Derek's summary of Gergen's "The Self in the Age of Information"

Community in Crisis: Gergen makes three points in this section. One, the increasingly mobil population. Here he states that because travel is so easy now days, schools and business do not need to be close to home for them to be accessable. Kids are spending all day in school and after school activities and parents are at work, on business trips, or socializing with friends across town, and the presence at home is reduced. Communities are emtying out because parents and kids are gone for long periods of time. And as businesses are easier to relocate, moving is becoming easier to do.
A wide range of relationships: With a large amount of travel, there is going to be a large amount of communication. With tourism becoming the largest industry, people are traveling around the world and meeting new people. The use of telephones and electronic mail are increasing as people's network of contacts becomes bigger. Each relationship bringing new information.
An erosion of strong bonds: With the capabilities of new communication technology, the capability of distant relationships becomes easier. With the amount of new relationships that are spontanious, the amount of stronger bonds decreases.
Truth: From Certainty to Social Construction
Here Gergen brings to light the truth in the definitions of "self" and who has authority over it. He stresses all the different associations and practices that determine the definition of self. He feels with communication technology advancing that definitions of self are becoming less belivable, and with psychiatrists, psychologist, and biologist all competing for the understanding of self, who can we belive?

My summary of our groups discussion topic

The author is stressing the truth in "self" and who has authority over it. He begins by saying that religion had the primary authority on matters of self, and the belief in the individual soul. But, over past centuries, science has taken over. Psychiatry, psychology, biology, anthropology, and sociology have become primary sources of knowlege about human beings. But with the growing of communication technologies, he belives that claims of truth about the self are less belivable. Marginal groups gathering opinions, data, arguments and proposals try to gain public attention by claiming truth about the self. With so many claiming truth that relates to their product, contending for public attention, who's right? Now it's getting to the point that expert opinions of "insanity" can be purchased by defendants in criminal trials. His final sentence says it all. "With respect to the nature of the self, what authority can be trusted?"

A couple good sites on New Literacy

These two sites can hopefully give you guys some good info for the next essay coming up in the next week.

The first one is The New Literacies: Research on Reading Instruction with the Internet and Other Digital Technologies by Donald J. Leu, Jr. from Syracuse University. It is a little long(21 pages)but 3 or 4 pages are references and there are two big pics in it, so don't be a wimp. These are the titles of the sections in it.

• Exploring New Literacies on the Internet


• What Are the New Literacies?


• Why Are the New Literacies Important?


• What Do We Know About the New Literacies?


• Common Patterns Across Technologies


• Research on Specific Applications


• Research on Teacher Education and Staff Development


• Thinking About New Ways of Knowing


• What Can We Reasonably Conclude About The New Literacies?

A great site indeed. The next one is a short article, Preparing Students for Their Future: New Literacies for New Times, also by Donald Leu, Jr. There is only about 2 pages, but it is something good you can read in a sitting. It tells of how literacy has changed over the last five hundred years and tells of how, like most of the articles we have read, we must "expand our vision" with the new literacies. Short, but sweet. Later.

Relationship between Old and New Lit

The article I read was a chapter out of the book "Learning to Read in the Computer Age," written by Anne Meyer and David Rose. They point out that, at the moment, we are using new technology to teach old literature, and often teach it in old ways, translating print based stratagies to the computer, ignoring the flexability of computers ability to work for us. new methods and changes in our culture are bringing us to the next level, when schools will teach both old and new literacy. They also point out that old literacy will not die. That all forms of literacy, new and old, will serve the same purposes of expression and communication, opening the doors between indeviduals, between indevidual and the world, and between indevidual and his own true self. The human connection and the enlargement of mind and spirit are what literacy are all about, old or new. The new literacy will extend that experience of discovery and fellowship, not destroy it. Whether it consists of text, sound, pictures, motion, or some new unimagined blend of media, we are coming to understand literacy as the one great meeting place for humanity and we look forward to the time when all are included.

The site, Virtual-fx.net, has some great tutorials for those who are just learning flash and those with a good understanding of it. The tutorials are for Flash 4 and 5, so you may have to tranpose the info to other versions of Flash, such as Flash MX. The tutorials are simple and concise, with pictures to help you learn what to do. There are also movies to check out as well. I personally use this site a lot, since it helped me figure out buttons. Worth a look.

A great site for Flash tutorials

The site, posted by Cullen at 8:44 AM

A great article on the relationship between New and Old literacy(basic filter)

Christine Haas, associate professor of English at Kent State University, wrote a very thorough examination of the relationship between new and old literacy in On the Relationship Between Old and New Technologies. The size of this article is very big; 24 pages long. But, if you sift through it all, you find some really great info for the topic. Her intro addresses the relationship of new and old literacy, a relationship that should be paid attention to. Using the work of Soviet semiotician Lev Vygotsky, she explains his two concepts of literacy that her point of view is based on: Meditational Means and Historical-Genetic Method. Then, she goes into the relationship between literacies and work. Haas then presents three case studies: Collaboration Across Engineering Workplace Sites, A City Manager’s “Vision”, and Textual Artifacts in an Urban Abortion Clinic. Christine then presents Bijker's theory of sociotechnical change. The degree of depth in this article can make it quite valuable for those who are patient enough to read it, for this article can be hard to read at times. Christine Haas is very explanatory in this article of where it leads to, which can lead to boredom while reading, but for research purposes, it can be helpful. Overall, a great article for those who have the dedication to read it.

Thursday, October 10, 2002

Some Questions that could be used in the Presentation

These questions may be good to use or just really crappy. I am basically just throwing out ideas that we can maybe use. Post the one you think will work fine or put up some of your own as well.

• Section 1
  
  • How many of you like to read books with pictures in them?
  • How many great conversations have you had about a book or something else you have read?
  • How do you feel after a good conversation?


• Section 2
  
  • How many hours did you spend each day with mass media (watching tv, playing video games, or listening to the radio, etc.) outside of school before and during high school?
  • What are some advantages you can think of in integrating mass media into education?
• Section 3
  • What are some contemporary literacies you can think of?
  • What are some issues to be addressed about new literacies in education?

Hope these help. Feel free to modify them if you feel they need to be corrected. See you guys tomorrow.

Friday, October 04, 2002

Here's the essay
Here's the link to the essay to read. Later.

Reading Questions

(1) - I think what the authors mean by 'critical literacy' is the ability to analyze a piece of literatrue, art, music, whatever, and find meaning in the piece. It also means being able to read, listen, look at something and discover the message that the creator was trying to get across.

(2) - Haha, what Cullen said. Men are usually depicted men as the strong, tough guy that always knows what to do, while the woman is depitcted more often as sensitive, nice, caring. "This is reflected in their dialect and actions". Nice work Cullen

(3) - ?? not sure where to go with this one.

(4) - I personall think that it should be a part of the classroom. I believe that analytical thinking and then deducing meaning from it is a great way to learn.

1) I agree with Cullen but just to add that critical literacy is also resisting the stereotypes that can be applied in literacy. Don't except what they are saying unless you really belive it's true.

2) Cullen is right but also the use of action verbs with males, and linking verbs with females make males more active and females more passive.

3) um...yeah whatever

4) i don't think it will ever happen. that means change...and our society does not like change. people don't like thinking for themselves. they like to take what others are saying and belive it.

Thursday, October 03, 2002

Cullen's Answers to the Reading Questions

The section of essay we were to read, the fourth section, presented the question, "Should critical literacy be part of our classroom?". Here's my answers to the questions:

1)I think the authors see "critical literacy" as being able to think and use reason to answer questions, see things from different points of view, and see the purposes in pieces of literature. Critical literacy practices for students, to the authors, seem to be analyzing written works to see different meanings to them or other activities that stretch the scope of their minds.

2)Their example for gender understanding with an approach of critical literacy is fairly simple. A lot of literature has males protrayed as brave protagonists, while women are gentle and nice. This is reflected in their dialect and actions.

4)I think critical literacy is important, but it should be taught steadily, little by little. If critical literacy is taught too much or too fast in class, a student's mind can become exhausted too quickly with the excessive amount of reasoning needed to be done. Steadiness of it being taught will allow the student's mental endurance to build at a safe pace, without too much stress.