Friday, July 30, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Camille's Life In The Digital Age
As mentioned before, I have a dualistic personality. On one hand I am very extroverted and on the other I have seriously given thought to designing a Tshirt that says "Doh Bodda Me!" -Don't Bother Me-...except I don't wear tshirts except to sleep in ever so often. But still this rather polarised way of operating has had significant impact on my relationships with people. From boyfriends to friends to family to acquaintances, they all grow terribly confused to find me availing and open, the life of the party and inviting one day to haughty, introspective, uncommunicative and impatient on the day following. Facebook has gone a long way to solving this dilemma for me.
Forgive the informercial tone, for I'm not plugging Facbook which isn't paying me for this feature, though it could well afford to...*insert the familiar why-am-I-not-business-minded-in-addition-to-being-a-storyteller regret that rears its head every now and again that wonders why on earth did I not think of this concept enabling me to return home and retire RICH here*
But back to Facebook. Seriously, this site allows me to keep in touch with a host of people: friends from kindergarten, Primary School, High School, undergrad, both my graduate school programmes, and my certificate course at Columbia University, with my Trini party crew, my fellow political protesters, and cool professors etc etc etc. But, and this is the fabulous element, Facebook enables me to do so without feeling imposed upon, overly accessed and available, drained of my energy etc.
With FB, I do not always have to be on the phone in order to keep in touch with this myriad bunch. The phone is no longer the only or primary means by which we keep in touch, thus my time is my own. I retain my space and energy and I still check in -- but on my time -- thus never appearing rude or dismissive. And actually I find that this site is an even better way to know the people in one's lives...which enables better relationships between us all.
People use FB as their diaries, as their place of venting, as their social planner, as their transcript etc. Just by checking someone's page I get to know how their day is going, what they've been up to, what new programme they're entering, which job they're leaving, who they're now dating, whose marriage is failing...yes it satisfies the voyeuristic in us all as well :-) But honestly, it makes communication when we do meet up to lime/hang out, party, for dinner and drinks, for meetings, in class etc that much quicker...we've already covered the bases and are up to speed.
Plus, as I've gotten older I've learnt how to stratify "friends"...in my teens and early twenties I'd grieve that this person wasn't that or the other. Now I've grown very comfortable with having the very few in a strong intimate circle and then the party group, the academic group etc. Fb allows me to manage these groups without being too estranged or too inauthentically communicative with others relegated to lower rungs in the friendship realm. Basically I get to have my cake and eat it too. I like knowing lots of people but I am very reserved as well.
Plus, FB allows me to take advantage of my favourite form of communication: writing. As a child (I sometimes still do...I was so tempted to buy a quill etc at Barnes and Noble just last week) I used to wish I was born in the letter-writing age -- being a huge Jane Austen and Frances Burney reader only exacerbates such-- but I've come to realise that society has come full circle...we're back to writing again...which is just as I'd have it...though I wish guys would pen some Captain Frederick of Persuasion sort of notes as opposed to pm's on Facebook wondering if you'd like to "hook up"...but hey you take the good with the bad :-)
Last paragraph on Facebook, because seriously I'm writing this at the job that does pay me while Fb doesn't: Fb covers a good many of my web needs. It's the reason I don't have a blog to some extent. I already discuss my moods and state of mind and happenings in my life via notes and status updates etc. Moreover, I get the news on FB. -- I very hardly watch the news per se (don't have that kind of time to discuss why not) and with FB there is little need to. My friends and I share similar interests and they post stories (as do I) about the news in which we are interested...it's like an RSS feed; everything's on the homepage...and thus we all stay informed.
And lastly, in the interest of space and time, I get my reviews on FB....let a new movie, gadget, law come out and my friends not comment on it: never happen. It's an honest way to get feedback on a great many items and ideas in this age in which we live.
Of course, though, I do laugh at myself and my fellow FB junkies when truth-hitting clips such as these come out...but the fact remains, despite such, I haven't disabled my account yet, and as I continue to regulate my privacy and my usage to fit my needs, I have no intention of doing so anytime soon.
Now returning to something I mentioned earlier: reviews.
I am a real researcher at heart. This predisposition, predilection and skill has served me well during my non-creative writing literature courses and those others that required academic papers etc. And while I am quite grateful that those days are over, I still conduct necessary research for my creative writing as well and for my own interests. Please know that before I purchase an ipod, a camera, a trip, a new cosmetic product, a new anything I am on the web for weeks reading reviews. This is one of the best things about the web, fuh real!!! From Amazon to C-net to consumerreports.com to citysearch to blogs and many many others, I check out the data on everything. I get feedback on clubs, restaurants, movies, professors (ratemyprofessors.com) etc. I don't like wasting time --I'm impatient--, I don't like making mistakes, I don't like spending money on nonsense and I like things to cater to me. As such I seek out that which works for me. I go to Amazon and Shelfari and find other readers of Caribbean novels to get recommendations and reviews and then to join in after I've read a book myself. I go to Rottentomatoes and others for current movies and Netflix for my Bollywood films, though I'd pretty much rent anything with Sharukh Khan in it, and I go toIslandmix.com to find out which are the best Trini fetes going on, cuz God forbid I get stuck in a lame or undesirable party. Thus the ability to basically preview everything beforehand makes me a very happy little shopper :-)
Now, the last of my digital age loves (because if I must be really honest with myself, which this class had forced and facilitated, as regards computer technology I have no complaints, I truly love it...yeah children watching porn and all that, but didn't they used to sneak Playboys anyway...as in that time, the same applies now: it's up to parents etc to enforce restrictions...I say that as a non-parent, but still...) I am going to cite my ability to better handle my money online.
I bank online. I mean I really do. I have a penchant for being able to justify any purchase...not really big on deferring gratification...and if I have the money I will spend it. In order to prevent such, I go to my Chase account online and move my money to INGDirect online where it is inaccessible (I don't even know where it goes...where are their offices anyway? hmmmm). If and when I need it again, I have to transfer it and wait two days for it to get to my checking account, with the exception of holidays etc which takes longer. This lack of immediacy works wonders for my ability to budget, save and account for funds for various needs. I also pay my bills online at once, and shop for bigger items online as well. Hereby, I see my money. I can use it, manipulate it etc, without touching it. It never goes through my hand and thus it is free to work independent of my "but, I must have this..." impulses. I get to sit on my MAC, use the claculator widget, make my budget, move the money accordingly and give myself a happy shopping allowance. This banking feature allows me to realistically account for my tendencies and to behave responsibly yet. I love it.
Aside from my PS. that -- though many people cast derision upon such behaviour without realising that that times it serves a greater good -- the internet facilitates email break ups, here ends my tribute to living in the digital age. I remember the day (the memoirist in me) my mother took me to an Expo in The National Stadium when I was about six years old and I first saw a computer. I didn't strayed from that tent for the whole day despite every desperate attempt to lure me from it. I fell in love with the computer then... and I am still in love with its functions now. It's not my profession, but it greatly serves my passions...(do I even need to make mention of the fact that all of my writing pieces are stored on my MAC and can hereby be easily accessed and revised etc? Nah, didn't think so).
:-) Camille
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Bertha's- Final Reflection
Before this class
How do I even begin, I hate to sound a little corny, ok a lot corny but there are some things in life that I believe present themselves to you for a reason much bigger than intended at first. I’m a graduating senior, in fact this is my last class both for my general and English major requirements. I needed to fulfill this requirement as soon possible. As many of you know, the summer courses at CCNY are limited, and due to scheduling conflicts I was not able to register for the only course I could take this summer. After a couple of disappointing visits to the English department I was bummed, it seemed that I was going have to fulfill this requirement in the fall. However, on a final attempt less than a week before this class began, I was given some hope. There was one other class that I could take, it fit my schedule, fulfilled the requirement, and from what they can see there was one opening. I was delighted to learn this, specially when Professor Peele was nice enough to let me in his class, and the rest is digital history as they say. Soon thereafter I began this course eager to learn anything I could on the digital world, specially from an English language perspective. Well, needless to say I was in for big a surprise. Not only would I challenge my views on language and literature, the use/ purpose of these new technologies, but exactly where did I stand in this growing digital world.
First of all, I seemed to have always kept a distance between verbal and visual language. Visual discourse was not really literature in my mind, and I kept my real love for the written word tucked away on dry land. Surely it could not be out in cyberspace. Obviously, this was a biased of mine, specifically of the kind Porter speaks of in his article “ Visualizing English”. But sooner than later I began to realize they need not be exclusive. The visual and the verbal do meet, and if we are literate in the various forms of web/ digital authoring tools we have more choices to tell our stories. In fact design has always been part of writing, as we pointed out in class. The way I portray language is always considered designed, depending on what and who I'm writing to my choices of formatting, spacing and even fonts I use are considered.The most important aspect of this transformation was when I began to realize that all the reasons I loved literature and the written language remained in the new platforms of the visual and verbal coming together, as Stroupe suggests. Peruvian writers Mario Vargas Llosa wrote in an essay “ The early obituary of the book” that literature and writing “ has been, and will continue to be, as long as it exists, one of the common denominators of human experience through which human beings may recognize themselves and converse with each other, no matter how different their professions, their life plans, their geographical and cultural locations, their personal circumstances. “, something I believe is carried over into the new forms of digital writing.
There is a lot of garbage out there in cyberspace, but there is also amazing pieces of digital rhetoric where writers have worked really hard at creating their works. Not only do writers rely on their writing skills to become web authors, but have also probably slaved over the format, the color, hyperlinks, pictures and even videos included in their visual stories, at least I know I have. In many respects, visual rhetoric is clearly harder than just writing for a static piece of paper, since it requires such a varied set of skills. Not taking digital writing on the web seriously because of all the bad writing out there is like not reading a book, because of all bad romance novels at supermarket checkouts. I have a lot more respect for writers putting themselves out there, and utilizing all these new digital tools. My respects to all those with great looking blogs and articles it’s not easy, we are all still learning and with new technologies coming out everyday we probably never stop. On the other hand, our other option is being left “out of the revolution “ as porter suggest. This is not an option for me, I have a great deal to learn and I want to participate along with millions of others I’m bored of being an observer and I look forward to being a prosumer.
Moreover, I have learned a great deal from all my classmates. I was fascinated to hear their stories on how they have incorporated technology in their personal and professional lives, but also I was glad to feel we shared a great deal of the same frustrations with new technology. Furthermore, it's exciting and empowering to have experimented with so many new digital tools, some are extremely useful like diggs and igoogle and can only make my web experience more efficient. Other tools and platforms like twitter, youtube and imovie will come in very handy in my desire to be a prosumer. I plan to use these tools both in my personal and academic life. In addition, I have found a very rewarding and useful purpose for all things digital. I am convinced that I can make a difference in the lives of others with the help fo new media. The internet is a powerful source for online activism, but it also heightens the power to bring people together in person.
Lastly this class has also given me more confidence to share my voice. I had overcome being exposed to other people’s opinion of my writing in workshop classes, but publishing my thoughts out on the web for anyone to see and respond to was very different. I fought hard to overcome it, and a couple of weeks into class I was posting regularly. I now have a blog on tmblr which I plan to keep up once in a while, so I guess you can say I'm cured.
Thanks everyone I really enjoined your presentations and I was inspired by all your creative choices. Deb your piece was very captivating specially the audio part with the black and white text scrolling on the screen, Erienne your piece showed me how poetry can be even more emotional when it combines audio, video and text.
Gracias,
Bertha Arenas
After this class
How do I even begin, I hate to sound a little corny, ok a lot corny but there are some things in life that I believe present themselves to you for a reason much bigger than intended at first. I’m a graduating senior, in fact this is my last class both for my general and English major requirements. I needed to fulfill this requirement as soon possible. As many of you know, the summer courses at CCNY are limited, and due to scheduling conflicts I was not able to register for the only course I could take this summer. After a couple of disappointing visits to the English department I was bummed, it seemed that I was going have to fulfill this requirement in the fall. However, on a final attempt less than a week before this class began, I was given some hope. There was one other class that I could take, it fit my schedule, fulfilled the requirement, and from what they can see there was one opening. I was delighted to learn this, specially when Professor Peele was nice enough to let me in his class, and the rest is digital history as they say. Soon thereafter I began this course eager to learn anything I could on the digital world, specially from an English language perspective. Well, needless to say I was in for big a surprise. Not only would I challenge my views on language and literature, the use/ purpose of these new technologies, but exactly where did I stand in this growing digital world.
First of all, I seemed to have always kept a distance between verbal and visual language. Visual discourse was not really literature in my mind, and I kept my real love for the written word tucked away on dry land. Surely it could not be out in cyberspace. Obviously, this was a biased of mine, specifically of the kind Porter speaks of in his article “ Visualizing English”. But sooner than later I began to realize they need not be exclusive. The visual and the verbal do meet, and if we are literate in the various forms of web/ digital authoring tools we have more choices to tell our stories. In fact design has always been part of writing, as we pointed out in class. The way I portray language is always considered designed, depending on what and who I'm writing to my choices of formatting, spacing and even fonts I use are considered.The most important aspect of this transformation was when I began to realize that all the reasons I loved literature and the written language remained in the new platforms of the visual and verbal coming together, as Stroupe suggests. Peruvian writers Mario Vargas Llosa wrote in an essay “ The early obituary of the book” that literature and writing “ has been, and will continue to be, as long as it exists, one of the common denominators of human experience through which human beings may recognize themselves and converse with each other, no matter how different their professions, their life plans, their geographical and cultural locations, their personal circumstances. “, something I believe is carried over into the new forms of digital writing.
There is a lot of garbage out there in cyberspace, but there is also amazing pieces of digital rhetoric where writers have worked really hard at creating their works. Not only do writers rely on their writing skills to become web authors, but have also probably slaved over the format, the color, hyperlinks, pictures and even videos included in their visual stories, at least I know I have. In many respects, visual rhetoric is clearly harder than just writing for a static piece of paper, since it requires such a varied set of skills. Not taking digital writing on the web seriously because of all the bad writing out there is like not reading a book, because of all bad romance novels at supermarket checkouts. I have a lot more respect for writers putting themselves out there, and utilizing all these new digital tools. My respects to all those with great looking blogs and articles it’s not easy, we are all still learning and with new technologies coming out everyday we probably never stop. On the other hand, our other option is being left “out of the revolution “ as porter suggest. This is not an option for me, I have a great deal to learn and I want to participate along with millions of others I’m bored of being an observer and I look forward to being a prosumer.
Moreover, I have learned a great deal from all my classmates. I was fascinated to hear their stories on how they have incorporated technology in their personal and professional lives, but also I was glad to feel we shared a great deal of the same frustrations with new technology. Furthermore, it's exciting and empowering to have experimented with so many new digital tools, some are extremely useful like diggs and igoogle and can only make my web experience more efficient. Other tools and platforms like twitter, youtube and imovie will come in very handy in my desire to be a prosumer. I plan to use these tools both in my personal and academic life. In addition, I have found a very rewarding and useful purpose for all things digital. I am convinced that I can make a difference in the lives of others with the help fo new media. The internet is a powerful source for online activism, but it also heightens the power to bring people together in person.
Lastly this class has also given me more confidence to share my voice. I had overcome being exposed to other people’s opinion of my writing in workshop classes, but publishing my thoughts out on the web for anyone to see and respond to was very different. I fought hard to overcome it, and a couple of weeks into class I was posting regularly. I now have a blog on tmblr which I plan to keep up once in a while, so I guess you can say I'm cured.
Thanks everyone I really enjoined your presentations and I was inspired by all your creative choices. Deb your piece was very captivating specially the audio part with the black and white text scrolling on the screen, Erienne your piece showed me how poetry can be even more emotional when it combines audio, video and text.
Gracias,
Bertha Arenas
After this class
Ana's Final Reflection
As I reflect on the knowledge that I have ascertained by being a student in this class, I can proudly say that I am a more rounded person when it comes to digital texts. In my field of study texts are very conventional and not innovative. What is being said is more important than how it is being said. Before the course I was not familiar with Prezi, Wordle, or Jing. I have since then become a big fan of Prezi and Jing; I have incorporated them into my daily work life and am teaching my co-workers how to use it as well. Learning is something that not everyone ascertains in the same way, for example, in this class I have learned more about technology then I have learned in four years of college. Had I known about some of these applications previously, I would have incorporated them into my academic presentations.
My view of text was very linear, if the text did not form part of a book then reading that text or contemplating it was optional and not mandatory. Digital Literacy assists users in the developing critical thinking skills that may not otherwise flourish with conventional methods. Literacy is defined as the ability to read and write, or the ability to use language to read, write, listen, and speak. In modern contexts, the word refers to reading and writing at a level adequate for communication, or at a level that lets one understand and communicate ideas in a literate society, so as to take part in that society. Digital Literacy incorporates all the above plus the ability to create, comprehend, edit, and utilize digital technologies presented through multiple formats to satisfy an intended purpose.
What does this mean as students of digital literacy we have the obligation to pass it along, whether in the classroom, in the work force or at home. If I had to describe myself post this course, I would say that I am digitally re-literate. I added the above video, so the teachers of today and tomorrow can better visualize and understand that digital media affects us all, the young and the old.
I ended up taking this class because another course that I was suppose to take got canceled. I am truly grateful that happened. This class was a blessing in disguise.
Viewing Camille's Videos
ISIS...I really enjoyed using Garage Band and iMovie too in making this video.
I even had fun using a *gasp* PC and making my photostory.
Neither of these are perfect but they are the beginning of something new and wonderful. Cheers to creating outside the comfort zone! :-)
Camille
I even had fun using a *gasp* PC and making my photostory.
Neither of these are perfect but they are the beginning of something new and wonderful. Cheers to creating outside the comfort zone! :-)
Camille
Ms.Red's Reflection
Farewell, ladies and gentlemen...Don't Cry For Me (Argentina)...couldn't help it :-) though It's so hard to say goodbye *tear*
Because, really, I thought we'd go to the end of the road :-(
Okay, but seriously...while we/I won't be returning to the freezing computer lab every Tuesday and Thursday, what I have learnt therein will go with me...and that's the hallmark of a good class.
Personally, I wish that I was less tired from the first summer class I took and from personal matters (emergencies arise at the worst times, don't they?), but I yet feel that this critical practice class has had and will have a definitive effect on my writing.
I did not come to this class expecting to learn how to be an IT technician (I hear they have to wear monkey suits everyday, ewww...and isn't that line of employ undergoing serious retrenchment in this recession, hmmm, so much for "get a stable computer job" lol), I registered for it in hopes that it would teach me new tools to enhance my writing and ways to market myself as a writer. It all comes back to writing...my writing.
As such, I have learnt that, as per my fourth attempt to create a blog, I am simply not a blogger. Sorry, there is no overcoming this. What I have learnt, however, is that there are quite a few blogs that I enjoy following rather (welcome to the 21st century, me...yaaaay!) and how to add them to an RSS feed and to make my life easier by having them all in one place. I've learnt how to link pictures to my pieces, how to resize and to redefine their tone according to my liking; how to play with my words in font, colour, configuration and code; how to think outside the box (thanks Prezi), what a rich playground the internet is (props to Stumble) and how to, most importantly, embrace change.
As a Gemini, I have two personalities and personas (well more than two, but for the sake of simplicity nuh) and these two vie as relates to the idealistic, romantic, 'rural' etc versus the technological. As such, while I use Facebook...a lot... I have battled that this "ought not to be" the way this world communicates, while I like giving quick, easy updates about myself, I have declared that Twitter represents and reflects a dysfunctional, self-promotional, egocentric etc way of being in the world that is better suited to teens tragically fallen victim to being raised in "The Real World" era. Now I have reconciled myself to my enjoyment of these mediums and embrace them in recognition of that which they positively enable, including my ability to gather more information and to communicate more widely. These forms need not be the fall out of disconnection but can, as learnt via practice and the (at times too lengthy) articles that espoused such, be better facilitators of connection...which is what writing is all about....so full circle back to my reason for being, and for taking this class :-)
But the biggest benefit of all to me...aside from meeting some very cool, and some very interesting characters (ahhh, the joys of being in a Fine Arts programme where commune "the personalities"), was the final project...and how fitting that it should be the arbiter of 20% of our grade ;-) But this is not about a grade for me...I'm a genius, a letter holds no impact upon such. What it is about is the fact that I got to be pushed into venturing further in the development of my craft. While it was a hurried and harried process, the knowledge that I acquired in making my video was sooooo worth it. Ooooh, if I didn't love my MAC before I so do now :-) Garage Band has changed my life. I shall be recording my poems et al by this means for a long time hereafter. I am looking forward, too, to shooting my own video and playing with the footage as per the tools attained in this class and to making my little iMovies, yaaaay. I'm excited!..and thrilled thus that I subjected myself and my summer to this concentrated, compact class that allowed me to do something I've always wanted to do...(isn't that the case with us all though?; we took like ducks to water to that which we had always planned on doing anyway...shout out to you subversive whimsies and your ardent blogging, lol)...So here's to more (and better developed)
oral/video presentations of my writing that may or may not be posted on Youtube hereafter...but at least I know how to should I choose too :-)
So if you do Stumble across my movies enjoy, send me a Tweet and remember I'm an artist and sensitive about my sh!t (Erykah Badu, Tyrone...in case you didn't know), lol...
Enjoy the rest of your summer, all...we've earned it.
Camille
Deborah's Final Reflection (Great Class--Thanks to All)
My mind jumbled with virtual matter from a month long trek through cyberspace. The discourse of educators on the page, screen and in class have enhanced my perspective. I have often searched for the source of what appears to me as cultural dysfunction. My concerns about our "education" system have been confirmed by Jessie and Humaria sharing their classroom and board of Ed. experiences, as well as Thierry's presentation. It seems "No Child Left Behind" concerned with the child is neglecting thousands of children and misdirecting important resources. Is this the fault of over theorizing not put into practical applications? Is the focus on digital literacy creating not just a divide but a chasm and ever growing under-class?
Berth's presentation was inspirational. I had worked with children of abuse volunteering in the NY Foundling Hospital but through Tweeter and social networking I maybe able to put my time to more effective use. It seems to me that the print/digital discourse is premature, and somewhat elitist unless it benefits society as a whole from the bottom up. Bertha appears to have hit on an accessible solution.
Bakhtin is top on my reading list for this month between classes. Although, I have referred to The Dialogic Imagination and have been familiarized with Bakhtin's discourse on literature through other sources, Stroupe's essay has whet my desire for a direct encounter with Baktin. Until we are conscious of how the language we employ reinforces cultural bias--until we question our rhetorical choices not from our closed perspective but within their cultural context the chasm will grow. Doesn't conscious interaction in each infinitesimal encounter make the greatest impact? Won't understanding the source of our biases unconscious seepage into our daily encounters and language do at least as much good as volunteering our time and money? And isn't social networking, as Bertha has pointed out, one tweet a day effortless?
I don't know how much use I will make of my newly acquired digital tool literacy, however my interaction with the page is informed and this will inform my writing. I do know Digital Literacies, (readings, responses, tools, projects) Professor Peele and the other class members have been invaluable to my cultural and human comprehension. Aren't new levels of awareness the most useful literacy?
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Stacy-Ann's Reflection
Coming from an online marketing background, I was truly intrigued with and content to see that the English department at City College offered a digital literacy course because most institutions are well behind the digital curve.
Prior to taking the course, I had many expectations. I imagined that we’d touch on the history of the web and how it has impacted our world. And, we did. I expected that we’d talk about social media entities like Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, and MySpace because they are the most prominent digital tools. And, we have. I also expected that we’d spend the rest of the course focused on how to teach using these tools while discussing tools like blackboard and discovering other teaching or education specific digital resources. We did a little of this.
Although I was introduced to several new digital tools like Jing, Wordle, WordPress, and Prezi, I was hoping to also learn about education specific digital tools. Still, what I learned about the tools mentioned was…amazing. It’s surprising how much I have used these tools since their introduction to. I have also shared them with my former co-workers in online advertising. All of hem were amazed at these tools and have adopted one or more into their daily work routine. However, Jing has been the “star player” because in online marketing many screenshots (computer screenshots) are taken for client presentations. For example, when a campaign launches, screenshots of the online ads (on various sites) are taken and send to the client in a PowerPoint presentation as proof the campaign has launched.
What has impacted me most in this course is the realization that it is impossible for there to be a “digital guru” because the web is so vast and expansive. A new application, website, or digital product is being create every minute of each day. We can only begin to scratch the surface of the digital relm with the assistance of computer based programs like search engines (i.e., Google, Yahoo, Bing, AOl) or plug-in tools like “Stumble Upon” and through subscribing to RSS feeds. Although I feel besieged by the vastness of digital life, I have become obsessed with Stumble Upon. Everyday I spend time on it and find a new site to add to my list of favorite links. Taking this course has been eye opening as well as over whelming. There is so much available in the digital space, but it’s up to the digital user to figure out what is essential to their life, interest, work, education, etc.
I was also impacted by the idea that everything we do online is a form of composition. The fonts and colors and images and videos we use to tell a story are all part of composition. I used to only think of this is digital communication, and outside of blogs and online newspapers, I didn’t consider the design of a website as composition. I am now able to see the two as one, working together to create the look, feel, story...
The final project was a "blast" that took me out me comfort zone. I have a MacBook and I hardly get to explore all its features and programs because I have never had a real reason, project, or deadline. Now that I am more comfortable with iMovie, for instance, I'll be able to create more videos. I'm actually going to work on two videos: one in the coming week to post on the Facebook page of my church youth group and the other at the end of August documenting my mission trip to Chiapas, Mexico.
The whole process revitalized my love for the arts and kindled a new passion for the digital arts. I have been wanting to complete a graphic and computer design certificate program at FIT, but perhaps I'll look into an MFA program that combines technology and creative writing. These are two areas of interest in my life. I'd love to be able to design my own website, book covers, business cards, etc. I'd also like to explore documentary film making and fiction writing. For these to overlap, I realize I'd need to pursue an individualized study graduate program. This could all be wishful thinking. But, until I decide what to do, I can always fiddle with different programs and go through the "discovery process" involved when exploring new media.
Appreciating, enjoying, learning, and growing from the digital discovery process is what I have taken away from this course.
The final project was a "blast" that took me out me comfort zone. I have a MacBook and I hardly get to explore all its features and programs because I have never had a real reason, project, or deadline. Now that I am more comfortable with iMovie, for instance, I'll be able to create more videos. I'm actually going to work on two videos: one in the coming week to post on the Facebook page of my church youth group and the other at the end of August documenting my mission trip to Chiapas, Mexico.
The whole process revitalized my love for the arts and kindled a new passion for the digital arts. I have been wanting to complete a graphic and computer design certificate program at FIT, but perhaps I'll look into an MFA program that combines technology and creative writing. These are two areas of interest in my life. I'd love to be able to design my own website, book covers, business cards, etc. I'd also like to explore documentary film making and fiction writing. For these to overlap, I realize I'd need to pursue an individualized study graduate program. This could all be wishful thinking. But, until I decide what to do, I can always fiddle with different programs and go through the "discovery process" involved when exploring new media.
Appreciating, enjoying, learning, and growing from the digital discovery process is what I have taken away from this course.
Life in the Digital Age
Life in the Digital Age
There are a lot of wacky and wonderful things about living in a Digital Age. For this assignment, we were asked to choose three, so in no particular order:
1.) Blogs about TV shows
I don't know when this happened exactly, but watching my favorite shows has become a truly communal experience. I used to watch TV at home and then maybe if it was a season finale with a great cliffhanger, talk about it the next day with friends.
But now, for my very favorite shows (LOST, Friday Night Lights, Project Runway, The Office, 30 Rock), the experience is not complete unless I read BLOGS and RECAPS with viewer comments the next morning. I don't really understand why this is so important to me since recaps tell me what I already know because I watched it myself (!!!) but honestly I can't concentrate the next day if I don't check the blogs to see if other people were as angry/shocked/confused/amused as I was.
My favorite TV blogs are What's Alan Watching... TV Watch on EW.com.... and the uber-snarky and hilarious Television Without Pity. When I read these blogs, I giggle and snort or get misty-eyed and emotional all over again. Perhaps weird, but true.
2.) Digital junk mail
My least favorite thing about living in a digital age is the way I get bombarded with junk mail about erectile dysfunction.
There are a lot of wacky and wonderful things about living in a Digital Age. For this assignment, we were asked to choose three, so in no particular order:
1.) Blogs about TV shows
I don't know when this happened exactly, but watching my favorite shows has become a truly communal experience. I used to watch TV at home and then maybe if it was a season finale with a great cliffhanger, talk about it the next day with friends.
But now, for my very favorite shows (LOST, Friday Night Lights, Project Runway, The Office, 30 Rock), the experience is not complete unless I read BLOGS and RECAPS with viewer comments the next morning. I don't really understand why this is so important to me since recaps tell me what I already know because I watched it myself (!!!) but honestly I can't concentrate the next day if I don't check the blogs to see if other people were as angry/shocked/confused/amused as I was.
My favorite TV blogs are What's Alan Watching... TV Watch on EW.com.... and the uber-snarky and hilarious Television Without Pity. When I read these blogs, I giggle and snort or get misty-eyed and emotional all over again. Perhaps weird, but true.
2.) Digital junk mail
My least favorite thing about living in a digital age is the way I get bombarded with junk mail about erectile dysfunction.
I don't understand how websites like Google can track my buying habits and favorite stores, but they can't figure out that I don't want or need Viagra.
3.) The ability to spell
Basically, it's gone. I used to take pride in my p-r-e-t-e-r-n-a-t-u-r-a-l spelling ability, but in this digital age, spelling skill is like an
a-p-p-e-n-d-i-x. You don't need it! Thanks to spell-check on the computer, no one knows that I am a champion speller unless I tell them. It's very unseemly to brag, but really, now you have to because it's not immediately apparent :)
Spelling should be stressful, like this:
3.) The ability to spell
Basically, it's gone. I used to take pride in my p-r-e-t-e-r-n-a-t-u-r-a-l spelling ability, but in this digital age, spelling skill is like an
a-p-p-e-n-d-i-x. You don't need it! Thanks to spell-check on the computer, no one knows that I am a champion speller unless I tell them. It's very unseemly to brag, but really, now you have to because it's not immediately apparent :)
Spelling should be stressful, like this:
Stacy-Ann's Final Project: "Search Marketing Basics"
This is my final project video. It discusses the basics of online search marketing in under 6 minutes. To create it I used the following digital tools:
1. iPhone (4) with iMovie built in app to record classmates
2. iPhone voice recorder app to record narration
3. Jing to capture images from Google
4. Google search to gather information and provide examples
5. iMovie on my computer to edit all the pieces (images, sound, video, etc.)
6. iTunes music library
1. iPhone (4) with iMovie built in app to record classmates
2. iPhone voice recorder app to record narration
3. Jing to capture images from Google
4. Google search to gather information and provide examples
5. iMovie on my computer to edit all the pieces (images, sound, video, etc.)
6. iTunes music library
Enjoy,
~Stace
Erienne's Final Reflection
I have to say that this is by far one of the best courses and most favorite that I have taken in my entire college career, especially because of its major relevancy in my everyday life and aspirations. I could not have taken Digital Literacies at a more opportune time, given the stage of my publishing and writing career that I am currently working toward with web applications and authoring.
I really appreciate the overall mission of this class, which united proficient users and newcomers alike. Even moreso, the class material and assignments definitely encouraged and challenged the interaction of technology (stereoptypes, theories and assumptions), socially and purposefully, commercially and intellectually, granting one one of the most earnest convictions of visual and verbal engagement via digital assessment.
Engaging with social media for class discussion was a great reinforcement of my daily work schedule, where I use Twitter, Facebook profile and fan pages, blogs, and YouTube for promotional materials. I really enjoyed refreshing my mind with these applications and platforms, significantly with the reading/viewing assignments that introduced the metaphor of the text via page layout and metaphor of the cinema via screen organization. These analytical concepts completely expanded on my own experiences and conflicts of writing for the web, where traditional notions are remediated with modern layering and elaboration of text, as per Stroupe, and relationships between image and text are forged, transformed, and destroyed. Because time is a critical dimension of digital writing as it closely pertains to information unfolding over time and space, linear order becomes based on the discretion of the writer and design becomes a facilitator of composition.
Aside from brushing up on previously acquired skills, which I exercise professionally but personally as well for own freelance projects, I am so grateful for learning about new internet browser gadgets as StumbleUpon, which I have every intention of using just to navigate and indulge in my interests n my free time and for Zotero, which I can utilize for annotating and archiving my web research into one collective unit. I am enthralled about all the knowledge and actual use I have gained with downloadable programs like Jing, Windows Movie Maker (though I always had this pre-installed,I never used), Digital PhotoStory, Wix, Animoto, and Prezi. These applications I guarantee to incorporate into my poetry brainstorming processes and creative representations for new material and even for breathing life into old drafts; I want to continue working with visual poetics and playing with physical form and delivery through the supplemental aid of photographs, audio and video components.
I want to thank Professor Peele for being so informative, helpful and cooperative with me this summer. I am incredibly inspired! It was hugely fulfilling to be able to share my passions and obsessions and have them translate to the computer screen.
Summer at Grace, Final Project
This is my final project for Digital Literacies. I present a virtual tour of a typical sultry summer morning at Grace Church, Brooklyn Heights -- home church for over 30 years and my next door neighbor.
A Digitally Illiterate Jing
I must warn you... You should only watch my Jing video if you have the power to withstand being hypnotized into buying $600 shoes... I'd love to see the HTML code for this!
Another Take on the eBook Debate
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-carnoy/top-10-reasons-hardbacks_b_656281.html
Jessie's Final Reflection
Prior to taking this class, I had wanted to become more digitally literate. I read blogs on a daily basis, watched youtube videos and marveled at websites, certain that one day I would learn new programs and venture into the world of writing online. However, I pushed the idea of establishing a presence online to the back of my mind, hid it somewhere behind my goal to learn a new language, or take a painting class just for fun. After the first class and our discussion regarding consuming material on the internet, versus creating material, I decided that I would try as best I could to commit to learning as much as possible and minimize my frustration while doing so as best possible. Immediately, I created the following accounts: facebook, twitter, gmail, along with signing up for various other programs such as Jing.
I created a blog: Subversive Whimsies, which I continue to update and use on a daily basis. I came up with the idea of not only sharing my own thoughts and photos, but of also interviewing fellow bloggers whom I've read online over the past year or so, and I posted my first interview with Celestine Chua of the Personal Excellence Blog last week. I've really enjoyed keeping up the blog; it's inspired me to take more photographs, and it allows me to speak about places I've went or events that have happened, and then my friends can view it online. Creating a facebook account was another new medium for me to connect with friends. I actually wound up reconnecting with my best friend from high school, and since, we've hung out twice, and plan to maintain our friendship.
I feel like there's been a shift in my attitude in how I regard the creating online, in the sense that I no longer fear it; in just one month, I've gone from thinking it was too difficult to use various programs or mediums online, to realizing that I can just experiment and figure everything out. It doesn't seem as daunting, and it makes me want to go even further, such as learning how to create websites, or learn even more challenging programs. It's great for me to think that in such a short period, I've learned Jing, Photostory, Vimeo, how to redesign on Blogger, how to create and post on a wiki, how to play with images; I've discovered fantastic websites, such as picnik for resizing photos, or prezi for making mindmaps and presentations, and the best part of it all is that I no longer feel like an apathetic consumer, merely sitting back and taking in the work of others; I feel like a contributor.
Becoming more digitally literate throughout this course has boosted my confidence when it comes to the internet, as well as technology. In addition to creating a blog, I decided to splurge and buy a new laptop (I've had a desktop for six years), so that I could use it when I travel to Philadelphia, or to work. I bought a new digital camera, and have been uploading photos on a regular basis. I learned how to use my sister's camera, as well as the intricate differences between an SD card and using a tape. I learned how to use Final Cut Pro, as well as how to rip a DVD in order to upload it online. I am eager to follow up with my new skill set; I am eager to expand my knowledge of online programs and to be a creative prosumer.
I really enjoyed the design aspect of the class: picking out fonts, colors, borders, playing with photos, figuring out how to make a blog look good, playing with music and editing. I feel newly immersed in languge as a visual medium, where as a writer, before I didn't think about it so much as one; I was content sitting on the floor with my piles of journals, scribbling away with pens and pencils. I am looking forward to learning even more, continuing my blog, and learning how to develp a website in the future. Now, that I have jumped in the pool and splashed around a bit, I realize it's not as difficult as I previously deemed it, to keep my head afloat.
I created a blog: Subversive Whimsies, which I continue to update and use on a daily basis. I came up with the idea of not only sharing my own thoughts and photos, but of also interviewing fellow bloggers whom I've read online over the past year or so, and I posted my first interview with Celestine Chua of the Personal Excellence Blog last week. I've really enjoyed keeping up the blog; it's inspired me to take more photographs, and it allows me to speak about places I've went or events that have happened, and then my friends can view it online. Creating a facebook account was another new medium for me to connect with friends. I actually wound up reconnecting with my best friend from high school, and since, we've hung out twice, and plan to maintain our friendship.
I feel like there's been a shift in my attitude in how I regard the creating online, in the sense that I no longer fear it; in just one month, I've gone from thinking it was too difficult to use various programs or mediums online, to realizing that I can just experiment and figure everything out. It doesn't seem as daunting, and it makes me want to go even further, such as learning how to create websites, or learn even more challenging programs. It's great for me to think that in such a short period, I've learned Jing, Photostory, Vimeo, how to redesign on Blogger, how to create and post on a wiki, how to play with images; I've discovered fantastic websites, such as picnik for resizing photos, or prezi for making mindmaps and presentations, and the best part of it all is that I no longer feel like an apathetic consumer, merely sitting back and taking in the work of others; I feel like a contributor.
Becoming more digitally literate throughout this course has boosted my confidence when it comes to the internet, as well as technology. In addition to creating a blog, I decided to splurge and buy a new laptop (I've had a desktop for six years), so that I could use it when I travel to Philadelphia, or to work. I bought a new digital camera, and have been uploading photos on a regular basis. I learned how to use my sister's camera, as well as the intricate differences between an SD card and using a tape. I learned how to use Final Cut Pro, as well as how to rip a DVD in order to upload it online. I am eager to follow up with my new skill set; I am eager to expand my knowledge of online programs and to be a creative prosumer.
I really enjoyed the design aspect of the class: picking out fonts, colors, borders, playing with photos, figuring out how to make a blog look good, playing with music and editing. I feel newly immersed in languge as a visual medium, where as a writer, before I didn't think about it so much as one; I was content sitting on the floor with my piles of journals, scribbling away with pens and pencils. I am looking forward to learning even more, continuing my blog, and learning how to develp a website in the future. Now, that I have jumped in the pool and splashed around a bit, I realize it's not as difficult as I previously deemed it, to keep my head afloat.
A Digitally Illiterate Reflection
Well, for starters, I think I'm ALMOST ready to change my name. I'm not 100 percent there, but I'm also not 100 percent Digitally Illiterate either.
I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with myself (and I suppose by proxy, Prof. Peele) because I've come a lot farther than I expected. I'm still reluctant to "expose" myself like so many others in the online universe, but at least now I can say I tried it and it wasn't as scary as it seemed.
So much of my problem with gaining digital literacy has been the intimidation factor. I think I'd convinced myself that Twitter, blogging and laptop video editing were for people younger, cooler and more tech-savvy than myself. Because I am a journalist, I probably do use more technology than the average person, but I honestly thought I was "at capacity" and would not be able to get the hang of the newer stuff that seems to be launched every second.
I'm the kind of person who has moved from a beeper...
...to a pager to a giant cell phone...
...to a sleek cell phone to a Blackberry... yet I'm guessing I won't get an iPhone until it's 5th or 6th generation! I think that is a perfect metaphor for my digital literacy learning curve. I'm OK up to a point, but then there's a bit of a plateau before I jump into the next arena.
But as I said, the good thing is that this class forced me to jump right in... and for that, I am thankful. Aside from trying all the different applications we experimented with, it was interesting to think about how society is grappling with the digital revolution from a more academic and less pop culture point of view. Reading about how educational curricula are changing from kindergarten right up to university as a result of the need for digital literacy was enlightening.
At heart, I am a traditionalist with Luddite tendencies.
. 
I like hardcover books, handwritten notes, talking in person over texting. But I'm also a realist and for that reason, I believe this revolution is undeniable and probably irreversible. And after taking this class and challenging myself to be more open, I think maybe it's not SO terrible after all!
Final Reflection
I thought that I was pretty adequate in the digitial realm before coming to the class... and as I delved into this class I realized that I knew very little about what it means to be digitally literate. I used the internet to read the news, check e-mails and keep up with friends on facebook. I never used any othe applications that were presented in class.
I was actually very nervous about making a wikipage, twittering (tweeting?), using jing, making a prezi, creating a digital photostory and editing my final project was the most nerve-wracking. I realized because this class was pushing me out of my comfort zone... adults don't like things that they are not used to it. I was defensive, but I knew that I had to do these assignments to receive credit for the class... if I failed I would be out $1000. So instead of running away from it, I had to embrace it, and I feel more competant because of it.
I felt very confused and lost as I first started tinkering with the applications. I even cursed out my computer a few times when the applications were not cooperating with me. But then I fell into the algorhythm of the internet, and the applications became easier to use the more I used it. I had to teach myself to be patient so that I can learn how to be proficient. The one thing that I can say is a saving grace is that there is a "how to" forum on anything that I have a question about and offered solutions to my dilemmas.
I did use facebook as a teaching tool, but I'd like to incorporate prezi and blogs to my teaching tools as well. I really enjoyed making the prezi and I think that my students can benefit from it as well because of how interactive it is, and one can be really creative with it. I feel as if blogs for the class would be great too, because it would have the quiet students who don't like talking to be active contributors, and also for my students who have low attendance, they can still receive credit for participation.
I feel most appreciative about the final project... I always had wanted to do some type of informative piece and voice the issues I have with the nyc education dept. But I always found some excuse to not do it, or I didn't make it much of a priority in comparison to other endeavors I had. With this assignment I couldn't avoid the fact that this was my chance to finall make that video. Now that I am familiar with my video editor I feel as if I can continue to create and inform people about issues that I find important.
The assignments coupled with the class readings most definitely challenged my skills in creating on the web but also my understanding of the web is. I thought most everyday people just consumed the internet and was losing touch with reality. But I was wrong, a lot of people are using not only to consume the internet, but also to create and share information and ideas with eachother on a much larger scale than we can in reality now. Information is only a click away... And the internet is a vast horizon on possibilities for people being acknowledged for their creations.
Leaving this class I can say that I've tried new things, created new things, and learned how to create in the digital realm, and I can take what I have created and learned and apply it to my teaching methods and my political intentions :)
I was actually very nervous about making a wikipage, twittering (tweeting?), using jing, making a prezi, creating a digital photostory and editing my final project was the most nerve-wracking. I realized because this class was pushing me out of my comfort zone... adults don't like things that they are not used to it. I was defensive, but I knew that I had to do these assignments to receive credit for the class... if I failed I would be out $1000. So instead of running away from it, I had to embrace it, and I feel more competant because of it.
I felt very confused and lost as I first started tinkering with the applications. I even cursed out my computer a few times when the applications were not cooperating with me. But then I fell into the algorhythm of the internet, and the applications became easier to use the more I used it. I had to teach myself to be patient so that I can learn how to be proficient. The one thing that I can say is a saving grace is that there is a "how to" forum on anything that I have a question about and offered solutions to my dilemmas.
I did use facebook as a teaching tool, but I'd like to incorporate prezi and blogs to my teaching tools as well. I really enjoyed making the prezi and I think that my students can benefit from it as well because of how interactive it is, and one can be really creative with it. I feel as if blogs for the class would be great too, because it would have the quiet students who don't like talking to be active contributors, and also for my students who have low attendance, they can still receive credit for participation.
I feel most appreciative about the final project... I always had wanted to do some type of informative piece and voice the issues I have with the nyc education dept. But I always found some excuse to not do it, or I didn't make it much of a priority in comparison to other endeavors I had. With this assignment I couldn't avoid the fact that this was my chance to finall make that video. Now that I am familiar with my video editor I feel as if I can continue to create and inform people about issues that I find important.
The assignments coupled with the class readings most definitely challenged my skills in creating on the web but also my understanding of the web is. I thought most everyday people just consumed the internet and was losing touch with reality. But I was wrong, a lot of people are using not only to consume the internet, but also to create and share information and ideas with eachother on a much larger scale than we can in reality now. Information is only a click away... And the internet is a vast horizon on possibilities for people being acknowledged for their creations.
Leaving this class I can say that I've tried new things, created new things, and learned how to create in the digital realm, and I can take what I have created and learned and apply it to my teaching methods and my political intentions :)
Monday, July 26, 2010
Digital Literacy-Reflection
This has been a real roller coaster for me. This course provided me the most accurate and vivid description of "digital literacy". I just can't describe it, at all. But I lived it. I know I lived it
Digital literacy is about getting lost, about swimming or browsing around until you land on a recognizable or useful shore Wix.com.
It's also about a simple phrase that too many of us (I for certain) don't say enough-"I don't know." You will find yourself more times than not (get used to it), stuck. Unable for instance to upload a video from youtube onto WindowsMovieMaker that you will bet your next month's rent that you just did two glasses of pinot noir ago.
It's also overwhelming and confusing (like life). Things-apps come to you from all over, some useful and most for a fee. My pc is not talking to me at the moment. Oh, it's trying but nothing it's coming out. If I had to guess, I think it has to do with age (had it for nearly ten years), widgets, jing, prezi, wix and others all staring at me from the desktop.
It's most importantly extremely empowering. "I can't do it" is now just another application's name or someone's wikipage. If you don't mind a good swim and getting lost, you can now for very little monetary resources, do just about everything from stalking your favorite celebrity with stalkceleb.com (not a real site. At least not yet), change career path (I'm now a self proclaimed web-designer), befriend strangers that you'll never meet (or who don't exist), receive an education in your pajamas, become a celebrity (naked vids and pics get mad clicks), write haikus or twit, set up a one man/woman successful business on your bed, etc...
It's certainly affecting and changing the way education and information are viewed and consumed. It's going to be very difficult, very soon, for anyone to explain to a teenager why he/she needs to read this or that book. Or even take this or that class. Teenagers are walking around with millions of books, essays, definitions, concepts in their pockets. So why do they need to take out thousands of dollars of debt, sit in classrooms for ten-twelve years when they can just wiki it.
It's an eye opener. I enjoy my privacy and solitary. But I also love to learn new things and keep abreast of the world's latest developments. I now understand the importance of twitter and how information can twit you by if you're not careful.
It's humbling. I can't say that I'm "digitally illiterate" because Cameo already claimed it. But I can probably say my digital alphabet...
Thank you Prof Peele
Thank you Class
Digital literacy is about getting lost, about swimming or browsing around until you land on a recognizable or useful shore Wix.com.
It's also about a simple phrase that too many of us (I for certain) don't say enough-"I don't know." You will find yourself more times than not (get used to it), stuck. Unable for instance to upload a video from youtube onto WindowsMovieMaker that you will bet your next month's rent that you just did two glasses of pinot noir ago.
It's also overwhelming and confusing (like life). Things-apps come to you from all over, some useful and most for a fee. My pc is not talking to me at the moment. Oh, it's trying but nothing it's coming out. If I had to guess, I think it has to do with age (had it for nearly ten years), widgets, jing, prezi, wix and others all staring at me from the desktop.
It's most importantly extremely empowering. "I can't do it" is now just another application's name or someone's wikipage. If you don't mind a good swim and getting lost, you can now for very little monetary resources, do just about everything from stalking your favorite celebrity with stalkceleb.com (not a real site. At least not yet), change career path (I'm now a self proclaimed web-designer), befriend strangers that you'll never meet (or who don't exist), receive an education in your pajamas, become a celebrity (naked vids and pics get mad clicks), write haikus or twit, set up a one man/woman successful business on your bed, etc...
It's certainly affecting and changing the way education and information are viewed and consumed. It's going to be very difficult, very soon, for anyone to explain to a teenager why he/she needs to read this or that book. Or even take this or that class. Teenagers are walking around with millions of books, essays, definitions, concepts in their pockets. So why do they need to take out thousands of dollars of debt, sit in classrooms for ten-twelve years when they can just wiki it.
It's an eye opener. I enjoy my privacy and solitary. But I also love to learn new things and keep abreast of the world's latest developments. I now understand the importance of twitter and how information can twit you by if you're not careful.
It's humbling. I can't say that I'm "digitally illiterate" because Cameo already claimed it. But I can probably say my digital alphabet...
Thank you Prof Peele
Thank you Class
Final Reflection For Digital Literacies
Class is almost over - final project and demonstration due tomorrow.
My final project, Summer at Grace, is almost completed in Windows Movie Maker. Tomorrow night I will present it in a Prezi which I am also working on. Composing this piece has been a dreadful headache ... and a pleasure. I can state the same about the past six weeks of Digital Literacies.
Using my Dell Inspirion 5150, purchased in 2005, I have taxed its capacity to the limit. Unlike my laptop computer, however, my capacity to use and create in digital medias increases daily, expanding the borders of my knowledge, limited only by my will and persistence -- and ability to manage panic with a dreadful longing to run and hide.
The readings delineated the issues and the visual media pieces challenged the limits of what I, a lover of print media, conceived as "writing" and composition. Beginning with the issue of net neutrality, I gradually moved through Porter and why technology matters to writers (man and machine becoming one, a cyborg) to Hocks' keys to unlocking visual rhetoric. Lionel Kearns' made me ill and I protested aloud that I couldn't read online. Then along came Wysocki's "Monitoring Order" -- a hybrid of print and visual. Her compositions are transparent for me, enough like print conventions that I can relax and explore. Finally the "LoFi manifesto" and "Don't Click It" and I am hooked.
During the past 6 weeks I have created a blog of my own and a personal wiki page on our class wiki and posted to all with increasing satisfaction. I have learned to insert pictures, embed links and videos. I plan to use this knowledge to promote and support a blog or wiki on our Grace Church website with the idea to build community. Perhaps more importantly I am pondering ways to introduce these to our TBI clients at ICD in our Computer Lab.
I have also set up an IGoogle page, a gmail email account and a Twitter account. I have a Prezi account and find it a relief that it is web based and I can access its presentation abilities anywhere there is a computer and internet access. I have used YouTube and know how to upload a video to YouTube. And I also had a lot of fun creating a WORDLE.
I began this class comparing my digital knowledge and abilities to a dinosaur, outdated, clumsy and doomed to extinction. I confessed the hope of becoming a dragonfly with the ability to flit and flirt around digital medias. After six weeks the metaphor has certainly changed. I see myself now as a worker ant, stoically pressing on, against all obstaces (computer crashes, limited computer memory and my own response of increasing panic which of course subverts learning. Raising the affective barrier, psychologists would say.
In the final process of completing my project, "Summer at Grace" I made a startling discovery -- I am now a writer, a composer in visual media. I am telling/writing/conveying a story via photographs, video, music, voice and text and I experience the same joy as when I write as the story unfolds,takes shape and moves beyond. Yes, I still adhere closely to print conventions. My project is linear but I make no apologies, rather I celebrate how far I have come.
Clicking, the authors of "Don't Click It" say, gives us a sense of control and immediate gratification. Click and we are there. Like a light swith, they say. So they took the click away and wonder, "if we change the way we interface, does it change our behavior."
And I think, if I change the way I interface with media, both print and digital, will my attitude change, my willingness to move beyond the canon of print and the embrace the possibilities and authenicity of multiple medias. Could I become a cyborg? Whoa! From dinosaur to cyborg!
My final project, Summer at Grace, is almost completed in Windows Movie Maker. Tomorrow night I will present it in a Prezi which I am also working on. Composing this piece has been a dreadful headache ... and a pleasure. I can state the same about the past six weeks of Digital Literacies.
Using my Dell Inspirion 5150, purchased in 2005, I have taxed its capacity to the limit. Unlike my laptop computer, however, my capacity to use and create in digital medias increases daily, expanding the borders of my knowledge, limited only by my will and persistence -- and ability to manage panic with a dreadful longing to run and hide.
The readings delineated the issues and the visual media pieces challenged the limits of what I, a lover of print media, conceived as "writing" and composition. Beginning with the issue of net neutrality, I gradually moved through Porter and why technology matters to writers (man and machine becoming one, a cyborg) to Hocks' keys to unlocking visual rhetoric. Lionel Kearns' made me ill and I protested aloud that I couldn't read online. Then along came Wysocki's "Monitoring Order" -- a hybrid of print and visual. Her compositions are transparent for me, enough like print conventions that I can relax and explore. Finally the "LoFi manifesto" and "Don't Click It" and I am hooked.
During the past 6 weeks I have created a blog of my own and a personal wiki page on our class wiki and posted to all with increasing satisfaction. I have learned to insert pictures, embed links and videos. I plan to use this knowledge to promote and support a blog or wiki on our Grace Church website with the idea to build community. Perhaps more importantly I am pondering ways to introduce these to our TBI clients at ICD in our Computer Lab.
I have also set up an IGoogle page, a gmail email account and a Twitter account. I have a Prezi account and find it a relief that it is web based and I can access its presentation abilities anywhere there is a computer and internet access. I have used YouTube and know how to upload a video to YouTube. And I also had a lot of fun creating a WORDLE.
I began this class comparing my digital knowledge and abilities to a dinosaur, outdated, clumsy and doomed to extinction. I confessed the hope of becoming a dragonfly with the ability to flit and flirt around digital medias. After six weeks the metaphor has certainly changed. I see myself now as a worker ant, stoically pressing on, against all obstaces (computer crashes, limited computer memory and my own response of increasing panic which of course subverts learning. Raising the affective barrier, psychologists would say.
In the final process of completing my project, "Summer at Grace" I made a startling discovery -- I am now a writer, a composer in visual media. I am telling/writing/conveying a story via photographs, video, music, voice and text and I experience the same joy as when I write as the story unfolds,takes shape and moves beyond. Yes, I still adhere closely to print conventions. My project is linear but I make no apologies, rather I celebrate how far I have come.
Clicking, the authors of "Don't Click It" say, gives us a sense of control and immediate gratification. Click and we are there. Like a light swith, they say. So they took the click away and wonder, "if we change the way we interface, does it change our behavior."
And I think, if I change the way I interface with media, both print and digital, will my attitude change, my willingness to move beyond the canon of print and the embrace the possibilities and authenicity of multiple medias. Could I become a cyborg? Whoa! From dinosaur to cyborg!
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Life in the Digital Age - Class Responses in one
A voice as a result of the digital revolution. The internet gives everyone a chance to have a voice, to be heard, to be read and to impact people they wouldn't otherwise. Here, in NYC I can read a blog about what its like to be a professor in
I see the freedom of information as an another powerful contribution of digital media to our lives. Our computers, are an unlimited pass to information about any given topic written anywhere anytime we simply have the desire to acquire it. As a result we are now better able to inform, and educate ourselves. Most government agencies have their records available online to the public. Anyone with internet access can retrieve them, and most of the time free of charge. The
Perhaps, one of the biggest ways in which the digital age has impacted our communites is the chance to connect with the world around us. E-mail, texting,twitter,facebook and youtube are only some of the options we have when communicating with the world. These new technologies allow us to keep in touch with family,friends and colleagues yes, but, they also allows us make connections beyond any political, geographical and even economic barriers.
Reading Responses
Readings for week of 7/1
Revised
1- Teaching Digital Rhetoric: Community, Critical Engagement, and Application:
This in an interesting article pointing out the many challenges associated with writing in a digital age, in particular from an English Studies perspective. To begin with, as this article points out never before, “ for instance, have writers had at their fingertips the tools to almost seamlessly integrate text and graphics (and, for the savvy, animation, audio, video, and other elements) and to dynamically publish and widely distribute the products of that convergence to virtual spaces." I could not agree more, the tools are there, in fact they come with our computers most of the time. If you have a mac, using these tools is even easier in my opinion. I have created some decent looking text but have not distributed it on the web before, so it seems I’m missing a major part of being digitally literate.
I’m concerned though, because along with this new freedom of being able to create pretty professional looking stuff,we also have the burden of having to master all these new tools and its not easy. They are frustrating at times, as a student of language and literature I'm concerned because although I'm concentrated on learning as much as I can to be a better student and writer of creative and academic topics I'm missing a crucial tool in my education as an English studies major. I'm missing the ability of being able to navigate and participate in the digital world. Reading and studying literature offline seems limting now, specially if I want to compete in a digital world. I either begin acquiring them, or I will be left behind. I feel pressured to go beyond the written page of an essay I write if it needs to have added visual or audio components. It is not sufficient for me to send the professor my essay over e-mail or hand in a paper copy anymore I must now also learn some web formatting, how to include hyperlinks and consider how it will look on a screen. It's exciting to learn new things, and I'm am always looking to improve myself, but I wonder it will have a negative effect on what I write.
“And, perhaps now more so than ever before, writing requires a deep attention to context, audience, and meaning-making across the multiple tools and media available to us as writers.” In essence writers needs to brings many things to the table when writing now. It's almost as if writers are now, illustrations, graphic designers and even amateur programmers aside from word masters. For me personally at the moment all these new digital tools are a little distracting. My writing experience feels more stressed now , as I write this for example, I wonder if I should add some links or pictures. When I sit in front of blank screen using a word processor I'm not really concerned with much more than the black and white text. I focus on language in this way. However, I wonder if this anxiety over new technologies is simply because I know very little of it, maybe if I was more versed in digital design it would come natural to merge the two.
Most importantly, I agree that as students and teachers we have an obligation to understand " the power of public discourse" in particular in the digital world. Nowadays it seems everything is being brought to the web, politics, education, entertainment, social activism to name a few, and if you are really interested in learning abut any of these topics you must also be able to navigate the digital world since some are only found online. For example, if you are interested in American government the white House release their statistics, findings and even speech transcripts on their site. If you wanted to read a particular speech twenty years it would very difficult if your were a regular person, now is would take you less than a minute to access this imformation from your computer. As a student and as a concerned citizen in the world this is invaluable.
'It is crucial that we are equipped to chronicle, to research, and to interrogate these technologies for the ways in which they alter the landscape of our pedagogy, our approaches to research, and our conceptions of how individuals write and publish together."
2 – Left out of the Revolution- Porter
Revised/Improved
"Desktop publishing became electronic publishing, and Internet publishing broke through the ASCII barrier. Now, finally, our graphically interesting pages could be published and widely distributed on the Web. This was a revolutionary moment first, in terms of graphic design and publishing-which Pat Sullivan(1991) saw as itself a significant stage in publishing history , and secondly, because of Internet based delivery(at first via one to one-email, discussion list communities, Usenet groups, synchronous chat, and MOOS-and then later the Web)" Porter, Why Technology matters to writing:
This is an interesting point from a writer’s perspective living in a digital age. A writer seems to have more control of his creation. Previously a writer would send away his piece and not really have a say on how it is distributed and definitely not part of the publishing. Nowadays of course they still a lot of that traditional way of getting public, but writers have more choices now and this a great benefit. Writers can create an entire book on their computer to the point that is almost ready for print, in fact it might never reach print. It can be distributed entirely online for a web or digital publication, in this way it is much more direct and the writer has more control.
The lack of or partial digital education in all levels of schooling leaves students out of the digital " revolution" as Porter calls it. One can be proficient in desktop publishing by creating great looking text, however unless you are literate in electronic and Internet publishing you are left out of the revolution. You are voiceless; you lack the language of the digital world, therefore unable to participate in the virtual dialogue that the Internet provides. This rang true to me especially in the past couple of years. I felt that knowing how to use a word processing program made me computer literate but this only allows me to have one way conversations, I can send someone my digital file as in a word format, but I’m not sure where to begin if I wanted to publish online. Frankly I see the Internet as this vast wild world and it frightens me a little. Primarily I feel powerless due to my limited knowledge so I enjoy just being consumer of it. I feel a little uncomfortable with the idea of publishing online. Of course I’m interested in pursuing a MFA and hope to be published one day, but somehow a book or paper article seems less interactive and I wouldn’t necessarily have to read what people thought of it, or really care. However, for this class not only do we interact regarding each others work but now I also has the wide open web world who also do the same.
Readings for the week of 7/13/10
3- Stroupe's Call to action in " Visualizing English"
Revised/improved
Stroupe’s essay is a fascinating call to action for all those in English studies. His plea begins with a message to revisit ” the text/media dichotomy” and a request for the ” discipline to decide not only whether to embrace the teaching of visual and information design in addition to verbal production”, “but more fundamentally, whether to confront its customary cultural attitudes toward visual discourses and their insinuation into verbal texts .” Interestingly before this class I was clearly separating the values associated with visual and written language. That is how I was thought for most of my academic life. Art was art, you drew pictures in art class and wrote in English class. Clearly with the growing popularity of digital language this is not longer the case, and I am beginning to seriously reexamine what I believe writing really is. Do these views change as a result the growing visual influence on text?. This is important to me not only as someone who is a consumer of online text but as someone who wants to participate in the English visual communication.
I really enjoyed Stroupe essay and I after a couple of reads I was really able to follow his arguments and he made a number of great arguments: To begin with Stroupe only confirms what all already know, whether we are participants or observer of the digital world, the Internet is an integral part of our everyday culture. “ As of 1999 there were 300 million publically accessible WebPages” obviously this is more prevalent than ever today. It seems really important almost critical that our English language curriculums take into account this phenomena. If they don’t we will all be left out what is occurring all around us. English studies would almost be irrelevant to the real world since it would ignore such a critical aspect of language and communication in society a downside that almost takes away from the social importance of English Studies. Most importantly, because students like I will not have to work soo hard to integrate the two in order to be culturally relevant because we would it would have been part of our education from the beginning.
Moreover, not only would English Studies benefit from this new approach to language, but we should understand as Stroupe suggests that the values associated with the two, have much more in common then we realize. In a great example Stroupe discuses the popular writing handbook “ Writing without Teachers” where the author Elbow states “ many people are now trying to become less helpless both personally and politically: trying to gain more control of their lives.” Likewise the other book he discusses is a Nesccape manual written by Elizabeth Castro “ Nestscape 3 for Macintosh” where Castro states that the web allows everyone can publish their information quickly and easily”, and ,”the web is history , a rising tide that lifts private citizens and huge companies” at a faster pace clearly both believe in the beauty of a personal taking control of their voice, of writing it and sharing with the world and how that can be freeing and empowering the only difference is the we now the web to do that with.
And, lastly Stroup makes a strong case for the merging of the visual and the verbal. Not necessarily as a separate or less critical form of English studies, but one in where the long praised attributes in the study of languages remain. Text conceived for an electronic environment can, and does have overlapping missions according to Stroupe as I pointed out before. He explains a point for me in this argument between the visual and verbal codes in the new “work paradigm” of web design and writing does not replace verbal literacy, but actually becomes more like a ” diverse amalgamation of literacies. This suggest that we don’t’ dumb down language or the art of writing as a result of combing the two but if we try it might even have a chance of being more powerful. I agree with Stroupe and English language studies must reconsider how they teach language in a 2010 digital world. Schools can no longer afford to ignore the big elephant in the room, it would only do a disservice to their students. We can and must incorporate the visual and digital into our passions for language and literature.
4- Week of Reading of 7/13/10
Rhetoric and Composition Wikibook
Browsing through this online writing book only confirmed one of the things I love the most about the Internet, because of the web information is accessible to everyone and not to a privileged few. Wikibook textbooks like this one are not only useful for the students or the school it was intended for, but anyone who comes across it on the web. There were many times in my early college life that I struggled to buy my books, and many times I would rely on the ones in reserve in the library. I can only imagine what a freeing academic experience many students would have, if many textbooks were available online, convenient and free.
I think the mission of Wikipedia “Wikipedia, the encyclopedia written by the people” where the “ free and open sharing of knowledge” is possible will have an even bigger impact in years to come as more and more people become literate in the world of computers. Clearly, there is a group of people like myself eager to join but only recently acknowledged that they were observing and taking in information but not creators of it. Another great advantage of the having Wikibooks like this is the interactive experience it creates both for teachers, students and even the creators. An online message board as part of textbook invites discussion and creates a sense of community. The advantage to this is that information is continuously updated, and hopefully improved. In addition as this wiki explain in its section “ Teaching with Wikibooks”, we should not necessarily fear its authenticity or accuracy, because we have the freedom to find out who wrote it and what audience it was intended form, in the same way we can find a paperback’s.
Moreover, I find it interesting that this textbook addresses the issue of accessibility. Accessibility is a major component of digital information simply because if you don’t have a computer, Internet access or know how to use one, you are left out. I’m not sure what to make of this yet, clearly this is problem because as more of the world turns digital there are parts of the world and people who will not participate in the digital dialogue. For most of us living in countries like America it isn’t that difficult too get a computer even an old one and get internet access. However, in third world countries this is extremely difficult and at times just impossible. I think we are a very privileged society where our main concern is teaching people how to us these new technologies since if you don’t have computer local libraries, school libraries and even community centers now have computers available to the public. I wonder how this will impact societies not as lucky as us, does this mean they are left behind even more? As the Wikibook for this assignment points out what good is this technology if people cannot access it. It seems that just as people have fighting to bring books and writing material to impoverished countries in order to educated kids they will soon be just as passionate about bringing access to technology to communities excluded from the cyberworld. In fact, I’m sure there are people who are passionate about digital literacy, and are on a mission to educate those less privileged.
Overall, I believe the sharing of information and free access to it can only better us a society.
Reading for the week of 7/20/10
5- “When Cellphone teaches sex education” Jan Hoffman
It only makes sense that in our day and age kids are able to reach out for advice via texting. My first impression is that it seems a little impersonal, and perhaps it is, but it seems I need to reconsider what I mean by impersonal to begin with. The reality is that some kids don’t feel comfortable enough going to an adult for advice, especially when it comes to sex. If we think about it, this can have the most impersonal results of all, and that is no human connection is made. Unfortunately, there are often devastating effects when teenagers are not correctly advised on the consequences of being sexually active. In fact, this is precisely the cause of high teenage pregnancy rates and the spread of STD’s among teenagers around the country. North Carolina is setting a great example in sex education, and as Hoffman (Director of a texting sex ed program in North Carolina calls it being “culturally appropriate” when it comes to providing an outlet that gives kids “ crucial and private information”. I think texting sex education has many benefits, in my opinion one of the most important is the privacy it provides its users. Teenagers would seem more likely to ask for advice if the shame, and embarrassment is eliminated from asking to begin with.
Anonymity gives a teenager struggling to ask questions about sex the freedom to be more honest, ask questions and express concerns that even adults have a hard time with. “Technology reduces the shame and embarrassment,” said Deb Levine, (Executive Director of a sex Ed texting program in North Carolina). On the other hand, there is a great challenge, and limitation to these new forms of communication present us with. We are now required to express ourselves with a fraction of the language we are normally accustomed to. We need to be brief, concise and robotic like in our answers, something that can be difficult to someone trying to inform a scared girl what to do when she has just found out she is pregnant. In fact, twitter gives you only one hundred and forty characters to send a message out and, although texting does not, our phone keyboards and small screens certainly do.
Clearly texting for sex ed is a brief and limited way to get information, but it is a great reference point that hopefully leads that confused kid to “real” help and attention if needed, “They are great for referrals and short answers to quick questions” Miss Swatson a texter at a North Carolina center states”. With this, the first step to educate and inform teenagers about sex has been taken, and that is getting a teenager to ask questions ideally from an adult with qualified information. Specifically an adult who will not take things personal, or shut down when their child communicates with them. Sex education outside the home is great in this sense, because it provides information regardless of age or sexual activity the teenager is involved in. Some teenagers will engage in sexually activity regardless of a parent’s believe, and sex education only gives them a chance to be in control of their health.
Perhaps, the most important sentiment behind this form of reaching to teenagers is, that the community needs to do whatever is necessary to get the information out there. “I think communicating with teens in whatever way they need to ask a question is important.” responds Ms Swatson to a young texter. If texting is a way to help by providing referrals or short concise information then we should support it. Clearly ignoring the topic of sex has not prevented teenagers from engaging in sexual activity, and promoting abstinence in my opinion is ignoring the sad statistics of rising teenage pregnancy rates and the spread of STDs.
Miscellaneous writings and observations posted on the course blog:
6 - Teachers
“One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child. ” Carl Jung
I have been thinking about our class discussion this past Thursday, and I believe the diverse set of opinions on what the teacher’s role is was very interesting. As a result, of emerging digital technologies teachers are much more accessible to students and vice versa. I see this as a tremendous benefit for both student and teacher. However, there seems to be some support for teachers to keep a distance from students for the sake of “respect” and “appropriateness.” Facebook, twitter, blogging, email are only some new forms of communication. These new technologies provide those teachers who truly care about their students the opportunity to go above and beyond as great teachers always have, regardless of technologies. It is my opinion that unfortunately not all teachers are of this nature, and sadly some(thankfully very few) are teaching for a paycheck it seems. We have all experienced having these types of teachers at some time or another in our lives. These were the instructors who just went with the motions of lecture and homework, you seemed to be just a name on a piece of paper to keep record of. Now, I’m sure these instructors are not necessarily bad people in fact they could be great individuals, but the point is, are they great teachers?, do they see their students as more than a statistic to meet?, or a curriculum to complete, I don’t know.
Thinking back to my academic life I have been blessed to have been taught by a great number of amazingly talented and dedicated teachers. My teachers went above and beyond their job description to make sure I understood something, to understand me, to understand where I was coming from, and as a result they were better able to teach me. If pedagogy must adapt to the times it is teaching, then it would seem that ignoring or not taking advantage of (course blog, e-mail, facebook or twitter) can soon divide great teachers from the not so great.
Jesse from our class discussion your students are very lucky to have you, and don’t change because I’m sure your are making a much bigger impact on their lives then you’ll ever know.
7- Just an observation: E-books
One of the biggest impacts that the online publishing world has given me is the chance to access texts I wouldn't normally have a chance to.
First, simply for economic reasons, I can't buy all the books I want, nor would I have the space for them in my tiny NYC apartment. Next, the convenience of immediate access and portability has led me to Guttenberg Project many times. I have used this site for many of the books I've had to read from my literature classes. Guttenberg has a great collection of literature in various file formats and even audio books. This is an invaluable resource for someone who enjoys literature. Now, I still enjoy reading an actual book and holding it in my hands. If you are holding a paper copy of a book you don't have to worry about battery life, or file formats. Of course, somehow returning to your favorite book on a screen does not have the same effect for me, yet. It is only those same those dog eared pages of my favorite books that have witnessed the joy and even tears I have felt while reading them, not a screen or a digital file.
Clearly e-books are taking over as Amazon's latest reports states, but is there a downside to this? Now that I have been in this Digital Literacies class for a few weeks, I believe there isn't a downside to e-books at all. People are just changing the way they read, just like the way people travel has. One hundred years ago people used horses and trains and now most people fly if they need to travel far. People clearly read but in a different format now, if anything maybe people can read more just like people can travel faster, and more frequently as a result of air travel. Moreover, as the Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa says, " literature has been, and will continue to be, as long as it exists, one of the common denominators of human experience through which human beings may recognize themselves and converse with each other, no matter how different their professions, their life plans, their geographical and cultural locations, their personal circumstances. ” a common denominator that I believe is carried into digital reading, don't you think?