Tuesday, February 27, 2007
update
Bloggerandme is happy to announce that I survived the gravy of death and am up on 9, "happily" grading papers.
...
So one thing that's hard to find on-campus is, a socially acceptable place to lay down.
Let me back up. I'm mildly allergic to gluten. Basically, it wears down the tread on my stomach lining. Normally this is not a big problem: I "try to stay away from" products that contain wheat, but to get really, genuinely sick I'd have to drink gluten concentrate or something.
So do you remember the hot turkey sandwitches that my dad used to make when we lived in Adrian? Of course not. But the point is, that's one hell of a sandwitch. So tonight I describe the sandwitch at OG and they make one for me and I ate the sandwitch.
And the preternaturally thick gravy must have been made straight from gluten concentrate or something. So two minutes later, I'm locked in that semi-private bathroom throwing up things that I ate in kindergarten. Normal people who just want to go to the bathroom are knocking on the door.
SO-O I leave without paying and go to State Hall looking for a place to crash. It feels like I've been kicked in the stomach. I'm dizzy. I should phone a friend to take me home, but first I want some privacy with my exploding stomach.
So I get to State Hall and the bathroom floors are all pee-soaked, which makes me throw up again. Hmm, I think. Better go upstairs.
Then I kind of lay down flat on the stairwell. I know from my experience with Avalon cookies that I'm not going to die ("whole" = wheat), but the students, who don't know that, are stepping over me on their way to class. No forthcoming offers to help. So I'm laying there kind of praying, please don't let any of these students be my students, please don't let any of these instructors be Ruth.
And the student security guard who has seen me walking to class a ZILLION times asks me to leave. "I'm not homeless", I protest, "Just allergic".
"Still", says the guard skeptically, "you can't lay here. I'm going to have to ask you to leave".
So I go outside and lay on the designated stone slab. It's cold, so I go under my coat. What if I fall asleep here, I wonder. Throwing up makes me tired so I start to drift off.
But then, fortunately, some nice students come by and offer me a quarter.
Let me back up. I'm mildly allergic to gluten. Basically, it wears down the tread on my stomach lining. Normally this is not a big problem: I "try to stay away from" products that contain wheat, but to get really, genuinely sick I'd have to drink gluten concentrate or something.
So do you remember the hot turkey sandwitches that my dad used to make when we lived in Adrian? Of course not. But the point is, that's one hell of a sandwitch. So tonight I describe the sandwitch at OG and they make one for me and I ate the sandwitch.
And the preternaturally thick gravy must have been made straight from gluten concentrate or something. So two minutes later, I'm locked in that semi-private bathroom throwing up things that I ate in kindergarten. Normal people who just want to go to the bathroom are knocking on the door.
SO-O I leave without paying and go to State Hall looking for a place to crash. It feels like I've been kicked in the stomach. I'm dizzy. I should phone a friend to take me home, but first I want some privacy with my exploding stomach.
So I get to State Hall and the bathroom floors are all pee-soaked, which makes me throw up again. Hmm, I think. Better go upstairs.
Then I kind of lay down flat on the stairwell. I know from my experience with Avalon cookies that I'm not going to die ("whole" = wheat), but the students, who don't know that, are stepping over me on their way to class. No forthcoming offers to help. So I'm laying there kind of praying, please don't let any of these students be my students, please don't let any of these instructors be Ruth.
And the student security guard who has seen me walking to class a ZILLION times asks me to leave. "I'm not homeless", I protest, "Just allergic".
"Still", says the guard skeptically, "you can't lay here. I'm going to have to ask you to leave".
So I go outside and lay on the designated stone slab. It's cold, so I go under my coat. What if I fall asleep here, I wonder. Throwing up makes me tired so I start to drift off.
But then, fortunately, some nice students come by and offer me a quarter.
various
Date: Tue 27 Feb 16:24:10 EST 2007
From: Margaret Maday Add To Address Book | This is Spam
Subject: Fwd: FYI -- Various construction issues
From: Margaret Maday
Subject: Fwd: FYI -- Various construction issues
travelgate update
Anyway, who says that nagging doesn't work? I, personally, did some champion nagging this weekend, the kind of nagging that veers into stalking.
And what did we get? Travel funding. Oh you will see how far I am willing to go, said Francie to Ross, to make the nagging stop. That's a paraphrase.
And what did we get? Travel funding. Oh you will see how far I am willing to go, said Francie to Ross, to make the nagging stop. That's a paraphrase.
reverse psychology
You know, if I ever do have children, I've decided not to try to influence them on matters of faith. Nope. Because I know, for example, that my mom is going to want to take them to Mass [ie Catholic Church]. And that's fine with me. They can go and listen about the Israelites and the Canaanites and the Pamphalet Rack in the Vestibule.
And then, on the way home, I'll say: "Well, I bet you've had enough religion for one day -- so I'm not going to bore you with a story about Hanuman the talking monkey".
And then, on the way home, I'll say: "Well, I bet you've had enough religion for one day -- so I'm not going to bore you with a story about Hanuman the talking monkey".
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Thursday, February 22, 2007
story
"A young guy lived in an ordinary town, ordinary except for one thing:it was surrounded by a completely empty plain that extended all the way to the horizon.
One afternoon, the guy went for a walk. It was sunny and there was a soft wind blowing. Some children were playing in the street and some old people were drinking tea in the doorways of their houses. It was a small town, and when he walked too much in one direction, after rounding a corner suddenly he faced the plain, flat and white as marble, extending to the horizon. So the town began to get smaller. Houses and buildings began to disappear. More and more often the guy found the plain, and changed his direction. Also the streets began to get wider, until because of the decreasing number of houses and buildings, and because of the widening of the streets, the plain began to be seen in any direction that one could look. This continued to happen until only twelve buildings remained in the town, then eight, then four...
Finally the town disappeared completely and the guy remained in the middle of the plain, empty all the way to the horizon, with the sun fixed and unmoving in the sky" (Pablo Frank).
One afternoon, the guy went for a walk. It was sunny and there was a soft wind blowing. Some children were playing in the street and some old people were drinking tea in the doorways of their houses. It was a small town, and when he walked too much in one direction, after rounding a corner suddenly he faced the plain, flat and white as marble, extending to the horizon. So the town began to get smaller. Houses and buildings began to disappear. More and more often the guy found the plain, and changed his direction. Also the streets began to get wider, until because of the decreasing number of houses and buildings, and because of the widening of the streets, the plain began to be seen in any direction that one could look. This continued to happen until only twelve buildings remained in the town, then eight, then four...
Finally the town disappeared completely and the guy remained in the middle of the plain, empty all the way to the horizon, with the sun fixed and unmoving in the sky" (Pablo Frank).
Fabulous "Enjoy your modem" quote for ATTW:
"Autistic cultural development began in the early 1990's when increased computer access allowed established groups to form as never before, in a medium that was very well suited to autistics. It was quickly found that similarities in experience, communication, and interests created a thriving basis for a culture" (Nelson, 2006).
"Autistic cultural development began in the early 1990's when increased computer access allowed established groups to form as never before, in a medium that was very well suited to autistics. It was quickly found that similarities in experience, communication, and interests created a thriving basis for a culture" (Nelson, 2006).
notes toward ATTW presentation
Good term for my presentation : the "broader autism phenotype" (Attwood).
"Pathways to diagnosis" (Attwood cites the Yale study) is an interesting network concept.
Ie, opening line of my talk:
"The Yale study's highly publicized findings pose this question: do we attribute the autism epidemic to better diagnosis or increased prevalence of the broader autism phenotype? However, no research as explored the possibility that autism is transmitted via the Worldwide Web". Har!
It's strange that Attwood doesn't specifically name the WWW as a pathway to diagnosis.
Oooh. And this would be the theoretical frame:
Much of what we know about medical discourse separates medical discourse into two diverging categories: the professionals and the quacks (cite Faber, Koerber and Tebeaux -- use funny diagram of professional w/tie and funny-looking quack, use my hat, which I won't wear to the conference, as the model for the quack). What we lack is a good model for how these 2 discourses intertwine.
HFA as an example par excellence.
Step 1: APA - affiliated message boards and forums, or MB and forums est. by parents of children diagnosed with autism.
Interesting features: References to DSM -IV criteria, medical-model + psychosocial support.
(Note: Dr. Phil has an AS / HFA message board. No shit!)
Step 2: Individuals w/ AS HFA post in "parents asking adults with AS / HFA sections". Medical model + psychosocial support.
Step 3: And then an interesting thing happened: writers w AS / HFA argue for depathologization.
These writers directly critique and parody the medical model.
Step 4: Professionals (Baron-Cohen, Attwood, etc) argue for depathologization of the broader autism phenotype in medical journals, citing the www writing of adults with AS / HFA (folk psychology, folk physics).
Note loop : Diagnosis is step 0 and step .... n.
HEY! I could email Barb Kirby and get notes from the old message board, woot!
"Pathways to diagnosis" (Attwood cites the Yale study) is an interesting network concept.
Ie, opening line of my talk:
"The Yale study's highly publicized findings pose this question: do we attribute the autism epidemic to better diagnosis or increased prevalence of the broader autism phenotype? However, no research as explored the possibility that autism is transmitted via the Worldwide Web". Har!
It's strange that Attwood doesn't specifically name the WWW as a pathway to diagnosis.
Oooh. And this would be the theoretical frame:
Much of what we know about medical discourse separates medical discourse into two diverging categories: the professionals and the quacks (cite Faber, Koerber and Tebeaux -- use funny diagram of professional w/tie and funny-looking quack, use my hat, which I won't wear to the conference, as the model for the quack). What we lack is a good model for how these 2 discourses intertwine.
HFA as an example par excellence.
Step 1: APA - affiliated message boards and forums, or MB and forums est. by parents of children diagnosed with autism.
Interesting features: References to DSM -IV criteria, medical-model + psychosocial support.
(Note: Dr. Phil has an AS / HFA message board. No shit!)
Step 2: Individuals w/ AS HFA post in "parents asking adults with AS / HFA sections". Medical model + psychosocial support.
Step 3: And then an interesting thing happened: writers w AS / HFA argue for depathologization.
These writers directly critique and parody the medical model.
Step 4: Professionals (Baron-Cohen, Attwood, etc) argue for depathologization of the broader autism phenotype in medical journals, citing the www writing of adults with AS / HFA (folk psychology, folk physics).
Note loop : Diagnosis is step 0 and step .... n.
HEY! I could email Barb Kirby and get notes from the old message board, woot!
good grief
After the grievance committee meeting this morning, I had a chance to seriously think through the connection between two apparently separate ATTW issues:
#1: The power structure of the panel.
#2: Travelgate.
So here's how I figure.
If I'm roughing it on a kind of warped survivalist retreat where we surivive on locusts and honey (read: no per diem meal allowance) and Jessica and I learn valuable life lessons by raising alpacas, that's fine. Bring on the bunk beds. But in this scenario I expect to rough it at the conference too, taking some meaningful intellectual risks and inviting the panel out for some NY nightlife.
But if I'm going to say "anti-discourse" when prompted (as in: "Actually, Hilary, that's not what we mean by anti-discourse") and sit politely through the whole good-girl / bad-girl / babysitter dynamic we have going? Seriously? That will be 20 dollars a song.
#1: The power structure of the panel.
#2: Travelgate.
So here's how I figure.
If I'm roughing it on a kind of warped survivalist retreat where we surivive on locusts and honey (read: no per diem meal allowance) and Jessica and I learn valuable life lessons by raising alpacas, that's fine. Bring on the bunk beds. But in this scenario I expect to rough it at the conference too, taking some meaningful intellectual risks and inviting the panel out for some NY nightlife.
But if I'm going to say "anti-discourse" when prompted (as in: "Actually, Hilary, that's not what we mean by anti-discourse") and sit politely through the whole good-girl / bad-girl / babysitter dynamic we have going? Seriously? That will be 20 dollars a song.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
brittany
This just in: According to multiple media sources, shaving your head and / or putting someone elses' hair on your head is a sign of incapacitating mental illness.
Finally, the proof I need to quit my job and live perpetually off of SSI.
Finally, the proof I need to quit my job and live perpetually off of SSI.
Every month, a strange thing happens: everyone in the adjacent terminals in our research library makes a HUGE PRODUCTION about sitting down, with heaving sighs, chair leaping (which is a violent form of "scootching") and strange verbal ticks.
Do I really tune all of this out when I'm not getting my period? Seriously ? Am I normally wearing earmuffs? Can I have some earmuffs now?
Do I really tune all of this out when I'm not getting my period? Seriously ? Am I normally wearing earmuffs? Can I have some earmuffs now?
"Indeed, it is hard to find a clinical account of autism spectrum conditions that does not involve the child being obsessed by some machine or another. Examples include extreme fascinations with electricity pylons, burglar alarms, vacuum cleaners, washing machines, video players, calculators, computers, trains, planes, and clocks. Sometimes the machine that is the object of the child's obsession is quite simple (e.g., the workings of drain-pipes, or the design of windows, etc.). A systematic survey of obsessions in such children has confirmed such clinical descriptions". Simon Baron-Cohen, arguing for the folk psychology / folk physics model as a way to legitimately depathologize autism.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
... And that was before Parm, our receptionist, decided that she had found the "perfect guy" for me. No thanks, I calmly replied with the kind of mythical silent scream that you read about but rarely experience firsthand.
But do you know who I am talking about? She insisted.
No, I said. I honestly can't put a face to the name. And something inside of me curled up like a dead shrimp.
But do you know who I am talking about? She insisted.
No, I said. I honestly can't put a face to the name. And something inside of me curled up like a dead shrimp.
seriously
Don't get me started on the Brittany haircut. Male news anchors with cute buzz cuts are talking about it as though she mutilated herself or something. It kind of makes me throw up in my mouth a little.
evidence
From recent email to f:
>Hey, I have this cool idea for our ATTW presentation! *Now* all I have to do is wait for you to say "No, Hilary, that's not what we're doing" and Jessica to agree.
>Hey, I have this cool idea for our ATTW presentation! *Now* all I have to do is wait for you to say "No, Hilary, that's not what we're doing" and Jessica to agree.
Monday, February 19, 2007
comparative religion
Book of Mark: Leprosy cured by Jesus.
Atharvaveda : Leprosy cured by a dark plant.
Atharvaveda : Leprosy cured by a dark plant.
math phobia
What is a logarithm? Because I think that I need one just to access the Blackboard Gradebook grading interface.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
when I look back
I can honestly say that at least I didn't cram them all together like sardines just to make myself feel like a big shot.
Monday, February 12, 2007
Sunday, February 11, 2007
...
It's surreal to run my fingers through my hair, twisting it into tiny bantu knot like hyperlinks back out into into the outside world. Plus I think that boy is looking at me.
Friday, February 09, 2007
reading notes
Notes on Kynell and Moran: 3 keys to the past: The history of technical communication.
The easy questions:
When was it published?
in 1999.
What group of scholars is the author addressing? Reseachers in technical communication.
What is the genre and what type of research is the author doing? Historical anthology.
The hard questions:
What was going on in the field when the author wrote it – how does the book reflect the conversation that has been taking place in the field?
Tech comm researchers were writing our "as-yet-incomplete" history. This anthology collects and contributes to that knowledge.
What aspects of knowledge does the author focus on and why does the author focus on these aspects of knowledge?
Other research on tech comm history focues on curricular shifts, emerging disciplinary patterns and broad movements. KM refocues on key individuals, european and american movements, key advances and reprinted articles. The rivers bibliography goes at the end.
What is the epistemological background?
Historical research that provides insight into current trends and suggests new directions.
What is the argument?
The disparity among the selections suggests that "inquiry into technical communication is virtually boundless" (p. 11) -- a very strong claim if you know what's been going on. KM argue that Tech comm isn't chained to a dsicpline: engineering, science or business. We should not priveledge one discipline over the other and explore sources from "a range of archival environments".
What evidence does the author bring?
What perspective does the author take?
There is no such thing as a "straight" history.
What perspective is under-represented or missing?
KM don't really talk about the "landmark essays" shape, as well as report, the history of the field -- but that's precisely KM are trying to do here.
Chapter notes:
None: I think I've read this book at least 108 times. Copy chapter outline for folder.
Project notes:
Tebeaux is the key essay.
Technical books were common in the 16th and 17th century, incl. techincal books for women. The first ones by women were on domestic medicine. The technical books by women have a "conversational, personal quality" w/ succinct linear instructions.
The books for midwives: women resented the fact that medical professionals were trying to supplant midwives. OK, the midwives might have had to draw on some quackery, but that's only because the physicians were publishing in Greek. So in another document the midwives propose a royally funded teaching hospital for properly educating midwives.
(!) Tebeaux views these documents as "a microcosm of social change" -- you could probably say the same thing about hacks and user-centered design.
The easy questions:
When was it published?
in 1999.
What group of scholars is the author addressing? Reseachers in technical communication.
What is the genre and what type of research is the author doing? Historical anthology.
The hard questions:
What was going on in the field when the author wrote it – how does the book reflect the conversation that has been taking place in the field?
Tech comm researchers were writing our "as-yet-incomplete" history. This anthology collects and contributes to that knowledge.
What aspects of knowledge does the author focus on and why does the author focus on these aspects of knowledge?
Other research on tech comm history focues on curricular shifts, emerging disciplinary patterns and broad movements. KM refocues on key individuals, european and american movements, key advances and reprinted articles. The rivers bibliography goes at the end.
What is the epistemological background?
Historical research that provides insight into current trends and suggests new directions.
What is the argument?
The disparity among the selections suggests that "inquiry into technical communication is virtually boundless" (p. 11) -- a very strong claim if you know what's been going on. KM argue that Tech comm isn't chained to a dsicpline: engineering, science or business. We should not priveledge one discipline over the other and explore sources from "a range of archival environments".
What evidence does the author bring?
What perspective does the author take?
There is no such thing as a "straight" history.
What perspective is under-represented or missing?
KM don't really talk about the "landmark essays" shape, as well as report, the history of the field -- but that's precisely KM are trying to do here.
Chapter notes:
None: I think I've read this book at least 108 times. Copy chapter outline for folder.
Project notes:
Tebeaux is the key essay.
Technical books were common in the 16th and 17th century, incl. techincal books for women. The first ones by women were on domestic medicine. The technical books by women have a "conversational, personal quality" w/ succinct linear instructions.
The books for midwives: women resented the fact that medical professionals were trying to supplant midwives. OK, the midwives might have had to draw on some quackery, but that's only because the physicians were publishing in Greek. So in another document the midwives propose a royally funded teaching hospital for properly educating midwives.
(!) Tebeaux views these documents as "a microcosm of social change" -- you could probably say the same thing about hacks and user-centered design.
science of sleep
Whatever resentment I've been harboring against fjr about ATTW has been completely soothed by her heroic rejection of any travel arrangements that require me to share a bed.
"Hilary doesn't even sleep with the people she's sleeping with", she argued. It was more than Ross wanted to know.
"Hilary doesn't even sleep with the people she's sleeping with", she argued. It was more than Ross wanted to know.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
so anyway:
As I was saying, I am going to do something very interesting with my hair. Note: interestingness is scheduled for tomorrow at 5:45 pm and Friday 11: 15 am.
The big warning sign that I had eeked every inch out of a relaxed pace of life after the fire came last week, when I started eating cereal with bare hands out of the cereal box in bed.
More omens have started to accumulate.
The big warning sign that I had eeked every inch out of a relaxed pace of life after the fire came last week, when I started eating cereal with bare hands out of the cereal box in bed.
More omens have started to accumulate.
reading notes
Short meme notes on the Mitcham review in TCQ:
M doesn't take rhetoric seriously
M ignores that "technology" in teckne rhetorike is a verb
M thinks that the neologism is a purely rhetorical move
Mitcham has the handbook tradition in mind when he says "rhetoric" or "communication"
Connection between handbook tradition and technology -- stamped and stored -- connection to Heidegger.
Other scholars such as Miller and sullivan try to get out of the technologizing [ie in the handbook tradition] of rhetoric by turning to phronesis but, the reviewer argues, we could turn to techne w/better results. Weaknesses of praxis: embedded in technological system and you can't get out. Techne: you can teach it as a heuristic process -- a verb -- of "identifying, questioning, perhaps even transcending boundaries".
Atwill : techne can "transgress boundaries" and "rectify transgressions"
Johnson: Techne focues on maker as origin and end use by the user.
Read: Technology as a form of consciousness [CR Miller].
M doesn't take rhetoric seriously
M ignores that "technology" in teckne rhetorike is a verb
M thinks that the neologism is a purely rhetorical move
Mitcham has the handbook tradition in mind when he says "rhetoric" or "communication"
Connection between handbook tradition and technology -- stamped and stored -- connection to Heidegger.
Other scholars such as Miller and sullivan try to get out of the technologizing [ie in the handbook tradition] of rhetoric by turning to phronesis but, the reviewer argues, we could turn to techne w/better results. Weaknesses of praxis: embedded in technological system and you can't get out. Techne: you can teach it as a heuristic process -- a verb -- of "identifying, questioning, perhaps even transcending boundaries".
Atwill : techne can "transgress boundaries" and "rectify transgressions"
Johnson: Techne focues on maker as origin and end use by the user.
Read: Technology as a form of consciousness [CR Miller].
also
The recurring metaphor of the evil cucumber reminds me of Sharon's review of Pan's Labrynth:
"I am now prejudiced against all fauns because they were bad in two movies".
"I am now prejudiced against all fauns because they were bad in two movies".
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
shame
Date: Mon 5 Feb 17:58:49 EST 2007
From: Margaret Maday Add To Address Book | This is Spam
Subject: Fwd: Water Break
To: EVERYONE-SO-FAR@lists.wayne.edu
Worst Case Scenario: Because a window was left open in a 9th floor faculty office, pipes have frozen and burst causing water damage to rooms 9313, 9312 and 9310. The water damage/flooding has moved down to floors below 9. Water has now been shut down throughout the building. We won't know the extent of the damage until tomorrow.
Margaret
From: Margaret Maday
Subject: Fwd: Water Break
To: EVERYONE-SO-FAR@lists.wayne.edu
Worst Case Scenario: Because a window was left open in a 9th floor faculty office, pipes have frozen and burst causing water damage to rooms 9313, 9312 and 9310. The water damage/flooding has moved down to floors below 9. Water has now been shut down throughout the building. We won't know the extent of the damage until tomorrow.
Margaret
Monday, February 05, 2007
hmm.
Date: Mon 5 Feb 12:12:51 EST 2007
From: "Salvo, Michael J" Add To Address Book | This is Spam
Subject: RE: Revised Panel Title AND paper titles
To: "Frances J. Ranney"
Cc: "HILARY WARD", "Jessica Rivait" ,
Dear Frances, Hilary, Jessica, and Joseph,
Thank you for the update on the panel and individual titles. I’ve added Joseph Jeyaraj to your panel thinking it fit very well with the panel theme and approach. I’ve included Joseph in the CC line of this email, and added his contact information below. Please be in contact with all the panel members, and I will be in touch soon with panel chair information as well.
Joseph Jeyaraj Joseph_Jeyaraj@baylor.edu
Liminality and Postcolonial Bureaucracy: The Right to Information Act - Deprivatizing Postcolonial "File Notings"
I have scheduled the session for A5, the first morning session, and believe you will draw a substantial audience. Thank you, and I am looking forward to seeing you all in New York.
Michael
salvo@purdue.edu
From: "Salvo, Michael J"
Subject: RE: Revised Panel Title AND paper titles
To: "Frances J. Ranney"
Cc: "HILARY WARD"
Dear Frances, Hilary, Jessica, and Joseph,
Thank you for the update on the panel and individual titles. I’ve added Joseph Jeyaraj to your panel thinking it fit very well with the panel theme and approach. I’ve included Joseph in the CC line of this email, and added his contact information below. Please be in contact with all the panel members, and I will be in touch soon with panel chair information as well.
Joseph Jeyaraj Joseph_Jeyaraj@baylor.edu
Liminality and Postcolonial Bureaucracy: The Right to Information Act - Deprivatizing Postcolonial "File Notings"
I have scheduled the session for A5, the first morning session, and believe you will draw a substantial audience. Thank you, and I am looking forward to seeing you all in New York.
Michael
salvo@purdue.edu
reading notes
Notes on Selber[SS], Computers and Technical Communication.
The easy questions:
When was it published?
In 1997.
LINK: Selfe identifies 1997 as a critical year for something internet related [look this up!].
What group of scholars is the author addressing?
Teachers and administrators in the research discipline of tech comm The focus is on pedagogy : "the possibilities for tech comm in the academy".
What is the genre and what type of research is the author doing?
Critical anthology -- SS wants the book to be a "Burkean parlor".
LINK: SDF on virtual communities.
The hard questions:
What was going on in the field when the author wrote it – how does the book reflect the conversation that has been taking place in the field?
The most important thing to think about here is the fact that there were other "computers and" conversatiosn going on: Computers and language arts, computers and composition, computers and English studies.
What aspects of knowledge does the author focus on and why does the author focus on these aspects of knowledge?
SB focuses on "the full range of pedagogical and prgrammatic issues specifically facing tech comm teachers and program directors in the digital age".
What is the epistemological background?
A humanistic approach to tech comm (Miller).
What is the argument?
Weak: We need to take a critical, contextualized view of computers and tech comm.
What evidence does the author bring?
1) computer courses in tech comm programs are often skills based
2) Computer courses in tech comm integrate technologies in conservative ways, focusing on efficiency and speed.
3) Computing spaces in academic tech comm don't support the demands of industry
4) Few tech comm programs have systematic strategies for integrating computers.
What perspective does the author take?
Selber's "critical, contextualized view" of computers and technical communication.
What perspective is under-represented or missing?
Selber says he's not focusing on particular "artifacts of an industrial culture": IP, specific platforms, commands and that kind of stuff. This is how Selber winds up making sweeping generalizations about technology and culture -- cf his interpretation of GUI: It's good!
Chapter notes:
Selber, Hypertext spheres of influence. S argues that htext development and use is influenced by a range of pedagogical, institutional and industrial forces. This is precisely the kind of claim that gives Selber his honororary snooze button. I won't sleep with him at ATTW.
Johndan in Wild Technologies: I've read this article many times -- it's the one with primary and secondary instrumentalization. (Secondary inst. recuperates primary inst).
LINK: Secondary instrumentalization and heidegger's turn to art at the end of Essay Concerning Technology.
LINK: Like Selber, Johndan -- NOOOO, STOP, Johndan! -- seems to think that GUI is liberatory : experimental and nonhierarchical.
Wahlstrom's article: An ecological model of literacy, a liminal space where old stuff is fading out but new stuff isn't settled in, the ark of rammed earth as a "transcendent interface" (w/no silver gods), words becoming things (not just the 10 commandments but the tablets), the liminal digital space and a shift back to some of the old rules. Wahlstrom is enthusiastic about the virtual classroom -- contrast with SDF.
Burnett and Clark, "Shaping technologies: Electronic collaborative interaction". The main argument is that our communication is shaped by coll. technologies more than it shapes them. Tries to get beyond a tool metaphor.
Allen and Wikliff: New communication technologies challenge traditional assumptions about learning, work and writing.
NOTE: Why is it that the main theme of every chapter in this book is DUH?
Howard, "Designing computer classrooms for tech comm programs". Interesting: at the time of thsi book, most university labs supported desktop publishing but not interface design. In terms of our lab, I would say that it does support interface design but it is only used for desktop publishing, and that students use a desktop publishing metaphor to do their multimedia assignments.
Emphasis on what to buy, not on finding ways to hack and customize. These people (Computer people in English studies) are eating Plato's cookery off a digital menu.
(!) Interesting: Howard talks about the layout of a computer classroom. He touches on power circuits, air filtration, lighting and static. H comments that lots of people have already talked about the layout of a computer classroom, including the pod vs row arrangement. He has a special meaning for computer classroom: the students use the computers and the teacher can teach in it (not a technology-equipped traditional classroom or decentralized lab).
Words words words: our computer classrooms and labs at WSU appear to have been assembled by sleepwalkers. There should be a grad student design team for the computer lab.
I disagree with Howard: instead, I would give my 3060 students a shoestring budget and let them design the computer classroom as a community-based tech comm project (they have to write memos, proposals, etc). That way, they're forced to take a critical, contextualized approach because they're planning for how people will write with the technology rather than mindlessly writing with the technology.
Wearner and Kaufer: "Guiding tech comm programs through rapid change".
Ecker and Staples: "Collaborative conflict and the future: academic-industrial alliances and adaptations". Support "balanced and unresolved collaboration" with a hint of "get over your fear of industry". Still, ES are alligned with the traditionalprinciples of academic freedom associated with the Boyer report. However, they think tech comm should break away from the "disciplinary definitions of english departments" and be interdisciplinary and technology-related.
The easy questions:
When was it published?
In 1997.
LINK: Selfe identifies 1997 as a critical year for something internet related [look this up!].
What group of scholars is the author addressing?
Teachers and administrators in the research discipline of tech comm The focus is on pedagogy : "the possibilities for tech comm in the academy".
What is the genre and what type of research is the author doing?
Critical anthology -- SS wants the book to be a "Burkean parlor".
LINK: SDF on virtual communities.
The hard questions:
What was going on in the field when the author wrote it – how does the book reflect the conversation that has been taking place in the field?
The most important thing to think about here is the fact that there were other "computers and" conversatiosn going on: Computers and language arts, computers and composition, computers and English studies.
What aspects of knowledge does the author focus on and why does the author focus on these aspects of knowledge?
SB focuses on "the full range of pedagogical and prgrammatic issues specifically facing tech comm teachers and program directors in the digital age".
What is the epistemological background?
A humanistic approach to tech comm (Miller).
What is the argument?
Weak: We need to take a critical, contextualized view of computers and tech comm.
What evidence does the author bring?
1) computer courses in tech comm programs are often skills based
2) Computer courses in tech comm integrate technologies in conservative ways, focusing on efficiency and speed.
3) Computing spaces in academic tech comm don't support the demands of industry
4) Few tech comm programs have systematic strategies for integrating computers.
What perspective does the author take?
Selber's "critical, contextualized view" of computers and technical communication.
What perspective is under-represented or missing?
Selber says he's not focusing on particular "artifacts of an industrial culture": IP, specific platforms, commands and that kind of stuff. This is how Selber winds up making sweeping generalizations about technology and culture -- cf his interpretation of GUI: It's good!
Chapter notes:
Selber, Hypertext spheres of influence. S argues that htext development and use is influenced by a range of pedagogical, institutional and industrial forces. This is precisely the kind of claim that gives Selber his honororary snooze button. I won't sleep with him at ATTW.
Johndan in Wild Technologies: I've read this article many times -- it's the one with primary and secondary instrumentalization. (Secondary inst. recuperates primary inst).
LINK: Secondary instrumentalization and heidegger's turn to art at the end of Essay Concerning Technology.
LINK: Like Selber, Johndan -- NOOOO, STOP, Johndan! -- seems to think that GUI is liberatory : experimental and nonhierarchical.
Wahlstrom's article: An ecological model of literacy, a liminal space where old stuff is fading out but new stuff isn't settled in, the ark of rammed earth as a "transcendent interface" (w/no silver gods), words becoming things (not just the 10 commandments but the tablets), the liminal digital space and a shift back to some of the old rules. Wahlstrom is enthusiastic about the virtual classroom -- contrast with SDF.
Burnett and Clark, "Shaping technologies: Electronic collaborative interaction". The main argument is that our communication is shaped by coll. technologies more than it shapes them. Tries to get beyond a tool metaphor.
Allen and Wikliff: New communication technologies challenge traditional assumptions about learning, work and writing.
NOTE: Why is it that the main theme of every chapter in this book is DUH?
Howard, "Designing computer classrooms for tech comm programs". Interesting: at the time of thsi book, most university labs supported desktop publishing but not interface design. In terms of our lab, I would say that it does support interface design but it is only used for desktop publishing, and that students use a desktop publishing metaphor to do their multimedia assignments.
Emphasis on what to buy, not on finding ways to hack and customize. These people (Computer people in English studies) are eating Plato's cookery off a digital menu.
(!) Interesting: Howard talks about the layout of a computer classroom. He touches on power circuits, air filtration, lighting and static. H comments that lots of people have already talked about the layout of a computer classroom, including the pod vs row arrangement. He has a special meaning for computer classroom: the students use the computers and the teacher can teach in it (not a technology-equipped traditional classroom or decentralized lab).
Words words words: our computer classrooms and labs at WSU appear to have been assembled by sleepwalkers. There should be a grad student design team for the computer lab.
I disagree with Howard: instead, I would give my 3060 students a shoestring budget and let them design the computer classroom as a community-based tech comm project (they have to write memos, proposals, etc). That way, they're forced to take a critical, contextualized approach because they're planning for how people will write with the technology rather than mindlessly writing with the technology.
Wearner and Kaufer: "Guiding tech comm programs through rapid change".
Ecker and Staples: "Collaborative conflict and the future: academic-industrial alliances and adaptations". Support "balanced and unresolved collaboration" with a hint of "get over your fear of industry". Still, ES are alligned with the traditionalprinciples of academic freedom associated with the Boyer report. However, they think tech comm should break away from the "disciplinary definitions of english departments" and be interdisciplinary and technology-related.
...
Hilary let her hand stick to the window, the horses strain against the fence and the plants coil around the light.
Sunday, February 04, 2007
current stats
Number of times I saw Pan's Labyrinth at the theatre yesterday: 2
Interfaith dialogues w/ Sharon: 1
Messages titled "ATTW": sorted into spam folder.
Interfaith dialogues w/ Sharon: 1
Messages titled "ATTW": sorted into spam folder.
Friday, February 02, 2007
oh :
That's what that mysterious number on my cell phone happened to be. You know, I really should call them back.
bwahaha
>REMINDER:
>
>Before you leave for the weekend, please make sure any opened
>windows are closed and locked before leaving. It will be extremely
>cold this weekend and we don't want any building pipes to freeze and burst.
>
>Thanks for your help.--Margaret
>
>Before you leave for the weekend, please make sure any opened
>windows are closed and locked before leaving. It will be extremely
>cold this weekend and we don't want any building pipes to freeze and burst.
>
>Thanks for your help.--Margaret
current affirmations
I accept that established researchers in scientific and technical communication will get to the IPCC report before I do. [random smashey noises]
reading notes
Notes on Doheny-Farina [SDF]: "Effective Documentation: What we have learned from research".
Preliminary questions:
How will this book compare with "The Wired Neighborhood" and other, more theoretical books by SDF?
This book is meant to make lots of empirical or otherwise submerged research avail. to a wider audience of people interested in tech comm. Will any of the authors chose a more experimental style in reporting their findings?
Will I be shocked by the coolness of the book?
What would this book suggest about the "life" of the IPCC report on climate change? [released this morning].
The easy questions:
When was it published? 1988
What group of scholars is the author addressing?
SDF is addressing a wide range of tech comm professionals:
tech writers
document designers
tech writing dept managers
tech comm researchers [me]
teachers and students in tech comm
What is the genre and what type of research is the author doing?
It's an anthology of -- and this is important -- prescriptive research. SDF hedges this: some of the research is localized and some attempts to uncover fundamental principles; some is slightly positivistic and some is critical about the generalizability of specific studies. The methods are elcectic and attitudes toward the findings vary, but this is a collection of prescriptive studies.
The hard questions:
What was going on in the field when the author wrote it – how does the book reflect the conversation that has been taking place in the field?
The book arose out of a conflict between 1) tech comm researchers and 2) pracititioners and teachers at the 34th intl tech comm conference [may 1997]. Group #2 called for more research and group #1 kept saying that the research is out there, but inaccessible. This conflict mirrored a larger conversation in the field.
SDF offers Effective Documentation as a way to fill the gap with research that can reach a wide range of tech comm people. Some of the research is new.
What aspects of knowledge does the author focus on and why does the author focus on these aspects of knowledge?
SDF focuses on issues that are relevant to a wide range of tc professionals: 1) text and computer screen issues, 2) the contexts of usability and 3) research methods and epistemological / critical stuff.
Focus topics: user learning and performance, format and graphic design, management of documentation processes, analysis of research methods in tc.
These topics are of current general interest in TC.
What is the epistemological background?
Huh. What is an epistemological background?
Vee-eery breifly, the form of technical comm today reflects the heritage of 17th-century publishers and audiences. While "Adventurous scribes" conducted layout experiments in the M.Ages, this stuff was standardized in the century after the invention of the printing press: at first, the pp wanted to preserve aesthetic features for the printed book, but then they started to experiment with features that enhance readability.
OK. So, at about the same time, The Royal Society rejected the exceesses what we call "Ciceronean" rhetoric for a plain, ytilitarian style that makes language safe for natural philosophy. [see Sprat, a history of the royal society].
So that's a brief history of making texts useful. We're still interested in how to do that. Note: While reading-to-learn has been popular since the 17th century, reading-to-do became more popular circa WW II. Current views on how to make texts useful vary widely. This book presents current information for a wide audience of tc professionals.
What is the argument?
SDF takes a stasis approach, presenting point and counterpoint on the following issues:
[research into user learning and performance]
elaboration vs truncation
computer documentation : "worked out" or active/experimental
hardcopy-to-online transition in computer d.
[research into format and graphic design]
graphics in hard copy and online: what works?
[research into management and documentation processes]
outmoded documentation cycles vs. new directions
[research methods: relative merits]
What evidence does the author bring?
The articles [copy chapter descriptions]
What perspective does the author take?
SDF reports prescriptive research.
What perspective is under-represented or missing?
I would describe prescriptive research as ... driven or skewed, but I'll have to read chapter by chapter to see what's missing.
Notes:
(!) The ITCC discussion section was lead by WSU's John Beard (WSU School of business).
Fabulous overview of empirical research [Morgan, ch. 2].
(Har!) An expert user in Hunt and Vasilladis' study of error messages preferred 1 error message: ERROR.
HV deviates from the 1st definition of tech comm -- no matter how brilliant the introduction is, the "perverse reader" will open your book in the middle. NOTE: HV prefer "elaborated natural language" for error messages.
Bradford notes that technical books -- the "technology of text"-- have looked the same for 800 years, and that these traditions aren't applicable to the emerging "technology of the display screen".
(!) Krull challenges the assumption that GUI is the new jesus. HE thinks that icons are a transitional thing (they're slippery and inextensible) and that direct manipulation interfaces will focus more on point and do, windows and dynamic menus.
(!) Baker on the traditional context of product documentation: 1) The user is inexperienced. 2) The product is unique. 3) The user is concerned about damaging the product and 4) The user perceives the product as dangerous. Note: Hacks are as far away from this traditional context as possible! Cite this at the QE.
(Hey!) What can this book tell tech comm instructors about syllabus design?
Preliminary questions:
How will this book compare with "The Wired Neighborhood" and other, more theoretical books by SDF?
This book is meant to make lots of empirical or otherwise submerged research avail. to a wider audience of people interested in tech comm. Will any of the authors chose a more experimental style in reporting their findings?
Will I be shocked by the coolness of the book?
What would this book suggest about the "life" of the IPCC report on climate change? [released this morning].
The easy questions:
When was it published? 1988
What group of scholars is the author addressing?
SDF is addressing a wide range of tech comm professionals:
tech writers
document designers
tech writing dept managers
tech comm researchers [me]
teachers and students in tech comm
What is the genre and what type of research is the author doing?
It's an anthology of -- and this is important -- prescriptive research. SDF hedges this: some of the research is localized and some attempts to uncover fundamental principles; some is slightly positivistic and some is critical about the generalizability of specific studies. The methods are elcectic and attitudes toward the findings vary, but this is a collection of prescriptive studies.
The hard questions:
What was going on in the field when the author wrote it – how does the book reflect the conversation that has been taking place in the field?
The book arose out of a conflict between 1) tech comm researchers and 2) pracititioners and teachers at the 34th intl tech comm conference [may 1997]. Group #2 called for more research and group #1 kept saying that the research is out there, but inaccessible. This conflict mirrored a larger conversation in the field.
SDF offers Effective Documentation as a way to fill the gap with research that can reach a wide range of tech comm people. Some of the research is new.
What aspects of knowledge does the author focus on and why does the author focus on these aspects of knowledge?
SDF focuses on issues that are relevant to a wide range of tc professionals: 1) text and computer screen issues, 2) the contexts of usability and 3) research methods and epistemological / critical stuff.
Focus topics: user learning and performance, format and graphic design, management of documentation processes, analysis of research methods in tc.
These topics are of current general interest in TC.
What is the epistemological background?
Huh. What is an epistemological background?
Vee-eery breifly, the form of technical comm today reflects the heritage of 17th-century publishers and audiences. While "Adventurous scribes" conducted layout experiments in the M.Ages, this stuff was standardized in the century after the invention of the printing press: at first, the pp wanted to preserve aesthetic features for the printed book, but then they started to experiment with features that enhance readability.
OK. So, at about the same time, The Royal Society rejected the exceesses what we call "Ciceronean" rhetoric for a plain, ytilitarian style that makes language safe for natural philosophy. [see Sprat, a history of the royal society].
So that's a brief history of making texts useful. We're still interested in how to do that. Note: While reading-to-learn has been popular since the 17th century, reading-to-do became more popular circa WW II. Current views on how to make texts useful vary widely. This book presents current information for a wide audience of tc professionals.
What is the argument?
SDF takes a stasis approach, presenting point and counterpoint on the following issues:
[research into user learning and performance]
elaboration vs truncation
computer documentation : "worked out" or active/experimental
hardcopy-to-online transition in computer d.
[research into format and graphic design]
graphics in hard copy and online: what works?
[research into management and documentation processes]
outmoded documentation cycles vs. new directions
[research methods: relative merits]
What evidence does the author bring?
The articles [copy chapter descriptions]
What perspective does the author take?
SDF reports prescriptive research.
What perspective is under-represented or missing?
I would describe prescriptive research as ... driven or skewed, but I'll have to read chapter by chapter to see what's missing.
Notes:
(!) The ITCC discussion section was lead by WSU's John Beard (WSU School of business).
Fabulous overview of empirical research [Morgan, ch. 2].
(Har!) An expert user in Hunt and Vasilladis' study of error messages preferred 1 error message: ERROR.
HV deviates from the 1st definition of tech comm -- no matter how brilliant the introduction is, the "perverse reader" will open your book in the middle. NOTE: HV prefer "elaborated natural language" for error messages.
Bradford notes that technical books -- the "technology of text"-- have looked the same for 800 years, and that these traditions aren't applicable to the emerging "technology of the display screen".
(!) Krull challenges the assumption that GUI is the new jesus. HE thinks that icons are a transitional thing (they're slippery and inextensible) and that direct manipulation interfaces will focus more on point and do, windows and dynamic menus.
(!) Baker on the traditional context of product documentation: 1) The user is inexperienced. 2) The product is unique. 3) The user is concerned about damaging the product and 4) The user perceives the product as dangerous. Note: Hacks are as far away from this traditional context as possible! Cite this at the QE.
(Hey!) What can this book tell tech comm instructors about syllabus design?
Thursday, February 01, 2007
hacking the blogger template
3 points:
#1: "Men are born into whole palaces that they unravel with bare hands". Augustine
#2 No, unraveling my blog is not easier in Blogger beta (ie the new blogger).
There's nothing like a sexy GUI to mislead you with the illusion of control. I swear I could write a conference paper about that wrench and bolt icon.
#3 As a final word, my frustration with the blogger template has nothing to do with the fact that I don't know PHP.
#4 Yes, I'm going on the ignorant fantasy that one template will be easier to take apart than the others (See #3).
#1: "Men are born into whole palaces that they unravel with bare hands". Augustine
#2 No, unraveling my blog is not easier in Blogger beta (ie the new blogger).
There's nothing like a sexy GUI to mislead you with the illusion of control. I swear I could write a conference paper about that wrench and bolt icon.
#3 As a final word, my frustration with the blogger template has nothing to do with the fact that I don't know PHP.
#4 Yes, I'm going on the ignorant fantasy that one template will be easier to take apart than the others (See #3).
backing away slowly
it had to be the last time for awhile and to do what I normally do when I can't stand it. What? Nothing.
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