ETEC 540 - Text and Technologies
The Changing Spaces of Reading and Writing
My first task in ETEC 540 was a crystallizing experience. We were asked to define the word 'text'. This quote from Oliver Wendell Homes, Jr. continues to renovate my thinking:
“A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged; it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in colour and content according to the circumstances and time in which it is used.”
I was immersed within a 'skin' of living thoughts. It was individual and communal. Through this course, I uncovered many definitions, revealed the historic and cultural fundamentals of writing, and explored the digital reading and writing environment. Drilling into the two texts - Walter Ong's Orality and Literacy and Jay David Bolter's Writing Space plunged me into an unknown world full of difficult concepts eg. semiotics, materiality, multi-modality, and multi-literacies. Exploring early writing systems, artifacts and ideas about orality and literacy had me reading, rereading, writing and rewriting. Probing biases and affordances of technological writing and reading systems (Plato, Vannevar Bush, Ted Nelson, Roland Barthes, Tim Berners-Lee) left me dizzy and unsettled. Creating and investigating hypertext only exacerbated the confusion. While remediation of print was the topic of investigation, renovation of my mind was the result. I constructed a personal writing space while I externalized my thoughts through a 'reflective and reflexive relationship with the written page" (Bolter, 2001, p. 13) through both paper and digital mediums.
“A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged; it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in colour and content according to the circumstances and time in which it is used.”
I was immersed within a 'skin' of living thoughts. It was individual and communal. Through this course, I uncovered many definitions, revealed the historic and cultural fundamentals of writing, and explored the digital reading and writing environment. Drilling into the two texts - Walter Ong's Orality and Literacy and Jay David Bolter's Writing Space plunged me into an unknown world full of difficult concepts eg. semiotics, materiality, multi-modality, and multi-literacies. Exploring early writing systems, artifacts and ideas about orality and literacy had me reading, rereading, writing and rewriting. Probing biases and affordances of technological writing and reading systems (Plato, Vannevar Bush, Ted Nelson, Roland Barthes, Tim Berners-Lee) left me dizzy and unsettled. Creating and investigating hypertext only exacerbated the confusion. While remediation of print was the topic of investigation, renovation of my mind was the result. I constructed a personal writing space while I externalized my thoughts through a 'reflective and reflexive relationship with the written page" (Bolter, 2001, p. 13) through both paper and digital mediums.
Immediate ValueA meaningful activity described and my experience of it.
|
The capturing of thoughts, issues, challenges and assignments from ETEC 540 was done in a blog site found at http://blogs.ubc.ca/textology/. Creating this collection mirrored and exemplified my changing world and understanding of text and technology. Bolter's application of the term 'remediation' in relation to electronic and digital textual spaces helped me develop my own revitalized methods of "arranging verbal ideas in a visual space" (Bolter, 2001, pg. 15) Through explorations with ideas presented by notable thinkers, discussion topics, assignment tasks and creating text in digital environments, this meaningful activity transformed me from consumer to producer, from reader to writer.
|
Potential ValueSpecific resource from this activity and why it is useful
|
The resulting resource (blog) with hypertext links to related sites, topics, media and ideas provides a layered, historical document in the form of a network of words. An example of my explorations and remediations is found in this blog post that is hyptertextual, flexible and interactive - Text Redefined (linked here).
|
Applied ValueHow I used this resource in my practice and what it has enabled.
|
This resource enabled me to explore the creation and publishing of digital text in an open forum. Awareness of audience, genre, connections, ideas and text features were adjusted and corrected. The skills acquired in this process have enabled me to move into other text creation environments with comfort and confidence.
|
Realized ValuePersonal and organizational affect and success resulting from the activity and artifacts.
|
My ability to examine affordances, understand effective text features, and make informed choices about where, when and how to produce multimodal, intertextual publications has forever been renovated. My revised ability to mediate hypertext and electronic print environments is one personal skill gained from this activity.
|
Reframed ValueNew definition of success
|
Just as renovations build on older structures, pre-existing frameworks and established foundations, so too do the remediated visual and multimodal textual spaces. Bolter states "remediation can be, perhaps always is, mutual: older technologies remediate newer ones out of both enthusiasm and apprehensions" (Bolter, 2001, p. 48). My reframed definition for success, as explored throughout ETEC 540, includes an embodied self in a digital world. As explored by Amber Case in this TED Talk (We are all cyborgs now) I am a new form of myself - an embodied, digital, cyborg self as presented through multimodal, intertextual presentations.
|
New Tools
|
New Skills
Through the blogging process, I began to embed images and video. I explored new text features. This enhanced skills I had developed in previous ETEC courses (510, 512). Using screen capture software to create a video was a new skill. I applied it to creating a 5 minute clip on how to use concept mapping software (VUE) to create a concept map of ETEC 540.
|
References and Research that supported 'my renovations'
Bolter, Jay David. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print. [2nd edition]. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Case, A. (2010). We are all cyborgs now. [video] found at http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/amber_case_we_are_all_cyborgs_now.html
Ong, Walter. (1982.) Orality and literacy: The technologizing of the word. London: Methuen.
Case, A. (2010). We are all cyborgs now. [video] found at http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/amber_case_we_are_all_cyborgs_now.html
Ong, Walter. (1982.) Orality and literacy: The technologizing of the word. London: Methuen.
