Handa is da man-da!

I have often questioned the split between composition and rhetoric as they seem to go hand-in-hand. Survival of one without the other does not appear to be possible. Handa offers another issue as well and that is the struggle of visual to define the verbal. She suggests that due to the evolution of definitions of literacy and writing that there is need to continue redefining the foundations of English studies. However, according to Handa, one thing remains the same--elaborationism. This is "a set of cultural, pedagogical, and technical practices based on the idea that the formal composing and or reading process can produce more critical forms of consciousness" (15). She moves on to say, "As a fundamental assumption about the relation of language and thought, elaborationism represents a potential common thread that crosses not only the visual/verbal border, but also the boundaries that politically polarize and artificially stratify the discipline into curricular dichotomies of poetic and rhetoric, high and low, literature and composition" (15). While Handa takes her argument in a different direction, I like how she introduces the notion of all of these subjects sharing shelf space again. To clarify, I feel that the struggles between composition and rhetoric and communication and english are stubbornly maintained benefiting no one. I would like to see the day when these subjects mesh again to create well-rounded learning environments for those interested in Communication and English as a major. And to really dream big--it would be nice to see UTC build a space that allows for a peaceful coexistence of both departments allowing students to easily flow between the two gaining the knowledge they foresee is needed for their potential career. UTC would then find itself fulfilling Handa's hybrid of the visual and the verbal to assist in enhancing each to redefine literacy and writing.

Bolter=Boring

While I think Bolter has many pertinent points to make concerning media and print, it is difficult to push through the language. I noticed while reading the first 5 chapters that there was a great deal of repetition. My mind decided to step out and visit Bethland many times. However, I appreciate the different perspective on writing space which reminds me of the scene in Dead Poet's Society where Professor Keating, played by Robin Williams, makes all of his students take turns standing on his desk to gain a different perspective on the classroom and students. Obviously, the point was to encourage them to view everything, especially their writing, from a different perspective.

I hope the next few chapters are significantly more interesting or at least informative. I find it ironic that we are reading a print text to better understand hypermedia and multimedia. Perhaps Bolter should seek a new "writing space" in the form of a youtube video to inform and entertain us.

I B Literate

Journaling links my reality to my subconscious however, over the years I have discovered that finding a way to release what is located on the dust-covered shelves in the deep recesses of my mind to be difficult. Instead the majority of my entries are filled with the boring BS of daily activities, who pissed me off that day, and the problems that continue to plague my psyche. Alcohol is the best solution, but is certainly nothing my liver and kidneys want to entertain for the long-term. So locating a much healthier way to release the creative hounds is top priority. But I am still left wondering why I am unable to squeeze the gigantic amounts of information and ideas busily swarming around in my head onto the tiny lines of my journal? Is it because I feel it is a waste of time? Do I believe that the creativity dying to be released is unimportant? Possibly. Is it fear of imperfection or lack of coherence? Most likely. Or do I suffer from a complete lack of inspiration? Oh writer's block at its finest.

Inspiration comes in many forms and tends to find me during my outdoor activities. Mountain biking is my preferred method as well as trail running, swimming, kayaking, snowboarding, and backpacking. My exposure to new places, people, and situations brings with it many new life lessons adding to my understanding of the world around me and in turn boosting my world literacy. But how does this affect my literacy? Keep reading and we will figure it out together.

Do you remember the movie White Squall? It is a tale of teenage boys who embark upon an educational journey on the open seas. The narrator of the story (one of the boys) carefully studies each of his shipmates as well as the captain and crew detailing their tragedies and successes over several months through the good, the bad, and the unthinkable. What is most remarkable about this narrator is his raw honesty and tangible perception. He weaves each thread of his life into the fabric that makes up the world around him to reveal a colorful pattern of tragedy, betrayal, success, failure, happiness, desire, and evil. I want my literacy and ability to translate my perception of my world to become tangible. I want my story to unfold honestly and brutally to reveal ideas and notions that challenge others and bend societal norms rather than simply scratch the surface with mundane daily occurrences.

The very rules and barriers that keep us corralled and moving in the proper directions are the same barriers that prevent complete creative expression. In a sense I have the "caged bird" syndrome. When my physical body is unable to move about freely my mind goes on lock-down. This could explain my insatiable hunger for adventure. Only when the body is free is the mind truly free. The irony in my previous statement is that I find it more difficult to write in my journal, which is a portable object that can be taken anywhere, rather than sitting at my computer confined to my desk writing in my blog. Why is that? Simple--a journal's pages are restricting, confining, limiting the writer to specifically sized pages while the internet is limitless. The writer never has to stop to turn a page stalling an idea. Instead she is allowed to type at the rate at which the idea is flowing rather than being restricted to the sloth-like behavior of a writing utensil.

The final stumbling block is overcoming one's own fear of creative freedom. These days I find myself bouncing back and forth between my old, stuffy, "Ben Stein" monosyllabic writing style and the new, unbridled (oh that sounds dangerously like a chintzy romance novel), highly creative, without boundaries method. The old and new ways are battling it out and coming to terms with each other in an effort to find a balance.

After all this seemingly senseless babble, what in the hell does all of this have to do with literacy? Everything. Throughout my experiences I have discovered many varied methods for writing and expression which translates to my literacy and how I interpret the world and those in it. Bolter explains of the evolution of writing and technology, "When in the history of writing a new technology appears, it may supplement an established technology or replace it" (22). While I certainly admit technology has played a huge role in my literacy and interpretation of the world, I also must acknowledge an evolution in my own writing process and give "props" to the people and places responsible. A great number of the people responsible are my professors who have revealed ideas, people, histories, and technologies that I otherwise would have never discovered even with access to the all-knowing Internet. Bolter points to this, "No technology, not even the apparently autonomous computer, can ever function as a writing space in the absence of human writers and readers" (17). So it seems technology and humans are forever linked. I am sure the great rhetoricians of the ancient world stressed over the slow death of orality at the introduction of pen and parchment resulting in literacy. Just as pen had to make way for the printing press and so on. The evolution of writing and literacy plays a major role in shaping society and vice versa. How has it shaped me?

Returning to my previous statement concerning my need for creative freedom and the journey to locate the source of my inspiration, most recently my writing has taken a drastic turn taking me to new and exciting places. It is as if a switch has been flipped and suddenly all of the things I learned during my stint as an undergrad in the COMM Dept. have taken their first breath. But what sparked this newly found inspiration? Wait for it.... Wait for it.... Well, several things... most notably a recent internship with The Pulse, a local publication. I was exposed to not only writing, but photography, editing, and graphic design. During this time, I was allowed to utilize all of my COMM knowledge to locate photos and info using resources like Facebook and MySpace. My first assignment was a cover article on an outdoor festival which was right up my alley. I was allowed to take photos and assist in the graphic design process for the publication. The combination of all of these elements has shown me a whole new way of viewing technology combined with creativity combined with an academic writing style (I thought I would never use).

Let's rewind for a bit and take a look at those on my on-going "props" list that I would recite on Oprah if ever interviewed. Here goes...

To my 8th grade English teacher,
Thank you for placing me in Honors English courses in high school. I would have never done so on my own and my parents were too busy surviving to even notice my abilities. You started me on my current path and if it weren't for you I would not have met all of the people coming up next.

Dear Doc Atkins,
Thank you for reading my business paper and asking me, "What are you an idiot? You need to be doing something English-related!" and forcing me to drop business as a major.

Dear Moira Tingle,
Thank you for sitting me down in the cafeteria at UTC as a blossoming freshman in Composition II and explaining the importance of my writing ability. You supplied me with books to assist me in my development from your personal collection (of which I still own).

Dearest Dr. Rushing (and the rest of the COMM Dept @ UTC),
I truly cannot thank you enough for the knowledge you have given me and the abilities you have strengthened. You helped me develop an inherent artistic ability of which I had carefully stashed in the belief it would not prove lucrative. Thank you for pissing me off and forcing me to learn in your absence. That is how I learn best--give me the directions and step away. For that I will always be thankful. Finally, thank you for simply taking time out of your life to sit down with me and follow up on my life status and keep me moving forward.

To all of the Grad professors in the ENGL Dept.,
Due to a dwindling economy, I was forced to choose between the military or grad school. I was not happy about my forced decision and thought I would be forced to learn stuff I would never use in the real world. Boy was I wrong! I don't have the words to express my gratitude at the knowledge you have ever so graciously bestowed upon me. When I thought my words would fall on deaf ears--they did not. When I thought I would not pull through--I did. When I thought I would never make the connections between the overwhelming amount of information--I did...thanks to all of you. You have taken me from my little world and introduced me to THE world and for that I will be eternally grateful.

So as you can see my literacy has been shaped by many, many people along with some technology. I do not see how I could have done or continue to do it without both, but if I had to trade one for the other I would choose the people over the technology any day.

Scotland!!!! 2008...I found you!

Check out my blog for the Scotland trip I took in 2008 with Dr. Rushing (now in UTC's History Dept) and Dr. Bender (English Dept).

http://bikenbeth.livejournal.com/?skip=10

A New Dawn...

As the dawn of a new creative horizon is upon us, I am anxious to get crack-a-lackin'! Dr. Wilferth is moving into uncharted territory in UTC's English Dept by challenging old methods of writing and reading and providing those of us who require immense amounts of creative freedom with room to spread our wings. The push for technologies in the classroom and in academia is rapidly moving us to learn and expand our own abilities causing many of us to feel "outdated" ourselves. I am an advocate for utilizing various technologies to enhance the acquirement of knowledge, but continue to find myself facing off against those still clinging dearly to the old methods. There is need for both methods and finding a balance is certainly challenging but necessary. So listen up keepers and preservers of antiquity!!! We young, techno-geeks are not seeking to cause a print genocide, but merely advocating for the enhancement of learning. Below is a response I wrote for one of the readings in Comp Theory last semester. I thought I would share since it sheds a little more light on the battle that is waging between print media and the digital world.

Miller_Beth_5-1.doc

           Technological trends have introduced us to Apple, Facebook, MySpace, blogs, and the list goes on and on and on. We are “linked-in” at the coffeeshop, grocery store, hotel, and even on our phones. No matter where we go, there we are. Ball introduces this influx of media, but only as it applies to composition, scholarship, and tenure. She introduces a definition of new media “as texts that juxtapose semiotic modes in new and aesthetically pleasing ways and, in doing so, break away from print traditions so that written text is not the primary rhetorical means” (405). The issue of whether online publications are appropriate locations for scholarly work in an effort to secure tenure is still up for debate. The lingering fear is the stray from print tradition, which is considered to be of a somewhat higher quality, will only offer “flashy” versions of poor quality work. Ball travels further down the rabbit hole presenting the aural, visual, and audio characteristics that take the reader away from traditional, linear, reading and interpreting habits and replaces it with a more interactive learning process. She feels that new media scholarship serves “to expand the field’s notions of what could be considered and valued as composition scholarship” (404).

            Ball cleverly presents her argument in an online journal, Science Direct: Computers and Composition, but the article is formatted just like a traditional, peer-reviewed, journal article found in print. The article is set up with an abstract, introduction, various sections, and finally, a conclusion, but comes with four visuals. She is careful to present a sensitive topic that is not ready to step out into the light for a thorough examination. Something else that sticks out is Ball’s scholarly tone throughout her piece however, she litters many detailed explanations that she feels are her own shortcomings through the use of first-person, which is not traditionally utilized in a scholarly paper. She seems more concerned with simply introducing her ideas and then stepping away from them to see what happens. “Digital Multiliteracies” is used as an example of new media scholarship that Ball feels “is appropriate for scholarly publication.” Rather than simply thrust this example as THE perfect example for the reader, she instead explains that there are many grey areas with this type of medium as scholarship. Throughout the article she is careful to point out the potential problems and then a potential solution. Ultimately, the biggest problem is that of misinterpretation from lack of exposure to this type of scholarship, but remedies this with a simple idea—practice makes perfect. We have had to learn how to do everything up until this point so what is the problem with learning a new way to learn?

            I am faced with this issue daily as a graduate assistant working to help my boss on her journey to tenure. I work in the School of Nursing and technological advances in the medical field are traveling at the speed of light. Naturally, this is pushing educators to step up their teaching methods resulting in strained research and scholarship production. The need for immediate publication of their findings is stifled still taking place in “print” time and like computers, the scholarship is quickly outdated by newer and more advanced research. The need for immediacy in the medical world is detrimental. I feel Ball’s argument to support new media scholarship would be extremely beneficial in the medical field where visual aids are mandatory and a necessary part of the learning process. Text supported by audio, visual, and aural media characterizes the “language” found in the medical field so for students and professionals in this field reading an online article with these types of media is normal and the chance for misinterpretation would be small. However, I can see how attempting to transfer a text-driven medium to cyberspace could pose many problems for those not familiar with reading visuals along with text. Returning to my opening statement concerning the explosion of technological stimulation, I feel what Ball proposes is imminent if not necessary to support the generations of students who are growing up in an age where technology is simply another “language” or form of communication. As a communication major (undergrad), I am very comfortable with supplementing my articles with audio and visuals to enhance the experience and to further my argument. I am very visual and prefer to interact rather than be “talked at” or forced to read another black and white text. I am not advocating the complete annihilation of literature or the current texts that serve to educate and move us forward. I, like Ball, feel there is a time and place for this supplementation because “with each choice a designer makes, the meaning of the text is affected” (414). Finally, I would like to address the issue of poor quality that stereotypically characterizes online publications. I agree that much of the online work has grammatical errors and typos as well as poor research at times. In order to move with the times, I believe this new media scholarship should be held to the same standard as print the only difference being that of a time and money savings in the absence of the many steps that are required to go to print. I believe the need for online editors is going to be up and coming, and I hope to fill one of those spots—soon!

Release the Hounds!!

Time to get the creative juices flowing!! Woooooooooo!