Small Potent Gestures

In the Selfe and Selfe chapter, the authors make the point that the "actions within the discursive spaces of computer networks will not be grand gestures, but rather small potent ones" (pp. 348-349). This focus on "small potent" gestures is familiar to me because I worked with Cindy Selfe for five years at Michigan Tech where I got my PhD. Reading this phrase brought me back to the years that I assisted Cindy on CIWIC (Computers in Writing Intensive Classrooms). She emphasized how we need to be responsible for how we use computers to teach students how to write. Of course, this message seems old now given that computers, networks, and the language about them has changed so dramatically in the years since this chapter was published. However, I think it is still a concern; we should occupy our thinking with this responsibility.

I think about small potent gestures every time I prepare to teach. For example, in my Technical Communication class, I use a novel as a context for assignments. I use narrative because narrative is how we think and store memories. I also use it because narrative requires interpretation, a language act that every writer needs to learn in order to write. We must interpret a context before we can know what language to use. In the 15+ years I've been using a novel, I have had only 3 students who complained about it. First, they complained because they had to read a novel, and as one student said, "I haven't read a novel since high school." Second, they associated the type of writing we used in that class with creative writing used in the novel. They saw the writing as the same and insisted that they didn't want to do creative writing. The thing is that they don't do creative writing; they do creative thinking and then write in the style of technical writing. I have never been able to convince these students that the actual writing they were doing was technical writing and not creative writing.

I use narrative as one way to help students "develop a critical consciousness about the role of language" in computer networks (p. 331). This development means that students need to develop a sense that language is used to construct a picture (or act within) of a social context. To say it is constructed is to say that one must invent the language in response to a social condition, that is, in response to something that has happened. From this construction, writers learn to use the appropriate language that fits that context. Because narrative must be interpreted in order for meaning to happen, I see that students are doing the same thing--constructing an event/happening. We invent everything through language. We know what is happening because language was used to describe it. From narrative, students learn invention. I use narrative, then, as a small potent gesture thata enables them to engage in critical thinking.

I also assume that because interpretation happens, ethical situations will naturally evolve. I have not found that to be the case in my class. The writing that happens is basically supporting the status quo. I want students to develop the "ability to think against the grain of prevailing thoughts as well as with it" (p. 331). I thought narrative would naturally cultivate that thinking. But maybe I was wrong. Maybe the scenarios I create for assignments that grow out of the novel should be more specifically and more intentionally written as ethical dilemmas. From that, students will then need to "enter" the discursive landscape of the novel with a distinct ethical approach. I see that I have some serious thinking to do before I teach that class again.

Cultural Interace

Manovich's discussion of cultural interface makes me think of a project I was once involved with called the Women's Archive Project (WAP). You can view the website here: http://wap.lib.unomaha.edu. I was one of the original founders of this project and created the current design (interface). It was created to highlight the woman (faculty, staff, administrators) connected to UNO as a kind of historical lens. Despite a couple of features (drop down menu, animated museum (click the movie icon to view), the site is heavily influence by the print interace. The text is hierarchical in that it starts with the title, editor's name, provides an explanation of the project and a picture, connects it to UNO and the English Department, and provides a copyright date. When a profile of a woman is clicked, the website moves to an animated, page turning "book" that provides the story of the woman and her connection to UNO. The pages of this book are designed as if it were a physical book. The entire site uses a visual theme of a scrapbook. The pages are designed with a strict two-column design wrapped around images. I consciously made it with a print layout in mind so that the user would feel comfortable reading it online. We also provide a print friendly version that can be printed out. This project is very much a cultural interface in that the data is cultural, the computer replicates an online museum, and user read about women and UNO. 

I designed my journal Programmatic Perspectives (www.cptsc.org/pp) in the same way. Because people publishing in this journal are publishing as a means for obtaining tenure, and because academia acceptance of online journals is moving slowly toward acceptance, I wanted the journal to look exactly like a print journal so that authors could easily print it and place it in their binders. The highest compliment I ever received about the journal is that one of the co-editor's colleague commented, upon seeing the page come out of the printer that the page looked exactly like a page from a book. This cultural interface reeks of academia, which I don't mean as a criticism. It's just a fact of a faculty member's life--publication. The scholarship produced embodies the culture of an academic community. It is our identity.

I design the way I do because I was training in the 1980s when focus was on print--magazines, books, newsletters. I learned to layout a publication in distinctively print fashion. In the last few years when HTML 5, which makes animation without code possible, I've come to realize that I need to update my skills. But I think of all the time it took me to learn print design and realize that I simply don't have the time. By not updating my skills, am I putting students at a disadvantage? Do they need to always learn the latest features? Or can I give them a foundation on which they build new skills? I do want to learn HTML 5 but the book I'm working on beckons me. In another year, I will likely be taking on a new administrative role that will consume even more of my time. How do I measure my needs and those of my students? How do I decide how much time I can spend on a given project. I'm no longer involved in the WAP project because my work took me away from being able to spend all that time laying out a profile and updating the website. I miss the project because I loved the content, but I just couldn't devote any more time to it. I'm also giving up the editorship of the journal for the same reasons. I spent 5 years on one of the projects and 8 years on the other. Maybe it's time to move on. Projects like these can become stale with the same creative energy being used over and over again. Bringing in new perspectives can reinvigorate a project. I guess I can't do everything.

Transparency and Opacity

I use the following two media on a daily basis. This is only a sampling.

iPhone
Like many Apple products, the iPhone is has become incredibly transparent, and I would rank it at a 10. I use it to check the time (at this point, I no longer miss wearing a watch), to communicate (make a call, check email and send texts), to make simple editing changes using mobile Word, to access Facebook, and to check my finanical account. My iPhone is my only existing phone, and I take it everywhere with me. I once forgot it at home and could think of nothing else all day. iPhone's opacity level is quite low because Apple does not share its code or inner workings. Most functions can be set with an on/off button, but how it actually works is unknown to the average user.. 

iPad
As another Apple product, the iPad is incredibly transparent and has a low opacity level. I use it daily. I'm especially excited about it lately because I found out recently that I can download mobil Word and use download it through the deal UNO made with Microsoft. I was almost ready to pay the $99/year to use it on my iPad when I discovered that I only simply needed to log in using my UNO userid. This was good news because I want to use the iPad to take notes in meetings, to write notes to myself, and to essentially use it as a laptop computer (especially with the new bluetooth keyboard I just bought for it). I could use Pages, but then I'd have to export each document in order to use it on other platforms. What's especially good about mobile Word is that it syncs with my dropbox storage. Of course, its opacity level is still low because I don't actually know how it works beyond the fact that it talks to my network through algorithms, which is quite foreign to me.

Both the iPhone and iPad provide many affordances, especially a transportable work station, so to speak. One of the most obvious limitations of this technology is that it is reliant on a network system to be effective. I have a fairly good data plan with Sprint for my iPhone that has worked almost anywhere I have tried it. The only place it doesn't work great is in my classroom. I don't have a data plan for my iPad so I have to rely on WIFI, which has not been a huge problem. However, now that I know I can use Word on my iPad and connect it to dropbox, I'm seriously considering it. I think the iPad is going to become a huge part of most of the social practices associated with work, especially because I have a notoriously bad memory and the portability of the iPad will enable me to take notes quickly. I could simply use a notebook, but as I get older, my handwriting has gotten worse that even I have a difficult time reading it. I feel I'll be more in control as long as my iPad and its bluetooth keyboard are charged.

I consider myself to be a hacker only to the extent that I can set preferences in most of the software I use. I can especially turn off or create automated features that make my work easier.