Well, I thought I'd make it through January at least with my resolution to blog daily. Nope. Not only did I skip the MLK weekend while I was traveling, I also skipped all last week and weekend. This is kinda the story of my writing "career." I have very little personal discipline and if I can't see a clear reward at the end of a project (I mean something besides the very amorphous concept of "self expression") then I don't do the work. And it is work. And I'm not a graphomaniac.
I suppose I could say a few words about how Socrates thought writing problematic (see Plato's Phaedrus). Or show my self awareness by noting that almost no one (Hi, Stacey!) reads my rambling. But the truth is, to paraphrase Henry Clay, "I'd rather be president than write."
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Posting for a Class in CMC
I'm taking an online course at Chemeketa C.C. called Computer Mediated Communication. Here's my "reflection" for this week. It will just need to do double duty. The teacher asks us to write privately on certain topics.
"How has technology affected your life and improved or detracted from your life? Are you a technophile or a technophobe? What are the benefits and liabilities of using technology in your life? List four or five benefits, i.e., connecting with family and friends and four or five liabilities, i.e., spending too much time on the computer, etc."
The spork is both a spoon and a fork. As a technological innovation it is both a stroke of genius and a joke. It does the work of two utensils but does that work inadequately. In my experience, all technology has some sporkiness about it.
Because this is a class focused on technologies of communication, I won't talk about my love/hate relationship with cars. Well, come to think of it, the automobile did have a huge impact on communication by giving people a private protected area outside the home in which to share intimacies. Cars also made it possible to spend time with distant (i.e., over 10 miles away) family and friends. So the car actually IS a communication technology. But not of the sort we're talking about in this class. The car is not "intended" as a channel of communication but as a mode of travel.
Technologies can often have unexpected consequences. The usage of technology can also have unexpected effects on the further development of same. Technology and society impact each other in complex ways, as our author notes when he quotes Rob Kling on "social realism" (p. 43) Social realism views the "relationship between technology, culture, and social interaction as more of a two-way street."
The same is true of my personal experience with technology. I act on it as it acts on me. I can use technology for unintended purposes (I can hang a spoon from my nose or use an old laptop as a target). Technologies encourage me to use them.
I am a bit of a social constructivist in that I tend to believe more that our social systems and groups impact how we manage technology. But I'm not strict about that.
There are many technologies that I love and value. I love email. It's a quick way of keeping a paper trail at work while communicating basic information or just socializing. If I relied on only oral communication I'd also have to keep a journal or notes so that I'd have a record of agreements. I love writing on a computer. That's the thing I love most: word processing programs. When I first started keyboarding, it was on manual typewriters. I remember in high school turning in papers that one teacher called "topographical" because they were covered with so much liquid paper.
I love researching in databases or on the web. And, wow, Boolean searching is the bomb. It is SOOO much simpler than card catalogs or going through indexes.
And my life has been made immeasurably richer by first microfilm and now digital copying of old newspapers. The New York Times is completely available! I did a radio show on our local low power fm station that was focused on the music and news of the WWII era: "Swingtime With Sylvia." It wouldn't have been possible without technological access to old recordings and the New York Times. The coolest CDs I have were a huge collection of music copies from "V-Discs," Victory Discs, records (wax singles) that were sent to military bases for free. I have these amazing recordings of Fats Waller, Woody Herman, Glen Miller, Artie Shaw...etc. All this amazing history, complete with comments to our boys oversees, made possible by both old and contemporary technology.
I also love being able to watch my niece push towards success as a model as she posts dozens of startlingly glamorous photographs.
Now for the downside. I am addicted to visual narratives. I watch way too much television, especially crime dramas and police procedurals. I assume that if I weren't watching I'd be reading, becoming more educated, being more creative, etc etc. I occasionally go on media "fasts" to try and cure this addiction but it always comes back. I also communicate too often with email when I could just walk down the hall and talk to someone. I sit too much. My body protests. I also don't read as much fiction as I used to and can barely get through a novel. My attention span is the size of a gnat. Was it ever any larger? Do I remember?
And there are times when I feel utterly overwhelmed by the amount of information trying to push its way into my brain. When I was young, I prided myself on being able to talk about the news. Now, even though I listen to NPR ever day, I really hate a lot of what I hear. I find that too much news makes me depressed. I feel like the fat kid in the Gary Larson cartoon: "May I be excused? My brain is full." http://ircamera.as.arizona.edu/NatSci102/images/extbrainfull.htm
Also, I'm not a big fan of the death of privacy, but since it's a relatively recent invention, I'm trying not to sweat the loss too much.
"How has technology affected your life and improved or detracted from your life? Are you a technophile or a technophobe? What are the benefits and liabilities of using technology in your life? List four or five benefits, i.e., connecting with family and friends and four or five liabilities, i.e., spending too much time on the computer, etc."
The spork is both a spoon and a fork. As a technological innovation it is both a stroke of genius and a joke. It does the work of two utensils but does that work inadequately. In my experience, all technology has some sporkiness about it.
Because this is a class focused on technologies of communication, I won't talk about my love/hate relationship with cars. Well, come to think of it, the automobile did have a huge impact on communication by giving people a private protected area outside the home in which to share intimacies. Cars also made it possible to spend time with distant (i.e., over 10 miles away) family and friends. So the car actually IS a communication technology. But not of the sort we're talking about in this class. The car is not "intended" as a channel of communication but as a mode of travel.
Technologies can often have unexpected consequences. The usage of technology can also have unexpected effects on the further development of same. Technology and society impact each other in complex ways, as our author notes when he quotes Rob Kling on "social realism" (p. 43) Social realism views the "relationship between technology, culture, and social interaction as more of a two-way street."
The same is true of my personal experience with technology. I act on it as it acts on me. I can use technology for unintended purposes (I can hang a spoon from my nose or use an old laptop as a target). Technologies encourage me to use them.
I am a bit of a social constructivist in that I tend to believe more that our social systems and groups impact how we manage technology. But I'm not strict about that.
There are many technologies that I love and value. I love email. It's a quick way of keeping a paper trail at work while communicating basic information or just socializing. If I relied on only oral communication I'd also have to keep a journal or notes so that I'd have a record of agreements. I love writing on a computer. That's the thing I love most: word processing programs. When I first started keyboarding, it was on manual typewriters. I remember in high school turning in papers that one teacher called "topographical" because they were covered with so much liquid paper.
I love researching in databases or on the web. And, wow, Boolean searching is the bomb. It is SOOO much simpler than card catalogs or going through indexes.
And my life has been made immeasurably richer by first microfilm and now digital copying of old newspapers. The New York Times is completely available! I did a radio show on our local low power fm station that was focused on the music and news of the WWII era: "Swingtime With Sylvia." It wouldn't have been possible without technological access to old recordings and the New York Times. The coolest CDs I have were a huge collection of music copies from "V-Discs," Victory Discs, records (wax singles) that were sent to military bases for free. I have these amazing recordings of Fats Waller, Woody Herman, Glen Miller, Artie Shaw...etc. All this amazing history, complete with comments to our boys oversees, made possible by both old and contemporary technology.
I also love being able to watch my niece push towards success as a model as she posts dozens of startlingly glamorous photographs.
Now for the downside. I am addicted to visual narratives. I watch way too much television, especially crime dramas and police procedurals. I assume that if I weren't watching I'd be reading, becoming more educated, being more creative, etc etc. I occasionally go on media "fasts" to try and cure this addiction but it always comes back. I also communicate too often with email when I could just walk down the hall and talk to someone. I sit too much. My body protests. I also don't read as much fiction as I used to and can barely get through a novel. My attention span is the size of a gnat. Was it ever any larger? Do I remember?
And there are times when I feel utterly overwhelmed by the amount of information trying to push its way into my brain. When I was young, I prided myself on being able to talk about the news. Now, even though I listen to NPR ever day, I really hate a lot of what I hear. I find that too much news makes me depressed. I feel like the fat kid in the Gary Larson cartoon: "May I be excused? My brain is full." http://ircamera.as.arizona.edu/NatSci102/images/extbrainfull.htm
Also, I'm not a big fan of the death of privacy, but since it's a relatively recent invention, I'm trying not to sweat the loss too much.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Social Comparison
One of the ways that we create our self concept is "social comparison:" we compare ourselves to others to figure out who we are.A student in my evening class asked, "Of course you know Jim Hawes? And I said yes, and this student commented that we have a similar style in the classroom -- chillaxed. Hmmmm. I'm still processing that comment.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Getting into Groups
This morning the MW Small Group Communication class found their team members. The start of the team project is always interesting to watch. I encouraged them strongly to be aware of team member behaviors and take notes after class.
Last quarter so many folks had trouble with the Final Analysis that I'm trying to encourage everyone as strongly as possible to keep track of the behaviors of their colleagues. I also created a set of rubrics for the written and oral reports.
My ego was stroked today when my colleague Kathy McCabe, an ex-police officer and head of our criminal justice program, told me that her daughter thinks I'm terrific. (Why? She only saw me once and in a state of moderate inebriation. Maybe it's the hair.)
Last quarter so many folks had trouble with the Final Analysis that I'm trying to encourage everyone as strongly as possible to keep track of the behaviors of their colleagues. I also created a set of rubrics for the written and oral reports.
My ego was stroked today when my colleague Kathy McCabe, an ex-police officer and head of our criminal justice program, told me that her daughter thinks I'm terrific. (Why? She only saw me once and in a state of moderate inebriation. Maybe it's the hair.)
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Skipped a day
Friday sucked so bad that I skipped yesterday. But here I am, back on the horse of language saying that I will be so glad when I'm no longer an administrator.
I haven't been writing much media analysis lately but I do want to point out something I thought last year about the Visa Aquarium commercial . This is sooo intended for boomers who took psychoactive drugs when they were young and now have children to bring up. Look at the fire breathing sea horses, the kaleidoscope imagery, the sea rays arranging themselves into an M.C. Escher drawing. And, of course, there is the soundtrack by the Moody Blues. "Tuesday Afternoon," a song about an afternoon in a flowering field has spaced out lyrics which have nothing to do with an Aquarium though the analogy between fish and flowers seems apt. The commercial startled me when I first saw it because, as someone who lived in the sixties, its imagery and music was sooo similar to that in the hippie bookstores and head shops of my youth -- the high color visions of those who took 'shrooms and acid. And now those people are taking kids to the Aquarium on a workday. The message, "Yes, I used to be a stoner, but now I'm a responsible parent. But, you know, there was a magic to those old days and maybe I can recapture it through the mind of my child."
I remember my dad taking me to a movie in the middle of the day when I was eight years old. He was working night shift at the time and I was at home from school for some reason. Maybe we were both playing a kind of hooky. He took me over to San Jose (10 miles) to see "Sail a Crooked Ship." I loved watching a silly, grown-up movie with my dad. I've seen the movie since and it's really, really bad. All I remember is that it starred Ernie Kovacs and had an embarrassing moment when a woman's bra was used as a slingshot. Now I wonder if Dad was drunk at the time. It was such a strange thing for us to do.
So one wonders about the little girl in the ad and what she'll remember of the day out with Dad.
I haven't been writing much media analysis lately but I do want to point out something I thought last year about the Visa Aquarium commercial . This is sooo intended for boomers who took psychoactive drugs when they were young and now have children to bring up. Look at the fire breathing sea horses, the kaleidoscope imagery, the sea rays arranging themselves into an M.C. Escher drawing. And, of course, there is the soundtrack by the Moody Blues. "Tuesday Afternoon," a song about an afternoon in a flowering field has spaced out lyrics which have nothing to do with an Aquarium though the analogy between fish and flowers seems apt. The commercial startled me when I first saw it because, as someone who lived in the sixties, its imagery and music was sooo similar to that in the hippie bookstores and head shops of my youth -- the high color visions of those who took 'shrooms and acid. And now those people are taking kids to the Aquarium on a workday. The message, "Yes, I used to be a stoner, but now I'm a responsible parent. But, you know, there was a magic to those old days and maybe I can recapture it through the mind of my child."
I remember my dad taking me to a movie in the middle of the day when I was eight years old. He was working night shift at the time and I was at home from school for some reason. Maybe we were both playing a kind of hooky. He took me over to San Jose (10 miles) to see "Sail a Crooked Ship." I loved watching a silly, grown-up movie with my dad. I've seen the movie since and it's really, really bad. All I remember is that it starred Ernie Kovacs and had an embarrassing moment when a woman's bra was used as a slingshot. Now I wonder if Dad was drunk at the time. It was such a strange thing for us to do.
So one wonders about the little girl in the ad and what she'll remember of the day out with Dad.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Hard Decisions
I had to make a hard decision yesterday and today had someone email the president of the college and say that I was heartless and a disgrace.
This is what's really hard about administration. Someone always hates you.
This is what's really hard about administration. Someone always hates you.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Week ENDs in mess
Being a chair means putting out fires and managing tragedy.
I tried to avoid going to my office today, instead hoping to be able to just go to the north campus to teach my class. Instead, I had to go to the main campus to pick up my class bag (I have my classes in separate bags by subject) and found an email message from a woman my administrative assistant said had been yelling at her about smoking.
Oi, don't get me started. I don't smoke. I hated that my mother smoked and that it killed her. But how much damage, really, can be done by walking through one puff of smoke in the freezing outside air? Control indoor smoking, yes. But outdoors? Sigh.
So this complainer left a long message on my phone, on the dean's phone, and is writing a protest letter to the state of Oregon about various violations on the COCC campus. She though my admin was an art teacher and condemned her for "setting a bad example." It's enough to make me want to take up smoking.
On the horrible terrible side, one of our faculty members had her cancer take a terrible term and is in the hospital. I've got to find a replacement or cancel the classes. Actually, this isn't as hard for me as you'd think because there is one person, a newly minted PhD and son of the admin mentioned above, who might be able to take the classes.
I will be SOOOO glad when I'm no longer chair. I'll be on my feet more in classes and working more, but it won't be as stressful.
I tried to avoid going to my office today, instead hoping to be able to just go to the north campus to teach my class. Instead, I had to go to the main campus to pick up my class bag (I have my classes in separate bags by subject) and found an email message from a woman my administrative assistant said had been yelling at her about smoking.
Oi, don't get me started. I don't smoke. I hated that my mother smoked and that it killed her. But how much damage, really, can be done by walking through one puff of smoke in the freezing outside air? Control indoor smoking, yes. But outdoors? Sigh.
So this complainer left a long message on my phone, on the dean's phone, and is writing a protest letter to the state of Oregon about various violations on the COCC campus. She though my admin was an art teacher and condemned her for "setting a bad example." It's enough to make me want to take up smoking.
On the horrible terrible side, one of our faculty members had her cancer take a terrible term and is in the hospital. I've got to find a replacement or cancel the classes. Actually, this isn't as hard for me as you'd think because there is one person, a newly minted PhD and son of the admin mentioned above, who might be able to take the classes.
I will be SOOOO glad when I'm no longer chair. I'll be on my feet more in classes and working more, but it won't be as stressful.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Ice Day
After an emergency session at the highest levels, my school canceled all classes that started at 4:00 or after. I got email and phone messages on my cell (text) and home phone, not to mention the warning on the website (which seemed to appear rather late).
So -- I spent some time allowing people into my evening class and posting syllabus and schedule on Blackboard.
Sigh. Soooo exciting. Lead story at News 21.
So -- I spent some time allowing people into my evening class and posting syllabus and schedule on Blackboard.
Sigh. Soooo exciting. Lead story at News 21.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Redmond at Night
I'm in a strangely shaped classroom in Redmond: thin and long from my left to right. There are only 30 seats so that will keep me from loading the class up. It's located in the building the college rents to the Oregon State workforce division. We have a little side door so they can lock up their lobby at night.
A few folks laughed. I worked the age thing better this time because I used a "nominal group technique" sorta structure rather than just having them meet and talk about the question.
Among the guesses at my age: 50, 47 ("we averaged them all out"), "don't look a day over 25," "none of our business," 55, "Older and wiser than us." One woman (who took the time to chat with me before class) said that it was a trick question.
"Why?" I asked.
"Well, because you're a woman. Because it's the first night. It's difficult to put into words."
"Let me see if I can put words in your mouth. 'you're a woman' ... In our culture woman are not supposed to tell their age because success is related to being young and pretty. So guessing age wrong could be insulting. And 'it's the first night' means that we don't know each other yet and you don't know how to respond, especially since I wield the economic power in the classroom. So, in that way, it's an unfair question."
She said that I'd done a good job of mind reading.
A few folks laughed. I worked the age thing better this time because I used a "nominal group technique" sorta structure rather than just having them meet and talk about the question.
Among the guesses at my age: 50, 47 ("we averaged them all out"), "don't look a day over 25," "none of our business," 55, "Older and wiser than us." One woman (who took the time to chat with me before class) said that it was a trick question.
"Why?" I asked.
"Well, because you're a woman. Because it's the first night. It's difficult to put into words."
"Let me see if I can put words in your mouth. 'you're a woman' ... In our culture woman are not supposed to tell their age because success is related to being young and pretty. So guessing age wrong could be insulting. And 'it's the first night' means that we don't know each other yet and you don't know how to respond, especially since I wield the economic power in the classroom. So, in that way, it's an unfair question."
She said that I'd done a good job of mind reading.
First Class
Well, last quarter I tried something new in my classes: I didn't read my syllabus aloud the first day. Instead, I threatened them with a quiz on it and then just had them sign a note that said that they had read it. Big mistake. I got questions about the syllabus all quarter.
Yesterday, I went over the entire syllabus after kicking out people on the wait list who couldn't fit into the class. I made some jokes. Then I had the students cluster and guess at the answers to three questions:
That gave me a chance to introduce myself and also talk about decision-making and power relationships. We laughed about the age conundrum. (Guesses ranged from 41 to 59.) Nevertheless, I think I'll change the assignment a bit for tonight's class and give them a chance to work individually first.
Yesterday, I went over the entire syllabus after kicking out people on the wait list who couldn't fit into the class. I made some jokes. Then I had the students cluster and guess at the answers to three questions:
- Why is Huck teaching this class?
- What gives her the "right" to teach this class?
- How old is she?
That gave me a chance to introduce myself and also talk about decision-making and power relationships. We laughed about the age conundrum. (Guesses ranged from 41 to 59.) Nevertheless, I think I'll change the assignment a bit for tonight's class and give them a chance to work individually first.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Tomorrow
Winter quarter begins tomorrow. Ah, the beautiful chaos of first week! When we all like each other and our future together isn't predictable. It's also a time of nervous energy for me because I have some communication apprehension issues. Fortunately, our first meetings are heavily routinized so that we are free to let our minds wander across our feelings -- do we like each other or not? will these meetings together have purpose and will that purpose make sense? Will we each be committed to doing the work of making a class?
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Day Two
What counts as "blogging"? For the purposes of surviving my resolution this year, I will be counting entries in either this blog or Another Bag of Poodle Papers. I will not accept Tweets as blog entries.
One of my Facebook friends turned me on to another New Year's idea: picking a single word for the year. I believe the idea comes from Christine Kane. My word for the year is "Metamorphosis." My New Year's Day ritual is to construct a collage vision for the year and then post that in our kitchen. The collage construction is never completely conscious. I just select images that seem to be necessary and that go together. I'll post a picture of my latest college later in the day.
One of my Facebook friends turned me on to another New Year's idea: picking a single word for the year. I believe the idea comes from Christine Kane. My word for the year is "Metamorphosis." My New Year's Day ritual is to construct a collage vision for the year and then post that in our kitchen. The collage construction is never completely conscious. I just select images that seem to be necessary and that go together. I'll post a picture of my latest college later in the day.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Happy New Year
I fell down on the job last quarter. I didn't talk about the successes and failures of my classes. Sure, I thought about it, but, hey, I'm a slacker. What can I say.
Some of the data on blogger bloviating shows (?) that folks spend very little time reading any one blog entry. 2005 informal analysis by ProBlogger suggests people spend 96 seconds per blog. { http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/03/17/how-long-do-your-readers-stay-at-your-blog-length-of-stay-statistics/ } I've tried for the past half hour to find more up to date stats but without much luck.
This could be because people don't really notice the passage of time while on a blog, according to the qualitative study conducted by Baumer, Sueyoshi, and Tomlinson of Irvine. www.ics.uci.edu/~ebaumer/chi1132-baumer.pdf
Of course, such a study may be difficult because it takes a lot of work to go to blogger websites, contact them, and ask for their data collection.
Some of the data on blogger bloviating shows (?) that folks spend very little time reading any one blog entry. 2005 informal analysis by ProBlogger suggests people spend 96 seconds per blog. { http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/03/17/how-long-do-your-readers-stay-at-your-blog-length-of-stay-statistics/ } I've tried for the past half hour to find more up to date stats but without much luck.
This could be because people don't really notice the passage of time while on a blog, according to the qualitative study conducted by Baumer, Sueyoshi, and Tomlinson of Irvine. www.ics.uci.edu/~ebaumer/chi1132-baumer.pdf
Of course, such a study may be difficult because it takes a lot of work to go to blogger websites, contact them, and ask for their data collection.
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