Alan Levine aka CogDog

Announcements, Kean University 2018, Netnarr in 2018, The Network

A Door Opens on a New #NetNarr in 2018

Alan Levine aka CogDog on January 10, 2018January 17, 2019

Since Hollywood movies are bereft with sequels, look out open course watchers; NetNarr returns to the internet screens next week, another feed syndicated open course don’t call us a MOOC blockbuster. Last year’s course where I (Alan Levine) co-taught from afar to a class led by Mia Zamora at Kean University was one of the best teaching/participant experience I’ve had. Where on top of other things, I surprised class by showing up in person for the last meeting. This led […]

Kean University 2017, The Network

Objects With Meaning

Alan Levine aka CogDog on January 8, 2018

Yesterday I lost a dog leash in the woods. What’s the big deal? I took my friend Kevin who was visiting, on one of my specialty semi brutal hikes, a near 7 mile bushwack, up the top of the mountain we see from my house. We were working our way around a steep section, the quote/unquote trail a long time gone, following elk tracks and my best guess for a route upward. I realized than I had put Felix’s leash […]

Announcements, Kean University 2017, Netnarr in 2018, The Network

#NetNarr at DML Where it Started

Alan Levine aka CogDog on October 9, 2017January 17, 2019

Almost a year ago Mia Zamora and I got very excited about the idea for a class we would co-teach in the spring. The rest was is Alchemy. Last week I headed back to Irvine, California for the 2017 DML Conference where I will get to share that alchemy (sadly Mia is not able to attend in person, I had hoped Rebeg and M might hack her into my session). Our session was Digital Alchemy of Networked Narratives: A Connected […]

Kean University 2017, The Network

#NetNarr at DML, where it started…

Alan Levine aka CogDog on October 3, 2017

Almost a year ago Mia Zamora and I got very excited about the idea for a class we would co-teach in the spring. The rest was is Alchemy. I’m headed back to Irvine, California for the 2017 DML Conference where I will get to share that alchemy (sadly Mia is not able to attend in person, I am hoping Rebeg and M might hack her into my session). Our session is Digital Alchemy of Networked Narratives: A Connected Course of […]

Kean University 2017, The Network

Seeking Ideas on [Open] Research Networked Seminar #resnetsem

Alan Levine aka CogDog on June 30, 2017

Here I share an idea for a Fall course that has almost no substance yet, but at least it has a hashtag ;-) This is all a direct consequence of the collaboration between me and Mia Zamora in running the open Networked Narratives course at Kean University where I co-taught and got to know brilliant students from a distance in Arizona (although we did have a momentous in person surprise meet up). A selfie from all the alchemists of #arganee! […]

Kean University 2017, The Network

#NetNarr Contract Crafting

Alan Levine aka CogDog on May 30, 2017

My rand ambitions are some regular blogging about some behind the scenes things Mia Zamora and I did for the recently ended paused Networked Narratives class we taught. The cursed fog of time is descending. SLOW DOWN time, willya? Mia suggested the idea of doing contract grading ( prefer Miriam Posner’s writeup/example) with our students, something I have not done before. I certainly like the concept of having students define the grade /intensity they will put into your course, adding […]

Kean University 2017, The Network

The Digital Revolution Will Not Be Powerpointed (nor MOOCed)

Alan Levine aka CogDog on May 22, 2017

I’m not a MOOC completer. I am zero for life. My longest duration has been maybe 2 weeks, and more typically, much less. I am not denying that others get value of them and develop rich connective experiences. But I find the recipe structure and the activity behind a login as lifeless as the job of observing paint drying. Why must all courses be so– “course-y”? Perhaps one day I will meet the right one. One exception that has been […]

Kean University 2017, The Network

Two Slack Half Tricks for #NetNarr

Alan Levine aka CogDog on May 16, 2017

The Networked Narratives course is just about wrapped up for now (just those pesky grades to submit). I’ve been wanting to go back and write up some of the behind the scenes details that slipped through the blogging cracks in real time. You will find them on this here blog tagged makingnetnarr as I try to plop a few out over the next unspecified length of time. This one is about the Slack I set up for planning and only […]

Kean University 2017, The Network

Alchemy Us

Alan Levine aka CogDog on May 5, 2017

This is the end, though not the end at all, and we have a little informal rule about not using terminating language, of the story of Networked Narratives, a course, and much more than a course. I start here, standing quietly in the dark, in a closet-like room adjacent to the classroom at Kean University where this course takes place. Waiting for a moment long anticipating. Waiting. It’s a party, they are eating food. I can hear the laughter of […]

Kean University 2017, The Network

Student Submitted Assignment Ideas as Twice Striking Lightning

Alan Levine aka CogDog on April 7, 2017

While the Networked Narratives course I am co-teaching with Mia Zamora is not a ds106 iteration, it’s definitely in the family. Students and open participants are participating in their own blog space, we are syndicating posts into the course site, and there is also a daily create like site. Like when I teach ds106, our Kean University students are tasked with submitting at least two ideas for the Daily Digital Alchemy. Just this week, one of our students wanted feedback […]

Kean University 2017, The Network

A David Reading

Alan Levine aka CogDog on March 27, 2017

File this as another lesson in being part of the Networked Narratives class — writing something personal is one thing, but reading it out loud another, and the third (still on my list) yet beyond that. This again like we are finding this course, is something that happens when we let loose a little from the pace of a class defined by objectives and the beat of the syllabus drum, and make room for the unexpected. During our second “bus […]

Kean University 2017, The Network

Break Away (3 sound #netnarr story remix)

Alan Levine aka CogDog on March 23, 2017

This is somewhat for Alex, who asked for an example on how to do the 3 sound remix assignment for Networked Narratives. He’s spinning his audio wheels, which I said would likely happen. DONT PANIC! We asked students to record and share three sounds of their morning routine, representing their preparation, transportation, and arrival at school or work- a transition from home to where they spend their days… These were to be shared as a response in the Sounds Tab […]

Kean University 2017, The Network

Cowbirding to the End

Alan Levine aka CogDog on February 16, 2017February 16, 2017

A tweet of ends #digitalstorytelling gem @cowbird to shut down: https://t.co/IRIyymTJcYThis makes me so sad. — Bryan Alexander (@BryanAlexander) February 8, 2017 The standard opening lines here would be my woeful admission of how little I had written in that special storytelling space. It would be wafted with moth-ball scented excuses. You can more or less see the words without me writing them. Even before a click the “next” button to read the eulogy by it’s first sprouter Jonathan Harris, […]

Kean University 2017, The Network

February 8’s Wondermug

Alan Levine aka CogDog on February 8, 2017

Oh that calendar. After the evening dog walk (where solitude yields thoughts that solve most of the world’s problems, though solutions vanish in passage through the front door) I return maybe to tinker in some code or blog something… and a pop up reminder. Tomorrow is February 8. With arithmetic, on February 8, if Mom were here, we’d be celebrating her 88th birthday. Symmetry. Instead I am rummaging around my house for the reminders. I eventually find searching in my […]

Kean University 2017, The Network

The #netnarr Twist on Guest Speaker Videos and Annotation Thereof

Alan Levine aka CogDog on February 3, 2017February 3, 2017

I will make a grossly sweeping and unfairly generalized stereotype, but in my mind alot of time courses use two way video to bring in guest experts, comes across as central casting “Confident professor. Confident grey hair senior man in formalwear keeping arms crossed and looking at camera while leaning at the table and with bookshelf in the background.” Screen shot of copyrighted Shutterstock image, reuse here highly questionable, but done in name of parody / commentary. Always talking in […]