All Things Digital

BEFORE YOU READ ANY OF MY POST, YOU NEED TO SEE THIS LINK BELOW. IT IS AWESOME.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/things-that-will-make-you-miss-the-old-days-of-the-internet

In order to set the tone for today’s post, I tried to think about what video I can put up here that expresses my mood right now. I was having a hard time, but I came across this cool video:

And I had to include it, so enjoy! Even though Steve’s revision section today and Mary Ellen’s demo on re-purposing were fantastic, I couldn’t help but think about all things digital for most of the day. I don’t know if it’s because one of my primary research interests is emergent digital genres or because it’s just really interesting, but I have a fascination with all things digital. I think that we are on the brink of something so new, exciting, and even revolutionary in writing with the changes inherent with the digital medium. What most interests me is how these new genres have such different conventions from their paper counterparts. 

For example, the digital essay is not just a standard essay created in a digital space. A digital essay should make use of all the affordances that a digital space creates such as the ability to link, to use images, to use video and audio AND it needs to use the “web-like” affordances of the internet by showing connections rather than remaining on a linear plane as a traditional essay would. That means that the digital essay wouldn’t have a traditional introduction at the top, conclusion at the bottom, and body content in between, but rather the digital essay should be able to rely mostly on content that could be accessed through tiled tabs or in a larger space. If you want to check out a digital essay that I wrote on Bob Dylan, you can access it here: http://kandre17.wix.com/dylanandrhetoric. I’m not saying it’s the right way to write a digital essay or even a good way, but it’s a way that I tried it.

As far as my digital project, I thought it was so hard! I used Prezi for the first official time (I’ve tried at least ten times before and given up) and trying to figure out how to work it felt like I was doing this: 

But after a lot of hard work and a lot of swearing, I finished it up in the wee hours of Monday morning. I haven’t quite figured out how to create a link for it so that will be forthcoming; however, here is a screenshot for now:

Even though it was a lot of work and a lot of confusion, I’m really glad we did it because it pushed me to learn a new genre as well as my trajectory as a teacher. I also think that the gallery crawl with the sticky notes was a great way to give feedback to everyone and I can't wait to use that in my class. It was such a great feeling to come back to your computer and see it filled with great comments:

Side note: During all my random surfing for my initial video, I came across this 1984 Apple commercial that introduces the Macintosh computer. It is amazing! I would love to spend hours and hours dissecting it (especially the big brother part and how that is so appropriate for today too), but I wanted to know what you guys thought!