Language, Technology, and Culture

  This is our class blog, and so, in my mind, what goes on here should stick to the class topic-literacy and technology.  With the advent of the internet and the newly employed sell-by-song method being used by Sony and iTunes, I find that people's musical literacy is dwindling considerably.
  Of course, to make my position, we need to get a few terms straight.  By musical literacy, I don't mean an ability to read music or having an intrinsic affinity for picking up "complex" or "sophisticated" music.  I think of it as the ability, or even the drive, to listen to album created by musical artists in its entirety.  To ponder their questions, feel the changing textures as the album progresses; to find themes in the music that are both written and heard.  With the large proportion of singles being released online people are settling for their understanding of the artists' music.  For example, listening to the title track of Viva La Vida is all well and good, but to hear it out of context is to look at just on cloth tile on a larger fabricated design.  I may seem to be exagerrating, but I can promise you I'm not.  Because we can purchase songs track by track, we forgo the pattern of listening that an artists has set up for his or her listeners.
  I for one, remember the first time I opened up Radiohead's 1997 masterpiece, OK Computer.  I can't take credit for listening to it on my own (a friend referred it to me), and to add further insult to injury I only listened to the lead singles "Paranoid Android" and "Karma Police."  The rest, I thought, was filler.  Previous to this, I had only bought Nickelback and Linkin Park albums, CD's that worried more about a stnadout single than an album of quality.  It took me many spins of OK to start truly getting into the music.  So I am a product of the musical industry as much as anyone else.  I was taught CD's housed two or three good songs, and nine others to get the label's sign-off.  But as I learned, this is only one way to produce and create an album.  Let me state it plainly-musical depth can only be taken so far song-by-song.  Hit hip-hop singles and dance tunes seem to permeate today's radio, and it honestly makes me sad.  It's not that I hold some kind of superiority over those who like dance music (I like Daft Punk just as much as the next guy), but it's more that music is released by artists in organic ways (Nickelback may prove otherwise, but the point largely remains the same).
  People tell me every day that the age of the album-of listening to an entire LP, is dead.  I don't necessarily believe this to be the case, however.  Take a look at Radiohead's 2006 release of In Rainbows; Coldplay's 2008 release of Viva La Vida; Green Day's 2004 American Idiot (just because I don't like it doesn't detract from my point!); Rise Against's 2008 Appeal to Reason; The Killers' 2004 Hot Fuss; hell, I'll even include Kanye West's 2008 release, 808's and Heartbreaks.  For those of you who think I have a slight rock bias, you're completely correct, although I'm working on expanding my genre tasting as the days go by.
  With these albums in tow, I can see the age of the LP is alive and well, but that download-by-song singles may be deteriorating the very system music itself is based on.  What is a concerto without a beginning, middle, and end?  What is a movie with an opening, a plot, and a closing (character development, of course, along the way)?  What is a Shakespearean play without five interconnected acts?  People can like singles, I know they can get me hooked in music.  But what people are missing ultimately, I believe, is that next step into the music.  It isn't people's insistence on making music more user friendly and streamlined, but their refusal to step further into the art they are merely dabbling in.



  This is a rant.  I'm sorry if this seems nonsensical, but I complained about not having an audience before, and clearly I can see you guys are out there...so I suppose I'll eventually (hopefully) see where you stand on this.  In the mean time, I know someone in the class is doing a research paper on this-listen to the albums above, it may just give you hope yet!  And the rest of you, give those discs a spin or two-you never know just how deep your musical literacy may go unless you flex it a few times.


  Love and Kisses,
    Ethan

Well, after spending about twenty minutes on my entry I went to dinner and when I came back I added a few sentences and clicked save. To my dismay "Moveable Type" had logged me out and not saved my entry. So, I guess one of the drawbacks of blogging is that you can lose a whole entry. Though this might be my own mistake for not saving it before I left it is impossible to just lose a whole entry with handwritten journals. But, I really have enjoyed blogging, especially being able to read other people's ideas and opinions. This has allowed me to think in different ways and see how other people write. Reading other people's opinions have allowed me to form and enhance my own opinions while also seeing different writing styles. I think that the blogging experience is worth it as long as you SAVE entries. I think that they could add something that would automatically save the entry before the system logs you out after being "idle" for a certain amount of time.

Writing on a blog requires more planning, at least for me. For example, I can't think of anything to say here, because I've already read some other people's posts, and I don't want to just restate their good ideas. A journal-teacher is more likely to read the same argument over and over again in different handwriting, while a blog-teacher will probably see new ideas for this reason. Therefore, I think that a journal is easier on the student (in the sense that it requires more planning and uniqueness), while a blog is easier on the teacher (in the sense that the grading will be repetitive, but will be less interesting to read). Or maybe I just can't think of anything better...

I've never been a fan of the journal.  This has largely to do with the topics I was asked to write about, many of them were to personal for me to want to talk about them with my teacher.  Not to mention I've always enjoyed discussing issues in a casual debate style.

Blogs, in my opinion, are slightly better then journals for a few different reasons:
1) If you are struggling, you can see other student's responses and use them as inspiration.
2) Comments allow you to rebut other opinions.
3) You can receive feedback from many, instead of one person

However, the downside to blogs is that they are less personal then a handwritten journal.  Yet, overall, I would prefer a blog to a journal any day.

Although in this class I have shown much resentment towards technology, I do like blogs over journals.  Well, in some ways.  I like blogs because I can see what everyone else has to say.  I also like sharing my ideas, sometimes.  But journals have been beneficial to me in the past because since i do write outside of class, I can (sometimes, due to the limitations of the assignment) use them as Tools of Life!  But most of these posts i would not utilize outside of class, so it doesnt bother me that they are on the blog.

It is also nice that i dont have to worry about losing my journal because i cant lose the internet!

 In fifth grade I remember having a small composition book where we had to write a short story for lit. class almost every day. We would have a "prompt" to write about and then the class would have to compose a story or write about a thought. This was collected by our teacher once in a while and she would check each entry and give us feedback or write notes to us.  I was a very confident fifth grader and I always thought that my stories were the most creative and most interesting stories out of the entire class. The only problem was that I had no idea what my classmates were writing about because my fifth grade teacher was the only person who read my journal. Then, when I was in eighth grade, the coolest thing to do was write or "blog" in a xanga on xanga.com. This was an online journal type of thing and your friends could subscribe to your xanga and read your posts. Looking back I have no idea why I thought anyone would be interested in the things I wrote, But my fifth grade self would have probably posted all of my short stories from my lit journal and I would have been satisfied that I could finally show people my "brilliant work".
The benefits of this online blog is that more people have access to your thoughts and writing. In this class I can read everyone's thoughts and points of view on particular topics. I have gotten to know people a little better by reading their posts. I think that blogging for a class is a great idea and if it is used for academic purposes, it is a fun and interactive way to read and review your writing and your classmates' writing. However, after rediscovering my  xanga from eigth grade, I think that blogging for any other reason other than academic reasons is just stupid and a waste of time.

     A journal entry is typically written as an outlet for self-expression and need not be read by anyone other than its author.  Thus, one gives little consideration to one's audience and may neglect certain aspects of a piece that facilitate communication.  Specifically, one need not be persuasive in a journal entry as the author is writing for himself and is already convinced.  Further, a journal author may assert his opinions without substantiation because no critic will question the veracity of one's claims.  Journals lack a large audience and are written accordingly.
     A blog post, by contrast, has a potentially large and diverse readership.  Our blog is read by class members and is hypothetically viewable by many more readers of unknown backgrounds.  Consequently, one must write so as to communicate to an audience that inevitably lacks some of the knowledge that the author possesses; blog entries require explanation and corroboration. 
     Blogs should be written accessibly and require authors to communicate effectively.  Therefore, blogging is a useful pedagogical tool that teaches practical writing.

Posting to a blog is different from writing a journal because our classmates can read what we say. Personally, I don't feel the need to be as proper, and I'm not as worried about what I say because I have twenty-something different people hearing what I have to say. That's twenty-something different viewpoints and feedback as opposed to just one reader, the teacher. With all those people reading your post, I think you're bound to get at least one person to agree with your opinion.

The blogging experience could be better if I understood the technology better. There are so many different categories and buttons that sometimes I don't know if my blog post is in the revision mode or published. I also think it is a little bit less personal because the typing all looks the same so it lacks uniqueness. Also, no interaction occurs when trying to swap "blogs." We don't need to meet face-to-face in order to switch ideas. We simply need to sign-in online.

Overall, I think it is worth it because, for me at least, typing takes less time than writing. I think it is easier to read my classmates' entries when they are all listed in front of me on the page. It would be more difficult to sort through a whole class' worth of handwriting. I'm glad we got to use blog posts because I think they are more efficient and easier to write.

     I've written journals for English classes before, and I always disliked it, not just for the work involved but for what I perceived to be a lack of usefulness.  I know journals help you keep things in perspective and provide a way for you to express your thoughts and reflect on them, but the assigned journals I had to write were mainly just streams of thoughts that were too... critical and objective.  I think this blog, being accessible by the whole class and possibly more people, provides more of an incentive for me to form my own opinions and viewpoints.  I found that the blog was a good way to get me to write something with some substance. 

     I honestly can't find anything to complain about concerning our blog; I thought it was a much more easygoing and interesting experience than I initially expected.  I also think the blog was a great way for the class itself to expand its horizons with all the interesting topics we posted about.  It certainly seemed like English class this semester had a great sense of purpose, and I wish all my English classes were like this.   I'd say this blogging experience was well worth, since it tied in nicely to the theme of the course.

The difference between keeping journals and blogging is the audience. The journal favors a limited audience, namely the teacher and never more than just the class. However, when we blog we expose ourselves to a bigger, possibly infinite, audience. Perhaps that is an exageration, but our blogs are still available for internet browsers to explore, and in extreme cases take advantage of. A journal on the other hand is a more conservative approach to recording our thoughts, but slightly outdated seeing as all we want as young adults is to be heard. Blogging provides exposure, while journals ensure security, and with both come unique personal editing techniques. In a blog for example I may phrase something differently or not care to capitolize my "i's", or check the spelling on "capitalize". Conversely I would tend to watch my grammar and usage in a journal seeing as the primary audience is my professor. So neither is better, but each has its more appropriate place and time.

There are a few major differences between blogging and journaling that jumped out at me.The first one that came to mind was the intimacy of the writing process. With a journal, the writing is completely private, but with a blog the writing is open to not only the rest of the class but anyone who is interested in reading it. This could potentially affect the material that the writer comes up with, instead of tailoring it to the tastes of the instructor, it becomes censored for public consumption. Blogging also feels much different for the writer in this respect, the pressure to avoid mistakes and sound professional is slightly increased just by the knowledge that more people are going to be reading your work and judging your writing.

Another difference has to do with getting used to typing instead of writing freehand. When writing freehand, I generally write out many more ideas than I do when I type and end up crossing out all the ideas that don't appeal to me. When I type, I take longer to think about what I'm writing, and the final product sounds kind of different. This isn't neccesarily positive or negative, but it's yet another difference between the two writing methods. It's hard to think of direct benefits or negatives of one process, it seems as though some might prefer one over the other, but this is more due to personal preference than it is to one of the two methods being superior in some way.

What does the "Scheduled" option do?  We'll find out!

Posting on a blog has been much different than writing a journal for the teacher. In the past, when I've written journals that I knew were only for the teacher, I wouldn't be able to write as freely as I was thinking because I tried to keep it professional and well-written. It inhibits your thoughts and ability to express your ideas and opinions. With the blogs, knowing that it would be read also by my classmates, I felt more comfortable writing in a more casual manner and didn't worry so much about grammar and vocabulary. I felt more at ease expressing my ideas and opinions and was able to convey my point more clearly. The only drawback to writing in a blog is the fear of offending or disagreeing with another peer who may take it personally, although that didn't happen with the blog in this class (that I'm aware of). There is more of a chance of this happening since the audience isn't just one person. I like using the blog also because you can take ideas from other students and learn opinions and viewpoints you may not have noticed or knew existed previously. Overall, I think blogging has more benefits than journaling, and I think it is definitely worth it.

Writing on a blog was a new experience for me. I was a bit hesitant at taking this class when I learned that the theme was based on technology because I am in no way a technological person. However, I actually enjoyed the blogging. I liked the fact that I could comment on classmates' responses and that they could comment on my work. It helped to know whether or not I was on the right track for assignments, and seeing others' points of view is something that we normally couldn't do with journals.

I also think that journaling in classes might be becoming a thing of the past now ... I mean, we can see with this class that technology in schools and in the classroom is becoming more and more prominent. And this class' theme is even focused around technology. I think that blogging in this class is a good precursor for our future assignments. And because I was so comfortable in this class, I haven't been afraid to play around or make a mistake on our blog. It was a good learning experience :)

In blogging and journaling, the writer has to be aware of the audience. When I write a blog post, I consider the fact that everyone in my class, including my teacher, can read it. However, I think if I was writing a journal that only myself and the teacher would see, I would be more careful with grammar, complete thoughts, etc. I think the journal would be a lot more professional sounding and academic.

Also, because typing takes a lot less effort for me I am more likely to run away with my thoughts and type out what ever comes to mind. If it was a journal, especially a hand written one, I would be more restrained in what I say because my typing speed is a lot closer to my thinking speed than my handwriting speed is.

The benefit of blogging is that sometimes you can work off what other people have already said in their blogs, especially if you are having a hard time thinking of something to write about. However, sometimes knowing that everyone can read what I write makes me uneasy. I would almost rather have just the teacher reading what I have to say. Because I am a shy person I don't really enjoy speaking my mind in front of a group of people. I think that characteristic carries through to blogging as well.

I think the ease of blogging might make it worth it for class purposes. But outside of class, I would much rather just journal. If I did blog, I would keep it on "private".  

This course has provided me with my first opportunity to contribute to a blog. It has been a very interesting experience for me, but one that has illuminated benefits and drawbacks of blogging.
The first benefit, in my mind, is that you can link directly to a source from where you're drawing information. In a traditional journal, you could allude to a source, but you couldn't physically present that source to your reader. Also, there is a simplicity factor to using blogs. I, at least, can type faster than I can write. This is also beneficial because it allows writers to rework their entry without erasing multiple times (How annoying is that!!).
There are drawbacks, however. The major drawback is that we need internet access to write an entry. Journals can be written anywhere with a piece of paper and a pencil. This is more convenient, which is interesting. Usually we view technology as a means to accomplish tasks in a more convenient manner. Apparently that is not always the case. Another drawback of online writing is that, to me at least, it feels a lot less personal. Without knowing exactly who is going to read these entries, I tend to be safer in what I write, which is more mundane. I also think that personal experiences can often make a journal entry better, but with a public blog, some may shy away from sharing pertinent stories for fear of embarrassment.
Overall, however, I enjoyed the blogging experience. Although the posts may be safer and less revealing than in other forms of journal writing, the benefits of this technology are overpowering. It's been a fun experiment for me!

I can't imagine that what I wrote in the blog was different than what I would have written in a journal only Michael read.  I am not one to hold back my opinion.  I am okay with being disliked for a political or social belief.

There was one time when I wrote down some of my thoughts in a notebook.  It was when one of the crazies whose book we read whined about inaccuracies on Wikipedia and then referenced the 7/6 attacks in London.  Why not mention the Normandy invasion of June 5, 1944?  Why not mention the Signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 3rd?  I was livid when I read that and my notebook was closer than my computer.  You all can read my comments, but they're not academic in nature.  I did not plan on anyone reading them; they're the exact thoughts that passed through my head and I tend to use condescending Yiddish words.  I would not have included those comments verbatim in a journal Michael would read at the end of the semester.

You may wonder why I do not post under my real name.  The answer is simple: I don't have to.  Why expose myself to comments that disagree with my posts?  If I'm disliked for comments I've made, fine, but I don't have to assure hatred.

I do not think the blog has had any impact on what I have written this semester.  Most of my good comments come in class, anyway.

       So, like much of the class, previous English classes required written journals about my reaction to readings or class discussions.  With this class, I blogged for the very first time.  At first, I was really excited for it - I could put in links that I thought would be helpful to the class discussion, and I could get very creative about how I did things.
     But after using it for the semester, I have to say I'm still unimpressed.  I almost never did any of that stuff, partially because of the fact that there still wasn't an actual audience to be writing too, and that the assignments by and large didn't call for terribly complex usages of the system.
    For example, for all the blog posts I've ever written, I've only had one comment about any of them.  And it was the first we had to do ever, and it was Mr. Faris who wrote it! haha  So even when I wrote an entry as if you all would read it, it seems that no one, in the end, actually read it.  I don't say this to be depressing or meloncholy, but to prove a point: just because we have a platform to speak doesn't mean an audience is ready or willing to listen.
    Blogging, I think, was meant to try and change the dynamic of how we write responses.  But to me, nothing changed very much...
    But so goes life haha it's nothing to get upset about! And so, hopefully i'll have more time in the future to hone my blogging skills and put them to better use.  I think the idea of blogging is a great one-use of different media, chances for mass exposure; on paper it sounds pretty good.  I'll just have to figure out a better way to draw in your attention!!!!


-Ethan
   

I think that I would definitely prefer blogging over journaling. When typing a blog, I feel that it is much more simple and my thoughts flow more freely. If I needed to write a weekly journal, it would feel like more of an assignment whereas typing a blog is pretty simple to do. With the amount of time that students spend on the internet these days, writing a blog only takes a few minutes out of many.

I do feel that writing a blog affects the style of my writing. Because I am writing to my classmates and not only my teacher, I tend to write more casually. My writing on a blog is more similar to chatting with a friend on the internet (minus all of the lingo).

I think that the blogging experience would be better if we were often assigned to read each others blogs and make comments on them. To be honest, I do not always go through everyone's blogs and diligently read them. Maybe I'll scan through them, but I rarely read everything. But overall, I think blogging is a good way for students to become more engaged with the class in a simple, convenient way.

The last two English classes I took (in highschool) also required that we write journals and turn them in, usually in reponse to something we'd read. I've never had to blog before this class, but I definitely think there are some real advantages to it. I do think the experience is worth it, and I think it's nice to be able to read each other's blogs and possibly get feedback (in the form of comments) on our own. The blog is also a good place for us to share things with the entire class, and I know now that if I wanted to refer back to something from earlier this semester, I could go on our blog and look at old posts.
The only drawback I can really think of to blogging is that some students may not feel as comfortable putting their thoughts online for at least our whole class to see. Journaling may make them more likely to offer up new or different ideas. I assume there is or could be a "private" setting which would allow a student to make an entry visible only to the professor, but in my opinion sharing usually adds more to the class discussion and this would hopefully only be used rarely.