Showing vs. Telling

As mentioned in class, our group has decided to create a commercial that satirizes everyone's worst fears regarding digital romances. Accordingly, we will be both showing and telling the testimonies of members of the e-Harmony site. That being said, I do believe that there are some cases where one (telling/showing) works better independent of the other; however, there are circumstances where when coupled together showing and telling makes a narrative so moving that it literally gives you goosebumps or stomach cramps from laughing so hard. The latter is what my group is going for. To achieve this we will video tape members telling their own testimonials (which could very interesting, raunchy, and just plain funny) and then show the interaction between the members and their new found "love interests" by bringing him or her into script as well.

Accordingly, whether the telling or showing is more advantageous will depend on our audience and which they prefer. Hopefully, by creating a digital narrative that does both we will be able to communicate our message to a larger audience.

Resources for digital romance

• video camera
  
• final cut pro
• iMovie
  

literacy in the new media age

I agree with Kress’s idea that the screen is becoming (has become?) a more potent medium than the page and that people are reshaping, remediating the look of the page to imitate the screen. Kress notes that “it is possible to see writing becoming subordinated to the logic of the visual in many or all of its uses,” and tries to refute three different objections to this claim. I find it hard to accept his refutations though. For example, he argues that most of the books currently being written and distributed are “collections of worksheets” whose aim is to “involve students in action around topics…”—in essence, not really books (7). Maybe I’m missing his point, but it seems like if you walk into any bookstore, you can see this is not really the case. Next, Kress implies that while “there is more writing than ever before,” that writing is done by “those who grew up in the era when writing was clearly the dominant mode” (7). In other words, young people are not the ones doing this writing. It seems quite the opposite to me. The digital age has made it so easy and appealing for young people to write, and many take advantage of the new digital media to express themselves politically, emotionally, culturally, etc. The writing may take a different form than traditional writing—blogs, fan fiction, instant messaging, e-mail, message boards, even posting comments on sites like myspace, facebook, youtube, etc.

Telling vs. Showing our Project

Today in class we discussed how our project will be a video comprised of movie clips, personal interviews, and statistics, all relating to online relationships. We hope to show the class the effects of online dating, how people percieve it, and what age range is most likely to use online dating.

When we show you our project, we hope to both entertain and inform you on this new era of online dating and relationships. The movies clips will help you realize how pop culture has taken hold of this phenomena and made into a money making venture. Also, the personal interviews will give a better insight into the way people percieve online relationships and if people actually think online dating is a valid way of forming new friendships.

As dicussed in our reading, the way things are presented helps with its effectiveness. By presenting our project in this "digital" way, rather than in a written paper for the class to read, hopefully people will be more prone to pay attention and form opinions on the topic we are discussing.

Access Media

Shaquette, Joni, and Morgan

The resources that we are going to use for the group will be Windows Movie Maker, Internet links and websites to find various commentaries, television to view the animated series (The Boondocks, Family Guy, and The Simpsons, and e-mail for group correspondence.

Resources

We have the following...

-movies; just got mail, must love dogs, because i said so
-video camera
-final cut pro

*may need a microphone

Chrissy, Molly, Candice, Cresswell

Ardi's Resources

I have a rediculous amount of software available because I own a graphic design business out of my home.

iMovie
iDVD
Macromedia Suite (Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks, etc.)
Adobe Creative Suite 2 (Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Acrobat professional)
Final Cut Pro (I think it's 8)

Just because I have all of this software doesn't mean I know how to use it. If anyone knows how to use Flash, I would love a basic tutorial.

Literacy In the New Media Age (1-34)

Although this reading was slightly confusing, I was able to decipher a few points that interested me. First off, the author seemed to understand the importance of language and its use in writing, but he seemed to think that books and other written texts would soon be totally overshadowed by digital texts. For example, he seems to think that books will become unimportant as the digital era continues to grow. People now seem to focus their learning on how to communicate on the computer, etc, rather than on paper.

I guess you could relate this to the idea of "literacy" as we have discussed in class. The author would most likely support the idea that literacy is now becoming a more broad term, because it now has to include literacy of the "digital means" rather than just reading and writing.

This reading was very in depth but hopefully I will have a more clear response after our class discussion of this material.

Literacy in the New Media

I felt Kress was trying to stress that as we move into a more digital society, we must still stress the importance of writing and language. Digital literacy is changing the way we teach our children, and the way they learn. As different cultures have adapted the alphabet, we must adapt our teaching of writing and language to the new digital culture.

Remediation (1-34) and Digital Narrative

Well, I'll agree with everyone else in saying this reading was certainly more philosophical than I imagined something about technology would be. But that irony goes along with the message that B&G are trying to get from us. Much of what the authors are discussing is the progress of media towards reality. To do this we must define what reality is, which turns out to be an interesting philosophical argument. The reading is dense but the way the authors go about the subject is appropriate. I thought the sentence on page 24 was very interesting: the authors write "the computer so far surpasses other technologies... that the history of earlier media has little relevance." This is so until further and inevitable, according to the authors, remediation of the computer itself. I thought the authors constructed very vivd examples of remediation. For instance, the movement from camera obscura, to manual camera, to digital camera is a good example of transparency. In theory, the basis of something as simple as a camera obscura is enough to base thousands of years of increased technology to replicate this archaic form of photorealism.


My example of a digital narrative is...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGtmOyhq_mY
(A sad ending, I know)

Response to Literacy in the New Media Age (1-34)

In summarizing the selection of text from Literacy in the New Media Age, I would say that it is basically explaining how the medium of book is being replaced by the medium of screen, which is a shorthand term for new communication and information technologies. Also, the mode of writing is changing to the mode of image which means when an image is placed with text; the image is now vastly more important than the text. Transformations in mediums and modes is because of social, economical, communicational, and technological changes. Since messages are now being transmitted by images, the definition of the word literacy should change accordingly to accommodate this idea. Though books and writing are being taken over by others forms, they will always be present because they offer something unique that can't ever truly be replaced the the scree, music, images, soundtracks, etc.

Literacy in the New Media Age Response

Reading this passage was a little confusing. I found his definition of literacy--"term to use when we make messages using letters as the means of recording that message"--very different from the definitions we developed in class. He excludes other types of familiarity with media as types of "literacy" since literacy includes the idea of language. He defines language specifically as the use of the alphabet. He talks about the different use of the alphabet when combined with images or screens.

I thought it was really interesting that the world "literacy" doesn't exist in many languages--that it is unique to our social context. Why do other societies not include the idea of literacy when it comes to digital media?

a small stone in a wide river

I agree with April that the material was pretty dense. And I found it ironic that Kresser states that academic writing will start to disappear, yet continues to use what can easily only be described as "highly complex sentence syntax." However, in the midst of the verbosity, Kresser makes some good points. So, though it might not be what I was supposed to get out of it, I focused on one line in the third chapter. This struck me as particularly interesting (in light of the project that we have chosen to work on) can be found on page 17 when he notes that:

“Before, the power to produce messages for dissemination in the public domain lay with the few who had access to and control of the media for disseminating messages.”

This line called to mind our project about laptops being distributed in underdeveloped countries and the another group’s project about blogs done by women in the Middle East. But I wonder how it makes a difference what language is dominant to the technologies that are available. And how does that affect literacy?

Digital Narrative Example

I'm still not 100% sold on what digital literacy or a digital narrative are, but hopefully these links are examples of the narrative.

This link is about a day without the Burger King Whopper.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epsgsfuIN4Y&feature=related

This link is the Facebook parody of eHarmony. Julie gets credit for showing me this and making me almost cry from laughter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHi-ZcvFV_0

Literacy in the New Media Age pp. 1-34

To be frank, this reading made me dizzy. I'm not sure if it was how the author kept using 's' in words where 'z' should be, if the information was dry, if I was just exhausted, or if it was a combination of all the above. At any rate, I somewhat got the gist of what he was trying to say.

He brings up interesting points about the importance of language and the discrepancy of how it is used and understood across various cultural and global groups. He also talked extensively about tone. Specifically, I found it interesting how he describes that people who write in Spanish place a question mark at the beginning of the sentence to alert the reader that the following sentence should be read or understood as a question. I took Spanish for years and never considered the idea that this punctuation placement could have been done for the purposes of literacy or comprehension. I look forward to the conversation in class to clarify my assumptions about this reading. Hopefully, my conclusions are not too far off base.

Ardi's Digital Narrative Links

1. Game Stop commercial featuring Guild Wars:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMB3xw-annc

2. Red v. Blue Commercial (Game Stop)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h8Lb4pxNm0&feature=related

3. Red v. Blue Archive - This is my main example of a digital narrative. A couple of guys got together and decided to make an "animated" series using scenes they shot from the popular video game Halo. If you are unfamiliar with Halo, here's a quick run down: The current incarnation of this game is Halo 3 for xbox 360. Almost no one plays this game as the solo first person shooter it intends to be. Instead, most players utilize the online capabilities of the xbox 360 and play against each other. You can get into teams and play against each other. The series is kind of a parody of this game, which fits in with our group project because we are making a mockumentary of online games and online chat rooms.
http://rvb.roosterteeth.com/archive/

Timeline for Avatar Group

Timeline - Avatars Anonymous (Jennifer Salane, Sarah Stone, Ardi Alspach)

Sunday, January 27, 2008 - Group meeting at Jittery Joe’s

Tuesday, January 29, 2008 - Group meeting at Jittery Joe’s

Thursday, January 31, 2008 – Proposal Due

Sunday, February 10, 2008 (afternoon) - Group meeting at Ardi's House (compile "data")

Thursday, February 14, 2008 - First Draft Due

Sunday, February 17, 2008 (evening) - Group meeting at Ardi’s House (revise draft of project)

Thursday, February 21, 2008 - Final Draft Due

Sunday, February 24, 2008 (evening) - Group meeting at Jittery Joe’s (revise project if needed)

Tuesday, February 26, 2008- Final Project Due

Ardi's Response to Remediation

I guess I have a different perspective on this book because I used it as the jumping off point for my thesis. It seems weird to me that it has been almost two years since I graduated from MAPC, but it was really nice to go back and revisit the ideas I felt very strongly about as a student.

The core idea in my thesis dealt with the idea of helping the book evolve. The book itself has not changed much since the invention of the printing press, whereas other media have evolved at almost lightning speed in comparison. With the advent of the internet and with the advancement of computer technologies, a lot of scholars seem to be proclaiming that print is dead. I would rather say that print is not dead; it's just in a coma.

If we've been applying these ideas of remediation to all of the other media that exists, why can't we apply it to the book and to the printed page? My boyfriend (a graduate of the Graphic Communications program) went to a seminar where they talked about printing with light. If we have these amazing technologies, why aren't we seriously considering the evolution of the printed page? I'm not thinking of things like hand-held reading devices like the new Kindle on Amazon.com. I'm thinking of the refashioning of the pages themselves. People like the tangibility of the printed page, so let's make it something better. J.K. Rowling imagined a world where images photographs moved, and newspaper text continuously replaced itself on the page. I don't believe that the technology is beyond us. I believe that the book has been left behind in the excitement for other, "newer" media like the internet and the iPhone.

Remediation, as I see it, is learning from one technology to make another, more improved technology. It's all evolution. Take, for example, radio and tv. TV in it's earliest form was basically the audience being able to watch the radio announcers. TV then took that idea and ran with it. Now tv has also remediated other media in some instances. CNN reminds us of the front page of a major newspaper like USA Today because it has several different areas all with things going on simultaneously. This should also remind you of the frenetic, multitasking style of the internet. I feel like all of this has caused people to change and have shorter attention spans, but it could be the other way around as well. People are getting shorter and shorter attention spans, so now media has to keep up by giving us 5 minute bursts of information and then moving on to other things. Maybe this is why the book has been left behind. No one has the patience for it anymore.

Internet Speed at Jittery Joe's

My internet has been out at my house for a couple of days, so I decided to do the internet speed at Jittery Joe's.

Download speed: 1970 kbps
Upload speed: 303 kbps

I know we were supposed to do this before Tuesday, so I am sorry I am late. I wanted to do this assignment because I was really curious about how I added up to the rest of the world.

I have Northland Cable internet, and I would like to add how upset I am that local cable companies like this have a monopoly over cable internet service in the rural areas. My parents also have this problem where they live. Northland Cable has extremely bad customer service, but their internet service is at least faster than DSL. Not only should the united states have faster internet like the other countries, but there should be the ability to choose who you can get cable service from.

Literacy in the New Media Age response

While I was reading pages 1-34 of Literacy in the New Media Age, I noticed that Kress asked a lot of questions that were not always answered. The question that stuck out the most to me was on page 22, “Is the imagination that rests on word different to the imagination that rests on image?” Although I have taken Kress’ definition of literacy into consideration, I do not necessarily agree with it. I am going to attempt to answer this question to try and make sense of what I think literacy is and how words and images can work together.
As far as words and images are concerned, I think that imagination and interpretation are alive in both. When you read a book you think to yourself what the characters look like and what situations they are faced with happen. Although with images presented we sometimes have different interpretations, some images are not all they seem on the surface. Take a picture for instance. When you look at a still-life picture, especially one you did not take, you can create in your mind what you think was going on when the picture was taken, especially if the image portrays a person making a silly face or a sad face. Although you do not have to imagine what the person in the picture looks like, your imagination is still very much alive.
As technology improves, we need to realize that literacy is not just about reading words. Even if you are confronted with an image that has an intended purpose, what you think and imagine about the image will be true to you. The same has happened in the past with poems and novels.

Internet Speed-Megan

Although this may be surprising to many of my classmates, I do not have internet access at my apartment. I usually either come to campus to use the internet or attempt to pick up a wireless signal.

Group Proposal

Proposal

Group Members: Mackenzie Crowe, Mike Dehart, Meredith McGrew, Jenny Conard

1. Subject/ focus—Our project focus will be how digital literacy affects women in the Middle East and specifically women expressing themselves through the anonymity of blogs.

2. Treatment (what media, perspective, and approach you will use)

Media—film (5 minutes?), blogs, images, clips, political quotes

Perspective—as much as possible through the eyes of these particular women bloggers and how they see their world.

Approach—We hope to use real blogs, images, first-hand accounts, and historical progression of digital expression in the Middle East.

3. Technology specifications including the software you will use to create the project

-Nero 7 Software—a movie maker software.

-Digital Camcorder

4. Identification of tasks and division of labor (if the project is collaborative)

Mackenzie—Social significance of online expression and finding blogs of women

Mike Dehart—finding software/researching technology to produce film

Meredith McGrew—locating images (of women in the Middle East, of digital technology in the ME, progression of influence of technology)

Jenny Conard—researching historical and especially political background of conservative and liberal movements in the ME in the past century, how technology is accepted.

5. Timeline including each major task and when it will be completed

Week 1 - proposal finished, research assigned materials (photos, blogs,
video clips, persepolis, etc.), meet together to get a general idea
thursday - discuss in class when to meet next, start a semblance of an
idea for how to put everything together

Week 2 - Begin working on the video, organizing photo, quotes, etc. for
the presentation. Meet together to get some serious work done on this part
as it will probably take up the most time.

Week 3 - Editing, fixing problems that may arise within our work. Make
sure it all ties in closely to digital literacy. All this should be done
by the 21st in order to submit the product to the class.

Week 4 - Polishing mistakes after presenting it to the class for
consideration and critique.

26th of Feb - All of this must be done and submitted for grading.

Internet Speed and Reading

Internet Speed on campus at Clemson (Lightsey Bridge):
download results: 1312 kbps
upload results: 1478 kbps

Remediation concerns the creation of new media by basing it on the old. My favorite example from the reading is the one relating the concept of remediation to encyclopedias. One year, my grandparents bought a set of Britannica encyclopedias for me and my sister. By the following year, the same books were collecting dust and we used the Encarta encyclopedia disk that came with out Macintosh because it was newer (although the same information was found in the books).

On a side note, the sections on immediacy and transparency reminded me of the 3-D attractions at theme parks. The designers do a great job of persuading the audience that it has an active role in the media. They even use prompts such as moving floors, spraying water at the viewers, and having the characters talk directly to the audience. When you think about it, 3-D theme park attractions really aren't very different from Shakespeare's plays and actors/actresses in the plays, especially when narrators were used. The narrators talked directly to the audience just as characters in the 3-D theme park movies typically do.

need a new group

I have a very unyielding schedule and will not be able to work with the group I initially chose. Do any other groups have an opening for someone who can contribute from a distance? I can do all the work necessary, I just need to be able to do it from home for the most part. My email address is septembercarrie@yahoo.com and Thank you!

Literacy in New Media

The reading from the book Literacy in New Media (pgs 1-34) didn't really provide me with a lot of information that I didn't already know, but rather it reiterated and further validated the importance of change and progress. The reading dealt primarily with the importance of literacy (in numerous forms) in the 21st century. I found the commentary regarding literacy to be worthy of assent because we live in a digital society now. In my opinion, it is no longer the case that we have a digital world (i.e. Second Life) that is separate from our "real world." Now it seems as though these two worlds have become entangled in the other. We see so much of our real world influencing the digital worlds in which we engage. Similarly, the digital world has played a substantial role in the evolution of so much that is happening in present day society. Indeed, the two worlds are becoming one. For this reason, it is important that all people have the opportunity for success in both realms. This means that just as we are trained as young children on how to live and adapt to what's going in the real world, we must also be trained as young children on how to live and adapt in the digital world. It is no longer enough to be literate in one and not the other. If we are going to have our voices heard we have to be able to exercise the mediums in which to transmit our messages (i.e. books, blogs, e-mail, youtube, etc.).

Timeline Including each Major Task

We hope to start conducting interviews by January 31st, and have that finished by or before Feb. 14. The search and cutting of film clips will be started by Feb. 8, and will be completed by Feb. 14. The research statistics should be started by the 9th of February and finished by the 14th of February. Lastly, the editing will beging Feb. 15 and be finished by Feb. 24. By sticking to this timeline, we hope to have the project completed by the 26th of February.

Group Members: Molly, Candice, Chrissy, and Creswell

Links for discussion of remediation

The Digital Divide (Google Video)

YouTube debate question

Bell Sympatico Throttles Access (YouTube)

Internet Speed and Comment on Reading

At my house the internet speed is:
Download 367kbps
Upload 116kbps

Kress says "Images are plain full of meaning, whereas words wait to be filled." I hadn't ever thought of words in this way. In fact, as an English major, I have have always thought the complete opposite of this statement because words hold so much meaning in my mind. They are what create images in my mind. Someone can say one word or an author can perfectly place a word in a sentence and a perfect image fills my mind of what is being conveyed. What is arguable about this is that not everyone has the same 'image' when reading a particular word or phrase, but I would argue that this is the beauty of language. An image may be 'plain full of meaning' but what if this meaning isn't the one that you specifically want your viewer to come away with? What then? Do you tweak the image or try to find one that fills your specific need? These questions raised by an image that is supposedly 'full of meaning' are what will keep me fully satisfied with using words to paint the picture.

Internet Speed - Mackenzie

My internet speed for here in Clemson is...

Download Time : 1957 kbps
Upload Time : 122 kbps

Defining Remediation

In my opinion, not only does remediation deal with the ever-unfolding evolution of media and technology, but also in its evolution toward an ideal which the book refers to as a "wire." A wire that directly transfers experiences and sensations (think Willy Wonka's television that you can take chocolate bars out of) to your self.

I think I will also continue on the newspaper path that others in the class have discussed. It is a great example of remediation. Newspapers used to be known for being on-top of all the newest news and happenings around the world. Now newspapers seem almost archaic in that one must wait an entire day for the breaking stories. To change that, TV news developed in which you could get the news twice a day. Now TV has remediated so much that news comes on up to 5 times a day on certain channels and can break into other programs if significant events happen that the viewer will want to know about. Now, to top even television, we have the web. One can get instant updates whether wirelessly or emailed to their phones to inform themselves of any late breaking story. Remediation here shows how instantly and necessary it is for technology to redefine itself so that a person can have a near-"wired" experience. We see the journey of digital literacy move to a place where it is essentially an addition to the body and it will keep evolving that way until that ideal is achieved.

Digital Narrative

I am pretty sure this is what you mean by a narrative. This is Rudy Gay of the Memphis Grizzlies' story about the slam dunk contest. Enjoy!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=N3FbX-17iOY

the internet, eh?

The first time I did the test, after downloading the updated software that took forever, I got results in the 300s for both numbers. My apartment complex claims to have high-speed wireless but it's never consistent. As a matter fact, in order to type this, I'm in the furthest corner of my apartment because it's the best, and often only, place to get a signal. The second time I scored:

Download: 1240kbps
Upload: 394 kbps

I'm not really surprised about Japan or Germany but I can't believe Canada is kicking our butts!

Defining Remediation

In accordance to the reading and text, I interpret remediation to mean the evolution of media in all forms. In understanding this concept you can just examine how newspapers have evolved into news casts and now into online news websites. All three mediums relay the same information, but in different forms and show the evolving of the news genre in general. This concept is greatly affected by the advancement in technologies, especially regarding the example of above. Only through the advancement of technology can users be given the opportunity to have digital literacy and other advanced forms of mediums.

As users and benefactors of this concept, remediation is quiet widespread. If we look at how books and novels of our childhood are becoming movies or how our letter-writing has turned into email, then we can attest to remediation’s very prominent role. I look at the childhood book collection of the Chronicles of Naranja and how it has been turned into a movie series. If we take into account these instances, we would be able to understand how we are living in a time of remediation.

Internet Speed Results- Molly

For my area code here in Clemson, here were the results:
Download- 23245 kbps
Upload- 11328 kbps

Remediation

Remediation is an interesting concept and one that is so natural. In order to make a new medium accessible, one often must incorporate the old medium. It made sense to me when Bolter & Gruisin provided the example at the beginning of the first chapter of Renaissance paintings, to photographs, to motion pictures. We can even expand their example past the Renaissance to include cave paintings and hieroglyphics and then past film to include graphic designs and special effects created through computer software.

Remediation of books has been taking place for almost as long as pictures. I just recently saw the Book of Kells which was written on calfskin, so one could argue that books became remediated when paper was invented. Then the paperback book was designed, though it didn't make hardback books obsolete. Then the stories were recorded on records, cassette tapes (and maybe even 8-track tapes, though I don't remember), and CDs. Now we can read e-books on our PDAs or online. We can even download audiobooks from the internet to our MP3 players. But still, traditional books have not become outdated. We just have more options of how we want to "read" them.

My Interpretation of Remediation

After reading the introduction to our text, I tried to develop a simplified understanding of remediation. To me, remediation is the ever evolving media and the reaction of old media. For example, new media is constantly being created, even by mixing different forms, but old media stays the same and is just covered over by this "new" media.

One instance that was kind of touched on in the book, was that of the news. There is always something new to report about, but now there are different ways to report it. You used to just be able to read the newspaper, then came the tv news channels, and now the internet is a prevalent way to read about the news.

Remediation is a term that is always changing. Remediation used to cover only old forms of media, but as we continue to discover new forms, the old forms become less prevalent, and the new forms of media begin to dominate.

Directions for tomorrow

This is a duplicate of the email instructions, so if you got that, you can disregard.

In preparation for tomorrow's class, please test your internet speed, using this link, http://www.speedmatters.org/ at wherever you currently reside, and post your results here (on the weblog.) We'll be using your results in our discussion tomorrow. See you then!

T. F.

Political Cartoon Narration

Digital Narration Project: Suggested Deadline- Feb 28^th

Project Focus: Bringing awareness to the political influence that animated shows/cartoon have on the American public.

v Showing the evolution of newspaper editorial cartoon to animated series

v Contrast and comparison of animated shows and news commentary

The research is split up as followed

Joni H. The Simpson

Shaquette D. Family Guy

Morgan S. Boondocks

Possible Video Formatting Ideas:

v Sequential older (older to newer shows)

v Sequencing based on political issue time frames

Project Timeline

January 28^th: Have individual episode and decision chosen

February 5^th: Choose the commentary to match with particular cartoon episode and issue

February 11^th: Formatting, video creations and creating video transitions

"nope, just regular type"

Here's a fun example of digital narrative. It can't really be described as a film and it's a little different than a regular cartoon. I also enjoy how the text sometimes matches the audio and sometimes doesn't.

Digital narrative example

Below is the link to a very powerful narrative of African American civil rights workers and elected officials as they recall the scorn and brutality of racial discrimination This narrative shares their personal experiences in winning the right to vote and share political power.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKioXciDy3Q

Digital Narrative Ex.

Here is another my example, it deals with my groups online dating project. It is another dating website reviewing match.com....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAjo2xqFDrE

Definition of Remediation

According to our reading I took remediation to be a process that shows media undergoing a change. It is when media changes as a result of being blended or mixed with other forms of media. In other words it can be defined as the combination of different variations of digital media to achieve a better form of media that essentially gets across the same point, if not a better one.

The example that really helped me see the definition clearly was the example about music and how it evolves. I think another example would be facebook. It started out as a simple tool to get to know classmates and people at your college. Now it has countless applications that allow you to befriend high schoolers, pick drinking buddies, send gifts, hand out superlatives or even compare yourself to a Disney character! Facebook was a perfect media outlet, then more media outlets were added on. It is still used for the same purpose, just kicked up a few notches.

Digital Narrative Example

Below is an example of a digital narrative similar to that of which my group (digital romance) will be doing. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-6qbSqfHAw

Remediation is the development of media through the use of new and old technologies: “New media refashions prior media forms.” With every new form of media technology, the transmitting time gets closer and closer to being instantaneously. The history of paintings, photographs, and then graphics on online is a perfect example of remediation. These are all different forms of media and that were essentially influenced by each other in order to achieve a product of “instant gratification.”

Proposed Timeline

Digital Romance: Working Timeline

Week 1 (1/28 - 2/3)
proposal/research
Week 2 (2/4 - 2/10)
script/casting
Week 3 (2/11 - 2/17)
filming/editing
Week 4 (2/18 -2/24)
presentation

Remediation

Remediation, as described by Bolter and Grusin, is the principle that old media and familiar genres end up as the content of new media. Bolter and Grusin further their discussion of media describing it as both an art and as a means of transmitting information.

An example of something that has been remediated is AOL instant messenger (aim). Aim started off as a simple way to communicate, via text, in a ping pong exchange with your friends. Aim has evolved, however, to provide its members with the capability to participate in a communicative exchange via text, video, and audio. Additionally, it allows its members to exchange files and pictures directly from the instant messenger box.

Example of Digital Narrative

I was looking for very creative items and this caught my attention. I love how the artist incorporates the different forms of visuals and animations. The music seems to fit very well with the actual video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqNSd-x1yEs

Here is my digital narrative... I rarely ever go on sites like Utube or others like it, but this skit "The Landlord" is my one and only exception. I hope I'm doing this right!

remediation

Remediation, as Bolter and Grusin present it, is the evolution that media undergoes as it re-contextualizes and then incorporates other forms of media. Bolter and Grusin discuss media as art and media as a means of transmitting information, and in both they suggest that remediation offers a way to experiment with the immediacy and transparency of the medium since we value instant communication and an “immediate relationship to the contents of that medium” (24).

An example of something that has been remediated is the novel or story. Before the printing press, stories were shared orally, and now we have digital “books” in the form of hyperfiction that sort of refashion the way the text is presented and the way the story develops. Where printed books have clear cues about where to start, how the book is structured (pages, chapters, sections) and how to follow the story from the beginning to the end, hyperfiction as it is presented to the reader one page at a time, eliminates this structure of beginning and end, pages and chapters. Instead small portions of the story are connected through hyperlinks, and the story develops differently depending on which link the reader chooses to follow. Hyperfiction allows the author to incorporate images, sounds, videos, etc. in order to tell the story.

digital narrative link

I'm not really sure I understood the assignment; I thought I had to have my narrative posted or a link to it, but I followed a few links and figured it out. This movie was made for a class last semester by one of my classmates; it's a light-hearted look at the life of an action figure through a digital lens.

digital narrative example

Silver Bells and Golden Spurs

This is a short film that was created in Second Life, and the premise of the story/narration is based on a poem. I thought this was interesting especially in terms of the Bolter & Grusin reading. It certainly represents a refashioning, a remediation of the idea of a movie. And because the scenery, characters, etc are animated representations, this also speaks to the idea of transparency that B & G referenced over and over again.



Victory Garden

This is a sampling of the hyperfiction piece Victory Garden by Stuart Moulthrop. It is basically an interactive story that allows the reader to navigate through the story’s pages by clicking on different words and phrases that are hyperlinked. There is no real beginning or end to the story, and because there are so many different paths and different links, the story unfolds differently for everyone who reads it. This is such a departure from our traditional notion of a story or a narrative because it is impossible to know the exact structure of Victory Garden.

Example of Digital Narrative on CNN

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/ptech/08/01/digital.everywhere/index.html

This is a website/story on cnn about the changing digital world, in which you can click on links and/or photos to learn about how digital technology affects your world. It tells the narrative of how digital technology changes our day-to-day living.

Remediation Definition and Example

Remediation is the constant process of combining and dividing different mediums that creates endless possibilities to express the same original media. According to Bolter and Grusin, this includes both the process of making the media transparent as well as the knowledge of the multi-facets of the medium you are using.

The example of rock music used in the text on page 42 was especially helpful in understanding the paradox. Rock music began with the goal to seem as "authentic" or live as possible. Therefore, they tried make the recording media as transparent as possible. In this effort, rock music began to make the progression to appreciate the art of digital music--despite its "unnatural" sound.

The example that seemed to make the most sense to me was the iPhone. The progression of music and communication media have changed and reformed until they have the capacity to combine these two media, meanwhile acknowledging the divisions each menu and its function on the iPhone.

Digital narrative link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l68fzs8-JI8

this digital narrative is a mocumentary on a guy who can't find love.

Remediation

The simplest definition, in my opinion, for remediation is it is the evolution of media forms. Media changes as culture and technology changes and thus it must evolve and grow with the changes that are occurring around it.
Something that has been remediated [although it might seem like a bit of a stretch initially, but stay with me] is the telegram. It was used extensively to send news and communication between to points of distance. The telegram sped the communication time-gap that usually elapsed between writing a letter and actually sending it. The way that the telegram has been remediated is by changing how the information is now being exchanged and the different 'programs' that are used to do so. Instead of having telegraph machines, we now have computers that allow us to send the messages to each other directly as opposed to having a 'middle man' [or machine if you will. Secondly, we have the internet that allows us to send the information with little to no delay of time, even if the information is being sent to another country. Lastly, the main devices that are utilized to send the information are email and instant message. This is how [with a wide scope] we can see how the telegram has been remediated.

Digital Narrative example

At the site http://www.glasswings.com.au/modern/shapes/, Katherine Phelps diagrams the many forms a digital narrative can take ("Story Shapes for Digital Media"), and in so doing, creates a digital narrative of her own. Various links connect the reader with such narrative models as linear, interactive, multi-linear, braided multi-linear, nested funnel, tree-branching, nonlinear and others.

The piece was written for Glass Wings, an Australian online art/lit review that focuses on using technology to promote "material of a positive and joyous nature."

Digital Narratives

I Miss You-Incubus Animation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHK8bphm4Vg
This is an animated video that goes along with the Incubus song "I Miss You." It tells the story of a boy and girl who are in love and from the way it seems at the end, she passes away and he is left alone. The song though is intended for the lead singer, Brandon Boyd's girlfriend at the time. I thought this video was an interesting take on the song.

Debate ’08: Obama Girl vs Giuliani Girl
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekSxxlj6rGE
This is a video in which the girls sing about Obama and Giuliani discussing some of their political views.

Hillary vs Obama
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqOHquOkpaU
This is a guy and a girl discussing Hillary and Obama's political views, but it is very funny at the end.

The Exorcism of Britney Spears by Mike Huckabee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ss2wte2s_E
I think the title pretty much speaks for itself. This video talks about how Britney Spear's needs some Jesus and Huckabee is the man to give Jesus to her.

R.I.P. Heath Ledger
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH0se1jvcDA
This is a tribute to Heath Ledger, but shows him as an actor, in the spotlight, and as a family man.

I Miss You-Incubus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rubW_4EPD_s
This is a compilation of pictures and words set to the song "I Miss You" and it says that it is for Cloe.

Bolter and Grusin

Remediation is the changing of media that also incorporates the old media. This can happen by books being made into movies and paintings being posted on the Internet. An example that jumped into my mind almost immediately was how paper letter writing has transformed into email. With email you can also send pictures, which can also be included in an envelope with a paper letter, but emails can also contain graphics and sound. Therefore, the use of email has incorporated the purposes and uses of paper letter writing, but has been made even better because of the graphics and sounds that emails may contain.
Remediation has changed in the way that different media have changed. Remediation began with people painting stories from the Bible and making the ceilings of buildings, like churches, seem to continue through the paintings. As remediation continued, we have seen books being made into movies, print journals being transferred into electronic journals, paper card catalogs in libraries being only accessible online, being able to look at paintings by Picasso all in one place online, and being able to listen to Beethoven's best work online all in one place, or even on one compact disc. Although the types of remediation have changed, it continues to be the changing of media that incorporates the old media.

Anymore open groups?

Hey everyone,
I was wondering if any groups still have room. I couldn't find a group on Monday, but a lot of people weren't there so I was wondering if anyone still had room in a group for me? My project interests are pretty broad, but anything focusing on digital communication would be fun. Let me know. Thanks everyone.

-Mike DeHart
dehart@clemson.edu

Defining Literacy and Narrative Project

Sorry I just now figured out how to use this! But I've had this posted elsewhere for awhile...

In class, we were asked to form groups of three and come up with some ideas as to what the definition of "literacy" means. We came up with a few ideas. For example, we decided that literacy does not strictly apply to the ability to read. One can be literate in almost innumerable ways. One of the important parts of literacy that we decided upon in our groups is comprehension, or what one does with information that one gathers. Other than the ability to read, literacy can encompass things such as being able to communicate efficiently with others. In a way, literacy is a way of communication among your peers in that it is essential to be able to understand and interpret the things going on around oneself in order to be an effective communicator. Literacy may also deal with interpreting symbols whether in literature or life. It is inseparable from the ability of a person to analyze information, digest it, and incorporate it correctly. It seemed clear to our group that literacy could not be easily defined as a page to face translation, but rather it goes farther into the ability to analyze and comprehend not only in literature but also in communication, symbols, and life.

Group members include: Mackenzie Crowe, Jenny Conard, and Joni Hoke


Narrative Project:
In my narrative project, I want to do something that relates to the societal changes that occur within some specific subgroup of people that actually effect the society as a whole. As more people become more digitally literate, their society changes along of it. For example, the Italians are known for their lack of technology, and as they become more progressive and knowledgeable in this area, their government and economy evolves as well. I would just enjoy capturing the evolution of a people or subsect through their direct relation with technology.

Knowing Someone Solely Through Digital Literacy

Vanessa Reinarz, Sharon Reese, and myself (Anneliese Reid) would like to take a stab at doing a project that deals with knowing someone or getting to know someone solely through their digital literacy skills. We aren't going to be focusing so much on facebook and myspace because there is already a group dealing with a project via myspace and facebook. We thought we would focus more on the online dating sites that are out there now.

There are many dating service websites besides Eharmony.com. There have even been commericals released lately that claim that not all of the applicants to Eharmony.com are accepted. What other dating sites are out there and what is the criteria to post a "resume" on these sites. Why are some people getting turned away and some people accepted? Does it have to do with their knowledge of Digital Literacy?

We want to focus on the idea of knowing someone purely in an online space. We also want to examine the prospective interest each different type of person generates and if the number of people interested in each person has anything to do with how Digitally Literate the person is.

Each group member will be responsible for doing considerable amounts of research on different dating sites. We will assign different sites to different people. For example Anneliese would research Eharmony.com and Match.com

We are interested in making an online dating profile (a mock up) on each of the sites. Each one will be different and we will see which of them generate the most attention and examine why. Our project is still in the early phases of preparation. This is just our beginning ideas so we had something to post before tonight. We plan to meet before class on Thursday to go into much more detail and add on to this post by then.

Facebook/myspace culture

Our group, Julie Ledbetter, Susan Collins, April Davis, and Diana Thrasher, will propose a project based on the facebook/myspace community, and how important these sites are to people. These “communities” have experienced a recent explosion in popularity. We will look at the amount of time people spend on these sites, and the impact the content of their pages potentially have on their personal and professional lives.

We anticipate doing a video where we will use interviews, and observe actual facebook/myspace users. The point is to explore these communities and the various aspects of this growing culture that makes them thrive, and the impact both positive and negative they may have on various users in relation to digital literacy.

The jobs for the project include interviewing actual users, observing users as they are logged into the program, independent research on the subject, putting the research in a video format, and editing the material.

It was decided we will all conduct independent research, and then decide if we will work collaboratively on each step, or assign individual duties.

Avatars

Jennifer Salane, Sarah Stone, and I (Ardi) will be working on a project that will tell the stories of various online avatars within different contexts. Sarah will create an avatar in Yahoo chat, Jennifer will create an avatar in Second Life, and I will create an avatar in the online game City of Heroes/Villains.

We will follow the "lives" of each avatar in a documentary style souped-up slide show. We will each write a background story for our avatars and use those backgrounds to direct the interactions that happen in our respective communities. We will also give a summary or background information about each of the communities in which our avatars exist. We will also discuss the specific language using practices of each community. The point is to explore the relationships that develop in each community and compare and contrast those relationships and how each online community and each avatar affects the relationships that happen.

Each member of the group will be responsible for gathering the images, chat text, and any other relevant information that deals with her own avatar. As a group, we will compile the information into our digital documentary. I have all of the software we might need to use on my home computer, so we will have to meet at my house to put everything together.

To the anonymous person who asked to be in my group: If you haven't found a group yet, please email me (shadowraven13@gmail.com).

Edit: Carrie Kolb, the anonymous person, emailed me, and she would like to join our group. This would put us at 4 members, but she plays a different online role playing game than I do, and I think she would fit in really well with our project concept. If she joins our group, she would be creating and documenting the life of an avatar in the game World of Warcraft.

Each member already has some experience in the communities in which we plan to create our avatars except for Sarah, but her lack of experience in chatting can have an interesting affect on how she is received by others online.

Need a group

I would like to work on the online gaming communities. I was not in class this morning, and I don't know how else to contact anyone except to post a request. Ardi, I read your ideas and I'd like to work with you if you have a group to focus on the gaming communities. Thanks!

Something new is something better?

We'll (Megan Boyce and Kerry Gomer) explore the $100 laptop project and its potential effects on the people the project is aimed to help. The medium we'll use to present our narrative will be a multi-media PowerPoint or movie. The point is to look at whether providing third world countries with a technology we value is an imposition or an improvement. Megan will be researching materials from her Global Communications class and Kerry will be gathering information about the laptop project, as well as organizing it into the final format.

We would also welcome a third group member if anyone else is interested!

Political Issues in Animated Series

Our group, Morgan Simmons, Shaquette Drayton, and Joni Hoke, will be doing a project based on cartoons/animated series that feature political and social issues. Some of those shows include, Futurama, Family Guy, The Boondocks, and South Park. We will also look at how newspaper editorial cartoons evolve into animated series. Our goal is to produce a movie with elements of song incorporated. We will also make the public aware of the political and social influences these shows have.

The jobs for the project include researching the different animated shows to find political and social issues and messages, finding matching news commentaries, putting the research (clips) in a movie format, and editing the material.

Because everyone was not able to attend class, we did not assign tasks to anyone as of yet.
We will shortly.

Modern Middle Eastern Women

Mackenzie Crowe and Jenny Conard--and anyone else who may want to join us.

Our group project will be telling the narrative of oppressed modern Middle Eastern women who use digital literacy to express themselves anonymously in order to tell their own story in a society that doesn’t acknowledge their voice.

We will be trying to convince people that digital literacy has allowed this specific group to have a global voice for the first time in history.

Our group, Mackenzie Crowe and Jenny Conard (and someone else if they want to join us), will be doing a video using real blogs of real women in the Middle East as well as photographs and background information. Jenny will be in charge of finding the blogs and Mackenzie will be in charge of researching the history of this group. Both of us will collaborate to find images and film.

Dr. Fishman, I am in class and some people in here helped me set up my web blog account! I was really confused! sorry! I am posting now- I think what a good topic would be going along with some others would be the two different lives that are formed one being your own and the other would be a other life on the internet! The other would be dealing with college students. It seems like they know more about facebook and myspace than they do about blackboard (and ofcourse weblog haha) sorry so late, as you can tell i am not DIGITAL LITERATE! Sarah Stone

Project: Relationships on the Internet
Group: Molly White, Candice Harper, and Chrissy Dombrowski

1. Our focus is to study the relationship aspects involved with programs such as facebook, myspace, eharmony, etc.

2. We would like to show everyone how you can meet people and establish relationships with them on the internet, but people can be widely misconstrued. For example, you may think you know someone really well, but in actuality they have a different picture posted online along with false information. We would like to show how this makes online "relationships" unreliable.

3. We are planning on compiling a list of movies and stories that have come out of this idea of "internet relationships." We plan on researching instances of this, as well as interviewing different students to tell their opinion or experiences of this. Chrissy is responsible for finding the movie clips, Molly is responsible for finding articles that discusss instances of this, and Candice is responsible for finding students that we can interview. We will all help with the filming process and interview process.

Remediation

I came away with the definition of remediation as one having the ability to coexist in one or more media paradigm consecutively. It is important to not only coexist, but have the ability to understand and function inside of each.

One example of remediation can be found in the newspaper industry. An individual is able to read a paper in print, and (or) online. Choosing which medium offers a more appropriate representation than another is the act of remediation performed by the individual. Each medium has advantages and disadvantages. The online text is constantly replacing itself; where as the print text stays the same.

Diana T.

Instructions for Tuesday--Please Read Carefully!

This is a duplicate of an email I just sent you (so if you just read that, you can skip this)

I *hate* to do this (those of you who know me know how much!) but I have to give you an assignment for tomorrow in lieu of meeting with you. You have my sincere and profuse apologies. Here's what I need you to do:

1. Decide what your group project will be, and with whom you'll be working. You need to tell me the general subject (as you've been discussing on the weblog) and your approach--will it be a movie, a hypertext, a song, etc.

2. Also tell me what your point will be. What will you be trying to convince people of, or educate them about or [whatever the point is]

3. Tell me which part of the project each member of the group will be taking the lead on. So, for instance, if you're going to do a short film about how different grape koolaide is from cherry koolaide (I'm giving a silly example so as not to indicate any preference about *real* projects, perhaps one person will do the interviews, one person will do the filming and editing, and one person will do the research to fill in the "facts" in the video. Here's an example you can use as a model:

Our group, *Elvis Presley, Keith Richards, and Stevie Nicks*, will be doing *an interpretive dance* on *the issue of koolaide, and how widely the quality of it varies, according to flavor.* Our working hypothesis is that whether or not someone likes koolaide depends on which kind they have.

For our main pieces of evidence we're going to use interviews (which will be taped and then serve as a backdrop for our dance), surveys (which will be scrolled behind us as we dance) and some background research which will explain how they became so different. That information will also be displayed behind the dancers.

The roles we'll be playing are as follows:

Elvis will be our main choreographer, Keith will do music, and I (Stevie) will direct. We will all dance and take turns with the camera. Our product will be a tape (approximately 10 minutes long) of our dance, with the research and additional information edited in behind the dancers.

This information needs to be **posted to the weblog** by Tuesday night at 5:00, so please, use tomorrow's class time to figure it out and get the information posted.

Again, you have my apologies. I know this is especially disruptive right after a snow day. I promise we'll get back on track on Thursday. (Don't worry about the schedule at all until then.)

Let me know if you have questions. I'll see you on Thursday.

--T. F.

Bolter and Grusin

I think Bolter and Grusin use the term "remediation" to refer to the interaction between traditional (old) and contemporary (new) media, and the changes that messages undergo when moving between and among such media.

One example of remediation can be found in the work of digital artist Bert Monroy, such as in his creation of a logo for Wired magazine. I was going to post a picture of it here, but evidently Blogger does not allow file attachments, and dragging the bitmap file onto the page obliterates the text. So ... digital illiteracy in action, or just a user-unfriendly program? I don't know.

At any rate, the photorealistic image Monroy produced began with the creation of four diamonds, which he filtered in different ways to create several different representations of the images, which he in turn used to create a "bling" version of the word "LUXURY," seemingly made of small diamonds set into a gleaming gold frame. The image changed from a building block -- a single "diamond" made of pixels" -- to a complete piece of "jewelry" in a way similar to the way a jeweler would create a piece, but the jeweler can allow the gold and the diamonds themselves to create the gleaming, rich appearance, while Monroy needs to use his skills to give his creation the very same look.

Narrative

While we were brainstorming in class about ideas for our digital literacy, I thought about the world of websites like myspace, facebook, and youtube have become so famous. It's amazing to me how putting your picture or video online could potentially make you one of the most famous people in the world (example: Tila Tequilla). I know that I am obsessed with facebook; I constantly check to see if I have gotten any new messages or new friend request. It's also a way to keep close with old friends. I would like to do a narrative on how these websites effects the lives of young people today.

I would be interested in doing something about facebook or myspace relationships. i love facebook and i am on all the time so i thought it really interested me. also i think it would cool to look at how much it is apart of our lives now. for example, whenever you meet someone they usually say hey facebook me! or when you take pictures you hear people say dont forget to tag me in that picture! i just think its so interesting how it really a huge part of our lives now. and the other day clemson had to send out a message about how facebook was down from the clemson network. i thought that was interesting because it show how the university is so in tune with facebook.

project ideas

I also like the blog idea, how easy it is to express oneself anonymously online, things one could not express in a traditional social setting. Learning to blog, to record events for posterity in a highly visible and anonymous way is a new phenomena I'd like to explore.
Changing the way we pay bills, from driving to make payments to mailing to surfing from the comfort of one's own home to pay the bills.
The changing face of subscriptions: I used to relax in the comfort of my own couch to read a magazine, but now most subscriptions are available online for quick reading between assignments and not a relaxing repose.
I like being able to keep in touch with my friends and family who don't live close by by posting pictures on my myspace page and looking at theirs. The comment features keep everyone abreast without having to travel even so far as my mailbox.

Narrative Ideas: Remediation, Online Gaming, Digital Literacy in the Classroom

The history of remediation

Digital literacy in the classroom - how it changes the way students learn and teachers teach.

Digital communities, especially online games like World of Warcraft (WOW). Maybe exploring the discourse of that community in a humorous way.

"bleed over" from gaming into mainstream culture (Mr. T and William Shatner WOW commercials)

extreme online gamers-people whose lives revolve around the game to the point where they've died as a result of their addiction.

Narrative Idea

I thought I would take my experience teaching ENGL L 103 to examine digital literacy and education. ENGL 103 uses an educational mechanism called the "Learning Record" throughout the semester. I would like to do a narrative following the use of the Learning Record.

Creswell

Project brainstorm

one of the areas i was thinking about is how digital literacy empowers oppressed groups...for example, i remember hearing about how women in the middle east use blogs as a way of expressing themselves in an otherwise very oppressive society--and the fact that they are anonymous allows them to have access to the world without fear.

I also thought about the huge online shopping spree--spending money online. included in that might be online gambling, etc.

project idea

One component of my group’s definition of digital literacy included the idea that to be digitally literate means to have the ability to function and operate within a digital environment. A lot of people take this to a different level and actually “live” in a digital environment (like Second Life). For this project, I was thinking it might be interesting to compare the way these people live and communicate within this type of environment (an environment that attempts to create a virtual reality that so closely imitates the real world in economy, communication, relationships, etc.) to the way they conduct themselves in the real world. I’d like to look at the way people’s aliases differ from the way they look, act, etc. in real life. This sort of goes along with the other ideas mentioned about misrepresentation/identity in a digital environment.

Possible group narrative

There are so many good ideas, and so many possibilities. One topic of interest to me is exploring the suggestion in class pertaining to the number of friends (on MySpace or Facebook), and how your digital literacy factors into your number of friends. I created a MySpace page for the sole purpose of monitoring my twelve year old son's page. I find this type of "community" very fascinating. The more "friends" I get, the more I want to analyze analyze this culture.

Diana Thrasher

Changing the world from here?

I'd like to look at digital literacy through the $100 Laptop project - a project (in their words):

"To provide children around the world with new opportunities to explore, experiment and express themselves."

It would interesting to document the project and potential ramifications (positive and negative) of such an undertaking. Is it matter of imposing what we value on other cultures or is it a means to help the poor empower themselves?

Another thing that might make an interesting narrative on digital literacy would be a documentary of "a day in the life." It might follow one person's navigation on the internet, showing what websites they visit, what links they follow, and perhaps demonstrating the seemingly indirect way information is acquired during a random web session.

Sorry for the many posts, y'all ...

I spent many a snowbound night in Indiana, perfectly content, but after a couple of years in SC, a half-inch of snow gives me a bad case of cabin fever, so I'm trying to be productive ... .

It might be interesting to explore how digital media have warped our sense of reality. I found Dr. Fishman's questions about what we find credible online intriguing, and that led to thinking about how nothing digital can be taken to be "real" anymore. The recent Dove skincare "Real Beauty" campaign illustrates how maybe what you see is NOT what you get; racy photos of TV personality Rachael Ray in FHM magazine were shown to have portions of her calves lopped off by Photoshop.

Is anyone interested in digital literacy and skepticism? As in, does our "traditionally literate" eye take images for granted, or do we now view all things with a healthy dose of doubt?

Just stuck at home and throwing out ideas.

Joni

Project Ideas

During Tuesday's class, I heard several ideas that were of interest to me. Some of them were so good that I am considering doing one of the ideas as my individual project. Initially, I wanted to do something about the how the elderly and kindergartners learn to use computers. Now, however, I'm excited about the Facebook and relationship topics. Actually, I wanted to do something about relationships for my personal project, but judging from the interest in it, looks like I'll be going back to the drawing board. My final decision is still up in the air, but I have definitely settled on these four options.

P.S.

I'm also interested in Morgan's cartoon-as-political-venue idea.

Joni

a possible branch of Facebook stuff ...

I notice many of you are interested in digital literacy as it relates to Facebook. Great topic! I was thinking, some of you might be interested in exploring how so many Web-savvy young people (and older people!) are not digitally literate enough to realize how the content of their MySpace/Facebook pages could impact their professional lives, as evidenced by many examples, including the recent case of Arlington, Ore., Mayor Carmen Kontur-Gronquist, whose racy photos of herself on a city fire truck have possibly jeopardized her job.

A couple of years ago, the sheriff of my city (Evansville, Ind.) made an ultimately successful run for Congress (Rep. Brad Ellsworth, D-IN, voted the most recent "Capitol Hill's Hottest"), and during his campaign, photos surfaced of his 19-year-old daughter seemingly drunk on Facebook, with what appeared to be a bottle of vodka falling out of her purse. With him being sheriff, that did not bode well.

There are many other examples, and I happen to know that at least some programs at Clemson conduct such online screenings on applicants.

Having thought about this some more, I might be interested in that topic myself.

Just a thought ... .

Joni

Possible Ideas for Digital Project

Possible Ideas for Digital Project -

- Elder woman completely computer illiterate as she desides to take a class to understand technology.

- Father wants to relate to son who is very interested in computers goes generation gap.

-observe the trend in elementary schools of children who are more technologically savvy than in previous years.

Collaborative Project Ideas

Unfortunately, I have yet to come up with any possible projects that I am more excited about, or even just as excited about, than the ones I mentioned in class on Tuesday. That being said, I am still very interested in exploring dating sites, such as e-Harmony, in search of a correlation between digital literacy and possible love interests online. I am also interested in the correlation between digital literacy on myspace and the number of friends/friend request a digitally literate person acquires versus a digitally incompetent person.

I'm thrilled to see that so many of you are interested in these ideas as well and look forward to the opportunity of possibly working with you!

See you tomorrow!

Examining online communication

I'd also be interested in examining relationships, communication differences, and really the "culture" of online communities such as facebook, eharmony, etc. I'd like to examine how anonymity plays a part and how communication differs between different online message boards and community pages.

Idea for narrative

I second one of the earlier posts on doing a narrative that involves an 'e-harmony' type of setting.
In the narrative there would be mock interviews with people who didn't find their match because of misrepresentation of self on the internet.

-Vanessa Reinarz

collaborative project

I'd like to examine the work of digital artist Bert Monroy, who has created a detailed series of Photoshop tutorials, which he makes available for free, under the title "PixelPerfect With Bert Monroy." He makes his living creating digital art, and he's amazing. I was thinking the format would most likely be a slide show, highlighting the progression of some of his projects. PixelPerfect lessons can be found here: http://revision3.com/pixelperfect/.

Joni H.

I'm really interested in possibly doing a digital narrative based on the relationship between two people. I think that the narrative could either take place on a dating site like eharmony, myspace, or something similar. The fact that you're hidden behind a computer screen enables people to become someone that they're not. I this scenario would be best depicted on some kind of digital media other than videotaping... maybe a scrolling conversation between two different people (in a chat room?) that are clearly lying about their physical characters, hobbies, intelligence, personality, etc.

Chrissy Dombrowski

Idea for Narrative

Hi, I'm Megan Boyce and even though I was not in class today, I read the posts and have a possible idea for a narrative. Once my dad became ill, my aunt created a website to keep everyone informed about his progress and for friends and family to post notes to him to keep his spirits up. My aunt is going to turn 50 this year and I think it is interesting how those who are older are able to do things online that younger people cannot do or do not do. I'm not really sure where I could or will take this, but I want to do something along those lines.

Project Ideas

Hi! I am Molly White and for my project, I think it would be fun to consider how digital literacy brings about a whole new form of relationship. For example, acquiring friends on "facebook," finding love on "eharmony," or keeping in contact with a loved one who you are unable to see. This seems to be a growing phenomenon, so it would be interesting to learn more.

Idea for Upcoming Project

Hi, My name is Morgan Simmons (might not remember me but I am the tall girl with the short hair cut.) :)

My possible idea for the upcoming project is to focus on animated cartoons and how it is/has been used to protray political and social issues and views

If anyone is interested or have any other ideas that could correlate with this same idea...please let me know

morgans@clemson.edu

Collaborative Project Ideas:

Influence of the media on the public/manipulation of ideas

Animated shows to show political views

Visual media and formats used for education (biology classes with simulated dissections etc.)

Digital literacy the older Black community--spreading the gap at least if not closing it

Hundred dollar laptop project (positive or negative effects)

Digital literacy and memory (tied to Plato and writing)

Identity--how your user names interact with your identity

Identity--misrepresentation of self (like e-harmony)

"Upgrading" from a PC to a Mac

Becoming an online celebrity (usually via youtube)

Knowing someone purely in an online space

Number of friends, how your digital literacy figures into your number of friends

documentary focusing on eportfolios and what they are--especially how to express yourself via one.

Video resumes

Effect that digital literacy has on relationships (long distance)

Effect that digital literacy has had on commerce/industries

Online infidelity/online stalking/

Accepted stalking/invitation to stalking

Ethics/sabotage/assumed identities chat spaces/wikipedia

A fable about remediation

Digital literacy in the classroom

Digital communities, especially online games

"bleed over" from gaming into mainstream culture

extreme online gamers

what motivates compulsive email forwarders.

Narrative(s)

Anything that tells a story

linear

promotes understanding through the evocation of feeling

story being told from a speakers point of view--changes based on the speaker's perspective

can move from linear circular

one character's point of veiw in a story, re-telling of events from a certain perspective.

a re-account of something

sequence of events strung together to make up a larger story

observation of how things interact

process of observing change

minimally--a subject and change over time

Key words and concepts for digital literacy:

access, (both to information and tools)
translate thought into action
have to understand the processes

communicate through digital means/media to send/recieve messages
have to have software, computers, and be able to use them

be able to create a document
navigate the web
operate and function in a digital environment

be able to identify and activate things in an online environment
translates functions and screens into action

to articulate and comprehend meaning in a communicative exchange--in a digital medium.
Still need to be articulate (and persuasive) but in the digital realm.

understand how the medium shapes the message and being able to use the medium to shape the message.

know/learn a new language, (acronym based, for instance)
know/learn a different set of social skills.

know/learn different perceptual skills--like using your mouse as your "eye" to let you see features of a text.

what is literacy?

Katherine Adams and I discussed the idea of literacy. We decided that literacy isn't limited to just being able to read/watch/listen to any type of media, but to also comprehend and understand the ideas being put forth in the media. Upon comprehending and understanding the ideas it is important to be able to connect themes. Literacy is more than just being able to read as we touched on in class. Literacy has evolved into more than just being able to read because of the evolving media of the day.

Discussion by Katherine Adams and Vanessa Reinarz

Literacy Defined

My group considered the definition of literacy to be a person's ability to effectively comprehend and articulate meaning in a communicative exchange in which there is a sender, receiver, and medium by which meaning is transmitted. Medium can include, but is not limited to, spoken and written words on television, radio, print, and the internet.

GROUP MEMBERS INCLUDE:
~Sharon Reese
~Chrissy Dombrowski
~Mike Dehart

What is literacy?

Group: Diana Thrasher, Megan Boyce, and April Davis

Our group has defined literacy as a way of understanding or communicating. It also concerns comprehension and the ability to both retain and apply information. In deciding what literacy is, we also considered what it is not. To be illiterate does not entail stupidity. While it does have both negative denotations and connotations, illiteracy is mainly a disadvantage in that those who are illiterate don't have the proper tools to communicate.

literacy definition

Our group defined literacy as the ability to both read and comprehend. This definition applies to more than simply the written word. It is applicable to printed works, digital media and images. Literacy is more than simply knowing what a word or image is; it is also the ability to comprehend that word or image in the context in which it is presented.


Molly White
Sarah Stone
Susan Collins

Literacy Definition

Anneliese Reid
Candace Harper
Ardi Alspach

Our group defined Literacy as the ability to not only read but to UNDERSTAND what you are reading. Literacy is understanding the medium communication comes in. We also decided that there is more of a need for this type of understanding in our society now more than ever.

Literacy is a person’s ability to understand something mostly in a written format. It’s relaying and conveying information. It involves more than just reading; it involves reading comprehension. It is being able to not only read something but fully understand the context of the text. Literacy also includes being able to understand words from context even if you don’t know it.

Morgan Simmons
Meredith McGrew
Julie Ledbetter

Literally Literacy

Our definition:

literacy- access to information and the ability to interpret it*

*(just because you have access to information- be it computer, book, etc.- doesn't mean you automatically understand it)

Creswell Curtis
Kerry Gomer

Greetings

This is the weblog for the digital literacy class. Along with the postings you make in response to course assignments, please also feel free to discuss subjects of general interest to the class.
-T. F.