"where wikis are jibing with the culture of academe, and where they are not" #wymhm

In most cases, using wikis to pool human knowledge of various topics into single, authoritative accounts falls into the “not” category. Academic culture abhors mass authorship. This is not only because many disciplines are given to disagreement and conflicting interpretations, but because scholars tend to chafe at the notion of not getting credit for their work, or having it fussed with by others.

“Literature reviews and summaries of articles are never going to be entirely objective; it would be difficult to write useful ones, for example, that conformed to Wikipedia's NPOV [neutral-point-of-view] requirements,” says Jason B. Jones, an associate professor of English at Central Connecticut State University.

Anyway, Jones says, the professoriate is too entrenched in traditional publishing to summon much interest in helping curate academic wikis.

Rethinking my summer reading schedule

Prior to the summer's start, I speculated about a tentative reading schedule. One revision happened right as it began; a second revision happens now. This is a direct result of a chapter proposal being accepted for Rhetoric/Composition/Play. Given the focus of that collection as well as my proposed chapter, I might as well take advantage of what's left of the summer and get some good, honest research going. 

This is not to imply, of course, that the old reading schedule wasn't research-oriented, only that it was rather unfocused. I had no grand plan in mind when I began. I should also mention that some badgering from Jeff Rice about how I overlooked his Rhetoric of Cool was a first impetus for rethinking my summer reading. That I'll be closing out the summer with that very book probably says more about me than I'm willing to admit.  

Old reading schedule

May 1 - Hamlet on the Holodeck
May 8 – The Meaning of Video Games
May 15 – Persuasive Games
May 22 – DIY U
May 29 – The Academic Self / The Gift of Death

June 5 – Games of Empire
June 12 – A Better Pencil
June 19 – The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
June 26 – Writing at the End of the World

July 3 – The Wisdom of Crowds
July 10 – A Counter-History of Composition
July 17 – Understanding Video Games
July 24 – Remix
July 31 – Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology 

August 7 – The Wealth of Networks
August 14 – Mechanisms
August 21 – Protocol
August 28 – Always On 
 

New reading schedule

July 17 - Persuasive Games, Ian Bogost
July 24 - Man, Play and Games, Roger Callois
July 31 - Expressive Processing, Noah Wardrip-Fruin

August 7 - Homo Ludens, John Huizinga
August 14 - Mechanism, Matthew G. Kirschenbaum
August 21 - Protocol, Alexander R. Galloway 
August 28 - Rhetoric of Cool, Jeff Rice 
 

As mentioned in previous entries, I welcome additions, deletions and even suggestions for reorganization.

Recently accepted for Rhetoric/Composition/Play [chapter proposal]

Pedagogy that encourages more “play” in college-level writing courses often comes coupled with an acknowledgement of technology as an increasing influence in students’ lives. It is here that various questions concerning implementation arise. Without a more thorough understanding of technology and how it is manifest in society, any incorporation is almost certainly doomed to some kind of failure. Historical inquiry of the root of technology, techne, can result in not only applicable understanding for today's post-wired reality but also achievement of a more beneficial balance between pedagogy and technology.

Drawing from Plato, Aristotle and Isocrates as well as Martin Heidegger, Walter Ong and more recent scholarship in rhetoric and composition and scientific and technical communication, this chapter endeavors to present techne as a way of understanding the current, popular technology of videogames as applicable to composition pedagogy. Primary emphasis is upon historical roots over contemporary applications, but implications for the future of teaching writing will not be disregarded.  

Most often defined as art, craft, skill and/or the active application of knowledge, it is the very ambiguity of techne that many scholars find intriguing and beneficial to their ends. The pervasiveness and scope of techne also remains a point of contention. Techne is a tool used, working in tandem with knowledge/wisdom to produce an effect or event; techne is also more than a tool, often exhibiting a kind of autonomy which some embrace and others fear.  Divorced from or saturated with emotion, separate or inseparable from knowledge and science, ‘mere craft’ or exalted art, various interpretations of techne illuminate freedom of opportunity.  

The term’s nebulous nature regarding definition does call for tangible examples. Videogames, and how we play them, constitute an important example of how techne might now be manifest. Videogames constitute an evolving, popular medium that not only refashions earlier media but also promotes a greater degree of interactivity. Videogames are also representative of a particular style of learning, something that composition pedagogy should continue to aspire toward. 

Therefore, I propose an analysis of videogames as a techno-pedagogical manifestation of techne with an eye toward implications for teaching composition. Techne provides a historical foundation and videogames provide a current literacy practice, both of which serve to improve approaches to teaching composition. To better understand techne, it is necessary to show how it functions within a current technology.  To better understand videogames, it is necessary to explain in relation to contextualized, historical inquiry of an old Greek word.  

If we understand techne as an aesthetic, affecting and autonomous art to be learned and practiced in context, videogames surely represent yet another arena in which we might explore epistemology and apply at least some of its approaches to composition pedagogy.  Technology is an integral part of teaching writing, and it is therefore important to go beyond acknowledgement and awareness by discussing and implementing approaches that encourage and complement new ways of making meaning.

Through detailed analysis of two recently released, genre-specific videogames, this chapter will explain how techne functions within a current technology, remaining flexible and diverse in games requiring different forms of interaction in relation to particular principles and the acquisition of means to desirable and fulfilling ends.  With each new in-game encounter shaping literacy practices and causing reflection and/or revision in light of new knowledge, learning becomes an ever-present possibility and reveals the acquisition of literacy as a fluid, contextual form of action.  Aristotelian, Platonic and Isocratic notions of techne and other Greek concepts are surely evident in the current, popular technology of video games. There is also a certain richness to historical inquiry that makes for a worthy addition to discussions of composition pedagogy, literacy and/or videogames. This chapter endeavors to provide a degree of that richness.

"Libraries are a bridge between the information-rich and the information-poor." #wymhm

Librarians not only provide access to physical materials, they are also trained in using the internet appropriately to extract information for users – a skill that has been at the heart of the profession for many years. This ensures that misinformation is minimised and helps to maintain a well-informed society. Furthermore, as information professionals, they play an important role in facilitating access to government information that is otherwise inaccessible to the disenfranchised. This is also crucial in a democracy, particularly during times of economic crisis. And yet, when they're needed most, libraries are talked of as an irrelevance by policymakers who think libraries should be run by untrained volunteers.

"methods of electioneering and political reporting have changed for good because of Facebook and Twitter." #wymhm

The survey also suggests that this age group generally consumes most of their political information online. Online news sources may be at the expense of newspapers and broadcasters, but the study says traditional forms of media have ‘normalised’ their use of social media, both as source material and to extend their own service. Newspaper and broadcast news websites are providing live blogs, digital correspondents, republication and retransmission, which has ‘helped to amplify the impact of social media even further’, says the study.

"The more you to do with robots the more you realise just how good humans are" #wymhm

"They should be able to do more," says Joseph Engelberger (pictured above), the founding force behind industrial robots and considered the father of the modern robotics industry. "We need multitasking robots that can think for themselves and do something useful. Working robots have to be something more than this," he says, referring to the impracticality of most robots, at least as far as the media's opinion goes.

"Ms. Pac-Man assumes her husband's phantoms, and Jr. Pac-Man in turn inherits the burden." #wymhm

Two hierarchies enmesh themselves in the routine of consuming pellets and hunting phantoms, producing a single myth. The first is familial, the patrilineal logic that tells us Pac-Man and his partner, who we know only by her relation to Pac-Man, should bear a son in the image of themselves and in the image of modern France. The sign of Jr. Pac-Man communicates by way of exclusion that the future France will, too, descend from Charlemagne. Our magazines advertise that France abides "three colors, [but] one empire," while silently assuring the Gaulois bourgeoisie that the face of Pac will be the singular face of the multivalent state.

"there were a lot of 'distractions' built into a medieval book" #wymhm

Engaged by brilliant illuminations; challenged by reading in Latin, without spacing between words, capitalization, or punctuation; and invited into the commentary of past readers of the text, medieval readers of Augustine, Dante, Virgil, or the Bible would surely be able to give today’s digitally-distracted multitaskers a run for our money. The physical form of the bound book brought together all of these various “links” into one “platform” so that the diverse perspectives of a blended contemporary and historical community of thinkers could be more easily accessed.

" video games are less of a discreet category of visual entertainment than they once were." #wymhm

More importantly, I highlight how many video games are now inspiring movies, music, books, and comics, including: Prince of Persia, Max Payne, Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, Doom, Final Fantasy, Halo, and Gears of War. The characters and storylines in the books, comics, and movies based on these games often closely track the video games that inspired them.  Increasingly, therefore, games are developed along parallel tracks with these other forms of content. Thus, to regulate games under the standard California proposes in this case raises the question of whether those other types of media should be regulated in a similar fashion.  Should every iteration of the original game title be regulated under the standard California has suggested if those books, comics, or movies contain violent themes?

"When things get so balled up that the people of a country got to cut loose from some other country..." #wymhm

All we got to say on this proposition is this: first, me and you is as good as anybody else, and maybe a damn sight better; second, nobody ain't got no right to take away none of our rights; third, every man has got a right to live, to come and go as he pleases, and to have a good time whichever way he likes, so long as he don't interfere with nobody else. That any government that don't give a man them rights ain't worth a damn; also, people ought to choose the kind of government they want themselves, and nobody else ought to have no say in the matter. That whenever any government don't do this, then the people have got a right to give it the bum's rush and put in one that will take care of their interests. Of course, that don't mean having a revolution every day like them South American yellowbellies, or every time some jobholder goes to work and does something he ain't got no business to do. It is better to stand a little graft, etc., than to have revolutions all the time, like them coons, and any man that wasn't a anarchist or one of them I.W.W.'s would say the same. But when things get so bad that a man ain't hardly got no rights at all no more, but you might almost call him a slave, then everybody ought to get together and throw the grafters out, and put in new ones who won't carry on so high and steal so much, and then watch them. This is the proposition the people of these Colonies is up against, and they have got tired of it, and won't stand it no more.
via io.com