Category Archives: Atlanta connections

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Randy Swearer – The Provost with a Message

  April 20, 2015 , , ,

Dr. Randy Swearer came to Georgia State University to give a 2-part talk titled “Understanding Emerging Trends in Higher Education” last week. Swearer has been provost of Philadelphia University since 2009 – and I find this to be an exceptional detail. It is exceptional because this is the first time I have heard someone with this kind of institutional power speak about a radical change in the system of higher education. Let me give you a summary: Swearer talks about the need to unbundle the university system. This means, in general, that we need to be less focused on disciplinarity, and more focused on a more flattened hierarchical system that relies on training for skills, rather than training for tests. It is student-centered, and it is a place where faculty can focus on a variety of ways to deliver content, rather then the way we have been doing it for the last 150 years. What is more, Swearer has a model that he believes might work. In the picture above, Swearer is showing an overview of his Part 1 talk before he goes into detail about his proposed system. Here, he proposes to disintegrate the existing model, opening up new ways for students to move through the system – minus arbitrary grading, lecture-only classrooms, and other models that critical pedagogues argue against. Once the talks were over, everyone I attended with that works in the Exchange had some very interesting conversation about Swearer’s proposed model. For me – the outcome … Continue reading

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Social Change Project (DLS)

  April 12, 2015 , ,

The Social Change Project is a project that recovers old files and interviews and re-formats them in order to organize and preserve them. This is a brand new Digital Library Services (DLS) project that I have been working on, and it is honestly quite interesting. This process starts off by taking the PDF file of an interview, for example, and converting it to a word document. After that, you create a new document and type up a brand new header for that interview. Once that is done, you then begin the process of re-formatting the interview. This can be a bit of a tedious process, but it allows you to get an in depth look at the content of the interview. Currently, I am working on re-formatting an old interview of a historical Georgia lawyer, Millard C. Farmer. These series of interviews detail his life and some of his most famous court cases. Farmer graduated from the University of Georgia back when racism was still rampant in Georgia. He talks about how his father made the controversial decision to give a job to a black man that was on death row (apparently you can take a man out of prison for work until he is convicted). Farmer spent much of his young childhood working with this man at his father’s company, and he couldn’t stand the fact that this man was going to eventually be killed by court for a case in which there was no serious evidence that he was … Continue reading

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The Spirit of Atlanta: A Quest for Context of 1920’s Atlanta

  March 22, 2015 ,

To search for historic Atlanta is like searching for fragments of city scape blown apart by an enormous shotgun blast. There seems to be no correlation with what is there now and what has been. But it is exactly this process that defines Atlanta. Atlanta is a city constantly reinventing itself. Perhaps we learned that, from the Civil War, we may be forced to reinvent ourselves. Even today, Atlanta struggles with its core identity. From very early in its history a “northernness” was often noted about Atlanta. Henry Grady was one of the foremost champions of this “New South” concept, that we ought to diversify our economy, and become more industrious like our northern neighbors. From these elements an “Atlanta Spirit” grew, a spirit thirsty for capital and economic growth. Modeled after the Chicago World’s Fair, we organized numerous expositions. We compared ourselves, not to Birmingham, Charlotte, Savannah, or even Chicago, but to New York. Atlanta was eager to distance itself form its agricultural neighbors, and with this distance came a disdain for the past. Nothing was sacred in Atlanta’s quest for recognition. No relic should stand in the way of urban growth, progress. It is from this setting that we can define Atlanta history into 5 major eras: Atlanta’s Founding Reconstruction Turn of the Century Atlanta Demolition Reurbanization ATLANTA’S FOUNDING Atlanta began as a simple point from which to begin construction of a railroad. It’s geography was chosen because it seemed a suitable route to the Chattahoochee River, not for its suitability to become a great city. This railroad … Continue reading

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Undergrad Innovation

  March 22, 2015 , , ,

This week I was asked a question when coming up with elements for a project proposal for 3D Atlanta along with Krisna, Alex, Robert, and Dylan: “What has the 3D Atlanta project done for your undergraduate experience?” And while I tried to keep it short (not really) for the proposal, I realized just what this question was asking me. You see, I tend to think of my progress in certain year frames. In 11th grade, I started learning Photoshop and basic design principles of drawing and illustrating. By 12th grade, I had a good knowledge of html. By last year, I had good knowledge of css and started working on Javascript stuff, as well as had a great knowledge of Python through my 2310 class. And now this year is all about execution and applying what I know, especially within 3D modal contexts for the 3D Atlanta project. I find myself looking back and realizing how fast and far everything went. It seems like an exponential curve of innovation. I went from making boxes move on a screen to dealing with dynamic layers of interactive material. And now, thanks to 3D Atlanta and my math classes, I’m starting to look into stuff I thought I wouldn’t touch until the end of days as a college student. Things like projection matrices, raytracing, and other 3D concepts. I find myself reading papers from Disney research in zurich about complicated algorithms and equations that I can start to understand now. For pete’s sake, … Continue reading

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3D Atlanta Updates & Other Tidbits

  March 1, 2015 , , , ,

Hey Guys! Couple of new updates to share with everyone about the 3D Atlanta Project! First off–in two weeks we should have 3 completed models of architecture to show off! Which is pretty exciting! Wasfi, Nathan, and I are hard at work getting them ready! The other SIFs are currently working on compiling their historical research into interactive pieces. What I mean by that is this: If they find something on Coca-Cola from the 1920s that is relevant but maybe we don’t have enough information to fill up,say an entire booklet, we can simply hang up a flier on a building’s wall that a player can interact with. So the question then–is what is this interactivity supposed to look like? After Discussing a lot of different options, we came up with the simplified point-and-click idea. The point-and-click paradigm is well known and intuitive. We aren’t trying to create a new paradigm of interactivity–rather utilize pre-existing paradigms of interactivity to change a paradigm of educational interest and engagement. So–“Point-and-click”–which some of you might be familiar with from the ubiquitous mystery search games that are all over app stores and Steam, or from certain classics from Sierra or Lucas Arts in the 90s (Secret of Monkey Island, Quest for Glory, etc.) and perhaps the more well-known Myst series. In our environment–although it is a full 3D environment from a first-person perspective–the point-and-click interface simply means than when the player’s cursor,(which can be controlled from a mouse, or if the object is simply … Continue reading