Online Open Source

Ten sucess stories of open source have been discussed, among which online Encylopedias including Wikipedia,  online collections including Internet Archive and Project Gutenberg, Browsers including Mozilla Firefox, etc. How do these online open sources influence education? A interesting discussion is presented in this article.

Jib Jab and Other Selected Videos

I have viewed all of the selected videos from our class meeting reading list for April third, and I have written former comments about Kiri Davis’ “A Girl Like Me,” and “George Bush Imagine.”  Having the opportunity to view some of these videos in class which was followed by a discussion was wonderful.  In the comfort of my home, I took the time to complete viewing all of the videos.  Upon reflection in total each video had a unique style of its own.  Jib Jab’s “What We Call the News” was very entertaining and I viewed it three times.  On the other hand, Amanda Baggs’ “On Being an Unperson,” and “In My Language” had a message about respecting individual differences but the presentation caused me to feel sad.  “This Land” was to me more of bickering that seems to be very common in society.  “Vote Different” featuring Senator Hillary Clinton was powerful and very serious in nature.  However, I was left with the thought of whether or not she was speaking with a “forked tongue.”  The explosion at the end of the video caused me to ponder another thought if she were elected to the Presidency, would she unsuspectedly blow our minds as we are collectively mesmerized by her elegant speech?  The video featuring Tony Blair in “Should I Stay?” fascinated me.  I did not pay as much attention to the message in what he was saying since I enjoyed more so the jovial way in which he posed the question of should I stay or should I go, the fancy foot work, and ofcourse, his English accent!  “Cowboys are Secretly, Frequently Fond of Each Other-Trek” was definitely a favorite video to view.  I like all Star Trek medians.  Actually, it was quite refreshing seeing the Star Trek crew so youthful again; I had become accustomed to seeing them much older and I would also remember the demise of some as well.  Finally, Bush Flash “I Ain’t Gonna Study War”  a tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King and the anti war message was excellent.  Dr. King’s voice, the colors used in the video from black and white laced with purple, and then to full varied color of the photos was most unique.  Dr. King’s voice, the speech itself, and the music all sent such a powerful message and caused you the viewer to listen carefully with understanding, and be persuaded to not want war!

 

Integrating discipline based anti-plagiarism instruction into information literacy curriculam

This is chapter is mainly focusing on the importance of encouraging the students on very important skills rather than the plagiarism. since I havent written any academic paper before, this really helped me to concentrate on these important skills which are citation and the ethics of information on various skills. In fact, when we keep all these in mind then we are making progresses in our academic writings. I also didnt know this before that plagiarism is considered an academic dishonesty because I hadnt been asked to write an academic paper. So, this chapter is giving an idea of how to  prevent a plagiarist and how to improve an academic paper.

Can Wikipedia Ever Make the Grade

With an ongoing approach to more technological based instruction, wikipedia will probably soon make the grade.  I think it is already coming up the ladder in some cases.  Students are using wikipedia more and more versus the traditional uses of encyclopedias.  The problem comes about when students are not aware that there are other resources to retrieve information besides wikipedia.  Another problem is the accuracy of information. I think that as long as wikipedia continues to have daily editors and a more strict manner of editing, changing, and adding entries, that the source will have growth in its credibility.  I also believe that more educators should get involved. Educators should not only join in making sure wikipedia entries are accurate; but they should begin teaching students how to research and retrieve information. Students need to learn how to verify sources on their own, they should not solely depend on information provided by wikipedia. I think wikipedia is a good thing, sort of like Dictionary Online. Wikipedia is easy acccess and it beats searching through volumes of encyclopedias. My only concern is its accuracy. I think when we fix that then wikipedia will definitely make the grade.

Lampert Article

For some reason, the Lampert article, which I’d originally assigned for tomorrow, is behind a pay wall.  If you have paid for it already, I apologize.  If you haven’t read it yet, don’t worry about it.  We can discuss anti-plagiarism tools without it.

“Box Logic”

Just what is the logic behind teaching composition with such rapid technological advances which has created a pedagogical dilemma for educators Geoffrey Sirc asked?  In addition, what sorts of formal and material concerns guide a newly-mediated pedagogical practice?  Consider box logic.  A box is a container used for storing and exhibiting one’s most passionately cherished items.  In terms of transcending essayist prose, it holds all its  conventions/restrictions and  impediments.  The box offers a grammar which could prove useful in guiding our classroom practice in light of rapidly shifting compositional media; it allows both textual pleasure, as students archive their personal collections of text and imagery, and formal practice in learning the compositional skills that seem increasingly important in contemporary culture.  Text is the box, and the author is the collector.  The logic of the box is discussed in three specific scenes of history boxes which include:

• Joseph Cornell, one of the true poets of American art, and one who made the box his artistic genre of choice.
• Walter Benjamin, unpacking the boxes of books that made up his personal library.
• George Maciunas, the founder of Fluxus, an international art movement that among other things, relied on box technology to curate and disseminate creative work. 

“With Eyes that Think, and Compose, and Think: On Visual Rhetoric.” Teaching Writing with Computers: An Introduction

Traditionally, rhetoric involves the art of speaking to a variety of audiences.  However, visual rhetoric is defined as the use of the available means of persuasion to achieve particular ends, and when the means of persuasion include visual strategies, there is visual rhetoric at work. Further reading drew my attention to the phrase “widened notion of persuasion” which includes anything we make for each other as well as speeches, printed texts, furniture and the like.  Visual presentations fit into and reinforces our cultural practices of authority, standardization, and mass production.  Moreover, rhetoric is is subject to careful analysis and composition because it shapes the values and behaviors that fitr us into the structures andhabits of our places and times.  

There are three reasons why visual rhetoric should be considered when teaching writing with computers.  1).  Readers expect the visual aspects of texts on computer screens and now also on paper to be given more attention than they were afforded in the past.  This is primarily due to our cultural and technological advances steming from the early days of the printing press not to the age of computers and computer literacy.  Learning to analyze and use visual rhetoric can help students in classes compose effective texts on and for computer screens and paper.   2).  We have more texts in our culture today.  Different formats of texts are available today than in the past.  For example, these could include online newspapers, magazines, academic texts and journals, nightly news, graphic novels, scientific visualizations, three-dimensional animated courtroom simulations of crimes, web pages, music videios, magazines of all genres, and advertising.  It is important to be attentive to how different meanings or emphases result from different visual formats.  Students need help in learning how different choices in visual arrangements/formats on screen and off encourage different kinds of meaning making and encourage use to take up various values.  Furthermore, we need to learn how to analyze and create texts that do not ignore the visual if we are to be responsible and appropriately critical citizens.  3).  Utilizing visual aspects of texts (both in analysis and making, on screen and off) to learn about and perhaps to make changes in other values at work in our culture.  Analyzing and experimenting with the visual rhetoric of our texts can help us perhaps develop new thinking and relationships that might help us better achieve our ends.

Utilizing concepts of visual rhetoric in writing classes may take the format of web pages, visual signs, graphic designs, writing arguments different from what we have become accustomed to seeing, and making decisions about the visual arrangments of texts.

Citizendium, a reliable Wiki?

Wikipedia Founder Rejects…The Citizendium, a “citizens’ compendium of everything,” “is an open wiki project aimed at creating an enormous, free, and reliable encyclopedia.  The project, started by a founder of Wikipedia, aims to improve on the Wikipedia model by adding ‘gentle expert oversight’ and requiring contributors to use their real names.”

“The Regionalization of Cyberspace: Making Visible the Spatial Discourse of Community Online”

I liked the idea of the relationship between language and space explained in this article.  Writing classrooms have moved online.  Communities exist in the classroom at school as well as the online classroom.  “Boundaries are present and valuable because the writing classroom is a space for reflective discourse about writing and learning that creates what might be referred to as a community of learners.  Througn use and communication, we have the potential to become architects of our learning and social spaces .”

Wikipedia Brown

Thanks to Collin, a link to “Wikipedia Brown” a nice parody of the old Encyclopedia Brown short stories and an implicit argument “against” Wikipedia.