HW 10 - Informal Research Internet

Which aspect of the digital representational phenomena are you most interested in - video games, facebook, TV use, racial differences, cell phone radiation tumors, etc? Google that and websurf a little among newspaper articles, studies, opinion pieces, Wikipedia, etc.

Collect the best of what you find in a list of URLs. Then reread each of the best pieces carefully and, for HW 10, post a list of 3-7 links along with a paragraph or two about each of the items you've linked to.

Your 1-2 paragraph commentary about each piece should include:

1. The most interesting part of the text.

2. The most interesting thoughts you had in response to the piece.

This is due Monday Oct. 5 at 4pm.

HW 9 - Video Project GHIJK

For HW 9 please post a reply to each of the comments you received on your video project. Please use the GHIJK structure (below) as a guide. Your replies should be posted both as HW 9 and as a comment on your triangle partners' blog where they posted their comment to you. This should be posted by Sunday night Oct 4.

G for Gratitude for their comments - consider how much time, energy, thought, insight, humor, good feeling, writing skill they used - find something to appreciate even if only brevity - "I appreciate your funny and warm tone and the accuracy of your summary, which made me feel like you really understood my argument."

H for what was Helpful in their comment - be specific about a place where their comment helped you to reconsider something, address a weakness in your writing, encourage an idea or direction in your work, or just help you feel like someone was offering attention to your thoughts. "Your point about my need to proofread was helpful, but even more useful to me was your question about why we seem to get so much pleasure from the digital-representation-devices."

I for what Insight(s) their comment offered you (from them) or provoked in you (from you) or was shared by the two of you. This is your big chance to expand and clarify and extend and change your original thinking. "I was focused on the stickiness of websites that are constantly changing - really focused on the content of the websites. Your question about pleasure made me realize that the actual act of clicking and seeing new things is like a baby's toy - push button and a sound comes out. Apparently that's inherently satisfying - just like how people pop the bubbles on packaging wrap - even apart from the content of the site. Maybe we'd be on the web almost as much with boring content, but the sites with more quickly changing content just would recruit a higher share of our websurfing time than boring sites?"

J for Joggle - meaning to fit the two pieces - your thoughts and her thoughts into a large shape - you are mainly constructing a respectful awareness of difference to ameliorate the tendency for conversation to homogenize - "It seems like your emphasis is mainly on how these devices alter our consciousness and I'm more interested in why we're involved with them in the first place - you are looking at effect and I'm looking at cause."

K is for Koine (common language) - what's a question that you and the commentor both seem interested in? what's a phrase that you both find meaningful or provacative? this common language can serve as a possible platform for continued collaborative consultation. "You and I - as shown in our posts and our comments for each other - both emphasize the interactivity of the new digital-representational-devices like facebook and texting. How does this interactivity change the experience compared to more passive action like watching TV or listening to an iPod?"

HW 8 - Comment on Triangle Partners' Videos Projects

For this homework please post comments to your triangle partners' video projects (the video & the writing they did about it). Please continue to use the ABCDEF structure as a guide. After you post the comment to your partner's blog, please copy and paste both of your comments to a new post in your blog called HW 8. Please accomplish HW 8 by Friday Oct. 2 at 7pm.

A – Appreciate some specific Aspect of the post. Succinctness or thoroughness, readability, particular ideas, language use, tone, humor, imagery, etc.

B – Briefly restate major point/argument/thesis. Show you understand it or explain which parts you don’t.

C – Connect - Connect the author's arguments or ideas with another student's or with something you've seen in the world or with their opposite.

D – Develop - Help the author develop her work further by pointing out spots that are worth expanding, need some revision, or are like wanna-be celebrities (jumping up and down saying "write about me!")

E – Explore - Write a little about what the author's post makes you consider in your own life and in your understanding of how others' live.

F – Friendly and encouraging sign-off.

HW 7 - Interviews and Surveys

Please collect the response of multiple people to interestingly imagined questions addressing one or more aspects of the digitalization of our daily experience.

For Wednesday AM please post the response of a family member. For Friday AM please post 2 or more responses of a passerby or stranger. For Tuesday AM please post the thoughts of your best friend who is not participating in Personal/Political.

Please post all these responses as one post (opposite of what I usually request) and just "edit" that post each time to add more.

andy s. digital

andy s. digital, originally uploaded by juggleandhope.

This is the Flickr version - it can link to your blog when you click "blog this" - it loaded fast and easy, and is good video quality. Or you can embed it, as in the example below. Might be the best way to go.

Video Examples

Flickr

Vimeo - Warning - this is high quality but took 21 hours to be uploaded and converted.

Andy S - Digital from juggleandhope on Vimeo.

Veoh

Sorry about the advertisements!

Watch Andy S - Digital in Educational & How-To | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Blogger

HW 6 - Video Project

This will be sort of weird.

We usually think of ourselves (at least I do) as active - as the subject not the object - as the camera not the photo. And when we think of ourselves using digital representation devices we usually picture the mind-stimulation - the ideas from the blogs, the flashes of the video game, the drama of the TV, the jokes of the texting. But another part of our experience is what we physically do during this mind-altering digitalization process.

So the assignment now is to construct a 2 minute (more or less) video of yourself (or someone else, if you absolutely don't want to put yourself on the internet, but then you'd better not have a facebook page) USING digital representation devices. NOT of your avatar jumping around buildings or of the video you watch on Youtube or your favorite music from your iPod. Just you doing what you do digitally with ambient natural sound (no soundtracks no dubbing no crazy entertaining titles).

After you upload the video, embed it in your blog, in a comment that addresses some of the following questions:

• What are some thoughts and feelings you have when watching your own video?
• When you think about living your physical experience being largely what is shown on the video, how does that seem to you?
• Would you want your little sister (or future son) to spend a lot of time doing this stuff?
• What do you think of the contrast between what's happening ON the digital representation device and what you look like interacting with the DRD?
• What do you think of ideas like the Wii that are supposed to make this contrast less stark?

FAQ:
What program should I use?
The best place to post is Vimeo - since the Board of Ed doesn't block that. Please do NOT use a video program that we can't see at school (such as Youtube or Google Video). A second choice if you have trouble with Vimeo is to use Blogger itself (the film button on the tool bar where you can change font).

What should I do for digital capture devices?
Please use a camcorder, camera, or webcam. A montage of photos is fine if you can't do video. If you do not have a camcorder, camera, or webcam please borrow one from a friend. Many people have them on their phones and many laptops have webcams. If you think, "I don't have a camcorder, but I should" you could consider this or that option, or maybe you can use this assignment to convince your family to buy you one of these (I like the purple color) but if you want to do a lot of filming its probably worth it to buy one of the $600 really nice ones.

What should I shoot?
Yourself being stimulated by digital representation devices (TV, texting, cellphones, mp3s and CDs, web, social networking, IMing, video games, DVDs, etc.).

What should I be careful of?
Please be careful that all content you post on these course blogs could be read/viewed without embarrassment by John Fanning. We are chasing big insights here, and I'd rather we didn't get distracted by little dramas. Its like your a big game photographer, off to "shoot" a rhino, and you see a little chimpmunk - don't miss the rhino for the chipmunk (even though both are important).

What do I do when I run into technical difficulties?
Solve them. Either take a deep breath, think stuff through, say mean things, try another way, get frustrated, ask someone else (not me), google it, or some combination of those activities that lead you to success and happiness.

When is it due?
It should be up, on your blog, with comments by Sunday, Sept 27, 9:27pm.

Please see my example here (will be posted by 3pm Monday).

HW 5 - Response to comments - GHIJK

Please write a response to each of 2 of the comments left on your initial thoughts post by Wednesday 8:30am.

Each of the responses should follow the GHIJK format. The comments should be posted underneath their comment, on your own blog. Don't worry - they will definitely want to read it too, and will go to your site to do so - just like people obsessively check to see if their comments on facebook got answered.

Significance:
The most important part of this whole process is your original post - where you get to communicate to the world and people you know about your insights. Even more important than that is the chance for the world and people you know to communicate back with you about your insights through commenting on your post. And yet more important than that is your opportunity to thank the world and people you know for sharing their time and thought with you and to take the offered possibility to expand your thoughts by responding to the comments.

Some stylistic points:
Don't be fake! Don't lie! Don't even fudge. The more honest (and kind) the exchange is the more valuable it can be. If you just gas the other person and they gas you then it won't be a real learning experience - it will be two women complimenting each other on fashion - "I like your shoes! Oh, I got them from Blabla, they were on sale. By the way - great haircut. Oh, do you like it?" This mutual preening dynamic might be helpful and even unavoidable, but it should not take the place of honest exchange for intellectual development on these blogs.

Also - emphasize some flavor - some swagger - some sourness - your comments and postings should be artistic - not just blah blah blah monologue. Think about how Conor uses absurdism, how Manley communicates his warmth, how you can add some spark to your writing.

GHIJK Format:

G for Gratitude for their comments - consider how much time, energy, thought, insight, humor, good feeling, writing skill they used - find something to appreciate even if only brevity - "I appreciate your funny and warm tone and the accuracy of your summary, which made me feel like you really understood my argument."

H for what was Helpful in their comment - be specific about a place where their comment helped you to reconsider something, address a weakness in your writing, encourage an idea or direction in your work, or just help you feel like someone was offering attention to your thoughts. "Your point about my need to proofread was helpful, but even more useful to me was your question about why we seem to get so much pleasure from the digital-representation-devices."

I for what Insight(s) their comment offered you (from them) or provoked in you (from you) or was shared by the two of you. This is your big chance to expand and clarify and extend and change your original thinking. "I was focused on the stickiness of websites that are constantly changing - really focused on the content of the websites. Your question about pleasure made me realize that the actual act of clicking and seeing new things is like a baby's toy - push button and a sound comes out. Apparently that's inherently satisfying - just like how people pop the bubbles on packaging wrap - even apart from the content of the site. Maybe we'd be on the web almost as much with boring content, but the sites with more quickly changing content just would recruit a higher share of our websurfing time than boring sites?"

J for Joggle - meaning to fit the two pieces - your thoughts and her thoughts into a large shape - you are mainly constructing a respectful awareness of difference to ameliorate the tendency for conversation to homogenize - "It seems like your emphasis is mainly on how these devices alter our consciousness and I'm more interested in why we're involved with them in the first place - you are looking at effect and I'm looking at cause."

K is for Koine (common language) - what's a question that you and the commentor both seem interested in? what's a phrase that you both find meaningful or provacative? this common language can serve as a possible platform for continued collaborative consultation. "You and I - as shown in our posts and our comments for each other - both emphasize the interactivity of the new digital-representational-devices like facebook and texting. How does this interactivity change the experience compared to more passive action like watching TV or listening to an iPod?"

HW 4 - First comments

One of the most important parts of the class is the chance to participate in intellectual conversations with others that help you sharpen and deepen your ideas and minds. The blog comments can make that or break that. If you leave thoughtful blog comments that spark the author to further thought, to reconsideration, to boldness - we will enjoy a tone of intellectual development. If you leave perfunctory blog comments that tell the author that you are just doing it for the grade and don't particularly care then we will suffer a tone of stagnation and pretense.

I am connecting you to 2 other people for commenting - you all will be a triangle or a trio or a triad - most importantly a team that takes each others' ideas and work seriously and tries to help each other reach deeper thinking and fuller feeling. We will start with my mixes but later on we can talk about switching up if people want to. These comments will be due Friday the 18th at 8:30am. Please put your comment on each author's blog post but also copy and paste both comments to your own blog as a separate post from your own initial thoughts (could be titled HW 4 - Triangular Comments 1).

In general I want your comments to follow the following format - not like you're a prisoner of the format (but maybe that you're on probation from it - so if you break the rules you better be improving on it) - ABCDEF.

A – Appreciate some specific Aspect of the post. Succinctness or thoroughness, readability, particular ideas, language use, tone, humor, imagery, etc.

B – Briefly restate major point/argument/thesis. Show you understand it or explain which parts you don’t.

C – Connect - Connect the author's arguments or ideas with another student's or with something you've seen in the world or with their opposite.

D – Develop - Help the author develop her work further by pointing out spots that are worth expanding, need some revision, or are like wanna-be celebrities (jumping up and down saying "write about me!")

E – Explore - Write a little about what the author's post makes you consider in your own life and in your understanding of how others' live.

F – Friendly and encouraging sign-off.

To help you see what I think would add to our course the most, I wrote an example of a Very Good Comment. Obviously if I was commenting on a less enjoyable, less thoughtful essay my comment would be shorter and less enthusiastic. Keep it real, yo. But Charles H's post was really this good, so this comment I wrote is honest.

Charles,

Great first post! I guessed you might be a skilled writer - your similes ("on shrimp pasta from red lobster"), language use ("so I can be 100% inside what I am listening to"), and tone are shiny and warm and I appreciated your skills.

Your paen towards the pleasures of digital/electronic stimulation was heartfelt - briefly - the ipod bubble-wraps you in joy, reality TV shows keeps your day spicy but safe, texting protects you from loneliness and awkward silences, and the whole assemblage keeps you happy and occupied. But you also name the world outside of the screens as important.

Your perspective is probably the dominant one - most people enjoy this stuff (even if maybe less vigorously than you) but also want non-digital life too. I think the advertising executives who show silhouettes dancing alone would be very pleased with your post. To continue connecting your writing - I also noticed you banging into chairs a lot while dancing today - perhaps you shouldn't fully believe the ads about it being just you and the music?

It would be a good idea to proofread - right now you've got a genius first line but your 3rd full paragraph ("that i feel...") begins with no context and you've lost consistency of capitalization also. To develop the ideas in your piece I think you've got to open up the Big Can of Worms - what is human life for? OK - that's too big - what about, "What is your life for?" Does a life of pleasure, of bubbles, of packaged drama, with occasional forays into reality strike you as a good one? This connects to Manley's class too.

One question that your post brings up for me, in exploring how it relates to my life and yours - is that I feel sometimes that we're all working with the stimulation on too high a level. Do you ever make time to just sit in the park and look at the sky - to eat without distraction - to meditate? Or does the vibration of ears and eyes and emotions have to be constant?

Thanks and I look forward to reading how your thoughts on this continue to develop.

HW 3 - 1st Blog Post

We've been able to talk a little and brainstorm about the conflux of digital/electronic media that has connected eyes with screens for hours at a time. HDTV, Facebook, IMing, Texting, Emailing, Websurfing, Twitter, videogames - constant updates - constant interaction with screens and digital reality.

What are some of the topics that this suggests to you? When you think about the conquest of so many hours of your day, and the days of the people around you, by the electromagnetic-representational-dimension, what are some of the aspects that seem interesting to you? What's good and what's bad and what's weird about all this? What's obvious but still important?

Please, for your first blog post, write up some thoughts and questions about this digitalization experience and phenomenon.

Just sit and think and write ideas and questions. Get distracted. Sit and think and notice some more. Write questions about some of the aspects you've noticed. Then theorize a little about some of your questions - maybe x relates to y which leads to situation z?

Due Monday 4pm, posted on your own blog, which you've created a link for on the message board in the correct section. : )

If you "finished" this assignment early, please continue to add to your post. Given that this shift towards screens may be one of the largest phenomena in modern culture there is probably more for you to say than a single 20 minutes of writing would exhaust. A good way to add is to read your draft and consider what is vague (for instance advocating a "balance" - how much weight on each side and with what fulcrum?), consider what is missing, consider what could be more sharply put.

How To Make A Blog for This Course

First, take a deep breath. This is not going to be that hard. Only about 10% of the people who do this meet massive frustration and at least half of them just forget their log-in info.

1. Create a google identity. Here. This will help you in life. If you don't already have one I suggest that you pick one that wouldn't be embarassing to a professor. So - BBallerFlyBoyYoMama might not be the best choice - even if it weren't already taken. Something like ASnyder is better. But don't use that one either. You can do something that isn't a gmail account using your existing email if you choose.

2. Create a blogger account. Please make sure that you use ONLY your first name and first initial of your last name. Please do not post any photos of yourself likely to fascinate weirdo stalkers. Please also include what section you're in. Feel free to make the title "Personal/Political by (your name)". For the address pick anything you want - something "respectable" is better. Please select a color scheme with dark letters and light background, that will be highly readable for the poor schmo who will be reading 96 of these at a time.

3. Click "view blog" and copy the URL (the webaddress at the top of the page).

4. Go to the UTFL Messageboard and IN THE CORRECT SECTION reply to the addresses thread to offer your address together with your first name and first initial of last name.

Family and Student Survey

Please ask Andy for your student ID (9 digits) and your passcode (1-3 digits). Your student ID number is on your student ID card, if you still have that. Please when you ask me for the student ID have your cellphone or paper/pen ready to write it down, and tell me your last name.

Please navigate to http://dashtodd.com/liftoff/survey/

Please type in the student ID and passcode.

Please complete the student survey. Answer as honestly as possible but skip a question if you think its too private.

Please bring the digits home and ask the family member who is most active and reliable in supporting your education to fill out the family survey.

First and Second Assignments - Due Thursday 8:30am

Welcome to all of us.

The first assignment for Personal/Political is to carefully review the class webpage and especially the page on grades and work.

This assignment will serve as the basis for a short quiz and a classroom conversation. Please especially note any specific questions that you still have after re-reading relevant portions of the text. I suggest you print out the grading page and mark it up with your own comments.

The second assignment is to reply to the following 25 questions in an email to Andy using the address he gave in class. You MUST make the subject line read like this: 25 Questions - First Name Last Name, Grade/Section. For example: 25 Questions - Joe Schmidt - 11A. Pretty please EXACTLY since the extra 15 seconds by you will save me hours (I'll be able to search "25 questions" and "12B").

Please cut and paste my questions into your email browser and reply to each one - for example:
1. Name - Andy S.

Don't forget to save your own copy when you're done for your own use later, and in case the computers are against you because you are the future leader of the revolution.

25 Questions Personal/Political

1. Name:

2. Section:

3. Birthdate:

4. Neighborhood:

5. Favorite musicians:

6. Favorite films:

7. Favorite books:

8. 3 students you already know and like in this section:

9. Main things you do when not at school:

10. Average daily amount of time you use for TV-IMin-/websurfing/social networking (Facebook)/videogames (in hours) – please specify hours per day for each form: of electronic stimulation.

11. Guardians’ names and what they do for a living or an interesting hobby:

12. Favorite teachers from SOF and why:

13. The 3 main reasons, in order of importance, that you come to school:

1^st:

2^nd:

3^rd:

14. List 1-3 talents you have (e.g. trombone)

15. What’s one of the main questions you think about intellectually?

16. Your email address:

17. Your cell phone # (or home phone)

18. Your guardians’ phone numbers and email addresses:

19. Are there very good reasons to avoid bothering your family unless necessary?

20. What are your academic strengths?

21. What are your academic weaknesses?

22. Why did you sign up for this course (or if you didn’t, why did you sign up for what you signed up for, and how upset are you)?

23. What are a few interesting ideas you have about the digital/electronic environment of teenagers in NYC today?

24. What are a few interesting ideas you have about the tendency of people to make masks for themselves for daily life – do you think most people are masked even to themselves?

25. What are a few interesting ideas you have about how school has shaped how you see the world?