Wednesday
Book Trailer 2
The book trailers were sent out and sadly enough, no one seemed to make one on their own? All but one, watched them, but didn't make any. What does this say about the century we live in? I refuse to believe that we are in a reading crisis. I mean, to truly believe. Maybe this just means kids are lazy. I was lazy. Still am to a degree. But I still read. I read more in college. But as the curve begins to fall closer to the ground, I think kids are going to stop reading books. I don't want to believe it, but I feel a bit jaded at this point...
Surveys
Finally got some results from my surveys. There were just a few, but that's a start! It seems from these that these few use YouTube on quite a regular basis. Whether it is embedded links in Facebook to searching for help on the actual site.
The first book trailer is going rather smoothly. I've decided to do the first one on the graphic novel, "The Watchmen." I know what you're thinking, ughh, not really books. However, Watchmen (despite the crappy movie version) contain quite a bit of prose and goes into depth about the superhero psyche and really breaks it all down. It's really just to get them excited and then move onto a real book.
The first book trailer is going rather smoothly. I've decided to do the first one on the graphic novel, "The Watchmen." I know what you're thinking, ughh, not really books. However, Watchmen (despite the crappy movie version) contain quite a bit of prose and goes into depth about the superhero psyche and really breaks it all down. It's really just to get them excited and then move onto a real book.
Technology vs Literacy
What is the difficulty and urgency of the problems associated with technology vs literacy?
First what is literacy? Literacy is the ability to read and write, essentially. Technology is the use of technical means in life by ways of engineering, technical science, industrial arts, and pure science. What is the problem? Society is beginning to see a shift in the way people learn. People through technology are reading differently and writing differently. How does this affect the way we learn? I don't really know. The urgency involved is that everyone needs everything right away. I don't think people take the time anymore to sit and let things sink in. The idea of brain percolation means that one soaks up knowledge and dwells on it for some time (like reading a book). People are reading and sharing through technology and alarmingly fast rates. They don't take the time to listen anymore.
What is the final solution?
Finding a way to integrate the urgency of technology and the critical thinking essential for literacy. How do we do this? I have no clue. Maybe the world just needs to slow down for a minute. Yet technology is making that impossible. We're lightyears ahead of where we could ever have imagined we'd be. There are ways to promote literacy through technology and as a librarian, we can find them. We have to target the younger ones and get them excited about reading through technology.
First what is literacy? Literacy is the ability to read and write, essentially. Technology is the use of technical means in life by ways of engineering, technical science, industrial arts, and pure science. What is the problem? Society is beginning to see a shift in the way people learn. People through technology are reading differently and writing differently. How does this affect the way we learn? I don't really know. The urgency involved is that everyone needs everything right away. I don't think people take the time anymore to sit and let things sink in. The idea of brain percolation means that one soaks up knowledge and dwells on it for some time (like reading a book). People are reading and sharing through technology and alarmingly fast rates. They don't take the time to listen anymore.
What is the final solution?
Finding a way to integrate the urgency of technology and the critical thinking essential for literacy. How do we do this? I have no clue. Maybe the world just needs to slow down for a minute. Yet technology is making that impossible. We're lightyears ahead of where we could ever have imagined we'd be. There are ways to promote literacy through technology and as a librarian, we can find them. We have to target the younger ones and get them excited about reading through technology.
De.li.cious
I had actually created a account and tag last semester. I created it as a way to show classmates how to use it. Since then I haven't used it. The only bookmarks I have in there are App's homepage, PubMed, and Facebook. I've never had a need to bookmark. The sites I generally visit I have always manually found by typing in and never worried about it. I thought bookmarks were clustery and unnecessary. But the tutorial on de.li.cious make me think differently. I can see the usefulness of creating tags. The tags are ways to find any (and I mean any) kind of material that directly relates to the tag word. It's a great way for someone who constantly uses certain sites and wants to stay organized.
Born Digital Material
I feel like this article on the age of word processing and archiving it is a culmination of sorts of what I have been harping on in this class on the discussion board. How do we research the impact of word processing when the original words in the document have long since been updated, backspaced, and corrected? As I type now and blogger constantly checks and alerts me to misspellings (and Word with grammar and spelling), I wonder how this is already affecting literary output.
As a big fan of David Foster Wallace, I often wondered if the man, before he hung himself, was worried that his born-digital material would be archived. Updating is making our lives impossible. We update and update and now we can't use the updated material because the version that they sold us originally is incompatible with the "new and better" version.
But here, on the other hand, is an unbelievably unique way of studying art and literature and the thought process involved. One could have never imagined being able to look over Cormac McCarthy's shoulder as he wrote All The Pretty Horses to see how and why he used certain paper and when and why he decided to make corrections to the original manuscript (though I think things like that shouldn't be touched due the mysteriousness and power of writers such as McCarthy).
I'm in awe and I'm in utter shock. But one thing is certain. There is no other way now to save this information.
As a big fan of David Foster Wallace, I often wondered if the man, before he hung himself, was worried that his born-digital material would be archived. Updating is making our lives impossible. We update and update and now we can't use the updated material because the version that they sold us originally is incompatible with the "new and better" version.
But here, on the other hand, is an unbelievably unique way of studying art and literature and the thought process involved. One could have never imagined being able to look over Cormac McCarthy's shoulder as he wrote All The Pretty Horses to see how and why he used certain paper and when and why he decided to make corrections to the original manuscript (though I think things like that shouldn't be touched due the mysteriousness and power of writers such as McCarthy).
I'm in awe and I'm in utter shock. But one thing is certain. There is no other way now to save this information.
Monday
Project time?
Admittedly, I have not blogged in some time, due to the fact that I'm still unsure as to how to complete and design a book trailer project. My survey's main point is if kids even know what a "book trailer" is. Waiting for an answer for that. I don't have a video camera or iFlip myself, but there are free ways to make one... it's just finding the right technique.
Thursday
LIterature Review
First off, our group has decided that best (and only) time for meeting each other consistently is to meet before class each Wednesday night. So that's why I'm blogging after Wednesday night's class regarding last week's meeting. Or something confusing like that. Anywho, it was that meeting where I confessed my lack of understanding and personal dissatisfaction with my project. And it was Megan who optioned the idea of a You Tube channel. What's to be done with this channel has yet to be fully conceptualized. Ideas were focused around book trailers. However, what I know is this: reading for personal pleasure is somewhat a passion of mine.
Personally, I know from experienced what it did to for me. I was not one of those kids that began reading at 1.5 years old and couldn't stop, nor was I a top Accelerated Reader. I wouldn't even read my freshmen year English assignments. It felt forced. It wasn't until I trashed the books and the whole higher education thing for a year that things took a new direction. I was tired of school and tired of being forced. I dropped out and started working.
Then I got bored. Really bored. So, a friend at work gave me her copy of Kerouac's On The Road to pass the time. That was it. That was the catalyst for my pleasure reading endeavors. The rest is history and I won't go into to it but I graduated with a degree in English.
That being said, pleasure reading can be detrimental to education. Not necessarily institutional education. We need to educate ourselves, learn just to learn. That's personal growth. So, now, my thesis question is going to be something like this: How can these You Tube videos, patron-produced or engaged, library produced, aid in the personal growth of young adults, especially focusing on how young people learn in the 21st century.
Personally, I know from experienced what it did to for me. I was not one of those kids that began reading at 1.5 years old and couldn't stop, nor was I a top Accelerated Reader. I wouldn't even read my freshmen year English assignments. It felt forced. It wasn't until I trashed the books and the whole higher education thing for a year that things took a new direction. I was tired of school and tired of being forced. I dropped out and started working.
Then I got bored. Really bored. So, a friend at work gave me her copy of Kerouac's On The Road to pass the time. That was it. That was the catalyst for my pleasure reading endeavors. The rest is history and I won't go into to it but I graduated with a degree in English.
That being said, pleasure reading can be detrimental to education. Not necessarily institutional education. We need to educate ourselves, learn just to learn. That's personal growth. So, now, my thesis question is going to be something like this: How can these You Tube videos, patron-produced or engaged, library produced, aid in the personal growth of young adults, especially focusing on how young people learn in the 21st century.
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