Baswell's+Wikis


 * 1. Reflect on the process of creating the techno-literacy memoir. What did you learn from presenting this project in a mode other than traditional print text?**

The techno-memoir project for me was a look back in time at our humble technological beginnings. I’ve said before that I believe children of the 80s (such as myself) literally grew up at the same time as technology did. We were the first to experiment with cell phones, personal computers, email, and have shaped the expanding language that has been born of IMing, texting, and emailing. That being said, I’m no computer whiz. Texting whiz, yes, computer whiz, no. So putting the project in the specified format was new to me, and took some time getting used to, but in the end, I was happy with the way it turned out and I was proud at myself for being able to pull it off. The format itself lent a user-friendly aspect that included ease of navigation, visual stimulation, links to various websites, and posted on the internet which quickly connects us, forming a sense of community. I was able to easily figure out how to manipulate not only the text but the visual representations of my ideas into groups and have each piece of the work as a whole separated into shorter chunks of text. This keeps the reader from tiring of reading endless pages of text without any breaks or other stimulation. Overall, the project was a success, and isn’t the goal always to learn something while having fun? Mission accomplished.


 * 2.** **Make at least one prediction about where new media will take writing in the twenty-first century.**

Predictions are not dreams, nor are they reality. They are usually made in times of uncertainty rather than times of content. So, I will tell you my prediction for the twenty-first century’s treatment of writing, but it will be an optimistic one, instead of my first thought which was something to the effect of hell in a handbag. I would make the bold prediction that education may end up using technology to help students in school. Not the help that we saw advertised in the YouTube video from class with markers and dry-erase boards, but a real hands-on type of help that may be the new wave of writing technology. I’m thinking tablets of light with pens that preschoolers would use to trace numbers and letters, I’m thinking computer games that use phonics and spelling as their premise. I know these things already exist to some degree, but I realistically see them becoming more integrated into school systems. While humans are much better equipped to teach young children, even a computer reading to a child is better than no one at all. I can see laptops and computers taking over traditional forms of print in classrooms, and can only hope that our children’s handwriting will not be a casualty of the cause.


 * 3. Reflect on the process of creating the web-text. How did the text change in its transition from silent print to the "noise" of cyberspace in terms of stylistic choices and audience concerns?**

Against all my predictions (see above for definition), I really enjoyed the web to text project. I’ll be honest with you, I first enjoyed it because we could use a piece of writing that we had already used for another class. I thought it would save time and effort, but when it came down to doing the project, I found that I was more careful with a piece of writing that I had already caressed into being, much more so than I would have been with a piece written specifically for this project. I used my blog as the format for the project, and played around with the many widgets that blogspot has to offer. Once I got into the rhythm of how I wanted the piece to look, all the variables came together nicely. I incorporated link and lists, poems and quotes, and pictures and slideshows. I loved the way it turned out, and once again learned something while having fun doing it. Kudos to Dr. Pace for that. The piece I used also happened to be on a subject that I not only am crazy about, but that I always wanted to share with others without boring them to death. I felt I did a superb job at opening up the subject for discussion and made the links and pages interactive and user-friendly. Kudos to me for that.  J


 * 4.** **In what ways have you changed as a writer this semester?**

Wow, this question is quite the doozy. How have I become a better writer this semester? I’ll tell you one thing (while ripping off Hillary Clinton at the same time): it takes a village. I always knew I wanted to be a writer and that I was better at it than the average person. But I always kept my dream at arm’s length, thinking of it more as a hobby than a part of my everyday life. But then, I decided to focus on solely that and try to nourish that creative bone with time and practice and keeping company with like-minded individuals. I have written short stories and poetry, papers on issues of importance to me, and even blogged about it all, all things I have never done seriously but always wanted to. I feel accomplished, creative, and a better writer for all of it. My writing classes are due the majority of the credit, I suppose. Poetry and short stories have been cultivated in the classroom, and I have been lucky enough to have peers in those classes that have the same love for writing that I do. As for multimedia writing, I do feel a sense of accomplishment from posting blogs and creating our own wikis (a term that before this class I knew nothing of). But, aside from the projects I have created in this class, I feel I have acquired a real knowledge of language that comes with the study of the rhetoric behind technology and the English language, the two coming together to form something new and wonderful. It has been a truly unique learning experience that has been a highlight of my semester thus far.


 * 5.** **Which theory/theorist have you found most interesting or helpful in understanding digital media and why?**

I enjoyed Caraway’s Cyborg Manifesto just for the new addition to my vocabulary. The term cyborg has made its way into my everyday life, and I can’t help but laugh when I see those people who go around with blue tooth sets in their ears, thinking “cyborg!” The term means very different things in very different contexts, but I can see the similarities in our culture today. A notion of being half human, half machine is easy to fall into with machines running a large part of our daily lives. We have machines all around us, making our coffee, brushing our teeth, and receiving our mail for us. These things have become second nature to us and would go almost unnoticed if it weren’t for the occasional power outage as an humble reminder. The “old” term for cyborg in my mind was a metal shell shaped like a woman with large breasts, tiny waist, and large hips that shot lasers out of her eyes. No really. And, to say these won’t infiltrate our futures may be speaking too soon. I can imagine half humans, half machines being incorporated into our everyday lives. Kind of like a science fiction version of ancient Greece with demigods and mortals. Pretty cool, indeed.