John Zuern | Department of English

Articulate Animation:
Motion and Meaning in Electronic Literature
I'm writing a book on animation in electronic texts, including not only recent work produced in Flash, Shockwave, and other development environments but also film titles, language-learning resources for children, and other examples of words set in motion. I'm especially interested in how movement becomes meaningful within the digital literary artwork, a question which raises in new ways a number of perennial philosophical questions about signification, knowledge, and aesthetics.

Past Projects

CriticaLink
I've put together a few web-based resources to support my teaching of literary theory. At one time I had the ambition to develop a full-scale online collection of such materials called "CriticaLink," but other goals have led me to slide this initiative to the back burner. They're available for anyone who might find them useful.

Paku'i 'Onaehana (Connecting Technology)
From 2002 to 2004 I served as a consultant on technology and curriculum for the Paku'i 'Onaehana project, a federally funded initiative that seeks to integrate multimedia development into the middle school curriculum for the Hawaian Language Immersion Program (Ke Kula Kaiapuni Hawai'i) in the State of Hawai'i Department of Education. Our goal is to involve students directly in the creation of quality computer-based Hawaiian language materials and curriculum that support meaningful student learning and high-level Hawaiian language proficiency.

Students draw the content of their projects from genealogies of their ‘ohana (family) and mo’olelo (stories) of their home places in Hawai'i. They have opportunities to use traditional and contemporary research methods to interview elders in their communites. Through the use of technology tools, students make meaningful connections between their world in the present to their culture and history of the past in order to guide them into the future. We envision this development of a curriculum and training process as a model for other teachers and school administrators concerned with related issues. The project web site is still under development: http://www.k12.hi.us/~hgoss/. You may wish to download a Hawaiian font package before viewing these pages.

Community, Technology, and Lifelong Learning
(2000-2002 )
Working with colleagues from Kapi'olani Community College, I helped develop a program to create sustainable, community-controlled information technology resources for three underserved communities on O'ahu. The project secured funding from WorldCom's Making a Civic Investment grant program, and for the first two years I served as the site director for two computing centers at Kuhio Park Terrace and Kuhio Homes, the largest public housing facility in Hawai`i. Students from the University of Hawai'i system served as technology trainers for Community Technology Leaders, high school students or recent high school graduate in the participating communities.

Center for English Studies Technology
(1997-2002)
In 1997 Alison Regan and I launched the Center for English Studies Technology as an organization within the UHM Department of English that would manage projects and grants related to community computing and service learning. For four years CEST maintained the Going to Class, Getting Online, and Giving Back project. This service-learning initiative brought university undergraduates together with residents of Kuhio Park Terrace and Kuhio Homes, the largest public housing project in Hawai'i. In addition to helping residents gain computer and Internet skills, students developed online learning and public information materials designed especially for this audience.

Alison and I have written about our experiences with this university-community partnership in "The 'Going to Class, Getting Online, and Giving Back' Project: Advanced Composition and Community Service Learning," Computers and Composition 17.2 (Summer 2000), and "Making the Virtual Real: University-Community Partnerships," Virtual Publics: Policy and Community in an Electronic Age (forthcoming 2003).

The CEST pages are no longer maintained are made available here for reference purposes only.

Sites Pacific
(1997)
While we were all working in the UHM Department of Art's graphic design program, my colleagues Anne Bush, Karen White and I envisioned an online journal devoted to the intersection of culture and technology in the Pacific region. The first issue of the journal was the result of a collaboration among students in Graphic Design, English, and Computer Science enrolled in the experimental course Art 400V, which we offered in Spring 1997.

	John Zuern Associate Professor Department of English University of Hawai'i at Mānoa
	classes : : publications : : current cv: : contact zuern@hawaii.edu office: Kuy 219 phone 808.956.3019 fax 808.956.3083 Kuykendall Hall 402 1733 Donaghho Road Honolulu, HI 96822 USA	Current Projects Articulate Animation: Motion and Meaning in Electronic Literature I'm writing a book on animation in electronic texts, including not only recent work produced in Flash, Shockwave, and other development environments but also film titles, language-learning resources for children, and other examples of words set in motion. I'm especially interested in how movement becomes meaningful within the digital literary artwork, a question which raises in new ways a number of perennial philosophical questions about signification, knowledge, and aesthetics. Past Projects CriticaLink I've put together a few web-based resources to support my teaching of literary theory. At one time I had the ambition to develop a full-scale online collection of such materials called "CriticaLink," but other goals have led me to slide this initiative to the back burner. They're available for anyone who might find them useful. Paku'i 'Onaehana (Connecting Technology) From 2002 to 2004 I served as a consultant on technology and curriculum for the Paku'i 'Onaehana project, a federally funded initiative that seeks to integrate multimedia development into the middle school curriculum for the Hawaian Language Immersion Program (Ke Kula Kaiapuni Hawai'i) in the State of Hawai'i Department of Education. Our goal is to involve students directly in the creation of quality computer-based Hawaiian language materials and curriculum that support meaningful student learning and high-level Hawaiian language proficiency. Students draw the content of their projects from genealogies of their ‘ohana (family) and mo’olelo (stories) of their home places in Hawai'i. They have opportunities to use traditional and contemporary research methods to interview elders in their communites. Through the use of technology tools, students make meaningful connections between their world in the present to their culture and history of the past in order to guide them into the future. We envision this development of a curriculum and training process as a model for other teachers and school administrators concerned with related issues. The project web site is still under development: http://www.k12.hi.us/~hgoss/. You may wish to download a Hawaiian font package before viewing these pages. Community, Technology, and Lifelong Learning (2000-2002 ) Working with colleagues from Kapi'olani Community College, I helped develop a program to create sustainable, community-controlled information technology resources for three underserved communities on O'ahu. The project secured funding from WorldCom's Making a Civic Investment grant program, and for the first two years I served as the site director for two computing centers at Kuhio Park Terrace and Kuhio Homes, the largest public housing facility in Hawai`i. Students from the University of Hawai'i system served as technology trainers for Community Technology Leaders, high school students or recent high school graduate in the participating communities. Center for English Studies Technology (1997-2002) In 1997 Alison Regan and I launched the Center for English Studies Technology as an organization within the UHM Department of English that would manage projects and grants related to community computing and service learning. For four years CEST maintained the Going to Class, Getting Online, and Giving Back project. This service-learning initiative brought university undergraduates together with residents of Kuhio Park Terrace and Kuhio Homes, the largest public housing project in Hawai'i. In addition to helping residents gain computer and Internet skills, students developed online learning and public information materials designed especially for this audience. Alison and I have written about our experiences with this university-community partnership in "The 'Going to Class, Getting Online, and Giving Back' Project: Advanced Composition and Community Service Learning," Computers and Composition 17.2 (Summer 2000), and "Making the Virtual Real: University-Community Partnerships," Virtual Publics: Policy and Community in an Electronic Age (forthcoming 2003). The CEST pages are no longer maintained are made available here for reference purposes only. Sites Pacific (1997) While we were all working in the UHM Department of Art's graphic design program, my colleagues Anne Bush, Karen White and I envisioned an online journal devoted to the intersection of culture and technology in the Pacific region. The first issue of the journal was the result of a collaboration among students in Graphic Design, English, and Computer Science enrolled in the experimental course Art 400V, which we offered in Spring 1997.