Author Archives: Annette Smith

WWW vs. Gutenberg: A Fair Comparison?

Posted on December 19, 2010 by Annette Smith

Localization of Language in Digital Text on the Internet Introduction We have been considering the changing spaces of text and text technologies, and the impact this has had on teaching, learning and communication. In Bolter (2009) the author discusses “the … Continue reading →

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Rip.mix.feed connections: Or coming late to the party

Posted on December 4, 2010 by Annette Smith

This semester has been a bit of a personal struggle, but I wanted to try and participate in the rip.mix.feed activity. While I thought I would create a digital story about the life I have in SecondLife using JayCut or … Continue reading →

Posted in Making Connections, Reflections, Rip.Mix.Feed, Technology, Text | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Symbolic Script: Zapotec Writing in the First Millenium BCE

Posted on October 31, 2010 by Annette Smith

One of the significant milestones of human cultural development has been the creation of symbolic systems to represent and communicate thought. Writing systems based on this capability have allowed our species to externalize ideas, store them for future reference, and … Continue reading →

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The Evolution of Loss – Commentary on O’Donnell

Posted on October 3, 2010 by Annette Smith

In “The Virtual Library: An Idea Whose Time Has Passed” James O’Donnell both charts the surprisingly long history of the concept of the virtual library, and the unavoidable demise of the library as we conceive of it today (O’Donnell, 1994). … Continue reading →

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Technology: Evolve or Die?

Posted on September 18, 2010 by Annette Smith

Technology is the central adaptation of humans. We create new technologies to solve every problem we have ever encountered. Does technology evolve? Or does it just seem that way? Saturn: Evolution of Technology Of course, technology can’t evolve because it … Continue reading →

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What is text and why is it so important to us?

Posted on September 18, 2010 by Annette Smith

For me text is a natural extension of our language. It was an inevitable step we took in our development along with other technologies, like tool making. The development of systems to save and repeat our spoken utterances, to make … Continue reading →

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Text as an evolutionary imperative

Posted on September 11, 2010 by Annette Smith

Picture By perpetualplum Sue Clark I chose this image from Aesop’s Fables because for me, text and technology is an extension of the characteristic that, in my mind anyway, makes us human: The transmission of culture and knowledge to our … Continue reading →

Posted in Image Feed (Flickr), Technology, Text | 4 Comments