Progressing and New Awareness of Computers and Composition

 http://amyreloomis.blogspot.com

 

Welcome to my digital composition blog, a series of texts, videos and images that derived from the English 642 course taught by Professor Thomas Peele called Computers and Composition. My main goals for knowing and teaching digital writing is to assist students in gaining crucial skills for their academic careers and to help them to express themselves efficiently through writing, as well as to communicate well as they navigate throughout all of their worlds. 

The flow of ideas, precise language, specific examples, and grammatical clarity along with partnering with students to ensure they walk away better writers ...whatever it takes to reach the student is my ultimate objective. As the instructor, it is a duty to ensure and instill in students a willingness to learn. And, utilizing digital skills falls into this category. Having more knowledge is the bottom line – because more equals more, more diversity, independence and accuracy – and mo’ better knowledge from the wisdom of the crowds.

The great experience of expressing oneself is the ultimate exercise of tapping into our creative nature. The discipline of writing produces subjectivity and it shapes our world to discuss its shifting discourse. Writing has become digital, visual and audio centered, and teaching composition is now about breaking out of routine, and being a learner too.

The essay as a digital composition tool expresses idea, opinions, puts is all in writing - a shape and it becomes concrete. The purpose of composition also is to tell a story, share ideas, to hone conversation skills, vertical thinking, self-revision, and reading and writing, which are inextricable and cannot be separated. And, knowledge of grammar is always important ...so what do we want students to learn about writing again? Maybe how to be a prosumer - a producer and a consumer. I appreciate Professor Tom Peele's guidance in achieving this aim to support the modern composure and student, teacher and professional ...with a digital technology influence.

Although students (this writer included) sometimes find multimodal tasks challenging because of the technologies needed to learn and the methodologies ...the end result creates a broader scope and more open-minded producers of new knowledge. A point being made here also is that multimodal tasks are not easier for students, but more thoughts and actions are needed to complete them making digital technology more fulfilling. This would sum up a great lesson learned this semester in computers and composition.

My end goal is to help the student and myself feel empowered, to write more textually authentic and to construct original knowledge. Bottom line - when students are asked to explore identity throughout digital writing platforms and all of its complexities and tensions ...this encourages invaluable personal growth for the student and teacher.

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Check out "The Pilgrims," a Prezi about preservation I created, featuring
photographs of Louis Comfort Tiffany Studio stained glass windows.

  

 

I am one of those folks who started learning about computers in college when the Mac classic was built and I still have it in my storage room - I’m not sure what to do with it.  The computer used to have a back pack style carrying case that came with it - if you can imagine.  It weighs around thirty pounds. Mainly, I have completed word processing for the past ten years and I learned computer graphics in the late 1990s. I signed up for Facebook in 2007 but didn’t begin using it until 2009, and then more regularly in 2010.  I learned how to use computers in school and although my first computers were a Mac Classic and a Mac Powerbook – this was during the 90s when Macs and PCs did not mix – but anybody who was cool and an artist used a Mac computer. 

 

When the new Millennium ushered in I converted to PCs due to my office environments and I have not looked back – until now.  Unfortunately, my tools have been inadequate for this class and I have learned that I need both a computer upgrade and to go to the Mac lab on campus to finish this project. Considering all of this – I’ve come far in just opening my mind and upgrading my basic skill level quite a bit to being on the way to a digital composer – and multimodal producer of texts, images, video and audio... Selfe states that new media texts are an important part of a postmodern technological culture undergoing rapid changes. She says few teachers of English composition are able to keep up but students in contrast are immersed in new communication contexts and are often the first to experiment with new kinds of texts, to discover new literacy values and practices. They are also the first to understand the functions new media texts fulfill in their lives.

 

Surgwiecki shares that the human intellect as a large group basically has good intuition and direction for resolving issues on a local level, as well as this large group has better odds at a more diverse, thoughtful outcome - in general. The human population is described as “boundedly rational,” and on our own and in small groups we simply have less information than we would want - and we often have limited foresight to see into the future. All knowledge benefits from a collective intelligence, including financial stability, and lastly humans may let their emotions affect their judgment while working in a small groups. Ok. So if this is the case, and if our lives and brains have changed so dramatically paralleling with the societal, technological and environment changes described in this text, my question is how do I/we harness this power in the best way possible?  Davidson’s answer is through multitasking and relearning focus and attention skills. Multitasking she says, mimics the world wide web and the internet in the way that all things become connected – it is the ideal mode of the twenty-first century. Although I can relate to Davidson’s backstory ...as an artist myself, a visual person and someone whose creativity has been misunderstood, I’m not sure if I'm convinced multitasking is more productive than focusing on one task at a time. Of course everyone is forced to multitask in these times because of hectic lifestyles, but I probably produce a higher quality of work when I focus on one project at a time, it seems. Hmmm, more attention required here.

How the ‘screen’ plays a role in writing stuck with me after reading Yancey’s piece too; it is the third literacy paralleling with oral and print literacy. More folks are finishing on the high school diploma level these days, and folks are using cell phones as mini computers more and more. Yancey states the screen is the language of the vernacular, and the modern/educated student should know how to combine words, pictures, audio and video. And, this would be the reason I took this class. I feel a little bit of possible inadequacy in terms of my geeky computer-usage knowledge – but I am determined to crossover digitally to become a writing composer.

Near the beginning of the essay “From Analysis to Design: Visual Communication in the Teaching of Writing,” written by Diana George, she shares the idea that tension exists within electronic modes of expression, specifically between writing and images.
She writes, “I actually believe that some tug of war between words and images or between writing and design can be productive as it brings into relief the multiple dimensions of all forms of communication.”

As a visual-writer – a phrase my fingers just typed, which means this author as most other social-media participants creates documents using design and text together electronically on a daily basis. Ironically, the concepts of writing and text, versus photographs and graphics or design appear to be innately opposite on the surface. The two mediums require different sets of skills for understanding and interpreting, yet scholars such as George, and The New London Group state that writing and visuals work together as a unit, and both help to develop more-relatable multi-modal designs. According to scholars, the use of mass media, beginning with the originally perceived threat of television’s passivity in the mid-20^th century, all really seem to connect the dots for students, and inspire new and more interests for them, rather than lead students astray. And, the 21^st century student has grown up in a visually aggressive culture therefore combining writing with visual components intuitively, innately almost, and possibly modern students understand writing better delivered in this way …than text without any design element.

Although students (this writer included) sometimes find multimodal tasks challenging because of the technologies needed to learn, and methodologies ...the end result though creates a broader scope and more open-minded producers of new knowledge. I appreciate the assignment produced by Shipka's student in which the student prefaces the presentation with these words:

“Imagine you are sitting in an empty classroom with just one desk in the center and a ticking clock in the background. The room is drafty and cold with very dim light. It is eight o'clock [and] the score from this test will determine your future by deciding which school you will be accepted to. You tried to study for the test but your friends, your parents, and your annoying siblings continually distracted you. [...] You ended up only studying for an hour before you fell asleep, and now you are only half awake to take the exam. [...] When you dig out your pencil the tip is broken. You search for a pencil sharpener but there isn't one in the room so you have to ask the proctor for an-other one. They hand you a stubby pencil with no eraser and tell you to sit down because the exam is starting.”

 

 

Look for the Brooklyn Campus of Long Island University in this pic where Computers and Composition / English 642 is taught ...yes it is in my midday airplane window photo - top right - near the center some - a little above the park about an inch from the edge.

 

Every student and professional has experienced scenarios similar to the one above. I have come far from where I started and I'm grateful for the new awareness of multimodality ...ever present today, as well as my expanded digital technology skills.

Other Links -

Amyre Loomis: Digital Composition, Photos, Videos: "The Pilgrims" Prezi

Amyre Loomis: Digital Composition, Photos, Videos: Digital Media Influence in 2013 ...and a Facebook ...: A Facebook Inspired Poem
 

A Facebook Inspired Poem ...and Digital Media Influence in 2013

Leaving one's phone behind constitutes a digital crisis!

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A Facebook Inspired Poem

i like acupuncture needles in my feet
i like architecture everywhere
i like ancestors coming to visit in dreams
i like acting and actors, i'm one
i like animals wild at heart
i like anything from africa
i like african american literature
i like autumn, winter and springi like astrology readings
i like art and book festivals
i like america - grandma said the best
i like aspen mountains
i like automobiles for empowerment
i like antiquing on atlantic ave
i like being black today
i like beaches on long island, in carribean sea
i like beautiful young people, (former days)
i like brooklyn, got dropped here by God
i like bill withers to lean on
i like bridges for building and crossing
i like bar-b-que smoke in backyards
i like babies who snuggle me
i like barack obama; he does the right thing
i like broadway and off broadway

i like butterflies landing on hands

i like boyfriends and husbands who commit

i like chaka khan’s ain’t nobody

i like cycling around this town

i like contact sheets in black and white

i like computers that are fast

i like coffee with touch of half and half

i like chicago's skyline

i like clocks whose ticking fades in background

i like connections and coincidences

i like choosing happiness along with joy

i like christmastime with lots of white and red

i like canada because it’s so close

i like condoms for protection of course

i like coca-cola cause of the carbonation

i like candles when they flicker

i like dancing and feeling free

i like darkrooms for concentration

i like dogs with spunk

i like driving across town

i like detroit riverfront views and brooklyn waterfronts

i like doctors who have beside manner

i like drama on television

i like dr. seuss

i like drawing with pencil

i like downtown areas

i like documentaries for learning

i like eggs anytime

i like eat, pray, love, enough said

i like facebook because it’s a phenomenon

i like freedom given freely

i like fela kuti’s afro beat

i like fine arts, period

i like foreign films at bam

i like france - paris, bordeaux and the south

i like my family

i like family by j. california cooper

i like gardening for fresh vegetables and flowers

i like gospel music to lift me up

i like guys who still carry bags open doors say u r beautiful

i like history of the world

i like hgtv for tips

i like the holy bible & want to know it better

i like interior design

i like internet access

i like keyboard lounges

i like kittens, ol' doggies

i like kind people

i like love be love to love

i like literature and poetry of course

i like london because it’s bold

i like little black books for notes

i like luther vandross ballads

i like michael franks’s jazzy self

i like the moon for worship

i like museums that are huge

i like movies the most

i like medical centers to help us all

i like marriage proposals, hard to come by

i like male dance moves

i like martha’s vineyard magic

i like metaphysics because of the mystery

i like margaritas – lime the best, red wine
i used to like maryjane

i like marianne Williamson's new age talk
i like mexican food and acapulco
i like martin luther kings non violence
i like my own room

I like manicures and pedicures weekly

i like nature walks and talks

i like npr when i’m dressing

i like old mama cats

i like oxygen from trees

I like old cameras to collect

i like all prince music

i like psychic ability, which everyone has
i like pastors who give poetic sermons

i like professors who are sympathetic and brilliant

i like photography cause I can disappear behind the camera

i like painting with oils, and i was matisse

I like pumpkins their seeds and sweet potato pies by ma mere

i like prayers for those standing on the edge of greatness

i like reading newspapers and magazines with meals

i like regina belle

i like reality television that produces overnight celebrities

i like restoration & renovation, preservation

i like r and b that’s in my bones

i like reggae music in jamaica

i like relationship books that help with clarity
i like snow skiing – grew up doing it
i like seniors whose shoulders we stand on

I like sleep because it’s makes me better

i like saving stuff for memory purposes

i like slimming teas to produce a bm

i like swimming in the ocean at midday

i like singing along with others

i like sade adu for her deep voice

i like sisters and brothers, especially mine

i like soul, everybody has it and one

i like solar on the white house - finally greening

i like spirituality – it keeps me sane

i like sexiness coming from inside out

i like sunshine on my shoulders by john denver

i like spike lee cause he propelled film in the hood

i like thunderstorms that sound comforting

I like 3:33 am - a good time to be alone

i like theater to transform my mind

i like travel to gain perspective

i like teaching what i know

I like tarot cards to predict

i like this moment

i like taverns for meeting and greeting

i like the university of michigan tradition plus liu's mfa

i like visual arts – every medium, yes i can

i like voting everytime i can

i like walking downhill and uphill

i like writing poetry, short stories, essays

i like water – it feels good when drinking

i like yellow notepads like my dad did
i like ywca saunas and weight machines
I like computers, composition and everything digital
i like you too, very much

-        Amyre Loomis

Mo' Better Decisions

The idea of a collective consciousness in comparison to a few experts being in charge - making the big moves/choices …and then determining which of the two groups would make the best decision overall has a surprising end result.  Human beings are not perfectly designed decision makers according to James Surgwiecki in his Introduction essay and in Ch. 4 of his 2005 book The Wisdom of Crowds.
 
Surgwiecki shares that the human intellect as a large group basically has good intuition and direction for resolving issues on a local level, as well as this large group has better odds at a more diverse, thoughtful outcome - in general.  The human population is described as “boundedly rational,” and on our own and in small groups we simply have less information than we would want - and we often have limited foresight to see into the future. All knowledge benefits from a collective intelligence, including financial stability, and lastly humans let their emotions affect their judgment while working in a small groups.
 
Yet despite these limitations, Surgwiecki writes, “When our imperfect judgments are aggregated in the right way, our collective intelligence is often excellent.  This intelligence, or what I'll call ‘the wisdom of crowds,’ is at work in the world in many different guises.”
 
Surgwiecki breaks down his analysis for readers by discussing three kinds of problems. The first are Cognition problems. These are problems that have or will have definitive solutions and some answers are better than others. An example given in this text is “Where is the best place to build this new public swimming pool?”  My example might be: Does social media play a role in the collective consciousness, and if so, how does it?
 
The second kind of problems are Coordination problems requiring members of a group (market, subway riders, college students looking for a party) to figure out how to coordinate their behavior with each other, knowing that everyone else is trying to do the same.  An example given in the text is: “How can you drive safely in heavy traffic?”  My example might be: What are safety measures in place for cyclists, bikers and drivers to share the road? 
 
The final problem Surgwiecki highlights is a cooperation problem. Cooperation problems involve the challenge of getting self-interested, distrustful people to work together, even when narrow self-interest would seem to dictate that no individual should take part.  Paying taxes seemed to be the most ironic example shared by Surgwiecki.  My example might be: How does one deal with a micro-managing supervisor that knows less than the worker does?
 
Conditions - conditions are needed, a necessity for a wise crowd according to Surgwiecki: diversity, independence, and a particular kind of decentralization are the conditions.  A wise group does not ask its members to change their thoughts.  It may use market prices, or voting systems and other mechanisms to aggregate – to produce – a collective of what everyone thinks.
 
“Paradoxically, the best way for a group to be smart is for each person in it to think and act as independently possible,” said Surgwiecki.  In the end he assures readers the collective solutions produced the most accurate answers, the best resolutions and most interesting feedback - an unusual dichotomy.  
 
The author also restates the irony of this point better than I at the end of his introduction: “What's astonishing about this story is that the evidence that the group was relying on in this case amounted to almost nothing. It was really just tiny scraps of data. No one knew why the submarine sank; no one had any idea how fast it was traveling or how steeply it fell to the ocean floor. And yet even though no one in the group knew any of these things, the group as a whole knew them all.”
 
In Surgwiecki’s Ch. 4 of The Wisdom of Crowds. Putting the Pieces Together: The CIA, Linux, and the Art of Decentralization …the chapter discusses in more depth social networks, and the importance in allowing people to Connect and Coordinate with each other without a single person being in Charge. 
 
The author writes: “Most important, of Course, was the rise of the Internet-in some respeets, the most visible decentralized system in the world-and of Corollary technologies like peer-to'peer file sharing (exemplified by Napster), which offered a Clear demonstration of the possibilities (economie7 organizational, and more) that decentralization had to offer.”
 
Within  powerful organizations such as corporations and school systems, which do not fully reside in one central location, important decisions are made by individuals based on their own local and specific knowledge.  Therefore - Strengths of decentralization are – coordination of information and activities; the weaknesses are that systems have to communicate well in order for the information to be shared. 
 
 Aggregation is the key word for information gathering / analysis and general success in Ch. 4, because aggregation and decentralization create organization – yes, and aggregation is a form of centralization because of the collective judgment involved and reviewed. 
 
Anyway, the PAM program discussed in this chapter would have been an excellent example of casting a wide-net to pull in a diverse group of respondents – and therefore more knowledge if the government had had trust in aggregation.  The more knowledge part is the bottom line – yes, because more equals more, more diversity, independence and accuracy – and mo’ better knowledge from the wisdom of the crowds. 

 

         

"The Pilgrims" Prezi

Texting Issues on SNL - Popcorn Maker

Photograph Documents

My Selfie, Myself - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/

I'm intrigued with the concept of selfies.  Guess I'll try my hand at it - another time.

Digital Bath Time

Use and learn technology in the bathtub.

Creating Producers of New Knowledge

        The push for change within the composition course continues to move forward creating open-minded producers of new knowledge. (LIU student teachers are pictured).


          A Multimodal Task-Based Framework for Composing, by Jody Shipka begins with the idea that students have a rich and vast imagination and the use of multimodal composing can only help to draw this side out of 21^st century students.  She is adamant that both the writing / composing process, as well as delivery and reception of the writing produced should be considered. A goal-oriented activity and complex communicative tasks are terms she uses in this article, and she states that the composition instructor makes important decisions in this following passage:          
          “Robert Connors called it the ‘inescapable question’ and one that composition instructors must address prior to committing to the kinds of assignments they will provide for students: Should [one] emphasize honest, personal writing? Stress academic, argumentative, or practical subjects? Or try somehow to create a balance between these discourse aims?”
          Shipka proposes a multimodal task-based framework and goal-directed approach for composition to assist in enlarging the student's flexibility - rhetorical, material and methodological. She also shares:
          “Instructors working within this framework are still responsible for designing tasks in accordance with course goals and objectives. Yet, again, rather than predetermining the specific materials and methodologies that students employ in service of those goals, tasks are structured in ways that ask students to assume responsibility for attending to the following: asking students to produce an account of their goals and choices reminds them of the importance of assessing rhetorical contexts, setting goals, and making purposeful choices.”
          Although students (this writer included) sometimes find multimodal tasks challenging
because of the technologies needed to learn, and methodologies ...the end result though creates a broader scope and more open-minded producers of new knowledge. I appreciate the assignment produced by Shipka's student in which the student prefaces the presentation with these words:
          “Imagine you are sitting in an empty classroom with just one desk in the center and a ticking clock in the background. The room is drafty and cold with very dim light. It is eight o'clock [and] the score from this test will determine your future by deciding which school you will be accepted to. You tried to study for the test but your friends, your parents, and your annoying siblings continually distracted you. [...] You ended up only studying for an hour before you fell asleep, and now you are only half awake to take the exam. [...] When you dig out your pencil the tip is broken. You search for a pencil sharpener but there isn't one in the room so you have to ask the proctor for an-other one. They hand you a stubby pencil with no eraser and tell you to sit down because the exam is starting.”
          Every student and professional has experienced scenarios similar to this one. The point being made here though  is that multimodal tasks are not easier for students, but more thoughts and actions are needed to complete them. The reality is that more goals must be set and accomplished.
          “…The fact that they are drawing upon multiple semiotic resources as they compose work suggests that students are doing something that is at once more and other than writing (i.e., placing and arranging words on a page or screen). I would argue that students who are called upon to choose among and later to order, align, and/or transform the various resources they find at hand tend to work in ways that more closely resemble the ways choreographers or engineers do,” Shipka said. 
          The reality is also that better work is being produced when a multimodal element is incorporated. A greater appreciation for the art of revision, reinvention and redevelopment is garnered from the following lessons learned and the knowledge gained through multimodal composing. Below is a partial list Shipka includes focusing on the benefits of a multimodal composition approach taught to students.
          Focusing on a purpose * Responding to the needs of different audiences * Responding appropriately to different kinds of rhetorical situations * Using conventions of format and structure appropriate to the rhetorical situation * Adopting appropriate voice, tone, and level of formality * Understanding how genres shape reading and writing * Writing in several genres * Integrating their own ideas with those of others * Understanding the relationships among language, knowledge, and power * Understanding the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes * Using a variety of technologies to address a range of audiences * Learning common formats for different kinds of texts * Controlling such surface features as syntax, grammar, punctuation, and spelling…
          Pamela Takayoshi and Cynthia L Selfe share a similar sentiment in Chapter 1 Thinking about Multimodality. Writers have computer technology at their access and therefore more control; they are able to reach far beyond the traditional essay format for expression. This essay states:
          “…They could think in increasingly broad ways about texts—not only about pages, words, layout, and design, but also about still and moving visual imagery (photos, photo-editing programs, movie-authoring programs, animation programs) and aural components of communication (music, audio recordings, sounds).”
          These authors are insistent that students need technologically advanced skills for rereading and composing in multiple modalities within their diverse worlds of school, community and workplace along with during culturally related activities. The definition of composition is changing to mirror literacy practices in new digital communication environments. Therefore it is up to the instructor to help enlighten their students these authors state below:
          “Instructors of composition need to teach students not only how to read and interpret such texts from active and critical perspectives, they also need to teach students how to go beyond the consumption of such texts—learning how to compose them for a variety of purposes and audiences.”
          This essay also states that being emotionally moved by composition is more readily available through a multimodal composition – an interesting concept explained more in the essay - below: 
          “Multimodal composition may bring the often neglected third appeal-pathos-back into composition classes. … Students authoring multimodal compositions often demonstrate a strong awareness and understanding of how music and images are used as appeals in arguments and, further, how effective these modalities can be in creating and establishing meaning.” 
          Bottom line takeaway from both readings: students are able to learn a larger range of strategies, options and approaches to composing, as well as for life’s difficulties in general through the use of visual and aural modalities …and folks are forever enriched through the process of this progressive education. 

Collaborative Thinking, Digital Writing, Ambient Awareness, Memory

Listen in to NPR ...Collaborative Thinking, Digital Writing, Ambient Awareness, Memory

http://www.onthemedia.org/story/technology-making-us-smarter-you-think/?utm_source=/story/on-the-media-2013-09-20/&utm_medium=treatment&utm_campaign=morelikethis

English 642: Computers and Composition: FALL IN

Hi, a niece far right tests her shadow. 

I'm falling into digital technology more and more.