role of new media + writing + box

Now I’m suffering from information overload, infoglut, datasmog – however you like to refer to it. I’ve spent so much time trying to figure out how to organize thoughts this week because so many great ideas were provided. These authors (Wysocki, Sirc & Johnson-Eilola) wrote creatively about writing and new media while providing inspiring solutions to the changes they cited. Like the authors took their own advice (to an extent), I’m going to [attempt to] contribute accordingly. As Sirc (121) mentioned Richard Selfe, “Don’t suck the playful, exploratory spirit out of the digital media!”

Joseph Cornell, The Crystal Cage, 1943

Box: A new discussion of new media
After reading these chapters and considering the software available to us, I am amazed that software companies, designers, and consumers are satisfied with the logic of word processing programs (as well as other textual programs). Microsoft Word, which dominates most academic disciplines and professional organizations forces the user to act in a linearly. Wysocki points out “how many word-processing or Web page composing software packages do you  know that encourage scribbling, doodling, writing outside the margins, or writing in anything but straight lines? (Wysocki, 6)” In this sense, a pen and paper provide more freedom. I understand there are programs like InDesign, Illustrator, etc. that do provide a blank canvas (relatively speaking) but most writers would exchange freedom for ease of use (mostly in regards to time) which the other programs don’t really provide. I’m currently writing in Journler that allows for the easy addition multimedia but the format is still top to bottom, left to right. This is also like most blogs. Maybe with the use of touch and smart screens the software will begin to provide further freedoms and in turn different ways of thinking about organization and writing. In one of Wysocki’s suggested activities she asks students to write with a crayon instead of a pen or word processor and then asks if they found themselves thinking differently. I think this assignment would benefit graduate students as well. I’m curious how or if we would think differently. To me, her definition of new media texts is fascinating for this reason because though she steers us away from a technological deterministic mindset [“to look at texts only through their technological origin is to deflect out attentions from what we might achieve mindful that textual practices are always broader than the technological”] but also urges for the awareness of materiality “new media texts are those that have been made by composers who are aware of the range of materialities of texts and who then highlight the materiality (Wysocki, 15). I think it would be interesting for students of our program to hear more about why the term “digital media” was chosen over “new media”. 

Box: New strategies
The following quotes I thought were interesting in regards to how they would relate to evaluating assignments because they discuss untraditional criteria that really are important or that reward creativity and a variety of styles and learning methods.

Some of the most important rhetorical strategies… searching, selection, juxtaposition, and arrangement/layout, as well as the always-important ability to phrase important personal insights in as clear and memorable a way possible”. Sirc calls this the “heartfelt pensée.”

The search engine: what categories to include, what to exclude; which category to put first; etc.,– we can start to argue that these choices involve responsibilities to the reader and to society (Johnson-Eilola, 220)

Caesura — the stylistic device most absent in our curricula (Sirc, 123)

“Like Cornell and Benjamin, as well, it’s the poignant mix of poverty and desire, laced with an aesthetic of the cool” (Sirc, p. 118)

Charles Simic — “This is what Cornell is after[:] How to construct a vehicle of reverie, an object that would enrich the imagination of the viewer and keep him company forever” (44). 

Marcel Duchamp (French, 1887–1968)

Prior to reading the Sirc chapter I really was not familiar with Marcel Duchamp. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a really interesting website full of thematic essays which includes a short bio on Marcel Duchamp along with the of his work that has been donated to the museum. Sometimes we scoff at adding a picture to an essay without a concrete reason for how it adds to the text but sometimes having any visual along with a text helps us/students remember something about the text. Kind of like how a certain smell can bring back memories. Having investigated Marcel Duchamp and arriving at this well-designed site, I am much less likely to forget my encounter with this new character. 

The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Green Box)

Box: visual considerations & visual argument
“There is little or nothing, for example, that encourages someone composing a Web page to think about how and why, in her place and time, her choices of color and typeface and words and photograph and spatial arrangement shape the relationship she is constructing with her audience and hence shape how the audience is asked to act–as active citizens? as passive consumer? There is little or nothing that asks composers and readers to see and then question the values implicit in visual design choices, for such design is often presented as having no value other than functionally helping readers get directly to the point (Wysocki, 6).” This quote along with some of the rhetorical strategies Sirc discusses really inspire me to design a course on the visual rhetoric of new media. Wysocki’s assignment where she asks students to build a visual argument I think could be adapted for the course. Like in 702 where Dr. Gallagher had us create a rhetorical artifact so that we acted as rhetoricians and not only critics– this assignment reminds me of that. I think the idea of visual argument is so interesting because in some cases an argument can be made with no text at all (like many mathematical examples). These arguments definitely suggest images/design/arragment are powerful and when combined with text it’s hard to imagine that all we would examine is how an audience gets “directly to the point”.

technoliteracy autobiography

martintechnoliteracy

distance + learning

Integration into the academic community & visual history of print
Bauman’s (1997) point in the Webb Peterson piece was interesting because it discussed students being “integrated into the academic community” (p.278) and that denying them a physical integration into the community denies them the opportunity for success. But how are we denying them access to the academic community if the academic community is largely online? And, this argument also assumes an online class could never allow for a sense of community when in fact it really could help a lot of students feel more connected (i.e. the CRDM Facebook group). Also I’m not sure how many students build the strongest relationships through “like minded people” that they meet during class. Many students build friendships through other activities they are involved in, through roommates, music interest (which they can discover through networked communities), etc.

However, I do think that Baumann and Webb Peterson were getting at a point I agree with–that there is the opportunity to lose valuable information and/or that replicating face to face interaction is complex. I think personally think that other mediums discarded because of online capabilities can be detrimental as well as the loss of face to face interaction. In Anson’s description of a girl going through an entire college day online I was struck most by her ability to do research for a paper completely online. I realize that so many papers are written without actually physically entering a library but that doesn’t mean that something doesn’t get lost. When researching the history about a 1911 visual artifact in Cleveland this summer I had to use microfiche to read newspaper articles from that year because they had not been digitally scanned or indexed. At first I was horrified that I would have to make an approximate guess about the date the article would have run and then have to scan through hundreds of pages to find the correct information. However, the experience ended up being a lot more memorable than any I’ve had through Lexis Nexis. By scanning through the articles I got to see  advertisements for popular products at the time, where exactly the article was placed, what hierarchy it fell next to other news items and just an overall visual connection to people over 100 years ago. It made me wonder if people would be able to look at old webpages and whether or not they would be indexed so researchers in the future could have the same sort of experience I was having. I’m thinking this won’t be the case since I’ve tried to recover access to old Target Facebook pages that had been removed without any success and that was only after being online about 6 months. I always find myself wishing I could “search” within printed text so I could find a quote I know I read 30 pages ago–wishing that one medium had the characteristics of another. But I think students should have the opportunity to experience the benefits of another medium as well–maybe they would appreciate the physical more permanent characteristics of something printed after being so far removed (like Jennifer). 

Benefits of tenure-track faculty in introductory courses
The articles on distance learning discussed short and long term implications of larger classes that never meet face to face with the instructor. They also made a point to mention the university’s motivations for making these changes. In order to compete with non-academic providers of education, the academic university works towards “high-quality, lower-cost educational programming” but this will result in “continued reduction in full-time, tenure-track faculty” (Anson, p. 57). Most of the examples given refer to introductory courses and focus on universally required composition course. I understand the problems cited regarding physically distances students from each other and from their mentors but I wish the articles would discuss at greater length the benefit of tenure track faculty. In most larger universities already, the introductory courses are not taught by full-time, tenure track faculty and this is partly because full-time faculty do not want to teach introductory courses (of course this is not the main reason but I doubt full-time faculty are outraged when they are continually slotted to teach upper-level courses). So when Anson (1999) mentions the savings promised from the elimination of trained professionals who reduce teacher-student ratios I wonder how it will be so different for an undergraduate to take a course from a trained online instructor vs. a teaching assistant in a lecture hall–in the level of expertise not in regards to face to face interaction (which I don’t know if students receive so much more of in a lecture hall anyway).

emerging technologies + the state of things

After reading academic journal articles (Wesch, Ohmann, Hawisher/Selfe) I was surprised by the Horizon Report’s lack of critical discussion of new technology use in the classroom.  I understand that the goal of the report is different but even in the sections titled “relevance for teaching, learning, and creative expression” the discussion focused mostly on how the technology could be used in the classroom — not whether or not this was always the best decision or potential problems with using the technology. Many of the statements were distracting (e.g. “providing millions of voices to be heard”) in regards to how this applies to the classroom. Why would allowing “millions of voices to be heard” be beneficial in the classroom? I’m not saying it wouldn’t but I’m curious how some of these features result in a better classroom/class experience. 

Generalizations & grassroots video
And, like some of the utopic comments Susan shared in class (digital classrooms remove social barriers)and we’ve read in other classes (Katz & Rice, Warnick, etc.) the Horizon Report makes generalizations that I just don’t see how they can adequately support. “Cost of production [in video] has dropped to nearly zero”. Wah? I agree, free editing software, etc. has dramatically reduced cost – but like Karla and others pointed out in their blogs, not all students come magically equipped with the latest cell phones, computers, internet access once they enter the university. I’ve heard Nick and other students in Dr. Silva’s mobile technologies class discuss how their cell phone video assignments were not so easy to accomplish with all of the readily available technology. Similarly, I’ve thought of having groups present videos they’ve created in COM 257 (media history and theory) but students and the department faculty I consulted with agreed the equipment just wasn’t so easily accessible for a class of 30 and only a handful of students were already creating video on their own.

Grassroots video vs. a paper
A year or two ago, the campus writing and speaking program hosted a professor from UNC (I think he was in the English dept. but I really can’t remember and find any records online or from my notes) who had students make videos instead of writing a traditional paper because he said the format of the assignment was just out of date. He presented a video he had made himself. Only the introduction of the video was original, the remaining was a collection of short clips from other movies. It might have violated copyright agreements and it he admitted that he had no training in film. Some asked the question (that reminds me of Kathy’s question last class), who should be teaching this kind of technology? Should students be making videos in film classes? Why would English spend the time helping students learn this technology when there is so much other information that has to be covered in a semester? Like we’ve seemed to agree on prior, if his intent for the activity focused on the content of the video and not the film theory then maybe it would be appropriate. Most of examples provided by the Horizon Report were of videos used in classes that either focused on video or whose goals were visually oriented (Mobius transformations, studio art). But how could the videos be used for other contexts?

Learning styles
I’ve been thinking about learning styles because I’ve been reading Donald Norman’s “Things that make us smart” and Gardner’s “Theory of Multiple Intelligences”. We’ve mentioned different learning and participation styles in class but I feel like the excitement around new technologies leads us to assume that everyone is a multi-tasker and learns by activity/doing when really some people actually excel or prefer to read and think solitarily about concepts ahead of time. Also, I think Dawn and Jon pointed out that the traditional paper turned directly into a professor was a much more private medium — something many students might prefer. I’m not sure how to negotiate the time that would be needed (for the professor) to provide assignments that allowed students to embark in an activity complementary to their learning style but I think this should be part of the discussion.

Social operating systems
This section in the Horizon Report really gave me some great ideas for future classes I’d like to try (I’m writing this more for my own records than the class, nothing really critical or interesting to say here). The chemistry example (p. 27) of graduate student’s and their research would be really useful to help students get to know one another within the classroom. So often, students sit in class together for a semester with the same interests and ideas and never make the connection where they could share and work together outside of class.

Net Generation: Ch. 5
Wow, I was really impressed with Windham’s article and writing style (probably more so because she is an undergraduate here at State). I think many of us can relate to her introductory anecdote but from different sides of the spectrum. I whole-heartedly empathized with her frustration with someone that doesn’t check his email.  What’s funny is that it doesn’t have to be someone from an older tradition/generation. It just as easily could be a fellow student in the CRDM program. Much of the decision to use various forms of technology seems to relate to personality types. Those with like Windham and myself think: How can someone simply opt out of a system that has been set up for them by the university and embraced by colleagues, students, etc.? But I guess that’s the point, the system wasn’t created or decided upon through their personal vote – so why should they have to conform to that form of communication? I’m currently thinking about my argument to this question.

Driven by hope
I was somewhat surprised when Windham said research found the net generation was driven by hope. In another seminar class last year, our professor commented that he thought our generation seemed less optimistic, less convinced that we could solve the overwhelming problems in the world. He mentioned his generation was driven by the modernist attitude that they could fix problems he insisted our generation was post modernist and not as optimistic or enthusiastic. So, I’m up in the air about this issue. I understand why we might appear optimistic by our enthusiasm for consumer/individual created content but we are also bombarded by so much information and in turn so many problems that it really can be overwhelming (like when Nick drew his map in 701 and said he was depressed by all the environmental problems).

part 2 of foundations + histories

It is kind of an unusual feeling to think about blogging for this class while reading about blogging – especially about blogging tendencies. This week I decided to read some of the other posts before I wrote my own blog and I haven’t decided if that is the way to go or not. It seemed like the articles took so many different directions/topics that I just wasn’t sure where to begin. And sometimes I think my tendency throughout all class readings and discussions is to focus too much on details instead of key themes and messages I should be absorbing. Unfortunately, this is not a set up for a new and improved blog post… just introductory unrelated thoughts.

I think Kathy and Jon both wrote about Kim’s (2007) blog article and the discussion about students responding to peers through comments and how comments will motivate more blogging. I’m beginning to realize it really does make it more fun to post to a blog when you find someone has commented on your writing. However, there is that weird feeling where I wonder if anyone would have commented on a post if Susan hadn’t coaxed us. Is what I wrote interesting or are people just being nice or doing their duty? I think this feeling also goes back to what Susan wrote about having the urge to continually delete posts.

Knowing that the instructor has set parameters for the blog and will also be reading the posts (or at least many) is an issue that has come up in a few of the articles we have read already — the idea of self disciplining. When an issue related to this comes up in the Kim article, the issue of shared blog space vs. personal blog space, it interests me because I don’t really see how the dynamics are so different from one another. If students are still reading each other’s posts, regardless of whether or not they appear on the same screen, how does that create a safer space (especially when students are expected to respond)? Comparing our 704 personal blogs to our shared blog from 701 should serve as a good example but I’m not sure I see a difference in the writing (as far as safety is concerned). However, most feedback I’ve heard about the blogging has been that the personal blogs with the RSS feeds is a better system. But why do we think that? I think Kim is right that ownership of space has a lot to do with it, but what is it really making better?

Another thing I’ve noticed about many of the articles we’ve been reading for the class is commitment to empirical data that is usually discussed as generalizable (maybe not explicitly). So many of these issues the articles address, like in the Palmquist et al. article, are things that may often depend on the individual. This was one of the most interesting articles for me. There findings were interesting and I think the inferences they draw make sense but I found myself thinking ‘the answer to that depends on the individual’. For instance, the discussion of replacing electronic mail for face-to-face contact, they suggest is best for subjects that can be dealt with quickly. However, I think many of us have worked with professors who actually explain themselves better through writing because they have to choose their words more carefully and can’t end their sentences with “see what I mean?” Often students are left feeling like they have to respond ‘yes’ in this situation because of time restraints and pressure from nonverbal cues. This article ends by saying that instructors need to “adapt”. That seems to be true for so much of teaching. Trying something  out, seeing if it works for the individual professor and then adapting depending on the results and the changing context/setting. Also, students also learn to adapt much of the time. In the computer classrooms where they were put in more of a leadership role they acted appropriately.

Finally, a more detailed oriented thought: Morreale et al. (2006) mentions that CAC has not had an impact on the basic course and that there are challenges based on this approach. They base this assertion on the fact that CAC has not replaced most basic courses in higher education. I agree that CAC has not had an impact on the basic course but this is also not the goal of most CAC programs so it doesn’t make sense that they would have an impact. Most CAC programs advocate for the basic course but believe that communicating is important enough within all disciplines that  it should be addressed in those courses as well (i.e. natural resources students having to give an oral presentation). I’m not positive, but I think WAC programs have had much greater success (at least better than 11.1%).