dawn m. armfield » doctoral candidate in rhetoric and scientific and technical communication

vrroooom

4 years ago

by dawn in fun

Better late than never (and if I had this car, it might have been sooner!).

Don’t have much time to write today but wanted to share this. I’m not typically a sports car aficionado. It’s just not my thing. But this car…whew…it makes my heart go pitter-patter. Must be the greenie in me.

Isn’t she sweet?

why tweeting works

4 years ago

by dawn in cultural & textual studies, productivity/tools, social networking

I just came across an article in the New York Times via Michael Faris‘ blog. The article is discussing the use of Twitter (and less prominently, Tumblr — one account I actually don’t have, mostly because I have this blog). In the article, the reporter discusses some of the dramatic uses of Twitter: one man threatened suicide and his subscribers called for help; prominent web 2.0 entrepreneurs have fights with their partners and subscribers give advice.

What the article misses is the connectivity. It’s not all about the drama or the minutiae of life. It’s about connecting with others who have similar interests or who share information that others may be interested in. Take, for instance, my interest in photography. I post links to my photographs. Other people started subscribing to me. I came to find out that many of them are in Flickr. Even better, some of them are from my hometown. Others are in the same field that I’m in and have given me some wonderful feedback on rhetoricians, theory, and have been cheering me on as I finish up my thesis. Still others have introduced me to new things in other areas of interest: I saw the progression of PodcampAZ; I have talked with GrammarGirl; I stay informed on technology, other students, other photographers, and more. None of this would happen if I didn’t use Twitter because I wouldn’t ever have gotten to know these people otherwise.

Shelley Powers, who never seems to have positive things to say about this connectivity, but who makes a living off of it, states,

“He has a bummer day, talks about it on Twitter, it’s on Digg and then MetaFilter,” she said in an interview. She calls the entire experience “artificial intimacy” and wonders if people were “concerned about it, or were they titillated.”

People in the social networking world, she said, are in a quest for constant communication. “It began with blogging, then blogging with comments, then instant messaging,” she said. “It keeps getting a higher and higher level of interconnectivity, and it becomes almost addicting.”

And why wouldn’t interconnectivity become addicting? We are social animals. We have a need to connect to one another. Even as a self-avowed hermit, I like to be connected, to feel like I have a place within the social structure of mankind (albeit a removed place, but a place nevertheless).

In a time when people are feeling removed from everything, these tools allow us to feel like we’re a part of something bigger. They allow us to learn and grow and be a part of something larger than us: the world.

viral

4 years ago

by dawn in education, video

I hate to perpetuate viral videos except that some of them are worth promoting. The Digital Ethnography Group at Kansas State University regularly put out videos that make us think, ponder this social networking we do, and look at what we’re doing in a new way. It’s no surprise that this newest video makes us think about what we’re doing.

I saw it the first day it came out (a few weeks ago) and put it in my YouTubes favorites to think about and hold until I was ready to talk about it.

Having been a student for the past (*cough*) few years and an instructor this semester, I can say that many of these things are true — but not all of them and not for all students. What I think is important about this video is that it may make us look at education a little differently.

Lecturing from the front of a room doesn’t work. It hasn’t ever worked for all students. They aren’t engaged, their brains aren’t being challenged. Hearing a voice droning on and on about topics that most students won’t find interesting is a waste of the students’ and instructor’s time.

Instead, instructor’s should be out talking to the students, working with them, understanding how the topic will work within their interests and how they can build on the things they know to incorporate what can be learned in this course. If students are bringing laptops, iPods, ultra-mobile PCs, and cell phones to class, how can those tools be used to incorporate learning? What can we share with our students about sites like Facebook and MySpace to encourage them to use those sites responsibly (and this is a topic I’ll come back to later since it is my call to arms statement in my thesis)?

Where can we facillitate learning and not just give directed instructions? I think that we, as instructors, learn just as much when we open a classroom up and promote conversation than when we stand in front of a classroom and lecture. That type of instruction isn’t any fun for anyone.

I’m in…

4 years ago

by dawn in blogs, cultural & textual studies, social networking

Ok. I’m in. I know I’m a day late in making these larger posts, but I’m going to make an attempt to post a blog post every day — every single day — during November. And I’m not talking about my Twitter tweets, either (although I really think they should count because you get to see the things I’m doing, thinking, or working on). Ahem.

I know that this is not appealing to everyone. However, when I get as busy as I’ve been (consider this: I work full-time at my regular job, I’m teaching a class, I’m finishing my thesis (60+ pages with a lot of research), I’m studying for the GRE, I’m applying to doctoral programs, I’m refinancing my house, I’m researching buying a new car (because mine is 11 years old and I’m going to need a newer one to get me through the next 5 years that I’m in grad school), I still post a photo a day, and I’m trying to spend as much time as possible with family before I move away), it isn’t always the first thing on my mind to post a new full-fledged blog entry. I’ve tried to keep everyone up-to-date by posting tweets.

I’ve heard some complaints about that, though. I’m sorry. I know that you’re a loyal audience and I’ve tried to do my best by you. So this month is for you. Really.

I have to say, though, that the posts will probably be about a lot of my research. And what, you may ask, am I researching? My area of study is looking at how women create identity in online social communities — both visual and linguistic rhetorical identities. I look at how they (the three particular women I’ve been following) have used images to define who they are, how they use words to define who they are, and how they juxtaposition the two — and what can come of that. I look at the issues of objectification of women and how we can often put ourselves in the role of objectifying ourselves in order to fit in, to meet audience expectations, and to be noticed.

Bored yet? This is just the beginning of the ride. It may be bumpy but you may have fun, too. Yahoo!

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