In classroom with videogame playing students, discussing the proper usage of “pwnd” (there are several other spellings) in a videogame is a good way to discuss insider and outsider status based on language usage. In a videogame, when a player obliterates or decimates their opponent, quickly defeats, or in many various ways beats their opponents (the actual activity really depends on the game) the winner will taunt the loser by saying “you got pwnd,” or simply “pwnage.” In some videogames, “pwnd” is simply “owned” misspelled and popularized amongst videogame players. Misusing the term signals your status as a new player to that game. Correctly using and defeating an opponent show your advanced status. Correctly using terms in academia signal membership in similar ways. As instructors, we’ve all read the paper where a student used a thesaurus to increase the syllables of every other word in their paper. Having a thesaurus tool available through word processing programs is detrimental to the writing of some students, especially when they believe increasing the syllables is all that is necessary to increase the level of argument in their paper. Instead, as instructors, we see their usage of terms as demonstrating their novice status within the community, just like misusing “pwnd.” Discussing the proper usage of terminology, the proper use of applications within word processing programs, and the proper layout for papers and how these skills make up practices within academic digital literacy can all be bridged from discussions about “pwnage.”
Monday, November 22, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
romance reception
Romance Reading on the Internet
Nicole Pfannenstiel
Often referred to as bodice rippers, the Romance novel genre continues to be one of the bestselling book genres in the US. The genre is overlooked at best, and maligned at worst, especially by critics. As so many books continue to sell, how do romance readers find the books they want to read, and what do they do once they’ve read them. In the age of new media, romance readers no longer have to find their bookstore version of Dot (Radway), they can now scour the internet to find a community that meets their romance reading needs. Looking specifically at a GoodReads (goodreads.com) Romance reading community, this paper will discuss how moderators and participants create and sustain community within the subgroup to encourage connections through internet technology. To discuss how GoodReads romance readers simultaneously try to find satisfying books and rescue a genre, current theories of audience receptions (Mailloux, Bratich and Jenkins) will be used to discuss the ways readers of romance approach the texts and discuss the texts. Within this discussion, participants and moderators inhabit contested space simply based on the genre they choose to read. The ways participants reconcile their participation in that space creates complex interactions that ultimately deal with the love of a heroine and hero. The ways participants discuss romance novels, their reading of romance novels, and their reception of romance novels will be discussed as the key elements that create and sustain a complex virtual community on GoodReads.
Nicole Pfannenstiel
Often referred to as bodice rippers, the Romance novel genre continues to be one of the bestselling book genres in the US. The genre is overlooked at best, and maligned at worst, especially by critics. As so many books continue to sell, how do romance readers find the books they want to read, and what do they do once they’ve read them. In the age of new media, romance readers no longer have to find their bookstore version of Dot (Radway), they can now scour the internet to find a community that meets their romance reading needs. Looking specifically at a GoodReads (goodreads.com) Romance reading community, this paper will discuss how moderators and participants create and sustain community within the subgroup to encourage connections through internet technology. To discuss how GoodReads romance readers simultaneously try to find satisfying books and rescue a genre, current theories of audience receptions (Mailloux, Bratich and Jenkins) will be used to discuss the ways readers of romance approach the texts and discuss the texts. Within this discussion, participants and moderators inhabit contested space simply based on the genre they choose to read. The ways participants reconcile their participation in that space creates complex interactions that ultimately deal with the love of a heroine and hero. The ways participants discuss romance novels, their reading of romance novels, and their reception of romance novels will be discussed as the key elements that create and sustain a complex virtual community on GoodReads.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
literacy examples
for a paper i'm re-writing, trying to provide more concrete examples of academic literacy and the way it presumes understanding of how to 'act' literate. that theoretical discussion goes first, more new media examples will go after this section. hopefully it sounds good.
Seeing literacy as tied to action as well as reading and writing is important. My mom tells a story of eating breakfast with an Uncle. He sat down at the restaurant, picked up the menu, appeared to peruse it. He then ordered the same meal as someone else at the table, which did not seem odd. It wasn’t until a few days later that she learned he was illiterate. Instead of drawing attention to his inability to read the menu to select a meal, he simply followed the traditional actions, then ordered the same meal as someone else. My mom had no idea he was illiterate.
This example doesn’t help with freshmen college students, who should be more literate. I have a friend who completed an online course recently. The course consisted of reading text books, notes provided by the professor, completing online quizzes, and then two major exams. The professor asked a lengthy (expecting a 5 page response) quiz question, then re-asked the same question on the exam. Every student who re-used their quiz answer received a zero. At no time during the semester were academic integrity issues discussed, the professor assumed students understood self-plagiarism, so felt it was fair to reuse a test question. In this case, students became victim of the problem with how academic integrity is approached in college classes today. Instead of devoting online space to discussing academic integrity, the professor assumes students are aware, and then punishes students by giving them zero’s when they exhibit the wrong behavior. There is no way for students to simply order what someone else is, and pretend to read a menu to pass the literacy test in academia. Instead, they must always present the correct identity when displaying their literacy surrounding academic integrity at the college level.
Seeing literacy as tied to action as well as reading and writing is important. My mom tells a story of eating breakfast with an Uncle. He sat down at the restaurant, picked up the menu, appeared to peruse it. He then ordered the same meal as someone else at the table, which did not seem odd. It wasn’t until a few days later that she learned he was illiterate. Instead of drawing attention to his inability to read the menu to select a meal, he simply followed the traditional actions, then ordered the same meal as someone else. My mom had no idea he was illiterate.
This example doesn’t help with freshmen college students, who should be more literate. I have a friend who completed an online course recently. The course consisted of reading text books, notes provided by the professor, completing online quizzes, and then two major exams. The professor asked a lengthy (expecting a 5 page response) quiz question, then re-asked the same question on the exam. Every student who re-used their quiz answer received a zero. At no time during the semester were academic integrity issues discussed, the professor assumed students understood self-plagiarism, so felt it was fair to reuse a test question. In this case, students became victim of the problem with how academic integrity is approached in college classes today. Instead of devoting online space to discussing academic integrity, the professor assumes students are aware, and then punishes students by giving them zero’s when they exhibit the wrong behavior. There is no way for students to simply order what someone else is, and pretend to read a menu to pass the literacy test in academia. Instead, they must always present the correct identity when displaying their literacy surrounding academic integrity at the college level.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
rewriting . . . . again
new focus . . . hopefully it makes sense
To better understand how fans of videogames participate in play, two online game fan communities will be discussed as literate spaces that provide additional space for fans to explore game play.
To better understand how fans of videogames participate in play, two online game fan communities will be discussed as literate spaces that provide additional space for fans to explore game play.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
cooties . . thats right it all started with cooties
Today I went to an organic farmer’s market on campus, part of the green initiative at ASU. While there my friend and I purchased a tamale boat to share. When we mentioned we would be sharing, the seller offered to split it for us. We declined saying we don’t have cooties, we’ll be fine. At this point it became apparent that the seller was not a native English speaker because he became confused by the term ‘cooties’ thinking we were saying ‘cuties.’ He then said that was a new word, what did it mean. So there the two of us stood trying to explain cooties. We said it’s like an imaginary germ, often seen between five year old girls and five year old boys. This confused him even more, so he asked his young assistant to explain it to him. She struggled just as much, also saying it’s a way of referring to germs.
With a word like cooties, the word looses all meaning out of context. To children on the playground, the word has HUGE significance. To non-native English speakers communicating with adult native English speakers, the word seems out of context, out of place, and just confusing. Idioms, sayings, quotes, all have the same contextual tie, and when used out of context or with individuals who can’t make the connection back to a previous context the terms lose all meaning. This is one of those cases where our brains process so much information in such a short period of time that we never have to consider context when placing word definitions. We run through all the possibilities subconsciously and adjust our definitions of words while the speaker continues to add context through language.
With a word like cooties, the word looses all meaning out of context. To children on the playground, the word has HUGE significance. To non-native English speakers communicating with adult native English speakers, the word seems out of context, out of place, and just confusing. Idioms, sayings, quotes, all have the same contextual tie, and when used out of context or with individuals who can’t make the connection back to a previous context the terms lose all meaning. This is one of those cases where our brains process so much information in such a short period of time that we never have to consider context when placing word definitions. We run through all the possibilities subconsciously and adjust our definitions of words while the speaker continues to add context through language.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
virtual reality
My problem with virtual reality, and movement in 3 dimensional space is the loss of game and play we experience when the space is moved more toward reality. The point and purpose of games is the play aspect. Even when playing dominoes or scrabble there is play at work, we know we’re playing a game, with rules that don’t match real life. Even in games that involve monetary bets like poker and blackjack that affect reality, the moment of betting and gaming is still play. Until we’ve won big or lost big, the actual cards represent play. The after effects are the reality.
So when we discuss virtual reality games that would require a player to move to model the movements into the game world, real life physicality becomes an issue. With the new Tony Hawk game where a player uses a skateboard type remote control to play, the player must learn to make the skateboard movements on the remote control, but they must be more physically fit and capable than a player with a traditional console controller. Instead of allowing the suspension of disbelief like a skateboard game does (the gamer controlling the action does n ot need to be able to complete any of the actions) a more based on real life controller requires the player to know more about actual, real life skateboarding. We’ve begun to move game space toward reality, like the poker player who loses their life savings. The virtual reality game space no longer allows for suspension of disbelief because the player must be able to make all motions very similar to how they would in real life. Therefore, an important aspect of play is lost in the physicality of the game design.
So when we discuss virtual reality games that would require a player to move to model the movements into the game world, real life physicality becomes an issue. With the new Tony Hawk game where a player uses a skateboard type remote control to play, the player must learn to make the skateboard movements on the remote control, but they must be more physically fit and capable than a player with a traditional console controller. Instead of allowing the suspension of disbelief like a skateboard game does (the gamer controlling the action does n ot need to be able to complete any of the actions) a more based on real life controller requires the player to know more about actual, real life skateboarding. We’ve begun to move game space toward reality, like the poker player who loses their life savings. The virtual reality game space no longer allows for suspension of disbelief because the player must be able to make all motions very similar to how they would in real life. Therefore, an important aspect of play is lost in the physicality of the game design.
Monday, August 23, 2010
ahhhh football
school is back in session for college students. YAY!!!! so this morning we had a discussion about culture, how to define culture, what makes up culture, how it gains power. all i asked was "what is culture" and early in the morning my students came up with great examples of how to provide examples and ideas about what makes up and defines culture. a sometimes difficult task. one of the examples that really struck home was sports. americans are one of the only countries who love football, and have all sorts of ideas, practices, identities, beliefs, and values surrounding sports. my students were able to enumerate many of these things, and how they felt about them. i then brought up videogames, of course. as my husband plays madden, he often complains about the lack of fan presence at milehigh stadium whenever there is weather. denver and green bay are well known for their fandom, their sold out stadiums for decades, their love of their teams. however, they are represented completely differently in the game. for a true fan, without recognizing the slight against their form of fandom, they are offended by how they are represented in the game. the complaints voiced by my husband are legitimate concerns about how a game is representing the fans of a team he loves. how could a videogame franchise so ingrained in game play botch up fandom so bad????
ahhhhh romance, its totally research
Flowers from the Storm by Laura KinsaleMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
really solid heorine and hero, madness and religion issues. just a great story!
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Thursday, August 19, 2010
goodreads review
An Introduction to Discourse Analysis: Theory and Method, Second edition by James Paul GeeMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
very useful. helps provide tools and questions for when looking at language and language usage
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Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Lets liven up with literature
Ok, I saw these lists on another blog (blog browsing again) and I thought the list was terrible. Sorry to the person who created the list, but they were trying too hard to pick controversial characters they had to defend or that made them look literary cool. So, I give you my list and reasoning.
Top Ten Picks: Favorite Female Literary Character
1. Elizabeth Bennet – contemplates ideas of marriage and love in a time where women had no power, control, they weren’t even considered human, and she wanted love to dictate her life choices. That’s pretty progressive, and she was written by a woman. A classic example of culture affecting literature, and standing the test of time.
2. Kit Tyler – I know, I’ve written about her before, but she’s just so fun to read about. Completely out of her element in clothing, understanding, culture, weather, you name it she does it different. But she makes it work, teaches people reading, is tried as a witch. Classic American literature.
3. Anne of Green Gables – she’s a spirited, adopted red head who causes childhood problems, and drama. Just SO fun to read.
4. lyra belacqua – another children’s book. Through the trilogy you get to watch lyra grow up and figure out the world. It’s quite a journey, and the ending is so bitter-sweet it’s hard not to love lyra.
5. Margaret Hale – sent away from her family to be raised by an aunt in London, then upon her return she’s uprooted to a whole different life in the north, Margaret works through the culture shock and forces other characters to confront ideas of class and religion. She also rejects a lot of marriage proposals.
6. hermoine grainger – she makes being a nerd cool again!
7. Anne Elliot – forced to give up her beloved, she is the anchor of her family, and the most walked upon. Then she is forced to watch her love flirt with another woman while he’s still in love with her.
8. Elphaba – born to crazy parents, she struggles with water, rain, and fights for the rights of Animals. The loss of love that causes her ultimate break is so touching. You really can love the wicked witch.
9. Elinor Dashwood – the quietest of the dashwood sisters, elinor suffers heart break privately while working to keep her sister in one piece, and her family safe and comfortable.
10. Scarlett O’Hara – she’s tough, always pining for what she really doesn’t want, but when taxes are levied and need to be paid, Scarlett steps in and gets the bills paid, delivers babies, kills ravaging soldiers, and makes a dress out of curtains.
Top Ten Picks: Favorite Male Literary Character
1. Fitzwilliam Darcy – he may not be in book that much, but anyone who antagonizes a woman because he loves her is amazing. It really helps that he puts aside all pride and helps her family, and still wants her to accept him because of love, not what he can offer.
2. the dad from The Road – ok the world is shambles and he works hard through the whole novel to protect his son, provide him with necessary skills, and teach him to read as they have time.
3. Rhett Butler – another character who just doesn’t quite understand how to woo his woman. Eventually he catches her, and delivers one of the most poignant lines “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn” ahhhhhhhh.
4. Will Parry – another children’s book. Will is in 2 and 3 of His Dark Materials trilogy. He comes from a difficult home, but he manages to find his path, and love. He works so hard to help lyra on her journey.
5. Mr. John Thornton – he seems all standoffish, and firm, but he’s really a big softie. His father tragically destroyed the family, and he dedicated his life to restoring the family name.
6. Quoyle – a large awkward man who suffers when his children’s mother dies tragically. He uproots his family to Newfoundland and discovers dark family secrets, shipping news, new culture, love and squid pie.
7. Holden Caulfied – teenage angst at its finest with culture critique thrown in for good measure. Holden embodies the outsider in his quest to protect purity.
8. harry potter – its just hard not to love the boy wizard who stumbled into awesomeness.
9. Pi – he survived a boat crash, and then the ocean while living on a life boat with a tiger.
10. Beowulf – after spending a semester translating Old English you develop a real bond for Beowulf of the Geats.
Top Ten Picks: Favorite Female Literary Character
1. Elizabeth Bennet – contemplates ideas of marriage and love in a time where women had no power, control, they weren’t even considered human, and she wanted love to dictate her life choices. That’s pretty progressive, and she was written by a woman. A classic example of culture affecting literature, and standing the test of time.
2. Kit Tyler – I know, I’ve written about her before, but she’s just so fun to read about. Completely out of her element in clothing, understanding, culture, weather, you name it she does it different. But she makes it work, teaches people reading, is tried as a witch. Classic American literature.
3. Anne of Green Gables – she’s a spirited, adopted red head who causes childhood problems, and drama. Just SO fun to read.
4. lyra belacqua – another children’s book. Through the trilogy you get to watch lyra grow up and figure out the world. It’s quite a journey, and the ending is so bitter-sweet it’s hard not to love lyra.
5. Margaret Hale – sent away from her family to be raised by an aunt in London, then upon her return she’s uprooted to a whole different life in the north, Margaret works through the culture shock and forces other characters to confront ideas of class and religion. She also rejects a lot of marriage proposals.
6. hermoine grainger – she makes being a nerd cool again!
7. Anne Elliot – forced to give up her beloved, she is the anchor of her family, and the most walked upon. Then she is forced to watch her love flirt with another woman while he’s still in love with her.
8. Elphaba – born to crazy parents, she struggles with water, rain, and fights for the rights of Animals. The loss of love that causes her ultimate break is so touching. You really can love the wicked witch.
9. Elinor Dashwood – the quietest of the dashwood sisters, elinor suffers heart break privately while working to keep her sister in one piece, and her family safe and comfortable.
10. Scarlett O’Hara – she’s tough, always pining for what she really doesn’t want, but when taxes are levied and need to be paid, Scarlett steps in and gets the bills paid, delivers babies, kills ravaging soldiers, and makes a dress out of curtains.
Top Ten Picks: Favorite Male Literary Character
1. Fitzwilliam Darcy – he may not be in book that much, but anyone who antagonizes a woman because he loves her is amazing. It really helps that he puts aside all pride and helps her family, and still wants her to accept him because of love, not what he can offer.
2. the dad from The Road – ok the world is shambles and he works hard through the whole novel to protect his son, provide him with necessary skills, and teach him to read as they have time.
3. Rhett Butler – another character who just doesn’t quite understand how to woo his woman. Eventually he catches her, and delivers one of the most poignant lines “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn” ahhhhhhhh.
4. Will Parry – another children’s book. Will is in 2 and 3 of His Dark Materials trilogy. He comes from a difficult home, but he manages to find his path, and love. He works so hard to help lyra on her journey.
5. Mr. John Thornton – he seems all standoffish, and firm, but he’s really a big softie. His father tragically destroyed the family, and he dedicated his life to restoring the family name.
6. Quoyle – a large awkward man who suffers when his children’s mother dies tragically. He uproots his family to Newfoundland and discovers dark family secrets, shipping news, new culture, love and squid pie.
7. Holden Caulfied – teenage angst at its finest with culture critique thrown in for good measure. Holden embodies the outsider in his quest to protect purity.
8. harry potter – its just hard not to love the boy wizard who stumbled into awesomeness.
9. Pi – he survived a boat crash, and then the ocean while living on a life boat with a tiger.
10. Beowulf – after spending a semester translating Old English you develop a real bond for Beowulf of the Geats.
Monday, August 2, 2010
another goodreads
Hunting Ground by Patricia BriggsMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
a bit cheezy, and i figured out the big mystery about halfway through, so that was disappointing. but its really hard not to love the messed-up but healing omega, and the hit-man alpha who is really a big softie. reading their love story makes it all worth it!
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Monday, July 19, 2010
Book review from goodreads
Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches' Guide to Romance Novels by Sarah WendellMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
the authors defend their position of giving rough reviews to romance novels, grading most at a D or C level with only a handful making it to the A or B level. given their criteria i want my 5 to be measured on that, i don't like everything i read.
the authors strive to defend the genre to those who also enjoy the genre. their witty banter is enjoyable, and their breaking down of the romance genre useful when looking at the ways cultural times affect the stories. its a cross between a for fun book and an academic book, so beware. most importantly they discuss at length how romance is written "by women for women" so it's always already subversive, subversive to the tune of 65 million books sold to mostly college educated readers. go feminism! :)
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Sunday, July 18, 2010
academic integrity
With the increasing popularity of the sparkly vampire, YouTube (www.youtube.com) has a plethora of videos devoted to sparkly vampire slaying. Black and white albums are combined to create controversial grey albums. Information is available in encyclopedia form at our finger tips. In the age of blogs, mashups, smashups and Wikipedia how do students learn academic integrity when real life internet use doesn’t require it?
Saturday, June 12, 2010
blog browsing brings new post
The Introverted Reader (http://theintrovertedreader.blogspot.com/) has a series she posts on her favorite characters. Since i've been blog browsing a bunch lately i think i'll join her character connection weekly posting. so, once a week we're tasked with posting a blog about our favorite literary characters. this first one should be no surprise . . . .The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare was an absolute FAVORITE book while i was growing up. my brother and sister both fell in love with it after i did, so my first character is Kit Tyler, the main character. 
Kit Tyler was raised in Barbados by her grandfather before the book begins. upon the death of her grandfather and her refusal of a marriage offer, kit sails to Connecticut to live with her aunt. moving from the tropical paradise of barbados to the puritanical new england is a HUGE culture shift for kit, and she struggles. eventually she begins to find her place in the society, making friends with a quaker widow, children she is teaching, and of course the love interest Nat.
Kit Tyler is one of my favorite literary characters. she's a strong female lead who sees the need for female education when early american settlers refused female education. she struggles with religious differences, with making friends with outcasts, and with being courted by the wrong men. her position within the community is tenuous, as she learns the ways of early american puritans, the reader learns about life, struggles, and how easy it was to be convinced women were witches. kit's witch trial has a much more positive ending than most of the trials of her day, but her character brings the struggles of women to light. speare does an amazing job describing everyday life. although this is considered a children's book, it describes the politics of civilization in ways that even adults will find fascinating. most of the book focuses on the life of women in the town, their struggles based on gender, and their role in town life. eventually kit decides to leave new england to return to barbados after never finding her place in society. while thinking of returning to a barbados without her grandfather she realizes the same thing, she has no home in barbados without him. through this final pondering of 'home' speare illuminates the plight of women, and their tie to the men in their lives. without a grandfather in barbados kit had nothing to go to, with her cousins getting married in conecticut and her lack of fitting in she is ostrasized. she is homeless because she no longer has a protector. the novel finishes with Nat returning to port with a vessel of his own to provide the home for Kit that is not just a home, but a male protector too. modern feminists may balk at the tie between a man and the idea of home, but speare writes such an endearing character in kit that her struggles with this tie between home and a man are realistic struggles for women. developing a character who grew up in a culture where the tie between home and man was looser than the tie within puritanical society illuminates the tie and the cultural struggle kit must go through. this book is a must read for readers of all ages!
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
communities of practice
Communities of practice is a way of looking at learning as inherently embedded in the social. We can’t learn stuff, language, ideas, practices, behavior, identity, rules, etc out of context, we’re always learning these things as they specifically apply to a given situation. We’re learning what words mean, and how to use them in context. It’s most notable in the lingo we use, especially surrounding the work environment. If I describe QBU actions as app engine programs that take specified action to a group identified in a query, I’m speaking a specific techy language as it applies to a specific schools implementation of a student information management system. If I talk about how useful fuel is because I click fewer squares while harvesting crops, I’m talking about how I function and understand tools provided to me in Farmville. If I reference JAFF I’m speaking about a specific group of people and demonstrating my identity with them by knowing the acronym. So the idea of communities of practice functions as a way of looking at the learning that individuals go through as new members, existing members, outside members, leading members, etc of the various groups they participate in on a daily basis. These practices seem inherently social, verbal, and real life. To apply to internet environments we (as educators) would need to identify ways of encouraging group participation and group knowledge discovery in an online class environment. So, how do we structure an online classroom, given all the preconceived ideas students have about them, in ways to foster true social learning? To being, for English/Composition 101 we would need to decide what our main goals are. Besides exposure to college based writing, what else are we teaching students? To read assignment sheets? To be college students? To think critically? What else is important and how do we make those important values in our classroom community so the students will learn them through participation in the class as they learn the practices of the community?
check out this book for more information Wenger, Etienne. (1998). Communities of practice: learning, meaning and identity. New York, NY: Cambridge university press.
check out this book for more information Wenger, Etienne. (1998). Communities of practice: learning, meaning and identity. New York, NY: Cambridge university press.
Monday, May 24, 2010
what influences common word usage?
DailyKos is a liberal blog community devoted and acclaimed for speaking about liberal issues and opening conversation to those who choose to join. In recent books, Geoffrey Nunberg has articulated how the rhetoric of the right has taken hold of common discourse about politics. This paper looks at a liberal political blog community to show how their discourse coincides with Nunberg’s thesis, DailyKos members use common political terms created by Conservatives to begin their liberal conversation in the political blog community. Administrators of DailyKos also use common Conservative terminology to build a community of liberals within the DailyKos site. This paper will analyze the discourse of the site to show how these terms are used unconsciously, but how they function to build group identity within the space, while reifying the Conservative meanings of terms like “health reform” and “values.”
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
gamer identity issues
Last week in my videogame class I raised a question toward the end that made sense only to the teacher. So now I’ve thought it through, and I think I can raise it better. To understand the games I played for this check out http://www.filamentgames.com/projects
ok, i had a whole week to think through my question from the end of class and i think i can better phrase it now, especially given the games we played for this week. when we truly play games for fun we learn as a consequence of playing, but the focus of our game play is on the playing experience. in some cases we develop a specialized Discourse (i.e. pwnd) that accompanies our play, we begin to play games that are very similar (my husband plays sports games and shooter games, that's about it). 'serious' gamers develop a gamer personality surrounding their game play. casual gamers play slightly differently, but still play for the experience, i farm for experience. they also develop specialized languages and Discourses assigning in-game meaning to seemingly useless things (like farmville and fuel). the home game experience of casual gamers and serious gamers is all about experience. casual gamers more interested in wii games, and other console games of a similar nature again play for the experience. it is fun to wii bowl with family and friends who otherwise wouldn't play games.
in educational games we're asking students (but not actually asking) to put aside the fun experience of game they're used to and actually learn through the game. this is where i have my issue and where my question stems from. we never discuss the importance of explaining the purpose of using a game to students, we never discuss how the home gamer identity may impact the school based learning we're expecting, we never contemplate the school based gamer identity students must develop to be successful in school games. we're so focused on the good learning that can come from games, that we never consider how the home gamer experience may impact school game play. this is a key point that needs to be addressed.
thinking about this as i played the Filament Games this week i began to see the issue. first i played Argument Wars. this game was fairly interactive, and pretty easy to figure out the right answers for Miranda v.
next in argument wars, being an English Rhetoric and Composition student i immediately noticed the 5 paragraph essay design of the game (bonus points to your English 101 and high school English teachers if you noticed this as well!!). was i supposed to also learn how to select an argument, provide support and counter the opposing views argument, like a traditional essay? was i supposed to learn the laywer/judicial Discourse being used in the court cases, or just feel slightly left out of the Discourse being used around me in the game? am i supposed to now understand argument, the five paragraph essay, argument support, judicial discourse, academic discourse, and some of the ammendement content? what was the point of playing this game. again, if the teacher needs to step in and direct students whose expectations are being met, and do we have gamer identity issues here?
obviously i'm saying yes to all this, that's why i asked the question last week about home gamer identity not necessarily melding with school gamer identity. the 17 year old government high school student playing Argument Wars instead of Halo may want to scream pwnd when he/she wins miranda rights over the state of
next i played EcoDefenders. the little creaters are pretty cute, so it was pretty fun. i LOVED that this was considered and called a simulation. i created a creature to destroy another creature, then was told to "run it through the simulation" to gather data and see what happened. this was perfectly fitting for testing my knowledge of ecosystems. my creature totally destroyed the one i was competing against, but i do have a biology degree, so i'm sure that helped me. it was the fact that this was not a game, but a simulation that made it easier to understand my in game objectives, and behave in more 'school mode' than 'gamer mode.' however, the rest of the games i saw were called games, not simulations. so maybe we need to move toward school games being considered simulations, and think about them as ways of implementing knowledge. this may help alleviate the gamer identity issues i'm noticing. i did see identity issues with this game, i was asked to create my creature, and probably spent 5-10 minutes deciding. i had to weigh the skills, colors, sleeping habits against my counter part. again, having a biology degree i knew to look at these factors, and if preceeded by a lecture students should know this, so again, it seems like teachers are setting objectives for how games are played in school, influencing this yet undiscussed 'school gamer identity.'
my only problem with EcoDefenders is that as soon as my creature destroyed its opponent, i was given a test. so what was the purpose here? was this a simulation in skill and drill, did the test make it educational? did the test have real life consequences? should i have been so excited for getting 100% (i'm a nerd)? how does the successful defeat of my opponent creature and my success on the test matter to my class? who sets these goals, and again, how do they affect my 'play'? am i even playing anymore?
hopefully this helps explain my issue with gamer identity posed last week in class. i think when used correctly games can be helpful, but we really need to understand what we expect them to do, and what they do on accident (was the 5 paragraph essay format an accident?). if we don't recognize the home gamer identity, and the difference we're expecting in schools, and address what we're expecting in schools games/simulations (i'm really leaning towards overhauling word choice and going with simulations in school settings) may never move beyond rewards for good students.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
language work
When we make a promise, we do something through language. Promising is verb that cannot be acted out in physical embodied actions like running, jumping, writing. Making a promise is an action that is considered social work. It bonds two people together through the words uttered. Other forms of language create bonding situations. In some cases we understand the bonding language and participate, becoming a bonding member of that social group for that moment, other times we don’t understand the language and are left on the outside of the bonding. Yesterday I saw a situation where 4 co-workers assisted a gentleman and his lady friend. Both were probably in their late 50’s. The lady was wearing an electric blue, skin tight mini dress, and was thin. As soon as she turned around her dress then showed the black straps criss-crossing across her back. As soon as she was out of ear shot three of the 4 co-workers immediately huddled up and starting asking if everyone saw the dress and what was she thinking. The fourth co-worker attempted to join the conversation about the hideous dress, but had great difficulty being convincing in his conversation skills, so he appeared on the outside of bonding, actually standing at a socially awkward angle to the other three huddled employees. In this case language did a lot of harm and a lot of good. The dress wearing woman has no idea any of this conversation happened, so surprisingly it’s not her that felt harm, but the non-bonding employee at the awkward angle. He was unable to join in the impromptu office bonding session so he was left out of the bonding through language, impacting his perceived identity by his co-workers, and he was physically left out and he hung on the skirts of the impromptu circle. In this case he tried to join the bonding, but was not as effective as the other three; they saw through his attempts and deemed them either inadequate, fake, or simply not correct for what they were doing, so they dismissed it. In human interaction through language we communicate more than just meaning, we communicate identity, social position and social relationships. We build contexts in which these meanings occur, and we assume roles as appropriate within each context. For the most part this social work is done subconsciously. In cases where bonding fails, the failure becomes more conscious, and in most cases is due to differing styles of bonding. In this case the outcast employee was male; his typical bonding patterns were not conducive to electric blue dress choice analysis. But, could we get the bonding employees to recognize that their choice of bonding method is what left out the fourth co-worker or will they simply heap the blame on him for not participating in the right way?
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
context matters
i read three articles for my videogame class that focus on design and context and the interelatedness of these two things. These articles made me think of online education. currently it seems English educators (those teaching 101/102) are intimidated by virtual space. typcially we're known for teaching shakespeare and austen so of course the internet intimidates us. but, we're moving toward the internet with classes, so educators within English trying to help with this transition are trying to make the internet less frightening by telling educators you can simply translate your face-to-face assignments to virtual space, and wahlah, you're now teaching a virtual class. in this way the big bad scary internet is no longer scary. but this approach is supposing there is nothing really going on in a face-to-face classroom outside the assignments, and it's assuming that the context of virtual space has no impact at all on the classroom environment. well . . .we all know what they say about assuming.
so, based on these articles, the design of a given videogame influences the literacy practices in and around that game. some of the skills developed to learn to be in (literacy as more than just reading and writing and into learning how to be and how to communicate within spaces) a given videogame can transfer, but essentiall the game stands alone. so, what i want to know is how do we apply these ideas to online education (hello dissertation).
thinking about the importance of context: How do we create context "to be encountered by a participant, from which meaning emerges" while teaching a virtual course (Zimmerman, 28)? how do we design the context to be condusive to more traditional school based learning, where students still feel engaged with the instructor, their peers and the institution (which just helps graduation rates in the end)? I especially like the idea that "people pick up different skills, values, and attitudes in different literacy practices. Thus, we need to study literacy in terms of specific practices situated in specific social and cultural contexts" (Gee & Hayes, 2). If we apply this idea to the virtual classroom we also have to ask questions about different classroom experiences students may have due entirely to the context, and what are the advantages, disadvantages? how do we teach students how to be students, and learn when they aren't sitting in front of us? how do we transfer all the social work we do through language into virtual space, since Gee & Hayes are making space important to all that other stuff?
so, based on these articles, the design of a given videogame influences the literacy practices in and around that game. some of the skills developed to learn to be in (literacy as more than just reading and writing and into learning how to be and how to communicate within spaces) a given videogame can transfer, but essentiall the game stands alone. so, what i want to know is how do we apply these ideas to online education (hello dissertation).
thinking about the importance of context: How do we create context "to be encountered by a participant, from which meaning emerges" while teaching a virtual course (Zimmerman, 28)? how do we design the context to be condusive to more traditional school based learning, where students still feel engaged with the instructor, their peers and the institution (which just helps graduation rates in the end)? I especially like the idea that "people pick up different skills, values, and attitudes in different literacy practices. Thus, we need to study literacy in terms of specific practices situated in specific social and cultural contexts" (Gee & Hayes, 2). If we apply this idea to the virtual classroom we also have to ask questions about different classroom experiences students may have due entirely to the context, and what are the advantages, disadvantages? how do we teach students how to be students, and learn when they aren't sitting in front of us? how do we transfer all the social work we do through language into virtual space, since Gee & Hayes are making space important to all that other stuff?
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
why am i in eng 101?
What is the point of English 101? In high school we attend classes of different subject matter, and are slightly exposed to the idea that not all disciplines communicate the same. We know to use slightly different words when describing aspects of literature and narrative in English class than we do describing chemical reactions in chemistry. However, at the university level the difference in language usage is even more pronounced, the ways of developing and presenting an argument are more specific, so a student must learn to communicate in different ways in different classes. As a student progresses through their major courses the goal is the communication will become easier because they are now engrained in the disciplinary discourse of their major.
The problem with this model is the lack of exposure to this type of communication prior to beginning university life. Most high school students naturally shift their discourse as they move between situations, speaking one way with parents, a different with teachers, and a different with friends. They do this code switching unconsciously. At the university level they are expected to code switch into impersonal academic discourse, communicating properly within the discipline of their choice without direct instruction. When they fail at this task, when they can’t pass their PSY 400 paper off as psychology lingo enough, the English 101 teacher is blamed. Clearly no one at the university taught that student to write. But is it really writing that’s the issue, or is the lack of understanding by the student that they need to learn the code of psychology to write a paper for PSY 400 and earn a good grade. It has become the burden of the English 101 teacher to teach the student not just academic discourse, and the way to construct a rhetorical argument at the university level, it has now also become the job of ENG 101 to teach students to be aware of code switching and how to code switch themselves into discipline specific lingo.
So . . .in the classroom setting, what’s language (what the code is presented in) have to do with anything? In the course of a normal day we use language to create an image of ourselves in specific context with specific people. We think through language, we describe through language, we create our reality through language. In the university, disciplines have created themselves and their importance through specific language. The language is then used as a test of identity. If you can’t use the language properly, you clearly aren’t a member of this group. Language and identity presentation through language is the way we test each other for authenticity. So . . .the ENG 101 classroom now not only has to teach argument presentation, academic discourse, code switching, we also have to teach the importance of code switching. These are all things we do every day in settings we have innately learned these skills, why is it so hard to do all this in the university setting?
The problem with this model is the lack of exposure to this type of communication prior to beginning university life. Most high school students naturally shift their discourse as they move between situations, speaking one way with parents, a different with teachers, and a different with friends. They do this code switching unconsciously. At the university level they are expected to code switch into impersonal academic discourse, communicating properly within the discipline of their choice without direct instruction. When they fail at this task, when they can’t pass their PSY 400 paper off as psychology lingo enough, the English 101 teacher is blamed. Clearly no one at the university taught that student to write. But is it really writing that’s the issue, or is the lack of understanding by the student that they need to learn the code of psychology to write a paper for PSY 400 and earn a good grade. It has become the burden of the English 101 teacher to teach the student not just academic discourse, and the way to construct a rhetorical argument at the university level, it has now also become the job of ENG 101 to teach students to be aware of code switching and how to code switch themselves into discipline specific lingo.
So . . .in the classroom setting, what’s language (what the code is presented in) have to do with anything? In the course of a normal day we use language to create an image of ourselves in specific context with specific people. We think through language, we describe through language, we create our reality through language. In the university, disciplines have created themselves and their importance through specific language. The language is then used as a test of identity. If you can’t use the language properly, you clearly aren’t a member of this group. Language and identity presentation through language is the way we test each other for authenticity. So . . .the ENG 101 classroom now not only has to teach argument presentation, academic discourse, code switching, we also have to teach the importance of code switching. These are all things we do every day in settings we have innately learned these skills, why is it so hard to do all this in the university setting?
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
what are we forgetting?
"learning, even in these individualistic terms, is very much a matter of being situated in a material, social, and cultural world" Gee, What videogames have to teach us, page 179
I'm very interested in online education. Today NCTE sent out an email to its members advertising a 3 part class that will teach you how to think about your assignments and make them accessible for online English instruction. I refer to this (what i consider cop out) technique as assignment translation. i just want to make my f2f assignments fit in the online classroom so i'm 21st century. I think Gee's quote above is one of my favorite's because it shows just how much we're missing when we buy into assignment translation, we're completely ignoring the context and all the situated meanings that come along with that context. some educators see the digital world as scary, new, dangerous, so translating assignments is the easy way to offer their class in the new way. they never consider how much effort it took them to figure out how to pay bills online, to talk to their friends, family and co-workers through email. all of these activities required the individual to become familiar with a particular interface and to use it a certain way with certain people to attain a certain goal. however, all of this is forgotten when we think of online education. but why?
I'm very interested in online education. Today NCTE sent out an email to its members advertising a 3 part class that will teach you how to think about your assignments and make them accessible for online English instruction. I refer to this (what i consider cop out) technique as assignment translation. i just want to make my f2f assignments fit in the online classroom so i'm 21st century. I think Gee's quote above is one of my favorite's because it shows just how much we're missing when we buy into assignment translation, we're completely ignoring the context and all the situated meanings that come along with that context. some educators see the digital world as scary, new, dangerous, so translating assignments is the easy way to offer their class in the new way. they never consider how much effort it took them to figure out how to pay bills online, to talk to their friends, family and co-workers through email. all of these activities required the individual to become familiar with a particular interface and to use it a certain way with certain people to attain a certain goal. however, all of this is forgotten when we think of online education. but why?
Saturday, March 6, 2010
cultural models
cultural models, according to Gee, are ways we recognize the world based on our belief systems. These systems are typically innately learned, so we’re not always aware of them. When we think of work, and we assume that a good employee should always show up on time, and work their hardest, we are speaking of a specific cultural model learned by middle and working class America. We don’t always practice this belief, but it is the idea we hold about work.
Sometimes our beliefs don’t match our actions, and we don’t recognize this mismatch. Yesterday I saw a guy getting on the bus I was on with a Che Guevara tattoo on one calf and a red communist star on the other calf. The work was well done too. About 5 minutes into the ride he begins a conversation with his companions on where they should eat dinner. He throws out quizno’s. the ridiculously corporate toasted sub shop. Now che and most versions of communism (china is attempting communism with capitalism, we’ll see how that works out) are very anti-capitalism, but here is my fellow bus driver, buying into capitalism for his dinner while he wears anti-capitalism on his skin. A slight mismatch of cultural models, but not one he’s recognizing. Like most people, these mismatches are below our notice.
These models function in a way to make daily life easier for us. Instead of processing ideas like quizno’s is a national chain, which is pro-capitalist, I’m not capitalist, I should make my food choices accordingly, most people simply make choices based on convenience and ease. It’s easy to know how to act as a student when in a classroom. The student knows to sit in the many desks facing the front, and the teacher knows to go to the front of the classroom to be the teacher. These are cultural models of classrooms. These school cultural models are also where we get into trouble. With increasing movement of classes to online where do students pick up their cultural models of how to read and behave online? I have to figure out the correct way of leaving author feedback on a fanfiction site, and I have to figure out how to write a diary post on dailykos, and I have to figure out how to talk to fellow WoW members, all of this is done by lurking. But in a classroom everyday counts, and we must have a presence to earn the grade. So how do we figure out how to act? Are student simply mashing their other cultural models into something that fits within the environment? What happens when one student’s model doesn’t fit well with another’s? Ultimately, how do we create space in an online class to allow students safe space to explore the region and figure out how to interact and how to be, so they can get the most from the class?
Sometimes our beliefs don’t match our actions, and we don’t recognize this mismatch. Yesterday I saw a guy getting on the bus I was on with a Che Guevara tattoo on one calf and a red communist star on the other calf. The work was well done too. About 5 minutes into the ride he begins a conversation with his companions on where they should eat dinner. He throws out quizno’s. the ridiculously corporate toasted sub shop. Now che and most versions of communism (china is attempting communism with capitalism, we’ll see how that works out) are very anti-capitalism, but here is my fellow bus driver, buying into capitalism for his dinner while he wears anti-capitalism on his skin. A slight mismatch of cultural models, but not one he’s recognizing. Like most people, these mismatches are below our notice.
These models function in a way to make daily life easier for us. Instead of processing ideas like quizno’s is a national chain, which is pro-capitalist, I’m not capitalist, I should make my food choices accordingly, most people simply make choices based on convenience and ease. It’s easy to know how to act as a student when in a classroom. The student knows to sit in the many desks facing the front, and the teacher knows to go to the front of the classroom to be the teacher. These are cultural models of classrooms. These school cultural models are also where we get into trouble. With increasing movement of classes to online where do students pick up their cultural models of how to read and behave online? I have to figure out the correct way of leaving author feedback on a fanfiction site, and I have to figure out how to write a diary post on dailykos, and I have to figure out how to talk to fellow WoW members, all of this is done by lurking. But in a classroom everyday counts, and we must have a presence to earn the grade. So how do we figure out how to act? Are student simply mashing their other cultural models into something that fits within the environment? What happens when one student’s model doesn’t fit well with another’s? Ultimately, how do we create space in an online class to allow students safe space to explore the region and figure out how to interact and how to be, so they can get the most from the class?
Monday, March 1, 2010
what's language got to do with it?
Language is never innocent. Individual words and how we put them together is deeply tied to the identity we try to portray, the culture we came from, and the culture we try to demonstrate when we use those words. Today in class discussion one student mentioned that in certain parts of the south typical dinner meals are catfish caught by the men, and hush puppies. Another student complained that waffle house doesn’t know how to make grits. Then a third student asked what a hush puppy was. As an arizonan if I say I caught a catfish and we’re eating it for dinner the table would go elsewhere for dinner, they understand that the place I would’ve caught the catfish (the canals or lakes) are not spaces where fish are really considered edible. My student not knowing what a hush puppy is demonstrated her lack of cultural knowledge of a word. Again, language is never innocent. Our knowledge of words is meaningful, and our word choice is meaningful. If we’d never talked about community use of food words my students would never have had a reason to discuss hush puppies and grits, and other students would never have had a reason to acknowledge their lack of knowledge of those words.
In word choice outside of food, but still in the face-to-face classroom I will hand out an assignment, walk through what I’ve typed up, ad libbing as I go. I’ll also ask at various points (that organically feel like stopping points when walking through an assignment sheet) if everyone understands. If there are questions, clarification is offered, and other questions may arise based on one students question. Then the assignment will continue. As the students work through the steps of the paper writing process, my physical presence in answering questions the class before an assignment is due allows me and the student to negotiate the meaning until we reach a point where both teacher and student feel we are discussing the same thing with the same understanding so the ‘correct’ assignment will be turned in. this language negotiation happens f2f but what happens when we put composition classes in online spaces. Instead of receiving ad lib’d assignments, students simply download the assignment sheet, and are given the opportunity to contact the teacher if further clarification is needed. Instead of the teacher opening up the space for meaning negotiation, the student must do the work by showing up for a teacher’s office hours (whether virtual or f2f) or by composing an email. Either way the work load is shifted to the student. The student must put in work, and effort to negotiate the meaning of the classroom language, the teacher is no longer present to help start that negotiation, that discussion. Can we move this negotiation to online space? Can we virtually ad lib so students have the opportunity to negotiate the meaning? If we can, how do we move this?
We can also debate the usefulness of this meaning negotiation. Maybe students would be better off not being able to negotiate, but by simply writing the assignment. In a f2f classroom with 20 students, if 2 of them do not show up on the day the assignment is handed out, but they attend every class after then until the paper is due, will they have the same grasp on the assignment as the 18 students who were present?
In word choice outside of food, but still in the face-to-face classroom I will hand out an assignment, walk through what I’ve typed up, ad libbing as I go. I’ll also ask at various points (that organically feel like stopping points when walking through an assignment sheet) if everyone understands. If there are questions, clarification is offered, and other questions may arise based on one students question. Then the assignment will continue. As the students work through the steps of the paper writing process, my physical presence in answering questions the class before an assignment is due allows me and the student to negotiate the meaning until we reach a point where both teacher and student feel we are discussing the same thing with the same understanding so the ‘correct’ assignment will be turned in. this language negotiation happens f2f but what happens when we put composition classes in online spaces. Instead of receiving ad lib’d assignments, students simply download the assignment sheet, and are given the opportunity to contact the teacher if further clarification is needed. Instead of the teacher opening up the space for meaning negotiation, the student must do the work by showing up for a teacher’s office hours (whether virtual or f2f) or by composing an email. Either way the work load is shifted to the student. The student must put in work, and effort to negotiate the meaning of the classroom language, the teacher is no longer present to help start that negotiation, that discussion. Can we move this negotiation to online space? Can we virtually ad lib so students have the opportunity to negotiate the meaning? If we can, how do we move this?
We can also debate the usefulness of this meaning negotiation. Maybe students would be better off not being able to negotiate, but by simply writing the assignment. In a f2f classroom with 20 students, if 2 of them do not show up on the day the assignment is handed out, but they attend every class after then until the paper is due, will they have the same grasp on the assignment as the 18 students who were present?
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
directing learning
In this way games are directing the learning of a player. Specifically, first person shooter games are signaling to players where to go, and providing clues in the scenery as to the correct path. However, most players read these clues without being conscious of their learning of and use of a specific literacy skill within a specific game genre. As educators we look at learning within in videogames for ways to help us direct classroom learning. How do we create a learning environment where the path from day 1 of school to the last day of school is directed to the students without them realizing the pushes they receive along the way? How does the scenery of a classroom encourage exploration, and reward correct exploration behavior, while still creating the necessary literacy skills to keep the student on the correct path without them even realizing they are learning how to be while learning ?
Friday, February 5, 2010
motivation
Some researchers look at narrative in videogames the way they look at narrative in TV shows and movies, as plot devices that function to tell the watcher a story. The problem is videogames are interactive, a player rarely simply watches the action happen, they see bits of a story so they can get to a part where they make the action happen. In some newer games narrative has become a more complex part of the introduction and includes short videos full of plot introducing the character and characters to the player. In many ways these introductory videos function to motivate the players. They provide enough interaction and enough background information to draw the player in, to make them want to complete the game. The story functions to motivate players by building identification with the character they are playing as. They are given just enough story to be intrigued (granted not all games are good at this).
So, if plot videos in videogames function to build motivation to keep players playing by creating identification with the characters, how else does identification develop? In various web communities members become recognized members through various literacy practices unique to the environment. They work toward being recognized as a member, they build literacy to gain identification. In these situations does identification function as the motivating factor for putting in the work to build literacy skills? Is identification with the character of a videogame the motivating factor keeping players playing and the videos just the tool of delivering identification?
So, if plot videos in videogames function to build motivation to keep players playing by creating identification with the characters, how else does identification develop? In various web communities members become recognized members through various literacy practices unique to the environment. They work toward being recognized as a member, they build literacy to gain identification. In these situations does identification function as the motivating factor for putting in the work to build literacy skills? Is identification with the character of a videogame the motivating factor keeping players playing and the videos just the tool of delivering identification?
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
learning to read
we used to have a very traditional view of reading. words were printed on a page, we learned phonics to sound out words, site recognition to understand words, we were tested on our comprehension of paragraphs, but reading was relegated to the world of print. black ink on white pages in bound books. that was reading. this type of reading was high tech. the creation of the guttenburg press introduced the world, civilization, culture to reading. cultures learned to read the bible. stories once orally recorded in tiny villages now became available to large cities. men and women in large metropolises like new york read the stories of hunters and gatherers crossing the dessert with limited food and oil. they were taught to read the words on the page, they were taught to value the words on the page for the message being conveyed. but how does a desert context of hunters and gatherers apply to a business man or woman, a homemaker, a secretary, a school teacher . . . in a metropolis. the context of the story no longer mattered, or could be imagined based on other printed words. we learned to read again. instead of just reading words on a page we learned to cross-reference, to ignore some context and pay attention to other context. our local stories became important to global markets and our reality of reading changed, but our idea of reading stayed the same. we continued to see reading as understanding the words on the printed page. then along came computers. no longer reading printed text, computers and videogames allow us to read words on a screen, words in a virtual world, words in various sizes, colors, words in various languages mixing. to understand how the words functioned, to make sense of them reading had to become something more than just understanding words on a page, it had to become understanding words in a situation, and how they were being used in that situation. so for many (especially elementary education) reading is still understanding printed words on a white paper. for others reading is making meaning in a context, and reading is no longer just words. why did it take the invention and widespread use of the internet for us to realize reading has never been just decoding black letters on a white page?
Monday, January 25, 2010
what can we learn from the novel
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