to Lydon’s upcoming interview with Stanford professor Arnold Rampersad, who had recently published a biography of Ellison.3 On the Radio Open Source blog,4 the producer linked to and quoted from my student’s post, adding her work to a list of “extra credit” readings that also included texts by Saul Bellow, New York Sun book reviewer Adam Kirsch, and Ellison himself.
My student was delighted and flattered by the attention her blog post had re- ceived; it gave her confidence in her writing and bolstered her enthusiasm for our class. I was nearly as happy with the news, since the episode confirmed my suspicion that bringing my classes onto the Web in an open, public way would be beneficial and edifying for my students. Since I had been unaware of Rampersad’s biography, the editor’s comment both brought the text into 08 70 longchampioned by composition instructors (Elbow). Students may visit the “low-stakesof writing” kind the of networkedform updated, an consider teraction that offer the prospect of low-stakes engagement, which we might interactionof blog-baseda in site, BuddyPress creates opportunities forin engagement. Whereas writing long posts or comments are the primary means In an online learning environment, BuddyPress lowers the barriers to student that network. a network of connected blogs, BuddyPress created a social ecosystem around forums, and track member activity across the installation. another’sIf WordPressprofile pages, onone send privatenotes messages, createcreatedpost groups, use discussion updates, status write friends, add pages, profile create could members site blogs,creating to addition in that meant practice,this add tobox” networking“sociala WordPressin to installations.In multisite In 2009, developers released BuddyPress, tiple blogs can becreated from oneinstallation. single, stand-alone blog or as a “multisite” a either as installed be now can WordPressusers.itself and developers of communities its active and options, theming attractive flexibility, its its choice since I first used it in 2004, primarily for its ease of use, its extensibility, WordPress, an open-source blogging platform, has been my blogging tool of ized location through RSS aggregation. blogs on hosted servers that were then brought together in a single, central multiple blogs hosted in a single of space. times,At other attimes, consisted,students have networkshave These created public. the with and another a within so network of do connected blogs so tothat their posts could but be in dialogue with one blog, to students asked just not have I afterwards, taught have I class every almost In environments. learning open by sible pos made demonstratedconnections it powerfullyof because so kinds the This moment has informed my approach to teaching and learning ever since than ithadbeenbefore. that conversation, which became more open, distributed and student-driven professor,the broadercenterof readingAs frompublic.the was displaced I my syllabus; instead, we had become part of a conversation that involved the important work of twentieth-century literature within the narrow context of our classroom and reframed our discussions. We were no longer studying an 7 a series of plug-ins that promised 5 network, which means that mul 6 - - - - 8
ment thanasite that uses blogs alone. with fellow class members help create a richer, more social learning environ owntheir status. Taken aggregatein interactionsinformaltheseform, of all a link to a group, respond to a forum post, send a private message, or update site,the theyvisiting may quicklystatusrespondin toa update, contribute receivefellowstudent,theycourserequestbecauseand fromsite a friend a privacy settings offer varying levels of visibility. of levels varying offer settings privacy Groups: system ofconnection. serendipitoususer-driven, organic, an creating thus interests, their share who others plug-ins, Free another. one as such about know to wanted they information of kinds what them ask to me allowed which session, class a during students my of front in fields asked I majors, architecture students to to list their favorite architects and buildings. I set up these expanded profile 2010 Fall in taught I that course writing a In class. of the matter subject the reflect to customized be can fields and profile These interests. links salient of listing a and avatar an include can they which on page profile a Profiles: Member (e.g., activityinprivategroupsisvisibleonlytomembersofthosegroups). controls privacy various by mediated are streams activity these to related issues Privacy membernewofaccounts, whichofallkeepused tracktobecan site-related of events. streamsthat display recent forum posts, documents uploaded, and news of the creation feed. site-wide a on and pages profile their on displayed are events these friends, add or groups, join posts, blog create site the of members Streams: Activity that can beusedincreative ways: environmentsnetworkedfeaturesseveraltolearning new BuddyPress adds wider public. Groups can also be paired with the BuddyPress the with paired be also can Groups public. wider group discussion and a more open group blog that can be used to communicate with the plug-in; Groupblog BuddyPress the WordPresssame the installation onusing blog associateda withbe canGroups tions. publica group-related for repository a as serve then can documents, group all sorts and lists which page, document the documents; upload to members group for way a creates plug-in documents group A threads. and topics around conversations archive and hold extendtofunctionality the groups.ofWhen enabled, discussion forumsallowgroups to ustom Profile Filters, Profile Custom Groups are the primary engine for collaborative work in a BuddyPress site; three BuddyPress tracks many site activities through an R an through activities site many tracks BuddyPress Upon joining a BuddyPress-enabled site, new members set up set members new site, BuddyPress-enabled a joining Upon 9 make it possible for members of a network to find find to network a of members for possible it make 1 this allows for the creation of private spaces for spacesprivate of creation the for allows this 10 A number of plug-ins make it possible possible it make plug-ins of number A imilarly, groups have activity activity have groups Similarly, ScholarPress stream. As As stream. SS ourseware Courseware - -
GOLD 71 72 tain plug-ins and themes be installed that can extend the capabilities of of capabilities the platform. the extend can that installed be themes and plug-ins tain cer requestthat simplytechnology-oriented lessstudentsmight classes, code-writing.In and tool-building actual of form the takecould platform the infrastructure of the to modifications such media, social on or code on centersthat course a In individuals”7). (Keltyautonomous creative and as participantseverydaythe their of identities practicalthe commitmentsand constitutes turn, in which, and place first the in being into come to them abilitycontrol,build,to modify, infrastructurethe maintain and allows that Christopher Kelty has called “recursive publics:” “publics concerned with the spacereflectslearningvirtual refashioningthe typeof of This built.what is newfeaturesbuilding of communityverywhichtheir the upon platform for dents and teachers can take stupart in both the available,constructivefreely and is collaborativetools processthese underlying code the Because classes. reshapedbe byparticipants particularlearnerstheir of needs tothe or meet can WordPressthat BuddyPresstoolsand platform,areopen-source an As Proprietary vs.Open-Source Facebook orcommercial sites like it: Herearereasons some why BuddyPress offersmore a attractive than option already-active the “lifestream” of ofthosestudents? part become might they that so converged,already havestudents which in social-networkingspaces the use educatorssimply shouldn’t Why customize? configure and to time investmentrequiresof an download, to free though which, BuddyPress, like platform a use why So, creates adigital learning environment insideFacebook (Kolowich). students,PurdueUniversity recently unveiled Mixable, their Facebookfor on pages informational up set havesimply schools most are.”theywhere studentsto attempt “meet an While Facebookin like sites Facebook. Academic institutions have begun to set up presences inside web ickedfunctionalities that are part networkingsocial popular of sites as such box,”a createmim tonetworkingin attempting “socialBuddyPresshas In Why NotUseFacebook? signing ofgrades. as the and papers, of submission the assignments, of uploading the for groups within plug-in 1 that, while still at an early stage of development as of this writing, creates spaces 11 an applicationthat an - - - - - In an article about Mixable published in Data Ownership,Portability, andFree Labor timetable ofthefor-profit platform owner. corethe platformare actedonly upon discretion atthe accordingand to the In a proprietary setting such as Blackboard, of course, such modifications to as of this writing. a private company whose shares are not traded openly on the stock exchange the Director of Informatics at Purdue University, is quoted as saying that on sirable interactions between personal and professional lives. The educational unde risk social-networkingplatforms popular within spaces educational educatorsstudents,busycaptureattentiontobuild toof efforts the hoping harried attractiveto seem are” might theywhere students While “meeting Separation oftheLifestream and theirwork are commodified within(and by) theonlineclassroom. studentsextentwhichto generallythe reducing advertising, thus devoidof cluding Creative Commons licenses. Suchthat data as desired, and open-sourcerelease it to the public under a range of licenses, in learning environments forms. are They can plat assume more these meaningful control to over attend their thatown data, users export and developers of communitygenerative and open the in participate to opportunity the havestudents contrast, by educatoruniversityBuddyPressinstallsWordPress,single a and a When or and soldby athird-party vendor to third-party buyers. activitiesarecommoditized learning and teachingprocesswhich making in Facebook,profit-as proprietarya educatorssuch sitesin complicit become product” the is sociality creative/affective labor performed in the sociable Web,” immaterial “the in which to attention called has Scholz Trebor audiences. valuable these reach to hope who advertisers prospective to users its of activities equity for Facebook by increasing advertising revenue; Facebook can sell the tivities take place on Facebook, material posted on that platform helps build More troubling, however, is the fact that when classes or other university ac the data persists in Facebook’s servers for sometime(“Statement”). then, even And it. delete to Facebookis from data removepersonal toway untrue, as conversations that take place on Facebook are owned by Facebook, Mixable “the conversation is owned by the student” (Kolowich). This is patently 13 13 Student data posted on Facebook is not portable: the only (Scholz). When educational activities take place on place take activities educational When (Scholz). Inside Higher Education, Kyle Bowen, “networked 14 12 - - - -
GOLD 73 74 cross-campusgroups, committees, initiatives.and Commonsitselfthe And of variety wide a for tool useful a becomeconversations, andments has it docu archiveto way a providesBuddyPress Becauseorganization. and tion communica of means BuddyPressprimary functionalitythat providesa group as the use to begun have Island, Staten of College the at Department English the as such ePortfolios,departments,Entire Research. Gaming and tum include those devoted to Open-Accessmomen Publishing,gained and formed quicklyhave the that groupsDigital the interests; emergentamong Humanities, of number a fostered has site the beta, in still was BuddyPress when 2009, in Established interests. undiscovered, previously often but universitymutual,havesystem single who a of members together bring to UniversityNewYorkof system, haveI BuddyPress used mycolleagueswith social network that fosters collaboration among the 23 campuses of the City AcademicCommons, CUNY Projectthe Directorfounding of the entiredynamicseducationalcommunities.As of the affectwhere can it MultiSite, WordPress of installations large-scale in clearly most seen be BuddyPressThough course,candynamicsaltersingle the a of itspower can BuddyPress CommunitySites social networking can helpbuildgoodwill inacourse. no-stakesstudent’sSuch life. the personal on intrude requestwill the that BuddyPressa worryingcourseon studentwithout site a request of friend a that lowers the stakes of social-networking. A professor can feel free to make networks.They offer, words,other in separationa lifestreamthe of waya in educational and personal mesh that situationscreating privacyor member compromising without interesting and social, dynamic, more sites course make can Theyexperiences. educational their aroundnetworksstructured allows teachers and students to participate in subject- or class-specific social Creatingacademicspacesthroughsocial toolslike BuddyPress, bycontrast, his grade. hurt requestcould friendship reasonablyrejectedworrywhetherthe might he but updates,status or photosembarrassing post might peers his which in space a in educator an be “friends”with to want not might student the Facebook; on student a to professor a by sent request friend a of fications of their privacy, liberty, ownership, or creativity”violations (Stein).institutional Consider the for rami potential the having as or groups, peer their of treehouses”that may byseen be students an as “infringementsanctitythe on technologist Jared Stein has described such social institutional spaces as “creepy 15 16 an academic an - - - - Whitman: The Poetry of Place in the Life and Work of Walt Whitman, titled project a In communities. and disparatebetweencourses BuddyPresscanparticularly be effective tohelping establishin connections productivity applications. functionalities, robust towards friending more simple beyond software the extend helping plug-ins,BuddyPress of developer major a as emerged has that Whitman used in the first 1855 edition of edition 1855 first the in used Whitman that every school. studentsfrom wereprojectamong shared the for assignments the of Many these students andtheirwork. used WordPress blogs and BuddyPress groupsthat websiteto createsingle a connections betweenon workpoet’s the to responses their shared classes all late-career.from Studentshis on focused Camden in coursesWar, and a course in Fredericksburg focused on his mid-career writing about the Civil a course in New York focused on his early, Brooklyn-centered writing career, class focused on work that Whitman had written in the location of its college; Whitman’s poetry to local geography and history. As part of the project,of relationshipeach the into inquiry semester-longconnected,concurrent, a in Presstogetherbring helped students facultyand members from campusesfour Start-Up Grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Buddy- Humanities Digital twoby sponsored pedagogy digital in experiment campus Whitman at a research university, and a graduate course for college,artstwoliberalon graduateAmerican classesa atmajors StudiesEnglish for seminar education course at a open-admissions public college of technology, a senior generala institutions:academic of typesdifferentveryvolvedfrom classes project in the that fact the by difficult more made waseffort This classes. empts to build a larger sense of community among students in all participating The cross-campus nature of teenth-century text. networked,createda wetwenty-first Whitman’s nine to analogue century Using RSS feeds and tags to aggregate the results into a single project blog, of edition 1855 the from lines some selecting and themselves of image an adding by other an introduce themselves course one to the to first of the week studentsin trait of the author as the major clue to his identity. For our project, we asked Whitman’stitlepage,the appearon not did name leaving engravedthe por 19 An early assignment, for instance, mimicked the frontispiece Leaves of Grass of Leaves 17 Looking for Whitman that seemed particularly powerful to them. to powerfulparticularly seemed that Leaves of Grass. of Leaves necessitated concerted att- In that text,that In Looking for Looking 18 a multi- 20 - - - -
GOLD 75 76 members. groupHidden groups to are completely only secluded. visible They are is not activitylisted in the and moderators,group groupdirectory, by approved be to need requests membershipdirectory,non-members;groupto the closed aretheyin listedare groups but rum topic, ‘Course Assignments for Monday’” will become part of the site-wide feed. Private group, aspublic fo notification such a message the a postedin a to “X forum messagea to intosite-widefed the is them within activity so,feed; example,for postswhenmember a a 10 9 8 7 wordpress.com/>. havefree,servera availablespace toinstallit; hostedis versionplatform
(Schonfeld). 13 erwise (“Statement”). See alsoFigueroa. privacy and application settings.” But recent debates over privacy on Facebook suggest oth sharedthroughyour is Facebook,controlit canhowyouon post and you information and 12 11 and new members must beinvited to join thegroup. an-educational-communities-some-notes-on-the-looking-for-whitman-project/>.
GOLD 77 Works Cited 78 Cummings, Lindsay. “Chaos and Imagination.” we are such stuff as dreams are made on. 11 April 2007. Web. 19 December 2010.
Edited by R. Trebor Scholz
Download the free PDF or eBook (Kindle, iPad), purchase the printed book on Amazon.com or Lulu.com, or visit the publication’s website at: www.learningthroughdigitalmedia.net
Contributions by Jonah Brucker-Cohen, David Carroll, Abigail De Kosnik, Elizabeth Ellsworth, Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Laura Forlano, Sol B. Gaitán, Matthew K. Gold, Vanalyne Green, Alex Halavais, Kevin Hamilton, Tiffany Holmes, Adam Hyde, Craig Dietrich with Jon Ippolito, Jessica Irish, Patrick Lichty, Mark Lipton, Elizabeth Losh, Martin Lucas, Michael Mandiberg, Shannon Mattern, Jeffrey W. McClurken, Ulises A. Mejias, David Parry, Jonah Bossewitch and Michael D. Preston, Colin Rhinesmith, Kenneth Rogers, Mark Sample, Fred Stutzman, Holly Willis, D.E. Wittkower, Adriana Valdez Young, and Mushon Zer-Aviv.
ISBN 978-0-615-45148-0
Published by The Institute for Distributed Creativity, this book series accompanies the New School’s Politics of Digital Culture conference series. The project is supported by a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and The New School.