Comments for Erin's 726 Weblog

Comment on Abstract draft by xisu

xisu — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 02:12:13 +0000

Erin, I read your abstract with great interest, as I see more and more people become users of YouTube, Facebook,etc, and these tools seem to grow popular every day expecially after its use expands to educational sphere. I think the recognition by educators and scholars could influence the culture of a society, or just for a period of time.

However, I would like to ask how you are going to conduct the research. A well grounded theory or rationale in rhetoric and composition studies will give weight to your dissertation.

Comment on Abstract draft by efleitz

efleitz — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 21:03:55 +0000

Erin,

This is an interesting project–you’ve got an important and current topic.

I see this project as exploring issues of identity, public/private dichotomy, and access–particularly in the ways in which YouTube and other 2.0 technologies challenge traditional definitions.

Issues of remediation might be useful here, too: Bolter and Grusin’s _Remediation: Understanding New Media_ is helpful in explaining how new media adapts/adopts “old” media through a process of “remediation.”

As for new media literacy, James Paul Gee’s more recent work on video games (_What Video Games have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy_, plus a more recent one on the same topic) is great.

Traditional media literacy texts, like Marshall McLuhan or Neil Postman might also work.

–Elizabeth

Comment on Abstract draft by rcjgraves

rcjgraves — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 18:28:07 +0000

This is good work. I like your hook. I wasn’t aware that “you” was the 2006 person of the year, and it is really a profound and interesting way to begin your abstract.

One word of advice, you should try find a way to connect your project with the composition classroom. How does understanding the changing face of public space help us as teachers? You might even want to dream up and support with theory some classroom activities that deal with the phenomena you describe. Relating your study to the composition classroom will help you market yourself to prospective employers.

Overall, I think your ideas are awesome, and you discuss them in an interesting and entertaining way in this abstract. I am excited to see what you think of next!

Comment on Discussion questions for 10/23 by englishgeek

englishgeek — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 22:00:44 +0000

You’ve created some very thought-provoking questions, Erin. As you suggest in your 3rd question, note-taking is a skill that many students could stand to practice more! And the lack of emphasis on note-taking skills at various levels of education seems to correlate with students’ overwhelming difficulties in recognizing main ideas. Many students can’t pick out the main ideas in a lecture or reading, so their notes are mostly ineffective scribblings. Yet many teachers assume that note-taking is a skill that all students just naturally have, so they spend little or no time explaining good note-taking strategies. I think that we can give some opportunities for students to practice different note-taking strategies within beginning composition classes, though this might also be something that every discipline should touch on in some way in classes. Personally, I think that if an instructor wants to be sure that her students are taking good notes, then she needs to explain how she will be delivering information in class and demonstrate for the students how to effectively take notes on her particular style of delivery. Of course, note-taking, like other aspects of writing, is based at least partially on personal style, but giving a broad overview can at least give students a place to begin! Incidentally, I don’t see wide-spread change anywhere on the horizon, but if each of us commits to spending some time on note-taking strategies within our classes, then we may at least create a few ripples in the water.

Comment on Discussion questions for 10/23 by mgraupn

mgraupn — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 21:05:48 +0000

For question #3: This question reminds me of what I used to do in a composition course I taught at EMU during my master’s program. To find a topic for the research essay, students were required to take observation notes (at least six hours) within a community. Based on these notes (they could use them as a source in the research essay itself), students developed topics for inquiry and went from there. We used the text titled “Fieldworking” (a fycomp textbook) to assist in the research process and to learn how to take good observation notes. Though this was a useful activity, I think that it was not as effective as it could have been because students didn’t see the significance of this type of notetaking beyond the classroom and the assignment itself. If we had spend more time talking about how the skills developed in the activity could have been useful in other courses/contexts, I think the student’s would have seen more of the significance.

Comment on Discussion questions for 10/23 by schniederjl

schniederjl — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 20:50:53 +0000

Hi Erin,
I think that you are correct in that note taking should be emphasized more in undergraduate classes. I think one of the hardest parts, though, is that note taking is somewhat individualized and so to what extent and how should it be taught. (Of course the same thing has been said about writing, right?) I guess I am thinking specifically about two conversations I have had recently with history instructors and what they are expecting from their students vs what the students are writing down in class. Students definitely need more help in this area because right now both instructors stated that the students wrote down only what was on the powerpoint slides. The problem, though, is that beyond that, both instructors wanted extremely different things and tested on those different things. Thus, to what extent is note taking situational and goal driven (like writing). What should be focused on, then? Are the notes we take in class similar enough to those that we do in a research situation to be counted as they same?
Thanks!
Jeremy

Comment on Discussion questions for 10/23 by Brittany

Brittany — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 20:26:14 +0000

Erin,
Thank you for your post. I just wanted to mention that I agree with your comment to me — we do need more clear ethical guidelines for ethnographies in virtual spaces.

Comment on Discussion questions for 10/23 by xisu

xisu — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 20:18:02 +0000

Erin,

Your second question urges me to think about the question. Virtual environments seem to be non-hierarchical, because writers’ names, identity, social and cultural background are made invisible. However, language the carrier of culture, which is generally acknowledged. So if a person writes, he or her stance and values are shown through the tone, voice, etc. Hierarchy seems hard to be avoided.

When approaching a research subject, one’s first impression could influence the overall interpretation of the data. It’s understandable. One is hard to step out of the thinking pattern he/she is used to. Do you think approaching the same subject a second time, or start your research work at a different time (i. e. reordering your subjects) could reduce this kind of bias?

Jie Li

Comment on Discussion questions for 10/23 by Brittany

Brittany — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 20:06:35 +0000

Erin,
I linked to that video on my blog as well this weekend. It’s an interesting video and I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts on it, specifically as an ethnography.

To your actual questions though, your first questions got me thinking about the ethical obligations of “announcing” that one is a researcher. If we “share a commitment to protecting the rights, privacy, dignity, and well-being of the persons who are involved in their studies” (“CCCC Guidelines for the Ethical Conduct of Research in Composition Studies”) then it seems like this is the “answer” to this question. However, I wonder if in a situation like you mention (the idea of a “play space”) this would be difficult. It seems like in a virtual play space that users would continually be joining and/or leaving and how does that impact an ethnography? I can’t find my notes on a reading from earlier this semester (I thought it was for this class but it could have been for Kris’s class) about researching using MOOs (or MUDs) and the researchers had in their profile that they were researchers. I wonder if something like this would be the best way to “announce” your intentions.