Here's the URL for the Blogging Book at Amazon!

No clownin' around...Here's the URL to find out about the book!

http://www.amazon.com/Using-Blogs-Enhance-Literacy-Powerful/dp/1578865662/sr=8-3/qid=1163469307/ref=sr_1_3/103-3910847-4922213?ie=UTF8&s=books

Yes, when cows and dolphins fly...The blog book comes out in March 2007

Well, I heard from my production editor at Rowman & Littlefield today. The target date for the release of the blog book that those of you in my classes hounded me to finish has been set.

Using Blogs to Enhance Literacy will be released March 2007. I know Amazon.com in Canada and a couple of Japanese booksellers already have pre-order stuff up on their sites. I'm sure for those of you interested, Amazon in the US and BN will have their information up soon as well.

I'll post URL information on the blog when the book comes out, since a number of you have asked about it now and again.

Of course, the book is dedicated to all of you who've taken my classes in Writing, Research, Technology or Writing for Electronic Communities or Information Architecture at Rowan. Some of you will find yourselves quoted in the book (and you thought I wasn't paying attention to your ramblings). It's my way of getting even for all the times you've quoted me (correctly or not) in your papers!

Goodbye to the print version of Boondocks!

Many of you know how much I love the newspaper version of Boondocks. I had heard rumors that the print version was being shut down in favor of the Cartoon Network version, and future book & movie deals.

Today I learned that the rumor is true. Happy freakin' Halloween....

Needless to say, I am saddened. The CN version is rarely timely or all that interesting. Book versions of the 'toon are fine, and remind me of the Calvin & Hobbes' series from years ago. (Or the Far Side, or Bloom County...pick your example, I miss them all.)

Producing a daily strip burns out great artists and social commentators. I'm sure Aaron McGruder is tapped out, just like Bill Watterson and Berke Brethed burned out years earlier from their great successes. Maybe in the future McGruder will return to his roots, like Brethed has with "Opus." I can only hope.

While progress happens, sometimes progress just sucks.

So, while I still have a chance to read the daily re-run in the paper, I will. But, those days seem pretty numbered.

I'm going to miss Riley, Huey, Granddad, the neighbors, and especially Ceasar.

Thanks for making my morning and weekend comics reading a highlight for these last couple of years, Aaron McGruder. I've appreciated the trip.

The Last Discussion!

Tonight is our last night's discussion before going into book presentations next week.

If you don't remember, here is the schedule for the next two weeks of presentations:

April 17
Stefanie
Jen
Linda
Allison

April 24
Bill
Shawna
Gary


Of course, Shawna's questions for this week will be posted here.

We're in the proverbial "home stretch" here, all! Now if only Spring and the Yankees will cooperate with us a bit more, the last few weeks will be smooth.

Shawna, take us to the next level!

On to Multimodal Discourse....

Here are Stefanie's questions for the week..

Question 1—covers the Introduction (pages 1-23)

The introduction of this book illustrates concepts discussed in class, such as enframing, the creative class, and techne. We discussed how enframing is the essence of technology and considers the following question: what environment are you in and how do you send the message? How are or should things be framed? The path of technology gives way for the creative class to demonstrate techne—working on the arts of the mind. This book adds more to these previous questions. Page 11 states the following: “New technologies, increasingly ubiquitous, multi-purpose and ‘natural’ in terms of their interfaces, will help create a fourth dimension of communication in the same way that writing created a third—and this time not at the cost of a decrease in multimodality.” Is an increase in multimodality the right and most effective direction for communication in an interactive society? Will writing (a major form of communication) benefit from this theory and practice of multimodal communication? What are the implications of a fourth dimension of communication that stresses the multimodal “language of interior design” and more grammars of modes other than language?

Questions 2 and 3—cover Discourse and Design (pages 24-44)

On page 27, the following statement is made: Colour as mode is entirely distinct from language as mode. What are those distinctions? What are your thoughts about the idea of colour as mode? Another key point made is that language is still the mode that has potential for critique and analysis. How does one critique or analyze colour to come to a better understanding or articulate meaning?

Based on this new theory of multimodal communication—where our lives and professions are emerged within diverse, communicative modes—what terms best correlate with this new theory: de-skilling, re-skilling, or multi-skilling (41)?

Question Four—covers Production and Distribution (pages 66-110)

“The new technologies’ emphasis on multi-modality, three-dimensionality and interactivity can be seen as a return of many of the things that were lost in the transition from ‘orality’ to ‘literacy’, as a ‘secondary orality’, in other words” (92). What are the things that this statement refers to? What will be lost in this new multimodal world of communication—a world that suggests games becoming an art form? It is not about old content but the new mode of participating in society’s narratives—representation and imaginary identification towards participation, community, and co-creation (110).




Question Five—covers Issues for the multimodal agenda (pages 111-133)

The last chapter of this book states that the idea of multimodality is not a new phenomenon. Why should we be interested in a multimodal theory of communication or a greater degree of multimodality? Why move from a monomodal to a multimodal communicational landscape? Is this theory important because of its significance of representation and sending a powerful message to audiences? Or is multimodality concerned with the following: forms of cognition, possibilities for learning, new shapings of knowledge, the management of information, and the shaping of forms of human interaction?


Good stuff for us to think about!

Podcasts bring 24/7 teachers

This is something we were discussing a bit in class recently. What do you think? Can podcasting used in this way be a helpful learning tool for students?

What about for writing classes? Might there be uses for podcasts to teach writing?

Check out the Kansas City Star's article:

Kansas City Star | 03/20/2006 | Podcasts bring 24/7 teachers

Monday Night's Contributions from Tyler!

Tyler's given us some things to think about as we return from a well deserved Spring Break. He's cited pages and places for everyone to concentrate on as we mull over his questions....

Feenberg & Barney: Pages 143-160; 183-238; 263-282.

1) Shade’s essay, “Gender and the Commodification…” looks at feminism in cyberspace by examining two internet communities. Both started out as places for intelligent female discourse but after various mergers and buyouts, both became commercialized and their message became diluted in the search for wider audiences and higher profits. Shade talks about the blurring lines between content and advertising. Can quality content remain uninfluenced by advertisers on these websites? Do you see a difference between advertisements on the internet and advertisements in other mediums (magazines, television, etc…)? If so, what are those differences and should we seek to prohibit them?

2) Kahn and Kellner’s essay, “Virtually Democratic…” examines how the spread of the internet and related technologies has had an effect on globalization and politics. The essay looks at the ways all sides have taken advantage of these new mediums and worked to get their respective messages out. We see new subcultures pop up everyday and they’re given a voice that they didn’t have before. Do you think we will continue to see more participatory democratic processes or will the further spread of capitalist ideals into the internet stunt the growth of free speech? What are some other movements you see coming in our future? (as in formats like blogs and wikis)

3) Agre’s article, “The Practical Republic…” looks at some different political philosophies and brings up the four-dimensional lattice structure. “From this perspective, the crucial type of capital that a society needs is not social networks but social skill.” (212) Agre later goes on to say, “But technology is not central; what is central are the choices we make….” (214) Do you agree with his assessment? Can technology be used for anything more than organization? What?

4) Etzioni’s essay, “On Virtual, Democratic Communities” looks at communities in both the real world and in the virtual world and what it means to be a true community. Etzioni examines studies detailing how people’s internet use affects their real world lives concluding that internet use usually enhances community. Etzioni goes further in brainstorming how the internet can be used in our democratic process (232-237). Do you see Etizoni’s idea of “multilayered democracy” (235-236) conducted on the internet as something feasible? If not, why not and what steps could be taken to create a more plausible scenario? Is such a scenario even possible?

5) Schuler’s article, “Toward Civic Intelligence….” discuses various concerns having to do with certain technological advancements and whether or not humanity will lose control of them. A strong civic intelligence would be a way to keep ourselves in control. Schuler examines the possibilities. With the rise of the internet and other technologies, do you think we’re reaching a point where an idea similar to Wells’s World Encyclopedia is finally possible? Can we strengthen civic intelligence in the ways Schuler describes? Or do you see us becoming too dependant on technology and losing control because humanity was unable to overcome their differences to participate in a “World Brain?”

ReadWriteThink: Lesson Plan: Blogtopia: Blogging about Your Own Utopia

I know Miss Fox and others who are teaching might want to consider an assignment that integrates blogging across the curriculum. This "blogtopia" project seems like a pretty cool idea on a way to integrate blogging and course content in school lessons.

Take a look. Let's discuss when we return to class on Monday.


ReadWriteThink: Lesson Plan: Blogtopia: Blogging about Your Own Utopia

Resolution on Composing with Nonprint Media

I know this is a bit ahead of where we're going in class, but in the next few weeks we'll be moving toward how writing for electronic communities influence the classroom.

Here's a link to the NCTE Position Statement on composing with nonprint media. Take a look:

Resolution on Composing with Nonprint Media

USATODAY.com - What you say online could haunt you

Thought some of you might like to read this, given we've been talking about issues along these lines over the last couple of weeks.

USATODAY.com - What you say online could haunt you