This semester has sold me on the usefulness of blogs at the graduate level (I don't share e's doubt about its use for undergrads, but I think it all depends on how these are understood and meant to be used). I guess I have done this before, but here I've found this blog to be much more useful in reading others' responses to and thoughts on the class readings.
I regret not taking a more active role in reading/responding to the scholars on our blogroll. I did post to Sivacracy (it's somewhere, maybe I'll dig it up) but I don't think I linked back to our blog here. I guess it wasn't really related to authorship and copyright, so I suppose I failed on that end. I still, for whatever reason, generally thought of our class as the primary audience and did not consider that someone like John Logie or Rebecca Moore Howard might be reading.
Perhaps it's because I understood this blog space mostly as another way to interact with and understand the readings. I liked when conversations would migrate from here into the classroom. This is not to say I don't see the potential to reach a wider audience here, but that is a goal for my paper while these posts were more spontaneous efforts. Perhaps that stems from my perceived sense of privacy I get from my super secret pseudonym.
I'm rambling (and, wow, I need to get to work on the paper we're workshopping tomorrow), so I should go. Best of luck with your papers, everyone! There I go again with the audience thing. Ahem. Farewell, loyal readers!
5/4/08
5/3/08
End of Semester Thoughts on the Blog
I have had a long and sordid history with blogs. My first one was back in '01, which was updated rarely and was written in Dreamweaver and updated to my personal site. I've kept one (or 6) on and off for years. The blogging has outlived Dreamweaver in usefulness. (Yes, I write the code for my sites by hand. Yes, I am a snob about it.)
However, even my collaboratively written blogs did not have this consistent level of activity (and, I am pained to admit, quality), which is very important and very exciting.
Additionally, though others have said it, an advantage of this forum is that those of us who have a hard time talking can come out of their proverbial shell. I can see the advantage of this virtual space for classrooms, even if they are not specifically "endorsed" or a requirement of the professor, just as a place for questions and answers.
Lastly, I've been in kind of a creative weird place lately, and so, when that is the case, I read some poetry or related prose. In this case, I'm re-reading Rilke's "Letters to a Young Poet," and I've come across this bit, and his words on copyright are better than mine.
However, even my collaboratively written blogs did not have this consistent level of activity (and, I am pained to admit, quality), which is very important and very exciting.
Additionally, though others have said it, an advantage of this forum is that those of us who have a hard time talking can come out of their proverbial shell. I can see the advantage of this virtual space for classrooms, even if they are not specifically "endorsed" or a requirement of the professor, just as a place for questions and answers.
Lastly, I've been in kind of a creative weird place lately, and so, when that is the case, I read some poetry or related prose. In this case, I'm re-reading Rilke's "Letters to a Young Poet," and I've come across this bit, and his words on copyright are better than mine.
"Finally, as to my own books, I wish I could send you any of them that might give you pleasure. But I am very poor, and my books, as soon as they are published, no longer belong to me. I can't even afford them myself--and, as I would so often like to, give them to those who would be kind to them."
--Rainer Maria Rilke, April 23,1903
Thoughts on Blog
As others, I too had little experience with blogs before this class. In terms of this class, I found the blog very engaging because as I read through other's posts I was reminded of bits of the reading I had forgotten, or I made connections that I hadn't before. And, the weekly blogging requirement forced me to look for outside material to pull into our discussion--something that I might have done once or twice, but surely not weekly. This extra step led me to find many blogs of personal interest that I will continue to follow long after this class ends.
On a larger level, though, and I believe this was the most beneficial element of the blog, I have become familiar and comfortable with blogging and web 2.0. This is showing in the classes I teach, as I introduce new technology to my students and as my understanding of writing and composition has developed from a linear writer-to-reader approach to a much more circular writer-reader discussion.
On a larger level, though, and I believe this was the most beneficial element of the blog, I have become familiar and comfortable with blogging and web 2.0. This is showing in the classes I teach, as I introduce new technology to my students and as my understanding of writing and composition has developed from a linear writer-to-reader approach to a much more circular writer-reader discussion.
4/30/08
Blog Geographies
I have enjoyed this blog experience. I do not like, Sam I am, the confining linear structure that archives all my posts the second five more appear, but I appreciate the radial/rhizomic linkage.
Blogs have a ton of potential for expanding classroom discussion. We didn't utilize the blog to its fullest possible imaginable (!) potential, but I think all we did added exponentially to the value of this class for me. I've always enjoyed classes where we can have this freer space to write-think. I don't know if the average student below junior level could make good use of this, but for the rest of us, yes.
I'm thinking about architecture and geographies and spaces ever since RSA plus hearing Kathleen Turner's Arnold Fox-winning paper this semester on "fourthspace" (a concept by NIU's own James Giles). The blockiness, the linearity, of this blog is so limiting and unorganic. I'd prefer a setup like the Huffington Post's homepage or something where blog posts had larger or greater sizes according to how much they were read/used. Something more open, more expandable, less cephalopodan (sorry: I now have all these fun metaphors I now use every chance I get).
Spatial relations. Thinking about space in modern psychological torture (Guantanamo, etc.). Thinking about that Austrian who imprisoned his daughter in his cellar for 24 years. Industrial cement. Bare-bones squares. Square trapdoors. Dark boxes. Pressure devices. Desensitizing acoustics.
What does space look like on this blog? Featureless squares. Windows and doors. Anonymous fonts. What does our space say about us? What content matches all this blankness?
The "blogosphere" - spherical, radial, more organic - is that where the radical comes in? In our connections despite the liminality, the limitations, of our form? Why do I hear this fear, this hesitation, to break out of this safebox, this box, this safe, this square, this imprisoning form, -- and comment on someone else's blog? Come on, take a baby step, I challenge you, everyone in the class (who hasn't already), comment on one other blog and post a link to your comments! Cherry-dipped foam-on-top double-dare ya!
Here is one of mine on Sivacracy.net. (Sivacracy rocks! We should all be posting a million posts there.)
---
“The Wild Iris” by Louise Gluck
At the end of my suffering
there was a door.
Hear me out: that which you call death
I remember.
Overhead, noises, branches of the pine shifting.
Then nothing. The weak sun
flickered over the dry surface.
It is terrible to survive
as consciousness
buried in the dark earth.
Then it was over: that which you fear, being
a soul and unable
to speak, ending abruptly, the stiff earth
bending a little. And what I took to be
birds darting in low shrubs.
You who do not remember
passage from the other world
I tell you I could speak again: whatever
returns from oblivion returns
to find a voice:
from the center of my life came
a great fountain, deep blue
shadows on azure sea water.
Blogs have a ton of potential for expanding classroom discussion. We didn't utilize the blog to its fullest possible imaginable (!) potential, but I think all we did added exponentially to the value of this class for me. I've always enjoyed classes where we can have this freer space to write-think. I don't know if the average student below junior level could make good use of this, but for the rest of us, yes.
I'm thinking about architecture and geographies and spaces ever since RSA plus hearing Kathleen Turner's Arnold Fox-winning paper this semester on "fourthspace" (a concept by NIU's own James Giles). The blockiness, the linearity, of this blog is so limiting and unorganic. I'd prefer a setup like the Huffington Post's homepage or something where blog posts had larger or greater sizes according to how much they were read/used. Something more open, more expandable, less cephalopodan (sorry: I now have all these fun metaphors I now use every chance I get).
Spatial relations. Thinking about space in modern psychological torture (Guantanamo, etc.). Thinking about that Austrian who imprisoned his daughter in his cellar for 24 years. Industrial cement. Bare-bones squares. Square trapdoors. Dark boxes. Pressure devices. Desensitizing acoustics.
What does space look like on this blog? Featureless squares. Windows and doors. Anonymous fonts. What does our space say about us? What content matches all this blankness?
The "blogosphere" - spherical, radial, more organic - is that where the radical comes in? In our connections despite the liminality, the limitations, of our form? Why do I hear this fear, this hesitation, to break out of this safebox, this box, this safe, this square, this imprisoning form, -- and comment on someone else's blog? Come on, take a baby step, I challenge you, everyone in the class (who hasn't already), comment on one other blog and post a link to your comments! Cherry-dipped foam-on-top double-dare ya!
Here is one of mine on Sivacracy.net. (Sivacracy rocks! We should all be posting a million posts there.)
---
“The Wild Iris” by Louise Gluck
At the end of my suffering
there was a door.
Hear me out: that which you call death
I remember.
Overhead, noises, branches of the pine shifting.
Then nothing. The weak sun
flickered over the dry surface.
It is terrible to survive
as consciousness
buried in the dark earth.
Then it was over: that which you fear, being
a soul and unable
to speak, ending abruptly, the stiff earth
bending a little. And what I took to be
birds darting in low shrubs.
You who do not remember
passage from the other world
I tell you I could speak again: whatever
returns from oblivion returns
to find a voice:
from the center of my life came
a great fountain, deep blue
shadows on azure sea water.
Editorial in Northern Star: Online file sharing is not a crime
I guess we somehow missed this editorial written by John Benson last week. He's responding to ITS's decision to disable Internet access for student file sharers if they see suspicious activity.
Some notables from John's editorial:
"In an environment where students share computers and set up ad hoc wireless networks for educational (and, let’s face it, gaming and entertainment) purposes, it’s not always easy to prove, exactly, who did what....
There are perfectly legitimate reasons one might transfer a lot of data for educational purposes, and I encourage students to investigate for themselves the Internet Archive and Creative Commons, where a plethora of information and digital media is freely available and freely distributed....
Suspending students from the network without concrete evidence that they’ve broken the law seems pretty bold to me. If I still lived in the residence halls, I’d be terrified. The absence of due process is scary indeed."
I couldn't have said it better. There have been no comments on the article on the Northern Star website. Leaving your thoughts there might help to spur discussion.
Some notables from John's editorial:
"In an environment where students share computers and set up ad hoc wireless networks for educational (and, let’s face it, gaming and entertainment) purposes, it’s not always easy to prove, exactly, who did what....
There are perfectly legitimate reasons one might transfer a lot of data for educational purposes, and I encourage students to investigate for themselves the Internet Archive and Creative Commons, where a plethora of information and digital media is freely available and freely distributed....
Suspending students from the network without concrete evidence that they’ve broken the law seems pretty bold to me. If I still lived in the residence halls, I’d be terrified. The absence of due process is scary indeed."
I couldn't have said it better. There have been no comments on the article on the Northern Star website. Leaving your thoughts there might help to spur discussion.
4/29/08
class blog
Being a new blogger, the role of the blog in this course has probably been different for me than for most of my classmates. The weekly posting requirement not only helped familiarize me with this blog but others as well. As for its specific role in this course, I used the reading responses to get a better understanding of the readings. And I used the various links (like the EFF link) to come up with an idea for my paper and to find information for my class presentation.
4/28/08
Coldplay follows in Radiohead's Footsteps
Coldplay will make available - free - for one week only their new track "Violet" starting tomorrow. The album is entitled "Viva." They also have two dates for free concerts. Why only one week? I thought the idea behind making free music was for fans who couldn't afford to attend concerts or download music. Back in the day, that was the meaning of free music. Accessing free music today means that fans are pirates and the band provides a small slice as a marketing tool.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)