Re: pointcast "push" in WC or Comp?

[jwerchan@osulima2.lima.ohio-state.edu (James E. Werchan)]

>Here's a little history on the development of "push" technology which
>might or might not shed some light on us potential use in WCs..... That's
the >brave new corporate internet the Wharton School of Business envisions.
>John T. Kennedy
.....................

Yes, John, I understand this.  What I wanted some focus on was the use of a
local pointcast server machine.  The pointcast-published commercial stuff
out there in the big world is of little consequence for comp & WC missions,
I figure.  Wharton's brave new ideology for the big world aside, they were
using it internally to disseminate info to them that needed it, AND they
were using pointcast to enable their grad students to do some of the
disseminating themselves.

Reminds me of a HS teacher friend out in the west Texas outback who started
getting panicky about the computerized world invading his peace and quiet,
so he decided, "Hell, I'll just invade back at them."

Now I'm as queasy as you are about the politics of "push" technology, but
when Pointcast is giving away the server software, and all I'd have to do is
find an NT machine to run it on (and I think it's already up and running as
a file server on our LAN),  I figure I'd be missing a good bet not to
examine it for good pedagogical potential.

Speaking of that pedagogical potential, I'm trying to figure out how to set
up some form of mostly extra-curricular (but maybe with some English credit
potential) campus publication.   We're a small branch of Ohio State, with
~1200 students, and there is no LOCAL student publication.  It has struck me
that our students are being asked to learn to write but the environment has
no venue for their written ideas (save for trying to get A's in class).
That seems sort of disingenuous of us, I figure.  And our commuter
population has so little sense of community anyway.  Since we have no dorms,
and students come and go throughout the day, it looks like a job for
asynchronous communication, or --- ta da --- LITERACY.  

Now the cynics here would say our students see no need for sense of
community; otherwise they'd have made it happen already.  And they say
classroom instruction is all that matters, and that writing clear class
reports that assimilate-and-regurgitate is the only reason for writing
instruction in the first place.  This scares me.

So, computers aside, instruction has all the figurative "push" power, and
students have no "push" power of their own.  Now, my intention is to give
them some "push" of their own, on line or on paper or both.  

We have some good writers here, and faculty say they read some very
compelling stories and reports in their courses, but there's nowhere for
those stories and reports to go except to be distilled into letter grades in
a little green book.  

This potential student "push" power is building up pressure with no
institutional way to release it for good purpose.  Frustration levels are
high; we have to be worried about student retention and completion-of-studies.

And that's the scoop behind by my query about "push" technology.

What can I do?

james w

"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
                    Dr. James Werchan
(or maybe it's just someone who kinda looks a lot like him)
              Ohio State University at Lima
                    4240 Campus Drive
                     Reed Hall #135
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                    werchan.1@osu.edu					jwerchan@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu
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