Category Archives: Writing

Marshalling McLuhan for Media Theory

Posted on February 4, 2011 by Norm Friesen

A short op-ed-style piece for English Studies in Canada. Watch the referenced “Marshall McLuhan: Part of Our Heritage” video on YouTube. “Thirty years after his death, and a century after his birth, the cultural and theoretical contributions of Marshall McLuhan … Continue reading →

Posted in Media Theory, Writing | Comments Off on Marshalling McLuhan for Media Theory

Translation Project: Forgotten Connections. On Culture and Upbringing

Posted on November 20, 2010 by Norm Friesen

I’ve been working to bring one of the most important educational texts from postwar Germany educational works to an English audience. I’ve now got a draft translation ready for proofreading, and will be collaborating internationally to develop it further. In … Continue reading →

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Education and the Social Web: Connective Learning and the Commercial Imperative

Posted on September 21, 2010 by Norm Friesen

ARTICLE ABSTRACT: In recent years, new socially-oriented Web technologies have been portrayed as placing the learner at the centre of networks of knowledge and expertise, potentially leading to new forms of learning and education. In this paper, I argue that … Continue reading →

Posted in Critical Theory, Writing | Comments Off on Education and the Social Web: Connective Learning and the Commercial Imperative

Dissection & Simulation: Transparency or Encumbrance?

Posted on August 11, 2010 by Norm Friesen

Dissection and Simulation [slideshare id=4931568&doc=ihsrc2010-100809182930-phpapp01] View more webinars from Norm Friesen. A slidecast of a paper (fulltext) that I recently gave at the International Human Sciences Research Conference at the University of Seattle. Here’s the abstract: The increasing use of … Continue reading →

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Place of the Classroom and Space of the Screen

Posted on June 16, 2010 by Norm Friesen

Just submitted a manuscript to the publisher for review: The Place of the Classroom and the Space of the Screen: Relational Pedagogy and Internet Technology. The manuscript looks at the lived experience of Web applications commonly used in education: technologies … Continue reading →

Posted in Phenomenology, Writing | Comments Off on Place of the Classroom and Space of the Screen

Online Dissection: An encounter with the new/other or just more of the self-same?

Posted on June 15, 2010 by Norm Friesen

Just finished revisions to the paper, Dissection and Simulation: Brilliance and Transparency, or Encumbrance and Disruption?, which will soon be appearing in the online journal Techné. Here’s the abstract: The increasing use of online simulations as replacements for animal dissection in … Continue reading →

Posted in Phenomenology, Writing | Comments Off on Online Dissection: An encounter with the new/other or just more of the self-same?

"Ontologizing" Media Studies

Posted on May 2, 2010 by Norm Friesen

Reading WJT Mitchell and Mark Hansen’s introduction to their Critical Terms for Media Studies: http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/532554.html They describe media as an ontological condition that is always-already part of our situation –it is something in which “‘we live and move and have … Continue reading →

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Generations and Educational Change

Posted on March 12, 2010 by Norm Friesen

The “net generation” (also known as “generation y,” “millenials” or “digital natives”) has been defined as those born in industrialized nations between 1977 and 1997, and thus exposed to innovations like personal computers, the Internet, and mobile phones at a … Continue reading →

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Media Theory, Education and the University

Posted on March 7, 2010 by Norm Friesen

A paper I’ve been working on with Darryl Cressman that focuses on Kittler’s media theory and education. One element that this paper traces over a number of mediatic developments (revolutions?) is the role of pictorial elements (above) in conceptualizing and … Continue reading →

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The “new Language of Learning:” Lineage and Limitations

Posted on January 8, 2010 by Norm Friesen

Here’s an abstract I just submitted to Gert Biesta’s conference, Theorising Education, in June. It is relatively uncontroversial to describe teaching and education as means through which naturally-occurring, biologically-based processes of learning are directed and facilitated to achieve predetermined outcomes. Gert Biesta … Continue reading →

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