The Html code provided by wordle was not working for me, so I used Jing.
Thanks Jing, love free and efficient applications :)
Saturday, July 24, 2010
One
My Wordle- Inspired by our class
The Html code provided by wordle was not working for me, so I used Jing.
Thanks Jing, love free and efficient applications :)
The Html code provided by wordle was not working for me, so I used Jing.
Thanks Jing, love free and efficient applications :)
Life in the Digital Age/Jing Project
1. LinkedIn
As a publicist in the digital age, my services are always aimed toward branding people and products online, but most importantly promoting myself, so I created a profile on LinkedIn in 2006, which was when I first started working in book publishing in efforts of consolidating my expertise via relevant coursework and literary accomplishments. This was a great way to link with other fellow entry-level assistants in my company and other publishing houses, as well as familiarize myself with the qualifications and experience levels of my co-workers that are neccessary to move up the corporate ladder. This highly effective marketing tool was very significant to my growth in the books industry as well as in academia and poetry. As I moved on to my second job, I had established a good name for myself through various extracurricular activities and freelance jobs, which I linked to my profile and was able to conncet and network with key organizations and groups in the book pr circuit. Currently, I receive tons of pitches, since I regularly write for the Sacramento Book Review and I have media inquiring about my freelance work and services.
For more info:
2. Google Sites
Usually when you apply for entry-level positions in publishing or opt to write for the media (magazines, newspapers, literary journals, etc.) you are frequently asked for two or three samples of your published work to examine your writing style and voice. Rather than email the actual word documents, you can save time for both parties (sender and the recipient) by creating a portfolio online. That way if these clips are either misplaced, lost, or erased, they are organized and archived on a public site. This is yet another helpful tool for establishing an online persona and a platform for your writing, especially if you are looking to get published. Publishers want to know that the writer is active in his or her given community.
3. Joomla!
As an English major, I have always been prompted with the question, "So what are you going to do once you graduate?" and it seems that the only obvious options are to into teaching or book publishing. However, many of us know that is untrue. There are so much more things we can do with our Literature and Creative Writing degrees like starting our own magazines. This is where Joomla! comes into play. I was the Executive Editor of Spanglish magazine, so we used this application to manage the content for our site, so I can speak first-hand on the personal and social advantages of this web hosting service. Personally, you learn how to generate texts with multi media files, so you become avid in organization, navigating from the minutia to the macro via page and screen layouts. This makes you even more aware of your writing space and the element of time. Socially, you become very critical of design and content, so when visiting established and/or new publications, you are conscious of application framework and add-ons, rhetorical choices and target audience.
Click Here
As a publicist in the digital age, my services are always aimed toward branding people and products online, but most importantly promoting myself, so I created a profile on LinkedIn in 2006, which was when I first started working in book publishing in efforts of consolidating my expertise via relevant coursework and literary accomplishments. This was a great way to link with other fellow entry-level assistants in my company and other publishing houses, as well as familiarize myself with the qualifications and experience levels of my co-workers that are neccessary to move up the corporate ladder. This highly effective marketing tool was very significant to my growth in the books industry as well as in academia and poetry. As I moved on to my second job, I had established a good name for myself through various extracurricular activities and freelance jobs, which I linked to my profile and was able to conncet and network with key organizations and groups in the book pr circuit. Currently, I receive tons of pitches, since I regularly write for the Sacramento Book Review and I have media inquiring about my freelance work and services.
For more info:
2. Google Sites
Usually when you apply for entry-level positions in publishing or opt to write for the media (magazines, newspapers, literary journals, etc.) you are frequently asked for two or three samples of your published work to examine your writing style and voice. Rather than email the actual word documents, you can save time for both parties (sender and the recipient) by creating a portfolio online. That way if these clips are either misplaced, lost, or erased, they are organized and archived on a public site. This is yet another helpful tool for establishing an online persona and a platform for your writing, especially if you are looking to get published. Publishers want to know that the writer is active in his or her given community.
3. Joomla!
As an English major, I have always been prompted with the question, "So what are you going to do once you graduate?" and it seems that the only obvious options are to into teaching or book publishing. However, many of us know that is untrue. There are so much more things we can do with our Literature and Creative Writing degrees like starting our own magazines. This is where Joomla! comes into play. I was the Executive Editor of Spanglish magazine, so we used this application to manage the content for our site, so I can speak first-hand on the personal and social advantages of this web hosting service. Personally, you learn how to generate texts with multi media files, so you become avid in organization, navigating from the minutia to the macro via page and screen layouts. This makes you even more aware of your writing space and the element of time. Socially, you become very critical of design and content, so when visiting established and/or new publications, you are conscious of application framework and add-ons, rhetorical choices and target audience.
Click Here
Friday, July 23, 2010
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 stil enjoy reading an actual book and holding it in my hands. If your 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 pagesof 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?
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 stil enjoy reading an actual book and holding it in my hands. If your 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 pagesof 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?
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Texting- Sex Education
“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 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.
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 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.
7/22 Readings, Reflections of Dis-ease and Delight
This is an attempt to evaluate three of tonight's digital pieces (papers, presentations, interfaces, manifestos) using Hocks' terms: audience, transparency and hybridity.
The Lo-Fi Manifesto:
the audience are those of us who are fed up with "expensive consumer and prosumer software that hinders the extensibility of digital discourse and limits digital production literacy to programs and file formats that are destined for disruptive upgrades or obsolescence." Despite the black background with smallish lurid green lettering, I was sucked in. At least once or twice a week since I started this class, and began testing the desktop and online abilities of my aging computer, I have been thwarted, frustrated and sometimes brought to tears, with messages of "incompatibility" and the need to update, delete, reconfigure.
transparency - the familiar page conventions make it easier for me to relate to and more willing to navigate. Again, the black background with green type is difficult to read at least for my eyes.
hybridity - But it is not all clicking. Did you notice the little question mark that appears when you mouse over LOFI - a tiny definition appears "lossless, open, flexible, in(ter) dependent"? And if you accidently, as I did, mouse over the blue box on the left that says Kairos, the blue box extends to give the article's complete citation. How is this stuff done?! I want to compose this way.
Then when you get to "Manifesto" and the 6 points underneath, clicking on them will give you black type on white page, so much easier to read. Point #4, "Accomodate and forgive the end user, not the producer" began with this quote, "There is no better way to lose the good will of audience members than to bombard them with a series of messages demanding the installation or upgrade of software and plugins or, worse, to announce that their equipment (and, perhaps, by extension, financial status or physical ability) is wholly inadequate and beyond the producer’s toleration. Even worse still may be no message or warning at all: just a blank screen or hopelessly malfunctioning digital artifact." Amen!
There is a lot of useful valuable information here, alternate tools and software that propose to free us from the tyranny of Microsofts and Googles. Have you heard of Open Office? Much to go back to and absorb later.
Man in the Dark:
audience would be any of us that are bored and maybe need distraction from doing final project. A substitute for Sudoku perhaps.
transparency - in this case the black background works - sort of offers a black sea for the multi-colored-browns man to float through. Mousing over works and clicking causes shimmys and wiggles. Fun up to a point.
hybridity - well it is a visual piece, no text that I found but it follows conventions of clicking and mousing.
Don't Click It:
Saved the best for last and yes, I clicked many many times until I figured out to mouse over.
audience would be the curious, and those searching for alternatives to page conventions.
transparency - "This is an interface that wants to be navigated under special conditions." Since the title apparently wasn't enough to guide me, this sentence should have. But still it took awhile for me to mouse over.
hybridity - I really like the blend of just enough text and page to guide me and the delightful fun of the test and the visual - sort of an adventure, although at first when I clicked and got the static I was horrified that I had fallen into another "Lionel Kearns" thing.
Clicking, the authors say, gives us the 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 this question I carry into future classrooms, more willing and open to move beyond print and the conventional and embrace the possibilities.
The Lo-Fi Manifesto:
the audience are those of us who are fed up with "expensive consumer and prosumer software that hinders the extensibility of digital discourse and limits digital production literacy to programs and file formats that are destined for disruptive upgrades or obsolescence." Despite the black background with smallish lurid green lettering, I was sucked in. At least once or twice a week since I started this class, and began testing the desktop and online abilities of my aging computer, I have been thwarted, frustrated and sometimes brought to tears, with messages of "incompatibility" and the need to update, delete, reconfigure.
transparency - the familiar page conventions make it easier for me to relate to and more willing to navigate. Again, the black background with green type is difficult to read at least for my eyes.
hybridity - But it is not all clicking. Did you notice the little question mark that appears when you mouse over LOFI - a tiny definition appears "lossless, open, flexible, in(ter) dependent"? And if you accidently, as I did, mouse over the blue box on the left that says Kairos, the blue box extends to give the article's complete citation. How is this stuff done?! I want to compose this way.
Then when you get to "Manifesto" and the 6 points underneath, clicking on them will give you black type on white page, so much easier to read. Point #4, "Accomodate and forgive the end user, not the producer" began with this quote, "There is no better way to lose the good will of audience members than to bombard them with a series of messages demanding the installation or upgrade of software and plugins or, worse, to announce that their equipment (and, perhaps, by extension, financial status or physical ability) is wholly inadequate and beyond the producer’s toleration. Even worse still may be no message or warning at all: just a blank screen or hopelessly malfunctioning digital artifact." Amen!
There is a lot of useful valuable information here, alternate tools and software that propose to free us from the tyranny of Microsofts and Googles. Have you heard of Open Office? Much to go back to and absorb later.
Man in the Dark:
audience would be any of us that are bored and maybe need distraction from doing final project. A substitute for Sudoku perhaps.
transparency - in this case the black background works - sort of offers a black sea for the multi-colored-browns man to float through. Mousing over works and clicking causes shimmys and wiggles. Fun up to a point.
hybridity - well it is a visual piece, no text that I found but it follows conventions of clicking and mousing.
Don't Click It:
Saved the best for last and yes, I clicked many many times until I figured out to mouse over.
audience would be the curious, and those searching for alternatives to page conventions.
transparency - "This is an interface that wants to be navigated under special conditions." Since the title apparently wasn't enough to guide me, this sentence should have. But still it took awhile for me to mouse over.
hybridity - I really like the blend of just enough text and page to guide me and the delightful fun of the test and the visual - sort of an adventure, although at first when I clicked and got the static I was horrified that I had fallen into another "Lionel Kearns" thing.
Clicking, the authors say, gives us the 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 this question I carry into future classrooms, more willing and open to move beyond print and the conventional and embrace the possibilities.
Life in the Digital Age
1. Getting lost is a thing of the past. The use of a GPS device whether mobile or portable ensures that we can get to any destination quickly by avoiding traffic jams. For those Sunday drivers, GPS can get you from point A to point B via a more scenic route, if requested. Hopefully, stopping for directions is a thing of the past; for those of you who are married that means no more arguments with your spouses. Not only did GPS revitalize the digital age it also has saved many marriages from divorce.
2. As if online banking is not enough, now you can avoid going to the bank all together. You can know make check deposits via upload photos using your iMobile phone and the Chase application. I wanted to post the new commercial that has been airing on television but currently not available.
Cell Phones, iPhone
Chase iPhone App Lets Users Deposit Checks on the Go
by Terrence O'Brien — Jul 5th 2010 at 11:30AM
Chase iPhone Check DepositMobile banking apps are a dime a dozen, but a recent update to JPMorgan Chase's free iPhone app really makes it stand out from the rest. Now, customers can deposit checks to their account via iPhone snapshots. It's as simple as logging into your account on the Chase Mobile iPhone app and snapping a photo of both the front and back of the check. Soon after, it will land in your account without the need to fill out deposit slips or deal with a surly teller. USAA has been offering the same functionality for over a year, but Chase is the first mainstream national bank to embrace the picture possibilities. Hopefully, Chase will bring the feature to other platforms, like BlackBerry and Android, soon. [From: Chase, via: Engadget]
3. For those of you waiting to be discovered, why wait. Just upload your video to YouTube and have the masses come to you. The more people that see your video the more famous you can become. YouTube has caused such a frenzy that many news channel surf the video database to give some lucky person there big break.
2. As if online banking is not enough, now you can avoid going to the bank all together. You can know make check deposits via upload photos using your iMobile phone and the Chase application. I wanted to post the new commercial that has been airing on television but currently not available.
Cell Phones, iPhone
Chase iPhone App Lets Users Deposit Checks on the Go
by Terrence O'Brien — Jul 5th 2010 at 11:30AM
Chase iPhone Check DepositMobile banking apps are a dime a dozen, but a recent update to JPMorgan Chase's free iPhone app really makes it stand out from the rest. Now, customers can deposit checks to their account via iPhone snapshots. It's as simple as logging into your account on the Chase Mobile iPhone app and snapping a photo of both the front and back of the check. Soon after, it will land in your account without the need to fill out deposit slips or deal with a surly teller. USAA has been offering the same functionality for over a year, but Chase is the first mainstream national bank to embrace the picture possibilities. Hopefully, Chase will bring the feature to other platforms, like BlackBerry and Android, soon. [From: Chase, via: Engadget]
3. For those of you waiting to be discovered, why wait. Just upload your video to YouTube and have the masses come to you. The more people that see your video the more famous you can become. YouTube has caused such a frenzy that many news channel surf the video database to give some lucky person there big break.