Watson Conference Sessions and 5 assets

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Session A.11
1:15pm-2:30

Julie Kearney

Penn State Harrisburg

 “Things you might wanna think about”: Negotiating Exposure in a Writing Classroom Community of Bloggers

This presentation considers the blogging conflict between personal expression and professional presentation negotiated by students and the instructor in a “Writing for the Web” course.

Session B.7
4:30 PM to 6:00 PM

Oui, We Wii: How Multiple “Identitiis” are Shaping our Digital Communicative Acts

Humanities 104A

Friday, October 17, 2008
Session C.2
8:00 am – 9:15AM

Rik Hunter

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Writing WoWWiki: Towards a New Media, Post-Process, Teaching “About” Writing Pedagogy

Transferring writing technologies of the Web to the classroom requires an accounting of the activity systems wherein these writing processes are “played out” (Russell,1999).

 

Session D. 3

11:45 AM to 1:00 PM

The New Play of Composing

Chair:  Collin Gifford Brooke

Syracuse University

The “new work of composing” happens most crucially behind the scenes; we argue that this work is generated by processes that are more playful and looser than those typically associated with ³work.² Emerging technologies challenge us to think beyond “works” or products to the information ecologies we inhabit as we produce, circulate, and receive them. These new ecologies reward the “play” of composing as much as, if not more than, they do “work.”

Session E.4

4:15 PM to 5:45 PM

Performance, Play, and New Media

Chair:  Eric Leake

University of Louisville

 Jacqueline McLeod Rogers

University of Winnipeg

Beyond Orality, Literacy, Cyberdiscursivity:  the I Am of [IM]timacy

In my presentation, I want to define four of the [emerging and dynamic] conventions of IM (instant message) discourse, considering how it can be understood as having characteristics that differentiate it from earlier communication media and from other computer- mediated communication.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Session F.

8:00AM-9:15AM

Amelia Herb

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

(Re)search Methods: Where is the Composition Teacher in the New Millennium?

How can we, as scholars and composition pedagogues, help our students search the web and online scholarly databases and indices more effectively for the “new work of composing”?

Session G. 4

9:30 AM to 10:45 AM

Message/Texts in IM, TM, and Facebook:  The Shape of Contemporary Writing

Christina Haas
Kent State University

 

Pamela Takayoshi
Kent State University

Emily Dillon
Kent State University

Dee Awad
Kent State University

Jessica Heffner           
Kent State University

Based on a 3-year+ research project, the research team panelists argue that new media forms –  specifically, Instant Messaging, Text Messaging, and Facebook – constitute a new and specific language variety. While such writing is often characterized as error-ridden, “contentless,” and even dangerous, we argue that it is in fact testament to the vitality of both the English language and the young people who enact it.

In order to prepare for the conference, I will need to..

1. Ask my teachers how they think Facebook is and isn’t effective. Do my teachers have a facebook? If so, why?
2. Read Ian Saphira’s  ”When Young Teachers Go Wild on the Web”  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2008/04/27/AR2008042702213.html

3. Read Dr. Vernon Harper, Jr.’s article ” Featured Articles For Education Technology FaceBook” http://www.convergemag.com/story.php?catid=231&storyid=97688

4. Read Northwestern University Journalism blogpost http://medillprojects.blogspot.com/2007/04/facebook-leading-online-academic.html

5. Ask my peers how they think perceive Facebook. Is it a good social network? Does it help academically? Does it distract them? How does this relate to composing? Do they find that putting information on the network to be a form of composition

6. Ask teachers and peers if they find blogging to be an exceptable way for learning in and out of the classroom.

Screenshot Revisions

Copyright laws. They draw a pretty fine line. But what happens when we forget about the line? What happens if we cross the line, for instance, on the internet? What are the outcomes? Is it illegal?

Digital technology is so broad it’s almost impossible to put a cap on it. Especially the internet. So one question I guess you could ask is.. How do we control digital rights? How do we control hardly anything on the internet? How does free software affect people?

LugRadio uses podcasts to help answer questions like these.  I was assigned to analyze a “call for papers” advertisement on youtube. I watched a few that were in different languages and a few that were not really appealing. But I found one that I did happen to like.  I watched LugRadio’s Live 2008 advertisement,

and found that this ad was actually effective. I watched it repeatedly and found that looking with a creative and effective lens, this was overall a more successful “call for papers” ad than others.Before I breakdown what I find to be effective about this ad, we can start with what LugRadio actually is. When viewing the ad on youtube, there is an info section to the right of it where you can find more information about the video. When I clicked on the more info tab, I got a better understand what exactly LugRadio was about, and why the video is relevant.

By reading this, the viewer can get a feel for what this conference is about. I think if they didn’t have an option to place this information, the ad by itself wouldn’t be as effective and not drive it’s point home.

So what else makes this advertisement effective? Or even creative? And what doesn’t necessarily make it effective or creative? Well, I have a couple of ideas on how this ad is effective and creative, and I have some ideas on what could be done to take it a step further.

How is this advertisement effective or ineffective? Well, let’s break it down.

The introduction starts with a black screen and fades into footage of last year’s conference is effective.  Why? As a viewer, I sense that this is something important, that there is a point to be made. It grabs my attention, and I patiently watch to see the turnout.

Throughout the advertisement, the ad has rolling text which allows viewers to read inbetween effective images of 2007’s conference. This allows viewers to understand LugRadio is and what they represent.

I believe this is a very effective tool by transitioning between words and text because if it were just the images of people and no text, viewers may get lost, not grasp the point, or simply lose interest.  Viewers may then believe that it is another conference, which would defeat the purpose of the advertisement.  But with the text (as well as the more info option), LugRadio is defined, and what they are hosting which further explains the images.

So viewers can see that the black background and the light typeface are effective, but it may not be that creative. What I don’t really understand is why they use a off-white yellow color for the text, and then finally, just white. I think if it were more consistant with all white typeface, it may draw in more consistancey. Especially after all the white and black pictures color images come into play. That’s where the advertisement takes on creative twist.

For example:

Throughout the beginning the add fades in and out of black images to black and white text. Effective? Perhaps. Viewers may get a sense that this old footage from previous conferences.

Right after U…S….A pops up on the screen..
We flash right into..

Color images, displaying their logo.
As a viewer, I find this completely effective and creative because before the ad gets to presenting the 2008 conference, they reflect back (or flashback) through last years conference with black and white images. Black and white images give us a sense of old, since black and white photographs and video were the first ever used.

So the color comes in when it starts talking about the NEXT conference. Color was the next big thing in video and photography, and now color is going to use the same effect for the next conference.
Maybe this year’s conference is going to have a bigger and better impact. Thats what the color images shout out to me. In this image, it’s showing what seems to be speakers at the conference praising the conference and what it stands for. Good idea to put this image in color because we get a better sense of what the conference stands for or what it’s about.

Digital technology, Open Software.. It’s all new. It’s always changing. Something is always needed to be done or said about it. I think by using flashbacks from the previous conference in black and white, and then in color, its creative and effective because it’s showing footage of old technology.. to footage of new technology.

Overall, I find this to be one of the better “calls for papers” ads I’ve watched. Watching it over and over I still get the same sense that what’s been done, has been done. But what’s to come, well, it’s going to be bigger and greater.