Author Archives: Ben Miller

About Ben Miller

Benjamin Miller is a Ph.D. candidate in the English department of the CUNY Graduate Center, where he has completed all requirements for the Interactive Technology and Pedagogy certificate program. His dissertation will use distant reading techniques to examine the dynamics of research- and discourse­ communities within recent doctoral-level scholarship in composition and rhetoric.

Posts by Ben Miller

How to Post Audio using SoundCloud

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Ben Miller

Want to create a professional looking audio player like the one above? See below for a how-to screencast.

Note: Thumbnail image accompanying audio is courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/catryan/2274255618 and is excluded from remix permission.

Verite Timelines, a.k.a. timeline.js

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Ben Miller

Hi, all! Here’s how to create the nifty timeline that I demonstrated in class on Monday, 4/22:

  1. Open the appropriate Google spreadsheet from the list below. (I copied them all from a template available on the timeline.js website, just to save time getting the groups set up; if you want to create timelines on your own eportfolios, it’s pretty easy.)
  2. Without changing the headings in the file, add data one line at a time.
    • Leave the examples in to see what each row should look like, then delete them at the end.
    • The only required fields are Start Date and Headline, but it would be great to add a one-sentence explanation of the event and some kind of media (an image, a web page, a video) — in which case, you’ll definitely want to add a credit for your source.
    • Because this is a google spreadsheet, all your group members can edit — at the same time (or not, no worries).

And that’s it! I’ll already have the timeline posts created, and they’ll automatically pull in data from your spreadsheet. But for the record, for when you want to create your own timelines, what I did was this:

  1. In the spreadsheet, click File > Publish to the web.
  2. Go to http://timeline.verite.co/#embed. Type in the URL of your spreadsheet in the appropriate box. Make any other font/style adjustments you like. Leave the “wordpress plugin” box unchecked, since it’s a little broken right now.
  3. Copy the “embed code,” including the iframe tags, and go back to WordPress: paste this on the Text tab of any post or page. Wherever that code goes, your timeline will appear!

Here are the links to your spreadsheets:

Chinese: Nomi, Polina, SiHun, and Tom

Dominicans: Brandon, Daniel, Nastassia, Yamel

Haitians: Alessandra, Ben, Jeffrey, and Michael

Jamaicans: David, Jackie, Jennafer, Sarah

Mexicans: Jon, Konstantin, and Zara

 

Zotero: your all-in-one citation manager

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Ben Miller

If you haven’t heard about it yet, you probably want to check out Zotero: a free research, bibliography, and annotation tool. It lives in your browser, can automatically capture citation-relevant information from library catalogs, and will also store a local copy of attached pdfs or screenshots — so you can read them on the subway, for example.

This program will change your life. Click here for installation details.

  1. Register for a free account at https://www.zotero.org/user/register/.
  2. Download Zotero at http://www.zotero.org/download/. Note that Zotero does not work with Internet Explorer, and that if you’re not using Firefox you’ll download two files: the Zotero standalone app, and the connector of your choice.
  3. Open the Zotero pane, either by running Standalone or in Firefox by clicking on the Zotero button at the bottom right corner. Click the gear button and select Preferences. Go to the Sync tab and enter your account information there. Now Zotero will sync your files and references to their servers, so you won’t lose them even if your computer dies.

How to Scale, Crop, and Embed Images in Posts (or Pages)

Posted on February 18, 2013 by Ben Miller

Thinking about Genre and Media

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Ben Miller

A zooming presentation on writing with audience expectations in mind. To access the accompanying notes, log in at http://bit.ly/Uw9svG using the email address associated with this site.

Instructional Technology, My Fellow New Yorkers

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Ben Miller
Benjamin Miller

Ben enjoys leaning against walls

Benjamin Miller, a third-generation American (of Ashkenazi Jewish descent) and a sixth-year Ph.D. candidate in English/Composition at the CUNY Graduate Center, is delighted to be joining this site as an Instructional Technology Fellow. Ben has taught academic writing at Hunter College and at Columbia University, where he also taught creative writing while earning an MFA in poetry; last year, he worked in Writing Across the Curriculum at Lehman College. His first book of poems, Without Compass, is forthcoming from Four Way Books, and his first academic article – entitled “A Link to the Writing Process: Metaphor, Writer’s Block, and The Legend of Zelda” – will be included in the collection Rhetoric / Composition / Play, forthcoming from Palgrave Macmillan.

Ben’s ongoing interest in data visualization, as evidenced in his dissertation work on mapping the methods of Composition/Rhetoric, carries over into The Peopling of New York City, where he hopes to use interactive maps and charts to explore the relationships among people, space, time, and large data sets.

Ben occasionally enjoys speaking of himself in the third person, albeit mostly in the context of author bios.

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