Horray! I can Finally be Considered an Artist!

I stink at drawing, fail miserably at writing poetry, can’t sing in tune or play a melody BUT I can still be an artist thanks to box logic. I was inspired as I read Sirc’s Box Logic to become a box logic extraordinaire, I feel that the subjects to create boxes are endless, and you don’t have to possess some God given talent to create them. Now, I am not discrediting the aesthetic merit to Cornell’s boxes, he was truly creative and artistic in his box creations. Here are some of Cornell’s boxes that I found interesting. I do wonder what his bird fetish was all about….

However, as I read I struggled with the limitations that technology may present in the creation of a box on the web. It seems to me that there are more creative opportunities in actually creating a physical, touchable box. I also feel that many of us already have theses “boxes” started in our lives but have not artistically arranged them yet. For example, right now in my garage I have a box of high school, a box of family cards, a box of my daughter’s mementos, etc. and I am sure that many of you have similar “boxes” in your garage or storage areas. I could begin with the contents of one of these boxes and use the materials to create an artistic “box”. However, with technology, I would need to transfer the contents of this box into the computer to allow me to be able to create a digital box. Some items could not be transferred at all due to size, shape, texture, etc. While I do think that I personally would enjoy creating a physical box, I do realize that technology would allow other elements such as sound and animation.

Thoughts on the Digital World of “Screenagers” and Digital Report cards

The Eastern Sierras and some crazy cloud action

Reading “Turn teen texting toward better writing; Teachers who co-opt web tools for class have the best of both worlds”, affirmed the success of including digital forms of writing that students are accustomed to using in their daily lives. Justin Reich points out that as teachers “the most productive option is to listen to our teenagers and bridge the gap between their social and academic worlds”. I agree with Reich. I know in my own classroom, students preformed greater on assignments that included digital technology than on the traditional pen and paper assignments. While Reich’s article focuses on including digital writing for teenage students, I can attest that digital writing is practiced by a larger age demographic. College aged students not only e-mail, text, blog, and IM, but also belong to chat groups, “mommy boards”, political web groups, etc. I feel that these digital writing tools can also be useful in building writing skills in a writing classroom. However, as a gal who grew up in the old school-pen and paper-English classroom, I find some technologies less “academic” and harder to include in the classroom but hopefully, I can find ways to manipulate them into something educational.

As I read, “Balto. Co. to Overhaul Report Cards”, I saw both some pros and cons to their new report card system. I feel that there are many benefits to directly e-mailing a child’s report card to a parent. It would be cost free, as no postage fees would apply. It would eliminate the possibility of student tampering or thieving before parents viewed it (Ha, I speak from experience). It would also be faster than traditional mailed grade reports. In addition to the electronic aspect, as a parent I saw many advantages of the new grading scale. The additional information that would be provided could be a very useful tool to parents and allow them to work with their child in the areas and specifics that needed improvement. However, as a teacher I also see the downside of this system and realize that more information on the report card means more work for the teacher. However, I would have to say that the extra work could possibly benefit the instructor if the parents work with their children in the necessary areas.

Teacher Training with Virtual Classroom

Life through the passenger window, Gull Lake, CA on Memorial Day 2008

After reading “Virtual Classroom at the University of Central Florida puts Teachers to the Test” and watching the short video clip of the training, I am amazed at how useful this tool could be in training not only elementary school teachers but college teachers as well. The program’s characters are each crafted to take on a particular personality, which in my opinion, shared drastic similarities to the students that a college teacher can encounter in their classroom. While college professors may not be faced with a student as disruptive as “Marcus”, they will encounter students with distinct personalities that may not want to participate in the class or who may be disruptive in the classroom in a more subtle way. For example, in my first college class I encountered students who texted in class and had a student to came late to class and was very disruptive to the other students. How as teachers do we handle these situations? Could we be trained to handle these situations more professionally? Perhaps if we had practice handling these situations and others before we actually stepped into a classroom we would have a stronger hold on our classroom. Another aspect of the program that I found useful was the fact that they can incorporate a live actor with sensors as one of the students in the classroom, making each training session different and unique to how the teacher in training responds. I am interesting in seeing if this spreads to other universities. I have a feeling that this type of training is very costly, which would prevent some colleges from obtaining such a tool.

The Journey of a Novice Web Designer

For the mid-term assignment, as most of you know I opted to make a website through yahoo's geocities. I thought for your enjoyment and perhaps my own reflection of the entire process, I would give a "behind the scenes tour" of my midterm assignment.

• I had this great vision of getting some photographs of myself on a dirt road in a remote location. An idea that I felt could be artsy and represent my "road" to literacy. So after some nagging and bribing I convinced by Husband to go with me up to the high desert and find a location to shoot some pictures. We ended up finding the perfect spot somewhere off of the 395. I had this perfect shot in mind of me on a dirt road, looking at a map, trying to navigate my way to literacy....sounds deep, right? But I failed to realize some things...

I am not a model nor can I pretend to be.

My husband is not a great photographer.

There is a lot of wind in the desert and holding a paper map is virtually impossible.
Here is a photo from our shoot that didn't make the final cut- Me cursing at wind and husband, while trying not to loose map to the elements.

• Once I had all of my images, I began first in Adobe photoshop. I edited most photos I used, whether they were my own or if I had "borrowed" them from another source. I struggled with finding the happy medium for messing with pictures. I may find it cool to turn my old elementary school blue and purple, but my classmates may think I am smoking something good and not view this edit as creative but as a waste of time.
  
  Here is the original photo of my elementary school

Here is what I did to it:

• The thing I struggled the most was not with the actual technology of creating a website, but the actual host/provider of the website, geocities. As most of you know, I had created an entire website, only to have it deleted by geocities in the wee hours of the morning of the day the mid-term was due. My initial website was a little fancier and I had done a lot of the html coding myself. However, due to great time restraints, my second site that I created was created mainly through using geocities page builders.
  
• Here is a link to my final product http://www.geocities.com/tortoros
  
  HOWEVER...............
  As I found out in class on Tuesday, geocities allows very MINIMAL amounts of data transfer per hour. So basically, only 2 people can view my site per hour....LAME! I guess you get what you pay for...which was nothing.
  Here is what we saw in class on Tuesday.....

Selfe's Toward New Media Texts; Taking Up the Challenges of Visual Literacy

In "Toward New Media Texts; Taking Up the Challenges of Visual Literacy", Selfe continues her argument that first arose in her “Student’s who teach us” piece, that teachers are hesitant to include new media in their classrooms for a variety of reasons. She stresses that most teachers are not comfortable with new media, and feel that if they are not experts on the matter, they can not incorporate it into their classroom. Selfe suggests that teachers who are not confident with incorporating new media into their classrooms can still incorporate it without the expertise of the technology. In fact, later in the essay, she even makes a suggestion for teachers to do the assignments along with their students, so that they may learn the material themselves. In essence, Selfe is saying that teachers need to get over the misconception that they should know everything and just dive into new media.

Selfe offers several assignment possibilities for instructors wishing to include new media in their classrooms. I appreciate that she has made a spectrum of assignments for teachers with varying levels of technological skills. She also has created the assignments to be done not only on a computer but also on “paper” if necessary. Lastly, I like the fact that she has created these assignments with flexibility to allow inclusion not only in the English classroom, but any classroom wishing to include new media texts or visual literacy. As a teacher, I also found the reflection and evaluation sheets she provided helpful for incoprorating into the classroom.

After reading selfe’s essay, I was interested in finding some “sample” products of her assignments. I came across a Canadian visual essay composer, Franke James.
***Disclaimer: The views reflected in the following visual essays by Franke James, do not necessarily reflect the views or values of Jennifer Tortoro :-)> ***

My SUV and Me Say Goodbye
http://www.frankejames.com/debate/?p=22

A Green Winter, Will Global Warming be good for Canada? http://www.frankejames.com/debate/?p=19

To My Future Grandkids in 2020
http://www.frankejames.com/debate/?p=34

Selfe's "Students Who Teach Us"

In her essay, “Students Who Teach Us”, Cynthia Selfe argues for a change in college composition classrooms from emphasizing traditional print-based texts to incorporating and emphasizing new media based texts. By using the example of a college student flunky, David, who despite his many successes in web design, failed out of college due to not succeeding with writing in Standard English and producing traditional print based texts. Students of today’s composition classes are faced with a dilemma; they are communicating, writing, and producing new media texts in their personal and working lives but are being expected to produce and value traditional print based texts in their composition classrooms. Selfe states, “Individuals are often expected to learn, value, and practice both past and present forms of literacy simultaneously and in different spheres of their lives” (50). She uses David’s experience to illustrate the fact that even though he is talented in new media communication, he is being judged solely on his ability to communicate with print based texts. In addition to students like David being at a disadvantage in a composition classroom that merits print based text only, composition teachers of these types of environments are performing a disservice to their students by not reflected the real world. Selfe argues that teachers who do not include new media texts in their classrooms are “abdicating a professional responsibility to describe accurately and robustly how humans communicate, and how they compose and read in contemporary contexts” (55). So if new media texts are so crucial to today’s composition classroom, why are so many teachers neglecting to include them in the classroom? Selfe suggests that teachers are not confident or experienced enough in new media and therefore choose to cling to their print based texts. Selfe suggests that teachers allow some minor role reversal and learn about the technology from their students, so that it may be incorporated into the classroom. She concludes that when instructors begin to incorporate new media texts and pay attention to students’ technological practices, the classroom will then become an environment for which all can learn.

I agree with Selfe’s argument, as a new teacher, I want to include new media texts in my classroom and do so. However, I realize that I am not as techno-savvy as most of my students. I feel the reason instructors struggle so much with the role reversal of letting students teach them about technology and new media, is that they feel 1. that as the instructor of the course they should know everything and 2. that they are giving up some control by turning to a student for help. I feel it is to the instructor’s benefit to overcome these insecurities and allow the students to incorporate their familiar technology outlets to produce and read texts.

Babbage and Vannevar

After last class, I was interested in learning more about the memex and analytic machine that Professor Rhodes discussed in her power point presentation. These great intellects were years ahead in their thinking. Here is a brief summary of these dudes and their contributions to technology.

Vannevar Bush

Bush among the many positions Bush held in his lifetime, was the chairman of the national defense committee in 1940. He also established the U.S. military and University research partnership which together made many strides in the development of technology.

Vannevar’s greatest contribution to the development of technology was his concept of a “memex” which was published in an article As We May Think, which was printed in The Atlantic Journal in July, 1945. Here is a link to the article, http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/194507/bush

For those who wish not to read the article in full, here is the meat and potatoes of the description of a memex:
"Consider a future device for individual use, which is a sort of mechanized private file and library. It needs a name, and to coin one at random, "memex" will do. A memex is a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory.
It consists of a desk, and while it can presumably be operated from a distance, it is primarily the piece of furniture at which he works. On the top are slanting translucent screens, on which material can be projected for convenient reading. There is a keyboard, and sets of buttons and levers. Otherwise it looks like an ordinary desk".

Charles Babbage

Babbage can be given credit for creating the plans for the first “computer”, the analytic machine, which he was never able to actually construct before his death. The analytic machine which would perform calculations and was programmable. The analytic machine came as a “new and improved” version of Babbage’s Difference Engine which also performed calculations.
Moo!
This is off topic, but I found it interesting. Babbage also invented the “cowcatcher”. Which is the object mounted to the front of trains to deflect anything that may get on the track and possibly derail the train. (Old School Cowcatcher top, Modern Day Cowcatcher Below)

Week 1 Readings

In his article, “The Implications of Electronic Information for the Sociology of Knowledge”, Richard Lanham calls attention to the evolution of text from print based to media based. And while our world is becoming more and more fluent in media based texts our classrooms are slow to reflect and incorporate these societal norms. Lanham highlights some of the ways which the arts have changed and continue to change with the help of technology. Despite the many great advances that he discusses, Lanham points out that humanist have their issues with these new “texts”. He states, “it has prompted a hostile response from the humanities establishment because it creates a different literacy from our customary print-based one” (466). While I certainly agree with Lanham that there are many scholars out there that may argue against the validity of non-print based text, however, it seems to me that there is an increasingly growing amount of scholars that see merit in non-print based text and argue for its inclusion in the classroom. Furthermore, Universities are beginning to also see the need for inclusion of such texts and are increasingly purchasing programs such as blackboard and web CT to allow students the opportunity to be exposed to composing non-print text in a scholarly discussion boards. To me it seems as if Lanham is overlooking the technological strides that have been made in classrooms already. Furthermore, it seems that he suggests an all or nothing mentality with electronic technology. If Universities do not invest large sums of money to the development of technology in the classrooms, there can be no benefits. This notion is clearly stated in the last two paragraphs of his article where is he is ranting about budgets and cuts. I disagree with this all or nothing attitude, and feel that there are many benefits to including any type of electronic technology within the classroom. Some exposure to non-print texts and various technologies is better than none at all. The question I had as I finished reading this article is, what are some ways to include electronic technology in the classroom that has very minimal resources?

Well look at me, I'm a Blogger!

Howdy everyone and welcome to my blog! For those of you who don't know me, my name is Jennifer. I am a 26 year old daughter, wife, mother, teacher, student, and now blogger! While I thought my classroom days were over at CSUSB, some recent tragedies in my life have brought me back to school, as I have decided to take the comprehensive exam instead of writing the thesis I had planned to write. I am excited to be back and look forward to all that Professor Rhodes has in store for us this quarter.

What else do you need to know? I cherish my family now more than ever. I realize that you never know how much time you will have with the ones you love, so make each moment count. In addition to family, one of my biggest passions in life is photography. I recently got my first "professional" quality digital camera. I love capturing special moments in my daughter's daily life and I rarely leave home without my camera. I am a seasoned user of Adobe photo shop, as I often use it to edit photographs I have taken.

I teach English at Crafton Hills College and incorporate technology into my teaching. I use internet sites such as you tube and owl at Purdue (online writing lab) in class. I also require my students to use blackboard, so I have learned the other side of blackboard (designing it so that the students can effectively use it). In addition to these resources, I also use Microsoft word and PowerPoint.

In my undergrad which I completed at Cal Poly, some of my courses required us to create and maintain websites. Because of this, I have a pretty good knowledge of the program dream weaver which is used to simplify the creation of web pages. I also know some basic html coding but get easily frustrated with it.

Overall, I enjoy computers and look forward for learning more ways to incorporate technology and visual aids into the teaching of writing. See everyone on Tuesday :-)