Right Content, Right Medium

Throughout the term, we have been discussing literacy and transliteracy revolving around the question of how we have changed the way we consume and produce content in an era of advancing communications technology. A significant underlying tension in our readings and discussion has been the use of print media versus digital media.

Through focusing on transliteracy and examining new media narratives, it has become clear that those who use new media effectively have moved beyond the format of text to communicate ideas using a variety of formats: text, visual, audio, animation, video and interactive content. But perhaps in retrospect it is a good idea to look back at the format of text and how new media is changing the way we explicitly interact with it in the new digital age.

In the article, A Book Club of Billions: 52 Ways to Die in a Cave and Other Lessons in Social Media Marketing, Tammy Nam discusses how two book publishers have used social media to promote their works. In the case of James Tabor’s book Blind Descent, the publishers produced a two page Scribd document that was distributed virally to help push book sales. The book Marijuana is Safer by Steve Fox, Paul Armentano and Mason Tvert, was actually released in full and for free on Sribd. In two days, “the book was read more than 100,000 times and downloaded more than 11,000 times” (Nam, 2010). According to Nam, these publishers, “are using Scribd to take advantage of what's so great about the web for book marketing” (2010).

In the article Google puts $1m into academic research projects for digitised books, Jemima Kiss shows how Google is working to digitize older print content and to add relevant geographic content to the files. “Researchers say the project will help to open up interested in history, classics and archaeology, but will also help develop new tools and research methods as well as expertise in using data in this way” (Kiss, 2010).

It is well recorded that people read differently with digital text than they do with printed text. There is a higher propensity to scanning material and there is a bias toward shorter pieces. For me, in an attempt to sum up the term, there needs to be a recognition for the benefits and limitations of each media. It would be ineffective to simply publish a book or long academic article that is meant for attentive sustained reading in a digital form that looks identical to its published form. The use of new media should take advantage of all of the strengths that the media offers – in integrating video, sound, animation and interactivity. The richness of the content will come not from the length of the text but instead from the accompanying media. The corollary is also true, formats that require and work well with long text are best served in traditional print. Academic pieces that require in depth consideration and attention as well as vivid fiction for which the imagination on the reader is vital should remain in print formats.

To Jessica, the authors that we spoke with and my classmates, thanks for this course.


References:

Nam, Tammy H. (2010, July). “A Book Club of Billions: 52 Ways to Die in a Cave and Other Lessons in Social Media Marketing.” The Huffington Post. Retrieved from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tammy-h-nam/a-book-club-of-billions-e_b_645527.html.

Kiss, Jemima. (2010, July). “GooglePuts $1m into Academic Research Projects for Digitised Books.” The Guardian. Retreived from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/pda/2010/jul/14/google-books-funding-re%20%20guardian.co.uk.

Week 13: Review and Conclusions

Week 13: Review and Conclusions

Narratives can be published in various online ways: 

• Voicethreads
• Skype
• Blogs
• Wikis
• Social Bookmarks/Folksonomy
• Diigo
• Evernote
• Flickr
• Netvibes
• Twitter
• E-mail
• Google Pages
• Facebook

Anyone Can Publish

A timely example of how even the youngest learners can demonstrate transliteracy (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/3-little-pigs/id357980333?mt=8). Henry Dewey created his own illustrations to interpret “The Three Little Pigs” and then with the assistance of his father, created an iPhone app for people to read his version of the story, which includes Henry’s narration of the tale.

Henry Dewey is a typical 8-year-old. He loves to build with Legos and annoy his little sister, hoping to someday own a reptile to terrorize her with.

The first-grader at Trinity Episcopal School in Rollingwood is also doing some nontraditional things: Henry just released his first iPhone application, an e-book version of the folk tale “The Three Little Pigs.”

Using pen and ink, Henry spent the entire fall semester creating the illustrations for his book during an after-school art program at Trinity.

“I like being creative, making bobbleheads on paper,” Henry said.

Early in the process, he decided he wanted to transform his project into an iPhone application to provide more options on the gadget for children.

He told his father, Mark Dewey — himself an iPhone application developer — about his idea. When Henry finished the illustrations, the drawings were converted into a digital format. Then his dad helped turn the project into the application, rewriting the story and having Henry narrate it.

“At a young age to know you can be a creator, in the mainstream of American culture, that can be powerful,” said Mark Dewey, whose digital media company, Geoki, published the app. “We hope that carries on through his growing and his life.”

Does machinery inhibit artistic culture?

In 1927, at a time when new media like the radio, telephone and motion pictures were still novel and the television was just being invented, Aldous Huxley wrote an article in Harper’s magazine on ‘the machine age.’ In it he says:

In the days before machinery men and women who wanted to amuse themselves were compelled, in their humble way, to be artists. Now they sit still and permit professionals to entertain them by the aid of machinery. It is difficult to believe that general artistic culture can flourish in this atmosphere of passivity (Huxley, 1927).

The argument is essentially suggesting that people prior to the machine age were creative because they were idle and needed to amuse themselves. If you had nothing to do, you were likely to pick up a musical instrument, or a paintbrush or a pen. In this understanding of human behaviour, we create not because we have talents or a need for self-expression, but because we need to amuse ourselves – to fill time.

The argument is flawed – primarily because it dismisses the fundamental reason why one creates. People have an innate need to express themselves and people will express themselves in a way that fits their talents within the means they have available. For some, that expression may come from a creative pursuit – an artistry – for others it may be through oral story telling, invention, craftsmanship, human relations or productivity. People are inclined to tap into their strengths and use them to the best of their ability. Artists are a certain subset of people that generally express themselves well through a specific set of creative media: music, theatre, dance, visual art or writing (including prose and poetry). But these artistic people would likely find a way to exercise their talents regardless of the media available to them.

Justin Bieber, YouTube music sensation.
CC: Kevin Aranibar of Kerosene Photography

For instance, in the times before musical instruments the musician might have sung or banged out rhythms with sticks or rocks. Yet at another time in history, they might have played an instrument or conducted an orchestra. And again in more recent history, they might have been part of a rock band or a deejay or record producer. Finally, in today’s very digital age, they might be a digital composer, an artist who remixes found audio or a young man singing in their bedroom and posting their songs on YouTube. The artist does not seek to create as a means to amuse themselves or pass time; the artist creates because they need to express themselves and want to send a message. To that end, they will use whatever technology suites their talents and allows their audience to sense the message. As Marshall McLuhan says, “the serious artist is the only person able to encounter technology with impunity, just because he is an expert aware of the changes in sense perception” (McLuhan, 1964, p. 208).

Marshall McLuhan at the CBC.
(c) - marshallmcluhan.com

McLuhan also says, “we shape our tools and soon after they shape us” (McLuhan, 1964). In that statement he is suggesting that technologies form such a significant role in our society that people adapt behaviours as they become more prolific users. This notion might support Huxley’s assertion that people become passive because of the passive nature of consuming content that is enabled through machinery. This would be true, but technology does not seem to fundamentally change the character of the user. Technology may change the way that one behaves or engages, but it will not substantially adjust the character of the person. Someone who has artistic talent will find a way to use the technology available to them to express themselves, and those who have less artistic inclination will not suddenly become artistic because a new medium is available. There is likely to always be a segment of people who are performers and a segment of the population that will be part of the audience. This is not to suggest that being creative is a trait that is binary, but rather that people might sit on a continuum related to their level of creativity, exhibitionism or artistic talent.

Transliteracy? A One man band (circa 1865).
Photo by Knox, O.C.

The interesting thing about artistic talent is that those who are strong in one art tend to be strong in others as well. A musician will play multiple instruments; a visual artist is likely to create using collage, sculpture and different paints on different platforms; a writer might write fiction, poetry and essays as well as plays. Similarly, it would be very common for a musician to excel in dance, for an actor to take up writing or for a sculptor to dabble in architecture. People who use multiple mediums and platforms for creativity would have done so in the time before machines, in the time of Huxley and they continue to do so in today’s very digital age.

The ability to communicate in more than one medium is not exclusive to artists. In fact, it is a set of skills of growing importance in our increasingly digital world, accurately described using the term transliteracy. According to Sue Thomas, transliteracy scholar and author of transliteracy.com, “transliteracy is the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks” (Thomas et al, 2007). As more technologies emerge, humans are not becoming more passive, rather they are becoming more active. Howard Rheingold is quoted as saying, “[w]hat we are witnessing today is [thus] the acceleration of a trend that has been building for thousands of years. When technologies like alphabets and Internets amplify the right cognitive or social capabilities, old trends take new twists and people build things that never could be built before” (in Thomas et al, 2007).

The advent and expansion of machinery, as Huxley calls it, has not inhibited artistry in any way. Some people still pick up the guitar for amusement, others don ballet slippers and now some people open their laptop and create stories using the full power of the tools available to them. Andy Campbell is a digital writer and author of the website Dreaming Methods. As a new media author he publishes stories that take full use of the digital technology and incorporate multiple media into a single cohesive narrative. The “reader” will read printed words on a screen that might be written overtop of a static image while music plays. When a hyperlink is clicked, the screen transforms, words fade or emerge and a video begins to play. These digital narratives effectively incorporate text, sound, music, visual arts, graphic arts, animation and video into one piece that creates a rich narrative experience. Campbell is a prime example of a transliterate creator. Rather than sitting still and allowing professionals to entertain him, he is using the tools available to him in complex, integrated and creative ways to express himself.

Aldous Huxley was perhaps limited in his perspective in 1927 about the power of machines for creative purposes, but nonetheless his assertion of machines by their nature affecting passivity amongst the creative class is simply incorrect. But, perhaps Huxley’s message needs to be heeded as a warning. There is a risk that in a society with pervasive content where creativity is not nurtured and where skills of transliteracy are not developed, we could end up with more and more citizens who are lulled by entertainers into an atmosphere of passivity. Combating this risk would require ensuring that citizens are taught a set of skills that encourage activity using digital technologies.

In his essay, Participative Pedagogy for a Literacy of Literacies, Howard Rheingold writes, “if the humans currently alive are to take advantage of digital technologies to address the most severe problems that face our species and the biosphere, computers, telephones and digital networks are not enough. We need new literacies around participatory media, the dynamics of cooperation and collective action, the effective deployment of attention and the relatively rational and critical discourse necessary for a healthy public sphere (Rheingold, 2007).” Rheingold provides a compelling case for a new pedagogy that helps ensure the full participation of young people. In talking about important participatory literacies, he does not speak specifically about the need for creative but others do. “Expanding literacies for learning include criticality, metacognition, reflection, and skills for creating and publishing content” (Asselin & Maoyeri, 2011, p. 1).

In conclusion, let us not take Huxley’s doubt “that general artistic culture can flourish in this atmosphere of passivity” as a fait accomplis, instead let us take it as a call to action to ensure that our artists, and citizens in general, may maintain a creative edge in this new age of machinery.




References



Asselin, M. & Moayeri, M. (2011). The Participatory Classroom: Web 2.0 in the Classroom. Practical Strategies – Literacy Learning: the Middle Years: 19(2).

Huxley, A. (1927). The Outlook for
American Culture: Some Reflections in a Machine Age. Harper’s Magazine, August, 1927.

McLuhan, M. (1964). Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. New York: McGraw Hill.

Rheingold, H. (2007). Participative Pedagogy for a Literacy of Literacies. Retrieved April 3, 2011, from: http://freesouls.cc/essays/03-howard-rheingold-participative-pedagogy-for-a-literacy-of-literacies.html.

Thomas, S., Joseph, C., Laccetti, J. Mason, B., Mills, S., Perril, S., & Pullinger, K. (2007).  Transliteracy: Crossing Divides. First Monday, Volume 12 Number 12 - 3 December 2007. Retrieved March 23, 2011, from: http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/viewArticle/2060/1908

Week 12: Guest Lecture from Kate Pullinger

Is Literature Evolving? Kate Pullinger


Publishing is changing rapidly, and writing, reading and bookselling are changing with it, as is the book itself: there is no escaping this fact. While writers are urged by their publishers to engage with social media in order to market their books, storytelling itself is evolving with the new technologies.

I’ve been writing books – novels and short stories – for more than twenty years now, and writing digital fiction for a decade. In 2001 I was asked to teach a creative writing course online which, in turn, led to a year-long AHRB research fellowship at NTU, looking at new forms of narrative online. I began to experiment with hybrid forms of literature during that year – writing stories that combine image, video, animation, sound, music, etc. with words on the screen – and since then I’ve continued to write both books and digital fiction.

Moving online had as profound an effect on me as a writer as publishing my first book did. Beginning to create works of digital fiction forced me to consider the future of publishing, indeed, the future of writing and reading itself, much more deeply than I could ever have anticipated.

A bound book is a technology for reading, created by a printing press, moved from warehouse to retailer to reader via a network of transport technology, conveying the writer’s words to you in a manner to which you are completely accustomed; a technology you were taught to use on your mother’s knee, most likely. But many people are deeply attached to books, myself included, for reasons much more complex than the simple statement ‘I like to read’ could ever convey. The book-lined room is a status symbol as potent as the most expensive hand-printed wallpaper; the desk surrounded by books is as significant an image of intellect as that photograph of Einstein with his hair standing on end. The positions of The Book and The Writer in our culture are laden with layers of meaning, and digitization disrupts and transforms both these things.

As a fiction writer, I’m not really interested in the technological platform itself, be that bound book, e-reader, or web browser. What I am interested in is writing. What I am interested in is language; words, crafted, precise and beautiful; and the way that the right words in the right order can create mental pictures as indelible as the greatest film or photograph or painting. I am interested in what happens when words are liberated from the book – what happens to language, what happens to reading? What does it mean to put text on a screen, to use text combined with other forms of media?

Pundits bemoan the fact that young people are reading fewer books - though actual research on the effect of the internet on reading is in its infancy - but for the under-twenties, the born-digital generation, the acts of reading and writing have been fundamentally altered by the digital age already. With this in mind, it could be argued that the novel, as defined as a single work by a single author aimed at the solitary reader published on paper using fixed print type – or an electronic replica of that - is a relic of a cultural moment, a moment that lasted more than two hundred and fifty years or so but – as all you scholars of the history of literature know - in the context of humanity’s immense shared history of story-telling, a moment nonetheless. The new technologies enable the integration of story and community, writer and reader, media and text; they provide a platform for interactivity and response that we’ve only just begun to explore. It’s the hybrid forms that are now emerging that interest me, as both a writer and a reader. Literature is evolving.




What do you think a Literature of The Future will look like?




http://www.katepullinger.com

Week 12: Writers and Publishing

What does it mean to publish in the web 2.0 world?

Some key terms we will discuss during this  session:

• digital storytelling
• affordances
• new media platforms
• audience
• open source
• print on demand
• self-publishing
• e-readers

Open Publishing

When thinking of “open publishing” the first things to probably springs to mind are people like Lawrence Lessig, Cory Doctorow and Tom Reynolds who have all persuaded their publisher to allow them to release electronic versions of their books at the same time as the physical dead-tree version. (More on those three later.) In all cases, this seems to have been to the benefit of the book, but to give your book away at the same time as you put it up for sale is a bit of a leap of faith. Why would you take that risk? It’s far from being a proven economic or promotional strategy.

I think Chris Saad gets to the heart of this very quickly, when he asks, Am I being heard? He says there is:

“A fundamental human need that I think podcasting, blogging and all forms of social/citizen journalism speaks to… the need to be heard. People just want to feel connected and understood.”

~http://www.touchstonelive.com/blog/2006/04/am-i-being-heard.html

At a very basic level, Larry, Cory and Tom share in common with me, you, and pretty much everyone else a desire to be heard, to be read, to have the things that we’ve laboured over appreciated.

Chris Anderson, editor of Wired and author of The Long Tail, also confesses that he just wants to be heard (although he doesn’t seem to have published an ebook version of his book):

Anderson, however, tangles up a few threads in his piece, the first is a discussion of equivalence: ebooks are assumed not to be equivalent to books; digital audiobooks are assumed to be equivalent to CDs.

Reading an ebook isn’t currently a great experience (the iPad however might be the game-changer). Specialised e-book readers are expensive, and most people don’t like reading on-screen, so the ebook is seen as not equivalent for a paper book, i.e. people are more likely to go and buy the paper version if they like the ebook. Thus it is beneficial to release a free ebook so that you can reach as wide an audience as possible, as you stand a good chance of converting ebook downloads to paper book sales.

Conversely, it doesn’t really matter whether you have an unlawfully downloaded copy of an audiobook, or the real thing, whether bought as a download or as a CD, because either way you are probably going to listen to it on your iPod, computer or other MP3 playing device. The assumption is that giving away ebooks encourages sales of paper books, but giving away audiobooks, or allowing unauthorised downloads, will cannibalise the sales of the legitimate ebook. This is exactly the same logic as used by the RIAA and BPI for suing file-sharers, and the rest of the music industry for attempting to slap DRM onto everything in sight. It’s a very compelling and sensible looking argument, but it’s based on unproven assumptions behind the motivations of the downloader/buyer.

Right now, there are more questions than answers. The publishing industry is being pushed into experimentation in a way that the music and movie industries are not (one example is  the Million Penguins wiki-novel). Authors are forcing publishers to do things that might seem counterintuitive, and we’re slowly starting to figure out, through trial and error, what all this means. Still lots to find out, though, about this open publishing idea.

Update Nov. 2010: Lawrence Lessig responds to the “outrage” about his talk on a panel at Vimeo's Festival+Awards. The title of the panel was "Know your digital rights." See Lessig’s response in the 17^th Nov. 2010 Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lawrence-lessig/the-imbecile-moron-respon_b_764725.html

Week 11: Libraries and Transliteracy, Questions from Bobbi Newman

One of the questions I am repeatedly asked about transliteracy is - what are the set of skills for transliteracy? I understand where the asker is coming from - in a world where we base to much on standardized tests, having a list you can check off and mark complete is something we have been trained to expect. We need it for validation.


You don’t need me to tell you that the world is changing around us rapidly. That approaches to teaching and learning are changing and that the “old” way of doing things isn’t working any longer.



There is no defined set of skills for transliteracy. That is not because Sue or others researching, reading, writing and talking about transliteracy have not bothered to create one, it is because transliteracy is a moving target. It is fluid. As the world around us changes so much we change with it. We must continual learn, unlearn and relearn. This process is more than a set of skills, it is a process and journey.


Watch this slideshow and consider the messages. Transliteracy is about more than technology.

Transliteracy is 3D

View more PowerPoint from Bobbi Newman

Narrative Interventions in Photography

[Art by Simryn Gill, Photograph by Jonathan Teghtmeyer]

[Art by Carrie Mae Weems, Photograph by Jonathan Teghtmeyer]

I had the opportunity the week before last to visit the Getty Center in Los Angeles, where I happened across across an exhibit entitled, Narrative Interventions in Photography, that seemed to be right up the alley for our conversations around transliteracy. Works by three artists, Eileen Cowin, Carrie Mae Weems and Simryn Gill, are unified by the theme of telling a narrative through photography with critical reflection on the use of text.

Cowin's series, I See What You're Saying, uses books as a medium to create a subject for photography where the books are personified and tell a narrative through how they are positioned as opposed to what the words say. Gill uses paper with typed text as a medium to take the place of natural artifacts. For example, in one piece she cuts the paper into the shape of leaves, attaches them to a living plant and photographs it in a natural setting. Finally, Carrie Mae Weems, has etched text (and in one piece sheet music) onto glass that is placed over photos from the American slave trade in her exhibit, From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried. 


In terms of transliteracy, the pieces provide a great commentary on the role of narrative in a way that is not reliant on text. Yet at the same time, they use text as a key subject for their art which is principally done using the medium of photography. Not only are these artists effective at using multiple media, but they use them together in the same piece in a way that provides commentary on the different forms. While they are not forms of new media, they definitely qualify as pieces related to transliteracy.

Ebook Trends: Info Pro Perspectives

Given this week's lecture notes and readings, I thought you'd all find this of interest:

Video streaming by Ustream

Transliteracy, information literacy, and librarians

Following a link trail from one of this week's readings led me to blogger and librarian Wilk's "philosophical library blog" Sense and Reference, where I found the very interesting Reorganizing Literacy post. The post contains a chart titled "A Taxonomy of Literacies" which divides literacy into communicative and evaluative categories. The Communicative category includes print, signing, visual, computer, and digital, and is subtitled "Transliteracy". The Evaluative category includes both specific literacies such as scientific literacy, and non-specific literacies such as media literacy. It is subtitled "Information literacy".

Wilk's chart struck a chord with me, as I've been trying to put my finger on this distinction but finding it slippery. In my own experience, I can see that my 14-year-old daughter is more literate than I am in specific "communication" categories (Facebook comes to mind), and she might be considered more transliterate than I am because of the ease with which she moves between communication tools. On the other hand, through the sheer advantage of years, I have broader literacy than she does in the "evaluative" categories, so, applying Wilk's taxonomy, I might be considered to have a higher level of information literacy.

Wilk goes on to employ a container/content distinction, and says that: ". . . information literacy addresses the problems of meaning, [while] transliteracy addresses the engineering problem . . . We need information literacy so we can think about the meaning of information. We need transliteracy so we can think about the communication of information" (Wilk, 2011, Containers and Content sect., para. 6).

So, is transliteracy separate from information literacy? Thomas et al. (2007) state that, "Our current thinking (although still not entirely resolved) is that because it offers a wider analysis of readings, writing and interacting across a range of platforms, tools, media and cultures, transliteracy does not replace, but rather contains, 'media literacy' and also 'digital literacy'" (Tracing transliteracy sect., para. 1). This statement doesn't stake ownership over information literacy - but implies that the breadth of transliteracy does allows it to contain many kinds of literacy.

In the comments section of Reorganizing Literacy, one reader comments that youth may have stronger ability to communicate across media, while older people may have stronger evaluative ability. Wilk responded by saying that:

". . . creating 'information literate' students may exceed our reach. Transliteracy, on the other hand, is well within our grasp as librarians...at least, transliteracy in the restricted sense in which I'm approaching it . . . As a librarian my first concern is whether, and if so how, students are able to access the right information at the right time" (2011, Comment 4).

Wilk's suggestion that teaching transliteracy may be easier than teaching information literacy helps to reinforce the distinction between containers and content. It also sheds some light on one of this week's questions regarding how libraries position themselves to remain relevant. It makes sense for librarians, who stay at the forefront of information and knowledge management, to help library users find their way through the increasingly complex media ecology by teaching transliteracy "best practices". In contrast, becoming information literate in one of Wilk's "specific" evaluative categories would require deeper study, and would be beyond the scope of the services libraries provide.

However, media literacy and critical literacy, both listed by Wilk as "non-specific" evaluative literacies, are particularly entwined with the tools of transliteracy. If I were to rework Wilk's taxonomy chart, I would probably move the non-specific evaluative literacies into the communicative literacies.

I'd be curious to know others' thoughts on this distinction.

P.S. - As a bonus to those of us in the MACT program, in Wilk's post there's a nice tie-back to the Comm Theory course we all started out with - Wilk quotes Shannon on the "engineering problem" of communication. I had sort of moved cybernetics into the back of the cupboard, so it was interesting to see its relevance to this question. McLuhan is also standing at the doorway on the container/content discussion. To what extent is the medium the message? I can't say I have the answer but it's still somehow reassuring to see course content dovetailing, and oddly rewarding to see how the breadth of material we've covered in the program allows us to consider a variety of perspectives on questions like this.

References

Thomas et al. (2007). Transliteracy: Crossing Divides. First Monday, Volume 12 Number 12 - 3 December 2007. Retrieved March 23, 2011, from:

http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/viewArticle/2060/1908

Wilk. (2011). Reorganizing literacy. Sense and reference: a philosophical library blog. Retrieved March 23, 2011, from: http://senseandref.blogspot.ca/2011/09/reorganizing-literacy.html

Books Without Paper and Libraries Without Walls

Of the readings, three are the jumping off point for this posting. Bobbi Newman writes that people need libraries to take on the task of helping them become transliterate (" Libraries and Transliteracy Slideshow," 2009). In her blog posting, Strange says “libraries provide ACCESS and COMMUNITY [Strange’s emphasis] to those who want it. And neither of those things, along with learning, are dependent on a technology, a medium, or a casing” ("Why we should stop caring," 2010). Finally, Charlotte Abbott poses the question as to whether e-books will destroy libraries ( 2010).

Libraries, in the meantime, appear to be stepping up to the challenge of the 21^st century, offering a range of digital and traditional services. Edmonton Public Library (EPL), for one, appears to have invested heavily into its online presence at epl.ca; it also is expanding its physical presence in communities such as Millwoods. People seem to be responding; in  2009, a population of 80,000 in that community generated 600,000 visits (“8278503222012045507648.PDF,” n.d.). In addition to its online presence and making e-books available to readers, the library is also lending e-readers (Unknown, 2012). It seems EPL’s wraparound approach isn’t limited to the provision of traditional offerings. A social worker has recently been hired at the downtown library to work with its regular users who have mental health and social issues. As the EPL says, “libraries act as community cornerstones that can help prevent and resolve societal challenges including drug abuse, crime and illiteracy that marginalize segments of the population” (“EPL receives over $600,000 for downtown community safety program,” 2011).

Assignment Two - Comment on LJ's Post

While I have sympathy with the position of Uganda that the narrative arc doesn’t encompass the full story of Uganda or Africa and that problems are oversimplified, I am impatient as well. Kony is real. He is still out there. He is a war criminal wanted by the international community.  And if it’s just about white (literally) knights, what about the need for aid for victims of the current drought in Africa? 

These arguments smack of the impatience expressed by the elite that the Occupy Movement was disorganized and lacked focus; they, too, missed (or dismissed) the point that many people were motivated to use themselves to express their impatience with a society that they saw as ignoring what they would consider to be the real issues of the day – injustice, pollution and corporate greed.

Stopping Kony is the right thing to do, as Matt Gurney says on Q. Teddy Ruge asks an important question about advocacy in a Web 2.0 world: Are we looking at the people we are purporting to support our partners in this mission or are we looking at them as victims and (my words) the ‘little people’. 

The Three Little Pigs advert is a thoughtful example of how modern media typecasts in its commentary. The pigs go from being victims to being perpetrators as everyone tries to figure out the story. 

Last week Kim Denstedt posted about Kony2012 as well, and I made this comment:

“Kony2012 is indeed an interesting example of smart mobs and your question of how smart they are is a great one. The ease of affiliating in a Web 2.0 world is tempered by the concomitant ease of researching the validity of claims being made by an organization like Invisible Children. We can go to the organization's website and check out their audited statements. We can go to the International Court's website and read the source material for ourselves and I did both those things.

Add to that the increasingly networked and multicultural nature of our world; for me, the video played out against a backdrop of knowledge about child soldiers who have immigrated to Winnipeg, where my sister got to know them. The world we live in, with its diversity of experiences and ease of access to information, makes us both more skeptical and more readily moved to action and affiliation.”

Using Langman’s analysis, I would say that my meditations on Kony2012 are framed by the four factors provided: the information, my receptiveness, the ability to watch and reflect on the information and links to others with similar views and concerns. Just as importantly, they are informed by my own transliteracy and ability to access the different media – video, Google, print, podcast. Without those skills, I would not be able to manage my access and education on the issue.

Week 9: Transliteracy

During this week you will want to refer to Professor Sue Thomas's guest lecture.

“The ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks.”

The word “transliteracy” is derived from the verb “to transliterate,” meaning to write or print a letter or word using the closest corresponding letters of a different alphabet or language. 

The idea of transliteracy is really about promoting a unifying ecology. As Thomas explains, 

“The concept of transliteracy calls for a change of perspective away from the battles over print versus digital, and a move instead towards a unifying ecology not just of media, but of all literacies relevant to reading, writing, interaction and culture, both past and present.

 It is an opportunity to cross some hitherto quite difficult divides.” 

Transliteracy asks key questions about communication:

1. How were people remembering and communicating for the thousands of years before writing?
2. Where are the similarities with the way we communicate today?
3. Has our addiction to print made us forget skills we had before?
4. Can digital media reconnect us with those skills again?

Watch “Social Media Revolution” on YouTube:  

Literacy is not linear. ““Part of the confusion about media convergence stems from the fact that when people talk about it, they’re actually describing at least five processes” (Henry Jenkins, 2001). 

• technological
• economic
• social or organic
• cultural
• global
  

MEDIA CONVERGENCE
Another term which has become widely used about these kinds of experiences, especially by the media and gaming worlds, is “convergence.” In 2001 when Henry Jenkins noted the confusion about media convergence actually is because of the various processes that are at play (it is not one single required literacy). For Jenkins, “these multiple forms of media convergence are leading us toward a digital renaissance - a period of transition and transformation that will affect all aspects of our lives” (Jenkins, 2001). 

Sue Thomas often refers to the Asheninka tribe as an example of a transliterate group. For them transliteracy imbues every aspect of their culture:

“Everything we use has a story. Each drawing which is passed from one generation to another is our writing; each little symbol has an immense story. As one learns a drawing, one learns its origin, who taught it, who brought it to us.”




Discussion Questions:

Q1. What is transliteracy? Give examples of how transliteracy appears in your daily life.

Q2. How does Coover’s “The End of Books” (originally written in 1992) align with a contemporary thinking of transliteracy and the development of the web into web 2.0?

Q3. According to Aarseth’s “Nonlinearity and Literary Theory,” “the text...entails a set of powerful metaphysics...the three most important ones are those of reading, writing and stability” (763).  Having read about and discussed the idea of transliteracy, would you suggest adding or changing any of the three elements that Aarseth notes as most important? Must “users” (readers) “learn to accept their position as agents of the text” or might they play a more decisive role (as in Andy Campbell’s works)?

Does Posting Text Qualify as Transliteracy?

Posted on behalf of Jonathan:

After reading Sue Thomas’ post (Thomas, 2012) and watching her video

lecture (Thomas, 2008), I found myself contemplating the concept of

transliteracy amongst young people and giving consideration to the

question she posed at the end of the blog post: “Imagine that you have

been asked to measure the transliteracy levels of students and

teachers at your school. How would you do this?” (Thomas, 2012).

Immediately, I thought about the young people that I taught when I was

an active classroom teacher, just over four years ago. I felt that so

many of those young people were quite adept at using a number of

tools, but yet the default mode for expressing ideas seemed to be

text. Whether it was using email, posting to facebook or sending an

SMS message – the dominant mode for expression was text regardless of

the medium used.

Brian Hulsey’s video (Hulsey, 2010) also raises the question of mode

versus medium (if I may use those terms to describe these ideas). In

all but one of the instances being described by Hulsey, the dominant

mode for expression is text (or at best hypertext). He demonstrates

his concept of transliteracy by discussing the sharing of a blueberry

smoothie recipe and shows how it can be sent by email, posted to

Twitter, shared on Facebook and written on a sticky note. The only

time he illustrates the use of another mode besides text, is when he

discusses using the telephone to tell his grandparents about the

recipe.

So the question for discussion is this: is transliteracy accurately

described by using multiple tools to express oneself using a single

modality or does transliteracy also indicate a use of multiple modes –

text, speech, music, film, dance, drama, etc. Based on Thomas’

definition it would. She says, “transliteracy is the ability to read,

write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from

signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to

digital social networks” (Thomas etal, 2007).

An important measure for determining the transliteracy level of

students in a school setting then must include their amount of

exposure to arts education. Students would need to be able to express

themselves using pictures, film, theatre and music as well as text in

order to be truly transliterate, otherwise they are simply using text

with different tools. As a math teacher, I would also say that

students should be well versed in communicating using numbers,

symbolic logic, charts and graphs. All of this speaks to a public

education system that emphasizes a variety of literacies and includes

a strong emphasis on not just English language arts and mathematics,

but also art, music, dance and drama.

Guest Lecture from Professor Sue Thomas

Transliteracy: what is it and how can we measure it?

Hello everyone, it’s a pleasure to work with you this week. I’m writing from the heart of England, where I live in a small cottage about 15 miles from the city of Leicester. Spring is about to start here, so the first flowers are starting to appear and the days are getting longer. It’s great that the internet allows us to communicate so easily across the world and I’m very much looking forward to talking about transliteracy with you this week!

Transliteracy is the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks. To put it another way, being transliterate involves being open to difference and prioritising what unites us rather than what divides us.

From your point of view, transliteracy is especially important in terms of your learning experiences. A 2010 article said this about my research at De Montfort University:

The media's teenage stereotype is that of a girl watching Hollyoaks on television while simultaneously discussing its plot lines on the social networking site Facebook, listening to music on MySpace and texting her friend to discuss home study. Sue Thomas is exploring the impact that transliteracy is having on higher education and pedagogy. In transliterate terms, many academics are in essence illiterate, which matters if their teaching relationship with hyper-transliterate students is breaking down because of an inability to communicate fully with each other. If academics cannot show themselves to be transliterate, will they lose the respect of their students?

It continues:

Meanwhile, a committee looking at the impact of the "Google generation" on HE (Higher Education) has found that 95% of students are members of an online social network and that more than 50% have a blog or website. These transliterate students arrive at university with a set of assumptions about how they will use these skills in their education, and have difficulty if such assumptions are questioned.Should tutors be expecting, even demanding, that students communicate with each other electronically? Communication tools such as Second Life, the web-based virtual world, involve creating alternative identities. Should students be expected or required to generate these for themselves? Professor Thomas believes that as transliteracy travels up the HE agenda, academics will be obliged to add new forms of communication to their portfolio of teaching methods. There is a debate to be had with applicants. The evidence is that students still want face-to-face contact, and value that. Some do not see new technology as the core of learning, even though they may spend two or three hours a day on the web. What do they expect? What do they want? What are they prepared for? A transliterate study style incorporates a range of learning modes, combining traditional face-to-face lectures, seminars and tutorials with online classes via the web and mobile media. [ from ‘Getting In Getting On! A Guide to getting into Higher Education’ by Rob Brown & Mike Chant 2010)

Do you agree with their conclusion that young people of today are transliterate?

Do you consider yourself to be transliterate?

This week I’d like to look at various different approaches to transliteracy and invite you think about how you might measure transliteracy in yourself and others.

I have some reading for you, some videos, and a task. I advise you do them in the following order but feel free to pick and mix if that suits you better.

Reading and Watching

1.     First, think about the article extract above in terms of some of the references. Social media has changed since it was written in 2010. Which of the platforms listed there do you use? If you were revising it to publish now, what changes would you make?

2.     Watch my Transliteracy lecture  http://vimeo.com/2831405

3.     Dip into the Transliteracy Research Group blog http://www.transliteracy.com

4.     Librarians are very excited about transliteracy. Find out why from Bobbi Newman’s slideshow Libraries and Transliteracy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sk4Cw8vrDuM

5.     Bobbi’s work inspired librarian Brian Hulsey to make an amusing video about making a blueberry smoothie the transliterate way http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h06FZryyQM4

6.     Transliteracy also inspired one of my former students, Mary King, an English journalist living in Japan, to make this very meditative film: Transliteracy - The Spirit of Kanji  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7srRPi5R2Gw

7.     This journal article sums up much of what I say in the video lecture: Transliteracy: Crossing Divides by Sue Thomas, Chris Joseph, Jess Laccetti, Bruce Mason, Simon Mills, Simon Perril, and Kate Pullinger, First Monday, Volume 12 Number 12 - 3 December 2007 http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/viewArticle/2060/1908

8.     Check out the #transliteracy tag on Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/saved-search/transliteracy

9.     Tweet your thoughts and questions on transliteracy to me @suethomas using the tag #transliteracy

Task

Imagine that you have been asked to measure the transliteracy levels of students and teachers at your school. How would you do this? Post your suggestions and we’ll discuss them. I look forward to seeing your ideas.

Week 6: Guest Lecture

This week we have the pleasure of welcoming Andy Campbell of Dreaming Methods. Andy has written a guest lecture to introduce us to the work of Dreaming Methods and the writing/creating/publishing process. His lecture fits in well with the lecture discussions we've already had about transliteracy and born digital fictions as well as posts like that of Judith's, discussing the *narratives* of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

Please, as usual, add your comments and questions here, to this post as Andy will be checking in regularly throughout this week to respond.

FICTION OF DREAMS

What is Dreaming Methods?

Dreaming Methods (http://www.dreamingmethods.com/) is a website which showcases what I call digital fiction: stories designed from the outset to be read (and/or experienced) only on a computer or other device. It has no print counterpart. It's not tied into a movie, a book, an advertising agency or a TV series; all of the work is original and free to view. The site has been online for over 11 years now.

Dreaming Methods is a project of the charity I work for, One to One Development Trust (http://www.onetoonedevelopment.org). As a day job, I create websites, film graphics and print designs for clients in the national and international arts/voluntary sectors. Dreaming Methods therefore is not entirely without financial backing, but it is still largely a pursuit of passion – with most of the work having been created on very little or no budget at all, and almost entirely in spare time.