Here's a song I found amusing--it plays in the opening of the documentary: F**K: A documentary.
Granted, this is the censored version (I couldn't find an uncensored one on YouTube). Visit her site if you want to skip the kazoo: carlau.com
Monday, March 30, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Hybridity
Ever since becoming a GTA, I've always had to deal with this "problem." You see, I teach, but I'm also a student. Now, the thing is I'm beginning to realize that I don't necessarily fit the English Instructor mold--I can look the part: dress professionally, hair pulled back in a bun, have the glasses. But my teaching style apparently doesn't fit the look.
What's got me talking about it this time? Last time I brought this up because a someone was complaining about me. Well, not this time (knock on wood). Actually, what brought this up was a question I asked one of my classes: what kind of music does an instructor listen to?
The first reply: an instructor or you? Now, the class came to a consensus that it is all dependent upon the personality of the instructor. But, I asked them to please explain the whole, "instructor or you" bit.
They don't see me as a traditional instructor. I don't lecture; I don't preach (too much, I heard added on in the back, along with a giggle). I'm more "like us." "You get along better with you" "you let the information soak in and help us understand it in our terms."
Now, the question is, Is this a good thing? Can I be accepted by the Academy as a Ph.D (when I get it)? Or will I forever be a student in the Academy's eyes?
I've been working on a paper comparing the Academy to the Borg Queen from Star Trek. It is true that the Borg is often used to represent any "evil" that seeks to take over society/species. Sometimes, I wonder if my holding on to my student tendencies and "language" as my small act of defiance. You cannot fully assimilate me! Yet, still I stay and try to become assimilated and get those letters after my name. Because it is with those letters I can hopefully teach in a university--the Borg ships of Academia--and share my love and passion of English with others. I do that now; but apparently in a non-traditional instructor way. Which confuses the hell out of my students, and sometimes me.
One of the best pieces of advice I received about teaching was: I simply walk into the room and wait. At the beginning of class, I get up and teach; because no one else in the room is going to do it.
There is just something about that advice, that stuck. It calmed my confessed fears of authority. I am not a big scary authority figure; but merely a "student" who gets up because nobody else is going to do it.
Here's a title for someone to yoink (or I may have yoinked it from some published material) Demons in the diploma: misadventures in getting letters after my name.
What's got me talking about it this time? Last time I brought this up because a someone was complaining about me. Well, not this time (knock on wood). Actually, what brought this up was a question I asked one of my classes: what kind of music does an instructor listen to?
The first reply: an instructor or you? Now, the class came to a consensus that it is all dependent upon the personality of the instructor. But, I asked them to please explain the whole, "instructor or you" bit.
They don't see me as a traditional instructor. I don't lecture; I don't preach (too much, I heard added on in the back, along with a giggle). I'm more "like us." "You get along better with you" "you let the information soak in and help us understand it in our terms."
Now, the question is, Is this a good thing? Can I be accepted by the Academy as a Ph.D (when I get it)? Or will I forever be a student in the Academy's eyes?
I've been working on a paper comparing the Academy to the Borg Queen from Star Trek. It is true that the Borg is often used to represent any "evil" that seeks to take over society/species. Sometimes, I wonder if my holding on to my student tendencies and "language" as my small act of defiance. You cannot fully assimilate me! Yet, still I stay and try to become assimilated and get those letters after my name. Because it is with those letters I can hopefully teach in a university--the Borg ships of Academia--and share my love and passion of English with others. I do that now; but apparently in a non-traditional instructor way. Which confuses the hell out of my students, and sometimes me.
One of the best pieces of advice I received about teaching was: I simply walk into the room and wait. At the beginning of class, I get up and teach; because no one else in the room is going to do it.
There is just something about that advice, that stuck. It calmed my confessed fears of authority. I am not a big scary authority figure; but merely a "student" who gets up because nobody else is going to do it.
Here's a title for someone to yoink (or I may have yoinked it from some published material) Demons in the diploma: misadventures in getting letters after my name.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Friday, March 13, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Future Project Plans
I'm thinking for my final project of turning a part of my thesis into a video with audio recordings of my writing (findings) from the study. Video will definitely play a big part because when you're talking about a video game the terminology does not cross over to those who are not part of the community. With video some of the game mechanics will be involved, if nothing else, it'll be entertaining. My audience would be the general public (of academia?) My whole goal of writing my thesis was to show that playing an MMO to the best ability it was designed to be played is a lot harder than what it looks--there are literacies (gaming, platform, traditional, communication skills--typing, vent servers, in game emotes; slang/terminology specific to the game and in gaming) involved. Plus, it was/is an opening to the idea of RPGs being similar to or just being novels. Subject matter: um...MMOs, specifically FFXI (because it's the one I play and am "addicted" too)
I think my audience would expect a video that is well thought out as well as audio that can explain what is being seen on screen--why does that character have a tail, why is that group split up to where some people are further away and others are closer to whatever they are killing, etc) The audio will introduce and explain, the video will show as visual backup. (Go go frapps!) The only thing about the video is that it will be hard to see some of the smaller aspects that the gamer uses when playing. Menu buttons rarely stay on screen as players become used to their arrangement and can quickly go to them and use them faster than they can be read. Some things may show on screen, like macro rows, that the audio may not address. It will also be hard to show gameplay and player chat--you can really only focus on one when recording.
While I may have already done some alphabetic text (thesis) I need to go back through and pick out the ideas I'm wanting to the video to focus on. Like Poe said of short stories: it should be able to read and enjoyed in one sitting. So, I don't want an extremely long video. Long enough to serve it's purpose, short enough that peoples' mind nor bodies become numb. After choosing the ideas to focus on, I'll then gather the video showing those ideas--gotta dig out those old permission forms.
I'm composing as an individual/mini group. You see, even though I will be the "author" of the text, in an MMO to really gain the experience you need other players. They will be "authoring" as well, the chat on screen comes from our interaction. I'll also being doing this alone because as far as I'm aware no one else in class plays this game. Though it would be interesting to do a video over the different types of MMO and their shared literacies as well as some differences. And I'll always have my tech support (go go D)
I foresee my revision process as including some cursing, more cursing and chocolate. XD
I think editing the video after the intial one is made will be somewhat difficult. The problem will lie in the translation of the work that i see in my head versus what can be made to appear on screen (limiations of gameplay, permissions, time constraints, software constraints, etc)
I think I'm definitely stronger in my skills with alphabetic text; which is why I'm looking at pulling ideas and the script for my audio from what I have already written. I definitely want to improve on video literacies as well as making the audio to fit my video and ideas.
I'll most likely post this text on the interwebs. Go go file sharing sites!
I think my audience would expect a video that is well thought out as well as audio that can explain what is being seen on screen--why does that character have a tail, why is that group split up to where some people are further away and others are closer to whatever they are killing, etc) The audio will introduce and explain, the video will show as visual backup. (Go go frapps!) The only thing about the video is that it will be hard to see some of the smaller aspects that the gamer uses when playing. Menu buttons rarely stay on screen as players become used to their arrangement and can quickly go to them and use them faster than they can be read. Some things may show on screen, like macro rows, that the audio may not address. It will also be hard to show gameplay and player chat--you can really only focus on one when recording.
While I may have already done some alphabetic text (thesis) I need to go back through and pick out the ideas I'm wanting to the video to focus on. Like Poe said of short stories: it should be able to read and enjoyed in one sitting. So, I don't want an extremely long video. Long enough to serve it's purpose, short enough that peoples' mind nor bodies become numb. After choosing the ideas to focus on, I'll then gather the video showing those ideas--gotta dig out those old permission forms.
I'm composing as an individual/mini group. You see, even though I will be the "author" of the text, in an MMO to really gain the experience you need other players. They will be "authoring" as well, the chat on screen comes from our interaction. I'll also being doing this alone because as far as I'm aware no one else in class plays this game. Though it would be interesting to do a video over the different types of MMO and their shared literacies as well as some differences. And I'll always have my tech support (go go D)
I foresee my revision process as including some cursing, more cursing and chocolate. XD
I think editing the video after the intial one is made will be somewhat difficult. The problem will lie in the translation of the work that i see in my head versus what can be made to appear on screen (limiations of gameplay, permissions, time constraints, software constraints, etc)
I think I'm definitely stronger in my skills with alphabetic text; which is why I'm looking at pulling ideas and the script for my audio from what I have already written. I definitely want to improve on video literacies as well as making the audio to fit my video and ideas.
I'll most likely post this text on the interwebs. Go go file sharing sites!
WwNM: Blog-o-Readings
Cooper:
I really enjoyed Cooper's chapter over Learning Digital Literacies. Personally, I kind of wish I read this chapter earlier (which is what I get for not exploring the book). I liked it that even though her five strategies kind of seemed obvious, it something that needed to be said and seen. To put it simply, it is kind of like common sense, yeah, you should know it but it takes somebody telling you, or you reading for it to "click" (and sometimes you just gotta learn the hard way...you know, like when your parents told you something trying to keep you from making that mistake/having that experience, and you ignore them, then BOOM! it happens, and in your mind you have a revelation: holy *&%#, mom and dad were right!) Yeah, like that.
Now, what I wrote in my margins were not about revelations but were questions (let's explore the ink in the margins): ""content" rather than skills" Archaic? and then, Can meaningful and Academic go together? Now, the archaic comment was at the end of the first paragraph where Cooper was talking about how teachers are afraid to teach digital literacies because they are worried that "skills" will take away from "content". Is this the new archaic, where we are so scared of the scary eyes that are watching and fear they are going to come to our classroom door and haul the instructor away from the students *dramatic high pitch cry: won't someone please think of the childre....Students!* I think that is the point of Multimodal Composition. Content can be taught with skills. Skills can help shape and inform content. We just need to be told that. Kind of like how some articles you read have you thinking: i thought everybody knew this? Well, it may be that way, but it wasn't written and published. Even though we are beginning to champion the cause of mutlimodal composition, it still needs to be written and "published" for it to become true. Precedents need to be set.
Griffin
I like Griffin. I liked it that she talked about writing centers and their position in all this multimodal happenings. I really found the section "Discovering Rhetorical Correspondences" interesting. I think it's because of the work I particpated in during my Master's about writing centers. During the work, I kept seeing the theme of tutors/consultants (whatever you label you want to give them) that when they were at a loss they turned to grammar. So, you have the idea of the writing centers begging their false persona of fix-it-shops and editing services be dropped, but the people who are asking for this are helping to perpetuate the idea of "fix-it". I'm starting to digress here...perhaps this also ties to the idea of the perfect paper, and the specific focus of the end product.
MMkay, where was I? So, I find it interesting that tutors who probably surf the web in their downtime, are afraid to touch multimodal compositions. I mean, am I the only nerd out there that when watching a movie or tv show, or even an commercial/ad just start to automatically apply ideas and concepts leaned from English classes. Really?! Some shows/movies reek of ideas, REEK! (You're looking at someone who took the movie Starship Troopers and wrote a paper over it about how it fits into ideas of rhetoric. Mayhaps the real problem is the defining and categorization of something multimodal into "Composition". We are having to update a catergory of English that still has stereotypes surrounding it. So, people in the field must battle stereotypes of what Composition and Rhetoric is, as well as defining a new category to include a new class of composition.
I really enjoyed Cooper's chapter over Learning Digital Literacies. Personally, I kind of wish I read this chapter earlier (which is what I get for not exploring the book). I liked it that even though her five strategies kind of seemed obvious, it something that needed to be said and seen. To put it simply, it is kind of like common sense, yeah, you should know it but it takes somebody telling you, or you reading for it to "click" (and sometimes you just gotta learn the hard way...you know, like when your parents told you something trying to keep you from making that mistake/having that experience, and you ignore them, then BOOM! it happens, and in your mind you have a revelation: holy *&%#, mom and dad were right!) Yeah, like that.
Now, what I wrote in my margins were not about revelations but were questions (let's explore the ink in the margins): ""content" rather than skills" Archaic? and then, Can meaningful and Academic go together? Now, the archaic comment was at the end of the first paragraph where Cooper was talking about how teachers are afraid to teach digital literacies because they are worried that "skills" will take away from "content". Is this the new archaic, where we are so scared of the scary eyes that are watching and fear they are going to come to our classroom door and haul the instructor away from the students *dramatic high pitch cry: won't someone please think of the childre....Students!* I think that is the point of Multimodal Composition. Content can be taught with skills. Skills can help shape and inform content. We just need to be told that. Kind of like how some articles you read have you thinking: i thought everybody knew this? Well, it may be that way, but it wasn't written and published. Even though we are beginning to champion the cause of mutlimodal composition, it still needs to be written and "published" for it to become true. Precedents need to be set.
Griffin
I like Griffin. I liked it that she talked about writing centers and their position in all this multimodal happenings. I really found the section "Discovering Rhetorical Correspondences" interesting. I think it's because of the work I particpated in during my Master's about writing centers. During the work, I kept seeing the theme of tutors/consultants (whatever you label you want to give them) that when they were at a loss they turned to grammar. So, you have the idea of the writing centers begging their false persona of fix-it-shops and editing services be dropped, but the people who are asking for this are helping to perpetuate the idea of "fix-it". I'm starting to digress here...perhaps this also ties to the idea of the perfect paper, and the specific focus of the end product.
MMkay, where was I? So, I find it interesting that tutors who probably surf the web in their downtime, are afraid to touch multimodal compositions. I mean, am I the only nerd out there that when watching a movie or tv show, or even an commercial/ad just start to automatically apply ideas and concepts leaned from English classes. Really?! Some shows/movies reek of ideas, REEK! (You're looking at someone who took the movie Starship Troopers and wrote a paper over it about how it fits into ideas of rhetoric. Mayhaps the real problem is the defining and categorization of something multimodal into "Composition". We are having to update a catergory of English that still has stereotypes surrounding it. So, people in the field must battle stereotypes of what Composition and Rhetoric is, as well as defining a new category to include a new class of composition.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Small Video
Here it is, my little video I have put together. I tried to make it about Academia and Assimilation (the kick I'm currently on this semester). It really isn't 5.5 minutes long; it's 4 and change.
I used screenshots from the game as well as video. I chose the music not only because they're songs I like, but also because of the lyrics. I could of had the music fade out and in in certain spots, but I kind of like the dissonance. It shows editing, a work in process that never quite reaches perfection.
I used screenshots from the game as well as video. I chose the music not only because they're songs I like, but also because of the lyrics. I could of had the music fade out and in in certain spots, but I kind of like the dissonance. It shows editing, a work in process that never quite reaches perfection.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Video Statement
Ok. Here is my video sentence...which is either a run-on or a paragraph.
btw, I like the random audio. >.> So statements get randomly get cut off; which is kinda of funny and adds to my statement imo.
btw, I like the random audio. >.> So statements get randomly get cut off; which is kinda of funny and adds to my statement imo.
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