My Thoughts on “Text”

Posted on September 12, 2012 by anne

When searching for a phrase that represents the meaning of text, I came across this statement by James Elkin that seemed to sum up my view of what text is. He stated that, ” ‘Text’ refers to anything which is capable of being read or interpreted “. In our school curriculum we are teaching students to not only read words critically, but to interpret visual texts the same way. Text is not simply the words in a book, on a phone, computer screen or television. A photograph, poster, map, diagram and a work of art are also texts. They can be viewed and interpreted and the reader can respond personally and critically to what they are seeing.

James Elkins, ‘Our Beautiful, Dry, and Distant Texts: Art History as Writing’, London: Routledge, 2000. p 296-297, Retrieved from, http://www.scribd.com/doc/29767913/What-is-Text

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My view of technology

Posted on September 12, 2012 by Ginelle Stutt

Hi everyone,
I’ve included a picture I took – it’s from Petra, in Jordan. This is the moment before you finish walking through the canyon slit (Siq) and finally gaze on the gates of Petra. I searched the Commons for awhile, but I kept thinking about this photo. I remember the feeling of ‘what’s around the corner’ and ‘what’s next’, and I feel this constantly with how technology develops. What will be the impact on our physiology…what is around the corner for teaching and learning…how is learning changing in this new technological environment? Even better (unless you’ve been to Petra, I guess) you are left guessing about what you will see when you walk out of this canyon, and I feel that is where we are at as we navigate the maze of our own creations in technology.

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Nietzsche and the writing ball

Posted on September 12, 2012 by Ginelle Stutt

I would like to reference a short passage from The Shallows, by Nicholas Carr, in reference to how I see text represented. Textual creation is very personal, ever changing, or ‘woven’, and is certainly not beholden to the written word, but Carr reminds readers with this short ode by Nietzsche that technology can be used to free a ‘text’ within us. We are reminded also, especially now, that our creation of text is deeply and irrevocably fused with what we use to create it.

The writing ball is a thing like me: made of iron
Yet easily twisted on journeys.
Patience and tact are required in abundance
As well as fine fingers, to use us.

Carr, N. (2011). What the Internet is Doing to our Brains. New York, USA. W.W. Norton & Company Inc.

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Stephanie’s thoughts on technology

Posted on September 12, 2012 by smyers

smyers's Fotobabble.

This was my attempt at explaining technology by utilizing both sound and sight. After reading Chapter 3 of Ong’s Orality and Literacy it’s all I’ve been able to think about. That and the dialogue we had in one of the discussion threads about the value of being able to hear another’s voice to add the sense of connection to the online learning community.

(I apologize in advance, I couldn’t figure out how to open the fotobabble within another window within the blog so unfortunately, for now, it seems as though it is going to redirect to fotobabble. I am continuing to try to work it out. If you hit your back button it will redirect back to our blog.)

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuckincustoms/305625785/sizes/m/in/photostream/

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A short passage that sheds light on ‘Text’

Posted on September 12, 2012 by mckay

“Text is written authority”

I think that this simple statement, taken from our own module referring it the Modern Usage of text, touches on my own attitude about text. Prior to getting started in this course I was quite unsure about how we could spend an entire course looking at ‘Text’. I have now come to realize that I have an attitude that text is an authority and need not be questioned. My own education has conditioned me to accept the written word, the published book, and signage without question. For myself, this passage represents a key learning; a basis to start questioning my own assumptions and think about what has been so far simply accepted.

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A short passage that sheds light on ‘Technology’.

Posted on September 12, 2012 by mckay

I think that this passage from the ‘From papyrus to cyberspace’ lecture signals a key learning that many people (both students and teachers) need to face and overcome.

“If someone becomes seduced with the technology and thinks that if they can control it they can eventually produce a good argument without going through the hard work of thinking it through, that’s a problem.”

Synthesizing, theorizing, contextualizing and other higher order thinking skills represent the hard work of thinking it through. With technology allowing so much information at our fingertips, and technology does more and more of the work, this passage becomes more and more true.

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The future of tech.

Posted on September 11, 2012 by inscho

Finding an image to reflect what I’m currently thinking about technology has been particularly difficult, but I was pleased to be able to find the following. I am mulling over a more abstract construct of technology, where we consider technology not in the physical sense, but as a process of thought or action. These processes evolve too, as we find different and often better ways to do the tasks we do. I chose this image an analogy of how these processes change and evolve as we long for the promise of something better. Though the future is hazy and uncertain with unforeseen challenges, we continue to march forward.

Stone

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what type of technology?

Posted on September 11, 2012 by Sheila

I chose this picture to reflect McLuhan’s pronouncement that “movable type was archetype and prototype for all subsequent industrial development.”

google images, creative commons

The printing press was a major shift in text technology that changed the ‘authority’ structure of society completely and revolutionized information dissemination and storage, and started the way toward mass literacy. The technology of the moveable type press, according to McLuhan, determined the models for mass production, the ‘repetition’ of production in industry, weaving looms, food production, agriculture, photography… and more… quite a claim. He contends that print demolished the old traditional cultures, still mainly oral, governed by community and relationships. Many of his insights about the impacts of technology on society are borne out by the the amazing economic growth and expansion made possible by the Industrial Revolution, but also the horrors of it.

References:

McLuhen, Marshall. From “The Playboy Interview: Marshall McLuhan, Playboy Magazine (March 1969 © , 1994 by Playboy. Retrieved from:
http://www.mcluhanmedia.com/mmclpb01.html

Movable type image retrieved from google images:
http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dLM-V-TXlwo/TVGKsSaCmsI/AAAAAAAAACw/YaI0KzIcX84/s400/Guttenberg%2Bletters_of_lead.jpg&imgrefurl=http://typetisdale.blogspot.com/2011_02_01_archive.html&h=224&w=300&sz=30&tbnid=TkdE_owiN0Sw3M:&tbnh=99&tbnw=132&zoom=1&usg=__iPxR66OSa83XKdnen0Ty_WN_nBU=&docid=CsCwWWE6PdLncM&sa=X&ei=1AFQUIDMNeWjiAKtwYCQDQ&ved=0CDQQ9QEwBA&dur=481

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Creating Accessible TEXT

Posted on September 11, 2012 by jmah

Howdy, Hello, and Ahoy-hoy!

My name is Jerry Mah and ETEC 540 will be my seventh course in my journey through MET. I am also taking ETEC 531 (Cultural and New Media Studies) this term. I currently reside in Calgary, AB. These two courses will tie nicely with my work in a recent course (ETEC 532: Technology in the Arts and Humanities).

INFO

INFO (c) bobafred, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

For the purposes of this introduction, I found this picture to be perfect for conveying my desire to make knowledge more accessible. The abbreviation of information, coupled with Braille characters provided an interesting visual combination. In my eyes, it provides a different dimension of accessibility – one which the majority of us do not typically consider for accessing text. Further to this, how are we as educators making knowledge accessible, even if one can “visualize” it? One of our primary communication mediums is through print – text. It is my hope that this class will bring new layers to my understanding in the areas of writing, reading, and technology.

My current work involves supporting schools with a number of initiatives. In the past, I have taught a wide variety of core classes, along with complementary classes in: film studies, building construction, industrial technologies, and robotics at the middle/junior school level.

Thanks for reading my introduction. I look forward to learning with you all,

-Jerry

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the text-ure of language

Posted on September 11, 2012 by Sheila

I love this picture – it speaks about the ancient roots of the word “text’ and its entanglement with texture, technology, techne….the history is always there: “concepts have a way of carrying their etymologies with them forever.” (Ong p.11). There is teaching here, information preserved and recalled…

texture japan

photo taken by S Cavanagh, Japan 2010

The roots of text in techne – creative arts and craft, the exceptional skills in stone carving and architecture in this culture; and texture – the moss like a clothing or covering recalls the weaving and fabrics that moved in the 2ost century into high technology synthetic fabrics like Kevlar creating everything from clothes to cars – bibliophiles to technophiles.
These early Japanese characters were borrowed and adapted from the extremely complex Chinese system of writing … but this has evolved in the modern times into a much simpler, phonetic kanji system that Thamus might point to as evidence of his point that wisdom is gradually reduced to mere knowledge… and being able to read ‘exit’ signs – the subtleties of the poetic aspects of these languages are not enjoyed by many these days. Though I must say kanji helped me over there….

I apologize for the seeming obsession with historical photographs but in the NWT here we have a technology initiative in our schools. But as I start searching creativecommons.org or flickr for images I get this pop-up that says your quota is up and the search will be blocked – that’s after 5 minutes! So I am using all my own photos that I edit down……

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