This is from my first post and sums up what this blog is about:

This is not my first blog and it probably won’t be my last.  Despite having taught with and about blogs, wikis and other Web 2.0-ish tools, I can’t find my way to post regularly on a blog. Maybe it has to do with insecurity about what I write, fear of logorrhea, not quite enough vanity, or the fear that no one will ever read it, but for whatever reason it’s been a no go to this point.

Now thought the time seems ripe to try again.  With the Academic Commons blooming, the tools readily at my disposal, and a developed background of experience teaching with and about interactive technology in educational (ITP, short for Interactive Technology and Pedagogy from here on out) settings it seemed like I should try to share my experiences and see if anyone cares.  So, this blog will be going here and there in pursuit of some kind of . . . well something to be determined.  What I intend to do is muse on how the way I plan my classes is influenced by technology and how the implementation of that technology fails or succeeds on a general basis and with specific examples.  Since I have three classes going full bore right now that are all using blogs/wikis/etc. there should be some good stuff.

I hope that you join me in my (mis)adventures and that you can provide me with feedback about what makes sense, what doesn’t, what you would borrow, and what you wouldn’t do and why.  See you in the ether.

Now for a little about me:

My name is Kimon Keramidas.  I am a recent gradute of the CUNY Graduate Center having received my PhD in Theatre and also completed the Certificate Program in Interactive Technology and Pedagogy.  During my journeys around the New York education scene I have taught in the CUNY Online Baccalaureate program, at Marymount Manhattan College, Cooper Union, and in the GC’s ITP certificate program.  Courses have included Digital Information in the Contemporary World (Online BA), American Drama and Theatre (MMC), Media/Performance (MMC), New Media (Cooper), and Interactive Technology and the University (GC ITP).  I always use interactive technology as part of my classes to expand the types of experiences my students have but also believe in using student presentaitons, walking tours and other activites to make courses diverse and enjoyable for my students.  Most of all I love teaching and am constantly looking for new ways of enhancing learning environments for students and also making teaching more fun for me.

As far as my writing goes, my research centers on how technological and cultural developments have influenced contemporary media and how those developments have subsequently helped shape our society.  In particular, I focus on the relationships between political economy, texts, and patterns of consumption as they pertain to those media affected by the digital age, such as gaming, film, television, and the Internet.  I have developed this approach vis-à-vis my study of theatre as a process of cultural production.  In addition I am looking to turn portions of my dissertation “The Pay’s the Thing: Intellectual Property and the Political Economy of Contemporary American Theatrical Production” into a book in the near future.

Outside of academia I have my own consulting firm KIOSC (Keramidas Information and Operating Systems Consultation).  KIOSC does web and systems design for non-profit and arts organizations and works with groups like the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, PreludeNYC, Abingdon Theatre Compnay, and the Center for the Advanced Study of Education to increase their web presence and improve their IT infrastructure.