Week 11: Transliteracy & Publishing

Week 10: Writers and Writing

This week we’ll explore contemporary new media writing and examine how it might be different from
*traditional* print-only works. As Andy Campbell notes of his works: “textual narratives are approached by Dreaming Methods as a key part of the multimedia mix rather than as the absolute central backbone – purposely open-ended, ambiguous, short, fragmentary – and are often additionally considered to be a powerful visual element: blurred, obscured, transient, animated, mouse-responsive.”


Key ideas for this week:
•Ways to write and read rich media documents in a networked environment.
•Read the example books made with Sophie: http://sophieproject.cntv.usc.edu/demobooks
•“The interactive nature of the process makes it possible for individual memories to be linked in a creative shared experience; it fosters the development of on-line sound-driven narratives.”

Assignment 2: Collective Intelligence

With the recent Alberta budget cuts, the Education Minister is requesting a new “more unified post-secondary system”, a collaborative approach to controlling costs, while continuing to ensure accessibility. The education landscape is changing. Henry Jenkin’s believes that schools have not kept pace with the changing media landscape or the ability to exploit the participatory culture it offers.  Could Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) be a step in the right direction? MOOC design fits nicely against Jenkin’s key requirements for participatory learning. MOOC’s are voluntary, free and available online.  A learning community develops around a common interest in a topic. Collaboration and mentorship opportunities emerge as students help each other and a sustained interest in the community motivates completion and a connection beyond the course timeframe.

The three texts I have chosen look at the MOOC as an emerging form of participatory literacy from three different sources.  First, a TedTalks Video from Dr. Daphne Koller, a professor of Computer Science at Stanford and the co-founder of the online MOOC platform Coursera. Second, a column from The Guardian by Clay Shirky, author, consultant and adjunct professor at New York University who specializes in the social and economic effects of Internet technologies. Third, a short informational video on MOOCs created by Dave Cormier, Web Communication and Innovations Manager at the University of Prince Edward Island (attributed with coining the term MOOC) and his fellow research team all Ph.D.’s or candidates with appropriate areas of expertise.   Here is the link to my pinboard: single pins also follow.

1.  TedTalks Video: Daphne Koller: What we're learning from online education

Source: youtube.com via Teresa on Pinterest

This inspiring presentation uses fact based, credible evidence, moving emotional testimonials and examples to persuade us on MOOCs. Her academic credentials and experience in designing and delivering MOOCs adds to her credibility.  No opposing perspectives are addressed. She pitches MOOCs as a means to provide the fundamental right of education for all. She uses graphs to demonstrate that tuition has increased by 559% since 1985 with less than half of students attaining employment using that education.  She says MOOCs can improve this by providing the best professors and courses to whoever wants them. There is no support to indicate that the courses currently being developed or delivered by Coursera are strategic in considering how to address the gaps in employability. Some of her claims are not backed with evidence. For example, she tells how students are using MOOC course certificates to get better jobs and attain actual college credit for completion.  But this is anecdotal and not backed with data. Impressive stats on participation are shared but controversial completion metrics are not.  Her most impressive argument comes in the unprecedented opportunity MOOC course data analysis has in being able to understand human learning and hence improve education.  The video format puts the onus on the viewer to dig deeper on Koller’s arguments.  For example, I searched for the last research paper she displays graphically on the benefits of Active Learning in a Large Physics Classroom.  I found it in the Journal of Science along with two separate published academic criticisms of the research results. 

2.  Clay Shirky, The Guardian Article: Higher education: our MP3 is the Mooc

Source: guardian.co.uk via Teresa on Pinterest

Shirky's interesting article compares what is happening with the disruption offered by MOOCs in higher education to what happened in the music industry with digital music. In critiquing Shirky’s argument it is important to note his expertise and consulting demonstrates a bias towards the internet as a positive revolutionary force to enabling group forming and collaboration. His article takes for granted that MOOCs will positively transform higher education, no other position is considered despite their early days. He makes it appear that Udacity and fellow MOOC providers are the original innovators of online platforms, yet schools like MIT have been offering OpenCourseWare online for free since 2002. He says, "that open courses, even in their nascent state, will be able to raise quality and improve certification faster than traditional institutions can lower cost or increase enrollment.” This is a hopeful statement but not one that he has evidence with which to defend the quality or improved process of learning.  It is also an aggressive claim given that MOOCs are still emerging on the backs of investors, their future business models yet to be confirmed.  He criticizes the for-profit Kaplan college system for poor education and increasing debt. But to become viable will the Mooc model be different? Will it use corporate sponsorship? The exchange of participant data? How will the final business model impact success?  Shirky’s writing also segments higher education into elite and non-elite status, he assumes his Yale education is superior to the education that 75% of American’s are getting at “mediocre colleges”.  As a business student I attended a local college and then transferred to a more prestigious university program to complete a degree.  For me, there is no question that the college education was superior in terms of overall value and learning. Shirky is a highly regarded writer but this piece is speculative and biased. Shirky’s Blog version of this article.

3.  Dave Cormier, YouTube Video:  What is a Mooc?

Source: youtube.com via Teresa on Pinterest

This video uses simple line drawing animation to effectively inform the viewer on MOOC benefits by differentiating them from traditional learning.  Informative but assumes the viewer has a certain level of digital literacy describing them as open, participatory, distributed and using symbols like the twitter bird, blog posts and tag icons. Emphasizes there is no single path to learning and that students learn from each other. This develops life long learning networks that can continue long after the course is over. Some information could cause confusion, “participants are not asked to complete assignments but to engage with each other and material all over the web . . .” This is not an accurate statement for all MOOCs as this author’s research colleague, Dr. Siemens has provided credit for MOOCs as he explains in this interview with Harold Rheingold. The issues or concerns that MOOCs could present, are not considered in this video.  It is an effective, but simplified conceptual presentation. My biggest critique is not apparent with an initial viewing. In researching the authors and credits at the end of the video I learned it is one of four videos created and embedded in the researchers grant funded paper, The Mooc Model for Digital Practice which is responding to the Federal Governments consulting paper Building Critical Skill for Tomorrow. This video is helpful on its own but comments could have been posted on YouTube to connect interested viewers to the original research paper it was created for, in addition to its three additional companion videos. A concluding URL in the last frame of the video offering a site to receive more information would be ideal.

References:

Cormier, D. (Producer & Writer). 2010. What is a mooc? [Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW3gMGqcZQc

Deslauriers, L., & Wieman, C. E. (2011). Response. Science, 333(6047), 1221.

Jenkins, H. (2006, October 20). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: media education for the 21st century (part one) [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://henryjenkins.org/2006/10/confronting_the_challenges_of.html

McAuley, A., Stewart, B., Siemens, G. & Cormier, D. (2010). The Mooc Model for Digital practice. Retrieved from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/MOOC_Final.pdf

TedtalksDirector. (Producer). 2012.  Daphne Koller: What we're learning from online education [Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6FvJ6jMGHU

Jenkins, H. (2006, October 20). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: media education for the 21st century (part one) [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://henryjenkins.org/2006/10/confronting_the_challenges_of.html

NMN Collective Intelligence - Assignment 2

  image shared by Jeannette Jackson

Please follow me on Pinterst.
The Philippino prisoners represent community/collective action that Henry Jenkins describes that we have seen spread rapidly on sites like Youtube. The power of reforming criminals by using Youtube as a medium seems very extraordinary to me. In a positive and proactive approach to keeping the prisoners physically and mentally fit, the the prison chief got the inmates to collectively dance to a number of famous songs replicating the dance moves from the artists videos. Although the prisoners are identified only by numbers, and they perform as a mob, essentially foregoing their identity ,they are well known (collectively) on an international scale, juxtaposing their anonymity. The prison chief posted their first video online, ("Thriller") in 2007, and since then they have had over 50 million views. That success has led to more videos being made and posted and an international following.

You can watch the video here:

The Idle No More movement also represents the power of smartmobs. A recent movement intended to protect Canadian aboriginal sovereignty and land claims, the use of social media has brought national attention to the cause. As Idle No More utilizes social media through Facebook, text messages, and other platforms, it has gained more and more protesters, and picked up steam in organized gatherings. The movement began with a hunger strike by Chief Theresa Spence who coordinated her actions through social media platforms. Rheingold talks about accessibility to the masses as people move from fixed desktop computers to devices that are smaller, and handheld, influencing the ability to assemble quickly and without immediate police intervention. It is an example of how we are using social media tools outside of the realm of novelty.

Read more about the Idle No More movement at: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2013/01/04/f-idlenomore-faq.html

Jeannette Jackson's image spoke to me mostly through her title. Her "Wordle" creates a tangible image of our activity within new media, and relates directly to our participatory literacy. The words in the image form a continuous connection similar to hyper text, and reinforcing our need to be transliterate in new media. I found that it reflected Jenkins new media skills and the necessary competencies that a person requires to be a successful digital learner in the 21st century.

Works Cited:

Jackson, Jeannette. Pondering on Participatory Culture and Digital Literacy. Digital image. Jeannette's Ponderings. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2013.

News, CBC. "9 Questions about Idle No More." CBCnews. CBC/Radio Canada, 05 Jan. 2013. Web. 15 Mar. 2013.

Villason, Clee. Philippines Dancing Inmates. Digital image. CEBUASIA.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2013.

Assignment 2: Collective Intelligence

FIrst off, here is my Pinterest board for this Assignment.

Howard Rheingold's notion of "smart mobs" examines the intelligent, ultra-efficient collective actions of networked communities. Over the past decade since he first published his book, smart mobs have flourished. The example that is referred to often is the take down of Filipino President Joseph Estrada in 2001. Since then, we have been witness to smart mobs of different shapes and sizes - Arab Springs, student protest in Chile, voting documentation in Nigeria, Occupy movement, flash mobs, and even community-level events like Critical Mass. Clay Shirky does an excellent job in his TED talk about how citizens can collectively engage in politics in a meaningful way using the social platforms to connect, report, and document. He emphasizes that the power is with the people and "media is global, social, ubiquitous, and cheap". This creates a fertile landscape for people to come together quickly and efficiently.

Source: youtube.com via Sylvia on Pinterest

Rheingold notes that smart mobs do not have a pre-determined agenda - subversive, dark, or otherwise (Rheingold, 2003). A violent example of a smart mob was the London riots that took place in August 2011. What started out as a peaceful protest escalated into a violent situation involving shooting, torching, looting, and more. While authorities were keeping an eye on Facebook and Twitter, participants were using BBM, Blackberry's free and secure text messaging service to communicate with each other.

Source: youtube.com via Sylvia on Pinterest

For a non-violent example, I thought I'd pin a story from my hometown, Vancouver. The downtown core was left in bad shape following the Stanley Cup riot in 2011 (an embarrassing reason to riot, by the way). Locals were infuriated and wanted to do something to "save the city". Overnight, 17,000 people joined the Vancouver Clean Up initiative on Facebook and people were on the streets cleaning as of 5am the next morning. This mob also wrote heart-felt messages on a giant wall, which became an exhibit at the Museum of Vancouver. 

Source: vancouversun.com via Sylvia on Pinterest

Bringing it back to Clay's lecture, there was one point he made that resonated strongly with me. Smart mobs, collective action, and participatory culture share a common assumption - that we're all in this together.

References

Breaking News. UK Riots. BBC News. Retrieved from: http://bit.ly/9hUpO

Rheingold, H. (2003). Smart mobs. Networklogic-15 Demos. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/MVQpHe

Robinson, M., Kane, L., Duggan, E., Law, S. (2011, June 11). Vancouverites fight back against rioters through social media. Vancouver Sun. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/iA4S4I

Shirky, C. (2009). How cellphones, Twitter, Facebook can make history. TED. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/10ZA4HJ

Assignment 2: Collective Intelligence

Collective Intelligence:
Assignment 2
Weight: 25%

Objective & Procedure

2 heads are better than one, so goes the saying. Following Rheingold’s concept of a smart mob,
as a class we are going to collectively share our findings.

1. Choose 3 texts (blog posts, journal articles, book chapters, YouTube videos etc...) that deal
with the key ideas of participatory literacy, smart mobs, community/collective action.

2. Signup/Login to Pinterest. We will use the visual tool as a bookmarking engine for this
assignment. Create a “board” and call it “Collective Intelligence for NMN 2013 –Smart Mobs”.
For more information on how to use Pinterest please read here:
http://pinterest.com/about/help/ and feel free to e-mail me ANY questions!

3. Read your 3 texts and pin them to your board. Fill in the summary and publication information
in the text box that appears once you “pin” your item to your board.

4. Link your Pinterest board in a blog post on the class blog byFriday 21:00 so that, as a group,
we have the weekend to peruse and comment on each other’s readings. Any comments you wish
to add about any of your three readings should be included in the SAME blog post which
contains the link to your board (titled appropriately and tagged as assignment 2) on our class
blog: http://nmn2013.blogspot.com

Week 9: Transliteracy

“The ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks.”

The word “transliteracy” is derived from the verb “to transliterate,” meaning to write or print a letter or word using the closest corresponding letters of a different alphabet or language. 

The idea of transliteracy is really about promoting a unifying ecology. As Thomas explains, 

“The concept of transliteracy calls for a change of perspective away from the battles over print versus digital, and a move instead towards a unifying ecology not just of media, but of all literacies relevant to reading, writing, interaction and culture, both past and present.

 It is an opportunity to cross some hitherto quite difficult divides.” 

Transliteracy asks key questions about communication:

1. How were people remembering and communicating for the thousands of years before writing?
2. Where are the similarities with the way we communicate today?
3. Has our addiction to print made us forget skills we had before?
4. Can digital media reconnect us with those skills again?

Watch “Social Media Revolution” on YouTube:  

Literacy is not linear. ““Part of the confusion about media convergence stems from the fact that when people talk about it, they’re actually describing at least five processes” (Henry Jenkins, 2001). 

• technological
• economic
• social or organic
• cultural
• global
  

MEDIA CONVERGENCE
Another term which has become widely used about these kinds of experiences, especially by the media and gaming worlds, is “convergence.” In 2001 when Henry Jenkins noted the confusion about media convergence actually is because of the various processes that are at play (it is not one single required literacy). For Jenkins, “these multiple forms of media convergence are leading us toward a digital renaissance - a period of transition and transformation that will affect all aspects of our lives” (Jenkins, 2001). 

Sue Thomas often refers to the Asheninka tribe as an example of a transliterate group. For them transliteracy imbues every aspect of their culture:

“Everything we use has a story. Each drawing which is passed from one generation to another is our writing; each little symbol has an immense story. As one learns a drawing, one learns its origin, who taught it, who brought it to us.”




Discussion Questions:

Q1. What is transliteracy? Give examples of how transliteracy appears in your daily life.

Q2. How does Coover’s “The End of Books” (originally written in 1992) align with a contemporary thinking of transliteracy and the development of the web into web 2.0?

Q3. According to Aarseth’s “Nonlinearity and Literary Theory,” “the text...entails a set of powerful metaphysics...the three most important ones are those of reading, writing and stability” (763).  Having read about and discussed the idea of transliteracy, would you suggest adding or changing any of the three elements that Aarseth notes as most important? Must “users” (readers) “learn to accept their position as agents of the text” or might they play a more decisive role (as in Andy Campbell’s works)?

Week 8: Born Digital Fictions

UPDATE: It seems that A Million Penguins (the wiki novel), one of our required readings for this week, has been taken offline...


How are web platforms leveraged for the telling of compelling narratives? Jeremy Ettinghausen wonders what will happen to the novel: “is the novel immune from being swept up into the fashion for collaborative activity? Well, this is what we are going to try and discover with A Million Penguins, a collaborative, wiki-based creative writing exercise.”

Some key ideas to consider this week:

Real time
twitter stories
flickr stories
rss feeds and narrative
Inanimate Alice
episodic fiction
how to maintain readerly interest

This Week: Blog question and answer with digital creator Chris Joseph!

"You will see--very, very soon--authors become publishers. You will see publishers become booksellers. You will see booksellers become publishers, and you will see authors become booksellers." ~ Stephen Riggio

According to Kate Pullinger, there are seven aspects that we (readers, writers and creators of new media texts) MUST acknowledge:

1. Writers need to talk about money
2. Writers, publishers and teachers need to get their heads out of the sand: the digital future is already here
3. E-books are boring.
4. We better keep talking about e-books.
5. Be afraid of e-books.
6. Always remember that human culture is highly visual.
7. Good writing.

Read Pullinger’s entire manifesto here: http://toc.oreilly.com/2010/04/seven-paranoid-provocations-on.html.

We'll also be exploring the wiki-novel A Million Penguins.

Bruce Mason says this about the project:

"The final product itself, now frozen in time, is more akin to something produced by the wild, untrammelled creativity of the folk imagination. The contributors to ―A Million Penguins, like the ordinary folk of Bakhtin‘s carnivals, have produced something excessive. It is rude, chaotic, grotesque, sporadically brilliant, anti-authoritarian and, in places, devastatingly funny. As a cultural text it is unique, and it demonstrates the tremendous potential of this form to provide a stimulating social setting for writing, editing and publishing. The contributors may not have written one single novel but they did create something quite remarkable, an outstanding body of work that can be found both in the main sections as well as through the dramas and conversations lacing the ―backstage pages. And they had a damned good time while doing so. As the user Crtrue writes.

Hi hi hi hi hi! Seriously. This is going to fail horribly. It's still fun."

Read the Million Penguins' Report here.


Discussion Questions:
Q1. Although publishing might seem easier in some senses, what about copyright issues? Think of Apple’s DRM movement.
Q2. Read “A Million Penguins.” How different from a traditional book is this wikinovel? How would you describe it (is it really a “novel”)?
Q3. Digital publishing is in a constant state of evolution. In August 2010, Oxford University Press has decided to relaunch the online version of the OED. They have chosen iFactory as the online
publishing platform. What changes in functionality, access and personalisation do you think might occur from such a shift (offline & static to online & evolving)? Read and article on the change here:
http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/OxfordUniversity-Press-ChoosesPubFactory-to-Develop-OxfordEnglishDictionary-1299800.htm

Exploring A Million Penguins

View more presentations from Bruce Mason