Blog Reflection - Russ

Blog Response “Portfolio” and reflective Essay Assignment

Russell Crooks

Overall, the blogging element of our class was a new experience for me, but it helped that I had some experience using myspace and myspace blogs prior to this class. I achieved a comfort level rather quickly after some initial frustration. As for the dynamic of our communication, I think it was playful and informal, but not at the expense of content discussion, meaning making, and sharing of ideas. This element of communication within coursework is an excellent way to keep ideas static and reviewable as opposed to class discussions that can be forgotten and fleeting. I am working over break to add a blog element to my 151 class in the winter because of the usefulness of the blog and how it fosters a sense that mental achievement is primarily social.

Melanie’s post received a comment from me that attempted to add on to Wysocki’s argument about the Peek advertisement. I felt it was important to say how text can portray us as one-dimensional similar to how images do. Melanie responded that text is no match for describing the gassing of Jews as a picture does, which is true, especially conveying pathos, but I think she missed my point about the sweaty man stuck to the barcalounger. Images of mass graves after the holocaust are multi-dimensional because they represent the holocaust, hatred, suffering, sons, daughters, wives, and husbands. However, an image of a naked woman or a written text description of a sweaty, lazy man is much less descriptive. Images are powerful and can filter out many aspects of reality, but text is capable of this as well.

I commented on Julie’s post about how I relate to articulation theory and how selection and connection is completely creative and holds potential to make meaning. On page 230 from “Blinded by the Letter,” there was a web search activity which I felt could have considered the problems with composing as a social act and information being prioritized by the highest bidder, given Google, etc. are profit driven enterprises. Jules asked me what the implications are and I think the implications are that a few powerful people filter the information we receive. Certainly we can access information without a Google search engine, but so many people rely on it as their sole or major source of information in the modern world. This has Orwellian implications, big time. It was cool how Julie went and checked out my song. Thinking about “Twin Cocoon 4” while reading about selection and connection in composition as a social act helped me make sense of “The Database and the Essay…”

My comment on Lydia’s post combined some ideas from previous readings and blog comments with the current reading. It seems the prior readings led well into her post, especially the idea I carried over about new media giving us a more realistic perspective on how we contribute to communities of information rather than make autonomous, individual compositions.

Considering how Lydia opened the post in weighing the positive and negative influences of new media, I had to argue for the investigation and study of new media in composition, but new media carries over into entertainment as well. This is where we need to think more actively and tread more cautiously, given the power of iconic media driven by advertising dollars. While new media holds negative influences over society, it has many uses and can empower us in new ways, especially when we use it to compose our critical thoughts and insights. Just as the advent of printed text created opportunities to exploit the masses, distribute misinformation on a large scale, and encourage destructive behavior, it also improved quality of life, connected individuals, and empowered many common people. I really liked Lydia’s reference to those cautionary of new media and how they overlook its advantages when she reflected on reading comics and said, “Contrary to the limited attention span the new "digital" media is accused of causing, I was forced to be much more deliberate in my reading.”

Again, I considered a composition community theme in Rebecca’s post. I think the most interesting concept to me was that blogs help to keep writing informal and help us to see how we build off of others ideas. There is no doubt that my post would have been much different had I not experienced Melanie’s or Julie’s posts, or others that came before mine.

My comment to Dave needed some clarification. The part about in-field literacies could be vague to some and what I meant to describe was the literacies within professions: literacy of painting, literacy of welding, literacy of playing piano, etc. It was really interesting how Dave went onto Black Planet to understand the reading. The fact that he did this led me to question online identity and be skeptical of the connection between who someone is online and who they are offline. But given this skepticism, I found myself wondering how our online identities can influence who we are as individuals even if it is just “for fun” or a “joke”

Reading my kudos to Craig at the beginning of the post reminded me of an epiphany I had at that point in the quarter: we all need praise. I wish I was more direct to others in complementing them for the good work they produced. It’s important to give regular compliments in an academic setting, but it’s easy to overlook. This was especially true in our case where everyone was trying on new ideas and testing theories. Sometimes when I posted I was rather rushed though and thoughts about complimenting went by the wayside. Craig provided a MOO activity after this post in class and it helped to solidify my comment about how online identity can give us a sense of anonymity and therefore our preconceptions about gender, race, ethnicity, etc. must be questioned given anyone can portray whatever they imagine as themselves. It was like how I changed to be the sexually ambiguous Pat, or how Brett changed into a woman. Online identity is helpful for transcending differences, but it is limited as my comment and our discussion covered. Once online for long amounts of time and through regular exchanges, real-world identities can start to leak through the characters we try to portray online.

In response to Brett’s post, I wrote about how sites like Gay.com will not necessarily abandon the stereotypical portrayal of gays given all the financial incentives to keep those stereotypes in place on their sites. In some sense this leads to those who don’t identify as “gay” to form unrealistic opinions about those who are. As Lydia, Craig, and Melanie brought up gay stereotypes in the classroom and how they would address those or other stereotypes, I think the most important thing is to call the student out on a lack of understanding of the subject matter and how a derogatory term or statement without supporting evidence does not lead to strong arguments in the classroom and therefore should not be considered valid outside the classroom either. I think I missed on my comment in trying to articulate that. What struck me most about Brett’s post was how I was prompted to search gay sites myself. I guess gay is more associated with males, but before this exercise I considered the term gender neutral. On the internet it is clearly not because to find gay female sites you would have to search under lesbian. I wonder why that is so.

In looking at my OSU Literacy Conference proposal, I realize how much of it I drew off of in my final project. It seems I refined some ideas and took certain ones further with the final project though. Now, I see the idea of making a biography of a video essay much clearer and that while I did borrow or continue these ideas in my final project, I can still take this proposal and create another video essay that builds off my argument in the final project. I see what I’d create for the conference now as a documentary in how I approach the video essay; providing more hands-on proof than what is provided in our final project. No comments were given.

Looking at the book review comments, I found I actually received a comment from an outsider I didn’t notice before! Unfortunately, they did not leave me anything of content though. They were trying to give me cheat codes to EverQuest. I guess that gives proof to Gee’s findings that this game is followed en masse and a point of interest to many internet users. That person was desperate to form an alliance or promote the game I guess. I agree with the e-mail grade/comments from Rouzie that I overlooked the fact that Gee’s book was lacking in images given the subject matter (games) are highly dependant on visual information. I also think I was being pretty picky about the errors in the text, but for some reason it threw me off and I thought I should mention it. I guess I should be more concerned with my own writing errors. It was too bad the images I collected did not make it to the post. I wish you could just copy a word doc with images right into a blog post so you don’t have to save the images and then refigure them into the post on the blog.

Finally, looking at the final project proposal post and all the pre-posts that came before, it is funny how much my ideas changed (not sure how funny it was then). It was a matter of my finding a group late, thinking I needed to drastically change my ideas to fit with my group, and then realizing that I should not “re-invent the wheel” as Craig commented. I went from trying to argue about cultural literacies being more accessible through the use of new media, to a focus on the dangers of avoiding new media or multi-modal discourse in the English classroom, and the benefits of reading and composing it alongside traditional written text essays within a course. Something missing from the final project proposal (the last one with the Ray Charles images) was how all our ideas connected as Prof. Rouzie pointed out to us. This comment sort of stewed in my brain for a while and then I realized that adding a conversation element to the end of the piece would give us a chance to draw our connections and show how we have diverse approaches to a common argument: English studies must expand to teach new media compositions. It is not only profound that text is present in new media domains, it’s also profound that we have unique approaches to how new media can be taught and utilized to improve the traditional print essay.