Light a Candle to This

So remediation doesn't always mean technologies need to be better...just utilized differently. A little light, some sand, music, and awesome artistry. Enjoy.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1105044239089&ref=nf

Pedagogies That Offer Presence

Especially today, “The hypermediated self is a network of affiliations, which are constantly shifting. It is the self of newsgroups and email, which may sometimes threaten to overwhelm the user by their sheer numbers but do not exactly immerse her” (Remediation 231). Though the sense of remediation and hypermediation of self has remediated over the past decade—especially with the influence of Web 2.0—its essence remains: Instructors and students alike continue to realize new selves in the many ways remediation in technology offers outlets for personal remediation. The phrase “discovering oneself” has been remediated to hold a more sophisticated, faster evolving meaning. The terms World Wide Web and Internet have always suggested a connectedness capable of spreading to every wired corner of the world. By connecting servers and computers we are also connecting our still-remediating selves. As educators in this connected digital age we must offer students the chance to remediate identity via classroom pedagogy; with every intention that this identity will filter its way into life outside the classroom. Though it is not our duty to hold a student’s hand until he realizes who he is, we should accept the responsibility that through our pedagogies that pay attention to technology we have an opportunity to afford him a newfound, remediated sense of presence.

Perfect Circles. Technology = chalk / board

A Threesome at Disney

Disney’s got it all figured out: Disney succeeds in theme parks based on fantasy that remediates reality, yet manages to create a whole new kind of reality founded in nostalgia and “transparency and authenticity of emotion.” Bolter and Grusin explain that Disney success is largely due to the ultimate triple threat: “Disney television, film, and theme parks each make their own promise of authenticity of experience even as they validated the promise of the other two” (172). This threesome works collectively to ensure Disney’s never-ending place in this world. I’ve never personally been a huge Disney fan but I do like a few of their movies (UP made it on my all-time top 20 movie list), and going to the theme park usually culminates in a negative and crowded experience. Still, I went to Disneyland 4 times over the past 12 months (note: every time was free) and I’ll probably take my kids there too. I’m not exactly sure what it is but Disney’s spell is strong, and if it doesn’t have you it’s got someone dear to you. Muhaha.

Not so proud of these non-skills...

A couple years ago I had a brilliant idea to become a semi-pro poker player to help pay for school. So I invested some money in my skills and ventured into the online gaming world. So maybe the idea wasn’t all that brilliant and my poker skills aren’t really skills at all. It took me only a couple weeks to be down $500 and six months to win it back. After I got most of it back I cashed out, left the gaming world, and never looked back. Though the real money aspect of online gaming isn’t appealing to me anymore (quite scary actually), I sometimes get an itch for the gameplay. Therefore, since May 2008 I’ve been a member of Facebook’s Texas Hold ‘Em Poker application. The money is fake and the games aren’t always exciting, but it does the job of giving me my poker/gaming/competition fix. I play a few times a week, usually to relax a bit or while I’m watching a game or even reading a book, but to be honest I don’t even know if I really enjoy it. Weird. I guess we all have the thing(s) we do to help us through the daily grind.

P.S. There’s something depressing about being a multi-millionaire on Facebook poker. =/

Playing Games, Escaping Society?

Bolter and Grusin call technological innovations (specifically games) "new" and "authentic" experiences that also "divorce us from the physical world" (103). Gaming has become escapism at the most intense level. People spend hours, days, entire weekends immersed in a game world, communicating only with others participating in a similar escape from the physical world. Gamer tags and user names replace actual identity while accomplishing missions and collecting items take the place of real-life experiences. Looking at how "connected" today's online gaming is it's sadly ironic to see how much disconnection it can cause when not practiced responsibly. Gaming Addiction Rehabilitation Centers: Anyone want to invest?

We got to teach some gamers it's okay to take breaks:
http://www.kensavage.com/archives/another-kid-dies-from-playing-online-game/

STARCRAFT

The last game I ever got completely "immersed" in was StarCraft. I first learned to play it in 1998 or so and got fairly good at it rather quickly (probably had something to do with playing it through the night, stopping only when the sun would rudely interrupt). I guess this is sort of an admission: friends used to come over to my place carrying their PC towers and monitors...20 minutes later we'd have a LAN (Local Area Network) of mass intergalactic war.The game was simple enough: Choose one of three clans, Terran (human), Zerg (insect-ish), or Protos (advanced alien), build up your base, develop an army and optional perimeter defense, do some recon with scouts to locate enemy base(s), and the rest is where things get ugly...

You take everything you got and annihilate your enemies before they get a jump on you. This is when the multitasking goes to a whole new level. Commanding a full-blown attack while continuing to build forces at (by this time) your multiple base locations. After you kill your enemies (including helpless workers) and destroy all their structures you can proclaim "VICTORY!" and then start all over again.

And then there's Battle.net, which at this time is strictly an online network for StarCraft games that connects and ranks players on a worldwide scale. This adds another 6 months to my gaming addiction.

Get to know your computer...

With all the Oscar buzz lately I think this directorial masterpiece is more than appropriate. Mike the Monitor, Mickey the Mouse, Kylie the Keyboard, and Charlie the CPU introduce 1st grader Omar to computer parts and some valuable computer etiquette. "Don't bang the mouse!"

Just the thought of a 1st grader working on his/her functional literacy gives me the chills. But then I remember my 4-year-old niece and nephew with their video games and electonic toy laptops (with full-functioning keyboards I might add) and realize 1st grade isn't all that crazy after all (sigh).

REmediation, REthinking, REdoing, REeverything

“The world we have created is a product of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” - Ghandi

Bolter and Grusin remind us, “The word remediation is used by educators as a euphemism for the task of bringing lagging students up to an expected level of performance…” (59). Oddly enough the same word, but pronounced REmediation, has found its way back into the classroom, yet the remedial ones now are the instructors struggling to keep up with evolving classrooms and changing students. Implications of Bolter and Grusin’s remediation in the teaching of writing begin with instructors and the pedagogies developed for classrooms. As instructors we must realize the nature of remediation in the classroom; that remediation of technologies and implementation of said technologies into the classroom changes the teaching environment altogether, beckoning a need for remediation within pedagogies. As technological innovations represent different, revised, and in most cases improved versions of predecessors the pedagogies of tomorrow must represent teaching methods along comparable lines of remediation. We should use the new forms of access, communication, and writing made available to use via advances in technology to every advantage we can conceive within our classrooms. Pedagogies have always evolved, changing to best suit the needs of specific courses and student populations; but in today’s digital age we have an opportunity to redevelop pedagogical methods from the inside out—not just showing change but guiding remediation in education that moves with (rather than struggles to keep up with) remediation in technology.

Remediation, check.

It’s amazing the difference a decade in the digital age makes. According to Bolter and Grusin, “many cyberenthusiasts assert that the web and computer applications are creating a digital culture that will revolutionize commerce, education, and social relationships” (60). Just over ten years later we can go down the list and check each one off.

Revolutionized commerce, check. I spent my entire paycheck on a variety of things without ever touching my wallet. With my last paycheck spent I’m left wondering how to pay for next quarter’s fees—which I will eventually pay online. Revolutionized education, check. What you are reading now is an assignment for a class on computers and literacy. Yes, computers and literacy. Revolutionized social relationships, check. I now have 277 friends on Facebook. I never realized I even knew 277 people and now I’m friends with them, well kind of.

The list can go on, remediation has always been reforming reality and the way we live. Society changes, cultures change, and remediation sits at the core of much of that change. Remediation reforms, no doubt. But does such reform improve life—who knows?

Taking a photo, uploading it, and showing off some Functional Literacy

Opening the classroom to everything we can aim our camera phones at...

Great presentation! Thanks!

Bend with it, move with it, flex with it.

We talk about what a wonderful world it will be when our students fit the multiliterate bill—students as functional users, critical questioners, and rhetorical producers of technology. Technological literacy will take on a whole new meaning, one that more accurately reflects the users who participate in shaping its very existence. But wait. I think it all sounds simpler than it really is. We, as future educators, may often overlook our responsibility in all of this. If we are going to push students to Selber’s multiliteracy then, we too, must qualify accordingly. This is not a responsibility we should take lightly. How do we get students from functional and critical abilities to the rhetorical producing abilities that begin making real difference? According to Selber, “The key for teachers is to be flexible in their perspectives on literacy” (182). Maybe that’s where we should start. We have to be open to adjusting our ideas, beliefs, and set-in-stone perspectives of technology and its ties to culture, community, and education.

PONG ME

By the time I was first introduced to video games Atari’s Java-based game PONG was already over a decade old. It was the simplest of games but fun on so many levels—bringing the competitive nature out of anyone. I remember playing it for hours at a time at my cousin’s house. Looking at it now it’s absolutely comical, but 25 years ago it was still going strong as video game/graphics innovation (well, at least to me). I was amazed at the gameplay, the seamless joystick reaction, and the blips and bloops that rang competition in all its analog glory. PONG stopped time long enough for players to get their immersion fix. Today, we still get our fix. Today, we have new kinds of “Pongs.” Okay, maybe it was just a lazy person’s table tennis, but it was cool. Long live cool things—past, present, future.

Get a mini PONG fix here:

http://www.xnet.se/javaTest/jPong/jPong.html/

Any Kind of "Triple-Threat" is Sweet in My Book

It’s obvious that technologies change faster than we can keep up with. It seems like as soon as we get used to one type of technology something new to learn pops up. Some of us have the motivation to move on to the latest innovation, but most of us (I’m assuming) are so glad we mastered the last thing we’re not in any hurry to let it go and start over. However, Selber’s take on the triple-threat multiliterate student is interesting; from functional to critical to rhetorical—user, questioner, producer. When looked at as a package deal I realize the importance of keeping up with technology, in the least at a basic level. Keeping students’ functional literacy up-to-date can enhance their ability to look at that same literacy with a critical lens and, in turn, have more to offer in a rhetorical sense. I would venture to say that as educators and future educators it may be just as important, if not more, for us to stay on top of things as well. Though it’s understandable that not all of us are geared to be technically savvy, it may well be our duty as educators in this digital age for us to be technically aware. Who knows, maybe a raised level of awareness will lead to levels of functionality we normally assume out-of-reach? After all, how can we expect our students to be multiliterate if we are not already?

Munday is Funday

I used to limit my use of technology to very low levels of functionality. But tonight, tooonight, I use technology for the heck of it—just for fun. I call it FUNctional Taeknology. Recognize.



(I also wanted to practice getting these videos properly embedded).

Today's Old News: Paying Attention

According to Mark Weiser, “The most profound technologies are those that disappear,” that “weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it” (qtd. in Selber, 159-160). Selber adds, “Technologies may be the most profound when they disappear. But when this happens, they also develop the most potential for being dangerous” (160).

Technology and its corresponding literacy are already deeply woven into our way of life. We see its hemlines at work, school, home, and even in the twenty-first century workings of our democratic government. As more of us go online it instantly creates a division with those who are still offline. We get so used to our new access that we easily forget those without it. The internet and its uses are ingrained in our lifestyles, but what of them who never had it?

Does your child have NimbleFingers?

I heard from a friend of mine teaching in the Walnut School District that many elementary classrooms are teaching typing skills (sometimes in place of handwriting skills). Hearing this impressed me and made me cringe a little at the same time. I recently googled “teaching typing to elementary students” and came across an online typing program called, “NimbleFingers.” It can be used by adults but seems mostly geared towards teaching typing skills to kids. Here’s a link to the Teacher’s Typing Manual that goes with the program:

http://www.nimblefingers.com/teachers.htm

The objectives state, “Keyboarding is an excellent way to introduce students to computer literacy and to improve one’s ability to interact with the computer. Once you know how to type, you do not have to search for the key to press and you can concentrate on the application at hand.” I never really consider using my computer as “interacting” with it and these objectives definitely push kiddos to be as productive as possible.

I’m wondering if I’d mind it if my child did not know how to write in cursive? I feel torn.

Contemplating Selfe-Defense...

Before class on Wednesday a few of us were talking about the Selfe reading and agreed that much of what she has to say is valid, that paying attention to technology is of utter importance, but also agreed that the book seems a bit outdated. Of course, in Selfe’s defense, she published the book in 1999, and paraphrasing a classmate, she was definitely thinking ahead of her day, saying things few others were even considering at the time. But in doing further research on my technology-driven thesis topic, I’ve come to realize that it makes sense that this type of writing becomes obsolete along with the technologies in mention. We upgrade our computers, phones, i-pods, you name it. We buy the latest thing, knowing well that a better version is just around the corner, waiting to make us yesterday’s news. Still, this realization brings me back to 1999—lending to exactly why Selfe insists that we need to pay attention. The rate at which technology is moving seems almost immeasurable. The exponential growth of technology means that the “critical technological literacy” that Selfe calls for must try to keep pace. We must continue to pay attention, keep track, and update (or “upgrade”) our writing as well.

Lighting candles around my computer, ready for another night of worship.

(Found a comment addressed to me lost in cyber-blog-world). =]
Is computer technology now taken for granted as an inborn knowledge and need in our society? Is it so accepted that we no longer question the validity of technology as it affects our lives?

I would say that “taken for granted” is an understatement. We seem to be so set on technology as messiah that we stare blankly up at the pedestal we’ve put it on and wait for the next wonderful thing it’s going to do for us. I must admit that I am as guilty as can be. I too, am rather smitten by all the (technological) things I can do now, compared to the childhood I remember growing up in—playing hide-n-seek with neighborhood kids, jumping off roofs, playing hopscotch with rocks, etc. Today, I can create Sim-worlds, go to virtual pool parties, and submit homework without ever leaving the comfort of my desk chair. Absolutely amazing. However, I do think technology is so “inborn” for some of us that we overlook all those we’re leaving behind. It’s easy for us to get lost in our cyber existence, not noticing those apart from it. After all, they’re not there for us to notice in the first place. It has come to the point where we indulge in the good things so much we neglect the negative ways it’s affecting our lives. According to Selfe, our tendency to believe in something and accept it a certain way has “powerful masking effects.” We see technology as we want to see it, and today, a concerning majority of the world seems to see its universal acceptance as a wonderful thing.

rEVOLUTION or bust: Changes that move us in some kind of direction

History is packed with one revolution after another. Revolution for freedom, rights, votes, equality, you name it. Revolting is what we do as humans. We recognize an injustice and fight until we attain a satisfying result. Are we ever satisfied with a particular result, I’m not sure? I guess it’s a matter of perspective. Today, new kinds of revolution are changing everything we know about literacy, communication, and even the world we live in. As the rich get richer and our computers get smarter we must recognize that these revolutions, whether negative or positive, are part of our evolution as a thinking being. These revolutions are significations of our move into something beyond what we know. This move is and will continue to affect our composition classrooms and standing aside is not an option. But whether the right answer is to move with or against the grain is still left to be seen. Unfortunately, more often than not, our only option is to move with these revolutions—accepting this inevitable evolution in thought, society, and communication.

Crackberry Lovin: Keeping up with a world that refuses to wait.

I switched from my old-school flip to the hot new Blackberry because it’s what’s in and necessary to keep my swag going in today’s technologically advancing world. Now I can check who’s hollering at my email while keeping up with the latest ENGMA post. I can SMS, MMS, BBM, IM, and check my Facebook wall for shout-outs all in the same crackberry sesh. As soon as something comes to mind I could tweet it and the Twitter world will instantly be updated on my personal state of mind, thinking on the same page. i cn write 2 u like ths n u hve no prob readin it. We can LOL and ROTFL, talking about what’s hot, what’s real, what’s good, and what’s not. I can text with you today and tell another friend tomorrow that I spoke with you yesterday when, actually, I haven’t spoken to you in over a year. LMAO.

I was teaching my mom to check her voicemail (for the 3rd time) and realized afterward: Today is not like yesterday. Shoot, it doesn’t even sound anything remotely similar. The world seems to be getting smaller and bigger simultaneously.

(BTW, real reason I finally upgraded is because I dropped my old phone into a restroom urinal).

Testing, testing, 1,2,3...

Test blog for 658. =]