In many ways, it feels as though our society has regressed in their communication skills and formality.
Abbreviated words, emoji symbols and sounds make up a large part of our vocabulary today...
And yet these short utterances that we speak in still communicate our thoughts, convey our understandings, and simply get our point across.
I often wonder was this system born out of laziness or creativity?
As a result of this, in my grade 7/8 classroom, I often give my students the option - write their notes or assignments down or type them. I find this simple change in technology allows for each student to feel comfortable and express themselves how it suits them best.
Which do you prefer?
[[Write It]] or [[type it]]
Do you race to the finish?
OR
Do you want to focus on the text or the person speaking?
OR
Do you just hate hand writing/printing?
Typing, for me, is the quick and easy option, it is mindless and can be done without much focus on the content being put into the word processor!
It is what I choose when I feel like there will be too much information to process the first time around. I know I can type quickly, without looking at the keys which makes it easy to take down a lot of information quickly - However, if I type notes down I have to write it out later or at the very least print them off and re-read in order to truly comprehend the information recorded.
Why do you prefer typing?
When you type your text do you [[strategically organize]] your pages with headings, special fonts or colours, or do you [[simply list]] the facts using standard bullet points down your page?Clean lines
"Bold" or coloured font
Highlighting
Definitions clearly marked
Headings...subheadings!
ALL CAPS
Font style
Does this sound like you? Does it sound like something you would do or appreciate!
Why do you organize your pages strategically? What purpose does it have for you?
I like being able to look at a page of my notes, hand-written or typed and with a quick scan know exactly where to find all the information. If I was to send this information to someone else, they as well would be able to follow the flow easily and understand the information.
[[The Art of Writing]]Simple
Straightforward
Uniform
No frills or fancy things
Bullet points - dashes or circles, maybe numbers
Is this your style? Simple and literally to the point!?
There comes a time when you just need to take down the information, it is factual, to the point and recorded for later use.
This type of linear thinking, I find challenging when attmpting to go back and find a piece of information I vaguely remember writing down. It takes more time and effort to go through the entire piece of text because there is no indication of where in the list the different pieces of information lie.
Do you agree?
[[The Art of Writing]] Even though our styles, technology preference (handwritten or typed) may be different the end result is still the same...
Text allows us to record and retain information, ideas, stories, numbers, patterns etc... that our brains cannot keep for us - or at least cannot recount in exactly the same way.
Brad Harris said that "Print allows us to connect throughts and others and merge ideas"
Our abilities to communicate through print and text is consitantly changing and [[Augmenting Human Intellect]].
The ability to create and store text through digital technology doesn't take away from the original codex or print but rather enhances our human abilities to connect, associate and connect and merge ideas. [[Bolter]]
Even throughout this story you have been able to select and choose what you read and where you go. You have been connected to thoughts and ideas and followed a linear yet associative path to where you find yourself now.
This leads us to the
[[Xanadu / The World Wide Web]]
[[The Hypertext]]Douglas Engelbart, 1963 stated that - Augementing human intellect referred to "increasing the capability of a man to approach a complex problem situation, to gain comphrehension to suit a particular need, and to derive soltuions to problems."
[[The Hypertext]] David Bolter looks at writing today
[[The Hypertext]] Coined in the 1960s by Ted Nelson.
[[Bolter]] (2001) explains that the Hypertext
"...is like a printed book that the author has attacked with a pair of scissors and cut into covenient verbal sizes" (p. 35).
"The connections of a hypertext constitute paths of meaning for the author and for the reader" (p. 35).
The hypertext in digital technology allows the original linear text of the scroll and later book to become associate and responsive for the authro and the reader to connect and explore.
Many have argued, such a Bush (1999), that this associative pathway of the hypertext is a more natural way for the human brain to think and learn because we ourselves are associative thinkers vs. hierarchical or linear thinkers.
Bolter later talks about how a hypertext is a path that consists of topics and their connections where topics may be in paragraphs, sentences or individual words, or digitizes graphics and segments of video.
These connections consitute the paths of mean for the both the author and the reader
In print - only a few paths can be followed...
BUT
[[electronic writing]] the text can become richer and thicker with paths and connections because, unlike in print, there doesn't have to be a canonical order.
[[Next]]This twine is not a story, but rather a visual example of the my thinking process throughout the readings from this lask week in ETEC 540. You will follow the meandering rabbit trails of my thoughts and how in the end they all finds it way back together.
[[Type it or Write it? ]] I applaud you! It seems as though writing is a practice not many people care to exercise if they don't have to.
With so many digital options it seems outdated, old-fashioned and boring in comparison to all the gadgets.
And yet...there is something about focusing on the neatness, the curves and bumps, the unfortunate pen blotts or mistakes, and the cursive flow of a handwritten piece of text.
I find writing and taking notes and relaxing exercise that allows me to live into the words that I am putting to paper. I choose headings, subheadings, capitalizations, periods, bullets and numbering, highlighting and margin scribbles with intentionality and purpose.
The creativity of writing information or ideas down on a piece of paper allows me, the creator, to live into that text and retain more of its content.
What kind of writer are you? Do you...
[[strategically organize]]
[[simply list]] According to Michael Joyce, 1995 electronic writing is "inclusive"
...it is not a pure alphabet, but acts similarly to hieroglyphics.
Michael defines "hypertext [as] a process as much as a product" (Bolter, 2001 p. 44)
Bolter describes the electronic space a malleable; and is thought to represent relationship through the interplay of elements and pointers (p. 30)
[[Next]] Through this very short adventure you can see the progression and the changes of text technologies. From hieroglyphics, to the early writing systems of Cuneiform, to early print on animal hides and scrolls, to the paper book, the Gutenberg printing press and mass production of now secular work, followed by the typewriter and finally the computer and word processing.
Each of these changes in affect style, organization, word choice, formality etc.
And even though the medium changes the previous medium is not forgotten but instead enhanced to better suit the needs of the time.
With the strong wave of technology depenedance that is evident in our culture and our society today I think a change is going to swing many back into a more basic practice.
...not as a regression
...but to once again enhance and augment our ability to think and to create.
[[In closing ]]This twine was an exploration of my associations that I made this week between various texts and media.
I wanted the space of this twine to reflect how our brains are associative, reflective and malleable - like what Bush (1999), Engelbert (1963), and Nelson (1999) explore within the conceptualizing of the hypertext.
If you look at the schematics of this twine you see a linear progression however there are many loops and turns and pathways that split apart and yet all come back together in the end.
To reiterate Michael Joyce (1995) "hypertext is a process as much as a product."
Thank you for joinging me in this process looking into a small piece of writing from print to electronic, to hypertext.
[[A path of association and meandering thoughts//Beginning]]
[[Resources]]Bush, V. (1945). As we may think. The Atlantic Monthly, 176(1), 101-108.
Bolter, Jay David. (2001). Writing space: computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print. New York, NY: Routledge.
Englebart, Douglas. (1963). "A conceptual framework for the augmentation of man's intellect (Links to an external site.)." In Hawerton, P.W. and Weeks, D.C. (Eds.), Vistas in information handling, Volume I: The augmentation of man's intellect by machine. Washington, DC: Spartan Books. Available (as "Augmentation of human intellect: A conceptual framework")
Nelson, Theodore. (1999). "Xanalogical structure, needed now more than ever: Parallel documents, deep links to content, deep versioning and deep re-use (Links to an external site.)." Online.
The orginal hypertext was created by Ted Nelson (1999) in 1960.
The Xanadu was a unique symmetrical connective system for texts, that aimed to achieve 2 main functions:
1. survivable deep linkage (content links)
2. visible re-use (transclusion)
This project aimed to prevent the creation of the World Wide Web. It wanted to use visualization through a "pullacross" editing method versus the cut and paste we know today. In order to visually see the relationship between the content.
The World Wide Web includes the premise of Xanadu but only scratches the surface of the depth and abilities Xanadu intended to complete. Nelson (1999) says that the World Wide Web "trivialized the orgins Xanadu model."