I'm also enjoying this conversation.

Like Sheila and David, I find that students read when books are pertinent to their lives and to understanding the larger social world. (I believe danah's book falls into this category.) They sometimes email me years later to ask about the title of a book because they want to reread it or recommend it to a friend. Of course, there are many who don't read, but sometimes they are prompted to read after an interesting class discussion or as part of an assignment.

One strategy that has worked to get them reading more is to require each student to do a discussion prompt over the course of the semester. They each sign up for a day when they will bring in a question based on that day's reading. They often get more engaged in discussing questions raised by their peers – although sometimes I need to help frame the questions or relate them to larger themes to get the discussion going.

I usually have several essay assignments where students integrate ideas from the course readings with some fieldwork observations or interviews that they do outside of class. Asking them to apply the ideas to understand different situations or examples helps them to learn the material more deeply. In the social theory class where the readings are denser, I also include short assignments where they explain key ideas from the theories as part of a larger process where they eventually construct their own theory.

Articles and books both are valuable. I agree that articles or selected chapters from books can give more of an overview of the field. But it's also important for students to grapple with more extended arguments, which is really only possible by reading whole books.

In intro, I assign a series of desocialization exploriments where students break a social norm and observe the ways that they and others respond. That creates a buzz and gets them much more involved in noticing the connections between society and self on an experiential level, as well as an analytical one.

All best,

Sara

Sara Schoonmaker, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
University of Redlands
Redlands, CA USA 92373
(909) 748-8712

From: CITASA citasa-bounces@list.citasa.org on behalf of Christena Nippert-Eng nippert@iit.edu
Sent: Monday, August 11, 2014 3:18 PM
To: David Nemer
Cc: Gina Neff; citasa@list.citasa.org
Subject: Re: [CITASA] are you teaching "It's Complicated"?

Greetings, everyone!

Great conversation.

I just finished a tour of college visits with my youngest.  On one of these, a fellow explained how they use primary source material in the form of a packet of readings in almost all his classes, with the exception of an intro text for foundational courses.  After explaining quite well why engaging with primary sources was important for their intellectual development he added that this meant he has spent almost nothing on books in the three years that he was at this highly ranked school, and how much he appreciated that since the costs of attending were already so high.  These gifted students expected to do their reading and had a culture of active, personal engagement with their educations, which they personally craft for years 2, 3 and 4.  But in the process, at least this young man and his classmates were not being assigned “primary sources” in the form of books.

I was then reminded of a friend in the U.K. where students were not expected to have to buy any books.  The university library was mandated to buy enough copies of a book so that every student could get one through the library for any course they took.  As a result, faculty had to make an awfully good case for every new book they assigned to their classes and this did not happy often.

Personally, I teach two versions of Intro.  In one, we use a textbook and the students design something based on what inspires them in each chapter.  In the other version, students receive their best 4/5 grades from in-class essay tests on five monographs over the course of the term.  The tests are given before we discuss the books, the texts and tests always change, and they are quite fair but not possible to master from reading someone else’s notes about the book.  The discussions over the next week and a half are lively and great fun.  At least a third of the class fails the first test because, despite all my warnings, they continue to believe they really don’t have to read the book to pass.  Yet another third of the class stops taking the tests after the fourth, though, because they’ve done so well on their first four attempts.  I have honestly never had a problem getting students to read provided I make sure the reading matters, is compelling, and is a focus of their grade.

If book-less classes are a trend, then of course this has implications for the publishing industry, including we authors who rely on it for our scholarship and promotion.  But I am also struck by what it could mean for what I have always thought was our obligation to train the next generation in being able to critically encounter book-length arguments through the classes they take with us.

Like David, I have good experience with teaching others like graduate design students who I have heard are quite allergic to reading.  Also like David, I have not found this to be the case.  If the books are compelling and pertinent, they write to me for years afterwards telling me of how much they revisit and appreciate them.

Maybe danah's will help us make that case.  :)

See you in SF, everyone!  Keep the conversation going -- I'm enjoying it.  :)
Christena

Christena Nippert-Eng, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology

http://humansciences.iit.edu/faculty/christena-nippert-eng

http://islandsofprivacy.com/

Director, The Benjamin Franklin Project at IIT

http://www.iit.edu/csl/socs/franklin_project.shtml

On Mon, Aug 11, 2014 at 12:58 PM, David Nemer <dnemer@indiana.edumailto:dnemer@indiana.edu> wrote:
Good points Karine.

I echo your guys' thought. Although I'm just a PhD candidate / TA, the engagements with the readings usually take place in our discussion sessions, and as far my experience goes, trying to get undergrads to read is really hard. Buying the books has never been a problem to them, and now with e-books embedded in the University's academic systems (Blackboard, OnCourse), most of the time the students don't have a way out.

I've had a couple of good experiences. One with a text book in which the publisher provided a series of videos and multimedia quizzes that coupled well with the book. The down side of that approach is if the instructor relies too much on it, then it won't leave much space for her / his teaching. The other good experience has been with my own book, in which I provided the students with free e-copies. Since I knew the material well (and had already in my mind how to use it in class) and the book was heavily based on engaging photos and short text, then I was able to get the students to read it.

With that said, danah, as you were writing / designing your book, did you ever think about how you would teach your book to undergrads or about how you'd advise others on how to embed your book in their lectures?

Cheers,

David Nemer
PhD Candidate in Social Informatics
School of Informatics and Computing, Indiana University
Author of "Favela Digital: The other side of technology" - http://favela-digital.com
Editor of the Social Informatics Blog - http://socialinformaticsblog.com
http://www.dnemer.com

On Mon, Aug 11, 2014 at 11:10 PM, Karine Nahon <karineb@uw.edumailto:karineb@uw.edu> wrote:
Thanks Gina and danah for starting this stimulating conversation.

In general, I don't assign monographs/books to students (undergrad and grad), but give them a list of articles/chapters from books for 3 reasons:

1. An ideological reason -  I believe that we (as teachers) should allow students free and open access as possible to materials. It will help to minimize some economic gaps that exist among students.
2. A fabric of articles and chapters tailored for the purpose of the course, would suit the different teaching styles and goals that different teachers have.
3. Finally, in many cases I find that one monograph/book doesn't cover all the complex facets of phenomena I teach. It is much more easier to get a more comprehensive picture by using articles with different narratives/writers/paradigms, and at the same time, it allows a better basis for academic debates on these topics.

Karine

Karine Nahon/Associate Professor/Information School/University of Washington/Author of Going Viral/eKarine.org

On Aug 11, 2014, at 2:21 AM, Gina Neff wrote:

Replying to the whole list on this one: I’ve noticed quite a bit of push-back recently on buying monographs. For years, I’ve had an informal policy of assigning at least one monograph for each of my large undergraduate courses (and many of you have been the beneficiaries of this). But a recent experience with an “instructional designer” for an online course left me a bit sour – she said that students are not buying even inexpensive monographs for the online courses and balk at paying Amazon, itunes etc for a copy of a movie. Overall course material costs have plummeted – students no longer pay for course packs. But still I’m feeling a weird pressure to keep the monetary cost at zero. Anybody else?

Gina

Dr. Gina Neff
Associate Professor, Department of Communication
University  of Washington

Senior Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study
Central European University

Twitter: @ginasue
http://ginaneff.com/

Author, Venture Labor: Work and the Burden of Risk in Innovative Industrieshttp://www.amazon.com/Venture-Labor-Innovative-Industries-Technology/dp/0262017482

From: CITASA [mailto:citasa-bounces@list.citasa.orgmailto:citasa-bounces@list.citasa.org] On Behalf Of danah boyd
Sent: Monday, August 11, 2014 2:13 AM
To: citasa@list.citasa.orgmailto:citasa@list.citasa.org
Subject: [CITASA] are you teaching "It's Complicated"?

Many of you have mentioned in passing that you're teaching my new book in your fall classes (thank you!!!).  If you are, I was wondering if you'd be willing to send me a copy of your syllabus?  One other question: If you are teaching my book, are you encouraging students to buy it or are you sending them to the free version?  (I'm fine either way but, as you can imagine, folks are asking me how giving away my book is impacting classroom adoption and I have zero clue.)

danah

My New Book: "It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens" http://bit.ly/dmbItsComplicated

"taken out of context / i must seem so strange" -- ani
http://www.danah.org/  || @zephoriahttp://www.twitter.com/zephoria

CITASA mailing list
CITASA@list.citasa.orgmailto:CITASA@list.citasa.org
http://list.citasa.org/mailman/listinfo/citasa_list.citasa.org

CITASA mailing list
CITASA@list.citasa.orgmailto:CITASA@list.citasa.org
http://list.citasa.org/mailman/listinfo/citasa_list.citasa.org

CITASA mailing list
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Ditto!

Rebecca G. Adams

Professor and Gerontology Program Director

212A Ferguson Building

P.O. Box 26170

University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Greensboro, NC 27402-6170

Voice: 336-334-3578

Email:  r_adams@uncg.edu

From: CITASA [mailto:citasa-bounces@list.citasa.org] *On Behalf Of *Gina
Neff
Sent: Monday, August 11, 2014 3:22 AM
To: danah boyd; citasa@list.citasa.org
Subject: Re: [CITASA] are you teaching "It's Complicated"?

Replying to the whole list on this one: I’ve noticed quite a bit of
push-back recently on buying monographs. For years, I’ve had an informal
policy of assigning at least one monograph for each of my large
undergraduate courses (and many of you have been the beneficiaries of
this). But a recent experience with an “instructional designer” for an
online course left me a bit sour – she said that students are not buying
even inexpensive monographs for the online courses and balk at paying
Amazon, itunes etc for a copy of a movie. Overall course material costs
have plummeted – students no longer pay for course packs. But still I’m
feeling a weird pressure to keep the monetary cost at zero. Anybody else?

Gina

Dr. Gina Neff

Associate Professor, Department of Communication

University  of Washington

Senior Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study

Central European University

Twitter: @ginasue

http://ginaneff.com/

Author, Venture Labor: Work and the Burden of Risk in Innovative
Industries
http://www.amazon.com/Venture-Labor-Innovative-Industries-Technology/dp/0262017482

From: CITASA [mailto:citasa-bounces@list.citasa.org] *On Behalf Of *danah
boyd
Sent: Monday, August 11, 2014 2:13 AM
To: citasa@list.citasa.org
Subject: [CITASA] are you teaching "It's Complicated"?

Many of you have mentioned in passing that you're teaching my new book in
your fall classes (thank you!!!).  If you are, I was wondering if you'd
be willing to send me a copy of your syllabus?  One other question: If you
are teaching my book, are you encouraging students to buy it or are you
sending them to the free version?  (I'm fine either way but, as you can
imagine, folks are asking me how giving away my book is impacting classroom
adoption and I have zero clue.)

danah

My New Book: "It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens"
http://bit.ly/dmbItsComplicated

"taken out of context / i must seem so strange" -- ani
http://www.danah.org/  || @zephoria http://www.twitter.com/zephoria

One thought on this very interesting thread: A couple of years ago when I was first teaching Christakis and Fowler's Connected I was, er, um, thrilled to learn that they had produced chapter by chapter powerpoint slides for the book. Having their visuals premade for the screen made the work really engaging for the students and made my job a little easier, even though I adapted them for what we needed in the class. There's great public writing about the danah's book available.  I know Barry has offered to do Skype visits to classes that adopt Networked. Has anyone else experimented with such add-ons that increase the value of the text for learners and their teachers? As monographs try to find an open access publishing model I wonder to what extent we will see these kinds of hybrids increase.

Gina

From: danah boyd [mailto:danah-asa@danah.org]
Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2014 2:26 PM
To: David Nemer
Cc: Karine Nahon; Gina Neff; citasa@list.citasa.org
Subject: Re: [CITASA] are you teaching "It's Complicated"?

This is exactly the kind of reality check that I was hoping for.  It's hard from a single university perspective to get a broad sense of the economic logic of college students writ large but I too noticed that students rarely bought the books (diligent ones scrambled for library copies) and, often, didn't even buy the course reader. One of the main reasons that I wanted my book to be 100% freely available was because I wanted anyone with an interest to be able to read it.  But I've run into interesting barriers around this so far. Even though the free copy is available online, universities don't accept CC licenses when producing course packets which means they use the physical (and pay the royalties, increasing the costs).  And faculty often assign the book in a way that requires the purchase of it. (I was originally just going to ask for syllabi to see if y'all pointed to the URL but then I tipped my hat.)

I wrote this book to be read, not purchased. But, obviously, I have to play nice with my lovely publisher who has been amazing to me.

As for David's question, I also wrote it to be read in chunks, knowing fully well that different chunks could easily be assigned to a classroom.  For example, the chapter on "Privacy" and the chapter called "Inequality" are the two that I wrote with an eye towards undergraduate classroom assignments because these chapters help provide context for youth (and, truthfully, adult) practices in ways that can prompt good discussions.  Each chapter is stand-alone (although the Intro does pull it together). Of course, y'all will have to tell me if I'm successful on that front.

Also, since a few people privately asked where the free copy is, it's off my website. But here's a direct link: http://www.danah.org/books/ItsComplicated.pdf

danah

On Aug 11, 2014, at 1:58 PM, David Nemer <dnemer@indiana.edumailto:dnemer@indiana.edu> wrote:

Good points Karine.

I echo your guys' thought. Although I'm just a PhD candidate / TA, the engagements with the readings usually take place in our discussion sessions, and as far my experience goes, trying to get undergrads to read is really hard. Buying the books has never been a problem to them, and now with e-books embedded in the University's academic systems (Blackboard, OnCourse), most of the time the students don't have a way out.

I've had a couple of good experiences. One with a text book in which the publisher provided a series of videos and multimedia quizzes that coupled well with the book. The down side of that approach is if the instructor relies too much on it, then it won't leave much space for her / his teaching. The other good experience has been with my own book, in which I provided the students with free e-copies. Since I knew the material well (and had already in my mind how to use it in class) and the book was heavily based on engaging photos and short text, then I was able to get the students to read it.

With that said, danah, as you were writing / designing your book, did you ever think about how you would teach your book to undergrads or about how you'd advise others on how to embed your book in their lectures?

Cheers,

David Nemer
PhD Candidate in Social Informatics
School of Informatics and Computing, Indiana University
Author of "Favela Digital: The other side of technology" - http://favela-digital.comhttp://favela-digital.com/
Editor of the Social Informatics Blog - http://socialinformaticsblog.comhttp://socialinformaticsblog.com/
http://www.dnemer.comhttp://www.dnemer.com/

On Mon, Aug 11, 2014 at 11:10 PM, Karine Nahon <karineb@uw.edumailto:karineb@uw.edu> wrote:
Thanks Gina and danah for starting this stimulating conversation.

In general, I don't assign monographs/books to students (undergrad and grad), but give them a list of articles/chapters from books for 3 reasons:

1. An ideological reason -  I believe that we (as teachers) should allow students free and open access as possible to materials. It will help to minimize some economic gaps that exist among students.
2. A fabric of articles and chapters tailored for the purpose of the course, would suit the different teaching styles and goals that different teachers have.
3. Finally, in many cases I find that one monograph/book doesn't cover all the complex facets of phenomena I teach. It is much more easier to get a more comprehensive picture by using articles with different narratives/writers/paradigms, and at the same time, it allows a better basis for academic debates on these topics.

Karine

Karine Nahon/Associate Professor/Information School/University of Washington/Author of Going Viral/eKarine.orghttp://eKarine.org

On Aug 11, 2014, at 2:21 AM, Gina Neff wrote:

Replying to the whole list on this one: I've noticed quite a bit of push-back recently on buying monographs. For years, I've had an informal policy of assigning at least one monograph for each of my large undergraduate courses (and many of you have been the beneficiaries of this). But a recent experience with an "instructional designer" for an online course left me a bit sour - she said that students are not buying even inexpensive monographs for the online courses and balk at paying Amazon, itunes etc for a copy of a movie. Overall course material costs have plummeted - students no longer pay for course packs. But still I'm feeling a weird pressure to keep the monetary cost at zero. Anybody else?

Gina

Dr. Gina Neff
Associate Professor, Department of Communication
University  of Washington

Senior Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study
Central European University

Twitter: @ginasue
http://ginaneff.com/

Author, Venture Labor: Work and the Burden of Risk in Innovative Industrieshttp://www.amazon.com/Venture-Labor-Innovative-Industries-Technology/dp/0262017482

From: CITASA [mailto:citasa-bounces@list.citasa.orgmailto:citasa-bounces@list.citasa.org] On Behalf Of danah boyd
Sent: Monday, August 11, 2014 2:13 AM
To: citasa@list.citasa.orgmailto:citasa@list.citasa.org
Subject: [CITASA] are you teaching "It's Complicated"?

Many of you have mentioned in passing that you're teaching my new book in your fall classes (thank you!!!).  If you are, I was wondering if you'd be willing to send me a copy of your syllabus?  One other question: If you are teaching my book, are you encouraging students to buy it or are you sending them to the free version?  (I'm fine either way but, as you can imagine, folks are asking me how giving away my book is impacting classroom adoption and I have zero clue.)

danah

My New Book: "It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens" http://bit.ly/dmbItsComplicated

"taken out of context / i must seem so strange" -- ani
http://www.danah.org/  || @zephoriahttp://www.twitter.com/zephoria

CITASA mailing list
CITASA@list.citasa.orgmailto:CITASA@list.citasa.org
http://list.citasa.org/mailman/listinfo/citasa_list.citasa.org

CITASA mailing list
CITASA@list.citasa.orgmailto:CITASA@list.citasa.org
http://list.citasa.org/mailman/listinfo/citasa_list.citasa.org

CITASA mailing list
CITASA@list.citasa.orgmailto:CITASA@list.citasa.org
http://list.citasa.org/mailman/listinfo/citasa_list.citasa.org

My New Book: "It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens" http://bit.ly/dmbItsComplicated

"taken out of context / i must seem so strange" -- ani
http://www.danah.org/  || @zephoriahttp://www.twitter.com/zephoria

Gina,

I ask some authors to Skype into honors undergraduate and graduate courses and it works really well. The students love it!  Maybe others have had success doing this in large classes (80 +). Unfortunately, I have not. [If folks know how to make Skype work in a big class, please share your tips!]

As someone noted earlier, some of this comes down to institutional differences (e.g., institutional focus, classroom sizes, course loads, TA support, and so on). That said, it is probably worthwhile to remember that we have a technologically savvy age group who like to find information on their own. While I have not tried this with reading yet, last semester I connected a Twitter account with my Blackboard course site and had students tweet content that related to course themes. I specified no repeats of content or themes and told them that they had to link the tweet to course material. It was enormously popular. In short, it might be worthwhile to find ways to get them to engage material in familiar/exciting ways.

best, deana

Deana A. Rohlinger, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Department of Sociology

Florida State University

www.DeanaRohlinger.com

Pre-order a copy of Abortion Politics, Mass Media, and Social Movements in Americahttp://www.amazon.com/Abortion-Politics-Social-Movements-America/dp/1107069238/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407781110&sr=8-1&keywords=deana+rohlinger now (available through Cambridge University Press November 2014)

From: CITASA [citasa-bounces@list.citasa.org] on behalf of Gina Neff [gneff@uw.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2014 9:00 AM
To: danah boyd; citasa@list.citasa.org
Subject: Re: [CITASA] are you teaching "It's Complicated"?

One thought on this very interesting thread: A couple of years ago when I was first teaching Christakis and Fowler’s Connected I was, er, um, thrilled to learn that they had produced chapter by chapter powerpoint slides for the book. Having their visuals premade for the screen made the work really engaging for the students and made my job a little easier, even though I adapted them for what we needed in the class. There’s great public writing about the danah’s book available.  I know Barry has offered to do Skype visits to classes that adopt Networked. Has anyone else experimented with such add-ons that increase the value of the text for learners and their teachers? As monographs try to find an open access publishing model I wonder to what extent we will see these kinds of hybrids increase.

Gina

From: danah boyd [mailto:danah-asa@danah.org]
Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2014 2:26 PM
To: David Nemer
Cc: Karine Nahon; Gina Neff; citasa@list.citasa.org
Subject: Re: [CITASA] are you teaching "It's Complicated"?

This is exactly the kind of reality check that I was hoping for.  It's hard from a single university perspective to get a broad sense of the economic logic of college students writ large but I too noticed that students rarely bought the books (diligent ones scrambled for library copies) and, often, didn't even buy the course reader. One of the main reasons that I wanted my book to be 100% freely available was because I wanted anyone with an interest to be able to read it.  But I've run into interesting barriers around this so far. Even though the free copy is available online, universities don't accept CC licenses when producing course packets which means they use the physical (and pay the royalties, increasing the costs).  And faculty often assign the book in a way that requires the purchase of it. (I was originally just going to ask for syllabi to see if y'all pointed to the URL but then I tipped my hat.)

I wrote this book to be read, not purchased. But, obviously, I have to play nice with my lovely publisher who has been amazing to me.

As for David's question, I also wrote it to be read in chunks, knowing fully well that different chunks could easily be assigned to a classroom.  For example, the chapter on "Privacy" and the chapter called "Inequality" are the two that I wrote with an eye towards undergraduate classroom assignments because these chapters help provide context for youth (and, truthfully, adult) practices in ways that can prompt good discussions.  Each chapter is stand-alone (although the Intro does pull it together). Of course, y'all will have to tell me if I'm successful on that front.

Also, since a few people privately asked where the free copy is, it's off my website. But here's a direct link: http://www.danah.org/books/ItsComplicated.pdf

danah

On Aug 11, 2014, at 1:58 PM, David Nemer <dnemer@indiana.edumailto:dnemer@indiana.edu> wrote:

Good points Karine.

I echo your guys' thought. Although I'm just a PhD candidate / TA, the engagements with the readings usually take place in our discussion sessions, and as far my experience goes, trying to get undergrads to read is really hard. Buying the books has never been a problem to them, and now with e-books embedded in the University's academic systems (Blackboard, OnCourse), most of the time the students don't have a way out.

I've had a couple of good experiences. One with a text book in which the publisher provided a series of videos and multimedia quizzes that coupled well with the book. The down side of that approach is if the instructor relies too much on it, then it won't leave much space for her / his teaching. The other good experience has been with my own book, in which I provided the students with free e-copies. Since I knew the material well (and had already in my mind how to use it in class) and the book was heavily based on engaging photos and short text, then I was able to get the students to read it.

With that said, danah, as you were writing / designing your book, did you ever think about how you would teach your book to undergrads or about how you'd advise others on how to embed your book in their lectures?

Cheers,

David Nemer
PhD Candidate in Social Informatics
School of Informatics and Computing, Indiana University
Author of "Favela Digital: The other side of technology" - http://favela-digital.comhttp://favela-digital.com/
Editor of the Social Informatics Blog - http://socialinformaticsblog.comhttp://socialinformaticsblog.com/
http://www.dnemer.comhttp://www.dnemer.com/

On Mon, Aug 11, 2014 at 11:10 PM, Karine Nahon <karineb@uw.edumailto:karineb@uw.edu> wrote:
Thanks Gina and danah for starting this stimulating conversation.

In general, I don't assign monographs/books to students (undergrad and grad), but give them a list of articles/chapters from books for 3 reasons:

1. An ideological reason -  I believe that we (as teachers) should allow students free and open access as possible to materials. It will help to minimize some economic gaps that exist among students.
2. A fabric of articles and chapters tailored for the purpose of the course, would suit the different teaching styles and goals that different teachers have.
3. Finally, in many cases I find that one monograph/book doesn't cover all the complex facets of phenomena I teach. It is much more easier to get a more comprehensive picture by using articles with different narratives/writers/paradigms, and at the same time, it allows a better basis for academic debates on these topics.

Karine

Karine Nahon/Associate Professor/Information School/University of Washington/Author of Going Viral/eKarine.orghttp://eKarine.org

On Aug 11, 2014, at 2:21 AM, Gina Neff wrote:

Replying to the whole list on this one: I’ve noticed quite a bit of push-back recently on buying monographs. For years, I’ve had an informal policy of assigning at least one monograph for each of my large undergraduate courses (and many of you have been the beneficiaries of this). But a recent experience with an “instructional designer” for an online course left me a bit sour – she said that students are not buying even inexpensive monographs for the online courses and balk at paying Amazon, itunes etc for a copy of a movie. Overall course material costs have plummeted – students no longer pay for course packs. But still I’m feeling a weird pressure to keep the monetary cost at zero. Anybody else?

Gina

Dr. Gina Neff
Associate Professor, Department of Communication
University  of Washington

Senior Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study
Central European University

Twitter: @ginasue
http://ginaneff.com/

Author, Venture Labor: Work and the Burden of Risk in Innovative Industrieshttp://www.amazon.com/Venture-Labor-Innovative-Industries-Technology/dp/0262017482

From: CITASA [mailto:citasa-bounces@list.citasa.orgmailto:citasa-bounces@list.citasa.org] On Behalf Of danah boyd
Sent: Monday, August 11, 2014 2:13 AM
To: citasa@list.citasa.orgmailto:citasa@list.citasa.org
Subject: [CITASA] are you teaching "It's Complicated"?

Many of you have mentioned in passing that you're teaching my new book in your fall classes (thank you!!!).  If you are, I was wondering if you'd be willing to send me a copy of your syllabus?  One other question: If you are teaching my book, are you encouraging students to buy it or are you sending them to the free version?  (I'm fine either way but, as you can imagine, folks are asking me how giving away my book is impacting classroom adoption and I have zero clue.)

danah

My New Book: "It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens" http://bit.ly/dmbItsComplicated

"taken out of context / i must seem so strange" -- ani
http://www.danah.org/  || @zephoriahttp://www.twitter.com/zephoria

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My New Book: "It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens" http://bit.ly/dmbItsComplicated

"taken out of context / i must seem so strange" -- ani
http://www.danah.org/  || @zephoriahttp://www.twitter.com/zephoria

This posting reminded me of something I used to do when I first started
using Blackboard.  I was teaching a freshman seminar on the Deadhead
community (main purpose to teach writing).  One of the assignments was for
them to attend a cover band performance early in the semester.  They went
to a  DSO concert and came back wanting to exchange email with the band
about cover bands.  I contacted the band and the key board player (an
ex-high school history) teacher agreed to participate in a threaded
discussion on Blackboard.  He was an excellent discussion leader.  After
that one of the STUDENTS asked if I could get the authors who contributed
to my co-edited book on Deadheads to “visit” as well, and I did.  The
students posted questions to Blackboard and the authors answered them. The
students read EVERYTHING. I did this in other classes on standard topics
and it worked there as well. Now of course it would be Skype.  I am glad
for being reminded that I used to use this technique. I will work Skype
visits into the next syllabus I develop.

Rebecca G. Adams

Professor and Gerontology Program Director

212A Ferguson Building

P.O. Box 26170

University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Greensboro, NC 27402-6170

Voice: 336-334-3578

Email:  r_adams@uncg.edu

From: CITASA [mailto:citasa-bounces@list.citasa.org] *On Behalf Of *Gina
Neff
Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2014 9:00 AM
To: danah boyd; citasa@list.citasa.org
Subject: Re: [CITASA] are you teaching "It's Complicated"?

One thought on this very interesting thread: A couple of years ago when I
was first teaching Christakis and Fowler’s Connected I was, er, um,
thrilled to learn that they had produced chapter by chapter powerpoint
slides for the book. Having their visuals premade for the screen made the
work really engaging for the students and made my job a little easier, even
though I adapted them for what we needed in the class. There’s great public
writing about the danah’s book available.  I know Barry has offered to do
Skype visits to classes that adopt Networked. Has anyone else experimented
with such add-ons that increase the value of the text for learners and
their teachers? As monographs try to find an open access publishing model I
wonder to what extent we will see these kinds of hybrids increase.

Gina

From: danah boyd [mailto:danah-asa@danah.org]
Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2014 2:26 PM
To: David Nemer
Cc: Karine Nahon; Gina Neff; citasa@list.citasa.org
Subject: Re: [CITASA] are you teaching "It's Complicated"?

This is exactly the kind of reality check that I was hoping for.  It's hard
from a single university perspective to get a broad sense of the economic
logic of college students writ large but I too noticed that students rarely
bought the books (diligent ones scrambled for library copies) and, often,
didn't even buy the course reader. One of the main reasons that I wanted my
book to be 100% freely available was because I wanted anyone with an
interest to be able to read it.  But I've run into interesting barriers
around this so far. Even though the free copy is available online,
universities don't accept CC licenses when producing course packets which
means they use the physical (and pay the royalties, increasing the costs).
And faculty often assign the book in a way that requires the purchase of
it. (I was originally just going to ask for syllabi to see if y'all pointed
to the URL but then I tipped my hat.)

I wrote this book to be read, not purchased. But, obviously, I have to play
nice with my lovely publisher who has been amazing to me.

As for David's question, I also wrote it to be read in chunks, knowing
fully well that different chunks could easily be assigned to a classroom.
For example, the chapter on "Privacy" and the chapter called "Inequality"
are the two that I wrote with an eye towards undergraduate classroom
assignments because these chapters help provide context for youth (and,
truthfully, adult) practices in ways that can prompt good discussions.
Each chapter is stand-alone (although the Intro does pull it together). Of
course, y'all will have to tell me if I'm successful on that front.

Also, since a few people privately asked where the free copy is, it's off
my website. But here's a direct link:
http://www.danah.org/books/ItsComplicated.pdf

danah

On Aug 11, 2014, at 1:58 PM, David Nemer dnemer@indiana.edu wrote:

Good points Karine.

I echo your guys' thought. Although I'm just a PhD candidate / TA, the
engagements with the readings usually take place in our discussion
sessions, and as far my experience goes, trying to get undergrads to read
is really hard. Buying the books has never been a problem to them, and now
with e-books embedded in the University's academic systems (Blackboard,
OnCourse), most of the time the students don't have a way out.

I've had a couple of good experiences. One with a text book in which the
publisher provided a series of videos and multimedia quizzes that coupled
well with the book. The down side of that approach is if the instructor
relies too much on it, then it won't leave much space for her / his
teaching. The other good experience has been with my own book, in which I
provided the students with free e-copies. Since I knew the material well
(and had already in my mind how to use it in class) and the book was
heavily based on engaging photos and short text, then I was able to get the
students to read it.

With that said, danah, as you were writing / designing your book, did you
ever think about how you would teach your book to undergrads or about how
you'd advise others on how to embed your book in their lectures?

Cheers,

--

David Nemer
PhD Candidate in Social Informatics
School of Informatics and Computing, Indiana University
Author of "Favela Digital: The other side of technology" -
http://favela-digital.com

Editor of the Social Informatics Blog - http://socialinformaticsblog.com
http://www.dnemer.com

On Mon, Aug 11, 2014 at 11:10 PM, Karine Nahon karineb@uw.edu wrote:

Thanks Gina and danah for starting this stimulating conversation.

In general, I don't assign monographs/books to students (undergrad and
grad), but give them a list of articles/chapters from books for 3 reasons:

1. An ideological reason -  I believe that we (as teachers) should allow
   students free and open access as possible to materials. It will help to
   minimize some economic gaps that exist among students.

2. A fabric of articles and chapters tailored for the purpose of the
   course, would suit the different teaching styles and goals that different
   teachers have.

3. Finally, in many cases I find that one monograph/book doesn't cover all
   the complex facets of phenomena I teach. It is much more easier to get a
   more comprehensive picture by using articles with different
   narratives/writers/paradigms, and at the same time, it allows a better
   basis for academic debates on these topics.

Karine

Karine Nahon/Associate Professor/Information School/University of
Washington/Author of Going Viral/eKarine.org

On Aug 11, 2014, at 2:21 AM, Gina Neff wrote:

Replying to the whole list on this one: I’ve noticed quite a bit of
push-back recently on buying monographs. For years, I’ve had an informal
policy of assigning at least one monograph for each of my large
undergraduate courses (and many of you have been the beneficiaries of
this). But a recent experience with an “instructional designer” for an
online course left me a bit sour – she said that students are not buying
even inexpensive monographs for the online courses and balk at paying
Amazon, itunes etc for a copy of a movie. Overall course material costs
have plummeted – students no longer pay for course packs. But still I’m
feeling a weird pressure to keep the monetary cost at zero. Anybody else?

Gina

Dr. Gina Neff

Associate Professor, Department of Communication

University  of Washington

Senior Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study

Central European University

Twitter: @ginasue

http://ginaneff.com/

Author, Venture Labor: Work and the Burden of Risk in Innovative
Industries
http://www.amazon.com/Venture-Labor-Innovative-Industries-Technology/dp/0262017482

From: CITASA [mailto:citasa-bounces@list.citasa.org] *On Behalf Of *danah
boyd
Sent: Monday, August 11, 2014 2:13 AM
To: citasa@list.citasa.org
Subject: [CITASA] are you teaching "It's Complicated"?

Many of you have mentioned in passing that you're teaching my new book in
your fall classes (thank you!!!).  If you are, I was wondering if you'd
be willing to send me a copy of your syllabus?  One other question: If you
are teaching my book, are you encouraging students to buy it or are you
sending them to the free version?  (I'm fine either way but, as you can
imagine, folks are asking me how giving away my book is impacting classroom
adoption and I have zero clue.)

danah

My New Book: "It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens"
http://bit.ly/dmbItsComplicated

"taken out of context / i must seem so strange" -- ani
http://www.danah.org/  || @zephoria http://www.twitter.com/zephoria

CITASA mailing list
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CITASA mailing list
CITASA@list.citasa.org
http://list.citasa.org/mailman/listinfo/citasa_list.citasa.org

CITASA mailing list
CITASA@list.citasa.org
http://list.citasa.org/mailman/listinfo/citasa_list.citasa.org

My New Book: "It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens"
http://bit.ly/dmbItsComplicated

"taken out of context / i must seem so strange" -- ani
http://www.danah.org/  || @zephoria http://www.twitter.com/zephoria