RE: Plato Jan 17
I absolutely remember having read this before, but when? I found my very old Plato book on the back of the shelf and searched for this passage, but could not find it. I think it is a slightly different translation, which might be part of the problem. Maybe that applies here—different time and different audience. Anyway I started reading through it and noticed the notes I made in the margins many years ago. What really struck me was not whether they can defend speaking or writing, but they practiced the art of rhetoric in such a very refined way. In our society, we seem to feel that we have the right to simply spout out any old thing we want to, without having to support it or back it up. We don’t “argue” in the Plato sense with a refined argument, well-thought-out, and practiced. I really respect people who think through a topic, view all sides of it, make sense with their points, and do so respectfully. If only more of our politicians practiced the same……..
RE: Ong Jan 17
I sure wish I had gotten into this class on time so I could have jumped into this discussion earlier. I really love the give and take and the questioning. To the point, I like also when Ong mentions the struggle. Doesn’t all good literature create a struggle of some sort within us? The struggle to get the most out of it, or to understand the author’s perspective, or to determine the applicability of it to our own lives?
RE: Reid Jan 17
I am particularly struck by Carrie’s comment: That is, it is our ability to store and process information in spaces outside our body that allows us to engage in the complex thoughts on which consciousness is founded” (25), and about how much we depend on writing. I agree with her. The reason for writing and reading is that my poor little brain can only hold so much. I cannot trust my memory for knowledge. I love reading but I can’t always remember everything. It is the wonderfulness of “being able to go back and look it up for clarity or for conciseness” that Carrie talked about that makes it so meaningful.
RE: Barron Jan 13
Awww, come on, I love Thoreau. I am sure everyone knew that he didn’t have it too bad and that he wasn’t totally roughing it, but don’t beat up on him too badly. Anyway, a pleasant article. So much to digest in such a short time. I like Dave’s comment to be concerned about the repercussions of new technologies but also be observant of who is accusing them.
RE: Miller Jan 18
I find it interesting that he indicates that books are designed as a solitary activity, but as teachers, aren’t we supposed to be making reading a more communal activity? Isn’t that what class discussion, book clubs, book reports in lower grades, and book circles all about? I know we try to take books from being a solitary activity to being a communal one-based on a common experience of reading. But I do believe that if we try to expand on his ideas, we will increase student interest.
As for his part two, he states that “if we want to make an argument for the humanities, we have to make compositions that are beautiful, compelling.” I agree. I do believe that many of us are attracted to anything by the visual appeal. However, do we not still retain the ability to connect with art, music, and the meaning of literature by the written word? This is how the ideas have been passed on to us for hundreds of years. I do agree that we should work on this style that he mentions, however I hate to think that we, as humans, are somehow mysteriously losing our ability to connect to wonderful ideas by simple written words.
RE: Yancey Jan 18
As a high school teacher, Yancy certainly hit a nerve when she quoted Bowles “none of the important meaningful writing I have ever produced happened as a result of a classroom writing assessment.” We are expected to teach hundreds of things, but ultimately, the students are judged by an assessment. But, I don’t believe that we expect the students to produce meaningful writing as a result of an assessment, but that they should write meaningfully for their assessment. We are taught assessment OF and FOR learning, and both are assessment, but used as different tools. However, I do have one instance that argues Bowles’ point. Just a few weeks ago, an ex-student dropped into my room to tell me how she had done some writing she had been quite proud of. And, she counted her success on remembering what she had done wrong on her midterm last year! So, I guess there is always an exception! I question one comment she makes with NO support: we are assured by Washington that such job loss is good for us. Where is the support here and what is she exactly discussing?
I am really drawn to her comment “a function of the medium you choose is who you invent.” This is what I see my students doing today. If one were to look at their facebook accounts or their Myspace pages, one would see suddenly many of my 15 year olds become 18 and many of my kids who work at McDonald’s are rich entrepeneurs. People are allowed to reinvent themselves because of the anonymity of the new media. My concern is, are we fostering a public who simply accept what they read without questioning? Even though we spend a great deal of time trying to teach students about valid and reliable sources, they want to believe whatever they read online! I love the idea of a mixed job definition of composition and rhetorician. Sign me up! Or, is that kind of where we are headed in this class?
RE: Selfe’s New Media Jan 18
The “new literacies” seem to change daily. I, for one, have an 84 year old mom who is pretty computer savvy. Now, I have showed up my kids (who are in their 20’s) by being the first in our family to “twitter”! As an over-40 person, I think part of staying young is trying to keep up with the new technology. We don’t all have the time or moxie to master them, but if we are to communicate with our younger students, we darn well better be able to speak to them about it. I think part of it is the vocabulary and the vocabulary of technology is seen, by many I think, to be the vocabulary of youth. I think that is changing, but how fast? I am not sure.
RE: Ball and Kalmbach’s Raw Jan 20
This reading has officially and totally overwhelmed me. I usually try to learn something because I realize what I don’t know and desire to change that. After reading this introduction, I have concluded that there is so much I don’t know that I will NEVER be able to catch up! The book sounds interesting, but there is so much in it. I don’t even know where to think about starting. I see that while we are expected to scaffold all of our lessons to make them applicable to all of our kids, we darn well better be scaffolding for the ‘new media’ as well! Help! That makes so much to do!
RE: Hawkins Jan 21
I found myself really agreeing with a lot that she says! I especially like her comment that we must experiment with the new media–and that we must commit time to it. That’s one of the reasons I am taking this class.
I just heard on NPR this morning that teenagers average 7 1/2 hours per day with electronic media! This is more hours per day than their parents work! I asked my kids if they felt the number is accurate. Once they verified that this could include radio, TV, MP3, watching TV on the computer,computer time, and texting, they agreed that the number is probably accurate.
So, I feel we darn well better be able to at least understand this stuff because they certainly aren’t going to give it up! That’s why I feel so compelled to learn it! I like the example of creating a Blog for a classroom–which obviously was more for entertainment than for “school.” And yet, I am sure all learned from it.
And a special thank you to Dave-from my class. I am obviously showing my technology-ignorant side-not know about “flash”. Hopefully, you will all reserve judgement for me until later. I am dealing with the technology to the best of my ability!
RE: Wolak Jan 24
I think most of us were surprised that there is so little danger of online predators. As a high school teacher, I have seen some of my students’ myspace pages, and I can testify that some of my little 15 and 16 year old girls, even the ones who seem so sweet, are predators in their own right. Many of them lie about their age (they claim to be 17 or 18 when they are 15), they lie about their grade in school, whether or not they work, and they post pictures of themselves that are pornographic. If a young man, say 19, ended up having sex with some of them, he could go to jail and be listed as a sex offender when, in fact, he might have actually thought the girl was older. Obviously it would be very different if the girl is 14 and the guy is 30, but I do feel sorry for the young guys who may fall victim to these girls.
RE: Lenhart Jan 24
I think the most important factor for me, as a teacher of high school kids, is that they know how and where to get information. They ARE doing it. They are also creating information and using the information they find and putting their own twist on it. I think in some ways, it is really cool. If they were spending that kind of time at the library researching, and writing in a journal, we would applaud them. I think we need to learn how to harness those interests and use them for teaching purposes.
There has been a lot of discussion about teaching by texting, etc. Since my school still has a “no phones in class rule,” I haven’t yet had to deal with those kind of decisions, thank goodness.
But my other concern is that the more kids use the informational ‘tools’ that are available and work that into their own media, the more the lines become blurred re: plagiarism. I think that many of them don’t see a problem with it, because the information is “free” and easy to get hold of. The article was interesting and basically supported my suppositions.
RE: Goldwasser Jan 25
I love Amy Goldwasser! My college-age daughter and her boyfriend were able to see her in person last year when she visited their communication class and talked about her book RED. They were telling me all about her. I really find her work to be interesting. That’s one of the reasons that I initially wanted to do my paper on students’ interest in writing online as opposed to simply word-processing or writing with pen and paper. Oh well, I think I will have to get that book anyway–to read in my next life when I have time.
It is the end of the semester. I collected Unit tests on Jan 22 and had to grade 157 essays in addition to the multiple choice. Then, finals began and, you guessed it, 157 more essay tests to grade!
RE: Prensky Jan 26
There is so much to talk about here. The one thing that bothers me however, is that many of us just assume that the kids who have more money are exposed to more technology. I know that may apply in some situations, but definitely not in all situations. My students are from the same general socio-economic class and yet I find that some of my girls are avid readers and they seem to shun technology for reading. On the other hand, I have some boys that I know are from more struggling families, who practically absorb technology. They will come in to school early or stay late to use the school computers, and often go to the homes of their friends and use their computers. I have thought many times that the technology is a way for them to ‘escape’ their situation while a teen, and may be a method that will enable them to physically escape their situation as they grow into adulthood with such a skillset.
Andrea’s comments were interesting in light of a conversation I just had with 2 of my former students who were hanging around after school. They were commenting on their senior English class which is taught by the youngest teacher in our school, and this is what one of them said, “I just love Mr. ___ class–he is so old-school and I really learn a lot from him.” So, while we need to know and use technology, I am heartened that some of the ‘old-school’ teaching is actually appreciated by the students. If we can adapt to all this technology, they are showing they are able to adapt to, and embrace, a variety of teaching styles.
RE: Pigg Jan 27
NOTE TO SELF-come back to this article! A great one!
I really like this article–I think it is my favorite so far. It seems to have so much more practical application than some of the other ones. I love the concept of [all the media writing] as “an active and naturalized part of the process of learning academic literacies.” How interesting. I think the younger kids who have grown up with an MP3 player in their ear and a camera phone might take to this concept even more than those a couple of years older. I’d be interested in comparing the responses of my 10th graders to those who are perhaps seniors or freshmen in college.
But, I also LOVE the concept of writing in another’s voice. Voice is the most difficult concept to teach to kids, but evidence suggests that changing the venue in some way makes it easier. I definitely intend to steal this idea! Now, how to do that? Not sure, yet.
RE: Rife Feb 1
I am officially scared to death to use anything I might take from anywhere! This makes me even more worried that I am doing something wrong. I would never use a quote without proper acknowledgement, but there are so many other considerations. As a high school teacher, just getting the kids to acknowledge their sources is a chore…. I cannot even begin to imagine trying to teach my tenth graders about “fair use.” On top of that, I don’t want to even begin to think of the times that teachers in my school have probably gone over the line. I was particularly taken aback by the comment on p 151 “The uncertainty of the fair-use doctrine in educational setting is amplified by the lack of a Supreme Court opinion.” So, I guess we are just left up in the air until some poor teacher ends up in a Supreme Court case???? When the author says we need to acquaint students with this, does she mean high school too? Did my job duties just multiply?
RE: Ward’s Cloud Gate Feb 1
I, for one, am always saddened when I find a kid has plagiarized. It makes me feel somehow like I failed, but I am not an ogre and if they are having some actual difficulty (other than they waited too long to begin because they were playing videos or something) I will help them.
I did have one kid a couple of years ago who broke all the rules, wanted every break possible, was a pain in the butt in class, etc. At the principal’s request, I made a huge exception to let him turn in a paper late (they thought if they could keep him playing baseball he would leave the drugs behind). The late paper had been lifted DIRECTLY from the free sample on echeat.com. To be honest, that is one situation where I wasn’t terribly crushed. I guess if a kid steals the free sample off of e-cheat.com, he deserves whatever, and I got a good laugh!
What I did, however, was copy it (oh, no-was that fair use?) to an overhead. I put it up for my class to critique. They all decided it was a pretty horrible paper. I think that was a wonderful lesson to them–they decided that it would probably be better to just take their chances writing their OWN paper! yay!
Wow, this is really depressing. But, the one good point is that it gives credence to what I believe and the ideas I espouse! I try to stress to my students all the time how important it is for them to read and to read often. I am not at all surprised by the statistics about the number of books in the home correlating to the test scores. And I am also not at all surprised that volunteerism is directly correlated to the amount of reading done—for I have seen how students can be moved to act because of something they have read.
I am pretty sure I have read this report before—or at least part of the report. I wonder if any follow-up studies have been done on the cities or schools that participated in the BIG READ. I wonder if that program piqued the students’ interest in reading at all? I know at our school, thanks to a grant, we have instituted a one-book, one-school program. Our media center teacher spent a lot of time trying to pick the best book and we think she did a wonderful job! She chose Hunger Games and almost half our students have read it already. There is a sequel to it and many students are clamoring for the sequel. I know that a couple of my kids who are NOT readers have read it and are talking about it! What else can we do to get the kids to read?
RE: Kaplan’s Critique of the NEA study on if:book Feb 8
If Kaplan’s hypothesis is correct, then how do I feel that she has created more of an illusion with the information than the NEA did? I will be the first to admit that I am no mathematical scholar, but I am going to ask our Calc teacher to take a look at what she says-to see if it makes sense to him. My background in sociology gave me just enough knowledge to be suspect of all bits of data.
I liked the response of one of the bloggers who reminded readers that Dickens wrote serially and it was bought by the masses at the time. Would that happen today? No, I think we are way too much into “Lost” or “The Housewives of Atlanta” or whatever.
Does she have an agenda? Is she afraid that the emphasis on reading will hurt her technology program? We must look at what she has to gain by refuting the NEA study.
RE: Pelli’s and Bigelow’s “A Writing Revolution” SeedMagazine.com- Feb 8
I think that technology is wonderful. It is wonderful that so many people are reading and writing by way of technology. The problem, as I see it, is that twittering is perhaps writing but NOT writing as a skill that people need to be able to master. Spitting out a few words is what toddlers do—not what writers do. There can be no thesis and proof as in a technical piece of writing. There can be no exposition and build up of conflicts in writing as in a narrative piece. Therefore, I would argue that twittering and much of blog writing is NOT the kind of writing we need to celebrate. Is there a spot for it? Of course, Can it change things? Of course. Does it open up a spot for advocacy? Yes, but also as the examples that were given to us detail, it gives the masses an opportunity to ‘govern’ in a way that could be wrong. What, if for instance, a female student gets mad at a professor or teacher and just decides to say something on a twitter or a blog that is very detrimental about him? It could totally ruin his career. I think we need to be a little more cautious about applauding all the good things that can come with this technology and at least be aware of the problems it can cause.
RE: Doug Hesse’s “Saving a Place for Essayistic Literacy” Feb 8
Wow, Hesse took a long time to say just what I was thinking earlier. Yes, we still need to teach writing essays! We need to teach students so they can make a valid organized and thorough argument and perhaps even accomplish something. As he demonstrated by the WPA example, all the nonfocused writing in the world will not get readers to move and to get something together to accomplish.
Two more things for Feb 8……..
1/ The you tube video! Hilarious! I absolutely love it–even if some of the words are spelled incorrectly.
2/ Crescat Graffiti, Vita Excolatur –Being a Statistical Analysis of Graffiti found in U of Chicago Library
Yes, I am definitely one of those people who could read online all day! Jumping from one interesting tidbit to another –and most likely NONE of it will include any reading about Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Aniston or “Desperate Housewives.” So after reading Pelli and Bigelow’s “A Writing Revolution” from Seed Magazine, I saw this title and HAD to click on it. Well, the author mentions that she has recorded the graffiti since 1997. I would assume that hundreds of people have seen this grafitti therefore, according to Pelli and Bigelow, these people are authors….hmmmm. I can see that there is importance to graffiti since we still have some from Pompeii, however, I do not believe I would call graffiti artists ‘authors.’
Honest revelation here–I thought I had this week’s posts in…I did them, but once again, my ability with this blog has been thwarted. Luckily, I had the notes I wrote when we were on the plane to Florida, so I can re-post. No, I didn’t have them in last week, but they were definitely here at one point! Oh, well…. It’s a learning curve….
Re: Johnson’s PS “Everything Good is Bad for You.” Feb 8
I can’t remember exactly how I wrote it before, but here goes. I see at least somewhat of a divide here in class…kind of a girls vs guys thing. While I realize sexism exists in all areas, I believe what we are so concerned about–especially those of us who are moms (and potential grandmothers) and those of us who teach the younger students, is the highly sensationalized information about how video game playing (of violent sexist games) can lead kids to violence and sexism. But these things exist everywhere in the real world. The kids I see who openly talk about these violent games are also the same kids whose parents let them go to R rated movies before they should, who allow all kinds of language to be spoken at home, and who allow kids to drink at home because it is ok as long as it isn’t out on the road. I see the general “looseness” of society, for want of a better word, that contributes to these things. I have heard 17 year old girls talk about going to motels with their boyfriends to watch porn, for God’s sake! Sexism exists and the girls play into it as well….just look at the advertisements for clothes (or cars) and look at the ‘popular people,’ the pro team football cheerleaders…. our culture is full of it!
On the other hand, my daughter’s boyfriend gave her a Wii for Christmas and I got to see it first hand. It seems wonderful. She was recuperating from knee surgery-so unable to move about much, but the Wii gave her an opportunity to do something that was a little bit active without fear of pulling stitches or putting too much of a load on her knee. I have a friend who works with senior citizen homes and they have Wii contests–where they actually take the top ‘players’ from each home to contests! So, there is good and bad–as with all things.
I played into the whole sexism thing, but not exactly by choice. Last Friday, when we flew down to Florida, I had skipped lunch – to work through it, and we left just after school so there was no time for dinner. Our connection was too short to eat, so we arrived at our motel after 11pm and I had not eaten since 630AM. I was hungry! The only place open to eat???? You guessed it! Hooters! I was not too proud to give Hooters my money and eat there…. just this once anyway.
RE: Myka Vilstimmig’ s “Petals on a Black Bough…” Feb 10
I really did not like this article; I guess I simply didn’t “get” it. I understand the idea of re-defining essays and collaborating, but she doesn’t do too much for me.
The problem is, this is one Haiku that I love: I can’t get the picture out of my head
Someone mentioned using an essay such as this to help teach voice, and that is a good idea, because voice is the hardest thing to teach student writers. But the whole idea of Crot essays, or essays, or papers, or…. is so dang complicated. I felt that I had suddenly acquired a major case of ADD…so difficult to concentrate. I know it is important to teach other genres (is this a genre?) but I am much more of a linear person. This is just really too out there for me to want to teach my students to do something similar. Maybe in college? Definitely not in HS.
RE: Eilola’s “The Database and the Essay” Feb 10
Some interesting ideas here–but, really, how many times can one writer, in one chapter, use the word ‘postmodern’ or variations of ‘postmodern.’ The ideas are interesting, but I am not so sure it should have taken that many pages to state it.
In addition to that, I can’t believe it, I found 2 typos in this chapter!
I definitely agree that writing (can we even call it writing anymore-or is there some other term we should be using?) is turning into what he calls ‘marketable chunks’ as opposed to the whole. I am not sure, however, how the West Law lawsuit applies to the average ordinary teacher. I really like what he said on p 212, “…new notion of writing [is about] valuing connection…… that information is not neutral. Collection is a social and political act; there are not mere disembodied facts, but choices.” I think I understand this part, although this is far headier than anything I will try to teach my high school students–I think this may apply to college students.
Now, for the questions: what exactly is ProTools and also Storyspace and Dreamweaver? The author seems to think that I know all about this stuff–come on! Please tell us what it is if you mention it! I did like some of the activities at the end…Prof. Krause, is this where you got your idea for our blogs?
Re: Salvo’s “Cinders, Ash…” Feb 10
It is so interesting that reading this one article takes our class on a totally separate tangent that includes ‘crot’ articles [I sure hate that term--which I have never heard of before] and personal essays, and everything else between.
I love to have my own students write a version of personal essay, because that is what they do best. Maybe in high school, it is safer because students know not to go too far. I love having my kids write a paper we call “The Soundtrack of my Life.” It gives them a chance to write a personal narrative, but is rather controlled. They are to pick 6 eras of their life–starting with the very first song they can remember, and they are to write about their life in connection with each song. It usually starts out with them sitting in their footed jammies with their sippy cups watching ‘Bananas in Pajamas’ or ‘Barney.’ Then, it might include a song they learned at camp or singing a Beach Boys tune on the way to Cedar Point, and often, at least for the girls, includes a time when several girls all pretended to be Madonna or Brittany Spears and practiced in front of a mirror. This is such a fun thing to read, I cannot imagine skipping the personal essay with my kids.
Re: Salvo——number 2
How neat that Salvo responded to us! Thanks, Dr. Krause, for inviting him to share with us, and thanks for sharing!
Re: Shirky’s “Here Comes Everybody” Feb 15
I really enjoyed the article. I was pretty much aware of a lot of the information in here–primarily because our media center lady goes over a lot of this information with our students when she introduces them to the library.
My favorite quote from the article is about the “virtuous circle.” He says, “because enough people thought of using Wikipedia as a resource, it became one, and because it became one, more people thought of using it as a coordinating resource.” I think this is so interesting because it speaks to me of the chicken or egg argument or the idea of living up to expectations. I can see how it just seemed to take on a life by itself.
This really was a very readable artlcle–especially as I read it on the beach today (the only day warm enough to do so) and it didn’t bother me at all to read it.
My problem is, none of these articles have given me the information I need to work with wikis (besides just Wikipedia) in my own classroom…. I see another self-motivated project here.
Re: Cummings’ “What was a Wiki? and Why Do I Care?” Feb 15
I really like all these readings–pretty user friendly compared to some in the past. The problem is because the Wiki articles are similar, it is hard to separate which one said which.
I was interested in the Nature Study and the result of it. I am not surprised that the print Encyclopedia and Wikipedia had similar outcomes. I think we have come to trust print, somehow, and we do not trust computer resources. Yet there was a major study done several years ago about accuracy in textbooks. And, according to that study, (sorry I do not have the details–I think it was based on high school history books), there were glaring errors in the textbooks we trust. I think there were virtual hundreds of errors found! So, I would be really interested in those comparisons as well.
I do trust Wikipedia in a limited way, at least. But, as the article showed, I would not use it for a research paper, nor allow my students to do so–any more than I would have allowed them to use a print Encyclopedia many years ago. One of the many good points about it is that it often gives me or my students other ideas to check out and some of the entries even give sources.
Re: Phillipson’s “Wikis in the Classroom” Feb 15
I am a little confused! I am a little familiar with the differentiation wiki for teaching but am not sure how one would go about creating a wiki or where to do so. So, despite the information given here, I am still unsure as to how one would create them. This was my least favorite article and yet, not a bad one.
I do appreciate the information on how they can be used and the different types.
I definitely agree with Brian. If someone were to simply tell me to make a wiki entry, I would probably have assumed Wikipedia and I probably would have failed the assignment. That’s why I think it is so very important to be given examples and specific directions.
I am still confused as to how students “building a resource wiki may think of themselves as banded together in a communal effort, students involved in a presentation wiki are more likely to regard themselves as unique contributors, open to individual assessment.” I just don’t understand how these could have such different outcomes. I would like to know more about the “EduWikis,” which he mentioned on p 31.
Re: wikis and more wikis–my own experience diving in… Feb 15
After reading about Wikis this week, I am so curious about them, that I have begun to do a little research myself. The one article mentioned Sambara Rebellion, so I went there to see if it still had the error on it. It didn’t. Then, I checked out the history. Interesting. Then, I clicked on a couple of the names of the editors and they have a site of their own that tells about themselves and how many article they have helped to edit. It’s all really interesting. I wasted a couple of hours this way–but it was very interesting. I am so curious as to how these frequent editors actually have time to do the necessary things in life (like work) and do all they do as well. Those I checked, though, actually had information about their own sites and how they have been vandalized. I wonder, does anything happen to these vandals? I would love to meet some of these editors. This has created an entire curiosity in me for wikipedia! And I am too busy as it is!
Re: Purdy’s “When the Tenets of Composition…” Feb 15
As a result of this article and of our discussion, I just looked through some wiki entries and some histories. I found a couple of contributors who claim to have made thousands of entries. Both of them indicated that their pages have been vandalized numerous times. But, each time, they were apparently restored quickly. I think it is really interesting to look at the history and see how changes have been made and what changes have occurred. I began by trying to think of a topic that would have changed so I picked the “shoe bomber”–assuming that as more information became available, and as his trial progressed, there would be updates. It was very interesting to look at it all and to see how well-developed the changes were.
Compared to a print encyclopedia, the ability to change something like this is phenomenal. I also have a new appreciation for the detail that apparently goes into some of this.
The one contributor said he is an information junkie and his work with Wikipedia had caused him to slack on his schoolwork. I guess I could see that happening!
I agree with Angie, that we need to take everything with a grain of salt, but I do have a new appreciation for Wikipedia at this point.
TWO THINGS I READ –not assigned, but interesting Feb 21
Better Homes and Gardens -Mar 2010 issue pp 236 “How Families Use Technology” by Holly Robinson states:
#1/”The average age at which American kids start using mainstream technolgy gadgets such as cell phones, IPods and DVD players is now 6.7 years”
#2/ “By 2007, 90 percent of eighth grade public school students had a computer at home.”
#3/”The percentage of people who report spending less time with other household members since being connected to the internet has tripled, from 11 percent in 2006 to 28 percent in 2008.”
She indicates that some of this information is from the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Center for the Digital Future, but it is not definitely clear that all this information comes from there.
Interesting.
I know that since I have begun this class, my husband says he never sees me without my face in the computer! Therefore, it must be true!
Detroit Free Press Sunday edition Feb 21
There is an article in her about Pearl Cleag and the header reads:
“Ex-Detroiter combines fact, fiction to make her point.” I guess this class has totally affected me because I read that and immediately thought of all the articles we have reading about mixing and re-purposing. You can read it too at:
What I especially liked was that she used to ride the bus and listen to people’s conversations and use those ideas for her writing. I am sure someone would have SOMETHING to say about that regarding fair use.
Re: Chapter 4 Sirc (Of Writing New Media) Feb 22
So far, while interesting, I get more of the sense of Cornell as a hoarder than an artist. While he may have put together his collection of stuff to make a pice of art, at first while I was reading this, I didn’t see how this applied to writing. He quoted Cornell on p 119, and my question is, ” Does one become an artist because he collects all the stuff or does it take an artist to see the awesome ways this stuff can be used?” And, I use the term ‘artist’ on purpose here. I really don’t see for Cornell, this relating to writing so much until Sirc shows how writing can be similar. Personally, I think that Cornell is not the kind of guy I would want for a neighbor. I can just see what a mess his house must have been. Yeeew!
I did enjoy what he said on p 120-1, speaking of the collector who “studies and loves them as the scene, the stage, of their fate.” I just like the words he uses here–I am more of a word person than a visual person, I guess.
Again, I see Dreamweaver and StorySpace mentioned. I have to check out these two things–they must be pretty effective.
On page 123, he says, “Association as a conjoining logic is even more basic than juxtaposition.” I like that idea–instead of looking at how things are compared to each other, we are to look at how things relate to each other. I really do like that!
Finally, does learning all this confuse students? Do they have difficulty knowing when it is possible to use this ‘genre’ and when to use traditional ‘essay or research writing’ genre?
One more…I think that this is kind of what people do when they create Myspace pages. They put into boxes all sorts of things about themselves and their environments. They include their favorite music, pictures, hobbies, sports, food, etc…. kind of like the boxes that Sirc writes about.
Re: Selfe (Chapter 3 of Writing New Media) Feb 22
I wonder if this is good–that “written language is being displaced?” I know I will probably get a reaction to this when I post on the class website, but I love the written word. I not only will NOT let it die, but I will fight for it, kicking and screaming, if necessary.
I wonder–if the visual is so much more important than the written word, then why the heck is her whole chapter WRITTEN? Sorry if this seems like a rant, but maybe it is. I am not saying there is no room for the visual, but it cannot replace the written word.
I also was a little confused by her first activity on page 75. I also found her ‘evaluation model’ on page 83 to be more of an artistic evaluation than a written one. She mentions color and line–and those are distinctly artistic judgements in my book. Also, if judgement is up to the author (or creator–since I don’t think of this as writing so much as art), then what happens if the creator wants to make a point using black and white?
I liked more her activity 2-visual argument. That seems so much more usable to me. I think that is interesting. The interesting thing is that, since today is a snow day, I am home and TV is on. CNN just had a news story about an ad for using seatbelts that is going viral. It is all visual and entitled “embrace life.” So, I don’t disagree that there is definitely a place for the visual, but I would not want to lose the written word, nor do I believe that we should negate the value of the written word.
Also, I like her examples on p 106–an interesting read.
Follow up 23 February-
I never thought I would get so much reaction from my comments on Selfe’s article. I just love the written word–and I do not want to see it disappear. How could any of us live without it? How about instructions? How about these blogs? Love words, love books…… Love pictures too. It all counts!
Re: Alexander’s “Media Convergence…” Feb 26
Wow–no time yesterday to respond at all. Yesterday was parent conference day at school–kids from 730 to 1105, parents from 12 to 230, eye dr at 3, parents back at 530-830. So, here goes. This is my favorite article so far (at least one of the favorite). Even though he writes in a more technical manner, there is a lot of clarity to his writing. It is easy to understand what he is talking about and even exciting as we begin to see this ‘new media’ play out.
I am really interested in what he said about it representing “not just convergence of different media, but also the convergence of educational institutions and for-profit corporations, popular culture and ‘high culture’.’ digital authors and copyright holders, and students and teachers…” That is a pretty cool concept. I also liked how he discussed the ‘personal and collective creative expression.’ and discussed the various examples. And I really liked the Jenkins quote that he included about “shared knowledge, shared vision, and shared action.” He really talks about all facets or our culture coming together through this new media. How exciting!
Re: Anderson’s “Low Bridge to High Benefits” Feb 26
I liked this piece, but it seemed in many ways to be just plain common sense.
I have seen more and more of the “playlist” or “soundtrack” kind of assignments, and I do believe that gets kids involved. I think I mentioned in a post earlier this month that I have my kids write a “soundtrack” paper, and it is always the most fun for them and the most fun for me, too. But, some would argue that such an assignment is popular because it attracts the student who learn musically or kinesthetically. At any rate, I know they like it and I do too.
I think the hardest thing as a teacher is to figure out how to grade something like this–especially in a writing course. But, I think it is definitely something we all must figure out.
Gloria mentioned in her post, how are we going to fit this into our schedule with all the mandated things we need to teach now? I think that is a very valid observation. At some point, these ‘media literacies’ will have to be included as part of the state-mandated curriculum.
Re: Wesch’s Video-Mar 9
Wow, I really enjoyed this, although I certainly didn’t expect to. I love teaching about anthropology and sociology and I infuse as much of it as I possibly can into my English classes. That is much harder to do with American Lit than with World Literature, but I do it anyway. At any rate, Wesch really showed how the YouTube craze mirrors our culture. His video (although almost an hour long) was informative and interesting. I was shocked when it was over. He merged the actual technology and the YouTube videos themselves into his classroom and made an interesting documentary out of it. I think it is something that many years from now, someone can look back at, and it will give them a real reflection of our society in this time period. I like that Wesch doesn’t actually make a value judgement about it, but from a cultural perspective, he just shows it as a reflection of society–for good, bad, or indifferent. I like that he also showed the crazy, the shy, and the cheesy. This is us!
Re: Juhasz’s Why Not to Teach on YouTube and her video Mar 9
Is she being serious in her video? Or is she mocking us? Dave and I both get the sense of Sylvia Plath. It seems she is unhappy and whining…I get that same sense that I get from Plath, of nothing worth living for, of nothingness, of same ole, same ole, without value or justification. Well, Ms. Juhasz, maybe you need to either: watch better YouTube videos, spend your time in some other way, or get over it! If I were so obsessed about something that seems to make me unhappy, I would leave it alone.
But, is she serious? Who knows?
RE: gaming week March 15
This week, I am not going to respond to the separate readings. They really seem to connect, and I am short on time, so I am going to generically respond. A couple of major ideas stand out: there are several experts who purport that designing games replicates composing writing. I am still a little confused by the one article, so I am not sure about this. Dr. Krause had us watch a little video–and that was fun! The most important information I got out of that was the whole idea of tangential learning from video games. Well, I like to discuss some of this stuff with my students–it helps me to see their side of the situation as well as it lets us sometimes, at least, get into some new vocabulary (tangential) and discuss it. About 4 or 5 kids in each class could give me specific examples of learning information from video games. We also had a chance to talk about playing video games, too. Most of my students are pretty good students who would not play video games all night instead of doing their work, and they made sure to tell me that. Their examples were interesting.
RE: readings on social networking Mar 22 –“Paradox and Promise: MySpace, Facebook, and the Sociopolitics of Social Networking in the Writing Classroom”
The background information on this begins with the details of teachers who have gotten themselves in trouble with Facebook or MySpace accounts. Funny I would read this JUST after I have accepted about 20 of my students as Facebook friends. OOOps! Well, I always steered clear of Facebook and MySpace because I didn’t want to get involved in any suspicious way with my students. But, as a result of this class, here I am! I sure hope this doesn’t lead to trouble for me. Interestingly enough, I already saw one of my students saying something online that he would never say in front of a teacher in reality! They need to realize that when the friend me, they may be letting me see a side of them that they don’t want me to see! Interesting. The problem with this article is that it seems to get off task and though the begining of it seems to tell the reader that it is a teacher-friendly article about using facebook or MySpace for their classes. It never really gets into that. It doesn’t show how these could be used effectively ( or even ineffectively!).
This article really just more or less introduces the reader to what these social networking sites are. I thought something really interesting is the comment that journalists don’t much investigate kiddie porn because in order to do that, they have to LOOK at kiddie porn and that is illegal! Interesting!
RE: the NPR story on Facebook and on MySpace– the short snippet of a story was interesting. It also goes along with exactly what my students tell me–MySpace is so old-school, and all my kids (at least most all) use Facebook!..
An interesting side note: my students have invited me to join a “stepping it up group” which has been our school motto for the year. But this group is really an anti-stepping-it-up group–complaining about our Collins writing and other things. Do they want me to get Fired??? Come on kids, I can’t join something like that. I do suggest that you re-write your complaint with correct spelling and grammar ( it did have VOICE–good job there) and then take it to the administrators. You never know when a well-put argument can be effective!
RE: Defining Creepy Treehouse– kind of odd story–makes you thinkg at least a little. But the story doesn’t tell you where to go with this information. Did I understand this correctly? That the implication is if teachers try to initiate some kind of social networking with our students, because it would be initiated by the teacher, it would seem like a creepy treehouse? This could go both ways, I think.
RE: How Twitter Will Change the Way we Live–again, I don’t think this particular article lived up to its title. It was somewhat interesting, but does not do much to prove to me, at least, that it will totally change the way we live. The author does make a fairly strong showing of the responses that twittering will elicit.
“The Twitter Experiment”–not due til later this week, but I am getting a jump on things: I thought it was really interesting that she conducted her class by having the students twitter in class, however, there are so many things that we have discussed in class that just cannot work in public schools–especially when student cell phones are banned in class!
RE: DePew March 22
I really like the readings for this week about teaching online –even though I became so caught up in the readings that i forgot to post about them until today. I think there is a lot to be said for an online class and I certainly do NOT understand why there would be a problem for a literature–based on what Dr. Krause said. When I was a freshman in college, we had a “freshman lit” course where we had to read a number of books during the semester (I think 8 or 10) and take a midterm on the first half and a final on the second half. There was no face-to-face at all, unless we wanted to make an appointment with the professor. I think we had 2 class meetings and there were a couple hundred students in the lecture hall. However, I think that today, a lot of students are not prepared for such work and would need more hand-holding. The online class would probably be an appropriate venue for that type of class.
DePew seems to imply that Freire is saying that teachers who use the “banking model” in teaching do so in order to be in control of the class, but I would think that those who use that model do so more because that is the way they were taught or they really don’t feel comfortable using another format. I hope so. I would not like to think that every teacher who uses this model does so only to exercise such complete control over their students.
I wonder, based on p 179, if there are still correspondence courses? I would be surprised if the online courses haven’t usurped the correspondence courses. I also note that the authors have used quite a few resources from the 1970’s era and I wonder why. I know that pedagogy doesn’t really change, however, it would seem that there might be more recent information.
On page 183, the authors state that “the disparity raises the question as to whether the students’ visibility placed them at an advantage or disadvantage for the reasons discussed with the correspondence course.” I wonder if, in fact, these students [those who took the course at a distance] were at an advantage or a disadvantage — or if it evens out, with some being at an advantage and some at a disadvantage.
The most important part of the reading, to me, is the very end, Since I am studying hybrid classes for my research paper, I like this sentence, “..the hybrid nature of this stimulated classroom made the students visible in different ways and allowed the instructors to decide which visual cues they would evaluate.”
RE: 3 CHE articles-April 1
In this age of budget cuts and bleeding revenues, it would seem only logical that some of the colleges (most, all?) would want to enhance their revenues by offering some distance or online classes. Over the last couple of months, I have been pondering an idea about online classes in high school-perhaps to take the place of summer school for those who have failed? It is an interesting concept and one I have not yet truly wrapped my head around. But, I do appreciate these articles. I feel that they, for the most part, are acting like a cheering section for trying online teaching.
I know that some of our high school students are taking online classes right in our school from Baker College, and I believe they have shown some measured success, but I do not know how rigorous they are. I also know that our Media Center Director is there to help them with the technology and apparently they need a lot of help when they first start out.
I am very fascinated by the idea that online learning has proven to be so successful. I would suppose that soon some colleges are going to have to teach How to use online technologies in the classroom. We teach everything else and it would seem that a class covering this pedagogy would be useful.
RE: Ball and Moeller Apr 6
I was especially fascinated by p 8 where Ball and Moeller discuss the 2008 Presidential election; and how they believed it may “soon be displaced by a striking rise in political inter/action …” This was certainly a fortuitous comment as Obama’s win was largely credited with the social networking sites.
I also agree with their comment that “we can teach students to use rhetoric and aesthetics.” I believe that the authors do a credible job of showing us how that can be affected.
I appreciate the way the authors show the fusion of the various modes, or the dualities of them. Even though they state that the various English departments don’t accept the non-written modes, their article would certainly be a good encourager for a department to take another look in their direction.
One thing that keeps coming up, and not just in this particular article, but in many articles, are the same authors: Selfe, Wycocki, Eilola, Wesch, etc. It seems to me that so many of these authors make references to the other authors and it seems to just go in a circular fashion. Seems so self-serving!
I have to admit that I am fascinated with the idea of rhetoric. Although I have taught English for years and certainly taken enough English classes in my time, I wonder if I should be going back and taking a course in rhetoric. I certainly know how to make a credible argument, but ‘rhetoric’ per se was not something I was taught. Now it seems to be the new buzz and we certainly need to teach our students how to make a credible argument and defend it.
I like what Dave said about teaching students that “music, hypertext and video can be used as an element of rhetoric.” I think this links back to one of the first articles we read about how the written language is beginning to wane and be displaced by the visual. After reading all we have had to read this semester, I would rather say that the written language is going to be only one element of communication in the future and that it will be enhanced by the visual and aural! Too bad I didn’t realize this in the beginning of the class.
RE: Comstock and Hawks -6 April
I hear virtually everyone groaning–thinking, oh, no! another kind of literacy that I need to try to add into my classroom! And I think we are all there–but something has to give! I know for the high school, we have a set curriculum which is at least partially dictated by the state of Michigan, and there is such a conglomeration of what we are required to teach that there is little wiggle room to add all the other stuff we feel compelled to teach too! Every year my cohorts and I sit down and ask ourselves what we can delete from the curriculum (legally) and where we can add in some of the things we feel we need to add in. The tenth grade curriculum is heavy on persuasion, and as much as I would like to add in a persuasive project using digital literacy or sound literacy, there is almost no way to do that without dropping something we are required to cover either by the state or our district! As far as I am concerned, we have had to drop all the ‘fun’ stuff….there is almost no room for poetry or creative writing. Too bad. Maybe the pendulum will swing the other way, or we will somehow be able to get more time in the media center which would allow different versions (including some visual, aural, or digital) of our required projects. We want to do so much and there is so little time. I do think I am going to make a concerted effort, however, to get my kids into the computer lab to try to do a multi media or multi modal persuasive project. If I could get them to do a voice over, then their VOICE would be obvious and that would be a really cool way for them to hear whether or not they are writing with voice.
I do believe it is the mark of a caring teacher that we are all feeling that we now must include more.
RE: Selfe and Hesse and Selfe April 7
I believe Selfe has a credible argument in regard to adding aural modalities to our writing classes. I wonder, however, if she is stepping a little out of bounds of a composition class. Perhaps such a class should be called rhetoric. I understand that some colleges are bringing back courses and even degrees in rhetoric, which I find fascinating. I wonder if, in the near future perhaps, students will be required to take classes in both rhetoric and composition. I think that would be a good idea, and I believe a very valuable course.
Hesse makes a valid argument that if a class is listed as composition, then it should be ‘advertised’ so to speak that way. I agree with him. As a 10th grade teacher, I expect certain competencies of my students as they enter my class–certain goals and objectives they should have met before they pass out of ninth grade. Now, not all of them reach those goals, but I do know they have been introduced to certain objectives and should, at the very least, be aware of them. If a teacher were to simply go off on her own course and focus on rhetoric, my life would be much more difficult. So, I have no problem with Selfe’s ideas, just that there needs to be some commonality on each campus, at least, in regard to goals and expectations. I believe that is exactly the point that Hesse makes,
