User:Rsmyth
Hi, I'm Richard Smyth.
Education[edit]
- B.A. in English from the University of Florida 1986
- M.A. in English from the University of Florida 1988
- Ph.D. in English from the University of Florida 1994
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Dissertation Director: Gregory Ulmer
Dissertation Title: RENAISSANCE MNEMONICS, POSTSTRUCTURALISM, AND THE RHETORIC OF HYPERTEXT COMPOSITION
Employment History[edit]
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Assistant Professor of English
HAMLINE UNIVERSITY
1994-1997
Cybrarian
CATHEDRAL HIGH SCHOOL
1997-Present
Why have I contributed to Wikipedia?[edit]
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As I prepared to deliver a conference presentation on new models of pedagogy better suited to the 21st Century classroom and student, I found that there were no Wikipedia entries about the work of my mentor, Gregory Ulmer, and his theories of “electracy.” Given the relevance of his theories to a new communicative technology like wiki, I found this ironic and seek to remedy this by beginning the collaborative process of starting an entry.
Also, as a working Library Media Specialist, Teacher-Librarian (or, perhaps more accurately if fancifully, “Cybrarian”), I felt it was time for me to gain experience with the process of adding and editing entries in a wiki, if only to be able to teach others and invite their participation in this radical new process of collaborative online encyclopedia authorship.
Having been outside of academia for the past ten years, I feel like the development and popularization of participatory media forms like blogging and wikis have invited me to contribute to the collaborative knowledge creation that such forms manifest.
As a student of Ulmer in the late 1980s and early 1990s who experienced his unique methods of pedagogy both in graduate course work and in his guidance of my dissertation, I am part of a larger community of scholars and students who struggle through the birth-moment of a new era, and I hope that others in the community of invention and “heuretics” that has grown around his work will contribute to the work of spreading the word.
Research Interests[edit]
- Emergy, the work of Howard T. Odum and the related topic of Biophysical economics
- Neuroimmunology
- Neuroscience
- Constructivism (learning theory)
- Multimedia literacy