From Walter Ong's writings, I learned the term"chirographic" - that's handwriting, - and its impact is different from print's. Writing raises consciousness, Ong says, and I believe that's true both culturally and individually.
I remember friends who were studying for their PH.D.s in Education saying that getting their degrees had a profound impact on them, that it changed them deeply. I nodded, of course, and thought maybe they were exagerating. Now, I'm beginning to understand what they said. Part of it is simply the reaction from people around who honour and value this achievement, but reading Walter Ong has convinced me that it is also the impact of the prolonged meditation that writing a thesis is. People are changed, - I am feeling the change of attitudes towards me, and a complex of awareness that my writing has created within me.
The most important seed of my writing was my learning to write using a computer and word processing software. My handwriting blocked my writing because I regarded it as visually inadequate, signalling low status thinking and it was physically difficult too. Also, my years of intense reading and the academic culture had caused me to think that the only "real" writing was that which was printed. Books were "real writing" and handwritten notes were just rough notes, no matter how much I had tried to do a good job of writing.
Because of the material structure of publishing, few people got to be published. It was expensive and complex to do and so there were many gate-keepers. Thus, the tyranny of print, more visible now as the stranglehold of published is being loosened and lessened. Word processing, desktop publishing, web sites, and blogs are creating a new democracy of print, where individuals with access to comparatively inexpensive equipment and communication links can present their ideas, thought, words, to a much broader audience with few, if any, gatekeepers.
This is creating a new understanding of communication using print. Using keyboarding and software knowledge (and online computers) is different from using chirograhpically produced text and the publishing industry. We are learning this new thinking/communication tool, and beginning to understand that it affects us profoundly.
Tuesday, July 20, 2004
Monday, July 12, 2004
Walter Ong - My Hero!
I'm reading Walter Ong's Orality and Literacy and it feels like writing my thesis was preparation for reading his work. This was published in 1982, but it is even more relevant today, IMHO.
I read Patricia Sullivan's article Practicing Safe Visual Rhetoric on the WWW (available at http://austen.sla.purdue.edu/handa.html) and found an interesting reference to Ong. I think Olson's The World on Paper also references Ong. In any case, I bought Orality and Literacy and I am captivated, wowed, hooked.
More later.
I read Patricia Sullivan's article Practicing Safe Visual Rhetoric on the WWW (available at http://austen.sla.purdue.edu/handa.html) and found an interesting reference to Ong. I think Olson's The World on Paper also references Ong. In any case, I bought Orality and Literacy and I am captivated, wowed, hooked.
More later.
Friday, May 21, 2004
More Authors than Audience?
Are the young blog writers spending more time creating/composing their work, both text and visual, than they are in reading the work of others? In the environment we now live within, it's entirely possible that overall more time is spent authoring than audiencing. This is a kind of reversal to what has happened in sound.
I remember my parents, when I was a child, singing in the basement below my bedroom. My Mom played the piano and Dad plus their two closest friends, my "aunt" and "uncle" sang hymns in harmony. All of them were in the choir except my Dad. They didn't listen to records or radio all that much. They were more performers than audience.
So, too, in the Sixties, I had some musician friends who liked to "jam" anytime they could find someone else to sing or play with them. They, however, were more audience than performers because they also spent hours listening to records and other musicians.
Since Gutenberg, despite private letters and business documents with small and private readership, the "publishing" of written work has been highly circumscribed with both economics and elite judges limiting which work could move into the public spere (like music recordings now.) Now with the ease of access to the web, people can "publish" their writing with little to no interference. Blogs are only one way of published. Theses and novels and commentary are all to be found on the web. The personal writer rules.
In music something quite different is happening. Relatively little personal music making is to be found on the web, especially as compared to the huge trade in copies of professionally made popular music. It is almost the opposite of books. There are books up on the web, but in very small proportion compared to blogs and personal journals.
On the web, with the written word, there are more authors than audiences; with music there are more audiences than performers. Why? And how is Karaoke different? Is it audience, performer, or hybrid?
I remember my parents, when I was a child, singing in the basement below my bedroom. My Mom played the piano and Dad plus their two closest friends, my "aunt" and "uncle" sang hymns in harmony. All of them were in the choir except my Dad. They didn't listen to records or radio all that much. They were more performers than audience.
So, too, in the Sixties, I had some musician friends who liked to "jam" anytime they could find someone else to sing or play with them. They, however, were more audience than performers because they also spent hours listening to records and other musicians.
Since Gutenberg, despite private letters and business documents with small and private readership, the "publishing" of written work has been highly circumscribed with both economics and elite judges limiting which work could move into the public spere (like music recordings now.) Now with the ease of access to the web, people can "publish" their writing with little to no interference. Blogs are only one way of published. Theses and novels and commentary are all to be found on the web. The personal writer rules.
In music something quite different is happening. Relatively little personal music making is to be found on the web, especially as compared to the huge trade in copies of professionally made popular music. It is almost the opposite of books. There are books up on the web, but in very small proportion compared to blogs and personal journals.
On the web, with the written word, there are more authors than audiences; with music there are more audiences than performers. Why? And how is Karaoke different? Is it audience, performer, or hybrid?
Saturday, May 01, 2004
Restricting the Semiotic Palette
I've been thinking about what would have to happen for me to produce an article for a scholarly journal. I can't just take an excerpt of my thesis and send it along because journals restrict the semiotic palette. I'm limited to the font of their choice, and only one font. There are no pictures or colours. That means everything has to be done through words, and only words.
It's possible; I've done it before. And I suspect that money is part of the issue, although I also suspect that the innate conservatism of scholary journals dictates that no effort is made to innovate semiotically.
I feel caught between how I want to and can communicate information and concepts and knowing that I must work in an limited medium. I used to think that scholarship was all about exploring the the novel, about seeing possibilities and connections. I know there are some pockets where this happens, but it's like I have to wear a girdle and gloves and a navy-blue uniform instead of the comfortable but professional clothes that allow me to focus on my work without energy draining into a useless, limiting formality.
It's possible; I've done it before. And I suspect that money is part of the issue, although I also suspect that the innate conservatism of scholary journals dictates that no effort is made to innovate semiotically.
I feel caught between how I want to and can communicate information and concepts and knowing that I must work in an limited medium. I used to think that scholarship was all about exploring the the novel, about seeing possibilities and connections. I know there are some pockets where this happens, but it's like I have to wear a girdle and gloves and a navy-blue uniform instead of the comfortable but professional clothes that allow me to focus on my work without energy draining into a useless, limiting formality.
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Watching TV Ads
I see a lot of car ads during the news and the 10:00 dramas I tend to watch, and I'm noticing the way text is integrated as part of the visual. In one, the text moves from the back of the centre to occupying centre screen, and the text itself is slightly off kilter. It's almost at an angle showing perspective, and not quite. The end result is, the irregularity draws the eye.
In another, the words drop in and move, centre screen, part of the movement that holds the viewer's eye. This is text as a visual "character," as a visual element more than as words carrying information. This is the new multisemiotic of our age.
In another, the words drop in and move, centre screen, part of the movement that holds the viewer's eye. This is text as a visual "character," as a visual element more than as words carrying information. This is the new multisemiotic of our age.
Friday, April 16, 2004
Spring Colds
Spring colds are the pits. Sinuses blocked equals a sluggish mind. Runny eyes and nose are uncomfortable and unattractive; (my mate got it first and gave it to me!)
Monday, April 12, 2004
Others - Learning to Write
So I was talking to a friend yesterday and mentioned my thesis being about how to write, and referred to how I learned to write - joined printing and having to get "good enough" to get a straight pen and ink, and what a struggle that was. She related and began talking about how discouraging her messy-looking handwriting was when she was struggling to learn. Then, without a word from me, she said "What did they expect? All the written work we saw was in books and looked neat and finished." Exactly. My point. As children learning to write, we were immediately diminished and discouraged by our inability to achieve what we thought was the standard, something that looked like the books we were asked to read.
I was not the only one feeling this way! In fact, my wanting to have my writing look like a book may have been the norm!Think about it, when you are taught to cook, you are supervised, do it slowly and simply, but end up with food, something edible. The same thing when you learn to knit or sew, or build or repair. What you end up doing as you learn is create something that, while perhaps not up to a high standard, is never-the-less recognizable as close to a product in daily use.
My friend and I shifted into talking about our late-teen, early-twenties daughters, both of whom have their own blogs and spend hours online. The text they practice and the text they see have a unity and connection that ours never did. They read books too, but I suspect they don't hold them in the reverence that we did/do. They use and see text as part of a communicative system that they are tightly tied into, and that gives them a real discourse community, a far better learning situation than the required writing that always seemed inadequate both because of its appearance (not a book) and because it was observed as a performance where style and correctness mattered more than meaning.
I wonder how the increased amounts of time in casual "texting" will affect how they write in more formal situations?
I was not the only one feeling this way! In fact, my wanting to have my writing look like a book may have been the norm!Think about it, when you are taught to cook, you are supervised, do it slowly and simply, but end up with food, something edible. The same thing when you learn to knit or sew, or build or repair. What you end up doing as you learn is create something that, while perhaps not up to a high standard, is never-the-less recognizable as close to a product in daily use.
My friend and I shifted into talking about our late-teen, early-twenties daughters, both of whom have their own blogs and spend hours online. The text they practice and the text they see have a unity and connection that ours never did. They read books too, but I suspect they don't hold them in the reverence that we did/do. They use and see text as part of a communicative system that they are tightly tied into, and that gives them a real discourse community, a far better learning situation than the required writing that always seemed inadequate both because of its appearance (not a book) and because it was observed as a performance where style and correctness mattered more than meaning.
I wonder how the increased amounts of time in casual "texting" will affect how they write in more formal situations?
Monday, April 05, 2004
Reading Has Always Been Postmodern
Historically, as soon as many people were reading the same text, exactly the same text as replicated mechanically, they began to disagree on what that text meant. (And perhaps even before, the source of so-called heresies lay in disagreements about what texts "meant.") But with increasing numbers of people reading the same texts, their different "readings" became obvious. And it's easy to understand why. Text, as the postmoderns have vigorously pointed out, is not absolute. The words stay the same but the reader(s) change.
If you read a story, you read it from your point-of-view and that affects how you "understand" it. If you read a newspaper, your point-of-view on what has happened is shaped by who you are and what you have experienced. The same person at different ages "sees" the meaning differently. Age, gender, race, class, nationality, profession, - all these shape how textual (and visual) stories are "taken."
Both the law and science have implicitly known this since their inceptions. Language is slippery; that's the basis of rhetoric. The law tries to be absolutely clear, and lawyers and judges make their livings interpreting it. The rigidities and formulas of scientific writing are simply attempts to avoid multiple interpretations.
I remember teaching my classes that a business letter that had more than one possible interpretation was poorly written, and that a poem or story that had only one interpretation possible was poorly written. Different writing for different purposes, and in certain situations being open to interpretation is a strength not a weakness.
So readers have always and will always interpret text, and thus have always and will always have different readings. It's inevitable. The questions the postmoderns ask us to reflect on, as I understand them, are "Do I understand myself to be an interpreter and not the sole correct authority?" and "How do we decide who, and on what basis, can be an authority whose interpretation can be trusted/allowed/accepted?"
In this age of doubt, litigation, individualism, those are confounding questions.
If you read a story, you read it from your point-of-view and that affects how you "understand" it. If you read a newspaper, your point-of-view on what has happened is shaped by who you are and what you have experienced. The same person at different ages "sees" the meaning differently. Age, gender, race, class, nationality, profession, - all these shape how textual (and visual) stories are "taken."
Both the law and science have implicitly known this since their inceptions. Language is slippery; that's the basis of rhetoric. The law tries to be absolutely clear, and lawyers and judges make their livings interpreting it. The rigidities and formulas of scientific writing are simply attempts to avoid multiple interpretations.
I remember teaching my classes that a business letter that had more than one possible interpretation was poorly written, and that a poem or story that had only one interpretation possible was poorly written. Different writing for different purposes, and in certain situations being open to interpretation is a strength not a weakness.
So readers have always and will always interpret text, and thus have always and will always have different readings. It's inevitable. The questions the postmoderns ask us to reflect on, as I understand them, are "Do I understand myself to be an interpreter and not the sole correct authority?" and "How do we decide who, and on what basis, can be an authority whose interpretation can be trusted/allowed/accepted?"
In this age of doubt, litigation, individualism, those are confounding questions.
Friday, April 02, 2004
Representation and Replication
Sometime in the 1600s, the printing press was invented by Gutenberg, and mass replication of text became possible. Suddenly humanity was on a new path. Previously hand-copied books were of necessity rare, and those who could read were also rare. Caxton moved the printed page from posters into books, and reading objects became more complex. In western culture, the Bible and a few other books had been preserved and studied, but that kind of studying was, in many ways, more like meditation, like lectio divina, rather than what we would call reading today.
The association of reading with the Bible and the development of Protestantism led to a immense campaign for universal literacy - everyone should be able to read so they could read the Bible. At the same time, science was developing, as the spread of reading and books led to the spread of knowledge and/or ideas about what constituted knowledge. Reading became increasingly prevalent and important because of the exact and widespread replication of textual objects, that is, books.
This incremental growth in reading and readers had an interesting impact on readers. They disagreed with each other about what the text "meant." And therein lies my next snippit.
The association of reading with the Bible and the development of Protestantism led to a immense campaign for universal literacy - everyone should be able to read so they could read the Bible. At the same time, science was developing, as the spread of reading and books led to the spread of knowledge and/or ideas about what constituted knowledge. Reading became increasingly prevalent and important because of the exact and widespread replication of textual objects, that is, books.
This incremental growth in reading and readers had an interesting impact on readers. They disagreed with each other about what the text "meant." And therein lies my next snippit.
Monday, March 29, 2004
I'm an Owner!
Long time, no whatever, write and read, I guess. I been existing (and I do mean "existing") without a computer of my own. Used my husband's till he got home from his trip. Then used the old IBM clunker in his study, and the open access one in the part-time teacher's lounge. Looking up my mail in two different webmails was awkward and inefficient, so I didn't look as often. Writing without access to all my files was a pain. Printing up my thesis on Jim's computer kept him from using it to edit, so I felt pressured and guilty. All-in-all, I felt limited and even lonely without my computer prosthesis.
Now I have my very own iBook G4, and it's almost fully set up to my desire. I still have a couple of things to sort out, but I can write emails, and get emails without fussing with webmails. I can write up documents. I have PowerPoint problems, but I'm sure I can get that worked out. I like the keyboard, and I love the interface. At the moment, I am a happy camper, especially because I can now get back to writing here!
Now I have my very own iBook G4, and it's almost fully set up to my desire. I still have a couple of things to sort out, but I can write emails, and get emails without fussing with webmails. I can write up documents. I have PowerPoint problems, but I'm sure I can get that worked out. I like the keyboard, and I love the interface. At the moment, I am a happy camper, especially because I can now get back to writing here!
Saturday, March 13, 2004
Needing Help!!!
So I decided to ignore my other responsibilities and focus on editing my thesis so I could get it done before I have to return this computer. I was working my way diligently through my edits when I noticed that a page reference was missing. I knew what the page was from my edited copy to I just added it in. Then I noticed another page reference was missing so I tried to get into "Edit Citations" to see if I had added it, but, although there was a space before the period, the computer said there wasn't a citation there to edit. When I clicked on a citation that included the author's name and the publishing date, but not the page, there, in the editing field, was the page reference.
I checked several others. Consistently the page references weren't showing in the document but had been added in the editing field. What-to-do? What-to-do? After much exploring and manual reading, it seemed to me that it must be something to do with Output Styles. So repeatedly I tried to open APA 5. The little icon that signals that something is opening appears then a quick flash of a field which immediately disappears. So I can't change anything to get the pages to show. Which means I have a problem because I have to have the pages references there when I print up the next version for my final committee meeting.
I use Google to get to EndNote, find "Technical Support" and describe the problem. The page says that they guarantee a response within 3 working days. That should be just about when I have to turn this computer back to its owner.
I'm tired of fighting with software!!!!!
I checked several others. Consistently the page references weren't showing in the document but had been added in the editing field. What-to-do? What-to-do? After much exploring and manual reading, it seemed to me that it must be something to do with Output Styles. So repeatedly I tried to open APA 5. The little icon that signals that something is opening appears then a quick flash of a field which immediately disappears. So I can't change anything to get the pages to show. Which means I have a problem because I have to have the pages references there when I print up the next version for my final committee meeting.
I use Google to get to EndNote, find "Technical Support" and describe the problem. The page says that they guarantee a response within 3 working days. That should be just about when I have to turn this computer back to its owner.
I'm tired of fighting with software!!!!!
Working at Work Avoidance
The first time I heard about EndNote I was fascinated. A software that does all the finicky detail work of citing and building a bibliography! I was immediately sold. As soon as I was back at school, despite the cost, I picked up a student version. Anything to free myself from bibliographic hell.
For a long time I was enthralled by filling out the reference cards, citing while I wrote, and then checking my References which kept magically growing. And EndNote took care of the nasty APA details. I did have a few problems. I'm a tad manual-adverse and figuring out some of the steps I had to take took some time. By-and-large, though, I was happy with the way EndNote worked.
Then the first of my computer migrations happened, and I had to migrate across platforms. To keep using EndNote I had to purchase a Mac upgrade for my Windows version. What a messy experience! I emailed and ordered it from a pleasant memail help-person. First he sent me a Windows upgrade, then a Mac 5 for OS 9, and finally, finally EndNote 6 for OS X. Lots of emailing there and the guy was apologetic about the confusion and I got to keep the various CDs and manuals.
I'm a bit detail adverse too, and I avoided learning about APA, figuring the software would take care of all that for me. Luckily my thesis supervisor is kind and supportive. As he told me things like, no author's name here, and page number there, I worked with the manual enough to figure it out a little bit here and a little bit there. Worked for me.
It took me a while to figure out how important the library is, and that an alias is not a library. I did lose one version of my thesis library, but a backup existed and I was able to get it and add in the references I'd lost. It wasn't too bad, except for the anxiety attach I had until I got the backup installed. So, ... I learned a lot.
Then I had to move to another Mac, an iBook, and now I'm back to a second G4. The good news is my institution issues me computers; the bad news is there's a lot of change. As a result, the good news is, I am forced to learn a lot. Now I am squatting temporarily on my mate's G4 while he's travelling. While I was trying to edit my thesis, EndNote would either not open, or "unexpectedly quit" over and over and over. I tried all kinds of variations; nothing worked. But all the elements showed up in Word undertools and in the icon bar. They just wouldn't open.
I began feeling a bit anxious. I pulled out the manual. Didn't find it helpful. I uninstalled and reinstalled the program. Still kept quitting. Went to the EndNote site, and found the FAQ. After stumbling through the list of questions for a while, I found one that seemed to fit. It told me to get a free download to update EndNote 6 for OS X. I did, and in one of the most common of the current cliches, the rest is history. More or less.
On the computer previous to this one, the iBook, EndNote developed the twitch of whenever I put in a citation, the rainbow ball would spin and spin, then suddenly the last page of the references would be on the screen. I scroll back up to the page I was on and edit the citation, whereupon the same thing would happen. The bad news is this happens for every single citation. The good news is I'm mostly finished and don't have to add too many more citations. And the other good news is that I've learned how to use the scroll bar to find the heading and page number with it. Learning by accident.
So, is that work avoidance, or simply a different kind of work? Don't know, don't care, would rather play with the computer than work out where commas go and where periods go and type it all up manually.
I can cite while I write again and I know more about how to use EndNote. I'm sure I must be avoiding some work.
For a long time I was enthralled by filling out the reference cards, citing while I wrote, and then checking my References which kept magically growing. And EndNote took care of the nasty APA details. I did have a few problems. I'm a tad manual-adverse and figuring out some of the steps I had to take took some time. By-and-large, though, I was happy with the way EndNote worked.
Then the first of my computer migrations happened, and I had to migrate across platforms. To keep using EndNote I had to purchase a Mac upgrade for my Windows version. What a messy experience! I emailed and ordered it from a pleasant memail help-person. First he sent me a Windows upgrade, then a Mac 5 for OS 9, and finally, finally EndNote 6 for OS X. Lots of emailing there and the guy was apologetic about the confusion and I got to keep the various CDs and manuals.
I'm a bit detail adverse too, and I avoided learning about APA, figuring the software would take care of all that for me. Luckily my thesis supervisor is kind and supportive. As he told me things like, no author's name here, and page number there, I worked with the manual enough to figure it out a little bit here and a little bit there. Worked for me.
It took me a while to figure out how important the library is, and that an alias is not a library. I did lose one version of my thesis library, but a backup existed and I was able to get it and add in the references I'd lost. It wasn't too bad, except for the anxiety attach I had until I got the backup installed. So, ... I learned a lot.
Then I had to move to another Mac, an iBook, and now I'm back to a second G4. The good news is my institution issues me computers; the bad news is there's a lot of change. As a result, the good news is, I am forced to learn a lot. Now I am squatting temporarily on my mate's G4 while he's travelling. While I was trying to edit my thesis, EndNote would either not open, or "unexpectedly quit" over and over and over. I tried all kinds of variations; nothing worked. But all the elements showed up in Word undertools and in the icon bar. They just wouldn't open.
I began feeling a bit anxious. I pulled out the manual. Didn't find it helpful. I uninstalled and reinstalled the program. Still kept quitting. Went to the EndNote site, and found the FAQ. After stumbling through the list of questions for a while, I found one that seemed to fit. It told me to get a free download to update EndNote 6 for OS X. I did, and in one of the most common of the current cliches, the rest is history. More or less.
On the computer previous to this one, the iBook, EndNote developed the twitch of whenever I put in a citation, the rainbow ball would spin and spin, then suddenly the last page of the references would be on the screen. I scroll back up to the page I was on and edit the citation, whereupon the same thing would happen. The bad news is this happens for every single citation. The good news is I'm mostly finished and don't have to add too many more citations. And the other good news is that I've learned how to use the scroll bar to find the heading and page number with it. Learning by accident.
So, is that work avoidance, or simply a different kind of work? Don't know, don't care, would rather play with the computer than work out where commas go and where periods go and type it all up manually.
I can cite while I write again and I know more about how to use EndNote. I'm sure I must be avoiding some work.
Wednesday, March 10, 2004
The Digital Disconnect
One of the things I've learned through putting up a few sites is that it is actually quick and easy to fix or update a single page, and then upload it to its site. You don't have to take months. I've also noticed that it's more interesting to create a new site than update an old one. Which may be why there's a lot of out-of-date stuff up there on the web. So what?
So an institution should figure out how to keep its web site up-to-date, especially when it comes to a page referring to someone who has died. I don't know why it has to be a secret who is in charge of getting the web changed when something has changed. The presisdent of the institution must have better things to do with his time than redirecting concerns about seriously out-of-date material to the one in charge of the technitions who will actually make the changes. Why don't institutional web sites encourage their employees to help them by having, in a prominent spot, an address where problems could be directed?
Why not use the interest of people in their part of the institution by encouraging their participation rather than discouraging them! I suspect that many people including managers have no idea how simple small changes are. It's part of the great digital disconnect where people who don't understand make decisions, or don't make decisions because they don't know how things work!
So an institution should figure out how to keep its web site up-to-date, especially when it comes to a page referring to someone who has died. I don't know why it has to be a secret who is in charge of getting the web changed when something has changed. The presisdent of the institution must have better things to do with his time than redirecting concerns about seriously out-of-date material to the one in charge of the technitions who will actually make the changes. Why don't institutional web sites encourage their employees to help them by having, in a prominent spot, an address where problems could be directed?
Why not use the interest of people in their part of the institution by encouraging their participation rather than discouraging them! I suspect that many people including managers have no idea how simple small changes are. It's part of the great digital disconnect where people who don't understand make decisions, or don't make decisions because they don't know how things work!
Friday, March 05, 2004
Okay, So Maybe It's Font Heck!
It's weird. My thesis prints up okay, and the larger size fonts look okay, but any font I try in the smaller sizes looks ugly and messy. It's a bit like a reversion to an earlier computer screen that doesn't look like the page it preludes. But it looks okay when printed, so that's what counts right now for me.
Rain and disappearing snow - the dirty end of winter.
There is such a wide range of computer knowledge around nowadays. Many of the people I'm supposed to work with just don't do computers, and what's available for them in the institution is old and unsupported. Yesterday, as I am (I hope temporarily) without computer at my institution, I went into a teacher "lounge" to use one of the computers. OS X was on the system, but everytime I tried to send a message in webmail on the school portal, both Internet Explorer and Safari would simply close. So I tried the other computer, and someone had shut it down and I have no idea what the user name and password are and who to ask. So I gave up and came home to my borrowed but wonderful machine.
At the same time, I know that a former supervisor (not mine) had very limited computer skills and at least two totally high end computers for his exclusive use. Status indicators rather than tools. Tant pis!
The whole question of learning and computers is both fascinating and central to our culture. How do we learn, and how do we learn to use computers to do what we want to and need to? How do we get techies to learn design and communication, and those who who have skills and knowledge to communicate to learn how to use the computer? No complete and perfect answer is posible, and the learner and the environment are as central as computer availability.
Rain and disappearing snow - the dirty end of winter.
There is such a wide range of computer knowledge around nowadays. Many of the people I'm supposed to work with just don't do computers, and what's available for them in the institution is old and unsupported. Yesterday, as I am (I hope temporarily) without computer at my institution, I went into a teacher "lounge" to use one of the computers. OS X was on the system, but everytime I tried to send a message in webmail on the school portal, both Internet Explorer and Safari would simply close. So I tried the other computer, and someone had shut it down and I have no idea what the user name and password are and who to ask. So I gave up and came home to my borrowed but wonderful machine.
At the same time, I know that a former supervisor (not mine) had very limited computer skills and at least two totally high end computers for his exclusive use. Status indicators rather than tools. Tant pis!
The whole question of learning and computers is both fascinating and central to our culture. How do we learn, and how do we learn to use computers to do what we want to and need to? How do we get techies to learn design and communication, and those who who have skills and knowledge to communicate to learn how to use the computer? No complete and perfect answer is posible, and the learner and the environment are as central as computer availability.
Sunday, February 29, 2004
Stuck in Font Hell
How come a font that is supposed to be part of OS X is there in name only! How come my beautiful thesis looks stupid and ugly now! What do I have to do to get the font I want! I can't find it anywhere to download.
Got to go and keep on trying, until the call from the Oscars becomes impossible to ignore.
Got to go and keep on trying, until the call from the Oscars becomes impossible to ignore.
Saturday, February 28, 2004
The Monstrous Aspect of Technology!
If I didn't love the computer so much I'd hate it. I crashed a Mac iBook! Didn't mean to, but apparently I drained the battery printing my 282 page document several times without always being plugged in. Then I put it to sleep before the battery had re-charged enough. Pop! and it went into a coma. Luckily the technician was smart and kind and rescued my my data onto 2CDs before performing hard-drive to hard-drive resusitation so I could hand it back into IT central. Now I'm writing on a borrowed computer, but hey, it's a PowerBook G4 and I love the feel of the keyboard.
What I really care about is a place to keep making adjustments on my thesis. So I borrowed this computer, after checking to see if it had Lucida Grande, the font I use most. I didn't think to check for Lucida Handwriting which I also use. I saw the words "Lucida Grande" in the list of fonts and assumed I was home free. Tonight when I finally got my EndNote properly installed (don't ask) and opened my thesis document, it looked funny. I looked at the font closely. It says "Lucida Grande" but it isn't. Not even close. And "Lucida Handwriting" isn't there at all.
There must be some way around this, but I keep remembering when I moved my thesis over from the IBM laptop to the first PowerBook and found that the Lucida fonts I'd been using weren't on the Mac. I had to reformat all my "voices." It took AGES! I liked the name Lucida, and the looks of Ludica Grande so I adapted to and adopted that BUT I really don't want to do that again.
I used the Minotaur at the centre of the technological labyrinth as a metaphor about learning to use the computer. The Minotaur was created out of a deep desire through the use of "technology:" the "blind" Daedalus built so Pasiphae could have her "way" with the white bull her husband had seized from Posidon. Now imprisoned by more Daedalus-built technology, the labyrinth, I was set to prove the Minotaur was wonderful and not a Monster. Now I'm not so sure.
Technology is wonderful until you have to deal with its montrous side, its difficulties.
What I really care about is a place to keep making adjustments on my thesis. So I borrowed this computer, after checking to see if it had Lucida Grande, the font I use most. I didn't think to check for Lucida Handwriting which I also use. I saw the words "Lucida Grande" in the list of fonts and assumed I was home free. Tonight when I finally got my EndNote properly installed (don't ask) and opened my thesis document, it looked funny. I looked at the font closely. It says "Lucida Grande" but it isn't. Not even close. And "Lucida Handwriting" isn't there at all.
There must be some way around this, but I keep remembering when I moved my thesis over from the IBM laptop to the first PowerBook and found that the Lucida fonts I'd been using weren't on the Mac. I had to reformat all my "voices." It took AGES! I liked the name Lucida, and the looks of Ludica Grande so I adapted to and adopted that BUT I really don't want to do that again.
I used the Minotaur at the centre of the technological labyrinth as a metaphor about learning to use the computer. The Minotaur was created out of a deep desire through the use of "technology:" the "blind" Daedalus built so Pasiphae could have her "way" with the white bull her husband had seized from Posidon. Now imprisoned by more Daedalus-built technology, the labyrinth, I was set to prove the Minotaur was wonderful and not a Monster. Now I'm not so sure.
Technology is wonderful until you have to deal with its montrous side, its difficulties.
Thursday, February 26, 2004
Whoops!
Oh, well. some experiments do not totally work, as you can see below.
I will try again another day, another place.
I will try again another day, another place.
An Experiment in Cutting & Pasting HTML
size="+1">Playing with
WYSIWYG Web Authoring and cut&paste of HTML
I went to a presentation
today on using the Discussions
feature of WebCT. It was fascinating. But what I really loved and what
I was really fascinated by was the possibility of cutting and pasting
HTML code created in a WYSIWYG course authoring program, in this case
Mozillas Composer. I realized that I could use the same feature in my
blog, as Im displaying here.
I am on a different computer which for some reason does not show an
apostrophe for the apostrophe key, but an e with an accent, so I have
to write this with no apostrophes or quotation marks until I figure out
how to fix it.
I had a problem with the
computer I was using and a wonderful (I hope) technician says he has
saved all my data. I will find out for sure tomorrow. For now, I am
playing with this other computer, which belongs to the person I live
with who is currently on the other side of the world, in India,
innoculating children against polio as part of the Rotory campaign to
eradicate polio worldwide.
So here is my experiment;
let us see how it works!
Tuesday, February 24, 2004
The Details, the Details!
I'm having trouble stopping making adjustments to my thesis, and the printing process is driving me crazy. After deciding to ignore the rule about using small roman numerals for the first section and printing up one copy, I set to work and figured out how to do that, so I'm keeping that first copy for myself, and will just write in the correct pagination. Since then, with the colour cartridge running out and then the black cartridge running out twice, I've had to deal with delays and irritations!
As well, I had to print up a bunch of separate pages to replace the ones that were messed up colour-wise during the last bit of the colour cartridge. After I put those into that copy, I realized that there were extra blank pages and I had better check through page-by-page. I hate that kind of detail! But I did it.
Then I realized that the next copy was significantly thinner than the others. Page-by-page checking showed that somehow the missing pages that I had printed up had been left out of this printing!!! So, more individual pages printed up.
Then I got the three copies I had cerloxed and took two into my supervisor's office, one for him, and one for another committee member; the one for the external, I'll take in on Thursday when I have a class, and I'll courier the fourth to my other committee member.
This part of the thesis journey is like being at the airport on the way home. After planning, travelling, holidaying and then packing for the return, I am waiting to have my baggage checked and be called to board the plane - the slowest and most boring/irritating part of the process. But there's no escaping it, so I better find a way to make meaning from it.
As well, I had to print up a bunch of separate pages to replace the ones that were messed up colour-wise during the last bit of the colour cartridge. After I put those into that copy, I realized that there were extra blank pages and I had better check through page-by-page. I hate that kind of detail! But I did it.
Then I realized that the next copy was significantly thinner than the others. Page-by-page checking showed that somehow the missing pages that I had printed up had been left out of this printing!!! So, more individual pages printed up.
Then I got the three copies I had cerloxed and took two into my supervisor's office, one for him, and one for another committee member; the one for the external, I'll take in on Thursday when I have a class, and I'll courier the fourth to my other committee member.
This part of the thesis journey is like being at the airport on the way home. After planning, travelling, holidaying and then packing for the return, I am waiting to have my baggage checked and be called to board the plane - the slowest and most boring/irritating part of the process. But there's no escaping it, so I better find a way to make meaning from it.
Sunday, February 22, 2004
Just Abandon It!
A piece of writing is never finished; it is merely abandoned. I can't remember who said that but it is definitely true. I keep fiddling with it. I just change that phrase. Then I remember something my supervisor said and change something else. I get bugged by the numbering and spend a few hours figuring out how to start with small roman numerals then switch to Arabic. I finally got it figured out and printed up the next two copies. That felt good. It took about a day each at the speed my printer goes, and partway through the third copy, the colour started changing and I had to get a new colour cartridge.
So here I am printing up my supposedly finished thesis, fiddling with it, and then getting the numbers done right. Then, in checking for what pages I'll have to reprint to get the colour right, I discover an almost blank page where the picture has shifted right in the middle of the document. I don't want to reprint all the second halves. I think. Finally I decide to add a little bit more text and another picture so I will have the right page number when the next chapter starts.
At this point I'm getting tired and irritated with the thesis and printing it up, and I know what I should have done; I should have printed up a (cheap) non-colour copy (commercially and quickly) and checked and edited it carefully before I printed up the colour ones. Next time. That's one reason I really like web pages; they're so easy to correct and upload. Paper has to be replaced after any corrections.
Today I printed up the fourth copy, and I think it's okay. I don't have the energy to check at this point, but I will print myself up a copy before the oral and go over it very carefully. Tomorrow I will get all four copies cerloxed and take three of the copies in and give to my supervisor so he can distribute them. I'll courier the fourth to my other committee member myself.
I haven't heard back from anybody about the dates for the oral. I hope I do soon, but I am impatient.
I heard Dr. Jonathan Butler speak on suffering today. Interesting.
So here I am printing up my supposedly finished thesis, fiddling with it, and then getting the numbers done right. Then, in checking for what pages I'll have to reprint to get the colour right, I discover an almost blank page where the picture has shifted right in the middle of the document. I don't want to reprint all the second halves. I think. Finally I decide to add a little bit more text and another picture so I will have the right page number when the next chapter starts.
At this point I'm getting tired and irritated with the thesis and printing it up, and I know what I should have done; I should have printed up a (cheap) non-colour copy (commercially and quickly) and checked and edited it carefully before I printed up the colour ones. Next time. That's one reason I really like web pages; they're so easy to correct and upload. Paper has to be replaced after any corrections.
Today I printed up the fourth copy, and I think it's okay. I don't have the energy to check at this point, but I will print myself up a copy before the oral and go over it very carefully. Tomorrow I will get all four copies cerloxed and take three of the copies in and give to my supervisor so he can distribute them. I'll courier the fourth to my other committee member myself.
I haven't heard back from anybody about the dates for the oral. I hope I do soon, but I am impatient.
I heard Dr. Jonathan Butler speak on suffering today. Interesting.
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