Scholarly Life of a Committed Technofile

One of the things I love about this conference is that it keeps me challenged. I’ve learned about technologies, or the applications of technologies, that I’ve never heard of, or imagined. I’ve had wonderful conversations with people who know a whole heck of a lot more about technology than I do. Part of the reason is that I’m a faculty member…we are in the minority here (my first conference where this is the case). And, I’m finding that a lot of the faculty here are new media faculty…they teach websites, digital photography, various computer and art technologies. In other words, they are faculty who teach the production of new media and therefore this is a content field conference for me. I’m the wacky English and Film instructor (even though I am in the process of developing digital humanities curriculum) who does not necessarily use any of these technologies regularly. So what is my point you ask…basically I’m out of my league here. There are lots of people who can talk in codes that I have no idea what they mean. More than once I’ve leaned over to someone and ask “what is XXXX?” Blissfully, everyone has been smashingly sweet and given me the answer w/o laughing in my face (now later in their room…???). I guess this is all to say that this is another reason I’ll try to come back to NMC regularly. When I’m hanging out with my faculty colleagues, I tend to be the big fish when we talk about technology. I’m the one who is explaining what various technologies and terms mean. And I do believe it is my ethical responsibility to work with my colleagues when they ask for help because, like here at NMC, I regularly go to others to ask for help about things I don’t know or understand. And NMC has just become another set of more knowledgeable colleagues and friends that I can come to for help, knowledge, and inspiration.

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