Questions

My questions so far...

• Since the advent of the computer in the classroom, the impact of technology on student learning has been widely discussed in the field of computers and writing. In her text, (Selfe, 1999) notes the importance of educators “paying attention” in order to integrate computer technology in the classroom in socially viable and critically engaged ways. In your response, consider the issues of access and power relations evident in using technology in the writing classroom. Then, take this issues under consideration, as well as the work of prominent scholars in the field (Gee, Hawisher, Yancey) to create a teaching philosophy specific to using computers in the classroom.

• The concept of culture and cultural differences is popularly used in modern scholarship in a variety of disciplines, including rhetoric and professional communication. To understand the undeniable influence of critical/cultural studies in our and other fields, it is useful to first clarify the troubled and troubling term “culture.” Citing theorists and critics in the field, offer your own definition of culture. How do you consider the stakeholders in setting this definition? In crafting this definition also consider competing voices in this debate. What resistance might one find to labeling certain people or traditions as one culture or another? Finally, in your response consider the way this definition of culture will influence your future scholarly/teaching, etc. work.

• New technologies for writing and communication have radically changed the ways in which professional communicators interact and the ways in which work is composed. A number of scholars (e.g. The New London Group, iText Working Group, Cargile Cook, Wysocki, Yancey) argue that being literate in today’s society requires and ability to read and compose in a multitude of forms and media. This is particularly true of those responsible for developing texts on complex subject matter that are aimed at large and diverse audiences. Drawing on the relevant literatures, your coursework, and your own experience, address the various ways multimodal communication affect traditional notions of texts, literacy and communication and what are the most significant implications for technical and professional communication?

And my last question, my specific questions - well, I'm having some issues here. I think I know what I want to say, but can't figure out a way to say it. I think maybe I am putting too much pressure on myself, but it also needs to get done. So, what I have so far isn't even a question. Bah...

• Memory and commemoration have been important issues in rhetoric as many scholars have used commemoration speeches and memorials as artifacts of rhetorical criticism. Many scholars, through, ancient, contemporary and post-modern eras, have addressed the rhetoric of memorial.

Still Catching Up on Last Week's Readings

It's been a nice holiday weekend. Although I had hoped to get ahead, like most weekends, I am barely up to date, but it all seems to work out. I had lunch with my pregnant friend and she was having contractions. I always forget that there is more to life than getting a PhD. I am going to try to keep this in mind for a little while longer. At least until tomorrow before I start freaking out all over again.

Now, back to the reading.

On Rhetoric - Aristotle (translation by George Kennedy)

I have something to admit - I didn't read the whole thing. Maybe someday I will, maybe someday soon. But I really wanted to wrap my head around epeidictic rhetoric. Speech of praise or of a blame, but mostly praise is addressed. Present time is most important, because the speaker incites past moments AND looks towards the future. I enjoyed the list of terms an epeidictic speaker might employ to cover negative aspects, such as calling someone actually rash, "courageous." I do this even when I am not praising or blaming. I do this when I am trying to diplomatically describe someone. But I suppose this is what people do when someone dies or becomes involved in tragedy. Those who speak about them knew them best, but want to remember them in the best light.

Composition Studies in the New Millennium - Lynn Z. Bloom, Donald A. Daiker, Edward M. White (eds)

"Under the Radar of Composition Programs: Glimpsing the Future Through Case Studies of Literacy in Electronic Texts" - Danielle Nicole DeVoss, Joseph Johansen, Cynthia Selfe, John C. Williams

This chapter uses case studies, much like the Selfe piece I wrote about from yesterday. In this case there are three (all of which are cited as authors, which I find interesting research-wise, but that's another thought for another day). By looking at a young women raised in an upper-middle class environment, one young man raised religiously and one older man, also religious and their introductions and explorations with technology, the authors (or Selfe perhaps) convey that aspects of the composition process and varying literacies were at play for these participants. DeVoss, by playing games online began composing scenarios between characters and gained analytical skills by mapping out the spaces of the game and knowing where to go. Johnson, by showing an early interest in graphic design, experimented in what messages could convey visually. By bringing multiple visual elements together, he was composing an argument. Williams, as an older man without formal education began putting together a text on God. He learned how to use computers (word documents and emails) at the university where he was a maintenance man. He learned by observing and playing and getting to know the software himself - just as we (or some people) advocate - don't be afraid of the fear and the mess.

Ultimately, the author(s) thinks these three case studies teach educators three lessons - literacies are constantly shifting depending on time and context and educators need to be aware and prepared for this. Educators must also be willing to address the wide variety of literacies that come with time and context and with what students may bring into the classroom. Finally, educators have to acknowledge different literacies and work with them because that is what students know. By trying to stick with one (traditional text writing) we are not empowering students to learn.

"The Challenge of the Multimedia Essay" - Lester Faigley

By opening his article on the stories of a few teenage boys who were able to make money and little chaos by hacking into computer systems, Faigley makes the case that by avoiding the incorporation of multiliteracies and multimedia, we are not empowering students to become active citizens. They won't be able to see writing past the classroom. If we avoid this, we are avoiding all the shifts in the workplace that are happening around these multiliteracies and multimedia. It is a shift that must happen.

"Narratives in the Database: Memorializing September 11th Online" - Joyce Walker (Computers and Composition 24(2007))

Walker looks at the various multimodal elements that go into online memorials and how it closes the gap between public and private mourning. Her argument is that being online, with different elements change the emphasis of the rhetorical goal and interaction with the audience. For example, she compares the online databases of victims of the 9/11 attacks (the smiling pictures, the warm anecdotes of their likes and hobbies) and the perpetrators of the attacks (the Al Queda suicide bombers). She feels these juxtapositions help to create identities as mourners and cements them as cyborg citizens.

I'm Back in the Home Computing Business

My computer is feeling better. Although, I will admit, it was nice not being a slave to the computer when I was at home. I didn't feel the need to compulsively check my online class. Yesterday morning, I actually didn't turn on my computer first thing, choosing to read a little bit instead.

Speaking of reading, I've done a lot of it in the past week.

First up:

Writing New Media Theory and Applications for Expanding the Teaching of Composition - Anne Frances Wysocki, Johndan Johnson-Eilola, Cynthia Selfe, Geoffrey Sirc

I did read the whole book, which has a intro justification by Wysocki and various chapters by the other authors. Some of the chapters were more helpful than others. And that is what I will discuss here. The previously mentioned justification, "Opening New Media to Writing" how the incorporation of new media fits in with and expands thoughts on composition pedagogy. She outlines how technology has has changed how we communicate and has opened more literacies that educators must address. It discuss how the writing process gives more agency and power to the author (in new media settings) and how as writing teachers, we can help them learn about making choices that fit what the students want to say.

"Students Who Teach Us: A Case Study of a New Media Text Designer" by Selfe tells the story of a student who was born into low socioeconomic conditions, but always saw his mother reading. When he got to college (on a football scholarship) he become interested in graphic and web design. While he suffered at writing traditional papers, he excelled at making rhetorical choices visually. Selfe uses this case study to argue for multiliteracies. She also uses this as an argument that with these multiliteracies in the classroom, the boundary between teacher and student can be broken down and that it can become a more cyclical relationship where they are learning from each other and that instructors shouldn't be afraid of this shift.

"The Sticky Embrace of Beauty:On Some Formal Problems in Teaching About the Visual Aspects of Texts," by Wysocki challenges the cut and dry principles laid out by Robin Williams in The Non-Designers Design Book and turns towards Kant's critique of judgement so that designers can consider the context of the audience by thinking about emotions that are brought up through visual elements. This article was less helpful, but interesting nonetheless, especially as someone who has lived and died by Williams' book.

I also read, Computers and the Teaching of Writing in American High Education, 1979-1994: A History by Gail E. Hawisher, Paul LeBlanc, Charles Moran, Cynthia Selfe

A really interesting read about the early use of technology, not just in the classroom, but in scholarship and the workforce and of the technology itself. The shift in the kinds of technology and how it can be applied to writing (networks and Internets as collaborative writing) is pretty fascinating and the challenges that these early adapters faced are still fairly relevant issues today. It has really pushed me towards looking at access and power in the use of computers and technology. Some students don't have a lot of access or limited access prior to getting to school and when instructors expect students to have this knowledge, they aren't empowering students to learn.

I feel as though, in terms of Computers and Writing, I am reading the same things over and over again. This does get a little frustrating, but I feel as though I am heading in a direction of focusing my question so that I can branch out a little more. More on my questions later...

I've read a few other things that I will return to later. I am hungry right now. Greek pasta salad is calling my name!

Ack! Why Now? Why Me?

I woke up on Saturday turned on my computer and saw a dark screen and heard three beeps over and over again. My computer has some RAM problems. This morning, although not fixed, I feel as though it should be by the end of the week. Hopefully. This makes online teaching a little difficult, but fortunately, I have access to computers.

However, this may put a dent in my comps. summary here for a little bit. I am still reading. The book I finished over the weekend is at home. And I will probably summarize in large chunks later in the week.

I want to be accountable, not only to myself, but also to those who actually may be reading this.

In other news, I received On Rhetoric in the mail this weekend and will soon start reading that. Aristotle. Wow.

Gunther Kress

" Reading images:Multimodality, representation and new media" - Gunther Kress

On page 119, Kress states, "The question of rhetoric-and how to make my communication most effective in relation to this audience, here and now-has moved newly, urgently into the center. Rhetoric has become a major issue for design." I think this is the important point Kress is trying to make as he examines how different modes can work, perhaps more efficiently, in conveying meaning. He traces both speech and writing as modes that work linearly. Audiences get little bits of information in succession. In these cases, the author or speaker has more power. In visual design, audiences can look at an image and take in meaning in whatever order they want, or as Kress writes, "design the order of the text for themselves (114). This changes the role of the designer. They are not the authority as a writer or speaker would be, they have to be aware of audience expectations and/or previous knowledge. It opens the rhetorical process.

I think this is going to a really interesting text that will work with both my computers and writing question and my technical communication question. Now onto, Writing New Media Theory and Applications for Expanding the Teaching of Composition. Hope to have it finished over the weekend. Have a long list of books that are commonly cited in articles that should provide some good context. The library doesn't have many of them. Although I am not opposed to buying the books for myself (because they can be used later), but if I buy every book, that is going to add up. Is it ok to ask committee members to borrow those (as I am sure they have these texts) or should I suck it up and buy them myself? Any advice?

Reading Summaries (or as I like to say, I am starting to get organized)

Multiliteracies: Literacy Learning and the Design of Social Futures - The New London Group

"Introduction: Multiliteracies: the beginnings of an idea"

Bill Cope and Mary Kalantzis

In introducing how the New London Group came to be and what their goal was, Cope and Kalantzis trace meaning making is changing as ideologies and cultures change and how educators can change pedagogical approaches to encompass these shifts. Multiliteracies as a term was chosen because it, "engages with the multiplicity of communications hannels and media," and because of the "increasing salience of cultural and linguistic diversity (5)." In other words, technology is changing so quickly, altering every facet of our lives, that we need to consider a range of literacies that work together to create meaning. The New London Group ultimately set out to create a theory and pedagogy that focuses on the (supposed) flexibility of multiliteracies and how they work in a meaning-making process.

"A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures"

The New London Group

This chapter lays out TNL's pedagogical approach that furthers multiliteracies as a way to account for a larger cultural picture and how it closely relates to how these literacies can account for communication technologies. They break down how multiliteracies affect working, public and personal lives and cultures. They lay out a framework of design - Available designs (various elements, such as language, discourses, and semiotics that are available), designing (where available designs are transformed depending on cultural and social conditions that change the meaning making process) and the redsigned (what is produced through the design process). This process allows all multiliteracies to function so that meaning is made on different levels.

They go on to layout different modes of meaning (audio, linguisitc, spatial, gestural, visual) and how they work together to create meaning. Two important terms for TNL are hybridity ("highlights mechanisms of creativity and of culture-as-process as particularly salient in contemporary culture (29)" and intertextuality (meanings made through relationships to other texts, narratives or modes of meaning (30)).

Finally, they lay out four linear, components of pedagogy that account for the varying modes of meaning.

Situated Practice - considers the varying needs and identities of learners.

OVert Instruction - learning activites that focus the learners into gaining information, as well as drawing on what they already know.

Critical Framing - helps learners master what they are receiving from situated practice and overt learning and "gain the necessary personal and theoretical distance fromtwhat they ahve learned; constructively critique it; account for it's cultural location; creatively extend and apply it' and eventually innovate on their own, within old communities and in new ones." (essentially, be more critical)

Transformed Practice - where assessment is done from what the learners have learned and how they can apply to other meaning making processes.

"Designs for Social Futures"

Bill Cope and Mary Kalantzis

Cope and Kalantzis focus on design, as a structure or function and as agency. Designing encompasses different modes of meaning and how it allows for transformation and change and cultures and everyday lived experiences (they use the term, "lifeworld"). They break down dimensions of meaning by looking at participants and modes of meaning, and well as situational examples. This leads to discussion of multimedia and how changes our lifeworlds in terms of access and power, but can also be isolating, which alters meaning making.

If anyone out there is reading this and thinks I have missed the mark or full of sh*t, please let me know.

Cope and Kalantzis use this chapter to

A New Semester, Some More Challenges

I just started my third semester and it is off to an exciting start. I am beginning a study about freshmen communication technology knowledge/use in a border institution (where I am a student and teacher). I am teaching a new class online (the rhetoric of going green - I've probably mentioned that 100 times already). I am also preparing for my comprehensive exam. I have chosen my topics (in a nutshell):

• Key theories in computers and writing, in which I discuss my own pedagogical approach.

• The importance of multiliteracies in the technical communication field

• Defining culture and the problems that lie with defining such things.

My third question deals with my specialized area, i.e. my dissertation. So I think I will have a question like this:

• Trace the rhetoric of memorial and commemoration from classical rhetoric through modern rhetorical theory.

Read, read, read. Notes, notes, notes. This will be the majority of my life for a while. I really want to take my comps in March. Most people think this is a quick turnaround, but doable. I just don't want to keep putting it off.

But right now I feel directionless. Not sure where to start reading. I had a dream last night where I saw all the books I need to read and it was a little scary. Yesterday, I was told, that if I wanted to get my comps done in a year, I need to read four sources a week. I am giving myself seven months. I am not a math person, but that's more than four sources a week. And since Thursday, I've finished only one - and it wasn't even a primary text I plan on using.

I am just going to keep remembering what a professor said: this is the only time in my life that I will be able to just read and soak in knowledge.

Ahhhhh...

My intent, if that's ok with all of my readers (I don't actually know who I am posing this question to), I am going to use this space as a reading journal. Keep account of all I've read and perhaps jot some notes.

Also, if any reader (and once again, I am not actually sure I have any) has any great suggestions of sources as I get going here, please, please, please share.