An interesting article I thought you all might enjoy:
"Information Overload, Then and Now"
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
A Note On Notes
The other day, I took notes on my iPad for the first time.
I know, I know - I'm super late to the party. I feel like that might have been the first thing most people in this class did with their iPad, what with the whole "let's try to integrate these things into our academic lives" thing that we were all so excited about at the beginning of the class.
But I, with my eternally stubborn tendencies, couldn't do it. I am a writer. When I take notes, I write. I enjoy the physical feeling of writing - the movement of my hand, the pen sliding smoothly over the page - almost as much as I enjoy what I write. I like my handwriting. A lot of the time, I write down nonsense just to feel myself write the way some people tall just to hear themselves talk. Taking notes is the perfect outlet for that - I have an excuse to write endlessly for an entire class period without stopping. It doesn't really matter if I'm interested in the material or not; I just love taking notes. I know, it's weird. It might be just a vanity thing. Whatever. What I'm trying to say is, from the very outset of this class, I was determined not to let the iPad take away the joy of note-taking from me.
After Timothy Morton came to class two weeks ago, though, I found myself thinking about the iPad differently. He talked about his use of it with his students and the use of it in his personal life, and seemed to be largely singing praise of it - why should we renounce something, he seemed to be getting at, that is so clearly intended to be used for our convenience, so clearly intended to make academic life (and indeed home and work life) so much simpler and quicker?
On Wednesdays, after this class, I have another class with Dr. Schaberg and that particular day, Timothy Morton made an appearance in that class as well. Perhaps it was an attempt to impress him or something, I don't know, but I decided to take my iPad out and take my class notes on it - just for one day.
My fingers didn't stop moving for the entire class. I found that I was able to type pretty much as fast as people in the classwork were talking - an approach I usually attempt with my handwritten notes, but at which I rarely succeed. I felt I was able to type on the iPad even faster than I would on my own laptop. This was especially curious to me. I spend a good chunk of every day on my laptop, and have done so since I got it in high school, so I assumed that my extensive "training" there would make it the instrument on I'd find myself most efficient. Not so. Maybe it's because I don't have to press any keys down, or because I've become adjusted to the iPad's autocorrect and therefore pay less attention to what I'm typing, but I'm like a damn speed racer on this thing. As a result, I found when going over my notes that there was a much more comprehensive representation of what had gone on in class, and I found myself recalling and even understanding better the discussion we'd had, as opposed to looking at scattered half-sentences and marginal notes and trying to remember what I meant by them.
Even in the face of all that, though, I'm still not convinced. An aspect of taking my notes on the iPad that really irked me was the fact that my notes were suddenly separate from my readings. I like to take excessive notes in my books. It's visually easier for me that way to link together thoughts I have with specific areas of the text. Not only that, but over the years I've developed a pretty intricate system of underlinings and markings to indicate specific relationships, linkages and auxiliary thoughts of mine in relation to a text. With notes on the iPad, that disappears - it's just a block of text, arbitrarily organized by thoughts as I have them, and I have to have the iPad set out alongside my book, attempting to pinpoint which notes belong to which sections instead of just having them integrated into the text itself.
For now, I'm working on finding a balance between the convenience and the comfort. Much to my own surprise I've continued use of the iPad as a place for note taking, but I still mark up my books just as heavily as before. The iPad doesn't come out while I'm reading, but instead during class discussions where I can create a separate space for the topics we discuss there. It's not flawless yet, but I feel I might be making some progress. Let's go future! Full steam ahead!
I know, I know - I'm super late to the party. I feel like that might have been the first thing most people in this class did with their iPad, what with the whole "let's try to integrate these things into our academic lives" thing that we were all so excited about at the beginning of the class.
But I, with my eternally stubborn tendencies, couldn't do it. I am a writer. When I take notes, I write. I enjoy the physical feeling of writing - the movement of my hand, the pen sliding smoothly over the page - almost as much as I enjoy what I write. I like my handwriting. A lot of the time, I write down nonsense just to feel myself write the way some people tall just to hear themselves talk. Taking notes is the perfect outlet for that - I have an excuse to write endlessly for an entire class period without stopping. It doesn't really matter if I'm interested in the material or not; I just love taking notes. I know, it's weird. It might be just a vanity thing. Whatever. What I'm trying to say is, from the very outset of this class, I was determined not to let the iPad take away the joy of note-taking from me.
After Timothy Morton came to class two weeks ago, though, I found myself thinking about the iPad differently. He talked about his use of it with his students and the use of it in his personal life, and seemed to be largely singing praise of it - why should we renounce something, he seemed to be getting at, that is so clearly intended to be used for our convenience, so clearly intended to make academic life (and indeed home and work life) so much simpler and quicker?
On Wednesdays, after this class, I have another class with Dr. Schaberg and that particular day, Timothy Morton made an appearance in that class as well. Perhaps it was an attempt to impress him or something, I don't know, but I decided to take my iPad out and take my class notes on it - just for one day.
My fingers didn't stop moving for the entire class. I found that I was able to type pretty much as fast as people in the classwork were talking - an approach I usually attempt with my handwritten notes, but at which I rarely succeed. I felt I was able to type on the iPad even faster than I would on my own laptop. This was especially curious to me. I spend a good chunk of every day on my laptop, and have done so since I got it in high school, so I assumed that my extensive "training" there would make it the instrument on I'd find myself most efficient. Not so. Maybe it's because I don't have to press any keys down, or because I've become adjusted to the iPad's autocorrect and therefore pay less attention to what I'm typing, but I'm like a damn speed racer on this thing. As a result, I found when going over my notes that there was a much more comprehensive representation of what had gone on in class, and I found myself recalling and even understanding better the discussion we'd had, as opposed to looking at scattered half-sentences and marginal notes and trying to remember what I meant by them.
Even in the face of all that, though, I'm still not convinced. An aspect of taking my notes on the iPad that really irked me was the fact that my notes were suddenly separate from my readings. I like to take excessive notes in my books. It's visually easier for me that way to link together thoughts I have with specific areas of the text. Not only that, but over the years I've developed a pretty intricate system of underlinings and markings to indicate specific relationships, linkages and auxiliary thoughts of mine in relation to a text. With notes on the iPad, that disappears - it's just a block of text, arbitrarily organized by thoughts as I have them, and I have to have the iPad set out alongside my book, attempting to pinpoint which notes belong to which sections instead of just having them integrated into the text itself.
For now, I'm working on finding a balance between the convenience and the comfort. Much to my own surprise I've continued use of the iPad as a place for note taking, but I still mark up my books just as heavily as before. The iPad doesn't come out while I'm reading, but instead during class discussions where I can create a separate space for the topics we discuss there. It's not flawless yet, but I feel I might be making some progress. Let's go future! Full steam ahead!
Electronic Literature Links
Hey all! These are the links and videos that conveniently didn't work in class today. I think that they are integral to understanding the murky nature of electronic literature though, and strongly suggest you explore it for yourself.
E-Literature Explained
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOihjPnq_A4
ELO
http://www.eliterature.org
David Knoebel's "Heart Pole"
http://home.ptd.net/~clkpoet/htpl/index.html
E-Literature Explained
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOihjPnq_A4
ELO
http://www.eliterature.org
David Knoebel's "Heart Pole"
http://home.ptd.net/~clkpoet/htpl/index.html
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Class Notes, 10 November
Schaberg: Now is when we really start to hone in on the questions / issues to focus on for next semester. For books reports: if there is a part of your book you thin would be useful to read as a class, please share.
Jeffrey's Presentation:
App "Two Screens": Presentation app that allows you to open powerpoints and PDFs at the same time
"The Dumbest Generation: Don't Trust Anyone Under 30": premise of book - we're dumber than we've ever been. Young people are more likely to know the American Idol than the Speaker of the House. Deficiencies are across the board in all subjects.
Between 1992 and 2002 literacy rates have decreased in all areas: age, race, gender, education. Judgement based on whether you have read anything literary in the past 12 months - includes basically anything (poems, magazines, song lyrics)
"The abundant material progress has not just disengaged today's use, it has hindered it." We have more readily available knowledge than ever before but we choose not to utilize it. 43% of 18-24 year olds considered themselves readers outside of school in 2002. In 1946, that figure was 92%.
"Harry Potter has not sparked an invigoration of reading." After the last Harry Potter book was published, sales of children's books went down 43 million units.
"The Dumbest Generation will cease being dumb only when it regards adolescence as an inferior realm of petty strivings and adulthood as a realm of civic, historical and cultural awareness that puts them in touch with perennial ideas.." - there is a generation of people trapped in adolescence called Twixters.
Interview with Bauerlein: Digital culture doesn't mean access to knowledge for teens, it means access to each other. 9/10 of the to websites are social networking sites. Our leisure activites: 95% of us watch an hour of tv a day; we don't go to museums, we don't patronize the performing arts. Out of the 31% of adults who said they read, 16% of them did not read literature.
What do we do? Adults should stop kids from watching tv, listening to iPod during homework, tweeting, etc. There is going to be a record of our behavior and we need to take preventative measures so that we're not the ones who abandon learning and education.
Our culture is "aliterate" - we can read, but we don't.
"Reading at Risk" survey can be found on the website for the National Endowment for the Arts - should be read, it's really interesting.
Thoughts from the class:
Statistics from the book may not be accurate because standardized tests are very flawed.
All the school system does is prepare you for standardized tests, not any kind of real learning.
Every generation thinks that the generation after them is dumber - is it pointless to make these claims? Shouldn't we focus on what we do know instead of what we don't?
The book is kind of pandering - a book about people who don't read so that people who do will read it and congratulate themselves.
Jeffrey's Presentation:
App "Two Screens": Presentation app that allows you to open powerpoints and PDFs at the same time
"The Dumbest Generation: Don't Trust Anyone Under 30": premise of book - we're dumber than we've ever been. Young people are more likely to know the American Idol than the Speaker of the House. Deficiencies are across the board in all subjects.
Between 1992 and 2002 literacy rates have decreased in all areas: age, race, gender, education. Judgement based on whether you have read anything literary in the past 12 months - includes basically anything (poems, magazines, song lyrics)
"The abundant material progress has not just disengaged today's use, it has hindered it." We have more readily available knowledge than ever before but we choose not to utilize it. 43% of 18-24 year olds considered themselves readers outside of school in 2002. In 1946, that figure was 92%.
"Harry Potter has not sparked an invigoration of reading." After the last Harry Potter book was published, sales of children's books went down 43 million units.
"The Dumbest Generation will cease being dumb only when it regards adolescence as an inferior realm of petty strivings and adulthood as a realm of civic, historical and cultural awareness that puts them in touch with perennial ideas.." - there is a generation of people trapped in adolescence called Twixters.
Interview with Bauerlein: Digital culture doesn't mean access to knowledge for teens, it means access to each other. 9/10 of the to websites are social networking sites. Our leisure activites: 95% of us watch an hour of tv a day; we don't go to museums, we don't patronize the performing arts. Out of the 31% of adults who said they read, 16% of them did not read literature.
What do we do? Adults should stop kids from watching tv, listening to iPod during homework, tweeting, etc. There is going to be a record of our behavior and we need to take preventative measures so that we're not the ones who abandon learning and education.
Our culture is "aliterate" - we can read, but we don't.
"Reading at Risk" survey can be found on the website for the National Endowment for the Arts - should be read, it's really interesting.
Thoughts from the class:
Statistics from the book may not be accurate because standardized tests are very flawed.
All the school system does is prepare you for standardized tests, not any kind of real learning.
Every generation thinks that the generation after them is dumber - is it pointless to make these claims? Shouldn't we focus on what we do know instead of what we don't?
The book is kind of pandering - a book about people who don't read so that people who do will read it and congratulate themselves.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Hamlet On Facebook
Well, whaddaya know! The idea from the "Deep/Hyper Attention" article has already humorously been put into practice by folks at McSweeney's. Here it is, Hamlet on FB:
HAMLET
HAMLET
(FACEBOOK NEWS
FEED EDITION).
BY SARAH SCHMELLING
- - - -
Horatio thinks he saw a ghost.
Hamlet thinks it's annoying when your uncle marries your mother right after your dad dies.
The king thinks Hamlet's annoying.
Laertes thinks Ophelia can do better.
Hamlet's father is now a zombie.
- - - -
The king poked the queen.
The queen poked the king back.
Hamlet and the queen are no longer friends.
Marcellus is pretty sure something's rotten around here.
Hamlet became a fan of daggers.
- - - -
Polonius says Hamlet's crazy ... crazy in love!
Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Hamlet are now friends.
Hamlet wonders if he should continue to exist. Or not.
Hamlet thinks Ophelia might be happier in a convent.
Ophelia removed "moody princes" from her interests.
Hamlet posted an event: A Play That's Totally Fictional and In No Way About My Family
The king commented on Hamlet's play: "What is wrong with you?"
Polonius thinks this curtain looks like a good thing to hide behind.
Polonius is no longer online.
- - - -
Hamlet added England to the Places I've Been application.
The queen is worried about Ophelia.
Ophelia loves flowers. Flowers flowers flowers flowers flowers. Oh, look, a river.
Ophelia joined the group Maidens Who Don't Float.
Laertes wonders what the hell happened while he was gone.
- - - -
The king sent Hamlet a goblet of wine.
The queen likes wine!
The king likes ... oh crap.
The queen, the king, Laertes, and Hamlet are now zombies.
Horatio says well that was tragic.
Fortinbras, Prince of Norway, says yes, tragic. We'll take it from here.
Denmark is now Norwegian.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Things I do instead of homework
I made this after the Hyper attention vs. Deep attention article. The text is probably hard to read. Sorry about that. =/The dialogue goes like this:
Purple hair girl: "I'm downloading a playlist of fight songs, texting my mom, and googling fighting techniques!"
Orange hair girl: "I'm making a Pro-Hyper Attention blog, tweeting, and posting pictures of our robot on Facebook!"
Blue hair boy: "I Wikipediaed robots and spent like 2 hours watching Youtube videos of how to build robots before I started building, so this robot should be pretty good. I hope this universal remote works...This button either turns on the robot or opens my garage..."
Robot: "PREPARE TO DIE!"
Deep attention guy: "I've been studying the art of sword fighting since age 2. I have spend 14 hours of every day of the last 87 years sword fighting. I have 2 PhDs in sword fighting. I also love this sword more than I love my wife. Now, prepare to die!"
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
In Digital Age, Students Still Cling to Paper Textbooks
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/nyregion/20textbooks.html?_r=1
The link above is certainly relevant for our class!
Thoughts on Last Week's Discussion & Intro. to "The Ecological Thought"
Our discussion last week on hyper/deep attention prompted in me the question: why do we learn? Or for teachers: why do they teach? In other words: what is the purpose of teaching? I realize that this may seem like a silly question, one to which the answer begins with: "Obviously..." But, in light of our discussions, I think it's important to keep in mind the goal of education, in order to see how ways of learning, ways of "paying attention," can drive us to or disorient us from that goal. Let's see Loyola's Mission Statement:
So it involves a pursuit of truth and a sort of rite to be a person "with and for others," as Ignatian teaching says. Perhaps here Morton's notion of Ecological Thought gains relevance, because in this sense of learning to be in the world, then we do need think in terms of interconnection with others, both human and nonhuman, "think ecologically."
Well. How do hyper/deep attention and education relate to the iPad, and how does the iPad relate to "the" ecological thought? I'm still thinking about it. But I can see a relationship... I just can't quite see its inner dynamics of it yet.
Loyola University New Orleans, a Jesuit and Catholic institution of higher education, . . . prepares [students] to lead meaningful lives with and for others; to pursue truth, wisdom, and virtue; and to work for a more just world . . . Through teaching, research, creative activities, and service, the faculty, in cooperation with the staff, strives to educate the whole student and to benefit the larger community.
So it involves a pursuit of truth and a sort of rite to be a person "with and for others," as Ignatian teaching says. Perhaps here Morton's notion of Ecological Thought gains relevance, because in this sense of learning to be in the world, then we do need think in terms of interconnection with others, both human and nonhuman, "think ecologically."
Well. How do hyper/deep attention and education relate to the iPad, and how does the iPad relate to "the" ecological thought? I'm still thinking about it. But I can see a relationship... I just can't quite see its inner dynamics of it yet.
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