A Reflection

I'm noticing that my first blog entry was a bit of a mix between conventional academic format (I included a photo of the book's cover, and made sure I stated the title and author of the work I was analyzing) and more open writing (I notice now that I didn't go for the standard layout—introduction, discussion, conclusion). I think the reason I skipped some of the academic formalities, even though those tend to be my throwback options for unfamiliar writing situations, is that even though I'd never blogged, the blog genre is becoming increasingly pervasive in society. In other words, I'd seen blogging done even without having directly written, or even read, a blog entry myself. I'd read the book The Broke Diaries, which started as a blog, and I'd seen the film version of Julie and Julia, which incorporated blog writing into the plot. This experience of the blog genre was limited to what might be called entertainment blogging; I wasn't sure as to what sub-genres like academic blogging or political blogging within the blog sphere might look like. The result of that uncertainty was an entry that seems to mix academia with less trenchant formalities. Even my graphics echo this mixture. As stated, the first image is a photo of Wysocki's New Media; the second is a still frame from How the Grinch Stole Christmas. 

I'm not sure I ever really stopped mixing genres and styles in my blog writing. (Of course, according to Tim Lindgren, that's what blogging is: an ecological mixture and adaptation from many genres.) I did surprise myself by the tenor of my reflections. In pretty much each entry, I focused on something that I didn't like or that troubled me, rather than something I did like or agree with:

Blog 2: disagreement with Clark's classroom dependence on Second Life—why not take real field trips?-- and her appropriation of “our” cultural identity (I'm pretty sure she and I are not culturally identical)....

Blog 3: Geoffrey Sirc's colonization of language (You don't see it? Really???)....

Blog 4: Cleary et al's attribution of wiki failures to faults with their students (if students didn't like wikis, it was their own fault, 'cause wikis are great)....

Blog 5: Multimodal Composition's comfort with teachers assigning projects they could not do themselves, which in my case is a good bit....

I think my eagerness to be negative comes from a few sources. For one thing, all my years of critical training have made me, well, critical. However, this isn't the most compelling reason; critics also explore things they liked, whereas I focused largely on the dislikes. Perhaps its because, to a large degree the things I disliked were matters of language, how the authors expressed their thoughts, and not always the thoughts themselves. This kind of analysis, of course, is what I'm comfortable with. I feel less qualified to critique multimodal composition concepts than I do language. So if we're going to get psychological, my guess would be that my technological insecurities make it easier for me to vent my dislikes. Hello, my name is Amanda, and I'm technologically insecure...

I think the most valuable aspect of the blogging assignment, with regard to my personal insecurities, was the responses from my classmates. I seriously doubted anything I could say on the subject of New Media would be worth responding to. When I did my first entry, I imagine I somewhat resembled the scrawny kid in gym class who knows they'll never get picked until the end. Only instead of “please pick me, please pick me,” it was “please write a response, please write a response.” (Of course, I was also hoping for a nice response, but I don't think academics are supposed to admit to that.) The first responses I got were from Matthew and Ashley:

Matthew said...

Like you, I'm drawn to the idea the "new media" doesn't necessarily mean new technology, but instead an emphasis on the materiality and agency inherent in different types of texts / medias.

As you say, this ensures that human thought and insight isn't separated from technology such a definition also inspires us to consider multiple forms of media and communication in terms of rhetorical / material consciousness. How much compositional awareness goes into the production of a particular textual or iconic object. More importantly, how is that object read in terms of materiality / agency.

Good post that got me thinking.

Ashley Evans said...

"For too many people, just that we can (or, I suppose, at least they can) use advanced technology is enough to make it mandatory, without significant attention as to why."

This is so perfectly worded, and it allows me to digress a bit:

There now exist jobs that are devoted entirely to social media. (I have a friend from undergrad who makes OBSCENE amounts of money simply tweeting and making goofy videos for Pancheros.) These people are paid to communicate professionally on the internet. Where are they taught the rhetorical skills--or the grammar or the importance of word choice--that helps them become successful? The composition classroom, of course!

I think my point was that so many people have jumped on the technology bandwagon that it is now unclear who should be responsible for teaching it. Or that what we are already doing in the composition classroom can transfer to any discourse community. Or that learning rhetorical strategies in essay writing can transfer. Something along those lines.

I'll admit, I was pretty close to flying after this. (I don't think anyone has ever told me I worded something perfectly before...happy sigh...) The continuing comments throughout the quarter were similar in tone; this is not to say they were all praising—though I do think I needed that in the beginning—but everything my classmates noted was done kindly and in a spirit of inquiry. In other words, no one ever called me out on my ignorances. (How dare you criticise Geoffrey Sirc?! The man's a genius! was a response I never received.)

I think my blog collection is a fairly authentic representation of where I stand now, as a student and a teacher. I've been exposed to new and unfamiliar ideas, certainly; I've done some forms of composition I never had before. And mentally, I'm somewhere in a middle territory. I've begun the process of learning, perhaps, but I'm not finished yet. Maybe I'm in the Wunderkammer state...