Midterm 1: Reflective Post

Alright, so here is my little index of posts so far this semester:

Hello Everybody!
Changes in the Humanities
Who is Really in Control?
The Moby Dick Metaphor
Greatness
Learning
Why Hashtag?
Choose Up, Not Down

In my "Learning" post, Dr. Burton left a comment that said this is the "age of the self-learners". I think that we can achieve greatness as we learn, which kind of ties together the "Greatness" and "Learning" posts, and by submersing ourselves into learning about Digital Culture, we find new ways of greatness and how to help others along their own paths. Also, in my "Choose Up, Not Down" post, I discuss how climbing up a spiral is how we continue to learn, but it is also easy to fall back down into old habits, etc. I think that we master ourselves and our spirals by continued learning. Looking back through these posts, I saw my old ideas, and I am thinking about how I can improve them or push them further, and I feel like I have been having little moments of mastery in the digital world. In my "Who is Really in Control?" post, I discuss how we need to fight to stay in control of the machine, or else it will control us. However, can we ever actually master the machine in the digital world (like the Michael Wesch video we watched)? Or is the fact that we need to be forever learning proof that the machine has mastered us? We can achieve greatness along the way, but only through usage of the machine and our dependence on it. So how can we truly master the Machine?

Midterm 1: Part 2

Here are my notes for my Moby Dick/Digital Culture essay. I am a very visual person, plus I am a doodler, so here are some notes that I created while I was coming up with ideas.

I know that this is probably very difficult to read, but on this sheet I have created a web of potential ideas for essay topics and quotes that I could use from the novel. As I was brainstorming, I started to think about how in a way Ishmael, being the narrator of the novel, and the sole survivor to tell the tale, he has the opportunity to craft the story however he wants, and can shape his persona however he wants. (This is probably sounding like I don't know that Ishmael is fictional....) But, would it make sense to write an essay about how the way that Ishmael presents himself is similar to how people create their persons in through digital culture. Is this way off base?? What do you think?

Midterm 1: Part 1

To start with, here is an archive of all of my posts up until now:

• Still Figuring Out Academic Blogging
• Thoughts on Finishing Moby Dick
• In Defense of the #Hashtag
• BYU and Technology
• BYU Tech Expo
• Connecting or Disconnecting?
• XML and HTML: What Does That Even Mean?
• The Digital Age as an Illumination of the Humanities
• Hi!

So, really looking at my various blog posts, I am struggling to find a common thread. But, something that I am seeing a bit of is how institutions like Brigham Young University and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is implementing and taking advantage of available technologies. In my post about BYU and Technology, discussing some ways that BYU is moving forward, Prof. Burton commented, "Too often institutions simply buy a lot of tech and think they are on the cutting edge. But you can have technology and yet not be enfranchised in the digital civilization."

In class and in blog posts, I have seen and heard a lot of discussion about how a person creates a digital presence and how we create our internet personas, like one of my teammates Derrick discussed in his post Reflecting on My Internet Persona: A Caution. As I have been working as the senior editor on BYUs blog Stance and with a publishing company in Salt Lake starting their blog, I have been thinking about how a company or group creates an internet presence for themselves rather than just an individual.

My question that I am thinking of is, How can organizations utilize the technology that is available to them in a productive way, rather than creating an online presence for the purposes of having one? And how can these online personas of large groups like the Church be positively and in some ways negatively effected by this? How does this involve people with a "product" and what importance does this online presence have for an organization/company?

I think I just asked too many questions. 

Still Figuring Out Academic Blogging

I wanted to respond, or really build off of, Derrick's two posts "The Tool is Not the Thing (The Tool is Really Important Though" and "Kicking the 'Last Minute' Habit" (which is slightly ironic because I am posting this a little bit last minute). But, he brought up some really interesting things that I hadn't thought about. Yes, sometimes I feel totally inspired by class, or the readings, or something that I read that week and I know exactly what I am going to post about. But, sometimes I feel lost and like I need to get something up just to get something up. Though the awesome thing about academic blogging is that no matter what, it forces you to start getting rolling, churning out ideas, and hopefully eventually making it to steps two and three of the academic blogging process where you have some actual thought out ideas that are actually worth something. Though, as I was reading Derrick's posts, I was really comparing this to how it has worked out in my personal blog. Even though I have been updating it regularly for almost three years now it still isn't perfect, but I have been able to see how I have slowly found direction through just getting myself to post something which has started to shape my blog into what I classify as a "personal adventure blog/journal." I really had no idea what I was doing at first, but as I have kept blogging, I have started to find direction and discover what I really wanted to talk about. I have also discovered that the more directed my blog becomes the more readers I am getting who are interested in my adventures and ideas.

Realizing that I have already in a small way gone through this process has made the idea of finding direction in this academic blog seem less daunting. Really when I first read Prof. Burton's post I could not have been more terrified thinking that there is no way that I could eventually get from just posting, to posting something that people care about. But, I am already trying to come up with ideas, and hopefully I will come up with something good.

Choose Up, Not Down

A few days ago, Danielle wrote an awesome post, "Thoughts on Finishing Moby Dick", and she brought up an interesting idea that we all have "White Whales" that we are chasing, just as monomaniac Ahab did. When I first thought of this, my first connection was actually to a show by comedian Jim Gaffigan in the video below. (I found the whole thing hilarious, but 5:40 - 7:30 is what I am talking about for this post).

While this video is just meant to be funny, he brings up the interesting idea that we all have our own "White Whale", as Danielle says. It may be an actual whale, like Ahab, or it could be something like McDonald's, gossip, all of the things that Danielle brings up in her post, you name it--it is your own white whale, after all. White whales are the things that we come back to, over and over and over, because we can't stop. (As a side note for comic relief, check out Gaffigan's whale video as a nice way to wrap up Moby Dick.)

The way we return to things again and again can put us in a boring life-cycle, as Sam talks about in his "The (never-ending) Moby Dick Metaphor" post. Sam talks about how we can get used to something and even get past it for a little while, but something will change slightly and it will draw us back in to this cycle. I would like to take that one step further: that by always focusing on the white whales and never-ending cycles, we will eventually be pushed into a downward spiral.

There is one kind of spiral, but there are two ways to move on that spiral. One way to move is to be pushed down by the white whales to more of the same cycles, but the other is something we have to work for. We have to actually climb up the spiral. Dr. Burton talks about this in his "Consider the Spiral" post. He says, "it is necessary to circle back, to review where one has been before, and to see it from the vantage point of further experience. This is why we should imitate the spiral in our learning or in our efforts to create something of value." We are all located somewhere on spirals (you can choose what spirals you want to follow). It is necessary to look back and see how we have--and can continue to--improve, but it is essential that we fight to make sure that we aren't pushed back down to the white whales.

Learn to let go of the white whales, as Danielle says, and try to escape from Sam's never ending cycle. Always be looking back on the spiral to see the ideas that you can continue or improve, but don't go back to the white whales that will push you into the downward spiral.

The Tool is Not the Thing (The Tool is Really Important Though)

Rusty tools -- I wouldn't want to live in a house made of hammers, but I'm glad hammers exist, so I can have a house. Creative Commons image by Biser Todorov.

Today's discussion in class made me think about how I want to steer my blog posts. A lot of what I and my fellow classmates have been writing about follow this logic:

"Digital [tools, culture, subjects] are [fun, neat, intimidating, ubiquitous]. [Literature, Moby Dick, life] is a lot like digital culture."

In other words, the subject has been digital culture -- not surprising or wrong, considering that is the name of the course. But today's discussion led me to realize that a course about digital culture could be a class "about" anything. In other words, the tools of blogs, social media, algorithms, and widgets can be applied to anything.

So I am starting to think about the kinds of significant projects I want to hone in on as the semester progresses. Whatever area I would find most useful, I look forward to using these tools to dive in.

I want to understand and become better at creative nonfiction writing. I am especially interested in radio production and storytelling. Of course, as a literature student I am always interested in analysis, close reading, and interpretation, but since I don't see myself headed in the direction of scholarship upon my graduation in December, perhaps my efforts may be best spent exploring realms of study that seem like the right match for my career.

Maybe I can curate the best nonfiction writers working today, and reach out to them for an interview about their field and craft. I could publish the interview as a resource for others who work in or study the field.

Maybe I can work to understand better the various sub-genres within creative nonfiction writing, and select representative examples from each, or even apply more traditional English Lit skills to them.

Maybe I will meet new people who are exploring the rich art form of radio production in interesting, grassroots ways, and by meeting them I may be inspired to join their efforts in a meaningful way of my own.

I am excited about these possibilities. And whatever I land on, I hope to make the most of digital tools available.

Kicking the 'Last Minute' Habit

Creative Commons image by Rob Irgendwer.

Reading Dr. Burton's post about the phases of academic blogging, a ping of terror struck me. The kind of terror that makes you go, "oooh, that is exactly right." Terror because it also makes you go, "I need to break some habits."

He contrasts the measure of success during the first phase of academic blogging -- frequency of posts, familiarizing with the tools -- with the final phase, which I would summarize as: people need to take you seriously. You need to contribute something meaningful.

One a big difference between academic blogging and traditional academic work is that online, the goal is widened from not only producing good content, but producing good content and then connecting it with others.

This is, of course, the goal of traditional academic research too, always has been. But professors, rather than students, have generally partaken more in that wider, connective aspect of academia as they publish their own work. Students have always been focused on the "produce content" target, their papers more often winding up in a professor's recycling bin rather than a publication, dying the ignominious death of the undergraduate, having gained an audience of one.

To succeed in academic blogging, we can't just be focused on creating good content, we need to think about -- and plan for -- bringing that content into a wider sphere of usefulness. And it changes the way we think about deadlines. Traditionally, I have worked on my papers right up until the last minute before it's due -- and the bulk of my work has gravitated toward that deadline. My mindset needs to change in order to succeed in academic blogging. If I do not give myself enough time to connect my content with others, its death will be even more meaningless than that of those recycled pages.

Time to kick the habit of last-minute work.