Very relavant poll question, nice work whoever did it. Whoever doesn;t watch The Wire should start, it deals with the interactions between the media, police force, government officials, and drug dealers in West Baltimore. Recently has focused on great insight into the "truth" behind how the media deals with a troubled society and corrupt city.
P.S. Is Cheese's last name really Wagstaff? I could have sworn Young Randy donned that one?
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Whose Violent Descent?
Stuart Moulthrop promotes a very interesting discourse and approaches the "threat" of the Internet to traditional written text very rationally in this reading. Addressing the age old threat that Media Ecologists so ardently point out is possible with the advent of the next big technological gizmo with writing capabilities, Moulthrop points out how the cross hares have landed on electronic hypertext and the Internet. The concerns voiced are over the fear of written text's redundancy in the face of a new digital realm granted an array of sources and access to the knowledge seeker. The problem that critics claim is, however, that through digitization this will be mutated into a hollow means of recreation, and that as a result, written text will be defeated at the hands of a "toy shop" as the reading so wonderfully phrases it. The glaring problem in this criticism is that of course, this threat that hypertext poses is no different than that of every new technological medium before it (including written text itself). To point out this criticism is nothing new under the sun, written text threatened the capacity of the mind to remember things, television is believed to "rot our brains", the Internet is just next in line...
The truth is that, when almost every technology is introduced it has strong ties to entertainment and often is thrust into the role of a commodity to be sold and packaged as representing a variety of functions, recreation being one of them usually.
Another key criticism I felt worth pointing out, was the fear of a monopolization of information with the digitization of text. With or without the world that hypertext allows, this monopolization of information already exists, they're called COLLEGES and UNIVERSITIES. Oh...and there's the fact that the majority of books circulated and sold around the world belong to say, a handful of publishing companies. They may fool us by selling them through smaller more "intimate" publishing companies, but these are still owned by the same publishing juggernauts (i.e. check out Time Warner's holdings in the publishing game). Moulthrop asks us to "imagine a world without bookstores" where the 'burden' of physically buying a book is replaced by accessing some type of digital book catalogue directly. As menial as physical shopping may be, the bookstore won't be going anywhere for the same reason the movie theatre is sticking around, people value the intimacy of shopping. Something about being able to pick up and see (read if you will) what you're getting.
Jay David Bolter is quoted as referring to things as "the late age of print", claiming that print is on its last legs, but since the technology isn't completely developed/available it's still hobbling along. Let's give written text and old Gutenberg some credit, its managed to stick around for a couple of centuries and change the way we communicate, learn and live our lives.
Moulthrop may bring up some fragile fears, but he brings it home pretty rationally claiming that if we understand and acknowledge what hypertext represents to the future of text (print text included) and the availability and access of knowledge than we might not have to look at things so ominously. The Ecologists point out finally, that before we go making hypertext into the next VCR it might just end up like the Sony Beta. Big changes in our climate are rare.
I'd say the violent descent is going at more of a moderate plunge...
The Gibson Takeover of Hypertext
Stephanie B Gibson takes the time in her chapter of Communication and Cyberspace to critically analyze the breakthroughs in the use of computers and a new form of print in the classroom. These observations are most closely applicable to our generation. This statement relates to the fact that we entered our respective classrooms as youngsters with little or no technology at our fingertips. We were basically going through grade school using the same amount of technology in the classroom our parents did, oblivious to the accelerating medium surrounding us. Eventually, however, the expansive world of hypertext surrounding us became overwhelming and the possible connections to the classroom became clear. it seems when we reached high school teachers and administrators began to feel the pressures of cyberspace and hypermedia;s necessity in the classroom as part of our changing world. It is difficult to incorporate the use of multimedia and the internet in the vintage classroom setting. This is because, just like Gibson stated, the classroom itself and the learning format in general had adopted many of the linear characteristics associated with the outdated form of writing and printed text being used to educate. At times, students like myself may have found themselves confused for seemingly no reason in a pioneer class that attempted to use hypertext and multimedia as educational instruments. the confusion is not rooted in the material however, but in the blending of today's technology with an antiquated form of pedagogy.
Today most of us find ourselves on the verge of ending our educations and college careers, and we all look forward to moving away from being students. Before we reach the point however, we all take at least one course that's main focus is multimedia pressent on the internet, and what resources are available to us on this medium. Besides these readings on the background of the technology that exists in today's cyberspace, every other action in this class is performed by looking at writing on a screen and using this text and media to interact with other students and technology itself. This class in particular overthrows the balance of electronic and printed text way over to the more interactive side. Professor Strate even jokes about if any of us still bring pens to class or even use them during the minimal occasions that we may need to jot something down. Usually, a password or pin number we still don't fully trust a machine to secure for us for some reason. We could be the beginning of the end for the linear classroom.
Today most of us find ourselves on the verge of ending our educations and college careers, and we all look forward to moving away from being students. Before we reach the point however, we all take at least one course that's main focus is multimedia pressent on the internet, and what resources are available to us on this medium. Besides these readings on the background of the technology that exists in today's cyberspace, every other action in this class is performed by looking at writing on a screen and using this text and media to interact with other students and technology itself. This class in particular overthrows the balance of electronic and printed text way over to the more interactive side. Professor Strate even jokes about if any of us still bring pens to class or even use them during the minimal occasions that we may need to jot something down. Usually, a password or pin number we still don't fully trust a machine to secure for us for some reason. We could be the beginning of the end for the linear classroom.
Online Advertising.
I'd like to comment on advertising more thoroughly. While "F Ng" has already commented on Camille Paglia's comparison of online (banner) ads with art, I would like to make a stronger argument that, in essence, they are most akin to hypertext in it's traditional sense. With increased market research and online tracking services, marketers are easily able to know what sites you visit, in what order, track bands, movies and books in your Facebook or MySpace "Interests" and then tailor ads to you and other very specific niche groups. For example, if you are searching cute pictures of cats, you may get an ad for PetSmart/Petco on your next page. Likewise, if tickets for your favorite Indie band go on sale for a local show, you will be shown ads directing you where to go in order to purchase them. This simulates hyper text (not just in the essence of it's definition but of it's functionality) in that we are actively being shown "links" which direct us from our current search into more in depth/ specific information and products, relevant to our initial topic. Additionally, think about Google ads. These are the epitome of the traditional "hypertext link" which allows for you to click on the hypertext and be redirected to a sponsored web site which fulfills the requirements of elements you've entered and submitted into the Google search field.
Can we comparatively say that online ads are as "intrusive" as Paglia suggests television ad spots have become? She comments that tv hosts "...sternly [stop] even the most high-ranking guest mid-flight to cut away for a series of eye assaulting commercials." While commercials have become an integrated regiment of advertising spots throughout television programming, research I conducted last semester shows that students felt more at home with commercials because they are expected. While I believe that online advertising will fade into the background of our online endeavors as we learn to "tune out" the blinking banners much like we have for commercial breaks, I still believe that we are just fighting the initial intrusion of commercialism on our (relatively)new media space. Despite pesky pop-up and pop-under ads, the viewer has a greater choice of whether or not to view the ads (and at our leisure at that). Online, we are choosing whether or not to watch or take advantage of an advertisement. We are an active consumer, no longer passively consuming commercialism, taking control of our information consumption and very ADD online habits. It is at this point in which we have become critics of what we see online that we will become "fascinated by advertising slogans, as folk poetry." (Paglia) They will become culturally integrated with our online experience if they have not succeeded in this effort thus far.
Can we comparatively say that online ads are as "intrusive" as Paglia suggests television ad spots have become? She comments that tv hosts "...sternly [stop] even the most high-ranking guest mid-flight to cut away for a series of eye assaulting commercials." While commercials have become an integrated regiment of advertising spots throughout television programming, research I conducted last semester shows that students felt more at home with commercials because they are expected. While I believe that online advertising will fade into the background of our online endeavors as we learn to "tune out" the blinking banners much like we have for commercial breaks, I still believe that we are just fighting the initial intrusion of commercialism on our (relatively)new media space. Despite pesky pop-up and pop-under ads, the viewer has a greater choice of whether or not to view the ads (and at our leisure at that). Online, we are choosing whether or not to watch or take advantage of an advertisement. We are an active consumer, no longer passively consuming commercialism, taking control of our information consumption and very ADD online habits. It is at this point in which we have become critics of what we see online that we will become "fascinated by advertising slogans, as folk poetry." (Paglia) They will become culturally integrated with our online experience if they have not succeeded in this effort thus far.
Wikipedia's Success; Teachers cringe
The issue from this weeks reading which seems the most conscious from the blogging community is Camille Paglia's argument in Chapter 16 for the impact of physical appearance in quality interactive writing. You cannot judge a book by its cover and the way in which text is displayed on a web page does not determine the quality of its contents, but Paglia is on to something.
"Chiseling words into stone naturally leads to a more economic style of writing than putting pen to paper. Bound books suggest cross-referencing possibilities difficult to implement when working with scrolls. Print media place greater emphasis on layout and homogeneity of form manuscripts. Electronic text is less fixed, and more easily altered than words written in stone..."
Between html and web page design, the electronic text of our age has the ability to be published in an organized, attractive form. Where this ability exists people will obviously explore and use creative electronic design to differentiate their message from others, something that cannot be done as easily with print and paper. Aside from page design and physical appearance, something else is also happening to the evolution of published writing via the internet. Readers are getting greedy and impatient. Not only do I want the content of what I am reading to be thoughtful and creative and backed by liable sources, but I want the information organized in such a way that I can cross reference specific arguments and note important entities and events. Hypertext is a stepping stone in the cyber-evolution, where publishers need to find a way to grab their target audience's attention midst that swirling eternity of available information on the internet. I think judgment of the quality of published information (over the internet) is an irrelevant issue to the growing need for physical attraction and logical organization needed to intrigue readers towards the printed material.
This being said, I came across a very interesting article called "The Future of HyperText" (1995) where author Jacob Nielson predicts the evolution of hypertext, and the implications that these changes will have on the publishing community. In Nielson's section discussing patents and how to credibly source hypertext links, he poses three traits which are needed for Goliath companies to emerge in the patent industry admits the confusion of hypertext credibility.
In light of Paglia's argument of the need for appearance and organization to attract readers, and Nielson's description of what it takes to take foothold in the interactive publishing industry, I began to think of my personal experience with hypertext links. What website has more cross reference links and hypertext links than Wikipedia? Although as students we have been warned for years about the lack of credibility from Wikipedia sources, it seems as though all signs point to the online encyclopedia's continued success. It is a front runner in the hypertext era, where information is fast and easily accessible, it has accumulated enough fame to be Google's proffered search return for most major people, places, and things, and the website is easily accessible to anyone even slightly familiar with the internet. Wikipedia seems to fit in perfectly with the cyber-revolution, yet the fact that anyone can publish anything on the site continues to detain the sites reputation. Maybe it's Paglia's generation of web savy readers who need their information ready at the click of the mouse who maintain Wikipedia's continued success.
"Chiseling words into stone naturally leads to a more economic style of writing than putting pen to paper. Bound books suggest cross-referencing possibilities difficult to implement when working with scrolls. Print media place greater emphasis on layout and homogeneity of form manuscripts. Electronic text is less fixed, and more easily altered than words written in stone..."
Between html and web page design, the electronic text of our age has the ability to be published in an organized, attractive form. Where this ability exists people will obviously explore and use creative electronic design to differentiate their message from others, something that cannot be done as easily with print and paper. Aside from page design and physical appearance, something else is also happening to the evolution of published writing via the internet. Readers are getting greedy and impatient. Not only do I want the content of what I am reading to be thoughtful and creative and backed by liable sources, but I want the information organized in such a way that I can cross reference specific arguments and note important entities and events. Hypertext is a stepping stone in the cyber-evolution, where publishers need to find a way to grab their target audience's attention midst that swirling eternity of available information on the internet. I think judgment of the quality of published information (over the internet) is an irrelevant issue to the growing need for physical attraction and logical organization needed to intrigue readers towards the printed material.
This being said, I came across a very interesting article called "The Future of HyperText" (1995) where author Jacob Nielson predicts the evolution of hypertext, and the implications that these changes will have on the publishing community. In Nielson's section discussing patents and how to credibly source hypertext links, he poses three traits which are needed for Goliath companies to emerge in the patent industry admits the confusion of hypertext credibility.
Information monopolies are encouraged by three phenomena: production values, fame, and critical mass. With the move from simple text-based hypertext to multimedia-oriented hypermedia production values become steadily more important. For a text-only hypertext product, an individual author can craft a good product, but a full-scale multimedia product with video and animation takes a crew of graphic artists, set designers, actors, make-up specialists, camera-people, a director, etc. It may still be possible for a small company like Knowledge Adventure to produce a better dinosaur CD-ROM than Microsoft [FN 2] by including 3-D dinosaur attack animations, but material produced by the average dinosaur enthusiast pale in comparison with either CD-ROM. Professionally produced multimedia titles with good production values look so much better than amateur productions but they require much higher capitalization and thus can only be produced by a fairly small number of companies. We are already seeing a trend to higher production values on the WWW with the major computer companies hiring specialized production staff and graphic artists to dress up their home pages and smaller companies with boring pages (or worse, ugly graphics designed by a programmer) will lose the production-value battle for attention.
In light of Paglia's argument of the need for appearance and organization to attract readers, and Nielson's description of what it takes to take foothold in the interactive publishing industry, I began to think of my personal experience with hypertext links. What website has more cross reference links and hypertext links than Wikipedia? Although as students we have been warned for years about the lack of credibility from Wikipedia sources, it seems as though all signs point to the online encyclopedia's continued success. It is a front runner in the hypertext era, where information is fast and easily accessible, it has accumulated enough fame to be Google's proffered search return for most major people, places, and things, and the website is easily accessible to anyone even slightly familiar with the internet. Wikipedia seems to fit in perfectly with the cyber-revolution, yet the fact that anyone can publish anything on the site continues to detain the sites reputation. Maybe it's Paglia's generation of web savy readers who need their information ready at the click of the mouse who maintain Wikipedia's continued success.
Adapting to the Web
As we continue to globalize through the use of the internet, I enjoyed reading Moulthrop’s essay about the "new edge" technologies from electronic writing. We have definitely climbed over the edge and continue to soar to new heights as we now live in digitalized world with everything from free radio sites (Pandora.com is sick) to mortgaging your house. Many forms of industry have had to adapt in both positive and negative aspects to utilize the cheap accessibility of the web. As an aspiring director, I struggle to find the balance of stealing people's work such as music and movies. Yet my temptations subdue my desires as I find myself downloading music and buying the new bootlegged blockbuster from my favorite corner store. Consequently, small-production labels migrated to the web using a powerful medium to spread their work and build a firm website to attract advertising revenue. Sites like youtube and heavy.com specifically focus on short films to make money through adverting opposed to conventionals ways.
I thought this correlated to Pagli's essay 'writing for the internet'. These companies as well as others are finding ways to utilize a democratizing medium which can target one of the hardest age groups to reach, college students. Sites like youtube, heavy.com, myspace, and facebook are revolutionizing the web. I even chuckled a little while reading an excerpt from Pagli that "college students, even in the Ivy League, may spend from two to five hours a night on the internet." That is no exaggeration as I am enrolled in an active on-line media class and three others that involves daily readings from on-line sites and blackboard. I think Stephanie Gibson would agree that the impact of hypertext and the World Wide Web has forever impacted the classroom and our culture. Our framework of knowledge and expression continues to grow to a new level.
P.S. I just started a web-site called thecollegebible.net. I am hoping to concrete a web-site with funny college-related themes filled with home videos, pictures, story of the week, and other stupid stuff. Post any comments if you have any suggestions because all will be respected.
Revolutionary Free Radio, Pick artist and they play similar artists
http://www.pandora.com/
My new site which shall help me retire
http://www.thecollegebible.net/
I thought this correlated to Pagli's essay 'writing for the internet'. These companies as well as others are finding ways to utilize a democratizing medium which can target one of the hardest age groups to reach, college students. Sites like youtube, heavy.com, myspace, and facebook are revolutionizing the web. I even chuckled a little while reading an excerpt from Pagli that "college students, even in the Ivy League, may spend from two to five hours a night on the internet." That is no exaggeration as I am enrolled in an active on-line media class and three others that involves daily readings from on-line sites and blackboard. I think Stephanie Gibson would agree that the impact of hypertext and the World Wide Web has forever impacted the classroom and our culture. Our framework of knowledge and expression continues to grow to a new level.
P.S. I just started a web-site called thecollegebible.net. I am hoping to concrete a web-site with funny college-related themes filled with home videos, pictures, story of the week, and other stupid stuff. Post any comments if you have any suggestions because all will be respected.
Revolutionary Free Radio, Pick artist and they play similar artists
http://www.pandora.com/
My new site which shall help me retire
http://www.thecollegebible.net/
A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away... or here in a couple of years
Science meets fiction in this breakthrough in an article I stumbled across(literally StumbledUpon) The futuristic, state of the art robotic prosthetics below are cutting edge and would be a sweet technology to perfect for amputees, disabled veterans and future generations of Jedi who might lose limbs during light saber battles.
Check it
Check it
Monday, February 4, 2008
Versatility of Internet Writing
I thought that in the chapter, “Dispatches from the New Frontier: Writing for the Internet,” Camille Paglia’s comparison of the Internet to music and pieces of art was pretty interesting, as I do find that attractiveness of an article on the web does have a lot to do with its appearance. Though I did wonder about her view of advertisements on webpages. “Web pages crowned or rimmed by ads sometimes resemble medieval illuminated manuscripts, with their fantastic embellished lettering, and also Art Nouveau books and prints, with their undulating borders of running tendrils” (270). It seems odd that Paglia would see such things in ads on webpages. I guess I can see that she is trying to show that internet writing still has some connections with its roots in print writing, though many times I see ads as a nuisance as it sometimes draws the readers away from the actual article they are looking at, like it is in magazines or newspapers. I guess I just don’t see the artistic qualities in flashing ads and banners on a webpage. She obviously has a positive view of the layout and aesthetics of the Internet. Paglia gave descriptions of how ads can be seen as a form of art, so I find it interesting that there wasn’t any mention of photographs or images included in written work (probably because she is writer and not a photographer.)
She says that “Internet text at its best is streamlined,” (272) which I agree with; articles online have to be short and to the point in order to keep a readers’ attention. Though in addition to the writing in articles and the setup/format, I think that many readers are also attracted by images, like in magazines. While scrolling down a page, I assume the reader will most likely notice a photograph before noticing any eye-catching words (maybe photographs and images will be described in a different chapter.)
I also agree with her point that the Internet brings more freedom of access for readers and it also provides more information than in other news outlets, such as on television. For example, I recently saw a clip from ABC news about how a religious group was planning on picketing Heath Ledger’s funeral (sorry for bringing it up, but it was the first and most recent thing that came to mind) and the newscaster stated that he wasn’t going to give the name of the religious group because he did not want to provide more publicity for them. However, if one were to put a simple search in Google, the name of the group is given all over the place. So not only does the Internet allow constant information to be transferred and updated almost immediately, but also provides information that would otherwise be filtered out. Although I did wonder just how effective it would be by refusing to tell the name since, if people were curious, they would search for it online, and they would find their website. So, wouldn’t that be providing publicity, just in an indirect way by provoking our curiosity? It seems that older forms of media are helping to push people into looking things up on the Internet, further showing how versatile Internet writing is.
She says that “Internet text at its best is streamlined,” (272) which I agree with; articles online have to be short and to the point in order to keep a readers’ attention. Though in addition to the writing in articles and the setup/format, I think that many readers are also attracted by images, like in magazines. While scrolling down a page, I assume the reader will most likely notice a photograph before noticing any eye-catching words (maybe photographs and images will be described in a different chapter.)
I also agree with her point that the Internet brings more freedom of access for readers and it also provides more information than in other news outlets, such as on television. For example, I recently saw a clip from ABC news about how a religious group was planning on picketing Heath Ledger’s funeral (sorry for bringing it up, but it was the first and most recent thing that came to mind) and the newscaster stated that he wasn’t going to give the name of the religious group because he did not want to provide more publicity for them. However, if one were to put a simple search in Google, the name of the group is given all over the place. So not only does the Internet allow constant information to be transferred and updated almost immediately, but also provides information that would otherwise be filtered out. Although I did wonder just how effective it would be by refusing to tell the name since, if people were curious, they would search for it online, and they would find their website. So, wouldn’t that be providing publicity, just in an indirect way by provoking our curiosity? It seems that older forms of media are helping to push people into looking things up on the Internet, further showing how versatile Internet writing is.
Gotta Hit the Sites Because I'm Always Surfin'
In her chapter "Writing for the Internet," Camille Paglia presents a generally positive and progressive take on the Web. While I may not agree with her methods of making text look attractive to lure in readers, I'm sure there is some validity to it. (See my comment on Ted's article.) I also found her candidness refreshing. Her article is written as if it were to be presented on the Web, as opposed to being geared toward the highly literate Academia. Paglia has a very good understanding of the "world" she's writing about, especially when she speaks to "The Web [as having] a weather, particularly when news events unleash storms of popular sentiment." [P. 268] She also is aware of how the internet altered her writing style. While she may write within the AP standard for a print paper, she finds herself more casual online. I have noticed the same pattern myself, where I'm liable to slip into a gonna or gotta. Both words, I should mention, are not picked up by the spell check of Blogger, Adium or Gmail. The same goes for alright. It just goes to show how the evolution of the internet has changed some interpretations of proper spelling.
About half of Stuart Moulthrop's essay "Getting Over the Edge" reads like an internet alarmist's diatribe. While the text progresses, it explores what hypertext real is, shriking the alarmist attitude and settling down for a reasoned argument of hypertext. Moulthrop is primarily concerned with how our understanding of an object can change with hypertext. As Moulthrop puts it, "The experience of reading for any two people who traverse its verbal space may be radically different: 'polylogue,' not monologue." [P. 259] While no two people can walk away from a book with exactly te same interpretation, hypertext means that each reading is inherently different, some will skip over a reference or read them all. It changes the reading itself. One the earliest, and best examples, I ever came across of a hypertext was this site which I believe I stumbled upon in 2003 or 4. It's very simple, and recently had a video added which defeats a little of the hypertext. The site is really just a teacher's rendering of the lyrics of "We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel but it is meant to serve as a teacher's tool to recent United States history. Literally every word in the lyrics to the song is a link to another article. There are more, and better, examples out there, but this, to me, speaks to the usefulness of hypertext. Instead of just hearing the events, one can look a bit deeper and examine what "children of thalidomide" really means.
(Title from "Song.com" by The Damned, see below.)
About half of Stuart Moulthrop's essay "Getting Over the Edge" reads like an internet alarmist's diatribe. While the text progresses, it explores what hypertext real is, shriking the alarmist attitude and settling down for a reasoned argument of hypertext. Moulthrop is primarily concerned with how our understanding of an object can change with hypertext. As Moulthrop puts it, "The experience of reading for any two people who traverse its verbal space may be radically different: 'polylogue,' not monologue." [P. 259] While no two people can walk away from a book with exactly te same interpretation, hypertext means that each reading is inherently different, some will skip over a reference or read them all. It changes the reading itself. One the earliest, and best examples, I ever came across of a hypertext was this site which I believe I stumbled upon in 2003 or 4. It's very simple, and recently had a video added which defeats a little of the hypertext. The site is really just a teacher's rendering of the lyrics of "We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel but it is meant to serve as a teacher's tool to recent United States history. Literally every word in the lyrics to the song is a link to another article. There are more, and better, examples out there, but this, to me, speaks to the usefulness of hypertext. Instead of just hearing the events, one can look a bit deeper and examine what "children of thalidomide" really means.
(Title from "Song.com" by The Damned, see below.)
The New Blackboard of Education
I agree with Camille Paglia when she writes how the early exposure to television and the rapid action and color that are projected across family rooms in the U.S. has prepared the American youth for the internet and this mode of information and text. The "American's basic training for Internet Communication"(269) was the newsroom, the tv sitcoms, reality TV and the bright lights of participatory gameshows like "Price is Right" and "Wheel of Fortune". The intermingling of advertising and actual message is a common theme for TV as well as the internet as a medium. This as well as the high quantity of hours spent in front of screens has contributed to the TV and computer screen becoming the glowing orbs of entertainment, news and education in contemporary society and more spellbinding than ever before.
In Stephanie B. Gibson's article Pedagogy and Hypertext she discusses the implications of hypertext for the classroom. I immediately have visions of Blackboard's database and the format this website uses to create a "hypertexted" classroom. For example, this semester in Professor Hayes' Journalism class, Blackboard is the launching pad for the whole class. The NY Times rules for journalists, the SPJ code of ethics, online news stories and other links as well as the professor's personal notes on textbook readings are all available on Bb. Not only are the assignments, notes and documents placed together online in one place but they are dated so students know what will be discussed on what days.
So what implications does this online era have for the world of the university? Studying becomes a matter of opening up separate tabs on your laptop; this technology surge is a last call for the stereotypical cramming college student surrounded by papers and handouts. Particularly students studying the liberal arts, current affairs and communications. By providing real life examples just a click away from a powerpoint presentation on theory, learning becomes real and as current as the rest of the world. This also allows the teacher to maintain focus and stay on track with examples, models and discussions based on the lesson plan, constantly applying and adapting. A lesson plan on Blackboard opens the student to the world of the internet and allows classwork to be more focused and ultimately more comfortable for the new generation whose focus demands stimulation and many "open windows" open at once in order to prevent boredom. In this way, the hypertext has become more applicable to modern education than the textbook. I guess in this way, the medium must be contemporary in order to deliver a contemporary message.
In Stephanie B. Gibson's article Pedagogy and Hypertext she discusses the implications of hypertext for the classroom. I immediately have visions of Blackboard's database and the format this website uses to create a "hypertexted" classroom. For example, this semester in Professor Hayes' Journalism class, Blackboard is the launching pad for the whole class. The NY Times rules for journalists, the SPJ code of ethics, online news stories and other links as well as the professor's personal notes on textbook readings are all available on Bb. Not only are the assignments, notes and documents placed together online in one place but they are dated so students know what will be discussed on what days.
So what implications does this online era have for the world of the university? Studying becomes a matter of opening up separate tabs on your laptop; this technology surge is a last call for the stereotypical cramming college student surrounded by papers and handouts. Particularly students studying the liberal arts, current affairs and communications. By providing real life examples just a click away from a powerpoint presentation on theory, learning becomes real and as current as the rest of the world. This also allows the teacher to maintain focus and stay on track with examples, models and discussions based on the lesson plan, constantly applying and adapting. A lesson plan on Blackboard opens the student to the world of the internet and allows classwork to be more focused and ultimately more comfortable for the new generation whose focus demands stimulation and many "open windows" open at once in order to prevent boredom. In this way, the hypertext has become more applicable to modern education than the textbook. I guess in this way, the medium must be contemporary in order to deliver a contemporary message.
Wall Street Journal vs. Salon
Camille Paglia makes some interesting observations in her piece "Dispatches From the New Frontier: Writing for the Internet." She notes that internet writing is more visual than verbal. I find this completely untrue. Certainly the visual style of the page and text are important when I determine the value of a web page. However, nothing to me is more important than the actual writing. I don't really case if the author actively chooses "vocabulary that looks interesting on the page ... juxtaposing blunt Anglo-Saxon nouns and high actions verbs with polysyllabic Greco-Roman abstractions" (pg. 271). I mean honestly, what does that even mean? I want the text I read to have substance and value, not to "look cool."
Paglia also notes how her writing for the Wall Street Journal differs from her own writings for Slate. I agree that samples from both will differ greatly in style and tone, but I don't think its the medium that determines these differences. I believe its the audience. The people reading the Wall Street Journal want a voice that is "somber" and "organized." If I'm looking for a sound business advice I really wouldn't want to read a report that read like most blogs on the internet. The opposite is also true, if I was looking for an article about the most recent episode of Lost, I would prefer if it didn't contain words I'd need to look up in a dictionary.
I do think Paglia is spot on with her analysis of the Princess Diana tragedy. Old media is simply unable to compete with the lightning fast ability of the internet to respond to current events. I recall hearing stories of most Londoners getting their information from Wikipedia after the 7/7 bombings. The information monopoly that newspapers and book publishers held is being subverted by those with no want of money or fame.
Paglia also notes how her writing for the Wall Street Journal differs from her own writings for Slate. I agree that samples from both will differ greatly in style and tone, but I don't think its the medium that determines these differences. I believe its the audience. The people reading the Wall Street Journal want a voice that is "somber" and "organized." If I'm looking for a sound business advice I really wouldn't want to read a report that read like most blogs on the internet. The opposite is also true, if I was looking for an article about the most recent episode of Lost, I would prefer if it didn't contain words I'd need to look up in a dictionary.
I do think Paglia is spot on with her analysis of the Princess Diana tragedy. Old media is simply unable to compete with the lightning fast ability of the internet to respond to current events. I recall hearing stories of most Londoners getting their information from Wikipedia after the 7/7 bombings. The information monopoly that newspapers and book publishers held is being subverted by those with no want of money or fame.
Textbooks and Hypertext
In Stephanie B. Gibson’s essay about using hypertext to teach in the classroom, I agree with many of the statements she makes about the advantages and disadvantages of hypertext. The students might not be able to allow contributions or alterations, as Gibson has said, which does seem to be as limiting as textbooks, but perhaps it is because of the fear of someone providing the wrong information. Gibson says that it creates a type of hierarchy, (much like how a textbook is), but when it is information studied by scholars and professionals, is it really okay to allow anyone to add more information? “Any reader can add commentary and links, which then become part of the text” (279). This brings to mind the whole situation of who controls and corrects the information in Wikipedia. I suppose there would be some type of moderator to monitor any information though. (I’m not sure if I have the right idea here, so feel free to correct me in any misunderstandings I may have). In Gibson’s descriptions, it seems as if some hypertext acts like a “choose your own adventure” kind of book, where readers do not have any input, but just follow through until the end of the book.
On another note, I think that using hypertext would work best in an online course since it already provides the kind of setting necessary to use hypertext. If students have questions, they can easily post them for other students or the professor to answer. Plus, it is already an interactive environment and hypertext would just be addition to what is being taught in the online course.
Even if one were not given a choice in hypertext, students are still free to search out information on their own. I think that textbooks, though not as dynamic or interactive as hypertext, still allow students to search for more information if they want to. We all know the Internet serves as an effective research tool if you look in the right places. Hypertext, as Gibson mentioned, limits the students because they are given all the connections and information to them. With textbooks, yes students will have to read it, but they also have the choice to expand their knowledge on their own, and hypertext is just pushing that idea of choice in a smaller and more accessible package. Then again, maybe that’s just an ideal way of thinking, since I’m assuming many students are not willing to do the extra work, which is understandable because everyone has other things to do, nor do they often have to time to, in which case, hypertext would be a more effective method.
On another note, I think that using hypertext would work best in an online course since it already provides the kind of setting necessary to use hypertext. If students have questions, they can easily post them for other students or the professor to answer. Plus, it is already an interactive environment and hypertext would just be addition to what is being taught in the online course.
Even if one were not given a choice in hypertext, students are still free to search out information on their own. I think that textbooks, though not as dynamic or interactive as hypertext, still allow students to search for more information if they want to. We all know the Internet serves as an effective research tool if you look in the right places. Hypertext, as Gibson mentioned, limits the students because they are given all the connections and information to them. With textbooks, yes students will have to read it, but they also have the choice to expand their knowledge on their own, and hypertext is just pushing that idea of choice in a smaller and more accessible package. Then again, maybe that’s just an ideal way of thinking, since I’m assuming many students are not willing to do the extra work, which is understandable because everyone has other things to do, nor do they often have to time to, in which case, hypertext would be a more effective method.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Twitter Anyone?
Twitter hit the blogosphere with a bang two years ago when it first launched. Spreading like a viral YouTube video, soon every major blogger in the tech biz was Twittering. The simple service, which allows users to 'microblog' with up to 140 characters, changed the way people thought about blogs (and how to write them).
Today, people are finding new and different ways to use the social blog. One such example is using Twitter in a Academia to extend the relationships from class into an online world. Granted, we already have this blog, but it might be interesting to experiment with a more dynamic, real time system that others would still find accessible and worthwhile.
If anyone would be interested in playing around with Twitter, let me know. I have an account now (user name: TedBaker warning: may be some harsh language depending on my mood) but I'll admit to not using it much. Perhaps if I actually had a reason to and other people to interact with, I'd be forced to keep up on my Tweets.
(Semi-related note: HelloTxt allows users to update several status messages for sites like Facebook and Twitter from a central dialog box. Time saving if you participate in more than one social network.)
Today, people are finding new and different ways to use the social blog. One such example is using Twitter in a Academia to extend the relationships from class into an online world. Granted, we already have this blog, but it might be interesting to experiment with a more dynamic, real time system that others would still find accessible and worthwhile.
If anyone would be interested in playing around with Twitter, let me know. I have an account now (user name: TedBaker warning: may be some harsh language depending on my mood) but I'll admit to not using it much. Perhaps if I actually had a reason to and other people to interact with, I'd be forced to keep up on my Tweets.
(Semi-related note: HelloTxt allows users to update several status messages for sites like Facebook and Twitter from a central dialog box. Time saving if you participate in more than one social network.)
Interactive Media and Youth
I've come across several noteworthy items over the past few days. First, there was an interesting little piece in the Sunday New York Times Magazine, an essay by a woman who participated in a prototype of the internet, entitled My Wired Youth. Here's the text:
Now, this article happens to make reference to Growing Up Online, a Frontline documentary that was aired recently. Although the program is not as sophisticated in its analysis as the material we are covering in class, it is easy to access, since it's been made available on the internet, and therefore it's worth taking a look--just click on the title.
And on the lighter side, I'd also like to throw in a couple of YouTube videos that two of my MySpace friends turned me on to recently. One of them is a great comedy routine about the internet:
And the other is a song about MySpace:
The Medium
My Wired Youth Last month, a PBS documentary called “Growing Up Online” revealed that kids today create false Internet identities, contend with cyberbullies and visit Web sites that promote anorexia. To my surprise, I felt defensive: the scare phrase “growing up online” recalled nothing so much as my own shady adolescence 25 years ago, when, because of a quirk of early communications technology, a small group of New Hampshire girls, including me, came of age on a primitive computer network — the Internet before the Internet.
The way things worked out, Internet addiction nearly laid me to waste. At 11, I pretended I was 18 and tried to pass off Raquel Welch’s measurements as my own, having copied them from TV Guide. For years, I dated, studied, endured heartbreak and hazing and crossed and double-crossed everyone in a mysterious online netherworld called Xcaliber. By the time I turned 13, I was confident I knew every single person online. Xcaliber taught me to type, talk to adults, experiment with fantastic personas and new idioms, spot lechers by their online styles and avoid ideologues who post in all caps.
Xcaliber was early social-networking technology developed at Dartmouth College. In the heyday of Dungeons & Dragons, its vaguely Arthurian theme appealed to both hackers and preadolescents. But Xcaliber was actually intended as a convenience for the several academic and scientific institutions who shared Dartmouth’s mainframe computer — one of those big, heaving rhinos in a cage of bulletproof plexiglass. Every day a few hundred people dialed that mainframe for an alien signal — the then-unfamiliar squeal and crash of information transmission — and fit their receivers into acoustic couplers, like people in kayaks.
Having thereby turned “dumb terminals” into extremely slow personal computers, real mathematicians probably worked on impossible theorems using machine code. The rest of us did nothing but admire the many figures in pi and practice programming in Basic, the computer language invented by two local professors.
But on a fateful day in 1979, my friend Megan and I met some sysprogs: Dartmouth’s student system programmers, surprisingly cute hippie guys who developed the complex time-sharing system. One of them slipped us a password to Conference XYZ, a live-chat option on the network.
I remember that day by the keystrokes: joi xyz. Between the years 1979 and 1984, I typed that string thousands of times. The joi was short for “join” — commands could only be three letters long — and xyz was the name of the so-called “conference.” Conference XYZ amplified Xcaliber’s fantasy element: each convocation had levels and a self-anointed master who could banish chatters he disliked. Participants often communicated in an odd Led Zeppelin idiom or referred to damsels and steeds.
I assumed the ludicrous screen name Athena (my favorite sysprog called himself Apollo), while Megan’s handle was cooler: the doors. We then consorted — first with the sysprogs and each other, then with Dartmouth students, then with twisted weirdos, merchant marines and college students up and down the East Coast. We evolved a whole cutesy shtick that, in this text-only interface, chiefly meant giving up mixed cases. In the name of enhancing adorableness, we stuck to little letters and as few spaces as English semantics could bear. Our classic squinched-up opener was “hi-howre you?”
At 13, Megan and I introduced our friends to the conference, and as early adapters she and I felt obliged to play the pros and make the whole thing look ungeeky. When someone on the network asked me what I was up to, I replied — without fail — “music, sports and parties,” which was true, strictly speaking, though the parties were still make-your-own-sundae sleepovers, no boys allowed.
The result was attention, sweet nothings and mostly intimate or cerebral conversations — often about loneliness, the central preoccupation of people who stay up late and are drawn to anonymous forms of communication. Things rarely got more intense than “I’d really love to kiss you,” and when the conversations turned openly sexy, I’d beat it, a reaction echoed by the kids featured in “Growing Up Online,” who brag (as we used to) that they can always spot the creeps in their midst.
Which brings me to what nonplayers don’t get about online social-networking: it’s much less a walk on life’s wild side than it is a game like backgammon or — that ’70s favorite — Stratego. Successfully “playing the computer,” as we used to call it, requires a set of skills: social intuition, inventive self-presentation, speedy and clever writing, discretion, intricate etiquette, self-protection. Eventually you get a little finesse: you stop saying you’re 18, and you snub people who ask for measurements. You pride yourself on being able to find cool people, avoid jerks and not make dumb mistakes like disclosing too much, opening spam, talking to impostors and replying to all instead of to sender.
The best part of Conference XYZ was talking about adult stuff — etymology and lacrosse and Ronald Reagan — instead of being dismissed as too young. The worst part was the head games: the people who pretended they weren’t who they were and tried to make you say, “I’d love to kiss you,” so they could make fun of you. Your prowess as a player lay largely in how infrequently you were fooled, but everyone got fooled sometimes.
In 1983, I weathered jokes from my friends (“desperado!”) for going on a date with someone I met online. He was a freshman at Dartmouth, and I was 14, as he well knew, since we’d been talking frankly for months online. We met at a bonfire, wrapped in ski jackets and surrounded by my friends, who whispered to me that he seemed great. He kissed me that night, and we started dating, a little bit, no computers involved. Conference XYZ pretty much folded in 1986, but by then I was over it, like an easy game — tic-tac-toe or a search-a-word. Anyway, I’d been kissed, at last, which had never happened when I sat alone in front of a screen. Real life was apparently going to hold more excitement even than Xcaliber.
Now, this article happens to make reference to Growing Up Online, a Frontline documentary that was aired recently. Although the program is not as sophisticated in its analysis as the material we are covering in class, it is easy to access, since it's been made available on the internet, and therefore it's worth taking a look--just click on the title.
And on the lighter side, I'd also like to throw in a couple of YouTube videos that two of my MySpace friends turned me on to recently. One of them is a great comedy routine about the internet:
And the other is a song about MySpace:
Apple: the beginning of the end?
This is the introductiory ad for Macintosh computers which premiered during the 1984 Super Bowl:
(the Orwellian-theme is an interesting approach (and kind-o-creepy))
(the Orwellian-theme is an interesting approach (and kind-o-creepy))
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Be Conscious
Recently, I read an article in the traveller's edition of National Geographic called "Battle of the Bottle". I thought some interesting facts to share with the class are 'only 14 percent of plastic water bottles purchased anuually in the U.S. are recycled, according to the Container Recycling Institute. That means 60 million containers end up in waste everyday. Another note, some 25 to 40 percent of bottled water is merely tap water, according to Natural Resources Defense Council".
Thus, we continue to waste plastic for water that merely comes out of our faucets as well as money out of our pockets. It upsets me when people around me are so lazy that they can not take the time to differentiate their recyclabes from their garbage. Also, it is discomforting when a restaruant or public place does not even offer a recycling bin. This summer, I was in California and noticed how they are more conscious of respecting our planet; as you could find mutliple bins in one spot separted by color and material. This is one small way to make a positive global impact for our earth.
No offense Lance, but it is upon our generation to make a difference in a world that continues to dump carbon dioxide into our atmosphere, deforest our lands, and waste valuable natural resources. We need to start preserving our home to ensure that it will be around for future generations. Also, I found a short video worth watching that shows how the football commisioners are trying to go green.
Heres another article discussing the 'Battle of the Bottle'
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/15/weekinreview/15marsh.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20862243/
">
Thus, we continue to waste plastic for water that merely comes out of our faucets as well as money out of our pockets. It upsets me when people around me are so lazy that they can not take the time to differentiate their recyclabes from their garbage. Also, it is discomforting when a restaruant or public place does not even offer a recycling bin. This summer, I was in California and noticed how they are more conscious of respecting our planet; as you could find mutliple bins in one spot separted by color and material. This is one small way to make a positive global impact for our earth.
No offense Lance, but it is upon our generation to make a difference in a world that continues to dump carbon dioxide into our atmosphere, deforest our lands, and waste valuable natural resources. We need to start preserving our home to ensure that it will be around for future generations. Also, I found a short video worth watching that shows how the football commisioners are trying to go green.
Heres another article discussing the 'Battle of the Bottle'
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/15/weekinreview/15marsh.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20862243/
">
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
A Loop
Here's a link to click on, which will take you to a blog post about our blog. When you get there, click on the Interactive Rams link provided. Thank you for your attention.
Meet the Interactive Rams
Neil Postman on Technology and Media Ecology
I'm posting a video that was produced for a special occasion, a celebration of the Media Ecology Association, because it incorporates a tribute to Neil Postman, and incorporates some clips of him talking about technology and media ecology.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
No One's Talked About it..So i Will
Why are people getting sports news from websites like TMZ.com? I watch Sportscenter just about every day, and every day for the past week the the same clip of Tom Brady walking down the street in a protective boot on his foot, courtesy of the paparazzi conglomerate TMZ. With the public's rabid demand for celebrity gossip and fast information we now combine freelance 'journalism' with respected, established news sources. The Brady link is from CNN.com, but it is originally from TMZ.com. How does the idolatry of celebrity clash with the demand for real news. In this very isolated case, wouldn't it be useful to get video of Tom Brady working out or practicing, rather than walking flowers to his girlfriend? As I write this, I am almost positive, without even checking, that within the headline list on the front page of many prominent internet news sites is a link to the latest on the death of Heath Ledger. Yes, he was nominated for an Academy Award, and some people think hes a real dreamboat, but how can that trump the much more real problems such as an impending recession, approaching presidential election, ongoing war overseas, crime rates in major cities, African strife, or any other real problems. It might be the public themselves to blame, as they would rather receive softer news rather than the reality.
Last year, a reluctant domino effect ensued with Anna Nicole Smith died as headlines and TV news promos were shalacked with the latest about her death and the status of her baby. Yes she was a celebrity, but did that warrant the attention it drew? Reality television and tabloid shows are more prevalent than ever, as are blogs and online chatter, so where is the progress being made? There are more eyes with things to say and platforms to say them in than every before, and I'm not sure if it's good or bad, yet.
Last year, a reluctant domino effect ensued with Anna Nicole Smith died as headlines and TV news promos were shalacked with the latest about her death and the status of her baby. Yes she was a celebrity, but did that warrant the attention it drew? Reality television and tabloid shows are more prevalent than ever, as are blogs and online chatter, so where is the progress being made? There are more eyes with things to say and platforms to say them in than every before, and I'm not sure if it's good or bad, yet.
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