Remediation: Making Artists of Us All?

Posted on November 11, 2012 by jenniferschubertubc

The Writing Space

In theory, the writing space is an abstract concept which starts with the inner workings of a creator’s mind, is followed by the act of expressing those thoughts onto a material to be viewed by others, and ends with the resulting physical artifact. Technologies, defined as both tools and techniques, are rapidly discovered, adopted, adapted and changed which places the writing space in a continuous state of flux. As a direct result, the materials creators use to document their ideas are ever evolving. The one constant in the world of communication, whether oral or written, is where end text product originates from. Ideas are born from the mind, the strongest and most imperative tool in an author’s arsenal.

A Material World

Technology, including both the tools and the techniques used to create written text, has an indelible impact on developing literacy. A quote from Christina Haas’ Writing Technology: Studies on the Materiality of Literacy appears in Bolter’s Writing Space: “Writing is situated in the material world in a number of ways. It always occurs in a material setting, employs material tools, and results in material artifacts” (Haas, p. 4). In this vein, it is impossible to separate the material world from text, from the semantics of creation to the artifacts that result. How we discover, adapt, and utilize materials to create and leave those legacies is where change and evolution lie within the world of literacy. Digital natives, or those who have spent the entirety of their lives surrounded by digital technology, will inevitably feel more comfortable utilizing material tools such as mobiles and touchscreens to both create and process text than perhaps those who grew up using pen and paper or sketchpads. The ease with which digital natives create and edit media has led to a rise in internet blogging and sharing sites such as tumblr and reddit where a population of increasingly younger users create and share both original and transformative texts with an international audience.

Remediation

Bolter talks of remediation, or the process of a newer medium taking the place of an older one, imitating in a form of homage whilst simultaneously rivaling it by making claims to improve upon what already exists. (Bolter, p. 23) An example of material adaptation partaining to media text that I encounter often is the case of the digital camera. Students who have grown up only knowing of the existence of the digital camera will often ask to see a photo immediately after it has been taken on the camera’s digital screen. There is no way to know if children being painted by a Renaissance master would have dared to leave their poses to run over to view a canvas, but it is arguable that a child’s curiosity is inherent. Undoubtedly somewhere in the 1970s, a child accidentally opened a camera to unsuccessfully peek at an image on the film after their photo was taken, ruining the film as a result. The advancement of the materials in this case does not change the art of capturing an image itself but rather the means to produce, view, and utilize it further.

How we view the written word today is certainly adapting and changing at an increasingly rapid rate. Readers take an active role in determining properties of writing space by placing certain demands on the text and on the technology. (Bolter, p. 12) Developing cultures throughout history designed how viewers would process information based upon their own wants and needs, from continuous scrolls which were adapted to contain columns, to illuminated pages bound in volumes and eventually mass produced by presses.

Electronic mediums, such as blogs, offer a variety of layout choices in addition to endless visual choice possibilities in the form of fonts, colours, imagery, and hypermedia. If feedback is overwhelmingly negative, an author can adapt and change these choices to fit the needs of their readers, often with the advantage of immediacy. Changes can be processed and made live often with simple coding or even a few clicks of the mouse. Authors can vary greatly in age and experience due to the range of simplicity in publishing software.

Quality Versus Quantity

In the exploration of the material, the inner process of creation is often overlooked. Some may argue that the advances in digital technology make it increasingly easier for anyone to become an artist. Others will take the opposite stance, defending the idea of inspired talent and quality of expression. Social media and internet publishing have undoubtedly made it easier to express ideas and communicate them on a much grander scale than ever before, but is viral popularity the new way to measure artistic success or is it simply a case of textual oversaturation? Evolution of the material will change the writing space as a whole, but it will also have an impact on the communication broadcast going forward.

References

Bolter, J.D. (2001). Writing Space. New York, NY: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Haas, C. (1996). Writing technology: Studies on the materiality of literacy. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Prensky, M. (2001). “Digital natives, digital immigrants”. On the horizon, Oct 2001, 9 (5). Lincoln: NCB University Press.

Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Wrestling with Remediation

Posted on November 11, 2012 by mcquaid

Throughout our fourth module, the term remediation – and the concept of it – has stuck with me the most. In J. D. Bolter’s book, Writing Space, the inferred definition could be “change with some kind of clash or one-upmanship” – books remediated manuscripts, video games remediated movies, etc. (p. 24 – 25). A quick Google search for definitions of remediation are not altogether dissimilar: “act of correcting an error or a fault”, “set straight or right”, “the reconciliation of two opposing forces”. All imply that there is some sort of opposition or wrongdoing. In each case of remediation of media / text that we have looked at in our course, which side is “wrong”, and which is “right”? How can inanimate text take action upon other forms and remediate it?

Au Naturel?

At the beginning of this module, my initial thought was that hypertext and new forms of writing were not as natural as writing by hand or typing. Bolter noted that it is associative, multiple, and responsive, as are our own thoughts, which would seem more natural (p. 42). I was of the mind that “textual asides” – links / insertions of media – may not make complete sense to all readers – almost like an in-joke or a quirky sense of humour. Upon further reflection, however, the ability to create text in a way that can embed personal thoughts, visuals, references, ideas, and experiences has much more voice, is more “oral”, and is, therefore, more natural. Like others, I may have been taking a reactive response to modern methods of text creation – viewing it as an invasive species in the ecology of my sense of literacy as Zhao and Frank may have thought. Now, I view hypertext and modern forms of literacy as more evolutionary and natural than infiltrative.

Change Is Inevitable

So, if text is evolving, just exactly how is it changing? Marshall McLuhan believed that the medium itself was the message. I see technology as changing the forms or types of writing more than technology itself being the chief message; or, perhaps, that what technology affords us is the real message – interaction, collaboration, connecting, organization, etc. Texts are increasingly being created with branches to other sources of information. They are also being created with organization and categorization built in: tags, hashtags, links, labels, @ signs to connect to other authors. The meaning of these texts changes compared to standard text – it becomes richer, and more social.

In other terms of change, Bolter and Kress also noted that visual modes of representing were increasing at the expense of textual ones. This stands to reason, especially with descriptive forms of writing. As covered by Bolter when mentioning ekphrasis and a logocentric desire, we often want to fit the visual world into words. New methods of creating text that combine increasingly more visuals and other forms of text into one (video, audio, images, etc. – Glogster or Prezi for example) are coming into our textual world all the time. Since images, video, words, etc. are all forms of text, I would simply rephrase what Bolter and Kress said. New ways of representing are enhancing what can be conveyed with words – not at the expense of words, just the amount of them. It is not a decline in quality, just the quantity of one part of text overall. It was a bit morbid of Bolter to describe prose as a near-death host body that exists only because more recent forms of text need it to (p. 56) – the written word will not die, and other forms of text are not consciously trying to kill it. It just has to share some space on its page or screen.

How Does It All Work? Where Are We Going?

I would argue that, in places of remediation, where texts and technologies meet and compete, that the pre-existing technology or text is most often thought to be right – at least by those who resist change. Digital immigrants are more resistant to change, since they view newer technologies or methods as more of a challenge than do digital natives. If people could, while still maintaining a critical view, accept new text modes as potentially useful, there would be less need for resistance, tension, and remediation. I liked Kress’ idea that writing today is like orchestration (p. 160) – the writer, as a conductor, needs to know which instruments and voices (or tools and writing forms) to use at certain times, keeping them in a proper, harmonious balance. Cope and Kalantzis referred to the need of “multiskilling” (p. 169) – that modern writers need to be able to use multiple skills well to be able to deftly create quality texts in a multiliterate world. My only issue with this is the notion that people may not be able to truly multitask (Tough, 2011). If this is true, how can modern writers really use multiskilling effectively? If they can, perhaps they will become part of the world’s “new common sense”, as Kress put it. He said, “taking meaning and making meaning from many sources of information, from many different sign-systems, will become the new common sense” (p. 17). Since modern texts are often social and open to connection / collaboration, this “common sense” or common knowledge notion makes a lot of… well, sense. Perhaps if more people share in this common sense, and are skilled – at least functionally – in many text forms, there may be less of a monopoly of information as we have seen in the past, and enough critical thought to ward off a total technology takeover, or technopoly.

All that being said, where are we going? I cannot help but think of Ong’s notion of secondary orality – that many technologies rely on the written word to exist and function. Given text’s overall shift to include more images and fewer words, will we evolve into some “secondary literacy”? Where the notions of community and group thought continue, but are based on more visual texts than written words, and text-dominated works were not the most recent dominant form?

 

References:

Bolter, J. D. (2001). Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext, and the Remediation of Print (Second.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Cope, B. and Kalantzis, M. (2009). “‘Multiliteracies’: New Literacies, New Learning.  Pedagogies: An International Journal.  4(3), 164-195. Retrieved November 11, 2012, from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/15544800903076044

Kress, G. (2005). Gains and losses: New forms of texts, knowledge, and learning. Computers and Composition, 22(1), 5–22. doi:10.1016/j.compcom.2004.12.004

McLuhan, M. (1964). Understanding media; the extensions of man. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Ong, W. (1982.) Orality and literacy: The technologizing of the word. London: Methuen.

Postman, N. (1992). Technopoly: The surrender of culture to technology. New York: Vintage Books.

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon. NCB University Press, Vol. 9 No. 5, October 2001.

Tough, M. (2011, April 21). Multi-tasking doesn’t exist. The Change Leadership Company – Building Change Expertise. Retrieved November 11, 2012, from http://changeleaders.com.au/multi-tasking-doesnt-exist/

Zhao, Y., and Frank, K. A. (Winter, 2003) Factors affecting technology uses in schools: an ecological perspective. American Educational Research Journal, 40(4), 807-840.

Posted in Technology, Text | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

EKPHRASIS – An Exploration

Posted on November 11, 2012 by Sheila

every reception of a work of art is both an interpretation and a performance of it, because in every reception the work takes on a fresh perspective for itself.
Umberto Eco – The Open Work

What lies ‘beyond’ representation would thus be found ‘within’ it…representation as a process rather than object/action…representation understood as relationship (dynamic/active)… suggests an inherently unstable, reversible and dialectical structure…working through contradiction interminably
W.J.T. Mitchell – Picture Theory

Bolter’s (2011) contention that hypertext is the remediation of print opens up the dialectical process of reading of any text. The word EKPHRASIS itself functions as both text and image, hypertext link, a window into a history of rhetoric extending back to Plato and Aristotle, and opening into contemporary literary criticism, and a vast literature on the verbal and visual arts of representation, that is, between image and text –the ongoing negotiation and “readjustment of the ratio between text and image in the various forms of print” and in the spaces of new digital multimedia (p. 48).

As a traditional rhetorical figure, ekphrasis was the verbal representation of a visual representation, real or imagined – the final exercise for Greek students to capture powerful emotional and imaginative experiences for their listeners, with vivid and energetic verbal (and oral) descriptions in the service of their arguments. In contemporary usage the term is widely applied to any descriptive work in any medium – be it film, prose, poetry, photography or film that uses ‘rhetorical vividness’ to explore implications or understanding in any visual art. The earliest cited example of ekphrasis is the detailed description of Achilles Shield in Homer’s Illiad (see W.J.T. Mitchell, 1994); and in Literary Criticism there are many examples put forward, including Rilke’s poem on The Archaic Torso of Apollo.

Archaic Torso of Apollo by R.M. Rilke

the torso of Apollo in the Louvre



We have no idea what his fantastic head
was like, where the eyeballs were slowly swelling. But
his body now is glowing like a gas lamp,
whose inner eyes, only turned down a little,

hold their flame, shine. If there weren’t light, the curve
of the breast wouldn’t blind you, and in the swerve
of the thighs a smile wouldn’t keep on going
toward the place where the seeds are.

If there weren’t light, this stone would look cut off
where it drops so clearly from the shoulders,
its skin wouldn’t gleam like the fur of a wild animal,

and the body wouldn’t send out light from every edge
as a star does…for there is no place at all
that isn’t looking at you. You must change your life.

from Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke
–translated by Robert Bly—

The poem well illustrates that literary ekphrasis is not a mere visual description – but an evocation of a profound experience. A more contemporary example is seen in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, where the described transformations of the painting reflect the moral disintegration of the character; which has been brilliantly remediated in the 1945 film directed by Albert Lewin, the BBC production, and by Oliver Parker in 2009.

Bolter links the idea of the GUI as a “window metaphor” directly to Plato’s statement in the Phaedrus that writing is strangely like painting (275d). Indeed, given the structure of hypertext, the window into another world is not metaphorical, but actual. As to the similarity between painting and writing, Mitchell (1994) suggests that ekphrasis is impossible from a common sense point of view: “A verbal representation cannot represent – that is, make present – its object in the same way a visual representation can. It may refer to an object, describe it, invoke it, but it can never bring its visual presence before us in the way pictures do. Words can “cite,” but never “sight” their objects” (par. 2).

And yet people have been reading novels and poetry for years without the advantage of appended visuals to explain or expand the text. The reader gets lost in the text and lives, visualizes, feels, and hears the world being evoked through the text. Is this why so many people prefer the book to the film? Text has always had the ability to evoke and conjure imaginative worlds and images. Bolter points out what he calls the “visualized rhetoric” of advertising and newspaper headlines that call up related or latent images and metaphors, and the ‘reverse ekphrasis’ where the image models the metaphor – “the bigger piece of the pie” – to explain the text (p. 54-56). His use of language suggests this remediation is energetic, competitive and aggressive – ‘straining’, ‘rival’, ‘enthusiasm’, ‘apprehension’, ‘controlled’ and ‘supervised’ – until the ‘images break free of the constraints of words!’(p. 58)

The anthropomorphisms are interesting in light of Mitchell’s analysis of the of the social/political power relations inherent in the text-image/self-other dialectic that he traces into the realm of logocentric desire, and the ‘ekphrastic fear’ of transgressing the boundaries that have been set “between the senses, modes of representation, and the objects proper to each” (par. 6). For Mitchell, these semiotic and metaphysical boundaries are bridged through ekphrasis: “The estrangement of the image/text division is overcome, and a sutured, synthetic form, a verbal icon or imagetext, arises in its place” (par. 4).

The oscillation or dialectic that Bolter envisages between image and text is brought under a “universal principle of poetics” (p.12), where it is acknowledged that the textual arts – any description – can bring something before the “mind’s eye” and manifest what Kreiger calls the “physical solidity of the medium of the spatial arts” (par.10), and conversely, as Bolter says, in the visual arts, the “picture elements extend over a broad range of verbal meanings: each element means too much rather than too little” (p. 59). If Mitchell is right, then ekphrasis ceases to be a special rhetorical device and “begins to seem paradigmatic of a fundamental legacy in all linguistic expression” (par. 4).

It could be argued that Krieger and Mitchell have eliminated any meaningful distinctions that could contribute to an understanding of how text is being remediated by hypertext and the image. However, because the verbal icon or the imagetext is tied to the religious icon as a locus of operational power and symbolic meaning (Bolter, p. 62) there is an opening to explore how the text and image remediate each other as the digital space of the text tries “to remediate the image into discursive meaning, while the image was insisting on the formal significance of the word itself as image” (p.64) – a good place to return to EKPHRASIS.

References

Bolter, J.D. (2011). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print. New York, NY: Routledge

Ekphrasis – Media Theory. Retrieved from: http://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/mediatheory/keywords/mimesis/

Krieger, M. (1992). Ekphrasis: The Illusion of the Natural Sign. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. Selections retrieved from: http://www.d.umn.edu/~jjacobs1/utpictura/a.htm

Mitchell, W. J. T. (1994). Ekphrasis and the Other in Picture Theory. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press. Retrieved from:
http://www.rc.umd.edu/editions/shelley/medusa/mitchell.html#fiftn

Plato. The Phaedrus. The Project Gutenberg EBook of Phaedrus. (Translator: B. Jowett). Posting Date: October 30, 2008 [EBook #1636]. Release Date: February 1999. Retrieved from: http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1636/pg1636.txt

Ekphrasis: in other(‘s) words. Retrieved from: http://ekphrastixarts.com/expressions-of-ekphrasis-2/

Rilke, R. M. , Torso of the Archaic Apollo (Robert Bly, trans.). retrieved from: http://amlit338.blogspot.ca/2006/04/archaic-torso-of-apollo-by-rm-rilke.html

Notes:
The definition of ekphrasis as “the verbal representation of visual representation is also the basis for James Heffernan’s article, “Ekphrasis and Representation,” New Literary History 22, no. 2 (Spring 1991): 297-316, cited in Mitchell, 1994.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

In response to Bolter’s Writing space (chapters 1-3)

Posted on November 11, 2012 by ceciliaysun

Bolter (2001) introduces his book “Writing space: computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print” by describing our current time as the late age of print. He analyzes the history of writing leading up to today. Bolter also discusses writing as a technology and that technology as a driving force and as a result of the culture around it. He further discusses writing in the form of hypertext and the implications of electronic writing. Here I will further examine writing as a technology as this inevitable result of culture and at the same time as the factor that changes culture. How does cultural changes determine the direction that writing technology will take. And is the development of new writing technology changing our culture?

We are at the end of the age of print where books are replaced by digitized versions and where prose is replaced by graphics (Bolter, 2001). There are disadvantages to digital print but the advantages appear to drive the change toward the more favourable digital version. Just as codex replaced scroll, and print replaced codex. The change will take time, as did its predecessors. But we see its progress in classroom textbooks. Digitized books promises prompt updates, more flexibility, protection against wear and tear and is often more budget-friendly. Given hardware availability, it solves many textbook problems schools face. Not to mention saving paper. Access to digital text is more immediate and often less costly. It could be argued that printed text has more authority but with more information and guidelines we make decisions on credibility. It is indeed difficult to argue the appeal of multi-sensory digital reality that is replacing the print we are used to.

Writing as a technology both drives culture and is a result of culture. There are arguments both for writing technology as an external force that changes culture and that technology is not an outside force and therefore does not drive culture. Technology is defined as both the skill and the machines used to produce it (Bolter, 2001). The relationship between the two is definitely not as clear-cut as either side of the debate makes it appear. Writing technology is changing as culture demands more rapid and accessible forms of communication and as need for more visual and manipulative medium. This in turn changes culture because writing is often no longer an individual task. Multiple authors and voices are possible. We are losing the aesthetic expression that writing technology in the past allowed for. Children do not learn cursive writing in elementary schools as they used to. If the culture does not place such value on print technology of the past then it could easily be lost. If the mystery of the printed text and the authority of the text are lost then digital writing space will rapidly take over.

Bolter analyzes hypertext as writing in multiple layers, where each reader can determine the path they take as opposed to reading print, which is a linear experience; we don’t experience the web as we do a printed book. In this sense, hypertext is a much more logical reflection of how our brain functions. In learning, we promote questioning and making connections and digitized texts supports this natural branching and linking of information. We used to use technology to write down thoughts before they slip from our mind. But now our use of technology has changed. The large amount of information is now stored outside of our mind and we could access it readily. The need isn’t in memorizing this information but in synthesizing this information for your own meaning. Hypertext is naturally more suited for encouraging non-linear thought processes.

Bolter’s first three chapters in “Writing space: computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print” places us in the transition period from the age of print to the age of digitized writing. He debates the possibility of digital writing completely replacing the printed form. Printed books certainly seems to loose some of its authority as fewer people are accessing them. Writing reflects the way we structure speech. However what does this mean as writing is changing. We write in units, not word by word. This form of writing is no longer just an extension of the spoken language (Bolter, 2001). Writing as a technology coexists with culture and are inseparable from each other. The complex nature of this relationship makes the future of print and digital writing difficult to predict.

References:

Bolter, J.D. (2001). Writing space: computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print (2nd ed.) Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Tagged | 1 Comment

The Changing Pedagogy of Literacy

Posted on November 11, 2012 by jkendell

Being both a student and a teacher in today’s education system it has become clear that we can no longer think of literacy in its traditional sense.  Traditionally, literacy has been defined as the ability to read and write; however, in today’s day and age, this definition of literacy no longer encompasses all of the parts that it needs to.  Literacy has grown beyond just reading and writing and there are many new forms of literacy that have been made possible through developments in technology.  With these new forms of literacy (computer literacy, media literacy etc.) comes the need to not only look at a new definition of literacy, but to also look at how we need to change the way in which we are teaching our students to become “literate” individuals.  With the growing world of mass media and the many new developments teachers in general “have to rethink what we are teaching, and, in particular, what new learning needs literacy pedagogy might now address” (New London Group, 1996, p.61).

In the article A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures, written by the New London Group, a number of authors come together to look at the changing environment seen today by students and teachers and they state that a new approach to literacy pedagogy is required.  They speak of the need for “multiliteracies” and look at the idea that both students and teachers “need a metalanguage- a language for talking about language, images, texts, and meaning-making interactions” (New London Group, 1996, p.77).

The multiliteracies spoken about by the New London Group take into account how technology and multimedia has changed the way that we communicate.  These literacies focus not only on the comprehension of written text, but instead encompass a broader view of literacy that includes visual meanings (images, page layouts, screen formats); audio meanings (music, sound effects); gestural meanings (body language, sensuality); spatial meanings (the meanings of environmental spaces, architectural spaces); and multimodal meanings.  While many educators already take these types of meaning into consideration in their teaching, some educators still believe that literacy is simply being able to read and write.  When these other types of meaning are not taken into account the student is missing gaining a fuller understanding of the information that they are working with.  In today’s day and age “reading the mass media for its linguistic meanings alone is not enough” (New London Group, 1996, p.80).   Instead, to comprehend the full meaning of most multimedia, one must be able to gain “a “feel” for its unique gestural, audio, and visual meanings” (New London Group, 1996,  p.80) .  When learners take all of these meanings into consideration they are able to gain a deeper understanding.

Today, we do not just read a book to get information and we do not just write an essay to show our learning.  There are instead a multitude of ways to gain information, which go far beyond the written pages of a book, and there are many creative ways to show our learning that allow students the flexibility that is required to take different learning styles into consideration.  While “many graduates started their school career with the literacies of paper, pencil, and book technologies they will finish having encountered the literacies demanded by a wide variety of information and communication technologies (ICTs): Web logs (blogs), word processors, video editors, World Wide Web browsers, Web editors, e-mail, spreadsheets, presentation software, instant messaging, plug-ins for Web resources, listservs, bulletin boards, avatars, virtual worlds, and many others” (Leu, Kinzer, Coiro & Cammack, 2004, p. 1571).  Comprehending these types of technologies require a whole different set of literacies.  New literacy pedagogy would need to take these types of technology into consideration.  If new definitions of literacy will expect students to fully understand these technologies we need to change our view of literacy to “a flexible, sustainable mastery of a set of capabilities in the use and production of traditional texts and new communications technologies using spoken language, print and multimedia” (National Curriculum Board, 2009, p.6).  If educators began to look at literacy as a set of capabilities, or skills, that students need in order to be flexible and to understand the ever changing world around them, our whole pedagogy in the area of literacy could change for the better.  Students would have the skills to understand, and use, a variety of multimedia, which is exactly what they need in the world of 21st century learning.

With all of the information that is available via the internet, students must not only learn how to locate the information, but they must learn how to critically evaluate what information is of use to them and then be able to synthesize these mass amounts of information (Leu et al, 2004). We must also consider the fact that it is impossible to teach students how to use and comprehend every image, piece of text, or multimedia that they will come across in their lifetime.  Instead, it will be much more beneficial to teach students a set of skills that will allow them to critically evaluate what they are looking at and then be able to use this information to create representations of their learning that demonstrate deep understandings.

Leu et al. (2004) state that “traditional definitions of literacy and literacy instruction will be insufficient if we seek to provide students with the futures they deserve” (p.1571) and I believe that they are exactly right in this statement.  Literacy can no longer be assessed by looking strictly at the ability to read and write.  With the internet becoming so prevalent and many other types of mass media becoming more and more popular we are moving into a world where literacy takes on a whole new meaning.   As educators, we must be ready to deal with these changes and to consider what this means in our teaching of literacy.

 

References:

Lankshear, C. & Knobel, M. (2006).  New Literacies: Changing Knowledge in the Classroom 2nd edition.  England: McGraw Hill International.

Leu, D. J., Kinzer, C. K., Coiro, J.L., & Cammack, D.W. (2004).  Toward a Theory of New Literacies Emerging From the Internet and Other Information and Communication Technologies.  Theoretical Models and Processes of Reading.  International Reading Association.  Retrieved Nov 11, 2012 from http://exordio.qfb.umich.mx/archivos%20pdf%20de%20trabajo%20umsnh/aphilosofia/2007/lectura2007%20documentos/Literacies%20Emerging%20From%20the.pdf

National Curriculum Board. (2009). Shape of the Australian Curriculum: English.  Retrieved Nov 10, 2012 from http://www.acara.edu.au/verve/_resources/Australian_Curriculum_-_English.pdf

New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66(1), 60-92. Retrieved, November 5, 2012, from http://www.pwrfaculty.net/summer-seminar/files/2011/12/new-london-multiliteracies.pdf

 

Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

The breakout of the visual

Posted on November 11, 2012 by dlclled

IN CHAPTER 4 of his book, Bolter (2011) uses the books of Edward Tufte (and not Edwin [p. 50]) to show that even in a predominantly visual culture, the text is still “in control” of images within certain contexts; and he brings Joseph Minard (who was not a designer as Botler states [p.50], but an engineer [Mijskenaar, 1997, p.28]) and his chart of the Napoleon Russian campaign of 1812 to the discussion as a good example of this. Tufte states that Minard’s chart might be one of the best “statistical graphic” ever designed, (p.28) because it combines many layers of information in a single piece of data visualization.

Translation to english:
Figurative Map of the successive losses in men of the French Army in the Russian campaign 1812-1813.
Drawn up by M. Minard, Inspector General of Bridges and Roads in retirement. Paris, November 20, 1869.
The numbers of men present are represented by the widths of the colored zones at a rate of one millimeter for every ten-thousand men; they are further written across the zones. The red [now brown] designates the men who enter into Russia, the black those who leave it. —— The information which has served to draw up the map has been extracted from the works of M. M. Thiers, of Segur, of Fezensac, of Chambray, and the unpublished diary of Jacob, pharmacist of the army since October 28th. In order to better judge with the eye the diminution of the army, I have assumed that the troops of prince Jerome and of Marshal Davoush who had been detached at Minsk and Moghilev and have rejoined around Orcha and Vitebsk, had always marched with the army.
The scale is shown on the center-right, in “lieues communes de France” (common French league) which is 4,444m (2.75 miles).
The lower portion of the graph is to be read from right to left. It shows the temperature on the army’s return from Russia, in degrees below freezing on the Réaumur scale. (Multiply Réaumur temperatures by 1¼ to get Celsius, e.g. −30°R = −37.5 °C) At Smolensk, the temperature was −21° Réaumur on November 14th.

Nevertheless, Minard’s chart is very complex; it is required time and a trained eye to retrieve and assimilate the information it contains, or to be explained to understand it. The aid of text is of course necessary under these conditions.

The opposite extreme, according to Botler, lays in the modern merely decorative (pejoratively speaking) graphic recourses used to display information, like those presented by USA Today and other newspapers and magazines. Botler implies that the difference between Minard’s and USA Today’s graphics rest in the way the text “gathers around the image and supervises its reading” (p.49).

Needless to say that to be possible to compare this two examples they must share its nature and a reference point. Both the nature and “reference point” are absent in Bolter’s text. These graphic examples are considered to be info visualizations, known too as infographics (Mijskenaar, 1997, p.30). And its nature inevitably leads us to what I think is the missing reference point: ISOTYPE.

ISOTYPE

It stands for International System of Typographic Picture Education, a term set in 1935 for a pictorial system funded by and developed in Vienna by Otto Neurath prior to 1925 for the Museum of Society and Economy of this city. At that time, Vienna was a socialist state effectively separated from the new Republic of Austria (Burke, 2009).

The economist and social scientist Otto Neurath, initiator and theorist of this method conceived the museum as a teaching one. His aim was to represent graphically social facts and statistics that were particularly important as he envisioned information and particularly statistical one as a resource understanding and power. He gave himself the task of transforming “dead statistics” into meaningful, memorable and accessible to everyone pieces of information. (Burke, 2009)

Source: Isotype revisted

Source: Isotype revisited

Basically, what Neurath did is to take Gerd Arntz illustrations (Burke, 2009; Kindel, 2012; Annink, Ed. 2012, ) and to develop a pictorial language with a “pictorial dictionary” and a set of “visual syntactic” rules. These rules remain as valid until these days. One of these rules, probably the main one, was to establish that greater quantities should not be represented by enlarging the same image, but repeating symbols of the same size, for example.

In his books, Edward Tufte acknowledges many of the ISOTYPE rules or the logic principles behind them. Nevertheless, the existence of the rules does not imply its compliance, and many of these rules are still being ignored (Burke, 2009). In my personal opinion, this is the case of USA Today examples presented by Bolter, they are just bad graphic examples, and the presence, absence or influence of text has nothing to do with it.

“WORDS DIVIDE, PICTURES UNITE”

This is the Otto Neurath’s catchphrase (Burke, 2009) that better suits the spirit of ISOTYPE. By establishing the syntactic rules and patterns of modern data visualization, he literally offered an alternative language that could work without text but might be “readable” by illiterate population or children and suitable too for international communication. Anyone who has had to navigate through an airport in a country with a foreign language (including Bolter) can realize the convenience of this “graphic philosophy”, even many years after its development.

Images from Gerd Arntz web archive: www.gerdarntz.org

This does not mean that ISOTYPE intended to emancipate image from the text. I would say that there is nothing to emancipate or detach. Text is a set of images highly conventional and subordinated to a context and to a purpose, as ISOTYPE was and the traffic signs are, a language. The examples from USA Today showed by Bolter, according to this are just a bad use of a graphic language, and a bad use of any language can lead to misunderstanding and confusion.

Somehow, Tufte himself cited by Bolter in his book place images and text as equals: “words, graphics and tables are different mechanisms with but a single purpose — the presentation of information” (Tufte, 1983, p.181; Bolter, 2009, p.50).

 REFERENCES

Annink, E. (2012). Gerd arntz web archive. Retrieved November 8, 2012, from www.gerdarntz.org

Bolter, J. D. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print. Taylor & Francis.

Burke, C. (2009). Isotype: Representing social facts pictorially. Information Design Journal, 17 (3), 211-223.

Kindel, E., & Walker, S. (2010). Isotype revisited. Retrieved November 6, 2012, from http://isotyperevisited.org/2010/09/isotype-revisited.html

Kindel, E., Walker, S., Burke, C., Eve, M., Minns, E. & Perks, S. (2012). Isotype revisited. Retrieved November 8, 2012, from www.isotyperevisited.org

Mijksenaar, P. (1997). Visual function: An introduction to information design. 010 Publishers.

Tufte, E. R. (1983). The visual display of quantitative information. Graphics Press.

Tufte, E. R. (1990). Envisioning information. Graphics Press.

Tufte, E. R. (1997). Visual explanations: Images and quantities, evidence and narrative. Graphics Press.

Twyman, M. (1975). The significance of isotype. Isotype Revisited, London.

Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Evolution of the Picture

Posted on November 11, 2012 by deannas

In chapter four of Bolter’s (2001) Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext and the Remediation of Print, the evolution of pictures to support the written word is outlined. He suggests that ‘words no longer seem to carry conviction without the reappearance as a picture of the imagery that was latent in them’ (p.67). I found it fascinating that subconsciously I had many moments when reading where I wished there was a picture or a graph to help support the text. Furthermore, I realized that before reading many educational papers, I quickly look ahead to see if there are any pictures or graphs to help support my understanding. My focus therefore will be on exploring the scientific benefits of visual enhancements and if it is something that educators should focus on in their educational practice?

While print was revolutionary for the purely oral cultures, the remediation of print to include pictures has caused new forms of literacy to become important in the education world. Even though it is still a relatively new concept, the impact that pictures have on text has become important in course design and lesson planning. Ultimately, teachers decide which visuals they will include in their lessons and need to be educated on what is the best way to incorporate them.

Goldstein (1983) set out to determine if students were able to remember the pictures they viewed in textbooks. The ability to actually test this can be somewhat controversial, but they did find that students were able to remember pictures fairly accurately. This idea that pictures are playing a major role in learning is something that not only educators need to be aware of, but also curriculum developers and creators of instructional materials. Goldstein states: “surely if students remember pictures which they learned ‘incidentally‘ they should be able to profit even more from illustrations which are both integrated carefully into the text and are also called to the attention of the reader instead of simply ‘being there’” (p. 4).

In a search for a study to determine exactly how pictures can aid our learning, Woodward (1986) analyzed 28 chapters of a textbook containing 257 photographs, 62 charts, and 28 cartoons. Their goal was to try and determine the relationship these visual aids had to the ‘content and presence and effectiveness of the captions’. They concluded that a ‘substantial portion of the photographs were poorly selected, did not relate to chapter content in any meaningful way, and were often used as fillers or decoration’ (Woodward, 1986).

Even though the study by Woodward was completed in 1986 a more recent study of American History Textbooks published from 1950 to 2000 found that the ratio of visual content to text has not changed much over the years (Lowman, 2006). They suggest that visual content has represented a significant portion of volume in the textbook for a long time now. Bolter on the other hand suggests that there has been a change in ratio of images to text (2001). This may be a reflection of the internet and other forms of print rather than educational textbooks. Furthermore, researchers stress the need to focus on visual literacy skills so that learners gain an ability to use the pictures as an information resource (Lowman, 2006). However, they did not discuss how relevant the images were to the text and therefore it is still unclear as to the impact that the pictures can really have on the learning.

Clearly pictures have gained momentum in an education setting. Bolter (2001) suggests that some web pages have begun to resemble ‘magazine advertisements, with striking visual metaphors, display fonts, drop-shadowed texts, color gradients, and the pixel-by-pixel construction of gridded spaces’ (p. 83). Ulbig (2010) found that simple, visually appealing material resulted in increased student engagement. These findings are significant for educators because it solidifies the concept that pictures play a role in learning, especially those that are more visually orientated. If students are exposed to visually appealing graphics on a regular basis they are going to expect them during learning activities. As educators, we are not trained graphic designers, so even if we had the expertise to create these types of graphics for our students, the time involved would be a great undertaking. It is reassuring that even simple graphics can have an impact on student learning and something we should strive for in our lessons.

Not only are pictures important to include with text, Bolter also discusses the phenomenon of Ekphrasis, a process where words can describe vivid scenes simply by using imagination. This is a strategy that we teach students when reading to help them understand what they are reading and to also remember their reading. When students are writing, we ask them to reverse their role and become the reader to try and have them understand the need to include details and elaborate on ideas. With the evolution of pictures containing more details, one can only hope that it would translate into a higher level of writing.

Pictures have grown to become a part of our culture. Not only have we evolved to expect advertisements and web pages to have well designed graphics, our exposure to them are increasing at phenomenal rates. It is understandable then that it will impacte students’ expectation to also see them in the classroom. As well, it has redesigned strategies for reading and writing by using imagination and well detailed pictures to strengthen both skills. The significance in the evolution of imagery is something that needs to be taken seriously by all those involved in education.

Bolter, J. D. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print [2nd edition]. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Goldstein, A. G. (1983). Do students remember pictures in psychology textbooks? Teaching of Psychology, 10(1), 23-26.

Lowman, K. (2006). The necessity of pictures: Illustrating history in textbooks, 1950–2000. Northern Illinois University). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, , 285-285 p. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/305299407?a
ccountid=14656. (305299407).

Ulbig, S. G. (2010). A picture is worth what? using visual images to enhance classroom engagement. International Journal of Instructional Media, 37(2), 185.

Woodward, A. (1986). Photographs in textbooks: More than pretty pictures?

Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

How The N-Gen And Their Instructors Can Bridge The Educational Gap

Posted on November 11, 2012 by murray12

Mabrito and Medley’s article argues that education today does not suffer from a generation gap, but an information gap. They believe the way to bridge the gap is for instructors to stop solely learning facts about the Net-Generation culture, and instead focus on experiencing the digital world in the same way that their students do. To articulate his argument, Mabrito and Medley’s article explores the differences between the N-Gen and their instructors, discusses the educational challenges faced by these two groups, and provides means to overcome these challenges.

 
Mabrito and Medley makes it clear that there are important distinctions between the Net-Generation and their instructors. While many instructors are technologically literate, those born before 1982 did not grow up in the digital culture. These instructors may follow traditional classrooms models that tend to encourage and reward knowledge that is individually stored. They understand traditional writing that follows linear conventional forms of paragraphs and is packaged as books, articles, stories, and novels that were authored as a solitary act. Conversely, the N-Gen learners were born into a digitally enhanced world and their understanding of the world comes primarily from digital sources (Mabrito, 2008). The N-Gen is regularly exposed to collaborative multimodal texts where the author presents themselves to the world. As writers the N-Gen students use multimedia, online social networks, and routine multitasking to interact with the world. These opportunities have allowed the new generation to cultivate their inherent ability to use new tools, language, and artifacts as they develop within digital spaces (Mabrito, 2008). In addition to these cultural differences, Mabrito and Medley explain that new research has shown a phenomenon in the brain called adaptational neuroplasticity that can provide further explanation for the distinction between the N-Gen and their instructors.

The concept of neuroplasticity suggests that the brain is malleable, not statically planted but constantly forming and developing through our lives (Bernard, 2010). When people repeatedly practice an activity or access a memory, groups of neurons fire together and create electrochemical pathways (Bernard, 2010). If people stop practicing these new things, the brain will prune the connecting cells that formed the pathway. Over time, these connections that are repeated become thick, strong, and more efficient. Being self aware of this system has huge implications for education. Researchers found student morale and grade points increase when they are educated that they are fully physically capable of building knowledge and changing their brain (Blackwell, 2007). It’s not a matter of the ‘haves and have nots,’ with practice and repetition anyone can become smart. However, it also means, as Mabrito and Medley explain, that N-Gen students are literally wired differently. Their brains are shaped by a lifelong immersion in virtual spaces, which allows them to process and interact with information in fundamentally different ways from those who did not grow up in this environment (Mabrito, 2008).

To bridge the culture and brain gap, Mabrito and Medley recommend that instructors cease their thinking that the online world is purely an avenue for entertainment and social gathering and instead begin to understand how N-Gen student process texts. Mabrito and Medley believe that instructors should participate in the same type of learning spaces as their students. Once a solid acceptance and understanding is built, instructors can shift their pedagogy towards leveraging the learning skills required in these spaces. Instructors can capitalize on their students’ skills by creating web-based social media spaces that allow students to distribute and network with each other and use various online learning tools (Mabrito, 2008). The exchanges that are typical throughout digital literacy should be rewarded, rather than discouraged.

While I wholeheartedly believe with the message and philosophy Mabrito and Medley is presenting in their article, I find the practical application a bit too forward thinking for the moment. Social networks still project a bad stigma with many parents. The parent population will need to be educated about the embracing the N-Gen skill set just as much as instructors need to be. Issues of privacy, accountability, entertainment, and educational relevance will need to be addressed and explained, perhaps from the administration, to all parties to ensure that progress is made. I agree that exploration is a good starting point, but I also feel that dispensing education about the legitimacy of the process must come first. Success depends on instructors and parents understanding that the pedagogical shift occurs for the benefit of students’ education, rather than pandering to student pass times.

References

Bernard, S. (2010). Neuroplasticity: Learning Physically Changes The Brain. Edutopia. Retrieved on October 29th 2012 from http://www.edutopia.org/neuroscience-brain-based-learning-neuroplasticity

Blackwell, S. & Dweck C. & Trzesniewski, K. (2007). Implicit Theories of Intelligence Predict Achievement across an Adolescent Transition: A Longitudinal Study and an Intervention. Child Development. Vol. 78(1), 246-263.

Mabrito, M. & Medley, R. (2008) Why Professor Johnny can’t read: Understanding the Net Generation’s Texts. Innovate. Vol. 4(6).

Tagged | Leave a comment

The Future of the Book

Posted on November 11, 2012 by anne

The near future

The first chapter of Jay David Bolter’s book, Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext and the Remediation of Print, points out that “today we are living in the late age of print” (Bolter, 2001, p. 2). Printed books are being displaced by webpages, emails, blogs and word processing. Bolter (2001) also states that tension between digital forms and print has changed the idea of the book. We have become more reliant on the World Wide Web and a variety of digital devices to access information. Furthermore, writers continue to enjoy the flexibility of writing and editing that word processors allow. Bolter (2012) sees the shift from one medium to another as a “remediation” of the previous technology. In addition, he believes that these new technologies may supplement or even replace established technologies (p. 22). If that is the case, could this new shift to digital writing forms lead to the end of the printed book, like the papyrus scroll that came before it? Raymond Kurzweil (1992) believes that printed books “will ultimately reach antiquity, but because of their enormous installed base, this transition will not be instantaneous” (All libraries great and small section, para. 2). Whether you are enthusiastic towards these new technologies, or a proponent of the printed book, it is still worthwhile to view the many ways these digital forms have remediated the printed book and why its future may be questioned.

In this late age of print, many are turning to tablets and e-readers to read electronic books. They provide many of the conveniences of a printed book. They are portable and easy to read. You can bookmark and turn pages with relative ease. However, like all new technologies, its purpose is to remediate existing technology, which in this case is the printed book. With e-readers and tablets, a new e-book can be downloaded to your device in seconds, from such sites as kobo, Kindle or iBook. The font can be changed or increased to make reading simpler and more enjoyable. In addition, e-readers and tablets are capable of storing multiple e-books, allowing them to be transported much easier than a load of hard covered books. Students are beginning to read e-books and use the web to gather information on their digital devices. These digital devices are gradually making their way into classrooms, as we focus on the necessary skills for the 21st Century Learner.

Apple Inc. is one company hoping to capitalize on this new educational philosophy, by creating textbooks for the iPad or iPhone. Apple’s website highlights the fact that paper textbooks are not only expensive, but are “outdated almost before they are published” (“Apple in education”, 2012). With these new electronic textbooks, students will be notified when there are updates and they will be able to download them directly from their website. No longer will there be piles of outdated textbooks found in classrooms. Apple also points out that carrying heavy textbooks puts a strain on student’s backs, affecting their posture (“Apple in education”, 2012). After viewing one of these textbooks, it can readily be seen why they grab the attention of today’s reader. They contain a variety of 3D images and videos, are highly interactive, have note-taking and highlighting capabilities, as well as the ability to create study cards. These new textbooks created by many publishers for the iPad are another example of the remediation of the paper textbook.

The debate over the future of the book continue to be a topic of interest to many. There are a large selection of articles and blogs on the World Wide Web dealing with the uncertainty of the printed book’s future. There are critics that say the book will never disappear and there are enthusiasts that argue that it has no choice but to be replaced due to the increase in tablets and e-readers. Tan (2011) feels that in spite of these new technologies making reading more convenient and easier, there are still those that “cherish” the experience of reading an actual printed book. He also points out that there will always be a digital divide and until there is 100% access to technology, there will be a place for printed books. Barrett (2010) sees the book in the future as having a niche in society, but that it will be much smaller and be aimed more for collectors. Finally, Bodnick (2012) views the ease of tablets and e-readers as causing the fading a way of bookstores and libraries, as people continue to purchase electronic books. The future of the book is unclear and no one seems to know when or if it will become extinct. However, Bolter (2001) points out that deciding its future is not necessary. What is necessary is to examine the relationship between print and digital media in order to understand, “why the future of the printed book seems so uncertain and the future of digital media so bright” (Bolter, p. 7).

References:

Apple in education. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.apple.com/ca/education/ipad/m

Barrett, M. (2010, August 23). Why print publishing will never die. Retrieved from http://www.ditchwalk.com/2010/08/23/why-print-publishing-will-never-die/

Bodnick, M. (2012, October 2). Will public libraries become extinct?. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2012/10/02/will-public-libraries-become-extinct/

Bolter, Jay David. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print [2nd edition]. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum

Kurzweil, R. (1992, March). The future of libraries, part 3: The virtual library. Retrieved from http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-future-of-libraries-part-3-the-virtual-library

Tan, F. (2011, April 22). Why books will probably never die. Retrieved from http://thenextweb.com/media/2011/04/22/why-books-will-probably-never-die/

Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Word Processors and Hypertext

Posted on November 11, 2012 by milenab

To write – letter by letter, word by word, meaning expands as words are threaded together. These words are threaded into an ensemble of phrases, sentences, and paragraphs, which culminates into a piece of literary art. Writing can have many different characteristics, it can inform, argue, express, etc. It all begins with the process of writing, letter by letter. Pen and paper has been a means of writing in the past, as well as, the present day. However, in the past writing was also done on a typewriter. Nowadays, typewriters have been replaced; writing is done via a keyboard attached to a computer. As Bolter (2001) states “a writer working with a word processor spends much of her time entering words letter by letter, just as she did two decades ago at the typewriter” (p. 29). In a way we have not veered too far from what we once knew. We use the same technique, when referring to the physical manner of pressing keys to produce letters on our computers today, as we did with typewriters. On the contrary, the process that takes place after the letters have been placed on a page differs greatly.

As we are all aware, “with a word processor, writers can delete or replace an entire word; they can highlight phrases, sentences, or paragraphs. They can erase a sentence with a single keystroke; they can select a paragraph, cut it from its current location, and insert it elsewhere, even into another document” (Bolter, 2001, p. 29). It is extremely easy to manipulate the text we have written as a direct result of using a word processor for writing. Bolter (2001) acknowledges that “in using these facilities, the writer is thinking and writing in terms of verbal units or topics, whose meaning transcends their constituent words” (Bolter, 2001, p. 29). I would argue that writing through a word processor is faster, easier and more efficient. When one has had enough practice and is comfortable with typing, it becomes a faster means of getting thoughts on paper. When writing with a pen, it is difficult to get our thoughts, which are flowing at a rapid rate, on paper efficiently. If we do get all our thoughts on paper, our penmanship is usually quite hard to decipher because we were rushing to keep up with our thoughts. With a word processor, when typing, even if we make mistakes, which we are usually aware of, we know we can easily go back to correct, edit, and reformat them. Heim (1987) also states that the “symbolization of writing exteriorizes thought, first through manual, external manipulation of phonetic symbols (writing), then through mechanical symbol manipulation (printing and typewriting), and finally through a superior kind of automated manipulation on computers…[in effect] more control can be exercised over the manipulation of thought as it becomes externalized” (p. 2-3). I truly believe writing using a word processor allows for a better transition of our thoughts to the written word. If our thoughts change in the process of our writing, we can type them out, press enter and use those thoughts at a later time. The word processor has allowed us to fully realize our thoughts as they come to our minds. In addition, easily allowing us to modify them, something I would argue many avoid doing when writing with a pen and paper.

Having the ability to now link information within ones writing through hypertext has further changed the way we write and read. “Hypertext depends on the computer’s capacity to designate any unit of text as a new element in an expanding vocabulary of signs. The writer of a hypertext indicates these signs by defining a link (anchor on the World Wide Web) from one element to another” (Bolter, 2001, p. 37). And so, how we read an article or a paper in the present day has shifted. We no longer look at static words on a page. There are now connections to be made, and information to follow in order to fully appreciate the article or paper we are reading. “The reader comes to understand the sentence by following the link…If the reader chooses to follow the link, she expects that the second page will comment on, elaborate, or explain the first.” (Bolter, 2001, p.37). It is as though we are traveling through our reading. George Landow (1989) uses the analogy of travel in Bolter’s (2001) chapter three. I think that Landow (1989) makes a good connection between travel and hypertext. Clicking on a hypertext takes us to a new destination, one we thought we wouldn’t have the chance to visit or explore, or perhaps didn’t even know existed. We get on board at the very beginning, having a good idea what we will read. However, no matter how prepared when traveling there is always something we don’t expect to see or hear. Or, it may even be completely different than we have envisioned. And so, we explore some more and learn some more. Our writing has evolved over the years due to the utilization of word processors and hypertext. We must embrace the evolution of writing, as it is allowing us to fully embrace our thoughts and put them on paper.

References:

Bolter, J. D. (2001). Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext, and the Remediation of Print (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Heim, M. (1987). Electric language: A philosophical study of word processing. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Landow, G. P. (1989). Hypertext in literary education, criticism, and scholarship. Computers and the Humanities, 23, 173-198.

Tagged | Leave a comment