Using white space

“The logic of immediacy dictates that the medium itself should disappear…yet these same old and new media often refuse to leave us alone” (6). I thought this was interesting when combined with the ideas of virtual reality they put forth that states that the goal would be for all the equipment to vanish and for the person to really feel as if they are in the new setting, without the technology. The implication of these two lines together is that virtual reality is not possible because we are so fascinated with our technology that we are unable to look at just what the technology is creating; but that we have to look at it through the lens of the technology, or as being part of that technology. (ie, we look at the plot of video games as the plot of video games, not just as a story line)

When I thought about this in terms of text (books, poetry and such), which is often used as a form of escapism (or virtual reality if you will, it is often said that when reading a really good book you should forget that you are reading) it is interesting because with some text, the actual text and its placement on the page is part of what gives us the meaning of what the text is trying to say so there is no way according to these combined ideas for these text to function at their possible intended level because it is this utilization of the technology that allows for the full meaning to be made which brings attention back to the technology and away from the text itself again.

I made a movie :)

You can watch it here....

V-Day Loves!!!

My Visual Essay

I wanted to post my visual essay here, so that you could see what I was talking about, but I have yet to find a way to do that so you will just have to look at this one... :)

Here are my reflections after having made mine:

I can build (and have done so) a computer from bottom up. I selected each piece of hardware that went into it, choosing sound and video cards based of their processing abilities and clarity and a case based on its aesthetic appeal. Yet, when working on this essay, I had scanner issues that were only overcome by employing a friend to help. I also used iMovie for the first time and was able to navigate my way through this program and didn’t feel limited by its features or my lack of experience with it until I tried to upload my finished product. The file was too big for youtube, but there is a feature built into iMovie so that with a meager two clicks it is on youtube and ready to go. However, there isn’t a built in fall back for files that are too big, there seems to be no way to brake the film into smaller chucks to be viewed in parts, as is the youtube way.

This left me in the old place of being at the third level of literacy, where I was question the technology I had, looking for ways to use technology I had in ways it wasn’t meant to be used but would accomplish what I was trying to do, and creating technology all while not even being functional literate given my scanner issues.

Essay issues :( and my Worst/Best for 2/7

So I have spent the weekend working on this visual essay, and all is not going well in the land of Gin. This first iMovie I made somehow got lost, I am sure it was user error, but these things happen. I am not to worried about the lost, as the new one is far better than the the older one. So I guess that is a perk of my exploration into new Mac features.

I have also been struggling with the question of what to write and what visuals to use. Not having been the most literate kid in the bunch until quite recently and not living anywhere near my family leaves me with limited visuals. I did however find a bunch of great pics and such that I wanted to uses, after having settled on a story line. Which only led me to one more issue, I don't have a scanner and didn't have a way to use the stuff I had rummaged up.

Nicole, dear sweet Nicole offered me the use of her scanner, and I spent Sat. night at her place scanning away. The first attempt was scanning them to my Mac, which didn't work at all, and I still have no idea why. The second was scanning them to her laptop and then transferring them via a USB drive to my Mac. Nicole scanned the first few images, and then I took over. After my pile of 90 or so items had been scanned, Nicole tried to transfer them only to find that everything that I had scanned didn't get saved. So after all that wasted time, Nicole quite nicely did the rest of the scanning for me and at midnight I headed home with a laptop full of baby pics.

My best friend came over later in the evening, and this morning as I worked on my essay, he quite eagerly told me everything I was doing wrong. Geeerrr, I love that boy, but I had finaly felt like it was going well. At least I know I have someone to give me feedback once it is done.

Worst - This little cold I have been trying to fight all day, it is wearing me out and yet I can't sleep for more than an hour or two at a time, makes reading hard....poor Selber he feels so unloved.

Best - All the cuddle/hangout time with the best friend this weekend.

Trying to add a video

Just trying to add a video before Wed so I know that I can. We saw this in English 530, thought some of you might find it funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDv2ssf8iyA

I may have been too hard on Selfe...

It was Jennifer’s (her blog) comment that the length of the history provided may have been an intentional way of illustrating how much work had gone into getting all these classrooms this technology and how much money had been spent, and how in the end, the classroom conditions were basically the same, that made me start rethinking the Selfe essay.  “Wiring the schools had not saved them. The problems with America’s public schools – disparate funding, social promotion, bloated class size, crumbling infrastructure, lack of standers – have nothing to do with technology. Consequently, no amount of technology will lead to the educational revolution prophesied by President Clintion and others” (Selfe 146).   The more I thought about it, the more this writing strategy seemed to work.  There were 145 pages of explanation of what was done to reach this educational revolution, and because we weren’t paying attention to the real problems (and the real solutions our schools needed) none of it panned out to anything.  We had spent all the time, effort, and money, and because we focused it in the wrong places and ways, our schools had seen no real benefit.   The issue wasn’t that these students didn’t have access to the internet; it is that through our own lack of funding and involvement they had a real lack of access to education.