Gaming as Educational/Cultural Activity

I'll admit that I have not played many video games, not even as a child (I am one of those unfortunate few that has never played Super Mario Brothers). I wasn't really that interested. I've become a little more interested as an adult. I've seen friends play Grand Theft Auto (although people really into that game are hard pressed to hand over the controls to that, even for a moment). I've played a little dance Dance Revolution. I LOVE Guitar Hero, but have only played it a few times.

When I think of my interest in certain games as an adult, I think that it is because of the cultural context of it all. When I first heard about Grand Theft Auto, it was the game where you could kill hookers, and I thought, "Now that, I kind of gotta see." That game, Dance, Dance Revolution, and Guitar Heros were all over as cultural references; everyone knew what they were. I think especially in the case of Guitar Hero, those were all songs that I knew and loved and to be with my friends and pretend I was a rock star reminded me of being a kid. That's probably how the Rock Band game came about. When Gee writes in ch.2 that, "The learner needs to learn not only how to understand meaning sin a particular semiotic domain that is recognizable to those affiliated with the domain, but, in addition, how they think the domain at a "meta" level as a complex system of interrelated parts," I feel that almost everyone can understand the semiotic domain of Guitar Hero. Who hasn't, young or old, from any culture, been to a concert, done air guitar, or dreamed of being a rock star?

I do think it can be an education activity as well. People are strategizing in ways they haven't before, thinking in ways they haven't before. When you master a game (maybe not the entire game, but finally get the "feel" of it), it can be a very gratifying feeling. Gee says it best in ch. 1: playing games to him, " a new form of learning and thinking was both frustrating and life enhancing."

Paper Idea

The following is a brief proposal I wrote for the Computers and Writing conference. I am really interested in how multimodality has made what is really scientific and complex information more accessible for the masses and how these websites has really furthered the green movement, in a grass roots movement sort of way.  :

People use computer technologies to make their lives easier. They go online to pay bills, find recipes, check their child’s school progress. They read blogs, join discussion boards and visit websites to forge relationships with other people with similar interests. Going online often works as a strong agent of change to bring people together in forums that, Carolyn Miller and Dawn Shepherd explain, “require a public audience and usually seek as large an audience as possible, the rhetorical aim being to influence opinion or action.” Users‘ daily online experiences broaden social and cultural dynamics and allow people to interact on a global scale, and the sites they visit provide people more accessibility to ideas and practices they otherwise would not. They are similar to a Bakhtinian chronotope, which C.F. Schryer describes as genres that reflect social beliefs in the action of individuals in space/time interactions (84). The current movement to “go green” is one such example of people coming together to learn more about and further their environmental lifestyles.

This presentation examines ways websites like Tree Hugger and Planet Green and blogs like Ideal Bite have made “going green“ more accessible to a wider audience. These sites offer people tips and provide how-to articles that will help them go green in their daily lives. These readers may not totally understand what a carbon footprint is, but they are learning to reduce their own. These multimodal sites offer various media from videos about starting a compost to podcasts featuring interviews with celebrities and their efforts to go green; blurring boundaries by continuously teaching, while entertaining users at the same time. This presentation will be a rhetorical analysis on the ways these sites use multiple media and discussion forums
to build online communities.

Web 2.0

What genre/application of Web 2.0 is most appealing or potentially useful to you and why?

I am pretty interested in most of the Web 2.0 applications; although I know this is not helping to narrow anything down.

I think podcasting is really interesting because I feel like it is bringing back the feeling of old fashioned radio.

Professionally, I think that wiki's and microblogging would be interesting to research because it seems as though it would be beneficial in the workplace and in the classroom.

I also think that social and professional networking are interesting because I have joined those communities and the access to so many people is amazing.

Audio Project Ideas

1. I was thinking of maybe talking with people about the klutziest way they have hurt themselves. Which lead me to idea..

2. People discussing their scars and the story behind them. Jen and I were actually talking last week about how that these stories really tell a lot about a person.

3. My friend teaches at a local elementary school and she was telling me about a fourth grade class where the project was for them to choose a figure, real or imaginary that they would be a good president and why and I thought it might be kind of fun to ask them to describe why they chose the person they did and why they would make a good president.

Listening to This American Life

I loved the "20 Acts in 60 Minutes" piece. I felt like this one, obviously because of the many different stories, offered the most uses of modal elements. There was a great combination of music and natural sounds and sound effects. In Act 10, where the play (the inspiration for the 20 acts) was recorded, not only was the dialogue a strong element, but all the background sounds from the audience were just as strong. The story about the woman who got stuck in the ocean was interesting because it sounded as though the waves crashing was more of a sound effect than the actual sound. My favorite story? The one where the Penguin meets Mary Poppins and then Mary Poppins meets Batman. The use of each individual characters theme music really added to the cheekiness of the story. Probably the most interesting aspect I noticed about the stories, was that there were several where the sounds were described, rather than recreated. It was interesting to hear how certain sounds were described (the clang of a bean can), when it seemed as though with this medium, you could really use those sounds for the description.

The second story I listened to, "A Little Bit of Knowledge" relied more on single person narration and the use of music. Only one story brought in an interview, although there was a point where the voice of the interviewee was overlapped with the narration and it was really interesting to hear. There was also the use of a lot of music. Each piece started with whimsical music and ended with serious, almost sad music.

It is interesting to think about the different choices people make with sounds, especially in stories that are featured on the radio. No decision is ever wrong. Sounds, whether natural, created, music, voices, work depending on the story being told. These were really interesting because I could actually see or, actually hear, how someone uses sound as composition.

Sound and Multimodality

I listened to Sounds of New York and Radio Aporee (where I listened to a recording at the Roxy in London, 1977 and a recording in Isfahan, Hauptstraße). I listened to what Phillip Tagg describes as our soundscape, all the background sound from machines and traffics; sounds that evolved from industrialized society. Radio Aporee features a lot of recordings from cell phones, so without this industrialization, we wouldn't be hearing these soundscapes. 

The Tagg article focused on sound and music and society, while the Cindy Selfe piece discusses the shift away of oral traditions. It seems as though, ironically, the focus on sound and the sort of end of oral narratives seemed to cross. One emerged, while the other began to disappear around the same time. But now that there is increasing multimodality, technological sound and oral traditions can cross and merge. I think as this increases more people will use it as a rhetorical resource. 

I just wanted to make a quick note about Tagg discussing our lack of earlids. I had never thought about that before, but I can't tell you how many times a day I wish I did have earlids. 

Blogs Used for Political Purposes and/or Civic Discourses

 I think blogging is opening an even bigger conversation in politics. We've talked about the wide community discourse blogs create and how blogs can produce information faster than corporate media and this contributes to the political conversation. The Barton piece discusses blogs as a public sphere for rational-critical debate and how the public sphere  has the precondition to "engage in discussions critical of the ruling institution." It's almost a perfect definition of blogging terms of political purposes/civic discourse. Blogging in politics gives people a great outlet to show their passion for issues and candidates, where they find others like themselves and others not like themselves to engage in some healthy debate.

I think blogging for political purposes/civic discourse can be useful. Ideally, it is the best avenue for a PR campaign. The drawback is that, like in the Wal-Mart example, bloggers are also going to figure out who is behind the information, if it is not a corporate blog. When I read the Wal-Mart article, the first thought I had was, "Well, there goes the grass roots movement of blogging."

Blogging Influencing Communication and Community

I think blogging has influenced communication and community in one way because it provides an outlet for thinking outside the box, a way to work through ideas. Henry Farrell says that blogging provides a forum to really work through ideas and that comments about that can carry through other blogs and provide more insight. This example relates to academics, but I think this carries over to anyone. 

Another way blogging influences communication in that readers and writers might feel more freedom to write exactly what they think. They are still kind of protected by not having face-to-face interaction.

I also think that cross-genre blogs, like Culture Cat, help aid communication and community in blogging. At Culture Cat, readers see different sides to her. Those who might not care as much about her child, may really find her research interesting or find more of that in her blog roll. The same for those who like reading about the motherhood aspect and not care so much about the academia portion. It brings together an even wider audience. 

Expectations in Blogging Discourse

Blogging expectations are similar to print discourse expectations (or at least this is what I think). Give credit where credit is due by attributing where you discovered something. If you do link to another blog or article on the web, provide some commentary as to why you are linking your audience to them, but not too much commentary that it takes away from the link. When information is inaccurate, make corrections. And of course, keep your audience in mind. I think audience is the number one key in blogging. Blog communities act as a form of enforcement. They will let the blogger in question and the rest of the community know when something isn't right. They hold themselves to high expectations.

 I keep a more personal blog with just a few readers who comment on a regular basis (my own commentariat) and I tend to forget that anyone in the world can read it. Whether I am writing about an awesome burrito I had or discussing Cake Wreckers, people are clicking in. I might be a bad blogger because I don't think in global terms (although I think I might start now).

Janice made the comment on her blog that blogging isn't really an arbitrary decision anymore. And she's right. It's out there for everyone forever.

What New Media Means to Me

I think of new media is using all available media to communicate message, almost as though nothing is off limits in terms of new technology and software. I also think of it as taking existing media (television, magazines, videos and dvds) and reconfiguring their use (watching Lost online, reading People magazine online, etc). I had never thought about the implications of globalization in new media until I read the articles and wikipedia entries, but now I realize that is another area of new media. It transcends distance and relationships and cultural divides.

Week Two: Multimodality, Multimedia and Composition

I know the question is what ideas from these readings are most relevant to you professionally, in what ways and how, but after reading these articles I feel like the question should be what isn't relevant. I think everything, from education to the corporate workforce is moving towards unveiling their messages in various mediums. When it comes to the corporate workforce, press releases are still used, but it is websites and videos that are used to communicate with the public. I feel that even using email seems passe sometimes. 

Which is why it is important to really utilize these ideas in education, to prepare students to think outside the box when they are in the workforce (and it probably won't be so outside the box). When it comes to writing process, I think students would engage more in a writing with video type of class or in any class. Students create so much digital products on their own and they don't even realize that they are planning and writing and revising when they are doing this. I don't want to say that it is a way to "trick" them into the writing process, but I think they are working this way without really realizing it. I agree when Wysocki quotes Gunther Kress when he said, '"In this social and cultural environment, with these demands for communication of these materials, for that audience, with these resources, and given these interests of mine, what is the design which best meets these requirements?"' (56). I feel like that is the path I want to take in the future; to explore the different designs to meet these requirements, to help people see and learn that there are new ways to compose and reach different audiences. 

I like working with technology and creating in multimodal avenues. Whether I end up teaching or working in some private sector, I like being able to find different, useful, and creative ways to convey my message. I would love to be able to encourage my students or peers to use this to their advantage. Writing is obviously very powerful, but you are using the same process and techniques to create video, audio, web, etc. projects and presentations. Along with teaching that there are other useful ways to convey information, teaching what constitutes a good use of space and using different mediums to its full potential is important as well. I want to be able to teach students why we "cross these boundaries." Why discourse, design, production and distribution working together is so important. Why using or not using space, placement of font, using photographs with different angles mean something. 

I think preparing students or working and planning communication strategies in a corporate workplace using multimedia is important. People are hesitant when it comes to technology. Most people feel that if something works, it works; why change it? I think with comprehensive education, including how it can work well and work across disciplines is important and it will soon be my job.

Week One: Multimodal

What I think seemed to be an overarching theme throughout these articles was how culture and different modes of meaning need to be considered as design, technology and tools change in terms of literacy pedagogy. In fact, culture and meaning may be considered more important, especially when we are able to broaden our community through the web. In addition, each article discusses the importance of different modes of meaning (linguistic, visual, audio, gestural, and spatial) in multimodality, which a "A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures" describes as meanings interconnecting. And this is how meaning should work, in any capacity; they should always work together, but in new technology, it isn't just a few working together. The possibilities of using all at once is endless.

This all leads to another common thread, that of flexibility. These modes of meaning and the language (metalanguage) used in multiliteracies are constantly changing. It has made us all, in a sense, global citizens, it has given us all new identities in new arenas. One area of multimodality is how to bring this all together. The constant change of media, continuous relation to different discourse, and purpose all need to come together seamlessly.

In this way, all three articles tend to agree on this definition of multimodality. I believe "Designs for Social Futures states it best, "Multimodal meaning is no more than the other modes of meaning working together... (211)."

Can You See Me?

I sure hope so.