Just Add Water and Blog

Vlogging = Video Blogging.  Is this a good idea?  Recently, I have been hearing a lot of people talk about how facebook pages and myspace pages should be deleted if they are trying to find a job.  I do not think people should be judged on how they run their personal lives as long as they can be professional when they are at their jobs.  My guess is that video blogging is just as bad as facebook and myspace.  I was looking at several vlogs and some of them were a little scandalous.  In my opinion, video blogging is more personal than facebook, and people who do blog on video should be careful if they are planning on getting a job.  Now, my only concern is whether or not I should delete my facebook page before I apply for a job.  Does every school district check if their future employees have a facebook or myspace account?   People’s personal lives should stay personal and not interfere with their work lives.  This module has just showed me how careful people must be when they put anything on the internet.  

I thought the article, “Is Playing Video Games A “Waste of time?” very interesting. I actually never thought that when people were playing games “they are learning new literacy”. Literacy is the ability to read and write. But, the article describes how literacy should be thought of more broadly. “First, language is not the only important communicational system. Images, symbols, graphs, diagrams, artifacts, and many other visual symbols are significant, more so today than ever.” I know this is very true, but when I immediately think of literacy I only think of print. However, I know there are many different meanings of literacy because of the college course Literacy in Today’s World. But, we actually never touched base on video games being a part of the term.
The quotation that makes me believe that playing video games may not be a waste of time is, “Because literacy requires more than being able to “decode” (words or images for instance) and because it requires people to be able to participate in—or at least understand—certain sorts of social practices, we need to focus on not just “codes” or “representations” (like language, equations, images, and so forth) but the domains in which these codes or representations are used as well.” I do understand the definition does work for video games in the semiotic domain. But in the sense of wasting time in a video game, it does take up a lot of time because the games are addicting. But to make parents feel better about their children playing video games all the time, this is a good view to look at their game.

When I logged onto Facebook last night for the first time this week I found it was interesting to see many more applications added to the website to keep people interested in the site. I did not have time to search around and see what applications were offered  but one application that I noticed right away was a toolbar added to my page for further communication.

People are now able to know exactly which one of their friends is signed onto Facebook and can do something such as instant messaging- but now it’s through Facebook. It is exactly like AIM but it is when a person is logged onto their account. I went onto Google.com and typed in “Facebook’s new application” and tons of websites came up in regards to the topic.

Here is one website that describes the many new applications. I noticed that most of the applications are websites that are also available on Netvibes.

http://mashable.com/2007/05/24/facebook-platform-30-apps/

Scott McLoud’s “Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art” was quite interesting.  Not only was it written in comic form, it brought up many good points about the simplicity of comic-like writings.  Also, I concluded from the article how juxtaposing text with pictures is most successful when the pictures are straightforward and not too detailed.  According to McLoud, “The more cartoony a face is, the more people it could be said to describe.”  This is probably the reason why cartoon characters are so appealing because more people can relate to them.  Another interesting aspect the article brought up was how the audience relates with the messenger of information.  The author, or in this case, the character relaying the message in this article is so simple in style.  Then, in a following image, the author portrays himself more detailed and shaded to look like an actual man.  McLoud asks the question, “Would you have listened to me if I looked like this?”  I thought this was a very interesting concept.  I don’t think I would have taken as much away from the article if the messenger looked more like a real-life man.  I wonder why this is. 

  I found this article that touched on the issue of videogames and education.  The author of this article makes an argument that videogames should be incorporated into the classroom:

http://www.news.wisc.edu/9333

          The article, “Semiotic Domains: Is playing Videogames a waste of time?” discusses different forms of literacy.  The article brings up valid points that I normally would not consider literacy to be.  Literacy is language which means that images, symbols, and graphs are all forms of literacy; as the article states this is true, but not a concept I often think about.  This started a chain of thinking.  Does this mean that literacy includes paintings, sculptures and music because all of that can be part of a culture?  As I continued to read on, the article mentions that some other forms of literacy are rap songs, academic essays, and super-hero comics therefore I think that music and paintings are definitely forms of literacy.

            I think that because this article defends the argument that videogames are part of literacy, I have come to form the following opinion.  I think that there can be many forms of literacy, but instead of grouping them into just “literacy,” there are different genres of literacy.  For example, I think there is a creative literacy in which paintings, sculptures, poetry, music, and other forms of free-writing fit into.  I think there is an academic literacy that reading, academic essays, and other writing for school fits into. I also think there should be a genre for practical literacy in a culture such as recognizing driving signs, and being able to read a map.

Then there is miscellaneous literacy in which videogames, and comic strips fit into for example.  Video games can be educational as the article mentions, and if it is helping a child to learn different parts of culture such as colors then I think it should definitely be recognized as a form of literacy. I don’t see anything wrong with classifying videogames as a form of literacy as long as it’s recognized that it’s not the same as picking up a book to read.  Three year olds can play videogames appropriate for their age level, but they can’t pick up a book and read the entire thing.  Saying that a three year old is literate in videogames and literate in reading are two separate ideas; as long as it’s specified as to what genre of literacy is being referred to I see no problem with saying videogames are forms of literacy.

  In a class I am currently taking we are discussing the topic of bilingualism. I thought this topic and the essay I read were really interesting and I wanted to share it with this blog.  I realize that there are many advantages to having a bilingual society, however there are far more reasons and factual information that prove otherwise. I personally do not think that we should have bilingualism. If you make the decision to move to America, then you should realize you must learn our language and respect our laws and morals. If your religion and beliefs conflict what we stand for and do not wish to speak English, then you should not be living here. The passage Bilingualism in America: English Should Be the Only Language has clear examples and factual information that bilingualism will be a detriment to our country. “Communicating with each other in a single, common tongue encourages trust, while reducing racial hostility and bigotry.” If people are speaking numerous different languages then it will form a communication barrier between neighbors, friends and co-workers. Also as said in the quote, speaking in different languages causes racist feelings for many and causes hostility between native Americans and the new immigrants. “Bilingualism is a costly and confusing bureaucratic nightmare. The Canadian government has estimated is bilingual costs to be nearly $400,000,000 per year…The United States has ten times Canada’s population.”  Our country is already in debt and does not need to be spending more money on programs for something that angers countless American citizens. India has ten official languages and this has led to “countless problems in the government’s efforts to manage the nations business.” We have first hand experience from India that bilingualism causes problems, so why would we waste money and our efforts to implement this new idea. Bilingualism is an idea with good intentions; however it will clearly cause more tribulations than intended.

While reading the essay about video games the topic of semiotics came up. Literacy is so much more than purely reading, writing and speaking. There are so many types of literacy that we do not even realize have an affect on our everyday lives. Video games are just one on many types of literacy. The use of gestures is a type of literacy that many people hardly notice they use in daily life. While walking around campus I see many of my friends going to and from class. Instead of saying hello I will sometimes just wave my hand. The wave of a hand signifies hello or goodbye. Another example of gesture communication is if two friends walk into a library talking, and a librarian puts her pointer finger to her lips. This gesture implies “quiet” and the librarian didn’t have to say a word; she only used a hand signal to communicate a word. Without speaking or writing people can communicate through hand, body and eyes movements. A person can be completely literate in a conversation of gestures, however not be able to write or speak in the language.  I have had many experiences in other countries when I could not communicate with a native person of the country, but by simply using gestures I was able to become partially literate in their language simply by using gestures.

            Facial expressions are a large factor within literacy. People can tell someone’s mood simply by a facial expression. You can tell if someone is happy, sad, bored or tired by the change in facial movements. Without saying a word or writing anything you can communicate merely by your facial expression. For example, if a student is sitting in the back of a classroom with his or her head resting in their hands and a blank face, the teacher will make the assumption that the student is extremely bored and tired. Mark Bowden, a body language specialist says that body language, hand gestures and facial expressions can say more to an audience than the words spoken. I think that there is so much more to literacy than just the typical definition and video games are not a waste of time for those who understand the language.

           In the article, “Understanding “Internet plagiarism”, by Rebecca Moore Howard I found it also very ironic and funny that people would buy a paper for an academic course to hand into the professor on the subject “plagiarism”! The article was about plagiarizing and how the Internet makes it so easy for plagiarism. It is awful that people knowingly take information off the Internet and students use it in their papers as if it was their own work. But, it is not as if plagiarism is new. People were able to plagiarize textbooks before the Internet was available. The Internet is indeed faster and easier to find information but it is a very helpful place to find good information for a research paper, if the student cites the information correctly.

            In Module #1 in Introduction to Writing Arts one of the main purposes of the class was to fully understand plagiarism. There are many aspects, rules, and definitions for plagiarism and it is important for people to fully understand the severity of the problem with plagiarizing.  I never realized how much of an issue plagiarizing was in the academic standpoint. I just always thought it was known that not citing someone else’s work is cheating. It is so crazy to me that there are so many websites available for people to cheat for academic papers. By stealing work from other people it is not going to make help you succeed it will only hurt you. Maybe people think since the Internet is so full of information that maybe the professor will not find out that they are cheating? Or maybe they do not think their professor or teacher is Internet savvy and will not even see the difference?