Category Archives: Networked Media Course

Writing has its place – week 3.1 readings

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Is writing a waste of time?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vinni/4048982287/

This is a thought I’ve encountered whilst working through my first year of Professional Communication studies. Jay Bolton understands my concern, and through his reading for this week I now more fully appreciate writing as a craft on its own.

 

Bolton explains that writing is a technology that is not as obviously productive at first as farming or carpentry, yet as time passes we can see that writing is the great preserver of culture, history, and other technologies. Indeed, writing is just as much a craft as other trades are, it is just using a completely different skill set.

 

Bolton continues by noting an important difference between writing and other crafts such as construction or architecture. In most fields, craftsmen can put down their tools and head home after their work is done. However for writers, detaching themselves from their work is not so easy. For some reason, writing seems to constantly play around in your mental thoughts. You might turn off your computer and finish writing that essay, but then throughout the day it’s like you are still writing in your head.

 

“Walter Ong and Jacques Derrida have insisted that writing exercises this constant influence upon our mental life.” Bolton reading

 

It is for this reason that I don’t think I could ever be a journalist. I don’t think I would be able to switch off from ‘work mode’ because I would forever be thinking about, and listening out for potential new stories. Obviously some people would thrive on it, but I’m feeling exhausted just thinking about it!

 

I feel that one reason why blogging has grown so popular recently may be because it is a great way of getting thoughts down on paper as soon as you think of it. You don’t have to work to a deadline like journalism. Instead, when bloggers get an idea, they can simply go straight to their computer and write it down.

 

Also, people often feel more comfortable sharing their private lives on a blog than through face to face means. Janet Murray shares about this in the Landow reading:

 

“Some people put things on their home page . . . that they have not told their closest friends. The enchantment of the computer creates for us a public space that also feels very private and intimate.”

 

George Landow goes on to describe how bloggers can use hypertext to then link individual blog posts to each other. By doing this, the writers are…

 

“allowing readers to put events in context and get the whole story without the diarist to have to explain again.”

 

And then also through hypertext, the blog reader becomes a more active reader, one that can add text or link to another site at any time. They are empowered to become a creative, more interactive reader.

 

Thanks for reading. You should check out Esther’s informative post about navigating hypertext.

Ponderings on Week 2.1 Workshop

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Well another Monday has come and gone, along with another Networked Media workshop. This time we were focusing on Design Fiction, and we can think of fictional situations to envisage a possible future.

 

The three students on the symposium panel along with our lecturer Elliot, all did well at further explaining the readings. We learned that design theory provokes and inspires our thinking, and helps us imagine future realities. We test with the goal of proving or finding something.

 

In the symposium, I remember someone mentioning how throughout the last hundred years many of technological advances were based upon the older technologies they were replacing. I feel we could put it this way: we need the old to guide us towards ideas that might become the new.

 

A great example of new technologies coming about based on older technologies would have to be video editing software. As some might not have thought about before, video editing software is actually designed to replicate the manual practice of editing film… you know, actually cutting and trimming film in your fingers.

 

The old way…

film

 

 

The new way…

video editing

 

You may notice that many of the terms used in video editing software directly relate back to the manual editing practice. For instance, Final Cut Pro has bins to keep the clips in, just like how old-school editors had physical bins that held the film. Or you can trim clips down to a desired length, just like you would trim the film back in the day.

 

There are lots of other terms such as sequences, razor tool, jump cuts, rough cuts, filters, storyboard, timeline… and the list goes on. All of these software functions relate back to the old way of editing actual, physical tape. Amazing huh?

 

Thanks for reading, also make sure you check out Kim Lai’s thoughts on double-loop learning here.

 

Week 1.2 notes…

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Well the week 1.2 workshop has been and gone, and we made it though the symposium okay! I was not on the panel, but it was interesting to see how the 30 minute discussion would play out.

 

I found it beneficial to hear the perspectives of both our lecturer Elliot and also Esther, Mishell, and Dan share about the readings and their interpretation of them. They discussed the differences between single and double-loop learning, the importance of blogging in learning, and learning the art of noticing.

 

After the symposium, we brainstormed about which functions of the blogs we would like to know how to use. Our task was then to search the internet to find out how to perform these tasks on our blogs, and then to share what we find with our classmates. I learned how to upload and embed media onto blog posts, and then wrote a post about my findings.

 

READINGS

The readings for next class were all about Design Fiction, and looking at how people can predict and design what may become a part of the future.

 

One useful definition calls design fiction “an approach to design that speculates about new ideas through prototyping and storytelling.”

Excerpt from the Torie Bosch reading.

 

I found the Bosch reading quite interesting to hear about Bruce Sterling’s experience with Design Fiction. Sterling said one of the most effective types of design fiction has been videos. He said a great example of this is in 2001: A Space Odyssey, a 1960’s film where an iPad-like device is used. Little did they know that 40 years later the iPad would take the world by storm!

 

It was also interesting to read in the As We May Think reading, how when great ideas are thought of, sometimes it takes a long time before they are economically sustainable. Vannevar Bush explained that a calculating device was invented in the 1700’s, yet at that time it was very hard to produce:

 

The  economics  of  the  situation  were  against  it:  the  labor involved  in  constructing  it,  before  the  days  of  mass  production,  exceeded  the labor  to  be  saved  by  its  use,  since  all  it  could  accomplish  could  be  duplicated  by sufficient  use  of  pencil  and  paper.

 

However, nowadays the economic environment allows computers and other extremely complicated devices can be rolled out and produced in such a way that a profit can be achieved.

 

Make sure you check out Dana’s blog on Design Fiction here.

How to add Audio/Visual Media to your Blog

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As I am new to the blogging scene, I am exploring how to use my blog and the many functions that it provides. I was pleased to discover that the way to upload or embed images, videos, or audio to a blog post is actually a very simple process.

 

HOW TO UPLOAD MEDIA

Uploading images, audio, or video content of your own is easy.

1. Click to Add New Post.

2. Click on the section of your post where you would like to insert the media, then click the Upload/Insert option.

3. Drop media in the Add Media pop-up box.

4. Insert into post.

Images will appear in the post directly, like this…

 

 

While for audio and video, a link should appear. By clicking on the link you will be directed to a media player to play the file. It will become a hyperlink like this: Test clip

The upload/insert function allows you to upload any media up to 19MB in size.

Please note: It is only legal to upload media that you are the copyright owner to! If you want to share someone else’s work, you must use the media off an online hosting website such as youtube, vimeo, or flickr.

 

HOW TO EMBED MEDIA (from a web hosting site)

If you would like to share media from a web hosting site such as youtube or soundcloud, then:

1. Click ‘Share’ on the hosting site to find the URL of the media clip.

2. Copy and Paste the URL into the blog post.

The media should then appear with its own player just like below…

 

http://youtu.be/jRzklY4VsZk

 

Voila! There you have it. Easy as pie 🙂

 

Week 1 Reading Notes

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The week one reading on Chris Argyris’ theories is all about how people learn, and the processes they use to do this both individually and in an organisation environment.

As I began reading, I suddenly came across all these words that I could not recall the meanings of – theories of action, reflection in action, double-loop learning, and models of learning. They meant nothing to me; however, as I read on, they began to make more sense.

The article begins by describing Argyris’ suggestion that there are two theories of action that refer to how people act in various situations – theory-in-use and espoused theory. Theory-in-use is the theory that defines what we would do in a given situation, whereas espoused theory is the language we would use to describe our actions to someone else.

The article then focused on the practice of learning.

“For Argyris and Schön, learning  involves the detection and correction of error.”

In order to correct these errors, there are two methods that can be used – single-loop and double-loop learning.

Single-loop learning is when entities seek to correct an error by putting a certain system or plan into place, so that the desired goal or objective can be achieved. It’s like the main plan or end product does not change, but they look for other ways to get the job done whilst working within the existing frameworks.

Double-loop learning, on the other hand, occurs when an organization corrects an error by questioning the core frameworks that are in place. They are willing to modify the existing boundaries, and rethink current plans and rules if there are better options to replace them.

Argyris seemed to believe that the double-loop learning method would be a more beneficial learning tool to an organization than the single-loop alternative. It would quite possibly involve more politics than the single-loop, but I can now see and agree with Argyris’ opinion on the matter:

“Double-­loop  learning  is  necessary  if practitioners  and  organizations  are  to  make  informed decisions  in  rapidly  changing  and  often  uncertain contexts.”

Summer School Kicks Off

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The holidays are over once again, and uni has begun for 2014. We kicked off the Networked Media subject on Monday afternoon with the one hour class and two hour workshop combined into one session.

The first two hours were spent learning about the course, and we began by focusing our attention on the course structure and desired outcomes. This was important because we were made aware of how the course would run.

We also looked over the assessments and what is involved in each of them. This was a valuable time because it allowed me to begin planning out the six-week semester, and helped me to start thinking and planning out the study time into the weeks ahead.

After the 15-minute break, we spent the next hour opening up our blogs and learning how to use them. This included tasks such as logging into my account, activating the spam filter, becoming familiar with the layout, and how to post blogs.

Overall, I found it quite an informative class. I was a bit worried to find out all the work that is involved in the course; however, the further we got into class, the more comfortable I got with the course requirements.

The intensive six-week course may be difficult at times, but with the right approach I think it will be alright. I feel that with good planning, the blogs and other tasks can all be completed in good time.