Reading, Thinking, and Reflecting #4

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, chapters 16-22:

"Because without the Mercerism experience we just have your word that you feel this empathy business, this shared, group thing" (209-210).

After our 1/23 class when Dr. Rodrigo shared that one reason we are reading this book is to think about empathy as we study new media, I have found myself pondering this idea even more. When I first wrote about empathy, I was thinking about whether digital networks can ever replicate the empathy drawn from physical proximity that underlies non-digital social networks. Dick wrote (see above quote) that empathy will always be the divider between human and android -- which makes me think about whether humans can ever find full empathy through digital connections. Does the inherent lack of empathy in something digital create a barrier to the conveyance of human empathy across digital channels? Dick's empathy box does generate human empathy across its technology -- is this something possible outside of science fiction?

Reading, Thinking, and Reflecting #3

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, chapters 11-15:I am going to wait to comment on this novel for my next post when we have finished reading it all ... Today instead I would like to explore our next text ...

Lingua Fracta, chapters 1-4I somehow reached my place in life as an English major and teacher without taking classical rhetoric. However, I am lucky because I am married to a Latin teacher who pulled right out of his files this when I asked him about the classical rhetoric canons. I hope you find it helpful too -- I keep mine in my Lingua Fracta book as my reference. My husband says the picture is of him at a younger age ...

Reading, Thinking, and Reflecting #2

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Chapters 6-10
I am still enjoying reading this book. Dick has set up parallel story lines that I know must cross in significant ways as I finish the book, and I am curious how that will happen. A version of Rachael Rosen showing up at John's apartment was the first link, but now with the android faux police headquarters appearing, it seems certain that the idea of separating android from human will only tangle up more. I did wonder how the (as we were to discover) android police were able to run the bone density test so quickly on the victim in Rick's car; that test had been said to take a very long time at Rosen. Maybe androids are more adept at pinpointing other androids? Which is intriguing -- how the humans are worrying so much about correct identification, while the androids are either better at it or care less for accuracy.

My Story of ENGL 866

My Goals for New Media Theory I: My study of Pottermore in Tracing Digital Cultures in summer 2012 is the most interesting work I have done thus far in my PhD studies, confirming my New Media emphasis choice. This degree focus plus my acceptance into DMAC 2012 led me directly to this class and these goals:

• To gain a strong base in new media theory to found my DMAC project and future studies
• To determine which language I want to use for my digital portfolio requirement and begin to learn this language (and maybe even start on my digital portfolio)
• To determine my direction for my independent study post-DMAC -- this might be theoretical and it might be practical ... the wide scope of this class will show me all of the possibilities and allow me to explore enough to make an educated decision
• Last but not least, to take a class with Dr. Roderigo, who is my independent study mentor for DMAC and post-DMAC!

Reading, Thinking, Reflecting #1

(A note about many of my blog posts this semester: I have started my New Media Theory I class in my doctoral program at ODU with Dr. Shelley Rodrigo. Many of my posts will be reflections on the reading and work we are are doing. I will always note what reading I have done in case you want to find the texts yourselves. I am loving Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep!)

Chapters 1-5, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
I am thinking about empathy right now. Empathy -- the connection to others that androids cannot feel. Rick's realization that he was caring for an android in the form of his electric sheep (42) really spun the idea of empathy for me.

What It Is All About

I have not been good about writing on my blog. But I am inspired to be here today by an email I received from a student who graduated last year and is now a freshman at a large university. She was in my AP English Lit class, and I showed them my blog every now and then -- trying to share that I think about them and learn from them an awful lot. Here is what she wrote to me:

"Hi Mrs. Nobles! I am in a writing class here called 'the future of writing' and we have a class blog where we are supposed to write in the blog 5 times about something relating to where writing is going, and how it is affected by technology. I know your blog has some topics about this, and what you do inside the classroom, so I was wondering what the link to your blog is so that I can get some ideas! I'm coming back home in a few weeks for thanksgiving and I'll definitely be making a pit-stop by FA to see everyone.Oh and also, I've gotten As on both of my english papers here, so I owe it to everything I learned in AP english!"

To see that my blog is a way that my students and I can continue to learn from each other is something I had never considered before. It might be one of the best reasons for blogging yet.

10 Things I Have Learned as an EduBlogger

1. Reflection makes me a better teacher.
2. Making the time to come to my blog and write is always invigorating and rewarding.
3. Blogging will be sporadic unless you make yourself a blogging goal. I have to admit I have not made blogging regular in my life, despite having years of posts. I envy those bloggers who set weekly or even daily blogging goals. Imagine the reflection and growth they achieve ...
4. Sharing links to your posts in other forums (Twitter, Facebook, blogs you comment on) may feel like bragging, but instead it is inviting conversation.
5. My students are intrigued when they learn I blog about my teaching and therefore them. I think this helps them see that I really care about what I am asking them to do with me in class.
6. The first thing your students will do when they learn that you blog is go on your blog and look for mentions of themselves. They will laugh when they admit this to you.
7. An EduBlog is not a personal blog, but that does not mean it does not get personal (see my last post for evidence of that). You will need to decide for yourself, just as you do in your classroom, how personal you are comfortable going.
8. Link to other blogs and sites that you enjoy and learn from. The collaborative web is as much (if not more so) about who you link to as it is about who links to you.
9. Use visuals and videos and try to condense your writing (I fail regularly at this, but I know that people are more apt to read my and your posts when they are not scrolling down and down and down.)
back going back through your posts and seeing the history of yourself as a teacher is powerful and often surprising.

What have you learned as a blogger? [#11: ending with a question is always inviting to your readers :)]

Back to School

School has fully started for me now -- both my teaching and my doctoral class. While I always mourn the loss of loose summer days, I am a teacher because I do still love the start of school. I have a few goals for this year:

1. Deepen the collaborative work I have done with the wonderful Katie Dredger at Virginia Tech. Katie and I have used a Ning to link preservice teachers with my AP English students as they study Othello (see post here about this work) . Katie and I are going to try to link her students and my freshmen this fall in a study of poetry. I already use a Wiki for my students' poetry work -- they post their own poetry, their favorite poems by other authors, and recordings of their poetry recitations. Having this new platform to experiment collaboratively with is very exciting for me (and leads to me next goal ...).

2. Develop students' understanding of collaborative learning through new media and technology. My freshmen this year used a few different technology tools in Middle School, and I hope to build on their experiences with an emphasis on linking to others through these tools. We have started this on their blogs, as they have been excited to receive comments from each other. (Maybe you will comment on a post too!) We will use these blogs as joint repositories for our ideas about short stories, and we will talk at the end about how they are a great study guide since there are so many ideas to test your own against. We will move to the Wiki later this fall where they will put their own work out there more directly for comment, and I am excited to have Katie's students as an audience for this work. That is still for me the major roadblock for taking full advantage of the collaborative learning potential of Web 2.0: finding an audience. Students lose steam when they are only interacting with their teachers online, but it can be very hard for teachers to find strong collaborative relationships to create audiences for their students. Yes, there are students out there who end up finding their own audiences, but that is rare, to be honest, in the world of everyone as a blogger, tweeter, and vlogger.

3. Dive deeper into my study of collaboration through social media platforms. I was able to write about my Ning work last spring in my doctoral class. I hope this fall, as I am taking Research Methodologies, to move into full research of this work. Once again, Katie and I hope to work together on this, with her mentoring me as I am new to "official academic research."

4. Stay clam and in the moment. My most important goal. My children are growing, my body is waiting for me to take care of it, my bookshelves are filling with future reads, my trees will drop leaves to be raked, apples will grow that need picking and canning into applesauce ... These are the things I want most to do as I also work on my professional goals above. I have made this goal many times in the past and, to be honest, not done very well achieving it. This school year is different though, and while I am not fully sure why, I think I know a big reason.

I spent this past summer for 6+ weeks in my first "summer doctoral institute." While I learned a ton and enjoyed it in many ways, I also truly wore myself out. My eyes were bloodshot from all of the reading, my legs were stiff from all of the sitting, and my brain was too full to take in anything new. Yes, doctoral students hold these ailments as badges of honor, and certainly going through these stresses does warrant congratulations. However, I do not want to live my life that way, and I went into this doctoral program with the self-promise that it would not consume me. I had no idea how I was going to make sure it didn't (I am no better than all of the doctoral students who have cone before me, so who I am to do it differently?), and I failed at it this summer. But it was not a total failure in the bigger sense of things. Instead, I have seen clearly where I do not want to end up, and I have seen how I got there.

So, I have been doing very well ever since stepping back and doing only what I can, trusting that what needs doing will get done. My biggest achievement has been not griping at my kids every morning as I get them ready for school but instead enjoying the time I am lucky enough to have with them since we go to school together and remain together until I walk them every morning to their classrooms. That is an amazing thing I get to do, and I know it will come to an end as they get older. Better enjoy every minute of this now.

I will be back to this blog throughout the year each time I find myself failing with my fourth goal ... because I know I will fail and regroup many times. Here's to 2011-2012!

Tracing Pottermore

What happens when an actor desiring creative control tries to own the open spaces of participatory culture?

That is the research question I have written for Tracing Digital Cultures with Dr. Liza Potts. Dr. Potts told us as we started this class that we needed to find an event to track as it unfolded through social media. Well, since this was June 22nd and anyone who is even a remote Harry Potter fan knew what was happening on June 23rd, I chose the unveiling of Pottermore. I started out wanting to know how JK Rowling was going to enter into the world of participatory culture, a world she had clearly up to this point left to others such as her fan sites.

What happened has become much more intriguing. Pottermore itself is just not participatory. The fans were hoping the site would be a place where they could participate, but it isn't. Not yet anyway, and how much participation will ultimately be available is still a mystery.

So what did the fans do? They created a space where they COULD participate: #pottermore. This hashtag stream has been flying every day from before the announcement to now. But another intriguing thing has happened: the conversation has moved to be more about the final movie release than Pottermore because ... well ... nothing is happening on Pottermore.

Now comes the last intriguing piece that brings me to the formulation of my research question. The Pottermore staff created a Twitter account @Pottermore, validated by none other than JK Rowling herself (Side interesting thing: they did not validate themselves through Twitter. Clearly JK Rowling's approval is enough.). @Pottermore has used #pottermore for a grand total of three times -- to build excitement for the opening of Pottermore. Ever since opening day, @Pottermore has tweeted without any hashtag at all, their 184,762+ followers clearly making them feel like they got enough out of dabbling in participatory culture so they can now return to finding users rather than working with participants. #Pottermore is still an incredibly active place for Potter fans, but if they want anything from @Pottermore, they have to head to an online journal (it does not allow commenting, so blog is not the right term) where they can read information and see still pictures of Pottermore under construction.

So, as I have mapped all of this out using actor-network theory, I have come to an interesting answer to my question. What happens when an actor desiring creative control tries to own the open spaces of participatory culture? Yes, maybe Pottermore, its staff, and even JK Rowling (although she has made it pretty clear that she won't) will eventually participate in participatory culture. But for now, they seem to be using participatory culture to change eager participants into simple users.

Those Days After the AP Exam ...

I got an idea years ago from another teacher (I wish I had kept his or her name so I could give credit here) for the best thing I do after my AP Lit students have taken the exam. We read Walt Whitman's poem "There Was a Child Went Forth." As juniors, they study Whitman, so we take a minute to review his major style traits (observations, listing, non-rhyming, no meter ...), then I set my students to writing their own versions of his poem looking back over their lives. Even my students who do not enjoy writing poetry enjoy this because the style is so non-threatening and they have something say because they are looking towards graduation and naturally looking back at what this milestone means. Here is the template I give them:

There was a child went forth every day,
And the first object he look'd upon, that object he became,
And that object became part of him for the day or a certain part of the day,
Or for many years or stretching cycles of years.

(Stanza 2: earliest memories)
… became part of this child.

(Stanza 3: mom and dad – plus other family members if you want)
… they became part of this child.

(Stanza 4: Lower School)
… became part of this child.

(Stanza 5: Middle School)
… became part of this child.

(Stanza 6: Upper School)
… became part of this child.

(Stanza 7: anything else – think individuals, outside school, local, global …)
… became part of this child

These became part of that child who went forth every day, and who
now goes, and will always go forth every day.

I then print their poems in colored font with some sort of picture -- whatever makes them look a little more published than their everyday writing. I attach these poems to a poem I write to the whole class of my year with them, and I give these gifts on our last day. I read them my poem aloud, which traces my memories of the whole year, and it is really a wonderful way to end and an easy way to give them all a gift to remember the class and high school by. Thank you to the teacher who suggested this so many years ago!

Why Do We Read?

My 2011 APEs have given me a great year. Today, we reflected on why we read and books we value. Above (click to be able to read their stars) are the books they shared today for our final Book Celebration Day, and below are their final thoughts on the power of reading.

• Books inspire us to do different ... life-changing ... things.
• Books teach us who we want to be and who we do not want to be.
• Books bring us to times when things weren't so difficult and when messages were still important but simpler.
• Books help us understand and be able to cope with difficult situations we go through in life.
• Books help us connect to other people.

As I said to my students today, their final bullet is a perfect one to end with. Literature connected me to my 2011 amazing APE readers, and I will miss them next year.

E-Poster: Connectivism and Emergent Learning