Composing Culture (Sp12)

Kudos to Kelly and Jeff for posting early. Can I get a "Woot!"?

Yes. Yes, you can do it. By which I mean you can break your lack-of-preparation cycle and get your capstone project drafts posted by today so everyone has time to read and think about them before offering feedback in our workshops tomorrow. I'm just sayin'.

Apparently technology doesn't just sap of us empathy (think Andrew Lam). It--more specifically texting--can actually be hazardous to your health...

Nikki Giovanni on, among other things, Rosa Parks, Harry Potter Eating chocolate, and writing with emotion.

"Shameless Product Placement on TV" Complete, unabashed, corporate-sponsored shamelessness. Brought to you by YouTube...

"A Brief History of Conspicuous Product Placement in Movies." The more, the better, right?

Welcome to Pocatello: a gateway for students and higher education. It doesn't get more liminal than that...

"The History of English in Ten Minutes"---The Sun Never Sets on the English Language For you who missed class today, consider this a teaser to the awesomeness you missed and a call to increase your study of English composition by coming to class, where we rub videos like this together with essays like this and see what the friction creates...

(Coming to you from the Vegas airport tarmac) So for today's assignment (2/2), you'll be listening to David Sedaris read (say, on YouTube), reading some David Sedaris (from George & Trimbur), then writing in response to what you read. Your response will be to the tune of a 500 word (minimum) essay. Next Tuesday I'd like you to—and you may want to sit down for this—bring paper copies of these essays to class for a revision exercise. *gasp* Paper copies? What? I know, a bit archaic, but that's how we'll roll this go-around because I'm going to have you offer feedback to each other in small revision groups during class. You'll then take that feedback and revise your essays into something more finished, which you'll repost to your blogs. Capiche?

So the question remains: if forced into a cage match, which of these generations would come out on top? Let the logical fallacy grudge match begin...

Today in class we touched briefly on Henry David Thoreau's experiment in deliberate living, which he recorded in Walden and to which Rosabeth Moss Kanter refers when she says Sherry Turkle's book "reveals the secrets of 'Walden 2.0.'" Here's a bit more about Thoreau's experiment (yes, thank you much Wikipedia) and here's a link to a clip of Turkle talking about how, through our relationship with digital technologies, we've essentially failed Thoreau. Perhaps, then, all is lost. We are, after all, the dumbest generation...

Watch out Mark Zuckerberg. Get Fuzzy's on your tail...

I just finished watching this Frontline documentary titled digital_nation: life on the virtual frontier and I wanted to lob it your way because it explores and is informed by many of the assumptions we've been exploring in Unit One: the digital divide between generations, hyper and deep attention, the (in)effectiveness of multi-tasking, the effects of being "always on," of being always connected. If you're inclined you can watch the whole video online at PBS.org or, of course, on YouTube. I'm not requiring it, but I will recommend it. Do with my recommendation what you will... *nudge nudge*

U2, "MLK." Because it's MLK, Jr's, day. And because, let's face it, U2 rocks... ;)

Martin Luther King, Jr., "I Have Been to the Mountaintop." Much respect, MLK.