More Technotexts - Class Response

Today's poet almost certainly can't help but think about how their poem looks on a page. It's easy to change line breaks, stanza breaks, word spacing, line length and fonts with a word processing program. And it's interesting to see hos changing the line length or a stanza break can slightly alter the meaning of the text. But what happens when we take the words out of the poem and the letters out of the words and play with their relation to the page? What happens when the visual form of the poem is as important as the words that make it?
- from "Poems that Go"

I believe that when the artist thinks more about the visual more than the meaning of the words, shaped poetry is created. Perhaps the words do not flow as easily as a more often seen poem in stanza form, but the visual aspect of the poem adds so much to the meaning of the words that are being presented. In a previous class, we played around with taking the meaning of the word and showing its meaning by relating it to its presentation on the page. I believe that when a poem is put in a more visual form adds to the poem's meaning, but perhaps it takes away from the reader's interpretation.

Technotexts - Class Blog Response

"While Chopping Red Peppers" combines all five NLG's (Natural Language Generation) basic modes of meaning - linguistic, audio, spatial, gestural, and visual. Which one of these elements plays the greatest role in your interpretation?

Audio definitely has the greatest effect on the way I interpret "While Chopping Red Peppers". The way the speaker uses her voice to explain how her father has fully influenced her life shows that she took so much from her father. Even though she is now 1000 miles away, she is still being influenced by her father's teachings as a child.

BLOGS AND SOCIAL SITES, March 26: Matthew Snyder and Alissa

The presentation done by Alissa and Matthew about social sites was very good. I thought it was informative and had a lot of good information from the readings as well as outside sources. I learned a lot about the psychology of social sites like Facebook and Myspace. The class discussion was very good as well. I thought that we hit a lot of good topic discussions, like the talk about how one presents themselves on their Facebook. I believe that many people in the class are not being true to themselves because they make sure that the “silly” side does not show on their Facebook. I really do not have respect for those who cannot be true to themselves. I understand completely that future employers look at their employees Facebooks, so one should not have pictures of doing illegal things like underage drinking, but untagging pictures that make you look fat or ones that do not show off your best smile is absolutely ridiculous. I also enjoyed the discussion about the differences of Facebook and Myspace. Even though both social sites are there for basically the same purposes, Myspace seems so much trashier than Facebook. I believe this is due to Facebook being started for college students.

BLOGS AND SOCIAL SITES, March 24: Ashley Scruggs and Scott Mason

I thought Ashley and Scott’s presentation about blogs and social sites was really cool. I very much enjoyed the fact that the presentation was set up as a blog. There was a lot of good discussion because this is a very “now” topic, but there was not as much information as I thought there would be. It was definitely all discussion, which is fine, because I guess that is what we were supposed to be doing for our presentation. I learned that there are blogs that people go to regularly to find new information and posts about current events. I really do not like blogs because I think many of the blogs that are created by teenagers are incredibly dumb. I do not understand why people would want to write about their everyday life and share it with others. Many times there are very personal posts that everybody has access to. I believe that blogs are just a way for emo kids to get attention. Anyway, Ashley and Scott’s presentation was well put together in regards to having a lot of discussion questions. Their topic kept the class interested due to the fact that everybody knew what blogs were. Well done.

TYPEWRITERS AND TYPEWRITING, March 3: Anna Acre and Alex Innes

I really enjoyed this presentation. I thought it was very informative and well put together. There were some interesting facts presented as well as good topic discussions. I thought that the discussion about how new technologies are always viewed with a little hesitance was very good. It is hard to believe that at one time typewriters were thought of as taking over the writing of the person doing the typing. This is much like the discussions we have in all of our classes. We always talk about how physically writing something is more personal and better shows the person's true work than if doing it through a machine. I also liked the presentation that focused on the history of typewriters and what first came out and how it was used. The failed technologies were quite interesting. For example, the eight foot tall machine that printed out text. How is that even practical? I guess it is somewhat like the really, really old computers that once took up an entire room and only printed out small sections of paper. Think of how far we have come in the past 200 years or so. Overall, the presentation was well put together and had a lot of good information to be shared.

Global Warming

Global Warming

Very real

o Not necessarily due to pollution

§ Pollution helping out the process, but not the entire reason for climate change

o Earth has gone through many fluctuations in temperature throughout its existence

o Just another phase in the Earth’s life

o We can do our part slow down the process by trying to be more green, but the warming in climate will occur anyways.

Word Processors - Class Blog

Oral cultures: always "referred to as socialized communication" (Heim, 113).

What benefits do preliterate cultures experience that literate cultures cannot?

How do word processors have an effect on our oral and literate culture?

I believe that oral cultures were able to experience much more intimate communication. Within a literate culture, the personal interaction does not occur as often. I also believe that the memories existing in an oral culture are much more able to retain information than in a literate culture. Because everything had to be passed along verbally, the information had to be memorized. Now, in a literate culture, we do not have to remember anything, it can just be written down.