Update

I've been doing a lot of reading. It's a very exciting life I lead.

I got some feedback from my committee members on my questions. As was expected, the majority of the work left to do on the questions is on my specialized question. I'm not going back to the drawing board (thank god), but there is some major revisions to be done. I just met with my chair and have some additional feedback as to where to go.

My reading lists are heading in the right direction. I think that by figuring out my questions first, it really helps guide my reading lists so I am not reading a bunch of stuff that aren't worthwhile for question. My chair also gave me some suggestions to look at and then to look at their sources. I also have an appointment with another member of my committee who is more specialized in culture studies and I hope she can really lead me to some readings as well.

I've included some previous readings to my list: "awaywithwords: on the possibilites in unavailable designs" by AF Wysocki. This works with multimodal composition and asking students to be aware of choosing the right modes in their compositions, as well as looking at space as a design mode.

I've also included Prensky's "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants," which is an interesting piece that discusses the digital divide between older and younger generations. I find some of it problematic, especially since I don't consider myself an immigrant, but I know that I am not a native and there are probably many people that find themselves in this position. But, it of course, has to be brought up.

I am looking at a huge pile of readings I've done (and think of a huge pile of readings I have at home) and I think, I am not really keeping up on discussing these readings here. So I am going to pick a few and talk about them here.

"Cultural Studies: two paradigms." - Stuart Hall.

This provided some interesting analysis of Williams', Thompson's and other key cultural theorists definitions of culture. This may sound like I am dumb, but it actually put into perspective structuralism and post-structuralism and why we use those theories as a way to understand culture. I know theory is a way to understand, but it's so much nicer to have it put into plain terms.

Ok, I know I said I was going to discuss a few readings, but I need to get back to teaching right now. But stay tuned. I will return.