“Wireless Laptop Classrooms”

I enjoyed reading about Melissa Graham Meeks’ reflections about  her trial and error induction into teaching her first composition course in a wireless classroom.  She defines pegagogy as the ways in which an instructor designs the material and social spaces that she, her students, and their tools inhabit as they accomplish a curriculum.  In addition, she uniquely states her definition of “instructors” as a borrowed concept which states that instructors are “architects of increasingly electronic evironments–or information ecologies–for teaching and learning.”  I do understand in her words that when the teacher is viewed as an architect, his role involves thinking about how students should experience community, curriculum, course policies and course materials in and out of the wireless classrooms within the institution.  She makes a good point when she argues and I concur that the lenses through which teachers have learned to notice pedagogy are inadequate and sometimes inappropriate for wireless spaces.  I am unsure as to how this concern can be addressed.

Can Wikipedia Ever Make the Grade?

“Perhaps the biggest and most well-known attempt to grade the quality of Wikipedia was done last year by the journal Nature.” It published a study comparing the accuracy of scientific articles in Wikipedia and the Encyclopaedia Britannica. The result of this research led to a heated debate from both sides and stirred lots of discussions on the credibility of the Encyclopaedia Britannica and Wikipedia. Here is Encyclopaedia Britannica’s response to Nature’s article and Nature’s response as its rebuttal.

Undoubtedly, Encyclopaedia Britannica is not the only side that criticizes the credibility of Wikipedia. It’s quite interesting that on Wikipedia, someones has contributed an entry of the Criticism of Wikipedia. It can be a faster way to know “all” the criticisms Wiki had got, of course only if you “believe” it

“Reflections about Interactivity”

I concur with Sherry Turkle that we are starting to move toward a culture of simulation.  Interactive work involves the rise of new digital media that has widened the focus of interest beyond the object created, to the participationin a process of playing out multiitude of perspective.  Four areas characteristics of this perspective include the use of multiplepoints of view wwhich can coexist even if they appear mutually exclusive; it celebrates the creative value of play; it is a catalyst for emergence; and it tends to be ultimately pragmatic. 

 Interactive perspective favors open approaches which stimulate play.  Jean Piaget defines play as a type of adaptive action understood in contrast to imitation.  Interactive perspective also involves emergent phenomena without downgrading them by reductions.  An emergent phenomenon cannot be predicted.  Nor can it be entirely explained.  They happen as if on their own.  Only through the play or gigging of interactivity is the stage set for emergent surproses.  Marvin Minsky ranks intelligence as one of such surprises. 

 In regards to digital media, Jim Gasperini notes that interactivity emerges in computers encironments and the Internet.  The development of more user-fdriendly interfaces and the way the internet has broken down barriers so that everypage is literally next toeveryother one in the world, are interactive breakghroughs wheich begin to show the extraordinary richness of the digital media. 

“Click This: From Analog Dreams to Digital Realities”

This article was interesting.  Realities of digital media include such aparatuses as the computer mouse, video game joystick, wireless cell phones with Internet connectivity, personal digital assistant, personal video recorder, TV remote-control devices and the telephone.  I never thought about the telephone being re-invented, but it is true.  Now the telephone is has a new look, is smaller, portable, mobil, and provides instantaneity to consumers.  Secondly, I never before attached the significance of race to technological advances.  It was quite interesting to me to find such phrases as Neuromancer’s “low-techs,” Afro-geeks, black thing subject, black technomastery and technolust, blacks as the brawn assisting whites’ brains, Black Data Procesing Associates, and a reference to Ralph Ellison’s fictional protagonist, “The Invisible Man.” An interesting point in this article was “what makes studying the discourses of race in techno and cyber narratives valuable is that they reveal that filmmakers, computer game designers, and others, in their practices of racist and sexist depictions, have advanced little from the blackface minstrelsy and misogynist portrayals of the past.”  Anna Everett points out that she is not arguing that issues of digital media reception and spectatorship are equal to their analog counterparts.  She is arguing the importance of retaining our analog memories as we rush to embrace our digital dreams.  This is a profound statement.

“YouTube and the Cultural Studies Classroom”

An educator’s goal is to be able to enrich the lives of the students he or she teaches.  It is awesome that a powerful resource such as YouTube would want to be the medium to also enrich the learniing experiences of college students by providing video realia to accompany their textbooks, in-class documentaries and course lectures.  I like the point emphasized that YouTube is not necessary for good teaching, but it makes more resources available to teachers than ever before, and allow for better clasroom management.  For example, valuable class time can be saved by having the students view video clips at home  as homework in the same way that reading is assigned.  Therefore, more time for interactive learning activities in the classroms will be available for the students and their teachers.  This approach should prove to be effective, and is a new way to scaffold learning concepts for our students.

“YouTube vs. Boob Tube”

Is there really a competition.  The first sentence in this article clearly says that “TV advertising is broken, putting $67billion up for grabs.”  Before viewing the videos suggested on the web site, I felt that I would expect the unexpected.  There were no leading clues to prepare me for these videos.  To me they were quite different from traditional television.  They seemed simplistic in nature, but refreshingly short.  I did know that commercials were expensive, but I had no idea just how costly advertising could be.  Videos on line are more entertaining and continue to draw large audiences.  “YouTube will survive.  Everyone wants to see what everyone else is doing.”

“Portrait of the Blogger as a Young Man”

      Blogging is new to me.  The article, “Portrait of the Blogger as a Young Man” is very interesting and quite informative.  The details of Jorn Barger, the collector, is vivid in my mind because of the selective factual and sensory details chosen by the author Julian Dibbell. I can actually “see” him in my thoughts as he very energetically taps away on his keyboard while he is engaged in thoughts about his recollections. This man, Barger, is unique in that he has followed his “dream” and made it a reality.  He truely has a “passion” for blogging to have no monetary benefits coming from his web site Robot Wisdom with its miles and miles of links divided into monthly archives.  I also believe that blogging is here to stay and non-bloggers will need to eventually accept this way of communicating as perhaps a permanent part of our culture.  In reflection, I can appreciate the benefits of this easy means of communication with family and friends. If I could, I would give this article the sub-title of “The birth of a Blogger.”

      The idea of somehow equating the literature of blogging to that of writers such as James Joyce and Marcel Proust is for right now “food for thought for me.”

“Portrait of the Blogger as a Young Man”

Blogging is new to me.  The article, “Portrait of the Blogger as a Young Man” is very interesting and quite informative.  The details of Jorn Barger, the collector, is vivid in my mind because of the selective factual and sensory details chosen by the author Julian Dibbell. I can actually “see” him in my thoughts as he very energetically taps away on keyboard while he is engaged in thoughts about his recollections. This man, Barger,is unique in that he has followed his “dream” and make it a reality.  He truely has a “passion” for blogging to have no monetary benefits coming from his web site Robot Wisdom with its miles and miles of links divided into monthly archives.  I also believe that blogging is here to stay and non-bloggers will need to eventually accept this way of communicating as perhaps a permanent part of our culture.  In reflection, I can appreciate the benefits of this easy means of communication with family and friends. If I could, I would give this article the sub-title of “The birth of a Blogger.”
      The idea of somehow equating the literature of blogging to that of writers such as James Joyce and Marcel Proust is for right now “food for thought for me.”

“The Secret World of Lonelygirl”

I enjoyed reading about teenagers who held on to their dreams and continue to share the experiences of having them manifest within their lifetime.  This article read like a fairytale or a narrative.   The quotation printed beneath the flower, a rose, hanging on the wall embodies the tone of this article,”It is by believing in roses that one brings them to bloom.”

“Photoshop for Democracy”

Living in a time when information moves so fast like a sea surrounding us, facing the challenges of getting students to stay focused, and witnessing the decline of those institutions in our society that were once viewed as “the pillars of our society,” our young voters show the lack of interest in excerising their democratic right to vote.  Some people just have had enough of the lack of political ethics where distrust is prevalent like a cancer in the democratic arenas of leadership.  The language of our candidates seem foreign to our young voters when they see candidates saying one thing and actually doing the opposite of what they heard them say.  The practice of wearing a suit and a tie for example looks good and positive, but it does not change the individual inside of the suit for a male candidate nor a two piece dress suit for the female candidate.  Despite the attire of the candidates, their language spoken in campaign speeches is also foreign to the young voters.  Our young people must be able to connect to the candidates and know just who they really are, and what they represent.  Too bad, that some of the candidates often suffer from SMD, Selective Memory Disorder, after they are elected to an office of leadership.  Our own history texts and the media constantly reminds us all of that.  No American stakeholders young or old likes to relive history repeating itself over and over.  Perhaps a good way to actively engage our young voters to become educated, register and vote could be through the use of parody.  Pop culture is a very real part of our society.  ”Many young people still complain that most political leaders don’t speak, act, or dress like anyone they encounter in the world around them” according to Henry Jenkins.   Parody utilized can be both entertaining, connecting and motivate our young people to get politically active and exercise their democratic right to vote for the most qualified candidates. 

I like the statement made by Henry Jenkins.  ” As we move into the twenty-first century, American politics may be fusing with contemorary forms of popular culture to create a new image of what democracy looks and sounds like.  I am not sure we have found that voice yet.  But if we look closely, we can see groups trying to re-invent political rhetoric.  Young people’s votes are being rocked, hip hopped, and smackdowned.”