I was watching TV last night (big surprise), and a had a total "connection with 506" moment. There's a new show called Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip that's about the behind-the-scenes world of a variety show like SNL. There was this great scene where two of the characters were talking about blogging. The scene opens with Tommy, sitting at his laptop, reading aloud a bad review of the show from The Bernadette Blog:
Simon: Stop reading the Internet
Tommy: Bernadette of The Bernadette Blog says--
Simon: Bernadette is writing this in her pajamas. Tommy, why do you care? She’s got a freezer full of Jenny Craig and she’s surrounded by her five cats.
Tommy: The New York Times is going to quote Bernadette so that the people can be heard and The Times can demonstrate they’re not the media elite. I preferred when they were elite. I’m a fan of credentials. It’s like we’ve all spent the last five years living a Roger Corman film called Revenge of the Hack. I have to care about the Internet, Simon, you know why? Because everybody else does.
I just thought this really captured my own feelings of ambivalence about technology, the Internet, etc. I think credentials are important, especially if you are going to be quoting something and passing on information, or if you are going to be basing decisions on something someone has said. At the same time, everyone should have a voice, there should be room for the "little guy" to have his/her say. So...I don't know, I'm still deciding what I think about it all. But, either way, this scene totally speaks to how important blogging has become.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Thursday, September 21, 2006
It's Addictive
Bored? Cruisin' around the Internet looking for a little fun? Sick of doing work? Then you must visit http://www.jacksonpollock.org and make some modern art. Procrastination rules!
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Yay for blog help!
Okay, yes, I do at times have "mood swings." I am feeling a lot better about my podcast, which translates into better feelings about life in general, now that I have gotten some feedback from the class blog to help me with the issues I just described in an earlier post. Which people can now actually read because they will be able to get here from the class blog. Thanks, Alex, for fixing that for me. I definitely feel much better.
And this made me think about an earlier post in which I talked about blogs as classroom tools (which no one in the class probably read, either, ha ha). How great would it be for a kid at home, struggling with a homework assignment or a project, if he could jump on the class blog and ask questions or request feedback on what he's accomplished so far (or she, of course)? Instead of giving up in frustration, kids would have access to their friends and teachers and be able to carry on when they get stuck. Just like I will now be able to do with my podcast. And with websites, you would be able to put up pictures along with your questions and discussions, so that in some cases you can actually show what you are talking about. Of course, there is still the problem of universal access, but having my colleagues help me out with my own project issues has really illustrated how useful this technology can be for kids.
And this made me think about an earlier post in which I talked about blogs as classroom tools (which no one in the class probably read, either, ha ha). How great would it be for a kid at home, struggling with a homework assignment or a project, if he could jump on the class blog and ask questions or request feedback on what he's accomplished so far (or she, of course)? Instead of giving up in frustration, kids would have access to their friends and teachers and be able to carry on when they get stuck. Just like I will now be able to do with my podcast. And with websites, you would be able to put up pictures along with your questions and discussions, so that in some cases you can actually show what you are talking about. Of course, there is still the problem of universal access, but having my colleagues help me out with my own project issues has really illustrated how useful this technology can be for kids.
Blog Malfunction
Does anyone know why all the cool stuff on the side of my blog is now way at the bottom? This happened out of the blue for no apparent reason and I have no idea how to fix it, but it is really bugging me!
Podcast Woes
So, I tried to assemble my enhanced podcast in class last night. I thought that I had some really good ideas about capturing the "mood" of the flat world. My whole theme is the feeling of urgency, competition, fast-paced, etc. It's sort of supposed to reflect Friedman's assertion that we'll have to run faster and faster just to stay in place. So, I had all these pictures of crowds, people running races, people at rallies trying to make their voices heard, traffic jams, speeding cars, stuff like that. Sounds pretty good, right? So I went in to Garage Band and started laying my pictures out the way I wanted, and then I added some music, just for practice. But when I tried to preview my podcast, almost every single picture looked like modern art--as in, nothing discernible. So, my podcast that I thought I had made so much progress on was basically a bunch of pixels with about 3 actual photos. Now, I'm not the most tech-savvy person, so I may be wrong, but I'm assuming the pictures that I chose are too small, so when Garage Band blows them up to fit its parameters, this is the result. So, now it's back to the drawing board I guess. Does anyone out there have any suggestions for appropriate size? Or any similar tales of woe just for comfort's sake? As hard a time as I've been having so far this semester, this is like the proverbial straw and camel.
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Blogs R Us
I've spent a lot of time lately reading Will Richardson's book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. I guess most of the class finished it ages ago, but I'm pretty over-whelmed this semester, and I'm just trying (and mostly failing) to keep up. His chapters on using blogs in the classroom are really interesting, though, especially his discussion of including other website urls in the post and commenting on it. According to Richardson, much of what we do as "bloggers" isn't really blogging but rather more like online journaling because it doesn't include these evaluated links. If kids are truly blogging, then they are incorporating various links and discussing them, truly integrating reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. This seems so much deeper and more significant than having kids just write in their journals at night. Richardson writes, "more than just reading, bloggers that write this way learn to read critically because as they read, they look for important ideas to write about...this, in turn, requires critical thinking skills as they consider their audience and clarify the purpose of their writing" (30-31). He also quotes Samuel Johnson, which I love: "I hate to read a writer who has written more than he has read."
The thing about blogging in the classroom, though, or trying to incorporate ipods, cell phones, etc., is that you are making the assumption that all kids have them. A class that is very blog-intensive would require home access because it just wouldn't be realistic for kids to spend that much time in the school computer-lab. And in most districts, can we assume that every single kid has a computer at home? Isn't this just calling more attention to the kids without, who already probably feel bad about having less than those around them? I feel like this issue isn't really acknowledged because we think, "Oh, everyone has a computer" but I don't think that is necessarily so.
The thing about blogging in the classroom, though, or trying to incorporate ipods, cell phones, etc., is that you are making the assumption that all kids have them. A class that is very blog-intensive would require home access because it just wouldn't be realistic for kids to spend that much time in the school computer-lab. And in most districts, can we assume that every single kid has a computer at home? Isn't this just calling more attention to the kids without, who already probably feel bad about having less than those around them? I feel like this issue isn't really acknowledged because we think, "Oh, everyone has a computer" but I don't think that is necessarily so.
Friday, September 08, 2006
My Blog: Take Two
Welcome to the new, improved version of my blog! Now that I have transferred my content over to the "beta" version of blogger, I have easily been able to add cool features and really spruce it up. Yay, technology! See, folks, I am getting into the spirit. And like any good narcissist, I love being able to make my blog all about me. Unfortunately, I was unable to transfer the comments over from my previous blog. Ah, well, I remember them fondly anyway.
And, making me feel even more technologically savvy, I bought a flashdrive today so that I will be able to take content back and forth between my home computer and school. I did have to read the written instructions, though. Yes, Stearns, I know that my accent is showing. But as I've always said, accents are sexy! ;-)
More exciting posts to follow. In the meantime, feel free to peruse some of my exciting links. You just might learn something. Like how interesting I am.
And, making me feel even more technologically savvy, I bought a flashdrive today so that I will be able to take content back and forth between my home computer and school. I did have to read the written instructions, though. Yes, Stearns, I know that my accent is showing. But as I've always said, accents are sexy! ;-)
More exciting posts to follow. In the meantime, feel free to peruse some of my exciting links. You just might learn something. Like how interesting I am.
"Transmissions from the satellite heart..."
It's an album title. Special kudos from me for anyone who can name the band. But for some reason, I felt it was an apropos title for my first blog, my first transmission into cyberspace from my own personal Sputnik.
After exactly one day, this course (computers and the study of English, for anyone random that might be reading my blog--it's here for the entire world to see afterall, isn't it?) already has me thinking quite deeply, and about some rather uncomfortable subject matter. Technology, computers, the internet, a fundamental shift in the world and all society as we know it, the collapse of the once all-poweful United States--heavy, right? I guess that it's mostly Friedman's book that has given me food for thought, but it's also the questions and comments that have been generated in our class discussion and in our class blog. Truthfully, the majority of what I've read and been thinking about in connection to this class scares the crap out of me. I guess I'm a traditionalist and I'm not crazy about change, so I view the technological revolution just getting underway with more trepidation than excitement, more foreboding than hope. I've always been a "glass is half empty" kind of girl, and so I see technology being used by the government in a very negative, Big Brother way (wiretapping is the least of it, folks), or by al-Qaeda in a "Death to America" kind of way. Maybe because I just watched V for Vendetta the other night (highly recommended, by the way), or maybe because I watch the news once in a while.
Of course, I am not a complete cynic or the next Unabomber. There are many positive aspects of technology that even I acknowledge and embrace. I love being able to keep in touch with friends and relatives who are scattered throughout the country. I get to talk to them about both the important and mundane, see pictures of their homes, kids and pets. This kind of contact would be much more difficult without my computer. Probably impossible, actually, considering how lazy I am. Then there's one of my most favorite modern conveniences, the DVR. For someone who loves TV a little too much but is rarely home in the evening, the DVR is the perfect way to maintain that glamorous couch-potato lifestyle. And where would any of us be without our cell phones, particularly when driving a not-too-reliable car alone at night?
I guess what I'm getting at (rambling about?) is that I have pretty conflicted feelings about technology and how important it's become. In some ways I feel like it's just as isolating as it is connecting. Sure, you can have thousands of "friends" on your myspace account and innumerable people can comment on your blog, but how meaningful is that? Can it take the place of real, intimate, face-to-face conversation? I feel like people are so wrapped up in cyber communities of people they will never meet in real life that they don't bother to get out and interact with their actual community. Most people don't even know their neighbors.
Something that really struck me when I was reading Friedman's book was the story about the soldier who was killed in Iraq and his family's failed attempt to gain access to his Yahoo! email. The famliy wanted something of their son, in his own words, to remember him by. If we were still in the era of letter-writing, his personal letters and papers would have been given to his family, but with email, everything is just sort of "out there" in cyberspace. Friedman writes, "As we get rid of more and more paper and communicate through more and more digitzed formats, you better sort out before you die, and include in your will, to whom, if anyone, you want to leave your bits." And it just makes me think about how much what we know about history comes from the written record people have left behind, experiences that were captured in letters and journals. Will we have that in the future, the same kind of graphic, first-hand account of historical events? Will we know as much about the men dying in Iraq as we do about our grandfathers who fought in WWII? I suppose that there are those who would say that it doesn't really matter. Email or a paper letter doesn't make any difference, but I fear that we may be losing something without really realizing it. It's kind of sad.
I still really want an ipod, though ;-)
After exactly one day, this course (computers and the study of English, for anyone random that might be reading my blog--it's here for the entire world to see afterall, isn't it?) already has me thinking quite deeply, and about some rather uncomfortable subject matter. Technology, computers, the internet, a fundamental shift in the world and all society as we know it, the collapse of the once all-poweful United States--heavy, right? I guess that it's mostly Friedman's book that has given me food for thought, but it's also the questions and comments that have been generated in our class discussion and in our class blog. Truthfully, the majority of what I've read and been thinking about in connection to this class scares the crap out of me. I guess I'm a traditionalist and I'm not crazy about change, so I view the technological revolution just getting underway with more trepidation than excitement, more foreboding than hope. I've always been a "glass is half empty" kind of girl, and so I see technology being used by the government in a very negative, Big Brother way (wiretapping is the least of it, folks), or by al-Qaeda in a "Death to America" kind of way. Maybe because I just watched V for Vendetta the other night (highly recommended, by the way), or maybe because I watch the news once in a while.
Of course, I am not a complete cynic or the next Unabomber. There are many positive aspects of technology that even I acknowledge and embrace. I love being able to keep in touch with friends and relatives who are scattered throughout the country. I get to talk to them about both the important and mundane, see pictures of their homes, kids and pets. This kind of contact would be much more difficult without my computer. Probably impossible, actually, considering how lazy I am. Then there's one of my most favorite modern conveniences, the DVR. For someone who loves TV a little too much but is rarely home in the evening, the DVR is the perfect way to maintain that glamorous couch-potato lifestyle. And where would any of us be without our cell phones, particularly when driving a not-too-reliable car alone at night?
I guess what I'm getting at (rambling about?) is that I have pretty conflicted feelings about technology and how important it's become. In some ways I feel like it's just as isolating as it is connecting. Sure, you can have thousands of "friends" on your myspace account and innumerable people can comment on your blog, but how meaningful is that? Can it take the place of real, intimate, face-to-face conversation? I feel like people are so wrapped up in cyber communities of people they will never meet in real life that they don't bother to get out and interact with their actual community. Most people don't even know their neighbors.
Something that really struck me when I was reading Friedman's book was the story about the soldier who was killed in Iraq and his family's failed attempt to gain access to his Yahoo! email. The famliy wanted something of their son, in his own words, to remember him by. If we were still in the era of letter-writing, his personal letters and papers would have been given to his family, but with email, everything is just sort of "out there" in cyberspace. Friedman writes, "As we get rid of more and more paper and communicate through more and more digitzed formats, you better sort out before you die, and include in your will, to whom, if anyone, you want to leave your bits." And it just makes me think about how much what we know about history comes from the written record people have left behind, experiences that were captured in letters and journals. Will we have that in the future, the same kind of graphic, first-hand account of historical events? Will we know as much about the men dying in Iraq as we do about our grandfathers who fought in WWII? I suppose that there are those who would say that it doesn't really matter. Email or a paper letter doesn't make any difference, but I fear that we may be losing something without really realizing it. It's kind of sad.
I still really want an ipod, though ;-)
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