[phd training session: digital literacy & creativity]

A full-day for the AHRC funded CEDAR (Collaborative Digital Research in the Humanities), organised by the Universities of Bangor (Dr Astrid Ensslin) and Aberystwyth (Dr Will Slocombe).

As I've noted before, I'll be talking about academic blogging and the digital literacy (a favourite topic of mine).

For the students participating, feel free to add comments as directed in the presentation.



Please comment on the idea of reading and writing as “an invisible skill” (see Sue Thomas's video, 16:00) and whether you find the Stroop test challenging or not and why.


Literacy + Technology + Creativity = Digital Literacy in the 21st Century

Important that these elements are seen as interdependent


Read The Whale Hunt here: http://thewhalehunt.org


UPDATE: Keno Buss and Sascha Westendorf have joined us for a bit about their project and some hands-on experience with the De Montfort Creativity Assistant.

[social media and sustainability]

Recently I was asked to give a presentation to a group on the theme of social media and sustainability. I began with an introduction to some web 2.0 applications (blogs, wikis, twitter) and the usefulness of rss. Then I gave some examples of organisations employing aspects of social media to generate interest/support in an environmental issue or to garner information. Early into my introduction I asked the group (there were about 35 or so) to answer some questions to give me (and them) and idea of how they are situated in relation to social media.
The questions I asked included:

• Do you send txt msgs?
• Do you blog or comment on blogs?
• Do you listen to podcasts?
• Do you have a Facebook profile?
• Do you participate on an e-mail list?
• Have you watched a YouTube video?
• Do you Tweet?
• Do you have a Flickr account?
• Do you aggregate RSS feeds?

How do you think the group did? Would your prediction change if I told you this was research-oriented group? That mostly everyone there was over 35 (except perhaps for a few ph.d students who joined us and the speaker of course...)?

Well no one had a blog though a few did listen to podcasts and the question about tweeting generated a few giggles. Two people in the room had photo-sharing accounts but no one knew what RSS was so definitely no one was using a feed aggregator. Having said this, I think I'd have received similar answers with a younger group. In fact, having posed this questions to my first year and third year media undergrads they too did not have blogs but they watched and uploaded videos and shared photos and updates with facebook. No one there knew about rss either. So, not too dissimilar...which leads me to...

Someone at the talk implied that *we* (harumph) are digital immigrants and that our students and the groups we're trying to target (in this case, to instill change and be proactive about the environment) are digital natives, ergo they *know* this *stuff*... Firstly, I disagree that technology-use is a generational thing (think of silver surfers). Secondly, just because you or your child or your niece or whomever...has access to a nintendo ds or a psp or txts all the time does not mean that they are literate and know how to protect themselves online and recognise issues related to identity theft, bullying and even future employment (do you really want your future employer to see evidence of a drunken saturday night - I know my first and third years did NOT realise this).

I think there's often talk about helping students become *literate* (or transliterate) in the online environment - how do they navigate all the different modes alongside identity and IP (especially for researchers) etc...but what about the teachers? Where is the acknowledgment that those doing the teaching also need time to learn, absorb and choose how and if they're going to implement web 2.0 applications? I'm wondering more about this because although the group I was talking with weren't there in terms of pedagogy the questions they asked were just as applicable:

• why *should* we use [enter application here, twitter/facebook/blogs/podcasts/youtube/flickr]?
• doesn't this just add more work?
• what are the benefits?

I think it's to be expected that there is anxiety with new things; adding to our work and generating frustration but I think the examples I showed of organisations leveraging social media to share ideas and generate buzz illustrated well the potentials. I quite like what ForestEthics, Greenpeace and Sierra Club BC, the three leading environmental groups that have worked with the B.C. government, First Nations and industry leaders to British Columbia’s globally unique Great Bear Rainforest. Together, they launched a social media campaign using facebook, twitter, blogs and youtube videos. They also made it easy for supporters to send pre-written protest e-mails and add their voices to the campaign. On the 31st of March 2009 the social media efforts paid off:

"March 31, 2009, Vancouver, British Columbia – The promise made three years ago to protect one-third of British Columbia’s globally unique Great Bear Rainforest and develop the foundations for a conservation-based economy in the region has been fulfilled. Today’s announcement is greatly welcomed by ForestEthics, Greenpeace and Sierra Club BC, the three leading environmental groups that have worked with the B.C. government, First Nations and industry leaders to ensure the promise would be kept. Today’s announcement lays out the tremendous ecological and economic gains for the region and the long-term commitment to ensure the health of the rainforest and communities."

Have a look at the youtube video:

The questions after the session were enlightening. Most were excited to explore social media themselves but admitted that they didn't really know about "these sorts of things." They wanted to learn but weren't sure whether they had the institutional support. So key the to us being able to pass on knowledge is institutional/work support in terms of teaching the teachers (employees etc...) and giving them the time to learn how to use tools effectively (of course this goes for anything right? not just social media or computer technologies). I must say, the IOCT is brilliant in that respect - using twitter and facebook and blogging are recognised aspects of research and demonstrate interaction with/in the field. (disclosure: I am employed as a Research Fellow at the IOCT).

[reader 2.0]

Here is some info from my presentation on how I see readers who engage with born digital works.

Links to the web works I mentioned in my presentation:

http://twitter.com/manyvoices
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lynetter/2099009488/in/set-72057594139269787/
http://www.viddler.com/explore/hughgarry/videos/12/97.564/
http://emersoninbeijing.com
http://www.wetellstories.co.uk
http://thewhalehunt.org
http://transition.turbulence.org/Works/dynamo/index.html

Screen shots and the presentation to follow.

[creative writing & new media masters campus week seminars]

Following yesterday's slog, the students get a bit of a break today when they can sit back and listen to a few presentations including one by me on reading multimodal narratives, a panel on african digital literature and Peter Howard on digital poetry.

From the programme:

10.00-11.00 Meet your Reader Dr Jess Laccetti presents a reader�s eye view of new media writing.

11.00-11.30 Break

11.30-12.30 African Writing and New Media
Chair: Professor Sue Thomas
IOCT PhD student and novelist Anietie Isong introduces his research into African Writers and the Internet, and Nur Yaryare of the Somali Afro European Media Project presents his plan for a new media African heritage project in Leicester.

12.30-13.30 Lunch break

13.30-15.00 Writing and Publishing New Media
Chair: Kate Pullinger
Sara Lloyd and Michael Bhaskar, digital editors at Pan Macmillan, discuss Sara�s Book Publisher�s Manifesto for the 21st century, and Chris Meade, former CWNM student and Director of if:book London, presents Digital Livings, a report commissioned by CWNM to assess the potential of new media as a career path for writers.
Preparatory Reading for this session:
Book Publisher’s Manifesto for the 21st century by Sara Lloyd
Digital Livings by Chris Meade

15.00-15.30 Break

15.30-16.30 E-Poetry
This year CWNM offers an E-Poetry workshop for the first time. Tutor Peter Howard presents an introduction to E-Poetry including a selection of his own work.

Read more at the ioct blog.

[candy + code at the ICA, London]

On Monday night I'm going to have the pleasure of listening to three female [digital] artists who interestingly incorporate textiles/textures into their work which seem to (at least to me) question the role of code/coding (among other things). A kind of digital/textural semiotics perhaps? My job, after their presentations, is to ask them *riveting* questions. Hrm...anyone out there in the blogosphere have any questions they'd like to put to Rachel Beth Egenhoefer, Dr Barbara Rauch or Nicola Naismith? I won't be the only one asking questions though. Dr Jane Harris, Director of TFRG, and Helen Sloan, Director of SCAN will have their interviewing caps on too.







This what the ICA says about the event:

[how to do a proper ppt]

Reading Digital Digressions by Richard Parent I came across this great presentation on (wait for it...) how to do great ppt presentations:

[narrative and multimodality conference - day 2]

Today marked the second and final day of the Narrative and Multimodality conference organised by Dr. Ruth Page and held at UCE. The morning began with 4 presentations after which we were divided into 3 smaller groups.
Each group settled into a room and prepared for an exciting workshop with the focus on pedagogical and narratological implications of web work. Our group, the structure and suspense group, first read Inanimate Alice episode one so that everyone in the group would be able to talk about the same thing. Bruce guided us through the reading on a huge screen and I must say that Alice really should be experience with such a screen and volume. The booming music really helped build suspense (although people in the group didn't all agree that it was in fact suspensefull but rather anxiety-inducing). After the reading we discussed using Inanimate Alice in the class/lecture room and how we might encourage students to recognise that reading multimodal works such as Alice means reading all of the modes (I think so anyway) involved in the storytelling - not just concentrating on the textual apparatus (as one member of our group thought was more apt).

After the illuminating discussion we gathered back in the main room for a panel (which I chaired!). Jennifer Harding presented some fascinating insights thanks to her use of wikis in her undergrad. English classes. She def. gave us all some ideas to try.

The afternoon sessions were all fascinating and ranged in topics concerning high-tech uses of multimodality (Sarah Hatton and Melissa McGurgan on Using Sound Maps in Multimodal Environments to Promote Interactive Narrative) and multimodal print (Alison Gibbons' reading of a print text which, through its use of multimodality, encouraged an embodied reading). Fascinating stuff.


In his plenary session, Michael Toolan focussed on the literary/narrative potential (or lack of) of what he calls "high-tech multimodal works." Toolan explained that because certain hypertexts are "too open, too interactive" problems arise because readers cannot share the same "object" (as a book) - something that remains the same across multiple viewers and platforms and time. Therefore (according to Toolan) hypertext is not narrative art. It's "too protean in seqence and event to let us analyse hypertext as narrative." While Toolan is certainly right that some hypertexts and web fictions are open, I would argue (as I did in our workshop session) that most readers would share the same general understanding of plot. After all, the author (hyper or not) has written a story (if we are confining ourselves to web fictions and not poetry or art although those too can be narrative) for a reader. Though there are links, it is ultimately the author who controls access to them and would probably want a story to evolve. Texts such as "afternoon" were mentioned but that seems to be an example where reading paths might differ however readers do visit the same lexias. So, the order of events might be different, but the reader encounters the same narrative fragments. Also, does that mean narrative only exists if "we" can share it? What about each reader narrativising each reading experience? I'd like to hear more about what Toolan meant and I wonder if his views would change after reading stories like Inanimate Alice which is pretty teleological so readers would then share the same "object," or even These Waves of Girls where the underlying story is apparent from most nodes. Toolan successfully got us all thinking (which deserves congratualtions as it was the final session of the day) and his talk has helped me think about what place web fictions can play in pedagogy - what kinds of ideas we'll have to teach students before beginning to teach them multimodal works.

**Thanks to Ruth who did an incredible job organising the whole conference and making sure it all ran smoothly.**

UPDATE: Ruth has also shared some reflections on the conference.

[narrative and multimodality conference]

Whew. I'm back in my funky hotel room, windowless but complete with a 42 inch plasma screen with a web cam view of Birmingham city centre - how transliterate.

After a full day of interesting talks - including plenaries from David Herman (he even did a bit on the multimodality of The Hulk!) and Sue Thomas (developing the idea of transliteracy and including an excellent video on how to eat kumquats) - I'm still digesting what was said/shown/enacted. Highlights, besides the plenaries, included Astrid Ensslin's paper on Kate Pullinger and babel's The Breathing Wall (a gold star goes out to Alice Bell who provided the breathing!) and Ruth Gregson's presentation on tv adaptations (she had a few funny quotes including: "bull*%$£ baffles brains"). Although the day was heavy in theory, it was lighthearted with everyone open to new ideas and various offers of different directions in which to take the concept of "multimodality."

[multimodality, representation, and new media]

I had to chuckle when I came across this presentation given by Gunther Kress for the IIID Expert Forum for Knowledge Presentation in 2003:

"But of course even though I don't see myself as working fully in the new media I speculate about what difference they make..."