Hello Folks!
Here is what is listed on the Schedule and Participation Pages from D2L for this week. The schedule for the entire semester, and the discussion questions for the entire semester are listed on the Schedule and Participation Pages, respectively. In case you do not want to wait for the "Monday Post", you are more than welcome to get started by looking at those two pages on D2L.
Due this week:
*Read the article "The World Wide Web" (download and print from D2L)
*Read the chapter from "Collective Behavior in You Tube" (download and print from D2L)
*Read the chapter from "Discourses of Attention" (download and print from D2L)
*Read chapter 8 in the Burkitt text
*Participate in the discussion (see questions below)
*Media Research Project is due by August 5, 2012. Submit your assignment through the class email address AND upload your paper to the class Wiki. (Directions will be given through email, and posted to my blog).
Class Discussion:
Answer one question in its entirety in each of your three separate posts, at least 12 hours apart. Please make sure you are creating a NEW POST for each question on your blog. You MUST WAIT at least 12 hours from the first post in order to create a second post. The same is true for the second and third post. I will record dates and time of your posts, so make sure they are at least 12 hours apart. EACH POST MUST BE 150 WORDS OR MORE.
1). Respond to the article, The World Wide Web. What did you learn from the article? What did you find interesting or useful?
2). Respond to the article, Burkitt text. Please highlight 2 or 3 main ideas from the chapter and discuss them.
3). Respond to the article, Discourses of Attention. Please discuss 2 or 3 interesting ideas from the article.
Remember to post 3 responses to your colleagues blogs. (As a reminder, comments will only be counted for the current discussion week. I do not go back to past discussion weeks to look for comments. Once a discussion week is over, it's over. So please make sure you are commenting on a relevant blog post. In other words, pay close attention to the post, and date.
Comments - Remember to post ONE comment ON THREE DIFFERENT BLOGS between 12:01am on Monday and 11:59pm on Sunday. This means that you will log onto MY BLOG at: http://comm131p.blogspot.com/ and look under "Student Blogs" to see a list of your colleagues blogs. Click on those blogs, read what was posted for this week and respond. You need to make sure you are responding to only what was discussed THIS WEEK (starting Monday and ending Sunday of the current week). Comments posted to blogs that were NOT within this week will not be counted for points. Each comment must be a minimum of 100 words.
Note about comments: When you leave a comment on another blog, make sure you are logged into your blogspot account. In other words, you will need to make sure your "Display Name/Alias Name" shows up on the blog you are commenting on. I record the locations, dates and times of your comments. Please keep record of your posts and comments in case there I have questions about where they are located.
Monday, July 30, 2012
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Grades have been updated in D2L
Hello Fabulous Students,
I just updated grades in D2L. Please take a look at the most recent discussion week grade, among the other grades, and email me if you have any questions.
Have a great day!
:)
The Blogging Prof.
I just updated grades in D2L. Please take a look at the most recent discussion week grade, among the other grades, and email me if you have any questions.
Have a great day!
:)
The Blogging Prof.
Instructor Wrap Up - A Virtual Death - Jordan
I am going to take a bit of a different approach to this article, so bear with me.
This article brings up a number of good ideas: rhetoric, definition of community, expectation, identity - I can go on and on. But what I really want to talk about is my personal experience with 'communities' such as these. I read a number of blogs where a person has or has had some sort of ailment. One such blog is called "Especially Heather". Heather is a young mother who was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, and her daughter Emma has had pretty severe health problems since she was born, but they have both fought for a long time. Emma passed away on April 22, 2011, which is heartbreaking for their family, as well as the community of readers at Especially Heather. Heather is a highly religious person, although I hate to use the word 'religious' because I know she would not classify herself that way, but for lack of a better description, I shall use it.
Heather, did indeed, have brain surgery, and she blogged through the whole experience. Just recently she had to go back for an MRI to check on the state of the tumor, which came back clear. A little over 3 years ago a number of Dr's told her that she had approximately 3 years to live. As you can imagine, this turned her world upside down. She is living on what she calls 'borrowed time' at this point since she has lived past the expectations of the Dr's. Dr's in her area, and many specialists told her that her brain cancer was inoperable. The Mayo Clinic said otherwise and took her as a patient almost immediately. Heather is still alive, and she has blogged through her experience with facing death, not only her death, but her daughter's as well.
I feel connected to Heather, as do the folks involved in her 'blog community'. I know for a fact that those folks gathering around Heather to support her, through the internet, feel a close connection to her. She has built a genuine community through her blogging, and I would be horrified if I found out that her story was false. Community, even an online community where folks don't necessarily meet in person, is strong. Folks have an emotional bond.
Another blog I read is called, "Noah Steven 'Crowned in Peace'". Adrienne is another young mother who has gone through a harrowing experience. Her son died before he was a year old, and the Dr's had no idea why. He simply stopped being able to process nutrients in his body, and he slowly passed away. Adrienne and her husband are amazingly strong folks. They have blogged about their experience from Day 1, sharing it with the world.
This blog is a bit different because I know Adrienne personally from about 15 years ago. She and I served at the same organization together, though I don't think we ever had a f2f conversation. I was connected to her blog through some mutual friends. Peruse her blog if you're interested.
Both of these blogs are examples of blog 'communities'. Those folks that read their blogs on a regular basis have prayed, banned together to raise money, supported the blog authors and each other in times of need. Blog readers have connected with each other in a very unique way, creating a very strong community.
The article "A Virtual Death" was a hard one to read, only because I am so involved in blogging communities outside of my online classes. I feel a connection to the blog authors, and the blog communities at large, and can't imagine how the folks felt who had prayed for hours on end, who had invested time to comment on Kaycee's (Debbie's) blog. Shocked - yes! Betrayed - yes! Hurt - yes!
The article brings up a lot of good points, and I hope you enjoyed reading through it as much as I did. It brings to light the length's that some folks will go.
This article brings up a number of good ideas: rhetoric, definition of community, expectation, identity - I can go on and on. But what I really want to talk about is my personal experience with 'communities' such as these. I read a number of blogs where a person has or has had some sort of ailment. One such blog is called "Especially Heather". Heather is a young mother who was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, and her daughter Emma has had pretty severe health problems since she was born, but they have both fought for a long time. Emma passed away on April 22, 2011, which is heartbreaking for their family, as well as the community of readers at Especially Heather. Heather is a highly religious person, although I hate to use the word 'religious' because I know she would not classify herself that way, but for lack of a better description, I shall use it.
Heather, did indeed, have brain surgery, and she blogged through the whole experience. Just recently she had to go back for an MRI to check on the state of the tumor, which came back clear. A little over 3 years ago a number of Dr's told her that she had approximately 3 years to live. As you can imagine, this turned her world upside down. She is living on what she calls 'borrowed time' at this point since she has lived past the expectations of the Dr's. Dr's in her area, and many specialists told her that her brain cancer was inoperable. The Mayo Clinic said otherwise and took her as a patient almost immediately. Heather is still alive, and she has blogged through her experience with facing death, not only her death, but her daughter's as well.
I feel connected to Heather, as do the folks involved in her 'blog community'. I know for a fact that those folks gathering around Heather to support her, through the internet, feel a close connection to her. She has built a genuine community through her blogging, and I would be horrified if I found out that her story was false. Community, even an online community where folks don't necessarily meet in person, is strong. Folks have an emotional bond.
Another blog I read is called, "Noah Steven 'Crowned in Peace'". Adrienne is another young mother who has gone through a harrowing experience. Her son died before he was a year old, and the Dr's had no idea why. He simply stopped being able to process nutrients in his body, and he slowly passed away. Adrienne and her husband are amazingly strong folks. They have blogged about their experience from Day 1, sharing it with the world.
This blog is a bit different because I know Adrienne personally from about 15 years ago. She and I served at the same organization together, though I don't think we ever had a f2f conversation. I was connected to her blog through some mutual friends. Peruse her blog if you're interested.
Both of these blogs are examples of blog 'communities'. Those folks that read their blogs on a regular basis have prayed, banned together to raise money, supported the blog authors and each other in times of need. Blog readers have connected with each other in a very unique way, creating a very strong community.
The article "A Virtual Death" was a hard one to read, only because I am so involved in blogging communities outside of my online classes. I feel a connection to the blog authors, and the blog communities at large, and can't imagine how the folks felt who had prayed for hours on end, who had invested time to comment on Kaycee's (Debbie's) blog. Shocked - yes! Betrayed - yes! Hurt - yes!
The article brings up a lot of good points, and I hope you enjoyed reading through it as much as I did. It brings to light the length's that some folks will go.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Instructor Wrap Up - The End of Books - Coover
Loved, loved, loved this article. Did you?
I find it interesting that we are having a similar conversation in 2012, that we were having in 1992. Here are some of my favorite quotes from this article:
Page 706......
...you will often hear it said that the print medium is a doomed and outdated technology,, a mere curiosity of bygone days destined soon to be consigned forever to those dusty unattended museums we now call libraries.
But true freedom from the tyranny of the line is perceived as only really possible now at last with the advent of hypertext, written and read on the computer, where the line in fact does not exist unless one invents and implants it in the text.
You will often hear the proclaim, quite seriously, that there have been three great events in the history of literacy: the invention of writing, the invention of movable type, and the invention of hypertext.
Page 707.....
There are no hierarchies in these topless (and bottomless) networks, as paragraphs, chapters and other conventional text divisions are replaced by evenly empowered and equally ephemeral window-sized blocks of text and graphics - soon to be supplemented with sound, animation, and film.
Writing students are notoriously conservative creatures. They write stubbornly and hopefully within the tradition of what they have read.
Page 708.......
"The great thing", as one young writer, Alvin Lu, put it in an on-line class essay, is "the degree to which narrative is completely destructed into its constituent bits. Bits of information convey knowledge, but the juxtaposition of bits creates narrative.
In hypertext, multivocalism is popular, graphic elements, both drawn and scanned, have been incorporated into the narratives, imaginative font changes have been employed to identify various voices or plot elements, and there has also been a very effective use of formal documents not typically used in fictions - .......
However, as all of us have discovered, even though the basic technology of hypertext may be with us for centuries to come, perhaps even as long as the technology of the book, its hardware and software seem to be fragile and short-lived; whole new generations of equipment and programs arrive before we can finish reading the instructions of the old.
And my very favorite....
Page 709......
Print documents may be read in hyperspace, but hypertext does not translate into print. It is not like film, which is really just the dead end of linear narrative, just as 12-tone music is the dead end of music by the stave.
I find it interesting that we are having a similar conversation in 2012, that we were having in 1992. Here are some of my favorite quotes from this article:
Page 706......
...you will often hear it said that the print medium is a doomed and outdated technology,, a mere curiosity of bygone days destined soon to be consigned forever to those dusty unattended museums we now call libraries.
But true freedom from the tyranny of the line is perceived as only really possible now at last with the advent of hypertext, written and read on the computer, where the line in fact does not exist unless one invents and implants it in the text.
You will often hear the proclaim, quite seriously, that there have been three great events in the history of literacy: the invention of writing, the invention of movable type, and the invention of hypertext.
Page 707.....
There are no hierarchies in these topless (and bottomless) networks, as paragraphs, chapters and other conventional text divisions are replaced by evenly empowered and equally ephemeral window-sized blocks of text and graphics - soon to be supplemented with sound, animation, and film.
Writing students are notoriously conservative creatures. They write stubbornly and hopefully within the tradition of what they have read.
Page 708.......
"The great thing", as one young writer, Alvin Lu, put it in an on-line class essay, is "the degree to which narrative is completely destructed into its constituent bits. Bits of information convey knowledge, but the juxtaposition of bits creates narrative.
In hypertext, multivocalism is popular, graphic elements, both drawn and scanned, have been incorporated into the narratives, imaginative font changes have been employed to identify various voices or plot elements, and there has also been a very effective use of formal documents not typically used in fictions - .......
However, as all of us have discovered, even though the basic technology of hypertext may be with us for centuries to come, perhaps even as long as the technology of the book, its hardware and software seem to be fragile and short-lived; whole new generations of equipment and programs arrive before we can finish reading the instructions of the old.
And my very favorite....
Page 709......
Print documents may be read in hyperspace, but hypertext does not translate into print. It is not like film, which is really just the dead end of linear narrative, just as 12-tone music is the dead end of music by the stave.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Week of July 23 - 29
Hello Folks!
Here is what is listed on the Schedule and Participation Pages from D2L for this week. The schedule for the entire semester, and the discussion questions for the entire semester are listed on the Schedule and Participation Pages, respectively. In case you do not want to wait for the "Monday Post", you are more than welcome to get started by looking at those two pages on D2L.
Due this week:
*Read the article "The End of Books" (download and print from D2L)
*Read the chapter from "Blogging: Self Presentation and Privacy" (download and print from D2L)
*Read the chapter from "A Virtual Death & A Real Dilemma" (download and print from D2L)
*Chapter 7 from the Burkitt text: pages 162-173 only (though the whole chapter is super interesting)
*Participate in the discussion (see questions below)
*Work on your final project in this course: Media Exploration Project. As a reminder, this project is due no later than August 5, 2012.
Class Discussion:
Answer one question in its entirety in each of your three separate posts, at least 12 hours apart. Please make sure you are creating a NEW POST for each question on your blog. You MUST WAIT at least 12 hours from the first post in order to create a second post. The same is true for the second and third post. I will record dates and time of your posts, so make sure they are at least 12 hours apart. EACH POST MUST BE 150 WORDS OR MORE.
1). Respond to the article, The End of Books. What did you learn from the article? What did you find interesting or useful?
2). Respond to the Birkitt text reading. Please highlight 2 or 3 ideas from the chapter and discuss them.
3). Respond to the article, A Virtual Death & A Real Dilemma. Please discuss 2 or 3 interesting ideas from the article.
Remember to post 3 responses to your colleagues blogs. (As a reminder, comments will only be counted for the current discussion week. I do not go back to past discussion weeks to look for comments. Once a discussion week is over, it's over. So please make sure you are commenting on a relevant blog post. In other words, pay close attention to the post, and date.
Comments - Remember to post ONE comment ON THREE DIFFERENT BLOGS between 12:01am on Monday and 11:59pm on Sunday. This means that you will log onto MY BLOG at: http://comm131p.blogspot.com/ and look under "Student Blogs" to see a list of your colleagues blogs. Click on those blogs, read what was posted for this week and respond. You need to make sure you are responding to only what was discussed THIS WEEK (starting Monday and ending Sunday of the current week). Comments posted to blogs that were NOT within this week will not be counted for points. Each comment must be a minimum of 100 words.
Note about comments: When you leave a comment on another blog, make sure you are logged into your blogspot account. In other words, you will need to make sure your "Display Name/Alias Name" shows up on the blog you are commenting on. I record the locations, dates and times of your comments. Please keep record of your posts and comments in case there I have questions about where they are located.
Here is what is listed on the Schedule and Participation Pages from D2L for this week. The schedule for the entire semester, and the discussion questions for the entire semester are listed on the Schedule and Participation Pages, respectively. In case you do not want to wait for the "Monday Post", you are more than welcome to get started by looking at those two pages on D2L.
Due this week:
*Read the article "The End of Books" (download and print from D2L)
*Read the chapter from "Blogging: Self Presentation and Privacy" (download and print from D2L)
*Read the chapter from "A Virtual Death & A Real Dilemma" (download and print from D2L)
*Chapter 7 from the Burkitt text: pages 162-173 only (though the whole chapter is super interesting)
*Participate in the discussion (see questions below)
*Work on your final project in this course: Media Exploration Project. As a reminder, this project is due no later than August 5, 2012.
Class Discussion:
Answer one question in its entirety in each of your three separate posts, at least 12 hours apart. Please make sure you are creating a NEW POST for each question on your blog. You MUST WAIT at least 12 hours from the first post in order to create a second post. The same is true for the second and third post. I will record dates and time of your posts, so make sure they are at least 12 hours apart. EACH POST MUST BE 150 WORDS OR MORE.
1). Respond to the article, The End of Books. What did you learn from the article? What did you find interesting or useful?
2). Respond to the Birkitt text reading. Please highlight 2 or 3 ideas from the chapter and discuss them.
3). Respond to the article, A Virtual Death & A Real Dilemma. Please discuss 2 or 3 interesting ideas from the article.
Remember to post 3 responses to your colleagues blogs. (As a reminder, comments will only be counted for the current discussion week. I do not go back to past discussion weeks to look for comments. Once a discussion week is over, it's over. So please make sure you are commenting on a relevant blog post. In other words, pay close attention to the post, and date.
Comments - Remember to post ONE comment ON THREE DIFFERENT BLOGS between 12:01am on Monday and 11:59pm on Sunday. This means that you will log onto MY BLOG at: http://comm131p.blogspot.com/ and look under "Student Blogs" to see a list of your colleagues blogs. Click on those blogs, read what was posted for this week and respond. You need to make sure you are responding to only what was discussed THIS WEEK (starting Monday and ending Sunday of the current week). Comments posted to blogs that were NOT within this week will not be counted for points. Each comment must be a minimum of 100 words.
Note about comments: When you leave a comment on another blog, make sure you are logged into your blogspot account. In other words, you will need to make sure your "Display Name/Alias Name" shows up on the blog you are commenting on. I record the locations, dates and times of your comments. Please keep record of your posts and comments in case there I have questions about where they are located.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Instructor Wrap Up - Navigating Technomedia - Sam Han
Chapter 1 of Sam Han's book is titled, of all things, Technomedia! (You can click on the link to lead you to a web version of the book. It's not a complete version, but more extensive than what I have provided on D2L.). Cool huh? Google books is awesome!
The chapter starts out by describing something near and dear to the hearts of quite a few folks: The gap distance between the "have's" and "have-not's". Page 2 offers a good quote: "On top of concerns such as AIDS, poverty, and political unrest, postcoloniality, it seems, necessarily involved a technological oppression, taking form in a structured lag. Hence, for those for whom the promise of globalization had yet to be realized, new media technologies became an integral part of not only the discourse of modernization, but of global justice."
Can the internet really have such a powerful presence? If you have been reading the news lately, and I know you have because of the requirement of one of our discussion questions, the internet and programs contained within, have helped start revolutions. Not just 'virtual' revolutions, but real, tangible revolutions! Libya ring a bell? Page 2 goes onto say, "The Internet, specifically, brought glimpses of hope for global democratization, in the form of a "true" public sphere that would circumvent traditional political channels. By facilitating more efficient communication among the citizens of the world usually laden with failures of bureaucracy, the usual stoppages characteristic of bureaucratic institutions could be circumvented." Wow, just wow! The power of technology never ceases to amaze me. I will leave you to ponder this idea.
We are then brought back down to earth a little on page 3, where it states, "Nevertheless, the liberal dream of progress espoused by Friedman and other did nothing but rearticulate the false hopes of modernity under the guise of technological advancement." But don't lose all hope yet. :) Read a bit further down: "Against such optimism, I see the power of information technologies and new media as challenges to these notions altogether." Isn't that what this is all about? Challenging ideas? New thought? Expanding our knowledge? Bridging the gap between the have's and have not's? Or the folks who have access and those that don't? Page three goes on to say, "The Internet not only acts as a forum to disperse knowledge but transforms it, hauling into question the certainty of what constitutes knowledge as such." Yes, yes and yes!
Page 4 starts out by reinforcing ideas we covered at the beginning of the semester: McLuhan!!! "...the content of one medium always involves another." (Don't skip over the box about McLuhand on Page 5). The Medium IS the Message. Enough said!
One thing to pay attention to is the explanation of Hot and Cold Media. This idea was briefly brought up in the McLuhand piece, but it did not expand much on the idea too much. Some students have been confused about hot and cold media in the past, but the book provides some good insight, as does the link I provided.
After the discussion about McLuhan, and a discussion about how "specific media are not tied down to a corresponding technology", the chapter moves into a history of media. There are three eras:
1). Mechanical
2). Electric
3). Broadcast
While this information is review because we have already covered a chapter in media history, it's a great thing to be able to read the history from another authors perspective. Especially where Han asserts that we are on the verge of a fourth era: Virtual! Of course, this book was written in 2008. How much has changed since that time? Quite a bit! If you read further in the book, provided you are interested in purchasing the book (which I recommend if you are at all interested in new media), it discusses a great many things including censorship in other countries, space and time as common place, and a plethora of other ideas. Great read!
I will not recount all three areas of history that Han covers, but be sure to read through it. As mentioned previously, it includes some repetitive information (repetition helps with retention of information, right?) but it also brings up some other great ideas and relationships we have not previously covered.
I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I have. If you are interested in the book, it's not incredibly expensive and a great read if you have the time. Of course, this is coming from a communication and new media geek, but I recommend it nonetheless.
Thanks for letting me geek out about yet another reading.
The Blogging Prof.
The chapter starts out by describing something near and dear to the hearts of quite a few folks: The gap distance between the "have's" and "have-not's". Page 2 offers a good quote: "On top of concerns such as AIDS, poverty, and political unrest, postcoloniality, it seems, necessarily involved a technological oppression, taking form in a structured lag. Hence, for those for whom the promise of globalization had yet to be realized, new media technologies became an integral part of not only the discourse of modernization, but of global justice."
Can the internet really have such a powerful presence? If you have been reading the news lately, and I know you have because of the requirement of one of our discussion questions, the internet and programs contained within, have helped start revolutions. Not just 'virtual' revolutions, but real, tangible revolutions! Libya ring a bell? Page 2 goes onto say, "The Internet, specifically, brought glimpses of hope for global democratization, in the form of a "true" public sphere that would circumvent traditional political channels. By facilitating more efficient communication among the citizens of the world usually laden with failures of bureaucracy, the usual stoppages characteristic of bureaucratic institutions could be circumvented." Wow, just wow! The power of technology never ceases to amaze me. I will leave you to ponder this idea.
We are then brought back down to earth a little on page 3, where it states, "Nevertheless, the liberal dream of progress espoused by Friedman and other did nothing but rearticulate the false hopes of modernity under the guise of technological advancement." But don't lose all hope yet. :) Read a bit further down: "Against such optimism, I see the power of information technologies and new media as challenges to these notions altogether." Isn't that what this is all about? Challenging ideas? New thought? Expanding our knowledge? Bridging the gap between the have's and have not's? Or the folks who have access and those that don't? Page three goes on to say, "The Internet not only acts as a forum to disperse knowledge but transforms it, hauling into question the certainty of what constitutes knowledge as such." Yes, yes and yes!
Page 4 starts out by reinforcing ideas we covered at the beginning of the semester: McLuhan!!! "...the content of one medium always involves another." (Don't skip over the box about McLuhand on Page 5). The Medium IS the Message. Enough said!
One thing to pay attention to is the explanation of Hot and Cold Media. This idea was briefly brought up in the McLuhand piece, but it did not expand much on the idea too much. Some students have been confused about hot and cold media in the past, but the book provides some good insight, as does the link I provided.
After the discussion about McLuhan, and a discussion about how "specific media are not tied down to a corresponding technology", the chapter moves into a history of media. There are three eras:
1). Mechanical
2). Electric
3). Broadcast
While this information is review because we have already covered a chapter in media history, it's a great thing to be able to read the history from another authors perspective. Especially where Han asserts that we are on the verge of a fourth era: Virtual! Of course, this book was written in 2008. How much has changed since that time? Quite a bit! If you read further in the book, provided you are interested in purchasing the book (which I recommend if you are at all interested in new media), it discusses a great many things including censorship in other countries, space and time as common place, and a plethora of other ideas. Great read!
I will not recount all three areas of history that Han covers, but be sure to read through it. As mentioned previously, it includes some repetitive information (repetition helps with retention of information, right?) but it also brings up some other great ideas and relationships we have not previously covered.
I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I have. If you are interested in the book, it's not incredibly expensive and a great read if you have the time. Of course, this is coming from a communication and new media geek, but I recommend it nonetheless.
Thanks for letting me geek out about yet another reading.
The Blogging Prof.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Instructor Wrap Up - Personal Dynamic Media - Kay and Goldberg
I'm not going to go into too much detail about the Kay and Goldberg piece because it was a fairly easy read.
The introduction to this piece brought up some very good ideas, and explained some pertinent things to the article. A couple of things to read over are NeXT, Dynabook , PARC, Smalltalk Language, and the Squeak project. Briefly reading through these links will give you further understanding about the reading.
Page 393 covers what the article is about. It says, "In it, we explain the Dynabook idea, and describe a variety of systems we have already written in Smalltalk language in order to give broad images of the kinds of information-related tools that might represent the kernel of a personal computing medium".
Here are some additional quotes I liked for various reasons:
Pg. 393 - "Although thinking goes on in one's head, external media serve to materialize thoughts and, through feedback, to augment the actual paths the thinking follows."
Pg. 394 - "Imagine having your own self-contained knowledge manipulator in a portable package the size and shape of an ordinary notebook. Suppose it had enough power to outrace your sense of sight and hearing, enough capacity to store for later retrieval thousands of page-equivalents of reference materials, poems, letters, recipes, records, drawings, animations, musical scores, waveforms, dynamic simulations, and anything else you would like to remember and change."
Pg. 394 - "If the 'medium is the message', then the message of low-bandwidth timesharing is 'blah'". Holy cow - I love love love this quote!
Pg 395 - "Different fonts create different moods and cast an aura that influences the subjective style of both writing and reading."
Pg. 396 - I loved all of the conclusion section, but this really takes the cake: "For educators, the Dynabook could be a new world limited only by their imagination and ingenuity". The only thing I will say about this quote is that I completely and wholeheartedly agree. I'm using my 'Dynabook' to type out this blog post. But I digress......
The way the article is set up is kind of neat. It starts out with the editors introduction, then proceeds to the authors introduction. It then covers the following sections:
*Background: Humans and Media
*A Dynamic Medium for Creative Thought: The Dynabook
*Design Background
*An Interim Dynabook
*Remembering, Seeing and Hearing
*Different Fonts for Different Effects
*Editing
*Filing
*Drawing/Painting
*Animation and Music
*Simulation
*An Animation System Programmed by Animators
*A Drawing and Painting System Programmed by a Child
*A Hospital Simulation Programmed by a Decision-Theorist
*An Audio Animation System Programmed by Musicians
*A Musical Score Capture System Programmed by a Musician
*Electronic Circuit Design by a High School Student
*Conclusion
Most of these sections were very interesting to read, especially since the article was written in the late 1970's (around the time I was born, so it was interesting to read about 'new innovations' at this time). But one of the other sections stood out to me: A Hospital Simulation Programmed by a Decision-Theorist . This section struck me as interesting because the small town I live in has a health center that is switching over to an electronic charting system. They have spent quite a bit of money installing this system that can easily network with other systems in the area. This idea is just now becoming widespread.
The other idea, and main focus of the article that interested me was the Dynabook. Right after I graduated high school, I worked for a company called General Magic. While I did very basic things at General Magic, it was interesting to see the link between this article, and the company I did some work for right out of high school. The company has since gone under, as a lot of new media companies do, but it was intriguing to read about the company again from the perspective of historical 'new media'.
A personal note: I vaguely remember the day that the product was finally released. The company threw a huge party because the release date of the product kept getting pushed back incrementally, and the engineers were under a deadline. I even more vaguely remember when the company started to lay off folks due to poor market performance. I recall the stock prices plummeting, and depression around the company setting in. It was a hard time for the folks at General Magic. Such is life in the 'new media' business. :)
The introduction to this piece brought up some very good ideas, and explained some pertinent things to the article. A couple of things to read over are NeXT, Dynabook , PARC, Smalltalk Language, and the Squeak project. Briefly reading through these links will give you further understanding about the reading.
Page 393 covers what the article is about. It says, "In it, we explain the Dynabook idea, and describe a variety of systems we have already written in Smalltalk language in order to give broad images of the kinds of information-related tools that might represent the kernel of a personal computing medium".
Here are some additional quotes I liked for various reasons:
Pg. 393 - "Although thinking goes on in one's head, external media serve to materialize thoughts and, through feedback, to augment the actual paths the thinking follows."
Pg. 394 - "Imagine having your own self-contained knowledge manipulator in a portable package the size and shape of an ordinary notebook. Suppose it had enough power to outrace your sense of sight and hearing, enough capacity to store for later retrieval thousands of page-equivalents of reference materials, poems, letters, recipes, records, drawings, animations, musical scores, waveforms, dynamic simulations, and anything else you would like to remember and change."
Pg. 394 - "If the 'medium is the message', then the message of low-bandwidth timesharing is 'blah'". Holy cow - I love love love this quote!
Pg 395 - "Different fonts create different moods and cast an aura that influences the subjective style of both writing and reading."
Pg. 396 - I loved all of the conclusion section, but this really takes the cake: "For educators, the Dynabook could be a new world limited only by their imagination and ingenuity". The only thing I will say about this quote is that I completely and wholeheartedly agree. I'm using my 'Dynabook' to type out this blog post. But I digress......
The way the article is set up is kind of neat. It starts out with the editors introduction, then proceeds to the authors introduction. It then covers the following sections:
*Background: Humans and Media
*A Dynamic Medium for Creative Thought: The Dynabook
*Design Background
*An Interim Dynabook
*Remembering, Seeing and Hearing
*Different Fonts for Different Effects
*Editing
*Filing
*Drawing/Painting
*Animation and Music
*Simulation
*An Animation System Programmed by Animators
*A Drawing and Painting System Programmed by a Child
*A Hospital Simulation Programmed by a Decision-Theorist
*An Audio Animation System Programmed by Musicians
*A Musical Score Capture System Programmed by a Musician
*Electronic Circuit Design by a High School Student
*Conclusion
Most of these sections were very interesting to read, especially since the article was written in the late 1970's (around the time I was born, so it was interesting to read about 'new innovations' at this time). But one of the other sections stood out to me: A Hospital Simulation Programmed by a Decision-Theorist . This section struck me as interesting because the small town I live in has a health center that is switching over to an electronic charting system. They have spent quite a bit of money installing this system that can easily network with other systems in the area. This idea is just now becoming widespread.
The other idea, and main focus of the article that interested me was the Dynabook. Right after I graduated high school, I worked for a company called General Magic. While I did very basic things at General Magic, it was interesting to see the link between this article, and the company I did some work for right out of high school. The company has since gone under, as a lot of new media companies do, but it was intriguing to read about the company again from the perspective of historical 'new media'.
A personal note: I vaguely remember the day that the product was finally released. The company threw a huge party because the release date of the product kept getting pushed back incrementally, and the engineers were under a deadline. I even more vaguely remember when the company started to lay off folks due to poor market performance. I recall the stock prices plummeting, and depression around the company setting in. It was a hard time for the folks at General Magic. Such is life in the 'new media' business. :)
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Grades have been updated in D2L
Hello Fabulous Students,
I just updated grades in D2L. Please take a look at the most recent discussion week grade, among the other grades, and email me if you have any questions.
Have a great night!
:)
The Blogging Prof.
I just updated grades in D2L. Please take a look at the most recent discussion week grade, among the other grades, and email me if you have any questions.
Have a great night!
:)
The Blogging Prof.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Week of July 17-23
Hello Folks!
Here is what is listed on the Schedule and Participation Pages from D2L for this week. The schedule for the entire semester, and the discussion questions for the entire semester are listed on the Schedule and Participation Pages, respectively. In case you do not want to wait for the "Monday Post", you are more than welcome to get started by looking at those two pages on D2L.
Due this week:
*Read the article "Personal Dynamic Media" (download and print from D2L)
*Read the chapter from "Navigating Technomedia" (download and print from D2L)
*Read Chapter 6 from the Burkitt text (pages 138-148 only)
*Quiz - D2L. Readings from Midterm to Present.
*Participate in the discussion (see questions below)
*Research Question Due: Please read through the final project in this course "Media Exploration Project". Please email me with your research question by Saturday, July 22 @ 11:59pm. As a reminder, this project is due by Sunday, August 5th. Please keep in mind the field of COMMUNICATION STUDIES when picking a topic.
Class Discussion:
Answer one question in its entirety in each of your three separate posts, at least 12 hours apart. Please make sure you are creating a NEW POST for each question on your blog. You MUST WAIT at least 12 hours from the first post in order to create a second post. The same is true for the second and third post. I will record dates and time of your posts, so make sure they are at least 12 hours apart. EACH POST MUST BE 150 WORDS OR MORE.
1). Respond to the article, Personal Dynamic Media. What did you learn from the article? What did you find interesting or useful?
2). Respond to the article, Navigating Technomedia. Please highlight 2 or 3 main ideas from the article and discuss them.
3). Give the class an update on your interests for the Media Exploration Project. Post your research question to your blog, and give a bit of a discussion about the topic you have chosen. In other words, tell us why you have chosen your topic, why it interests you, what you already know about the topic, etc.....
Remember to post 3 responses to your colleagues blogs. (As a reminder, comments will only be counted for the current discussion week. I do not go back to past discussion weeks to look for comments. Once a discussion week is over, it's over. So please make sure you are commenting on a relevant blog post. In other words, pay close attention to the post, and date.
Comments - Remember to post ONE comment ON THREE DIFFERENT BLOGS between 12:01am on Monday and 11:59pm on Sunday. This means that you will log onto MY BLOG at: http://comm131p.blogspot.com/ and look under "Student Blogs" to see a list of your colleagues blogs. Click on those blogs, read what was posted for this week and respond. You need to make sure you are responding to only what was discussed THIS WEEK (starting Monday and ending Sunday of the current week). Comments posted to blogs that were NOT within this week will not be counted for points. Each comment must be a minimum of 100 words.
Note about comments: When you leave a comment on another blog, make sure you are logged into your blogspot account. In other words, you will need to make sure your "Display Name/Alias Name" shows up on the blog you are commenting on. I record the locations, dates and times of your comments. Please keep record of your posts and comments in case there I have questions about where they are located.
Here is what is listed on the Schedule and Participation Pages from D2L for this week. The schedule for the entire semester, and the discussion questions for the entire semester are listed on the Schedule and Participation Pages, respectively. In case you do not want to wait for the "Monday Post", you are more than welcome to get started by looking at those two pages on D2L.
Due this week:
*Read the article "Personal Dynamic Media" (download and print from D2L)
*Read the chapter from "Navigating Technomedia" (download and print from D2L)
*Read Chapter 6 from the Burkitt text (pages 138-148 only)
*Quiz - D2L. Readings from Midterm to Present.
*Participate in the discussion (see questions below)
*Research Question Due: Please read through the final project in this course "Media Exploration Project". Please email me with your research question by Saturday, July 22 @ 11:59pm. As a reminder, this project is due by Sunday, August 5th. Please keep in mind the field of COMMUNICATION STUDIES when picking a topic.
Class Discussion:
Answer one question in its entirety in each of your three separate posts, at least 12 hours apart. Please make sure you are creating a NEW POST for each question on your blog. You MUST WAIT at least 12 hours from the first post in order to create a second post. The same is true for the second and third post. I will record dates and time of your posts, so make sure they are at least 12 hours apart. EACH POST MUST BE 150 WORDS OR MORE.
1). Respond to the article, Personal Dynamic Media. What did you learn from the article? What did you find interesting or useful?
2). Respond to the article, Navigating Technomedia. Please highlight 2 or 3 main ideas from the article and discuss them.
3). Give the class an update on your interests for the Media Exploration Project. Post your research question to your blog, and give a bit of a discussion about the topic you have chosen. In other words, tell us why you have chosen your topic, why it interests you, what you already know about the topic, etc.....
Remember to post 3 responses to your colleagues blogs. (As a reminder, comments will only be counted for the current discussion week. I do not go back to past discussion weeks to look for comments. Once a discussion week is over, it's over. So please make sure you are commenting on a relevant blog post. In other words, pay close attention to the post, and date.
Comments - Remember to post ONE comment ON THREE DIFFERENT BLOGS between 12:01am on Monday and 11:59pm on Sunday. This means that you will log onto MY BLOG at: http://comm131p.blogspot.com/ and look under "Student Blogs" to see a list of your colleagues blogs. Click on those blogs, read what was posted for this week and respond. You need to make sure you are responding to only what was discussed THIS WEEK (starting Monday and ending Sunday of the current week). Comments posted to blogs that were NOT within this week will not be counted for points. Each comment must be a minimum of 100 words.
Note about comments: When you leave a comment on another blog, make sure you are logged into your blogspot account. In other words, you will need to make sure your "Display Name/Alias Name" shows up on the blog you are commenting on. I record the locations, dates and times of your comments. Please keep record of your posts and comments in case there I have questions about where they are located.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Study Abroad Summer 2013 - Beijing
Note: This was posted back in September for the coming 2012 trip. While I will be co-leading the 2012 trip with Andy Wood, I will be leading the trip in 2013. So if you want to study abroad with yours truly, please read the post below, then contact me so you can be placed on my 'interested students' list.
Visit Beijing and earn four upper division unites in communication studies!
During the summer of 2013 I will be leading an intercultural communication study abroad program to China, with a special emphasis on tourism, modernity, and urban life.
Students will stay at Communication University of China, which provides comfortable dormitory housing, low-cost meals, and easy access to the sights of Beijing. Classes focus on conversation and real-life exploration, and you will have lots of free time. That means opportunities to climb the Great Wall, wander the Forbidden City, experience the Peking Opera, and more.
 |
| Great Wall |
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| Forbidden City |
Pricing (excluding airfare and visa fees) is about $2,500, which covers housing, course fees, food, and several local tours. Cost for airfare and visa fees is estimated at an additional $1,500. The course meets COMM 161F requirements, but course substitutions can be made if you've already taken that class. If you a communication major, you should apply for this terrific opportunity.
Please contact me for more information. I am currently putting together a list of students who are interested in traveling with me to Beijing for the Study Abroad Program during Summer 2013.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Instructor Wrap Up - From Computer Power and Human Reason - Weizenbaum
Joseph Weizenbaum wrote the book From Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgment to Calculation (both clickable) in 1976. The excerpt from our text seems to be a bit of a response/discussion about some folks perspectives of his computer system ELIZA, and ultimately the program called Doctor. He also discusses a number of other ideas in this excerpt, mainly the idea that computers lack human qualities, such as compassion and wisdom. He brings up a good number of logical conclusions based on his knowledge and observations, both of computer systems, and human qualities.
The introduction written by the editors of The New Media Reader (the book that I required in a previous semester, but did not assign this semester because of the variety of articles I wanted you all to read) starts out by explaining that new media has been criticized by a great number of people who have little to no knowledge of the subject. Weizenbaum on the other hand, has knowledge about new media, computer systems, and the inner workings of one of the first conversational computer programs called ELIZA. After all, he created the program. (Click on the name to go to the wikipedia page describing ELIZA).
At the start of the excerpt, Weizenbaum recites some 'history' as he calls it. He describes an interaction that includes the Chair of Physical Chemistry at the Victoria University of Manchester, England, and Nicolai Bukharin, a leading theoretician of the Russian Communist party. He recounts this bit of history for two reasons:
1). "The first is to illustrate that ideas which seem at first glance to be obvious and simple, and which ought therefore to be universally credible once they have been articulated, are sometimes buoys marking out stormy channels in deep intellectual seas."
2). "...I recite this history is that I feel myself to be reliving part of it. My own shock was administered not by any important political figure espousing his philosophy of science, but by some people who insisted on misinterpreting a piece of work I had done."
In short, he is defending and explaining his computer program ELIZA, and the subsequent application/experiment, Doctor. Doctor was a simulation of a Rogerian Psychotherapist. See the article for a short interaction between the system and a person typing into a computer. The system (Doctor) responds, and is in the BOLD FACE type.
What interests me is Weizenbaums discussion about how folks, actual psychotherapists (not just one, but a number of folks), believed that this computer system could be developed to reach a large audience. The author proceeds to talk about 3 reason why he was shocked. He states, "The shocks I experienced as DOCTOR became widely known and "played" were due to principally three distinct events:"...
1). "A number of practicing psychiatrists seriously believed the DOCTOR computer program could grow into a nearly completely automatic form of psychotherapy".....
2). "I was startled to see how quickly and how very deeply people conversing with DOCTOR became emotionally involved with the computer and how unequivocally they anthropomorphized it."
3). "Another widespread, and to me surprising, reaction to the ELIZA program was the spread of a belief that it demonstrated a general solution to the problem of computer understanding of natural language."
Each of these reasons is very interesting, but being that we are in the field of communication, let's camp in #3 for just a second. The author goes on to mention that language is contextual, or "the importance of context to language understanding". Wow - even when we are talking about computers do we have a conversation about how language is contextual. How different is a computer than a human? Does it lack reasoning? Compassion? Wisdom? Weizenbaum, a little further down in number 3 explains, "This reaction to ELIZA showed me more vividly than anything I had seen hitherto the enormously exaggerated attributions an even well-educated audience is capable of making, even strives to make, to a technology it does not understand." Do we still do this today?
The author continues on and concerns himself with a list of questions and explanations. The questions he asks are wonderful, and very much worth reviewing. There is talk of 'plausibility', 'emotional ties to machines' and how humans have begun to rely on 'autonomous machines'. Relevant today? What do you think?
He then goes on to chat a bit about professors, or leaders in his field, and students at MIT. A quote that really spoke to me says, "They (students) sense the presence of a dilemma in an education polarized around science and technology, and education that implicitly claims to open a privileged access-path to fact, but that cannot tell them how to decide what is to count as fact." So true! Even today, this statement rings true!
The author then moves to a deeper issues than just ELIZA. He discusses two sides of a computer debate. They are:
1). Computers should and will do everything
2). Computers should have limits
Have we passed this point of debate?
Weizenbaum then moves to a discussion about knowledge and science, likening science to a drug, and even referring to science as a 'slow-acting poison'. For someone in the scientific community, he sure is stating his opinion here. Or is it fact? We're not sure (read the article to get that joke).
I will leave you with two snippets from the excerpt:
"Scientific statements can never be certain; they can be only more or less credible".
"When I say that science has been gradually converted into a slow-acting poison, I mean that the attribution of certainty to scientific knowledge by the common wisdom, an attribution now made so nearly universally that it has become a commonsense dogma, has virtually delegitimized all other way of understanding. People viewed the arts, especially literature, as sources of intellectual nourishment and understanding, but today the arts are perceived largely as entertainments."
In short, I loved Weizenbaums discussion in this excerpt. I think he brings up a number of great ideas, especially when it comes to computer programs, and the limitations. He points out some great ideas throughout the piece, things that are still relevant in today's 'new media'. I'm not just talking about social networking, but rather, larger scale media. Some of the discussions that he confronts are still going on in our time, and I do not see those discussions coming to an end anytime soon.
I hope that you have enjoyed this article as much as I have, and it is my hope that you grab a hold of the larger meaning involved. Advances in technology bring up a great number of issues, and those issues, especially when mixed with human interaction, will not cease.
The introduction written by the editors of The New Media Reader (the book that I required in a previous semester, but did not assign this semester because of the variety of articles I wanted you all to read) starts out by explaining that new media has been criticized by a great number of people who have little to no knowledge of the subject. Weizenbaum on the other hand, has knowledge about new media, computer systems, and the inner workings of one of the first conversational computer programs called ELIZA. After all, he created the program. (Click on the name to go to the wikipedia page describing ELIZA).
At the start of the excerpt, Weizenbaum recites some 'history' as he calls it. He describes an interaction that includes the Chair of Physical Chemistry at the Victoria University of Manchester, England, and Nicolai Bukharin, a leading theoretician of the Russian Communist party. He recounts this bit of history for two reasons:
1). "The first is to illustrate that ideas which seem at first glance to be obvious and simple, and which ought therefore to be universally credible once they have been articulated, are sometimes buoys marking out stormy channels in deep intellectual seas."
2). "...I recite this history is that I feel myself to be reliving part of it. My own shock was administered not by any important political figure espousing his philosophy of science, but by some people who insisted on misinterpreting a piece of work I had done."
In short, he is defending and explaining his computer program ELIZA, and the subsequent application/experiment, Doctor. Doctor was a simulation of a Rogerian Psychotherapist. See the article for a short interaction between the system and a person typing into a computer. The system (Doctor) responds, and is in the BOLD FACE type.
What interests me is Weizenbaums discussion about how folks, actual psychotherapists (not just one, but a number of folks), believed that this computer system could be developed to reach a large audience. The author proceeds to talk about 3 reason why he was shocked. He states, "The shocks I experienced as DOCTOR became widely known and "played" were due to principally three distinct events:"...
1). "A number of practicing psychiatrists seriously believed the DOCTOR computer program could grow into a nearly completely automatic form of psychotherapy".....
2). "I was startled to see how quickly and how very deeply people conversing with DOCTOR became emotionally involved with the computer and how unequivocally they anthropomorphized it."
3). "Another widespread, and to me surprising, reaction to the ELIZA program was the spread of a belief that it demonstrated a general solution to the problem of computer understanding of natural language."
Each of these reasons is very interesting, but being that we are in the field of communication, let's camp in #3 for just a second. The author goes on to mention that language is contextual, or "the importance of context to language understanding". Wow - even when we are talking about computers do we have a conversation about how language is contextual. How different is a computer than a human? Does it lack reasoning? Compassion? Wisdom? Weizenbaum, a little further down in number 3 explains, "This reaction to ELIZA showed me more vividly than anything I had seen hitherto the enormously exaggerated attributions an even well-educated audience is capable of making, even strives to make, to a technology it does not understand." Do we still do this today?
The author continues on and concerns himself with a list of questions and explanations. The questions he asks are wonderful, and very much worth reviewing. There is talk of 'plausibility', 'emotional ties to machines' and how humans have begun to rely on 'autonomous machines'. Relevant today? What do you think?
He then goes on to chat a bit about professors, or leaders in his field, and students at MIT. A quote that really spoke to me says, "They (students) sense the presence of a dilemma in an education polarized around science and technology, and education that implicitly claims to open a privileged access-path to fact, but that cannot tell them how to decide what is to count as fact." So true! Even today, this statement rings true!
The author then moves to a deeper issues than just ELIZA. He discusses two sides of a computer debate. They are:
1). Computers should and will do everything
2). Computers should have limits
Have we passed this point of debate?
Weizenbaum then moves to a discussion about knowledge and science, likening science to a drug, and even referring to science as a 'slow-acting poison'. For someone in the scientific community, he sure is stating his opinion here. Or is it fact? We're not sure (read the article to get that joke).
I will leave you with two snippets from the excerpt:
"Scientific statements can never be certain; they can be only more or less credible".
"When I say that science has been gradually converted into a slow-acting poison, I mean that the attribution of certainty to scientific knowledge by the common wisdom, an attribution now made so nearly universally that it has become a commonsense dogma, has virtually delegitimized all other way of understanding. People viewed the arts, especially literature, as sources of intellectual nourishment and understanding, but today the arts are perceived largely as entertainments."
In short, I loved Weizenbaums discussion in this excerpt. I think he brings up a number of great ideas, especially when it comes to computer programs, and the limitations. He points out some great ideas throughout the piece, things that are still relevant in today's 'new media'. I'm not just talking about social networking, but rather, larger scale media. Some of the discussions that he confronts are still going on in our time, and I do not see those discussions coming to an end anytime soon.
I hope that you have enjoyed this article as much as I have, and it is my hope that you grab a hold of the larger meaning involved. Advances in technology bring up a great number of issues, and those issues, especially when mixed with human interaction, will not cease.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Instructor Wrap Up - The Technology and the Society - Williams
The Technology and the Society. Wow, this was an interesting read considering the state of our society, and how television currently fits into our collective daily lives. You can read more about Raymond Williams by clicking on his name. Wikkipedia gives a nice overview of Williams, and even describes in a sentence or two the background of this chapter (hint: it includes McLuhan). This was a chapter out of Willams's book titled Television: Technology and Cultural Form, published in 1972.
The introduction to this chapter is quite interesting. Although I did not copy the intro for you to focus on, it really gives some context to this chapter from Williams's book. One section early in the introduction states, "Technological determinism, a viewpoint for which Marshall McLuhan is the canonical figure in media studies, tends to frame questions around technology in terms of technology's "effects" on the culture. This viewpoint has been rejected, or greatly qualified in its use, by most academic writers since McLuhan. However, it remains the dominant popular discourse on technology, and many academic writers remain engaged in outlining their positions as alternatives to this viewpoint. For these reasons, Williams's early section presenting a number of different varieties of technological determinism remains quite relevant today." (Don't forget to click on the link to technological determinism. This will help you grasp what Willams is talking about in this selection.)
The introduction starts out by saying, "It is often said that television has altered our world. In the same way, people often speak of a new world, a new society, a new phase of history, being created - "brought about" - by this or that new technology: the steam-engine, the automobile, the atomic bomb." So true, isn't it? We still share the same sentiment when new technologies come along. To the credit of Williams, and countless others, a new phase of history really was ushered in by each of the 'new technologies' Willams mentioned here. Looking at our current technologies, the internet for example, how much have our lives changed simply from the ability to access the internet?
Williams goes on to describe a cause/effect relationship of technology/society, technology/culture, technology/psychology. A little lower down on the same page (pg. 291), he goes on to mention that, "If the technology is a cause, we can at best modify or seek to control its effects." Valid questions for research. In fact, the first page mentions this very thing.
The following page states the point of the chapter: "It is with these problems in mind that I want to try to anaylse television as particular cultural technology, and to look at its development, its institutions, its forms and its effects, in this critical dimension." He then states the three sections that he will be covering in the paper, which are:
(a) versions of cause and effect in technology and society
(b) the social history of television as a technology
(c) the social history of the uses of television technology
I won't bore you with a recount of the entire article, but I will share a few interesting quotes with you. At the bottom right hand side of page 292, Williams gives a summary of the 9 items he outlines. 1-5 are said to be: "the technology is in effect accidental". In other words, technology is the cause for change. 6-9 says, "television is again, in effect, a technological accident, but its significance lief in its uses, which are held to be symptomatic of some order of society or some qualities of human nature which are otherwise determined." In other words, the change would have happened regardless of technology. Go back and read that section, it's very interesting to think about.
Reading through the rest of section (a) proves to be really interesting. Williams covers the ideas of "technological determinism", the 'otherwise determined', and 'symptomatic technology'. Very interesting indeed.
Section (b) covers the history of television, which proves to be incredibly interesting for those of us that grew up in an era of the internet and beyond. It is worth paying close attention to, as these are forms of 'new media'.
Section (c) goes over the uses of television technology. An even more interesting section than the last, though section (b) was really interesting for me. ;) The current section starts out by saying, "It is never quite true to say that in modern societies, when a social need has been demonstrated, it is appropriate technology will be found. This is partly because real needs, in any particular period, are beyond the scope of existing or foreseeable scientific and technical knowledge." The following section is a discussion of television, and what brought it to the current point in the early 1970's.
All in all, this was a very interesting article from an historical perspective of the television. Taking into account the links I have provided here, and we've got an incredible glimpse into that particular stage of history.
I hope you have enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I have.
Until later....
The Blogging Prof.
The introduction to this chapter is quite interesting. Although I did not copy the intro for you to focus on, it really gives some context to this chapter from Williams's book. One section early in the introduction states, "Technological determinism, a viewpoint for which Marshall McLuhan is the canonical figure in media studies, tends to frame questions around technology in terms of technology's "effects" on the culture. This viewpoint has been rejected, or greatly qualified in its use, by most academic writers since McLuhan. However, it remains the dominant popular discourse on technology, and many academic writers remain engaged in outlining their positions as alternatives to this viewpoint. For these reasons, Williams's early section presenting a number of different varieties of technological determinism remains quite relevant today." (Don't forget to click on the link to technological determinism. This will help you grasp what Willams is talking about in this selection.)
The introduction starts out by saying, "It is often said that television has altered our world. In the same way, people often speak of a new world, a new society, a new phase of history, being created - "brought about" - by this or that new technology: the steam-engine, the automobile, the atomic bomb." So true, isn't it? We still share the same sentiment when new technologies come along. To the credit of Williams, and countless others, a new phase of history really was ushered in by each of the 'new technologies' Willams mentioned here. Looking at our current technologies, the internet for example, how much have our lives changed simply from the ability to access the internet?
Williams goes on to describe a cause/effect relationship of technology/society, technology/culture, technology/psychology. A little lower down on the same page (pg. 291), he goes on to mention that, "If the technology is a cause, we can at best modify or seek to control its effects." Valid questions for research. In fact, the first page mentions this very thing.
The following page states the point of the chapter: "It is with these problems in mind that I want to try to anaylse television as particular cultural technology, and to look at its development, its institutions, its forms and its effects, in this critical dimension." He then states the three sections that he will be covering in the paper, which are:
(a) versions of cause and effect in technology and society
(b) the social history of television as a technology
(c) the social history of the uses of television technology
I won't bore you with a recount of the entire article, but I will share a few interesting quotes with you. At the bottom right hand side of page 292, Williams gives a summary of the 9 items he outlines. 1-5 are said to be: "the technology is in effect accidental". In other words, technology is the cause for change. 6-9 says, "television is again, in effect, a technological accident, but its significance lief in its uses, which are held to be symptomatic of some order of society or some qualities of human nature which are otherwise determined." In other words, the change would have happened regardless of technology. Go back and read that section, it's very interesting to think about.
Reading through the rest of section (a) proves to be really interesting. Williams covers the ideas of "technological determinism", the 'otherwise determined', and 'symptomatic technology'. Very interesting indeed.
Section (b) covers the history of television, which proves to be incredibly interesting for those of us that grew up in an era of the internet and beyond. It is worth paying close attention to, as these are forms of 'new media'.
Section (c) goes over the uses of television technology. An even more interesting section than the last, though section (b) was really interesting for me. ;) The current section starts out by saying, "It is never quite true to say that in modern societies, when a social need has been demonstrated, it is appropriate technology will be found. This is partly because real needs, in any particular period, are beyond the scope of existing or foreseeable scientific and technical knowledge." The following section is a discussion of television, and what brought it to the current point in the early 1970's.
All in all, this was a very interesting article from an historical perspective of the television. Taking into account the links I have provided here, and we've got an incredible glimpse into that particular stage of history.
I hope you have enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I have.
Until later....
The Blogging Prof.
Monday, July 9, 2012
Week of July 9 - 15
Hello Folks!
Here is what is listed on the Schedule and Participation Pages from D2L for this week. The schedule for the entire semester, and the discussion questions for the entire semester are listed on the Schedule and Participation Pages, respectively. In case you do not want to wait for the "Monday Post", you are more than welcome to get started by looking at those two pages on D2L.
Due this week:
*Read the article "The Technology and the Society" (download and print from D2L)
*Read the article "Second Life" (download and print from D2L)
*Read the article "From Computer Power and Human Reason" (download and print from D2L)
*Read Chapter 5 from the Burkitt text (pages: 111 - 120 only)
*Participate in the discussion (see questions below)
*REMINDER: The second portion of the Social Media Project is due by Sunday, July 15th @ 11:59pm. Remember to submit early to avoid running into any technical issues. The assignment sheet can be found on D2L. Email me with any questions you have have.
Class Discussion:
Answer one question in its entirety in each of your three separate posts, at least 12 hours apart. Please make sure you are creating a NEW POST for each question on your blog. You MUST WAIT at least 12 hours from the first post in order to create a second post. The same is true for the second and third post. I will record dates and time of your posts, so make sure they are at least 12 hours apart. EACH POST MUST BE 150 WORDS OR MORE.
1). Respond to the article, The Technology and the Society. What did you learn from the article? What did you find interesting or useful?
2). Respond to the article, Second Life. Please highlight 2 or 3 main ideas from the article and discuss them.
3). Respond to the article, From Computer Power and Human Reason. Please discuss 2 or 3 interesting ideas from the article.
Remember to post 3 responses to your colleagues blogs. (As a reminder, comments will only be counted for the current discussion week. I do not go back to past discussion weeks to look for comments. Once a discussion week is over, it's over. So please make sure you are commenting on a relevant blog post. In other words, pay close attention to the post, and date.
Comments - Remember to post ONE comment ON THREE DIFFERENT BLOGS between 12:01am on Monday and 11:59pm on Sunday. This means that you will log onto MY BLOG at: http://comm131p.blogspot.com/ and look under "Student Blogs" to see a list of your colleagues blogs. Click on those blogs, read what was posted for this week and respond. You need to make sure you are responding to only what was discussed THIS WEEK (starting Monday and ending Sunday of the current week). Comments posted to blogs that were NOT within this week will not be counted for points. Each comment must be a minimum of 100 words.
Note about comments: When you leave a comment on another blog, make sure you are logged into your blogspot account. In other words, you will need to make sure your "Display Name/Alias Name" shows up on the blog you are commenting on. I record the locations, dates and times of your comments. Please keep record of your posts and comments in case there I have questions about where they are located.
I will be checking my email on and off today, so email me with any questions.
Here is what is listed on the Schedule and Participation Pages from D2L for this week. The schedule for the entire semester, and the discussion questions for the entire semester are listed on the Schedule and Participation Pages, respectively. In case you do not want to wait for the "Monday Post", you are more than welcome to get started by looking at those two pages on D2L.
Due this week:
*Read the article "The Technology and the Society" (download and print from D2L)
*Read the article "Second Life" (download and print from D2L)
*Read the article "From Computer Power and Human Reason" (download and print from D2L)
*Read Chapter 5 from the Burkitt text (pages: 111 - 120 only)
*Participate in the discussion (see questions below)
*REMINDER: The second portion of the Social Media Project is due by Sunday, July 15th @ 11:59pm. Remember to submit early to avoid running into any technical issues. The assignment sheet can be found on D2L. Email me with any questions you have have.
Class Discussion:
Answer one question in its entirety in each of your three separate posts, at least 12 hours apart. Please make sure you are creating a NEW POST for each question on your blog. You MUST WAIT at least 12 hours from the first post in order to create a second post. The same is true for the second and third post. I will record dates and time of your posts, so make sure they are at least 12 hours apart. EACH POST MUST BE 150 WORDS OR MORE.
1). Respond to the article, The Technology and the Society. What did you learn from the article? What did you find interesting or useful?
2). Respond to the article, Second Life. Please highlight 2 or 3 main ideas from the article and discuss them.
3). Respond to the article, From Computer Power and Human Reason. Please discuss 2 or 3 interesting ideas from the article.
Remember to post 3 responses to your colleagues blogs. (As a reminder, comments will only be counted for the current discussion week. I do not go back to past discussion weeks to look for comments. Once a discussion week is over, it's over. So please make sure you are commenting on a relevant blog post. In other words, pay close attention to the post, and date.
Comments - Remember to post ONE comment ON THREE DIFFERENT BLOGS between 12:01am on Monday and 11:59pm on Sunday. This means that you will log onto MY BLOG at: http://comm131p.blogspot.com/ and look under "Student Blogs" to see a list of your colleagues blogs. Click on those blogs, read what was posted for this week and respond. You need to make sure you are responding to only what was discussed THIS WEEK (starting Monday and ending Sunday of the current week). Comments posted to blogs that were NOT within this week will not be counted for points. Each comment must be a minimum of 100 words.
Note about comments: When you leave a comment on another blog, make sure you are logged into your blogspot account. In other words, you will need to make sure your "Display Name/Alias Name" shows up on the blog you are commenting on. I record the locations, dates and times of your comments. Please keep record of your posts and comments in case there I have questions about where they are located.
I will be checking my email on and off today, so email me with any questions.
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Grades have been updated in D2L
Hello Fabulous Students,
I just updated grades in D2L. Please take a look at the most recent discussion week grade, among the other grades, and email me if you have any questions.
Have a great 4th of July everyone!
:)
The Blogging Prof.
I just updated grades in D2L. Please take a look at the most recent discussion week grade, among the other grades, and email me if you have any questions.
Have a great 4th of July everyone!
:)
The Blogging Prof.
Monday, July 2, 2012
Week of July 3-9
Hello Folks!
The only thing due this week is the Midterm Exam on D2L, and reading Chapter 4 of the Burkitt text. Please log onto D2L to take the exam. It is open book, open notes and it covers all of the readings we have covered so far in the course. Remember that the midterm is timed, and it needs to be submitted by 11:59pm on Sunday night. Please do not share answers or test questions with fellow classmates.
Note: I will not test you on the Burkitt text, so please only study the other readings in the course. The Burkitt text will be primarily used for your Social Media Representation Project, and evaluating whether or not you comprehend that material will take place when I grade that assignment.
REMINDER: You have two weeks to complete the next step of the Social Media Representation Project. It is due by Sunday, July 15th @ 11:59pm. It will be based on the Data Gathering project you turned into me last night through email. Please email me with any questions you might have about the Social Media Representation Project.
Have a good week everyone!
:)
The Blogging Prof.
The only thing due this week is the Midterm Exam on D2L, and reading Chapter 4 of the Burkitt text. Please log onto D2L to take the exam. It is open book, open notes and it covers all of the readings we have covered so far in the course. Remember that the midterm is timed, and it needs to be submitted by 11:59pm on Sunday night. Please do not share answers or test questions with fellow classmates.
Note: I will not test you on the Burkitt text, so please only study the other readings in the course. The Burkitt text will be primarily used for your Social Media Representation Project, and evaluating whether or not you comprehend that material will take place when I grade that assignment.
REMINDER: You have two weeks to complete the next step of the Social Media Representation Project. It is due by Sunday, July 15th @ 11:59pm. It will be based on the Data Gathering project you turned into me last night through email. Please email me with any questions you might have about the Social Media Representation Project.
Have a good week everyone!
:)
The Blogging Prof.
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