I got really excited reading about the information this week. I admit, Manovich is still pretty deep and confusing, and it is hard to take the time to read it slowly and thoroughly enough to synthesize his information into something I can wrap my th oughts around and verbalize and make connections to. But the PDF reading helped me to understand this Digital Rhetoric movement and the importance of learning and teaching it! I am getting it! I started mapping out a class to propose to the school admin for next year, a hybrid English/ Digital Rhetoric and Creative Literacy class.
Information literacy/Technological Literacy/Technological Fluency are inseparable and students need the opportunity to engage in digital communities they are trying to master which "will give a real purpose the the classroom, allowing students to connect inside and outside the class." (PDF p14).
Just as we are learning these technologies in this class, it will mean little to us or our students unless we find a way to make it relevant in our own lives. I like thinking about these issues and realizing how we still need to have an understanding of rhetoric in order to choose the right technology and to know how those choices will influence audience, purpose and mode of each task. I am starting to see how all of the ideas are important and I am getting excited to think about ways to teach them ( I like the ideas for the computer lab they suggested too, especially chocolate every day. stacks of construction paper - the creative environment that can still be used to create things by hand with imagination and creativity in conjunction to the digital forms)
On pg 24 of the PDF, I was reminded of earlier Manovich, when he says that digital assumptions need to be acknowledged and explored and to unproblematically accepted or rejected; that we (and our students) need to move from uncritical users of technology to acting and producing in their own right.
I especially liked the encouragement that we need to learn to know how and when to be patient in our learning in this "speeding Western culture' (p 25 PDF), learning slowly enough to be able to apply what we learn. which is a challenge even in this fast paced semester.
My favorite perspective was by Mary Hocks, " Technology is already over," meaning that it is always in a dynamic. forward movement.
I am interested in pursuing the idea that was brought up in the PDF article; that we need to investigate how influences such as linguistics or culture affect digital conversations. I would like to see how reading in the computer world affects our judgement of credibility, authority etc, when we don't hear gender, dialect, accents, or see race, age, disability etc. and how this affects how meaning is made within and across the dynamics of the computer mediated writing space.
I was lookin ginto the U of Mich Rhetoric classes referenced in the PDF article and came across this teacher with an interesting list of class topics:
Chris Gerben/University of Michigan |
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COURSES TAUGHT @ Michigan ELI/CRLT 994 (GSI) "English Language Institute and Center for Reserach on Learning and Teaching International GSI Language and Pedagogy Training"
English 225 "Writing with Technology: Academic Argumentation and Design"
Education 222 (GSI) "Videogames & Learning"
English 223 "Introduction to Creative Writing: Writing a Voice, Expecting an Audience: Poetry & Fiction"
English 125 "College Writing: Classrooms to Coffeeshops: The Rhetoric of Visual Media and Online Interaction"
English 125 "College Writing: The Rhetoric of Relationships and 21st Century Media" @ Stanford PWR 1 "Chick-Flicks and Break-Up Songs: The Rhetoric of Relationships"
PWR 1 "Best Value Ever!: The Rhetoric of Consumerism in Education"
PWR 1 "How To Live: The Rhetoric of Instructional Texts" @ Notre Dame FYC 110* "How to Be Alone: Hearing Your Voice Amidst Growing Media"
FYC 110 "Story and Narrative: Reality & Art in Varying Texts"
FYC 110 "Consumerism and Education: Exploring Consumerism in Modern Society"
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I just want to say that I think it is awesome how inspired you are by this. Even after admitting that you struggled to wrap your mind around Manovich (so perhaps it was due more to the other article) you see a need for it to be taught and explored in other classrooms. Very cool.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the idea of new media literacy. I hadn't really thought of it that way before, but I see the importance of having literacy in terms of not only knowing what new media is, but being able to navigate the applications. That is what I have enjoyed about this class. We could talk about new media as a theoretical idea until we were blue in the face, but unless we know how to practically apply it, the theory does nothing for us. I am really excited to gain fluency in new media so I can use it in my classroom as well.
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