Technology, Text, Orality & the Body

Text Messenger- The Evolution of Texting, originally uploaded by s l i m d a n d y.

Hello Everyone,
Barb Fraser here. I choose this image because for me it is a very good visual representation of some of the concepts that are at play in this course. Technology, Text, Orality, the Body…. the very Human creation of Speech and expression of Thought realized as words, manifested either orally or in the form of text. Just like our subject matter this image is extremely complex and is comprised of multiple connotations and implied or inferred layers of meanings. Moreover the image itself issues out of a complex art genre [minimally; photography, mixed media, and surrealist art] and it “speaks” to a technologically advanced cultural milieu.
Specifically, it places text onto or within Technology [represented by a keyboard]. It then subsumes the physical body [that place where we imagine the text issues out of, that is the head or brain], specifically covering or replacing the mouth, again where speech, orality [non text based communication] or oral versions of text alone…are created/born. That is, it plays with the idea of the fusion of text not only onto and within technology but also within and through the vehicle of the body as a medium for the creation and the communication of text and also [implied] of speech and orality.
I have worked in health care all of my life in various management capacities, at BC Children’s, VGH and St. Paul’s Hospitals. Currently, I am happy to be working on campus [away from hospitals!] as manager of the MHA program here at the SPPH [School of Population and Public Health], UBC.
I am specifically interested in what makes online learning different [for example the F shaped scanning patterns of readers of text on line] from conventional learning and to better understand how to present e-learning content so as to maximize its advantages and compensate for some of its perceived disadvantages. I am a former psych major [originally art and psych], from Simon Fraser University and regard art and psychology as two of my primary passions in school and in life. I have somewhat eclectic interests and have an ongoing passion for film [Vancouver film festival et al], books, music, politics, and painting…
Look forward to learning with all of you….