Literacy in the 21st Century

here are a few twitter-related links that i found to be entertaining and/or informative:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/evan_williams_on_listening_to_twitter_users.html

http://www.twittearth.com/

http://twittervision.com/maps/show_3d

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/07/technology/personaltech/07basics.html?em

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN2HAroA12w

ps i’ve gotten through my initial twitter paralysis, but it’s still a continual battle i’m fighting everyday :)  thanks for helping me through, as i can now look back from a different place.  yaya.

This video could be an example of multimodality gone terribly, terribly wrong: 

Now for some crazy puppetland.

so i think there’s a literacy that goes along with owning a dog, and walking one, as well.  i never had a dog as a kid, and wasn’t around them much.  in the house that i live in now, though, we have a dog, and i was walking her today.  as i have walked her a few times now, i remember to grab the plastic bag from the cabinet in the kitchen (there is also a literacy of our house, which in part involves the dog–where her food, leash, bags, medicine [is she still taking it?] is kept…) and then proceeded to call her: “Come on, dude, let’s go on a walk!” 

over the course of our walks, we of course run into other dogs and their owners, to which i know to respond, before the question is even asked, “she’s friendly” and i now can take her to the doggy park, as she’s now been fixed (poor girl).  though as a roommate i am becoming more literate as a pseudo part owner of our dog, penny (as auntie noelle), i still am getting the hang of how we are to act when we come up to a kid. 

the first kid we encountered on our walk today, was fine with petting Penny (she actually initiated it), though i’m always afraid of what could happen, even though she is friendly and has never had any incidents of being otherwise (eek).  our second interaction was with a kid who was a bit younger, and he was holding a donut outside of dunkin’ donuts on pearl street. 

as an ongoing learner of not only dog literacy, but penny literacy, i know now to keep her at a distance from such scenarios, as she ended up eating the donut, snagging it right out of the kid’s hands, after only having taken a bite or two.  the guy who was with the kid wasn’t mad or anything, but the little kid wasn’t happy.  the guy told me, for some reason, that it wasn’t his kid, which gets us into another kind of literacy…and perhaps i’ll have more to post on that in my future walks with penny…

I’ve posted on Read Over my Shoulder. First day did not go as planned, but that’s okay.

I’ve been meaning to post this article from Utne Reader  Way Off the Grid: A Photographer Documents the lives of “Rewilders.“ They seem radical now, but how many years until the rest of us are relying on these dissenters to teach us how to live without oil or manufactured goods?  I have a cousin who has lived like this off and on in Eugene, Oregon.  She and her husband lived in a teepee, then upgraded to yurt for at least seven years.  The property that they were squatting on 9yep, a typical Thoreau-Emerson arrangement) was sold and at that time they moved in with his family in LA, of all places.  Amazingly, she managed to keep her core beliefs alive, even in the city, and continued to run a volunteer bird sanctuary.  Now they live in a converted school bus.  They installed a woodstove, insulated and paneled the inside, it looks like a dream! 

I envy admire their way of life.  They aren’t debating whether A&F or Urban Outfitters is more genuine, and they are not settling for Wal-Mart just because it’s cheap.  I try to make decisions that reduce my carbon footprint, support small businesses, and make this planet more pleasant and inhabitable, but I suppose I am too lazy, comfortable, and accustomed to my lifestyle to make major changes. 

Meanwhile, Utne Reader published another article of more interest and relevance to our class: “MP3 Scavengers Know No Borders.”  My husband tracked down some of these podcasts and I think they are my favorite use of the technology yet!  The article focuses on some MP3 bloggers who have made digital recording of obscure, forgotten, or unknown LP and 45s from around the world.  The article highlights a number of African Music collections. 

likembe

awesometapesfromafrica

voodoofunk

Hey all,

For this last post, I wanted to share a few clips from the film “Coffee and Cigarettes.” 

clip 1

clip 2

clip 3

Honestly, I just love this movie and wanted to share these 3 scenes with everyone.  But I do really like how Jarmusch approaches coffee and cigarettes as a kind of cross-cultural medium that brings people together, even if they don’t understand each other at all (as the case in the first clip).  What other customs do we have that spread across cultures?

I also wanted to share this clip too, because out of all the scenes this one seems to hit closes to out discussions of literacy.  What I like about this one is that Jarmusch is dealing with the idea of expected literacies; how Jack assumes that his knowledge over the Tesla Coil is much more sophisticated than Meg’s, however, in the end, he is the least literate in the room.  The connection I am making here is a bit of a stretch.  So, any ideas of expected literacies…any moments you assumed you were the literate one and found out that you were not, or vice versa?  Or, just let me know what you guys think about these scenes.  Feel free to try and make a connection with what we have studied in 21st century literacies.

And, on a sentimental note, it was a great semester and I have enjoyed having class with all of you.  Good luck on your projects and I will see you tonight in Puppetland!

So the other day I was going to meet Noelle for breakfast at Magnolia, and as I got out of the car, I noticed two people feeding the meter next to me.  I explained to them that it was Sunday, so the meters were free, and for a minute they just kind of stood there, the guy’s hand in mid-meter-feed.  I think he was trying to decide if he should listen to me.  Anyway, this got me thinking…about the literacy of being a Burlingtonite.

Of course Burlington has the usual elements of literacy most cities/towns have:  knowing the best restaurants (which are often different from the most popular ones), the best bars, coffee houses, etc.  But here are a couple things I thought of that really define being a Burlingtonite (Noelle gets some props too for brainstorming):

1) Parking.  Knowing when and where to park, particularly when and where you can get FREE parking — as in free meters evenings after 6 and Sundays, free two hours in the garages, and free Saturday mornings in the garage under Kinko’s.  Oh, and don’t forget knowing where to park safely during a city parking ban.

2) Hills.  This is especially for bikers — NEVER go up Main St. unless you have to; it’s much easier to bike up Pearl St. and then cut across on Prospect to Main.  I learned this (the hard way) the first summer I was here.

3) Burton annual summer sale.  T-shirts, pants, boots, gear, all kinds of shit for up to 80% off — and some of it doesn’t even say Burton anywhere noticeable on it, for those of you who like to pretend you’re too cool to wear Burton stuff.

4) Lesser known parks and bike trails.  Knowing about these is especially useful if you love to bike or hang out outdoors in the summer (and who wouldn’t around here?) but do not love crowds.

5) Major Opposites (or competing forces):  Shaw’s vs. City Market; Muddy Waters vs. Uncommon Grounds; 7 Days vs. Burlington Free Press; Higher Ground vs. The Flynn; Nectar’s vs. Red Square; Merrill’s Roxy vs. Majestic 10; 3 Needs vs. OP; Leonardo’s vs. Mr. Mike’s or Junior’s; Ski Rack vs. North Star Sports…

6) Neighborhoods:  Old North End, New North End, The Hill, Downtown, Waterfront, South End.  Yes, every city/town has these little neighborhoods, but I think for the size of BTV, I’m surprised by how much character each different neighborhood has.

7) BTV — see above.  The abbreviation for Burlington, Vermont — I’m guessing this derived from the airport code, which is the same thing.

Some signature things and places:  gravy fries (never heard of them until here); Red Rocks; the Causeway; fried dough (again, this was new to me)

9) Causes.  If you don’t believe strongly in a cause before you come to BTV, you will soon; and if you don’t, YOU may become someone else’s cause.

10)  Buy Local and Be Green.  See #9.

Now, this is not meant to be an exhaustive list by any means.  And some of these things might not seem that “characteristic” of the town to you.  They’re just things I’ve noticed about BTV and I do think many of them are things you wouldn’t know unless you lived here — or maybe you wouldn’t even have an opinion on unless you lived here.  They’re also things that, for the most part, people can’t tell you — you have to figure out by experiencing it, or it doesn’t mean the same thing.  So you kinda have to live here and let the city “seep” into your system, and then at some point, you just “know” all this stuff.  I’ve moved alot, and this experience is similar in any new place you go to.  But I truly think Burlington has its own brand of literacy, maybe because people here are more involved in the creation of that literacy.  There’s a point to ponder…

Hey guys,

the other day i went to “the office” website to watch a show or two and I came across a link that took me to Andy and Angela’s wedding website.  I’m not sure who in the class is familiar with the office (i’m one of those people that prefered the british version), but Andy and Angela are two characters in the show that were going to get married, but then it fell apart.  A separate story to that.  Anyway, this wedding website is a pretty cool idea.  They treat it as a real wedding website where people can register gifts, RSVP for the wedding (and write in comments to the bride and groom), take virtual tours of wedding/reception location and a lot of other things.  Of course now that Angela and Andy aren’t getting married, the website seems a bit pointless but I like the idea of using the internet (or should I say, other modalities) to put a fictional world into the real world.  It is very similar to what we saw in Cathy’s Book, with the phone numbers, websites, etc.

Since the Office is a mockumentary, it makes sense to treat each character as though they were real people.  With this in mind, think of all the possibilities they could experiement with.  Perhaps the new wave of entertainment is to treat everything as though it is real (kind of like an Andy Kauffman prank) and exploit this ‘realness’ through all the different mass media modes we have.  Perhaps not, but i thought it was a clever website.

Hey everyone,

I’m not sure if this week is our last post or if it’s next week, but I wanted to just congratulate everyone on a great semester. I personally had a really good time in this class. I’ve even learned to enjoy texting. Well, maybe not. But I’ve definitely buffed up on my literacies of the multiple persuasion. Good luck with final presentations!

A few videos for  enjoyment:

Here

and 

here.

In the beginning of Moby Dick, Ishmael simply will not shut up about how much man is drawn to water.  His exhaustive list of examples is so convincing that it might be one of those few truths about humanity.  Indeed, for seemingly obvious reasons, mankind builds (and thus brings an entire societal package) near the water whenever possible.  We are taught to believe that these obvious reasons are fixed; reasons like trade, business, economics, etc.  While waterways encourage all of these things, I posit an alternate reason for the fascination with fluids.  I shall call it Fluid Theory.
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Keyna and Jo have left the blog and are now blogging in their own space. with comments disabled.